eastern european eagle

Chapter 571 Dealing with it Alone
The development of the Hussite Wars caused the Holy Roman Empire to split, with the North represented by Brandenburg and the South represented by Austria both wanting to fight for Bohemia. The Holy Roman Empire could only survive in this split.

In southern Italy, Rome continued to develop local agricultural and commercial resources after regaining most of the northern regions. Venice was also filled in by the Empire, and houses were built on it to increase the population, providing taxes and food for the central empire.

These actions were inseparable from Mason's operation, and he also obeyed the emperor's orders to transform this place. The original Venetians are basically no longer seen, and they are replaced by Romans who speak Romanian.

Although the empire destroyed Venice's appearance, the local geographical location gradually developed commercial trade. But this time it had a different owner.

"Sir, His Majesty's orders require you to return to Constantinople."

Mason has held this high-ranking position for several years. This time, with the emperor's order, it seems that he will be promoted.

Of course, in order to prevent himself from being thrown into prison by the emperor, he asked his family to be careful and not to show off their wealth too much.

Alas, having money is really a hassle. The wealth of the Mason family and the Taziu family alliance ranks among the top in the Roman wealth list. Their goal is to surpass Crassus, the richest man in the Roman Republic. It is said that his wealth exceeds 700 million denarii silver coins, which should be million lei today. They are moving towards this goal.

Mason also gained a lot of benefits for his family. For example, the public works in Dalmatia Province were basically contracted by his family. There was a lot of money in it. There were also some local government material procurement, trade transit and fund exchange with Switzerland and other countries, which were basically contracted by the Mason family. Just the construction of houses in the local area could earn more than 20 lei.

Overseas colonies are also an important project. The various construction projects on Sara Island are basically funded by their family. Andreiburg has become a small town of 2500 people, with large sugarcane plantations, coffee plantations and cotton plantations. There are already some workshops in the town. The local food cannot be self-sufficient. Every year, the family buys wheat from Sofia and other places and sells it to the local area to earn the difference.

In addition to selling agricultural products, the slave trade was also an important source of foreign exchange. Under the influence of Rome, it was normal for the upper class in Europe to have black slaves serve them, and because this commodity was only available in Romania, people would buy it in large quantities every year. The stronger ones could be sold at a higher price, and there was no limit to the amount.

Therefore, Rome increased the arrest and castration of African blacks. However, the output of Abyssinia could not keep up, so Mason set his sights on the inland of the island. The first slave capture was only 50 people, while Zanzibar could buy more than 200 slaves at a time. Mason seized this business opportunity and bought a large number of black slaves and transported them to the north, where they were castrated and then sold to Europe.

Mason is now a winner in life. He will go to the capital immediately to fulfill the emperor's order. He cannot let the other party wait any longer.

"Wait till I hand over my work, that Preyas!"

Butler Preas quickly came to Mason.

"master."

"Tell the lady that we are going to Constantinople and ask her to pack her things. We will be leaving in a few days."

"Yes"

Mason thought happily, wondering what position the emperor would give him when he entered the capital this time.

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Peter had nothing to do, so he went to the dormitory to play with his children.

Queen Sophia gave Peter two more sons and two daughters. The oldest, Alexios, was only five years old, and the youngest, Sophia, had just started to learn to speak. The four children were lined up, with Anna holding Sophia. Such a warm scene made Peter's heart melt.

"How cute! If he had many wives and concubines like the Orientals, he would have dozens of children."

Peter remembered that the Eastern emperor with the most children was Li Longji, who had 30 sons and 29 daughters, but 15 of them died young, 5 were killed, and one was frightened to death. Conclusion: The quality of children is worrying. (This refers to the period before the Ming Dynasty, not the Qing Dynasty)

Having too many children is not a good thing, and what if there are more fratricide in the future? So we need to separate them quickly.

But the children are still young, so we don’t have to worry about them for now. Besides, we can divide them up in Africa, so there shouldn’t be any problem.

Peter continued to tease the child, not realizing that the crown prince was handling a lot of affairs. This was all allowed by the emperor in order to train his ability to handle government affairs.

"Your Highness, this is a letter from Sigismund, hoping to maintain friendly relations between the two countries."

"Well, he did this simply because he was afraid that the Empire would get involved in Bohemia's affairs. He replied by saying that the Empire was willing to coexist peacefully with him, but hoped that he would not go too far."

With the experience of the past few years, Alexander could imagine Sigismund's difficulties. It was said that he still had a debt of 28 gold coins to pay off. It was really too difficult. Is there anyone in the world more miserable than him? He was imprisoned for not paying back his debts, and he failed in his expeditions everywhere.

"Your Highness, this is the implementation of the inheritance tax. We are conducting pilot projects in Constantinople and Adrian, and the public response is very strong."

“Are they all qualified?”

“That’s the case in Constantinople, but we have heard from Adrian and Tervono that local officials simply lowered the standard from 1000 lei to 500 lei in order to get more money, so that the extra tax goes into their pockets.

Not only that, some who meet the requirements directly bribed local officials to have their names removed from the criteria so that they don’t have to pay taxes.”

Alexander got angry when he heard this. "How dare you! Your Majesty established the inheritance tax to prevent them from infringing on the interests of the common people. I didn't expect that they could do this. It's really eye-opening."

Seeing that the crown prince was angry, Baptiste said, "Your Highness, although the goals of your majesty's policies are good, people always think about themselves, and this situation is normal."

He was trying to persuade the crown prince not to be so angry, but Alexander got even angrier. "So, we're just going to let them do this?"

"Your Highness, please don't be angry. Now is the time for the government to show its resolve. These officials must be cleared out, and the policy must be publicized to the people so that they will support the government, and then we can implement it smoothly."

Alexander nodded. "Let's do it this way. Those officials must be dismissed immediately. Many of those selected in recent years are like this. What's the situation?"

(End of this chapter)