Alvanliot, a Jewish merchant from Taranto, was arrested for attempting to harm the Countess of Cosenza, Giossa Cosenza.

In the minds of many Tarantos who knew Alvanliot well, this Jew was a vile, greedy, cold-blooded man who would surely fall into hell forever after death, and every page of this man's fortune was filled with a strong smell of blood, and no one could tell how many people had become his stepping stones in his quest for wealth.

But even so, when it was heard that Alvaniot was the mastermind of the attack on Mademoiselle de Cosenza, many people were surprised, and many more simply sneered at it.

Alvaniot is indeed a bad person, but he has always adhered to the belief that bad things also rely on his brains, so although he has defeated countless opponents on his business path, he has also heard of who was defeated by him with such a harsh and brutal means as using knives.

In fact, Alvaniot despised those who were rude at every turn, believing that they were stupid people who would end up unlucky.

And what really makes people not believe that he is the mastermind is because he is a Jew.

The Jews were greedy and stingy, but they were also cautious, and their shops never had such ornate facades, and they themselves often did not wear many extravagant clothes that attracted attention, and if they would attract the attention of others, it would only be because they had made a lot of money in a certain business and some people had suffered because they could not understand their methods, but then they would often be silent for a long time, until people gradually forgot their previous evil deeds. Then they will quietly come out of their closed house and go on to find their next target.

So when they heard about Alvaniot's charge, everyone, even those who didn't have a good opinion of the Jews, thought it was a bit too funny and too hasty, and while many ordinary people might believe the rumor that Jews had defrauded others of their property by writing contracts with demonic blood obtained from the devil, those who knew them a little well also knew that it was a bit funny.

But it didn't matter whether the Jews were guilty or not, and everyone wanted to know what would happen to the countess, after all, the toughness and even arrogance she showed at the Countess's banquet were so impressive that some people even privately talked about whether it was a good idea to make the countess of Taranto, after all, the countess already had a son as his heir, and it was from the unusually strong strength of the countess, In the future, if she really has a son left after marrying the earl, she may not move to make the earl change his mind as an heir.

Of course, these assumptions are a little too distant, and what people are concerned about now is what Mademoiselle Countess will do about it.

After all, it was an assassination plot against her.

In particular, according to some people who happened to see the Countess who returned to the Golden Palmetto Palace, the Countess looked very embarrassed at that time, not only was she single but also brought a look of the same embarrassed female companion back in a hurry, and it was even said that her clothes were torn, and her female companion looked even worse, if it were not for the servant to help her clean up in time, maybe she would have dragged a tattered dress all night.

This led many to believe that with the temper shown by the Countess, she would never give up.

So when Count Horsen sent someone to tell him that Alvantit, who had tried to murder her, had been arrested, the people immediately turned their attention to the Golden Palmetto Palace.

The reason why the people of Taranto are so concerned about this matter is that in addition to their natural temperament to inquire about big and small things, there are naturally other reasons.

That's when they are truly aware of the crisis.

The scene that Zhusa described to them before was really terrible, no one believed that what she said was just empty intimidation, in fact, the news of the accident had just come out, and then Alvantit was ordered to be arrested by the Earl, just from this incident, it can be seen that even Count Horsen could not help but take seriously the anger that Tsusha might burst out because of the assassination, so he would try to find a "rightful" criminal to calm the anger of Miss Count.

To the surprise of many people, after Ji Sha returned to the Golden Palmetto Palace, she did not see anyone except the messenger sent by the earl, and according to the messenger's description, the count's lady did not seem to have suffered any harm in this assassination, at least in the messenger's opinion, the count's body was very healthy, and she even practiced archery in front of the messenger, but the count's archery skills did not seem to be very good.

In short, Taranto's arrest of the assassin mastermind was more of a cold rejection than anger or rejection.

When the messenger reported to the Earl of Hosen, the Count was on horseback inspecting his army.

The Taranto people prided themselves on having the best mountain soldiers in southern Italy from an early age, and it was with these mountain infantry that they fought against the Romans a thousand years ago, and a thousand years later they became a force to be reckoned with in the encircled Italian resistance to the Ottoman invasion.

"No response?" The Count asked the messenger with some surprise.

"Yes, my lord, Miss Countcount did not give any useful reply, but only said that she understood." The messenger was a very respected secretary of the Earl's side, a man who usually prided himself on being able to negotiate with the Earl, but now he was frustrated, for no matter what means he used, the Countess remained unmoved, "I must say that I failed this time, the Countess did not look like a girl of 17 years old at all. ”

"I'm glad you say that," snorted Count Hornen, tugging hard at the reins as he watched the glare of his neck armor flash as he lowered his neck, and the Count said coldly, "It shows that at least Mordilo still thinks highly of me, which is why he wants me to marry his niece." ”

The secretary tried to say a few more words, but was stopped by the Count.

"Forget it, I know what she wants." Earl Hornen snorted heavily in his nose, he raised his hand to beckon his son to come over, watching Elliott turn back and forth on the horse very dexterously, the earl's face was a little unsightly, looking at his son's way of jumping out, the earl shook his head helplessly, "Don't forget that you are my heir, if you continue to look like this, maybe someone may really threaten your position in the future." ”

"Forgive my father, if the person you are talking about threatening me is the child of you and Count Cosenza, I would have been more than willing to accept such a challenge, at least I believe that he or she would not be so stupid." Elliot looked disappreroving, until he saw that the count's face was already a little ugly, and he asked with a slight expression, "What do you want me to do, sir?" ”

"Go and meet the Countess," said Earl Howzen, muttering, "and ask her what she wants, and I think she is now waiting for you to negotiate with her." ”

"Maybe she's just going to say something at the dinner, an entente," Elliott looked at his father's expression seriously, "I don't think we should agree to this entente, Alvaniot is not wrong, promising such an entente will make us the same as those German princes of the Hanseatic League, you must know that many of the townspeople in the Hanseatic League don't even know who their king is, but they know the names of the League officials who have only been in office for a few days, and if you don't want to be like that, we can't agree to her terms." ”

"But now it's happening," said Howson, who looked a little tired in his tone, and finally patted his son on the shoulder, "and ask the woman what she wants, and maybe we can afford it." ”

Elliott looked at his father carefully, and after confirming the count's words, he nodded helplessly and pulled the reins of his horse and walked out of the camp.

Coming to the Golden Palmetto Palace again, Elliot felt a little different from before.

There was a hint of hostility towards him from his retinue, and it was evident that even the Neapolitans had apparently heard of suspicions that the Taranto were the assassins' emissaries against Alvaniot.

At this time, she was practicing her arrows in the open space of the courtyard of the palace, and perhaps it was Norik Barbarig's professor who played a role, at least she did not miss the arrow as before.

Seeing Oreot, Hoosha asked her to put away her bow and arrows, and then walked to the guests with Conio, who had been sitting quietly watching her practice.

"Miss Connie Marindao?" Elliott looked at Connie in some surprise, and when he noticed that Josha looked like "you really know this woman", the playboy quickly explained, "Don't get me wrong, I know Miss Malindao entirely because of her father, Darcy Marindao, who is a great man, a true traveler and a great explorer. ”

"Looks like your father is famous?" Josha looked at Connie with some surprise.

"My father wrote a book about the Mediterranean," Connie said with a hint of pride, but she only mentioned it briefly, for she had noticed that Elliot clearly wanted to continue the conversation with Josa, so though curious about Elliott's intentions, she made an excuse to leave after a few words.

As soon as Connie had just walked away, Elliot couldn't help but ask, "Miss Count, now tell me what you want, we all know that you have the advantage now, so now you can make a condition for us, for God's sake, let's end this matter as soon as possible." ”

Josha listened quietly, and then she took out two gold coins from a small cloth bag on her belt, although it was not sure if it was the one she had seen at the banquet, but at the sight of the two Florin and Ducat, Elliott realized that things were not going to be easy.

"I'm going to set up an institution in Taranto," said Tsuna, slowly, and it made Elliot feel like she was saying these words while reminiscing, "an institution that allows all Taranto merchants to buy goods elsewhere without having to use a lot of gold or even be in Taranto's market, and then sell them again for a profit through me." ”

"What do you mean, I don't understand," Elliot asked, somewhat confused, "are you saying that someone can make money by simply buying something from somewhere else from you, and then simply telling him to sell it somewhere else?" ”

"Yes, that's it," Josha smiled, as if pleased with Elliott's cleverness, "I'll tell you how to trade it later, you just need to tell your father what I requested." ”

Elliott looked at Dio in a daze, and when she was about to stand up as if to send off a guest, she quickly waved her hand and hurriedly said, "Wait, wait, why don't I understand, what's the point of you doing this?" And how do you guarantee that a person can actually buy or sell those goods, you know that he may buy them in Naples, maybe in Venice, maybe even further away in Lombardy, and of course if you say that this agency can really go that far, but now I just want to know how you can guarantee the payment of these goods? ”

Looking at Elliott's curious appearance, Shosha sighed secretly, she now felt that Elliot was a little too curious.

"It's the same as you buy Agri's grain, but this institution," Jisha tilted her head and thought for a while, "I'm going to call it the 'Exchange', this exchange doesn't just sell grain, any commodity can be traded, and this transaction also needs to be postponed backwards, less can be for a month, longer can be a year or even longer, within a specified period, these commodities can be bought and sold an unlimited number of times, and when the delivery deadline is up, it must be completed at one time." Hoosha said and laughed softly, this was the second smile Elliott saw after she arrived, and Elliott had a strange feeling when she looked at this smile at her, as if she was not looking at herself when she was laughing.

"For example, if you want to buy a batch of fine fir for shipbuilding, but there is no stock in Taranto or elsewhere, then you can buy the fir wood mined next year in advance, but if you decide to reduce the number of ships to be built before next year's delivery, you can put these fir trees on the exchange and sell them, but at this time you have to pay a part of the cost in advance, just like your grain deposit, but this cost must be higher than the margin," Jisha patiently explained. That way, even if the price of these fir trees falls, you can sell them as soon as possible and then buy something else, and if the price goes up, then you can sell them all the way to the final delivery date and make a lot of money. ”

As she spoke, she stood up and looked at Elliott a little condescendingly.

"And if you can be sure that the goods you buy are really good goods that can continue to rise in price, the right to buy or sell these goods during the delivery period can also be sold as a commodity, after all, you can buy a chance to make a fortune for a sum of money, I think many people are willing to pay for it, isn't it?"

"But how do you make sure those people will pay the bills?" Elliott already felt a little dizzy, he looked at Jisha curiously, and even began to wonder what this girl's head was made of, how could she come up with such a strange thing, "You said that the deposit you asked for is only one-tenth of the price of the goods, but what if the other party can't pay at that time?" ”

She tilted her head slightly, as if stopped by the question, and then after a moment she smiled and held up the two gold coins: "This is another request I am going to make." Although my exchange collects margin, in order to ensure that all merchants do have the ability to pay, I ask to open another institution, and all these merchants who want to do business on the exchange must now sign the corresponding mortgage agreement and deposit a basic collateral in this institution, and the amount of the collateral can be divided into different levels according to the transaction, and this institution can also issue loans to these merchants specifically for trading," said Jisha, who raised her head as if pondering, and then said, "This, is called 'bank'." ”

Elliott noticed, when it came to this. The corners of her mouth turned up slightly.

Elliot didn't know how he had left the Palace in a daze, but he knew one thing by this time.

The Countess of Cosenza seemed to have come for the Taranto's purse, and apparently was bound to get it.

And in the Golden Palmetto Palace, Ji Sha whispered to herself in a low voice that only she could hear: "I will do better than you think, my brother Qiao Er." ”