……

While Ferdinand was focusing on the Americas, King Henry VII of England also had a little expectation of John Capote's voyage, which had been "miserably planned" by the Spaniards in advance. Well, it's a small expectation, because Henry VII also knew that the hardware he gave John Capote was a bit unkind - all but the charter was provided by you, so it was a big question mark whether you could wade through the stormy Atlantic to reach a land that I don't know if it existed and what it was.

Henry VII did not fail to send a fleet of dozens of English galleons to the Americas, just as Charles VIII hoped to lead a large number of well-equipped knights and standing armies instead of a large number of peasants with crossbows.

"But I don't have any money," Henry VII sighed helplessly.

"How good you say Castile and Aragon are so rich! I'm going to have the money to play like this......"

"The main thing is that there is no money." Henry VII finally stared at the sky, "The royal family is shy in their pockets, so this is the only way." ”

"So it's time to fight the council again......"

When it comes to money $_$, you can't talk about taxes without mentioning it.

For any king, the issue of taxation is a very important issue and a great headache.

And for a European king, the issue of taxation is a more important issue, a more headache, and there is one more thing to add - the problem of falling off the throne or even losing his head.

There seems to be no European king who has not been at odds with Parliament on this issue. And the hands-on nature is not limited to England, France, and the Netherlands. Ferdinand's ancestors also acted on this, and the king of Aragon was forced to sign a legal document similar to the Magna Carta of Liberty.

Although the situation was eventually reversed, the three provinces of Aragon were "tax deserts" since ancient times, not because they had no money, but because they had been exempted from taxes by the nobles since ancient times, similar to the exemption of part of the taxes by the "two classes of nobles" in Korea.

Of course, the two classes of aristocrats in North Korea became a joke in the end, and the nobles ran all over the streets, claiming to "buy and sell officials to promote class liquefaction...... That's not the point, though.

The point is that the aristocracy was exempt from most of the taxes......

During the later reigns of Charles and Philip, the Spanish crown had four main sources of tax revenue: Castile, Aragon, the Church, and the Americas. One of the least taxed is Aragon, which is related to Aragonese industry and commerce, and maritime trade, but more importantly, there are local privileges that limit the amount of tax and the use of it.

For this reason, Emperor Charles V/His Majesty King Philip II, adhering to the principle that if you are unkind, don't blame me for injustice, put Aragon in the corner of the national strategy, not caring at all about and safeguarding Aragon's commercial interests in the Mediterranean, nor about the challenges of commercial rivals such as Venice, and at the same time finding ways to raise the tax rate on commoner businessmen who did not have aristocratic privileges......

As a result, Aragon's economy declined, taxes never rose, the royal family ignored it even more, and the local people became less interested in the Madrid royal family, and more tightly clinged to various economic and administrative privileges and even semi-independence, and the hidden contradictions became deeper...... It was not until Louis XIV launched the War of the Spanish Succession that continued the Bourbon dynasty, and Bourbon replaced the Habsburgs in Spain, which was broken by the central government's forceful measures.

So how much tax can Aragon collect? In order to keep a handful of money, which was already subject to many restrictions, the king of Aragon had to make a trip to Monzon once a year, as six major councils reported here that the joint legislative assembly decided on the annual taxation. After Ferdinand took over the original owner, he also ran once a year, so the tax received in 1496 ...... Very stable, roughly unchanged from the previous year's average – around half a million ducats......

Ahem, the three provinces of Aragon, no bigger than Portugal, have a population of 1 million, and the nobility enjoys so many immunities...... The king was able to collect 500,000 ducats a year, which was already a very remarkable achievement in Europe at that time. In the proper trading power, commercial power, and rich country, the king of Aragon received more wealth than France and England in proportion to the land and population, and on average each citizen of Aragon paid half a ducat's tax to His Majesty......

If France's population of 12 million had done the same, then in 1496 Charles VIII would have earned a huge income of 6 million ducats, and France would have been able to make a journey to the sea of stars......

But Charles VIII said that such good things can only be imagined in dreams......

Of course, this does not mean that Aragon's taxes were sufficient for Ferdinand! For 500,000 ducats, what can you do? It is more than enough to dry salt, and the profits of wheat, buckwheat, etc., are twenty or thirty times higher than taxes. Ferdinand was basically out of pocket.

However, after this analysis, it can be confirmed that the tax of Aragon should be content. 1,000,000 Aragonese, removing a whole bunch of immunity, paying you 500,000 ducats a year, and you still want to raise the tax? Even if it is done, what is the difference between this and scraping the ground and killing chickens to extract eggs? Aragon's economy declined, and King Ferdinand suffered even more and suffered more. Looking at the huge reserves of his own private coffers, Ferdinand did not want to pay more for Aragon's taxes.

Although the private treasury is abundant, is it possible that the development of the country is only funded by the royal family? This seems to be too much of a loss, especially since Ferdinand's money was spent on the great cause of reviving the duck - of course, there is nothing to do with consolidating power or anything - how can the king only pay for it?

The focus then turned to Castile, a vast kingdom with a population of 5 million, a country with a high degree of patriotic and religious fervor among its people, an economy and military boom, and a language that swept the Iberian Peninsula. Castile is a major part of Spain and a major source of tax revenue.

Although he had his sights set on Castile, Ferdinand did not intend to discuss with Isabella how to scrape Castile land and impose a heavy burden on farmers and businessmen, as it had historically done. (But Isabella did talk to Ferdinand about the plan to raise taxes a few times, and it was implemented, and the Castilian people really sat at home and the taxes came from heaven...... ）

Ferdinand now focused on "guarding against the slightest" and dealing with the Castilian nobility.

It's not that Ferdinand is not kind, or plotting big news to attack the nobles, but the nobles themselves came to the royal door, and the cause seems to be insignificant......