Crusade against the Pope

Chapter 231 Economy
The more successful one is, the harder it is to accept failure. This situation applies not only to the Islamic world, but also to the Christian world.

For the Catholic Church, in order to retake Jerusalem and control the eastern coast of the Mediterranean, they sacrificed more than 100,000 lives and paid an immeasurable price.

This was not only a great religious victory, the establishment of the Crusader Kingdom also brought rich economic benefits to the Catholic world.

Unlike the scarce resources in the Catholic world itself, the Eastern Mediterranean had a large number of prosperous cities that produced many fine handicraft products, including many luxury goods - such as sugar, silk, perfume, soap, etc., which were scarce treasures in the European Catholic world.

Shipping these goods to Europe could bring in several times the profit. Therefore, many Italian city-states, such as the powerful republic of Venice, although secular commercial republics, also showed great religious enthusiasm.

The Crusader states granted these Italian city-states many privileges and fiefdoms, which were only a small part of the benefits the Republic gained from the Crusades.

For example, Tyre had Venetian knights and Venetian fiefdoms, while Tripoli maintained a deep cooperative relationship with Genoa. In the process of capturing these coastal cities, the navy of the Italian city-states also made great achievements.

For this reason, past successes prompted the Catholic world to raise the stakes and continue to regain lost territory. These economic and religious factors together formed the driving force behind the Crusades.

……

In 1115, Baldwin I of the Kingdom of Jerusalem began to build the first Crusader castle, Fort Montreal, in the territory of Transjordan.

The following year, in 1116, Baldwin I captured the city of Aqaba on the Red Sea coast, which gave the kingdom control of all roads between Damascus, Egypt, and Arabia, protecting the Crusader states from the East and allowing profitable raids on caravans passing through the region.

As for Fort Montreal, the pilgrim Titmar, who visited it after the Muslim conquest in 1217, called it "a most excellent fortress, surrounded by a triple wall, the strongest I have ever seen."

After the defeat in the Battle of the Sea of ​​Galilee, the Transjordan region quickly abandoned its allegiance to Reynald and turned to the religious forces led by Gairis and Isabella.

Today, it has become the largest, least populous and southernmost county among the three counties of Transjordan.

Due to its special geographical location, it also became the breakthrough point that Saladin tried to seek.

After a series of border clashes broke out in the Toruń region, resulting in heavy losses for the Kurdish tribes, Saladin began to accuse the Second Kingdom of breaking the treaty and took advantage of the situation to launch a tentative attack on Transjordan.

As a result, his troops did not capture Fort Montreal quickly.

Instead, they were met with a fierce counterattack from the support of the garrison in Karak City.

However, this attempt was not without results. A large number of soldiers claimed that they had witnessed the Franks using the mysterious weapons with their own eyes.

Saladin has not had a good time lately. It has been more than a year since he mobilized his soldiers.

During this year and more, he led his troops to sweep across the Kingdom of Jerusalem and recapture the Holy Land, but now it has reached a point where it can no longer be sustained.

Strictly speaking, it’s not that there is no progress at all, but it has reached a stage where the input and output are not proportional.

Tyre was like a steel nail, poking at the coastline, blocking his army from advancing northward.

As a strategist, Saladin has his own unique understanding of war.

In a war, many tactical or campaign failures do not actually cause deterioration at the global level.

Because these tactics and battles are not of decisive significance, but if most of the battles that make up the overall war fail, or if one or two decisive battles fail, strategically speaking, we will be in trouble.

This feeling is particularly evident to Saladin today.

After a failed exploratory attack on Outer Jordan, it was no longer possible to capture Tyre.

Then even if Saladin crossed Tyre, captured Tripoli, or Antioch, it would not help change the overall situation.

Because the expeditionary forces from Europe could still land directly in the heart of the Kingdom of Jerusalem and purchase large quantities of supplies from the merchant community through the seaport.

But Saladin was already losing interest. The only thing he was really interested in was the restoration of the Franks' mysterious weapons.

After more than half a year of collecting various information, plus the transmission of war intelligence in Transjordan a few days ago.

The engineers and blacksmiths under Saladin told him that there had been a breakthrough and invited him to visit the docks in Acre.

In the port area of ​​Acre, the people had long been isolated from the Mamluks. Several short, cylindrical objects were placed there, along with various sundries.

There are five parts in total among these miscellaneous items.

The largest one is naturally the short and thick cylindrical barrel, which is placed on a wooden frame.

There was also a bag of gunpowder, a lead ball that had been carefully crafted, a very thick wooden stick, and a very thin wooden stick.

"Are these the weapons the Franks are using this year?" Saladin seemed a little confused and cast his gaze at several soldiers beside him.

Those soldiers were survivors of recent battles. They had personally experienced the battles with the Franks and had personally experienced the power of that mysterious weapon.

Many of them were skeptical, but one of them nodded.

"Sir, that's it. The principle of this thing is actually not complicated. We didn't think of it for such a long time. It can be said to be a complete accident."

The engineer under Saladin defended himself in a low voice.

It took almost a year from the time the first news of this type of weapon came to figure out what was going on, and it did seem that they were somewhat unqualified.

Saladin didn't care about the engineers' explanations, but stepped aside and let these people demonstrate it in practice.

He then saw a blacksmith separate a portion of gunpowder, wrap it in silk and stuff it into a tube, then use a thick wooden stick to poke the powder bag in.

After completing this step, the blacksmith stuffed the lead ball into the tube and pushed it in again with a thick wooden stick, pushing it hard to make it firm.

After completing these two steps, the blacksmith picked up an awl and poked a small hole at the rear of the barrel.

Then, he borrowed a torch from the side, lit the thin wooden stick, and inserted it into the hole.

With a muffled sound, smoke rose up, making Saladin, who was so close to this kind of weapon for the first time, feel his heart suddenly shrink.

Then, a splash of water appeared on the sea not far away.

"it is good!"

Saladin shouted immediately.

The blacksmiths and engineers standing by couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.

To be honest, even they themselves find it hard to describe what they have come up with.

The principle is indeed very simple. It is to ignite the gunpowder in a relatively closed space and use the suddenly expanding gunpowder gas to push the lead ball.

That is true, but the results of their previous tests were not ideal.

First of all, a relatively enclosed space is quite difficult to create, and it requires very experienced bell-casting craftsmen to make it.

Secondly, it may be a problem of gunpowder. Because in the past years, the Arabs did not fully realize the explosive effect of gunpowder and had long used it as a combustion aid.

This means that the effect of their gunpowder explosion seems to be far from ideal, and it is currently not enough to propel the lead ball to destroy the thick wooden boards at a long distance.

All I can say is, I hope I can get away with it this time, and I hope the Sultan won't be too curious and ask too many questions about the power of this weapon.

But the more you fear something, the more likely it will come.

"How far can your weapon reach? Can it destroy the carriage?"

When Saladin mentioned chariots, he thought of the tactics used by the Franks.

Use chariots to protect your own infantry, and then use the chariots as cover to engage in fire against the Saracens.

Everything is simple, but it is this simplicity that makes it difficult for them to decipher.

The engineers looked at each other and then did as they were told.

The small cannon, which was about an elbow long, was adjusted in position and a carriage was found to test it.

However, they carefully adjusted the position of the carriage, so that it was roughly thirty steps away from the cannon.

Under the command of the engineer, the blacksmiths who made the cannon cleaned the barrel, loaded it with gunpowder and shells, repeated the previous steps, and ignited the gunpowder in the barrel again.

There were two more bangs, and the carriage not far away was smashed into pieces in front of Saladin.

“God is great.”

Saladin seemed very satisfied when he saw this scene.

While the engineer was catching his breath, Saladin said another word.

"Move the carriage thirty steps further away."

"Sir... this..."

The engineer on the side wanted to make some excuses, but after Saladin gave the order, he obviously could not disobey and could only go over and do it.

This time, although it did hit the target, just as the engineers had feared, the shell was embedded in the thick wooden boards of the carriage instead of penetrating them.

As Saladin carefully examined the effects of the destruction, both the engineer and the blacksmith could not help but feel a little frightened.

After all, what they created was far different from how the soldiers described the Franks' weapons.

"Alas - it's all right now."

However, Saladin did not ask for too much.

Although this weapon looks quite different from those of the Franks, at least the principle of this weapon has been discovered by Muslims.

So in Saladin's view, all that remained was a matter of how much time it would take to catch up.

The reason why Arab Muslims had a brilliant civilization in the Middle Ages was that they absorbed excellent technologies from various civilizations from all over the world.

Perhaps many technologies were not invented by Arabs, but they were developed and promoted by Arabs.

Moreover, the potential of this weapon is also very impressive. A group of blacksmiths who have never touched a bow and arrow can easily shoot at a target dozens of steps away.

No matter what this thing is like now, it at least has potential.

"Come here, rewards! All the craftsmen and engineers who participated in the design and manufacture of this weapon can each choose two slaves, and then we will give you 200 dinars to divide among yourselves!"

After hearing the first part, the craftsmen and engineers were very excited, but when they heard the second part, they looked embarrassed.

Finally, a scholar came up to Saladin and whispered to him that they had spent a lot of brass to forge this weapon.

Then, in recent days, Cyprus, the main copper producing area in the Eastern Mediterranean region, has begun to restrict the sale of copper ore for unknown reasons.

This caused the price of copper in Acre to skyrocket.

Although the value of copper in the Middle East is not as high as that in China, the value of brass has become quite expensive after the price increase.

After hearing the news, Saladin was stunned, and then immediately thought of the news about the great changes in Cyprus.

He just stood on the beach of Aka, staring towards the north in a daze for a long time.

Finally spit out a name.

"Garys?"

“Besides Cyprus, where does the copper we can buy mainly come from?”

Saladin asked in a low voice to Issa Hakkari beside him.

Then Issa Hakkari on the side also looked unhappy: "That's Asia Minor, or Persia..."

With such a long distance, the price naturally cannot be cheap.

In fact, even if Saladin spread the news to purchase copper mines, it would take a considerable amount of time for the ore to be transported by sea.

"Can't we use iron?"

Saladin couldn't help but ask.

Then the engineers and blacksmiths looked even more embarrassed. It was obvious that casting iron cannons was a bit beyond their capabilities.

After the principles of this gunpowder weapon were understood, these Muslim engineers and scholars quickly realized what would determine the power of this weapon.

Of course, when the casting technology is not that advanced, if you want to increase the power but don't want to be killed by excessive gunpowder, then the easiest way is to spend more money and use copper to reduce the technical difficulty.

If you can't handle cast iron, then spend more money to switch to brass. If brass is still troublesome to cast, then spend more money to switch to bronze.

The sound of a cannon is worth a fortune. This not only refers to the benefits of war, but also the cost of war.

The standing army in this era is a money-consuming behemoth. Saladin's spending on the Mamluks accounted for half of all his expenses.

After roughly calculating the cost of mass-producing bronze cannons, Saladin began to feel uneasy.

Especially now the price of copper has started to rise...

Although this war against the Kingdom of Jerusalem had allowed him to obtain a great deal of spoils, it now seemed that all the money he earned would have to be used to cast cannons.

Moreover, producing artillery in small quantities is different from producing artillery in large quantities.

The production of copper in this era was limited, and the largest copper mine nearby was controlled by Garys.

Once a large amount of money is invested in purchasing copper for casting cannons, the price of copper will inevitably rise again. After the price of copper rises...

Compared with on-the-spot command, what Saladin was truly proficient in was internal affairs.

So he can intuitively realize the series of price changes and the pressure it puts on himself.

It has to be said that Saladin missed the time when he was competing against the "Leper King". At least at that time he didn't need to worry so much.

Fight if you can win, and wait until the "Leprosy King" dies before fighting again.

But now, Gillis is the young man, and he actually doesn't have many years left to live.

Time is truly precious.

……

On the other hand, economic issues have also become a major point of contention within the Second Kingdom.

Because the head tax had been waived and the land tax had been reduced, many farmers had some spare money and were able to go to the city to consume and shop, which objectively stimulated a new round of prosperity in urban handicrafts.

However, commodity prices also rose due to supply and demand imbalance, and began to affect the lives of citizens.

In the House of Lords, a noble member representing the Balian family first proposed a motion on this issue. The first words he said were:

“I propose that a certain amount of tax rebate be implemented for workshops producing a variety of goods on the list to reduce production costs, expand production scale, lower prices, benefit more people, and at the same time improve the competitiveness of export goods.”

Next, the noble senator announced a list of commodities, including cloth, glass, dyes, soap and other major products of the Syrian region.

This proposal made the parliamentarians present involuntarily turn their eyes to Sibyl on the throne.

On the surface, this proposal seems to be a gift from the monarch to the people, but the ultimate beneficiaries may not be the families of the parliamentarians present.

As landless nobles, they had very few properties in Tyre.

It is obvious that this motion is aimed at supporting Isabella's side.

After the first trade from Transjordan to Tyre, Transjordan began to send skilled craftsmen to Tyre.

Isabella's group used these skilled craftsmen as their foundation and established several workshops outside the city of Tyre to produce consumables, daily necessities, and even some medicines nearby.

Thanks to the use of simple processing lathes and other simple machines, these workshops were able to produce more and better quality goods in a shorter time.

In addition, improvements to certain simple technologies have made the original products in the Arab world more beautiful and more effective.

For example, the original Arabic soap industry was improved by adjusting the pH value of the soap more scientifically. Craftsmen also added sulfur to the soap to produce sulfur soap.

Sulfur soap can not only inhibit sebum secretion, but also kill bacteria, fungi, molds, mites and parasites, and has a certain preventive and auxiliary therapeutic effect on some skin diseases.

Because of its significant therapeutic effects, sulfur soap has been widely promoted and is even regarded by many Arab doctors as an external medicine for treating skin diseases.

After creating such huge economic benefits, it would be impossible for anyone not to be jealous.

As a result, at this critical juncture, members of the Balian faction also proposed to provide subsequent tax breaks for this type of workshop.

Naturally, it caused quite a stir.

Rumors that Queen Sibylla was actually Balian's puppet became increasingly rampant.

In fact, Tyre's reforms are now in a dilemma.

The number of people brought by Isabella and Balian was too small to directly take over the territory here. They built up the current administrative status through a lot of interest exchanges.

At the same time, the royal power was not directly transferred, but remained in Sibylla's hands.

Now that Guy has returned, Sibylla's attitude has actually begun to become a little unclear.

Many aristocratic groups gathered under the Patriarch Iraklius of Jerusalem and began to openly connect with each other.

The reason why Balian, Isabella and others did not directly turn against these nobles.

In fact, one reason is that the nobles were not very strongly opposed to reform.

They were actually opposing the benefits of reform, which were not fully reaped by the nobles themselves.

This actually leads to a big problem.

What was the most critical factor in developing productivity in the 12th century? Was it insufficient technology? Was it conservative thinking? Or was it the opposition of certain traditional forces?
Neither. The most important point lies in the consumer group.

Compared with the strong market in later generations, the consumption that consumer groups in this era can make is pitifully meager, and the goods produced in this era will also fall short due to some of the most common shocks.

Therefore, in Tyre, Gailis asked Isabella and others to directly exempt the head tax and reduce the land tax, just to give the peasant group a little more pitiful consumption power.

This increased spending power has caused drastic fluctuations in prices in Tyre, affecting the lives of the urban middle class. This shows what a dangerous balance both producers and consumers are trying to maintain in this era.

Either the consumption capacity is insufficient and the goods produced cannot be sold, causing the producers to go bankrupt; or a simple excess of consumption capacity can cause prices to rise, which can affect the lives of other groups of people.

This is exactly the situation Thiel faces, as any fluctuations in the weak consumer market are unbearable.

Reducing taxes on workshops and lowering prices is one way to deal with price contradictions within the city.

As for exports?

In those days, Tyre's main export destination was Europe. Before the discovery of American gold and silver mines in Europe, the proportion of people in Europe with purchasing power would be even lower than that of the Kingdom of Jerusalem.

It should be noted that the proportion of urban population in the Kingdom of Jerusalem has long been over 25%, while the proportion of urban population in Europe has never exceeded 10% throughout the Middle Ages.

Among this less than 10% urban population, how many are urban poor with low consumption capacity?

A quick estimate will reveal that the number of people with purchasing power in the entire Europe may not exceed two million. If distributed among each country, the number would only be between tens of thousands and hundreds of thousands.

If we rely on the external market to absorb the output of the Second Kingdom in the future, it will most likely be an extremely embarrassing thing.

It can be said that the contradiction in parliament lies in whether the benefits of reform will be swallowed up by the nobles or used to cultivate a new consumer market.

(End of this chapter)