Chapter 46: The Merchant of Venice (II)

Seeing that these "angels" who lacked discipline had completely exploded, as if they were about to turn into the Great Demon King of the World, the shocked Venetians finally relented, and did not dare to continue to play the game of death with the appetite of the angels, but moved their belongings over with some reluctance.

- Although the Venetians had intended to emulate the virtuous bosses of later generations who were in arrears of wages, and to whet the appetite of these angels so that they might be sent to do things. But in the face of the malicious bargaining of these angels who do not hesitate to abuse their divine powers, this little body of the Venetians is really unbearable

Nevertheless, the Venetians could not have collected the one million ducats demanded by the "angels" for a time - since the ancient Roman Empire, when the "Silk Road" and the "Spice Road" to the East were opened, in order to obtain these wonderful luxuries, the gold and silver precious metals of Western European society have been in a continuous outflow. In the dark ages, when everyone spoke by the sword, it didn't matter if there was a lack of gold and silver, but in those days there were very few professional merchants, the lords collected taxes in kind, and most of the market transactions were bartered. However, in the Renaissance era, when commerce began to re-emerge, the scarcity of gold and silver currency, especially gold coins, became a perennial problem for Western merchants.

-- In the Age of Discovery, Venice minted two million ducats a year after being replenished with gold and silver from the Americas, but at this time, a century and a half before present-day America, the Venetian mint is also difficult to cook......

The Europeans at that time were so eager for gold that they were on the verge of pink eye that Columbus unabashedly and openly declared that he had gone to sea for gold before setting sail for the New Great 6: "...... Gold is the most precious of all commodities, it is not only wealth, but those who possess it will not only meet the needs of this world, but also find a way to save their souls in purgatory, and take the road to heaven"

To get back to the point, in the mid-14th century, the total number of Ducats minted throughout the Western world was more than one million. At that time, the Venetians used to exchange bills of exchange in merchant houses and money houses, and tried to do this kind of exchange trade without actual money exchanges, so as to overcome the problem of insufficient circulation of precious metal money. Even in places where bills of exchange are not universal, the actual payment is mainly in a relatively sufficient supply of silver coins, and it is really rare to see an occasion when gold coins are actually taken out, but they are still expressed in a number of ducats on the books to satisfy their own vanity.

-- Just as Wall Street in modern New York is a land of wealth, you don't expect to find skyscrapers of dollars here.

In the early years, the Venetians had seldom used chests of gold coins to pay bribes, but to send bills of exchange, bonds, and passbooks as they did today. ）

So, although Venice is full of rich people with hundreds of thousands of ducats, no one can afford to take out even 10,000 ducats if they are to come out with gold coins right away, and perhaps some bankers have so many gold coins, but they have to mobilize them on a large scale from the scattered shops, which will take a long time to prepare.

Thus, despite the fact that the Doge of Venice had searched the treasury with his nose and even his own personal savings, and the leading figures of the Grand Council of Venice had generously and enthusiastically responded to the service, and had emptied the coffers of several banks under the guise of white slips (the white strips of the Venetian government were still very credible), within a few days only 50,000 ducats and more than 100,000 Grosso silver coins had been scraped together, and all that was left were bills of exchange, bonds, IOUs, charters, bank passbooks, and title deeds mortgaged by borrowers...... Well, strictly speaking, these things are not waste paper, but they are priceless, but unfortunately the [automatic pawn machine] does not admit it, and the helpless "angels" have no choice but to refuse to accept these things.

Fortunately, although the number of gold and silver coins was limited, there were still a lot of other valuable things to be scavenged - in the last six months of the Black Death, almost half of the people in Venice had died, and of course they were poor and wealthy, but there were also rich and fat families, so they left a lot of inheritances that could be used by the Venetian authorities to give favors.

Of course, even the legacies of these dead people have heirs, but it is easier to make a person give up these windfalls from the sky than to ask him to donate the savings that he has worked hard for half of his life. Moreover, in the era of the Black Death, saving lives was the most important thing. Otherwise, everyone is past today and doesn't know if there will be tomorrow, even if there is more inheritance, what is the use? Isn't it that it's changed hands and cheapened someone else?

In addition, the Republic of Venice, with a population of less than 200,000, has been able to defeat many powerful countries and dominate the vast Mediterranean Sea over the centuries, and the overall situation and the sense of sacrifice and dedication of the upper ruling class are really quite commendable, otherwise it would not have been possible to fool the 200,000 Venetians, known for their treachery and cunning, to unite all year round and fight for the interests of this city-state in the midst of agitated international disputes -- Governor André took the lead in donating all the inheritance that his family had recently inherited, There were also any luxuries that could be collected in the Doge's palace and his own private residence, even his own necklace, ring, and the golden cross on his shrine. St. Mark's Basilica also donated gold and silver ritual utensils donated by successive donors. And other powerful families also had to say that they would do their part to make up this huge amount of money.

If it were Beijing or Nanjing in the late Ming Dynasty, those wealthy and powerful people who were extremely selfish and cold-blooded and had no sense of social responsibility would probably rather hold on to the gold and silver treasures and watch the people of the city turn into dry bones, rather than take out a copper plate to pay for the medical expenses of the citizens.

Of course, it is also thanks to these Venetians that they are still acquainted, otherwise if they continue to push and kick the ball, and want to repay the debt, then Doraemon, who is already about to be oppressed by usury to the point of madness, may really lead the traversers to carry out a Venetian massacre to collect money.

The only pity is that, although the wealthy people of Venice have a big picture of the problem of pooling money to eliminate disasters, the definition of the concept of "treasure", to be precise, the value of various luxuries, is obviously very different from that of medieval Europeans......

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“…… This is a fine porcelain brought by the great Monsieur Marco Polo from the East, which is said to be a gift from the Tartar Khan, and one of the most proud collections of the Dandolo family, but we are happy to dedic......ate it with our hands as a thank you for your kindness in saving Venice."

In full view of the public, André Dandoro, the Doge of Venice, seemed to be very painfully opening a wooden box stuffed with soft grass, taking out a package wrapped in wool, sheepskin, and linen, untying it layer by layer, and finally ostentatiously taking out a tray—a large, heavy, round blue and white porcelain tray, about a foot and a half in diameter, on which were burned beautiful patterns with strong Chinese characteristics. Blue and white porcelain vessels of this magnitude were rare in Europe at this time, and Governor André praised them and tried to make them worth three thousand ducats.

However, Wang Qiu sighed when he saw it, resolutely rejected Governor Andrei's "generosity", and when His Excellency the Governor was wondering and asking the reason, he simply gave a generous hand, borrowed the [Chrono Vending Machine] from Doraemon, stuffed a few 10,000 yuan Japanese bills into it, and bought many blue and white porcelain plates, blue and white porcelain teacups, and blue and white porcelain teapots...... And generously gave them to those present, and immediately blinded a bunch of dog eyes.

-- Although the Venetians present did not seem to understand what this meant, they still understood that the so-called "priceless oriental porcelain" they possessed was probably not worth much in the eyes of these high-sighted angels.

All in all, although Governor André seemed to be deeply affected, the Venetians who had been given so many beautiful blue and white porcelain at once rejoiced - many of them could not afford to buy a real Oriental porcelain with the savings they could save in a lifetime

Afterwards, these blue and white porcelains were treasured as heirlooms by the recipients and passed on to future generations - because they were "godsends" given by angels, they were probably more precious in the eyes of medieval Europeans than porcelain from the East...... Well...... It's just that because of Wang Qiu's carelessness, he also bought a few high-quality blue and white porcelain mice, blue and white porcelain H disks and blue and white porcelain cameras, so that the Venetians had to try their best to guess the purpose of these strange gadgets afterwards... In the end, I couldn't figure it out, so I had to classify them as some kind of idol totem of the pagan orientals, and carefully press them into the bottom of the box.

“…… These are precious oriental teas, luxury goods with longevity and longevity effects, and it is rare to get a few batches of ...... every year."

A merchant proudly boasted to the "angels" a few pieces of tea bricks that were dark in color, rough in appearance, and seemed to have been soaked in seawater, and hung with salt frost. And Doraemon smiled wryly and generously, and invited them to taste the flavors of English black tea, Chinese green tea, and Japanese matcha......

As a result, the Venetian authorities' plan to use these tea bricks to pay 10,000 ducats was also crushed.

“…… The finest black pepper imported from the Levant (the medieval name for the coasts of Palestine and Syria) had been contracted to be pre-sold to buyers, but now the buyers had died of the plague, and even the family of the spice trader had died, so the goods were confiscated and became government property because no one had paid taxes...... But it's absolutely very well kept......"

A government official pointed to bags of small, black-brown particles that emitted a wonderful smell and told the angels, "...... How about sixty silver deniers per pound of black pepper? It's definitely a very fair price."

And Wang Qiu's reaction was to sigh, increase his forehead with his hand, and ask Cangtian speechlessly, "...... Hell yes, it's also called a discounted price? Do you want me to open a door and let you go around the Indian origin of spices and see how much the pepper in your hand sells for over there? Huh? Are you really going to India? And willing to pay an extra 50,000 ducats for transportation? Well, well, the [random door] can be lent to you for a while, but only if we stay in Venice these days, whether or not we can do business depends on your ability."

- So, Wang Qiu, who felt very funny about this, really asked Doraemon to use the [random door] to connect the spice trading port of Catlet, a major port in southern India, and then a group of adventurous Venetian merchants swarmed in, bathed in the blazing sun of South Asia's second largest 6...... made Wang Qiu, who originally thought that they would cringe away, couldn't help but admire it for a while.

Then, with a half-baked Arabic and gesturing body language, the Venetian merchants actually negotiated a deal with the Indian merchants, and rejoiced in the huge profits—in Catlet, a pound of Indian black pepper sold for three deniers

It is a pity that the Indian merchants were only serious about gold and silver, and did not pay attention to the glass beads, small bells, linens, ironware, wool tapestries, and woolen goods taken out by the Venetians - the Indians were not the American Indians of the Stone Age, they themselves were rich in the best fine iron in the world at that time, and they also knew how to burn glass, and Indian cotton cloth was far softer and more comfortable than the European linen of the time. The workmanship of medieval European tapestries is also not as good as the Persian carpets common to Indians, and when you think about it, apart from the real money that everyone loves, there is really nothing in the hands of Europeans that Indians can look at...... However, almost all the gold and silver that the Venetians were able to raise were looted by the "angels". As for the glass mirror, which will become a Venetian profiteering specialty in the future, according to the original historical trajectory, it will take another 160 years to be revealed.

As a result, these audacious Venetian merchants had no choice but to come back cheekily and ask the "angels" for a large number of "extravagant" Oriental porcelain (in fact, the bargains of the modern city) and glass mirrors that surprised them themselves, so that they could make this deal with the Indians, and returned with many carts full of pepper and other spices, and by the way, the Arabs, who had long monopolized the Oriental trade routes, were shocked when they got the news...... But the price was that half of the people contracted yellow fever, and it was only by the treatment of the "angels" that a life was saved...... Strangely enough, on the part of the Indians, there was not the slightest sign of the Black Death, which was a wonderful son and daughter who grew up bathed in the waters of the Ganges

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