Marin had compiled the information on the two golden kingdoms, and sent them to Rome to his father-in-law, Julius II, with a letter suggesting that his father-in-law should add the two golden kingdoms as a condition of negotiation and divide them between Spain and Portugal when he redefined the Treaty of Todesillas. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

This time, Marin plans to ask his father-in-law, who is obviously biased towards Spain, but actually cheats Spain. Of course, on the bright side, it is to help Spain, but it is the red fruit pit Portugal. But Portugal is not a soft persimmon either, and it still needs an excuse.

So, Marin had already come up with an excuse for Julius II......

To make an excuse, it is the contribution of Spain to the Catholic world. For example, in 1492 Spain eliminated the Kingdom of Granada and expelled the Green Cult from the Iberian Peninsula. Strictly speaking, this is a very meaningful credit to the Catholic Church.

Therefore, the Holy See can use Spain's contribution to the development of Catholicism as an excuse to favor Spain. As for the Portuguese, although the Great Voyage was a lively one, it did not contribute much to the religious cause.

Basically, Portugal was a country of merchants and pirates, and the whole country did not engage in great voyages to spread Catholicism, but for profit.

Unlike the Spanish kings, the couple were the most devout Catholics. However, the conquest of the Kingdom of Granada was a territorial expansion, not a purely religious act. But it is true that the couple are fanatical Catholics. In 1478, Queen Isabella set up the infamous Inquisition to persecute pagans and uphold the legitimacy of Catholicism.

Therefore, from the perspective of the Holy See, Spain's contribution to Catholicism is greater than that of Portugal, and it is reasonable to favor Spain.

Of course, the Portuguese cannot be said to have contributed nothing to the spread of Catholicism. The Kingdom of Congo in Africa, for example, was influenced by Catholic missionaries.

In 1506, the new king of the Kingdom of Kongo, Alfonso I, was a Catholic. Since then, the Kingdom of Congo has also established Catholicism as the state religion.

Unfortunately, Alfonso I did not succeed to the throne until 1506. Now, Alfonso I is still only a prince and has limited influence on the Kingdom of Kongo.

Therefore, Portugal cannot take credit for the conversion of the Kingdom of Congo to Catholicism at present. Because, it hasn't been implemented yet......

Before the Kingdom of Congo converted to Catholicism, the Kingdom of Portugal's religious contribution was indeed unworthy of lifting shoes for Spain. Therefore, it is not too much for the Holy See to favor Spain.

In short, Portugal can only suffer this time. Of course, Marin released two Golden Realms as bait, and if he swallowed one of them, it would not be a loss.

It's just that if you want to swallow the golden country of Africa's interior, you can't do it every ten or twenty years. After all, Africa's climate is too harsh. Moreover, the two golden kingdoms are not without any power to fight back.

Under the scorching heat and the resistance of the enemy, it is not easy to occupy one of the golden empires. The Mali Empire and the Songhai Empire in West Africa, although not too strong, are not muddy either. Although the local natives are inferior to the European armies in terms of equipment and combat effectiveness, they have the advantage of being on the home field and adapt to the hot local climate, so they are not without the ability to resist.

For Spain and Portugal, it was very difficult to cross thousands or tens of thousands of soldiers and horses and a large amount of baggage supplies inland in the hot African continent.

What's more, if you want to control the gold producing areas of West Africa, you need to destroy the two great empires of the Mali Empire and the Songhai Empire. To take control of Great Zimbabwe, it is necessary to destroy the small coastal states of Swahili (a mixture of Arabs and blacks) on the Mozambican coast, and then attack the city of Great Zimbabwe deep inland. At the same time, transporting troops from the mainland to the coast of Mozambique is also a troublesome matter. After all, separated by thousands of mountains and rivers. The transportation of troops by ship was very restricted.

As long as Spain and Portugal fall into these two big pits, then Marin can secretly expand his influence in the Americas. At the same time, by the way, a route from Panama to Daming was opened.

Although it is said that the distance from Panama to Daming may be a little farther, not as close as the road to the Cape of Good Hope. However, this route, because it is east-west, can make full use of the monsoon, and the journey will be smooth, and it will take less time than walking the Cape of Good Hope. It's not like taking the Cape of Good Hope route, always changing the direction of the wind, one moment downwind, another against the wind.

……

After sending the letter, Marin began to take care of official business.

Prime Minister Jeffrey came to Marin's office and asked Marin what to do with the boatload of papers. After all, the amount of that shipload of paper is huge.

Because of the low cost, the craftsmen of the shipyard pursued thickness. As a result, the paper was made thicker. An ordinary 1 square meter of large white paper weighs 60 grams each, and a knife (100 sheets) weighs 6 kilograms.

This time, there was a bit of paper sent from Cape Breton Island, and there were 10,000 knives of large white paper alone. In addition, there is 1,000 dollars of whale oil paper.

The weight of whale oil paper is even larger, and each piece of high-quality whale oil paper weighs 7.5 kilograms. In other words, the total weight of 10,000 dollars of thick white paper and 1,000 dollars of whale oil paper reached 67.5 tons.

Jeffrey was a little worried and didn't know what to do with the paper, so he came to ask Marlin to decide.

Marin thought about it and decided to buy a lead type printing press first (around 1450 by the German Johannes Johannes. Gutenberg invented), printing a hundred Bibles. Then, a batch of textbooks was printed for aristocratic schools.

As for the artisan schools attended by the commoners, Marin did not plan to give them printed textbooks for the time being. Because, that's too eye-catching. You must know that in Europe at this time, paper is still very expensive and belongs to luxury. It would be too eye-catching to give each of the children in civilian schools a textbook. Therefore, Marin decided to print a textbook for each class for civilian children. For the rest, for the time being, let's use a sand table to write, which is the most cost-effective......

In addition, on the basis of a report mentioned earlier by Jeffrey, Marin decided to introduce paper invoicing in the Counties of East Friesian and Oldenburg, as well as in the Duchy of Schleswig.

The so-called invoice is the voucher for receiving money. As for why Marin wants to promote paper invoices, it is because, according to a previous report by Jeffrey, some unscrupulous tax collectors have taken advantage of the existing characteristics of no proof of taxation to collect taxes on some businessmen many times, extort and extort money.

The crux of the matter is that unless it is a large businessman, the volume of goods and the amount of tax paid are large, and the tax officer will issue an invoice made of parchment. And those small businessmen, who are originally small businessmen, and the tax payment is also low, naturally they do not need expensive parchment certificates.

Therefore, some black-hearted tax collectors take advantage of the characteristics of small businessmen who pay taxes and do not need to issue invoices to deny that those poor small businessmen have paid taxes and have repeatedly taxed.

However, those small businessmen have not been able to produce evidence that they have paid taxes. Because, they don't have an invoice in their hands......

Therefore, many small traders can only be extorted by some unscrupulous tax collectors. And the overpaid taxes naturally fell into the pockets of those unscrupulous tax collectors.

This situation is very unfavorable to the development of domestic commerce. It's just that Marin didn't have a way before. Those small businessmen said that they had paid taxes, but they could not produce the bills and certificates. If you start a lawsuit, you will definitely lose.

And if you give those small traders parchment paper or the expensive paper voucher before, the cost is too high. As a result, this problem has been difficult to solve.

But now it's different, and the paper mills on Cape Breton can produce cheap paper in large quantities. At this time, the time is ripe to withdraw from paper invoices.

Because of the low cost of paper, Marin can issue a large number of invoice books to every tax officer, so that they can issue invoices after each tax collection. Although there was no carbon paper, Marin could have the tax collector issue two copies, one for the file and one for the merchant as a receipt. In this way, it is very convenient when checking the finances, so as not to be exploited by some greedy tax collectors. Moreover, ordinary merchants also avoided being oppressed by tax collectors, which was conducive to the prosperity of the market.

At the same time, using cheap paper invoices instead of a small number of parchment paper vouchers can also save a lot of costs.

However, the invoice paper obviously does not need 60 grams per square meter of standard writing paper, only 45 grams per square meter of C paper (A paper is 75 grams per square meter; Class B paper is 60 grams per square meter; C and other paper is 45 grams per square meter) is sufficient.

Marin decided to inform the Cape Breton Island Paper Mill that it would produce more C paper next time and send it over, and then cut and bound it into an invoice book and spread it to the tax officials in various towns and towns, so as to strengthen tax administration and make the country under his rule the market orderly and the economy healthy......