eastern european eagle

Chapter 121 The Economic and Cultural Prosperity of Northern Italy

The activities of the Andrei Society affected other Catholic congregations. They colluded with the noble landowners and began to crowd out the power of the Orthodox Church.But they can't be completely wiped out, unless they kill everyone.

At this time, Junbao was a large-scale talent transfer base. Many intellectuals came to Wallachia, and the ancient Greek and Roman documents they carried allowed them to discover the New World.

These documents, which would have flowed into Italy, came to Wallachia and provided the impetus for the development of a fusion culture.Some human-centered works began to appear, and there were many more manuscripts on history and geography.The University, backed by the Grand Duke, began to codify Wallachia's past, and Wallachia's history began to be formally recorded.

At this time, the Balkans entered a strange peace. Wallachia and Ottomans were hostile to each other. Serbia was frightened. Rome could only be a person waiting for its final fate because of its lack of strength.It is not known when the next fateful war will start.

After finalizing the marriage of Peter and Princess Sofia, the Grand Duke also began to think about the remaining children.Except for those who are too young, Mihai can also get engaged, but with whom, this is really a problem.

----split line----

Peter is a studious person. He has basically mastered Latin, and he can carry on simple conversations.

The construction of the ship was intensified, and he needed a large ship to transport the goods, and since he was going to Florence, he decided that when the ship was built, he would sail to Naples, from where he embarked for Venice.

Genoa's highlight moment was in 1380, when the Genoa fleet went deep into the Adriatic Sea, destroyed its fleet off the coast of Venice, surrounded the city of Venice for nearly half a year, and did not lift the blockade until the Venetian Black Sea Fleet returned.Although very good, in the end, the expedition that ended in failure and the Ottoman Empire plundered their territory in the Aegean Sea caused it to start to appear depressed. Some intellectuals went to Aragon in the west in order to find a way out, and craftsmen with crafts. The role of gold coins decided to go to Wallachia.

Genoa can still enter the Black Sea through Galata. This place, like Junbao, is the only passage connecting the Black Sea and the Mediterranean Sea. If it weren't for the Ottoman Navy, I am afraid it would have disappeared.

Peter and Mason discuss the most admired figures, from Trajan to Charlemagne, and then Barbarossa the Redbeard, all of whom have left a strong mark on history.

And when asked who Peter admired most, Peter said two people: Hannibal, the military strategist of Carthage, and Basil II of the Macedonian dynasty of the Roman Empire.

The two Masons didn't know much, but Peter knew very well.These two men are very good in both military and political affairs. One led Carthage to recover quickly after the Second Punic War, and the other brought Rome to another peak.It's a pity that one was destroyed in the end, and the other was lost quickly after his death.

"It's a pity, it's a pity..."

Peter felt sorry for these two, and could only lament that good luck made people.But Mason couldn't think of this.

I learned the most in Genoa, not only crafts and language, but also Genoa's trading station model. He and Venice were the first countries to develop colonies.

The merger of the merchant station and the church, and the gradual expansion of power is the colonial model taught by the two of them to other countries.Take Venice as an example, the lands governed and vassals under its name spread all over the Eastern Mediterranean, and even had commercial bases in the Levant and Egypt.

In line with the spirit of making a fortune and the quality of no internal fighting (after all, compared with surrounding Italian city-states such as Florence, Venice has almost no internal problems).Dominating the Mediterranean Sea for hundreds of years, the entire banks of Venice are full of gorgeous buildings built by merchants.

The prosperity of trade in the 13th and 14th centuries brought about changes in the appearance of the Venetian Lagoon.Bridges connect all the independent islands in the lagoon, the original dirt roads and squares are also paved with stones, and palaces and churches are inlaid on both sides of the canal.The exotic decorations from the Byzantine and Islamic worlds seem to show off the Venetian naval power and commercial talent.

Relying on the maritime trade that crowns the whole of Europe, the commercial profits of the Republic of Venice have reached an unprecedented level.The fiscal revenue of the city of Venice and its municipal districts reached 75 ducats, and with the income from overseas, the total revenue was as high as 161.5 million ducats, which is "on par with Spain."However, the Republic of Venice is much smaller than Spain.

Such strong financial resources allowed the Republic of Venice to organize a huge fleet. By the end of the 14th century, the Republic of Venice had 3 merchant ships. According to the standards of the European Middle Ages, there were probably as many potential "warships" as there were merchant ships.After all, as long as the cannons are installed after modification, it will be a standard fleet.There are as many as 000-25000 people serving in the Venetian fleet, which is an absolutely unimaginable number in Europe.

Because the empire has no army, and land problems are solved by mercenaries (with deep pockets), Venice focuses on the construction of the navy and fleet.The Senate of Venice has the right to supervise all ships and can supervise their construction and maintenance. At the same time, all ships over ten years old are required to be inspected and replaced regularly, which is a bit like today's annual inspection system.

And at that time, all the ships of the Venetian fleet had the required signs and symbols, and the captain had to hire professionals to play the flute (indicating the majesty of Venice.) Even Venice established the earliest diplomatic envoy system in the world, and there are permanent envoys in other countries. Envoys, used to mediate trade issues.

Moreover, the Venetian government has a good reputation internally. In 1171, because the Republic planned to go to war against the Roman Empire at that time, it issued a public loan of 15 silver marks to the people. By 1262, the interest and share of this arrears had never been in arrears for a year.Rome is envious of this reputation.

As one of the northern republics, the Republic of Florence, although its sea trade is not as good as these two, is also very rich relying on other industries.The Wool Textile Industry Guild has more than 200 factories, and they can produce 70000 to 80000 bolts of cloth, worth 12000000 gold coins.Without calculating the owner's profit, about 1/3 of the total stays locally as labor remuneration.About 30000 people make a living on this.About 300 people from outside Florence came here to do business, as well as many other industries such as masonry and carpentry.

Florence's industry has a trend of "internationalization". Wool raw materials come from various places in Europe, and the consumer market for finished products is not limited to Florence, but exported to all continents of Europe, and even occupied some eastern markets.

The prosperity and development of the economy guaranteed the independence of the Republic of Florence, and at the same time drove the economic development.The unique geographical location of Florence allows it to have a good contact with ancient Rome and ancient Greek civilization, coupled with the complete republic of Florence, so that the citizens of the city as a whole.Its citizens were eager to assimilate classical ideas of state, society, and morality, as they found themselves living within the same mold as the citizens of ancient Athens and Rome.This is why they were able to become centers of the Renaissance.

(End of this chapter)