Since the Accounting: A Chronicle of the Roman Khanate

Chapter 758 Feudal Society Must Fulfill Feudal Obligations
When the Habsburgs first received the request to send troops, they refused outright.

This year was truly not a good time for them. For nearly a century, the Habsburgs had been constantly at war with the mountain people of their homeland.

Originally, the Habsburgs originated in the Allgäu region of northern Switzerland. In 1020, their ancestor Radbot built a castle there called "Eagle Castle," establishing his control over the area. This marked the beginning of the Habsburg countdom and this vast family.

However, for half a century, the family suffered repeated defeats and was frequently beaten. Just a few years ago, the Habsburg army was defeated by the Swiss Confederation at Sempach, losing not only troops and territory but also the patriarch Leopold, who was killed by the Swiss.

This crushing defeat had serious consequences; even their ancestral home, Eagle Fort, might be lost. Therefore, the family was constantly worried about the mountain people.

Tyrol, located in eastern Switzerland, is also known for its troublesome inhabitants. These mountain people interact with each other and are all notoriously difficult to deal with. If things are already difficult to control in Switzerland, it would be truly troublesome if problems arose in the east as well…

In this situation, the Habsburg family adopted a "better safe than sorry" attitude. The new head of the family, Duke Albrecht, not only refused Count Bernhard's request for help but also reprimanded him.

In his reply, the Duke accused the Earl of being entirely at fault. He claimed that he had incurred the debt, invited the Jews, offended the Italians, and provoked the slave revolt—he had not contributed anything extra to the Duke and had even hindered his ability to respond to summons and fulfill his vassal duties by repeatedly sending troops to suppress them.

The Duke also complained that his vassals were becoming increasingly difficult to serve, and he couldn't tell who was actually serving whom.

Normally, if he tries to intervene in anything, his vassals act like frightened chickens and ducks, squawking and jumping around, forbidding him from interfering in the affairs of their territories, claiming it's a basic feudal principle. But when they cause trouble and create a huge mess that can't be resolved, they pester him to clean it up—and then they remember they still have a lord. Is this treating the lord like a slave?
Therefore, Bernhard had to handle this matter himself, and not a single soldier could ask him for anything.

Bernhard was speechless in the face of this rebuke.

Although Tyrol was a crucial route for Germans traveling south to Italy, the Habsburg family's rule over the region was not achieved through war and conquest, but rather through continuous marriage alliances and compromises.

Originally, Tyrol was ruled by the powerful Gorizia family. At its zenith in the early 14th century, they ruled a vast region stretching from southern Austria to northeastern Italy and into Slovenia. Their patriarch, Henry, became Duke of Carinthia and was even elected King of Bohemia at one point. However, Henry had only one daughter, and after his death, the Habsburg, Luxembourg, and Wittelsbach families intervened, attempting to seize control of the region.

After two generations of effort and numerous complex transactions, the Habsburg family finally managed to oust the others and gain sole control of Tyrol. However, the local nobles were already divided among themselves, so many only outwardly obeyed them and didn't actually take them seriously.

Therefore, Bernhard and his group understood the source of the Habsburg family's anger, since they themselves had often tripped them up and given them the cold shoulder before...

Moreover, the Habsburg family wasn't known for its military might; on the contrary, they'd suffered repeated defeats lately. A few years ago, the Luxembourg family insisted on organizing a crusade against the Purple Horde, with many princes joining in, including the family themselves, but they still lost. The year before last, they attacked Switzerland, believing they had the advantage, but still inexplicably lost. They'd lost in the east and then in the west; if they couldn't even defeat the local mountain people, then they'd have nothing left to lose…

So, there's nothing the Duke can do about his lack of interest. He himself needs to slowly recover from his injuries.

This attitude forced Bernhard to try to unite with some local nobles who also rejected the "Ming" organization, hoping to resolve the issue themselves. This further slowed down their response to the entire incident.

While the nobles were blaming and attacking each other, the road construction was proceeding in an orderly manner.

Salvestro of the Medici family kept his promise and provided the team with a sum of money to lobby for and hire artisans. He also recommended several capable accountants, led by a Florentine named Luca, to help with the project planning.

Luca was young, but he was very knowledgeable. He had been an apprentice to several big merchants since childhood and later went to universities in Naples and Rome to receive higher education.

However, he actually came from a humble background; his parents were just ordinary craftsmen and small merchants. Because of his exceptional abilities, he gained the recognition and sponsorship of a wealthy businessman, enabling him to pursue higher education. Therefore, the wealthy people around him looked down on him to some extent.

Moreover, his favorite field of study was mathematics, and he supported himself by teaching mathematics in his spare time. However, in universities today, the truly respectable subjects are theology, law, medicine, and literature, which are subordinate to them. As for arithmetic, although it is one of the "seven liberal arts," it is only considered part of preparatory literary education, belonging to the "elementary" level, and not a subject worthy of serious study.

Perhaps due to cultural background, law was particularly valued in Italy at that time.

In Europe, the highest echelons of power belonged to the nobles. However, their power was hereditary, so they didn't need formal education. Even under this feudal system, the nobles still required specialized personnel to help them govern. These individuals had to compete for their positions.

To govern a country and its territory, the most basic requirement is to have rules for everyone to follow. These rules are the laws. The legal codes left after the fall of Rome, along with the customary laws of various barbarian tribes, provided them with a basis for action. Those who were proficient in these rules and regulations could become valuable assistants to the ruler and be highly valued.

Europe not only lacked the imperial examination system, but also a stable official system. Therefore, studying law and gaining favor with the rulers through service was essentially the best path to advancement for non-nobles, and even many minor nobles. This was the direction those who wanted to advance should have taken.

This is why those without noble status or family inheritance rights often choose to study law. Those with some wealth but lacking aristocratic power constitute the mainstream of the student body. The entire campus culture naturally develops in this direction. Luca, obsessed with "lower-level subjects," is considered an anomaly in university. He lacks sufficient resources, is frequently ostracized, and even deliberately bullied, making his life difficult. Fortunately, his patron is quite active, introducing him to the emerging Medici family, thus securing a powerful backer.

After meeting him, Salwesterloh concluded that the man was exceptionally skilled in arithmetic and had great business acumen, and frankly, his current situation was a bit of a waste of his talents.

However, European universities were not simply schools. Initially, what we call universities were guilds composed of students or teachers. To maintain their power, they constantly clashed with lords and cities, eventually forming independent autonomous entities.

Throughout Europe, feudalism was the dominant system, and universities were no exception. Like other feudal territories, universities were also "states within a state"—they bore certain feudal obligations to their lords and received their protection and recognition, but beyond that, they were free to make their own decisions.

Therefore, even the Medici family could not directly order the university to grant him a degree or treatment; they could only exert influence and "persuade" the university to do so.

However, like all feudal lords, he was far more capable of doing evil than good, so Salwestero told him to drop out of university and start working. He then assigned him the task of managing the Wu Prince's residence and sent him north.

This job was Luca's first major project. Although he had backing, even his teammates had reservations. However, after careful consideration, Luca, despite everyone's surprise and skepticism, went ahead and devised a series of seemingly crazy plans.

After studying the entire project process, he approached the leader of the Wu King's delegation and the representative of the Venice Chamber of Commerce, telling them that if they could make a promissory note for one million ducats, he could complete the entire main project within two years.

Everyone else was astonished, telling him that the amount was outrageous. He himself was an accountant and should have understood what that figure meant—at its peak, the entire Venetian Republic's annual revenue was only 165 million ducats. Of that, the city-state itself contributed about 100 million, and other colonies contributed 65. He had essentially taken the entire city's annual income without spending a single penny.

However, Luca replied that he asked for that figure precisely because he knew the scale of Venice's economy. Only something of that magnitude would appear to be a massive "national-level" project, enough to generate sufficient interest from others.

Furthermore, he emphasized that what he meant by needing a promissory note was that he needed this document as a statement of investment, not the money itself. The Venetian merchants didn't need to hand over the gold coins to the Wu King's court—in fact, the coins didn't even need to exist. He would handle the financing separately for the truly necessary portion.

He explained his idea in detail. However, the representatives of the royal palace, the merchants, and even the accountants who came with him all thought the suggestion was too crazy. But Luca said that if they wanted to allocate enough resources as quickly as possible while minimizing costs and avoiding unnecessary waste of resources, then this was the best way.

Finally, Louis, the special envoy of the King of Wu, stepped forward and told everyone that he had decided to support Luca's plan.

Louis said the plan was indeed insane, and even he himself couldn't fully understand it. But wasn't their mission itself insane enough?

Have we all forgotten that, under the very noses of a host of lords, to establish an organization that does not belong to any territory, or even to the European feudal system, and then to use that organization to complete a road-building project that no one has ever thought of in a thousand years, connecting the two major geographical regions of the continent—is that in itself an extremely insane undertaking?
Since that's the case, as long as the mission can be completed, it doesn't matter if we go a little crazy.

The plan itself didn't require any real money, so the Venetian had no financial pressure. If the plan succeeded, it would be a highly profitable venture; and if it failed, they would bear the consequences.

He told everyone that he was actually just a farmer who occasionally did small business. The reason he suddenly became an official and came here was simply because he had followed the King of Wu for a long time and was therefore granted some official position—he couldn't even remember the name himself, but it was probably some subordinate official of the palace minister.

The reason he was sent this time was simply because he was the most eloquent person in the nearby villages. When the villagers wanted to buy things, they would elect him as their representative to negotiate with the merchants—so, he was sent as an envoy. After all, the King of Wu didn't actually have many high-ranking officials, so he could only let the person in charge of purchasing farm tools, chickens, and ducks manage the procurement for road construction projects.

Therefore, he didn't particularly care about this official position. If it failed, he would take responsibility, resign, and accept the King of Wu's punishment. People could simply say that it was his poor leadership that caused the project to fail.

With someone willing to take responsibility, the rest was relatively easy. They signed a statement saying that the Wu King's Palace would borrow one million ducats from the merchants, and an agreement had been reached. The Chamber of Commerce would do its utmost to invest in His Majesty the Wu King's road construction project and its ancillary projects. Specific payment methods, payment schedules, repayment dates, and interest would be resolved as soon as possible.

The document seemed to say nothing, but Luca said that it was enough.

He said that money itself has no inherent meaning; its core function is to facilitate the circulation of goods and to motivate people to take action. Therefore, not only are gold coins money, but debt is also a form of money, and even more broadly, the news of impending debt can be considered a form of money.

With this document in hand, he hired some people in Venice to spread the news and continue borrowing money. He told them that they didn't need much, just a few hundred or a thousand would suffice. However, even so, most merchants remained cautious about the matter. Only a few merchants who had close ties with the elders they had invited extended loans out of consideration for the elders.

Afterward, Luca quickly led his assistants to several other cities, repeating the same method. As they went to more and more places, the number of merchants following suit and investing also increased rapidly. Half a month later, when they arrived in Florence, they had already raised tens of thousands of gold coins.

This situation was completely beyond the expectations of everyone in the Wu Prince's Mansion.

(End of this chapter)