eastern european eagle

Chapter 201 Potential Expansion to the North and East

In the north, Crimea under Wallachia had almost reached the northern isthmus.The local nomadic tribes were wiped out or surrendered, and the Cossacks on the mainland were also tightly tied to Wallachia by trade and religion.Only nominally surrendered to Lithuania.

With the escape of a large number of slaves and the deepening of Wallachia, the slave trade in Kaffa has become more and more difficult, and slave profits have dropped to one-third of last year.Coupled with the harassment of nomadic tribes and local turmoil, local business is almost unsustainable.

The chief executive of Kaffa City, Palma, has been frowning recently. Their tax revenue has been greatly affected. The political situation in the Golden Horde is not optimistic, the supply of slaves has decreased, and the nomadic tribes have plundered. All these are situations that have not been encountered before.

Kafa is also undergoing transformation. They have begun to get involved in entrepot trade and increase investment in the industry, but it is only a drop in the bucket.It can only rely on trade with Wallachia to barely survive.He even wrote to the council, proposing to sell Kaffa to Wallachia to stop the loss, but there is no news yet.

On the Ukrainian plains, Cossack tribes settled in the southern regions.Wallachia likes to hire them as an army, and the rewards are very generous every time, so Cossacks like to be hired by Wallachia.

Fire water is also part of the Cossack's loyalty to Wallachia, and the tribes living on the grasslands like this stimulating wine very much.However, fire water is only produced in Wallachia, so the price is also very expensive.The Cossacks also began to plunder and harass the surrounding areas to get more money to buy, or to contribute more soldiers to serve Wallachia.

The towns established at the mouth of the Dnieper River gradually grew, with a population exceeding 5000.It has relatively good defense facilities, and it is also a trade node. Both Wallachia and Lithuania will conduct some trade here, especially Crimea, which is their only land passage at present.

A large number of Wallachian missionaries took root in southern Ukraine. They built monasteries, church schools, and assimilated Cossack tribes.After the transfer of the Rus Church to Moscow, the Wallachian Church rebuilt the local parish in this southern town.They protect Orthodox Christians in Lithuania from Catholic oppression.

Although Lithuania has a vast territory, local rule is loose.Strong centralization is only maintained near Vilnius, and other places are only ruled by enfeoffing nobles.In the vast Rus area, the principalities such as the Duke of Kiev and the Duke of Chernigov were mainly entrusted to rule.The Grand Duke of Lithuania was their ruler.

The nobles of Vilnius have always wanted to convert the local Orthodox Christians into Catholics. For this reason, they strongly support the spread of the Catholic Church in the local area. In the northern Rus cities such as Novgorod and Minsk, Catholicism has a considerable market.

In the southern region, most of the people were unwilling to convert. They gradually moved south and settled in the middle and lower reaches of the Dnieper River. Kiev gradually became a Catholic city.The Sophia Church is occupied by the Catholic Church, and the glory of Ross seems to have become history.

The Ross Company built a city on the middle reaches of the Dnieper River, a town on the banks of the river at an ancient trade node.Relying on the Dnieper River and the fertile land nearby, it became a relatively wealthy city.

The Ross Company bribed more than 4 gold coins to the Duke of Kiev and Vilnius to obtain trade concessions and a large amount of land in the middle and lower reaches of the Dnieper River.And the company lived up to expectations, and directly contacted Moscow and other countries in the northeast of Ross. The surrounding trade was carried out at these nodes, and shareholders also made a lot of money.

The company built two cities in the middle and lower reaches as bridgeheads for northward expansion. The Lithuanian dukes were happy because they could collect more taxes; the people were also happy that they finally had their own safe haven.

However, there will always be people who are unhappy.They are the big landowners in Lithuania, because the establishment of the southern towns caused some serfs on their land to have thoughts they shouldn't have. They fled and ran to the south to avoid being hunted down.Even if they can catch up, they will hide in the city, and the nature of attacking the city will change. They don't want war.

Another displeased group was the local Catholic Church, which felt thwarted in its mission to the South.I thought that after Russia was gone and Rome was about to fall into the ground, Eastern Europe would be their world, but who knew that Wallachia suddenly popped up.Their way of spreading the Gospel seems to be temporarily broken.

In addition to Moscow, Ross Company also established trade and diplomatic relations with Suzdal, Ryazan, Novgorod and other northeastern countries.Expanding the company's business to the Volga River, relying on entrepot trade, the company's assets have grown more and more.

Leu has become the same as Ducat in Eastern Europe. Because of its good color and high gold content, people in the Rus countries like to use Leu for transactions.Wallachian merchants became very popular in Eastern Europe, much better than Polish and Lithuanian merchants.

In the Caucasus, the kingdoms of Wallachia and Georgia establish trade relations.In 1386, Timur led his army to capture Tbilisi, the Georgian army was defeated, Tbilisi was bloodbathed by the invaders, and both the king and queen became prisoners.A year later, Timur attacked Georgia again. In 1394, Timur invaded the Principality of Samtskhe, and the residents there fought fiercely.Timur then defeated the Golden Horde in the North Caucasus, thus occupying the North Caucasus.Since then, Timur has repeatedly attacked Georgia. Under the firm resistance of the people everywhere, the two sides reached an agreement, and Georgia paid heavy taxes to him.The war with the Timurid Empire caused Georgia to suffer another huge blow, the royal power was severely weakened, and the economy was paralyzed.

Wallachian merchants mostly traded with Georgia in Sukhumi, but many commodities of the two countries overlapped, especially wine.Wallachia also deliberately raised taxes on imported wine, as well as wool and grain.

However, timber Wallachia did not raise tariffs.Because Wallachia was particularly in need of timber, Georgia's timber trade rose rapidly, but diplomatic relations between the two countries were lukewarm because they were related to Trebizond, which was ruled by Komnenos.

Anyone with a discerning eye can see that the Butlan family wants to launch an assault on the throne of Constantinople, how can this be possible.In terms of the orthodoxy of the throne, the Komnenos family is more suitable than the Valleolo and Butran. One of them is a conspirator and the other is an upstart. How can they be allowed to tarnish this pure throne?As an in-law of the Komnenos family, Georgia naturally had to support them with all their might.

(End of this chapter)