Chapter 248: The Rebirth of Western Finance and Economics

In addition to Judaism, which forbids interest, the Abrahamic religions forbid believers to borrow money for interest. So in the Middle Ages, only Jews were allowed to engage in lending and finance. By the time the Protestants in Germany and the Netherlands could engage in businesses such as maritime insurance and accounting, the Jews had long since monopolized the financing and mortgage of all nobles and traders. The prototype of vampires is best synonymous with the Jews who oppress the rich and the clergy who are engaged in literary and artistic creation, and who control public opinion and discourse. The image of the four misers, if not real, is in line with the characteristics of the group of usurers that the masses have heard and witnessed.

In an era of backward productivity, risks were widespread in every industry, a shipwreck could bankrupt a wealthy trader, a natural disaster could turn a wealthy landowner into a tenant farmer, a war could leave a nobleman in debt for ransom payments, and a fire could turn a workshop owner into a proletarian.

Therefore, the risk of the financial industry is similar to or even greater than that of other industries. Every Jew engaged in the financial industry has a keen business sense and solid bookkeeping skills, in addition to strong risk diversification and the ability to invest in high-yield projects to obtain profits and offset risks.

In the primitive financial era before the advent of modern finance and banking, any large-scale credit was a high-risk project that required courage and courage, and in the case of war loans, it was difficult for the defeated side to repay the principal and interest of the pre-war loans. And because the collateral for borrowing is often real estate and feudal privileges that are difficult to realize, the high risk of large-scale borrowing puts all wealthy families with spare money in a dilemma. There were also very few successful bankers in Jewish families in Europe. In the case of the Rothschilds, the main source of wealth was not the accumulation of interest on loans, but the speculation on national debt and war.

So the lending industry in Europe spanned thousands of years from the Roman Empire to the Napoleonic Empire. There were countless bankrupt feudal lords and aristocrats and wealthy merchants and bankers in Europe, including famous founding monarchs, powerful popes, wealthy families, victorious generals, large feudal lords with many estates, and more often lending money to these creditors who seemed to be able to repay.

The impoverished middle and low-level feudal lords lived all their lives in the process of tearing down the east wall to make up for the west wall and throwing up debts. With the entire European upper echelons in debt, who is the biggest beneficiary? The answer is that no one, a debtor who is heavily indebted, goes bankrupt. Creditors will also be destitute. Therefore, the financial situation in Europe is very miserable, and the debts and bankruptcies have accompanied successive dynasties and monarchs. This system, which is completely different from the financial system of the East, did not collapse after coming into contact with the counterparts of the empire, and it is surprising that there are many business talents in Europe at this time. After all kinds of window paper were pierced by Chinese businessmen. European businessmen also quickly established their own various exchanges and markets, and quickly took the initiative to become compradors and agents.

Among the many agents who were openly and covertly nurtured was a Florentine Jewish merchant named Consilio, who established the first European futures exchange in Pisa, which included all the commonly used spices for the tables of all wealthy Europeans. became a famous upstart.

After financing the construction of the road from Pisa to Florence and the expansion of the port of Pisa, he invested heavily in the wool and imported linen textile industry. Monopolized the import and export of textiles and the bulk trade and transportation industry in northern Italy. An upstart, he soon became rich by leading the population of Tuscany through a double surplus. (The construction of marble mines, as well as wine factories and textile mills, increased the region's competitive exports, resulting in a large surplus in the trade account, and the abundance of capital also led to the rapid development of financial services, and wealthy merchants and workshop owners began to enclose and invest in the surrounding areas in large numbers, which also generated a large capital account surplus.)

Won the hearts of the people, he was soon elected president of the city council of Florence, and held the supreme power of many of Tuscany's city leagues. After a large number of mercenaries who threatened the Papal States were thrown into northern Italy by the money-throwing Consilio, under the coercion and lure of double bullets (silver bullets and bombs), the pope had to recognize his tyrant status and give him the noble title of Grand Duke of Tuscany, so that the whole of Tuscany was no longer a geographical term, and was truly unified into a complete political region.

Behind the sudden rise of the army is naturally indispensable to interfere in the shadow of the most interfering in the internal affairs of other countries, in the understanding of the internal unity of the crossers is that only the strong country can interfere in the internal affairs of the weak country in order to seek benefits, then the partial unification of Italy will open a hole, like the unification of the Crusader states of the princely state of Solomon, the agents who can support the smooth unification of Italy, the most developed region in Europe, is naturally in line with the pursuit of low-cost objects that trading partners can use a unified language, weights and measures, currency, laws and tax rates. If thousands of feudal lords in Europe, large and small, used different elements of the market economy, the cost of trade would be so high that the merchants of the empire would be discouraged.

If you want to reproduce the glorious economic and civilization level of the ancient Roman era, the unification of various elements of the market economy is the unavoidable premise, and how to make the cake bigger if you don't unite the people who make the cake in one room, let alone divide the cake.

The economy of ancient Rome was as evidenced by the countless properties and roads that have been left behind, and the infrastructure of some ancient cities has been able to maintain basic operations for thousands of years, as evidenced by works such as sewers and aqueducts. A large number of ancient Roman construction techniques and advanced craftsmanship that were inherited from the fall of the Eastern Roman Empire are also witnesses. The most convincing evidence of this is that Byzantine gold coins were more internationally influential than Persian silver coins. When the Indian prince received the Persian envoy and was asked whether he thought Persia was strong or Eastern Rome was strong, the prince took out a Persian silver coin and an Eastern Roman gold coin. And the Persian messengers were dumbfounded. The elaborate struck gold coins of the Eastern Romans, whose purchasing power was much higher than that of Persian silver coins, illustrate the economic power of the Eastern Romans.

Currency is the item that can most intuitively reflect the strength of the issuer in the economic field, and the higher the gold content, the more it can show the comprehensive strength of the issuer. In ancient times, when there was no banknote, the gold and silver content of currency was the best indicator of national strength. In the Middle Ages of Europe, where there were many princes, it was also the most economically developed region that could issue widely circulated coins. The most valuable and well-known of these currencies was the gold florin issued by the Medici family, which would in the future monopolize the Papal States' business of issuing underwriting debts and managing the financial affairs of the Holy See.

Consilio, who had robbed the Medici family's business, was completely undisciplined, and based on the gold content and monetary system of the gold coins issued by the Kingdom of Solomon, he established the Florin system (similar to the Taiwanese currency system that served the Japanese colonial cause) that would later contribute to the Chinese Empire's colonization of Europe. The economy of Europe has reappeared in the ancient Roman era of unified currency and increasingly developed trade, and the wealthy lords have directly killed the guild leaders who were just trying to seize the power of the towns. Who allowed the huge profits of trade to go into the pockets of the feudal lords and taxpayers who were holding the crusaders into victory? These tax-payers, who eat people and do not spit out bones, have been the right-hand men of various local governors and the objects of hatred of the people since ancient Roman times. After learning the Chinese Empire's powerful turnover tax technology, he directly stretched out his hand to each circulation link, although because of the signing of the free trade agreement, the feudal lord could not set up checkpoints to collect the road money as in the past, but according to the agreement, the taxes of various retail and wholesale links that should be collected still had to be collected. The great progress in converting taxes in kind into monetary taxes has also led to a significant drop in prices. The number of goods on the market has increased dramatically several times.

The arms sold by the Chinese Empire ensured the strength of the feudal lords, and the technology and consumer goods sold ensured the financial resources of the feudal lords, and unlike the declining of the Holy See, the power of the feudal lords increased with that of the merchants and workshop owners. The feudal lords, who had become rich, could finally set up a standing army. The Holy See, whose financial resources had been greatly reduced, had to cut the appropriations for mercenaries and monasteries, and mercenaries from all over the country began to look for a way to survive in the East, and the result of the growth of such armed forces was the establishment of order. The great feudal lords of the Chinese Empire, who were more inclined to do so, were naturally able to accumulate strength more quickly and complete unification and centralization more quickly. Faster creation of an environment conducive to the entry of the Chinese Empire.

Progress in Italy has been particularly encouraging. Tuscany has seen the emergence of a large consortium of thousands of workers, the most famous of which is the velvet factory run by Consilio, which appeared on the outskirts of Florence in a meticulous division of labor from the washing and carding of wool to the weaving, printing and dyeing, polishing, cutting and packaging.

The establishment of Europe's first sea-land intermodal transit logistics center in the convenient port of Pisa is the masterpiece of the Chinese Empire's aid experts. The efficient rail dock and warehouse area can transport thousands of tons of cargo from the decks of sea vessels to the carriages of the new motorway platform between the port of Pisa and Florence in a few hours. This project alone has absorbed one-fifth of Pisa's young and able-bodied workforce, working as workers and logistics support personnel.

In just a few years, the resources of the whole of northern Italy were consolidated by Consilio, and the commercialization of local wines began, with olive oil produced in Lucca and the surrounding mountains, marble in the places of Gaffanara, seafood and shipbuilding in Pisa, and livestock farming in Florence (which produced wool, beef, dairy products and various livestock products) becoming important pillars.

In addition to velvet, Florentine exported fine textiles from the Chinese Empire, silk fabrics, reprocessed embroidery, and a variety of luxurious derivatives (such as high value-added lace and various women's clothing, high-end blends for royal families to manufacture dresses and banquet costumes). The annual profit brought to Conceglio by a textile mill is no less than the annual income of 4,000 florins collected by the Spice Futures Exchange (the purchasing power of this 15-gram gold coin is equivalent to 30 imperial dragon dollars, and 4,000 florins is equivalent to 120,000 dragon dollars a year, which is about the same as one-fifth of the Pope's annual income, which is only one of the many industries of the Tuscan public that has not yet sat on the ass).

Florence served as a rising city in northern Italy and the capital of the Duchy of Tuscany. Within a few years of becoming a transport hub and commercial center, the Duchy of Tuscany had seen almost double-digit revenue growth every year. By 1960, the fifth anniversary of the founding of the Duchy of Tuscany, the revenue of the Duchy of Tuscany surpassed that of the nominal superior vassal of the Holy Roman Empire, the hapless Henry V Domain, to 70,000 florins, and Conceilio also surpassed the Pope to become the richest lord in Europe with an annual income of 60,000 florins from his private estate.

This news not only shocked the whole of Europe, but even the traversers who were far away in Shenjing were also shocked. The emergence of the first wealthy feudal lord in Europe to surpass the pope also meant that the death knell of the end of the theocratic era was sounded. The authority of the pope will weaken as one feudal lord after another surpasses him, and the old model of collecting tribute on land, monasteries, and churches is almost ridiculously inefficient in the face of feudal lords and capitalists who are supported by industry and commerce and modern globalized trade.

The traditions that constrained the market economy, such as not allowing loans to collect interest, were easily solved by the Consilio family, whose wisdom far surpassed that of the Medici family. The cost and money for the decoration of St. Peter's Basilica for the papal papacy came from these interests.

Since the popes all charge interest, there is no need to adhere to the dogma of not charging interest. Strong military strength gave him confidence, after all, it was necessary to overturn the Pope's old bottom and expose the Pope's greedy and hypocritical side to offend him fiercely.

At this time, there were no financial practices and unspoken rules of self-regulation in Europe that kept customers confidential, so naturally it did not affect the credibility and prestige of the Bank of the Duchy of Tuscany.

The Pope wanted to withdraw his savings and make Conceilio look ugly with a run, but the refusal of the Bank of the Duchy of Tuscany deterred the tempting pawns (many pope-appointed runs, including bishops, pro-pope nobles of all levels, and tax collectors who relied on the power of the pope). The loss of interest on the withdrawal of unexpired fixed deposits is heart-wrenching for these pawns, and if they offend the bank in the future, they will have to pay more interest if they want to borrow money again. The Pope didn't pay for this loss, so the run on retaliation soon came to an end.

After getting rid of a large number of shackles and environmental restrictions in the Middle Ages, a gradually free and open market economy appeared on the territory of one feudal lord after another. The European cake is starting to take shape as the participants designed.

In ancient Roman times, Europe used the unified coins of Rome, and the silver coins of Cestricks passed through the Mediterranean, and at this time, although Europe was not unified into a large empire, at least the currency was unified by the powerful Tuscan florea. This hundred Renaissances dealt a great blow to the pope, and the erosion of faith by the power of wealth was far more efficient than the subtle effect of art on the souls of the highs. For the sake of the Catholic estate, England can appoint its own bishops, Germany can wage war, and the Papal States can only watch its economic territory shrink, and naturally his faith territory will shrink with it.

It is only natural that this economic means, which were ahead of the Renaissance, would be called economic revival in the future. (To be continued......)