Rise of Rurik

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Pepin learned about the Rus merchants from his dispatched subordinates. It is said that two big merchants came, but they were too young.

How young are they? It was not until they actually met, that Pepin realized that his prediction was still too hasty.

"It's clearly two fat boys! But they are really fat."

Being fat means being rich, and it means having the potential to do business. His Pepin family has been serving the Baudouin family all the time, and the two sides have always had a glorious relationship, so he personally chooses the "dealer" of the goods. If he blindly chooses a greedy liar, his family's glory and real interests That's it!

The fat boy reassured him, and the Norman pirates' loot from Britain shocked him.

The Ross store has just built a wall, and the wooden wall is full of holes and needs to be reinforced. Two young businessmen from Ross lived here temporarily. The small dock they sent to build now has more than ten long ships and two large ships parked. For Pepin, that alone was the fierce Northern Fleet.

Now the Normans have large ships, which can transport a large number of soldiers in wartime. In peacetime, this is a large number of vehicles with huge transportation capacity!

So without any inquiries, Pepin just glanced at the Rus' wharf and was convinced that they were capable of buying the wool of Flanders. As for whether they have money? Pepin has reservations, and needs to ask questions.

The uninvited man, the "big salesman", was entertained by two foxes with ale, salty peas, and the usual grilled fish, and things could be eaten openly, to Pepin's surprise.

Pepin, the middle-aged man, remained serious, unlike the other two little fat men who were too easy-going.

"You have already revealed your identity, tell me what you think." The youngest Red Fox asked first, "I will be stationed here for a long time. If we can cooperate, we can be good partners in the future."

The other party showed very sincere sincerity, and there was no arrogance. Pepin was very pleased: "The question is simple. I heard that you want to make money, and we have it in Flanders. We can provide a large amount of high-quality wool, and the Count intends to sell it directly to you. Do you... think there is a future? "

"How could there be such a good thing?" The red fox straightened his chest in surprise, and smiled at the black tiger.

"Yes. I will sell it directly to you. We negotiate with both parties without the need for others to participate. As for the price... everything is negotiable."

"That's a good thing. So do you have the goods now?" Red Fox asked anxiously.

"In stock. It's our wool-harvesting season, and you may already know about it in Utrecht. Now the Count will not claim the lost northern territories, but the wool in Greater Flanders is mainly produced in the south. If you are interested in the local wool trade, you must cooperate with us.”

What Pepin said was a fact. The whole of Great Flanders faced the Atlantic Ocean, the Leine River divided the north and the south, the northern river was divided into many islands, the so-called Zeeland, and the south was the whole plain that was most suitable for the development of agriculture and animal husbandry.

There is a large population in the southern part of the country, where the Gallic descendants of Bilichka mixed with Frankish and Frisian immigrants, and a new mixed race is rapidly forming, the so-called Walloons. The local geography is even more populous, whether it is planting or animal husbandry, as long as the rulers are not idiots and the international environment in Western Europe is stable, rapid development is a reality.

It doesn't matter whether Baudouin is stupid or not, the financial matters are in the hands of Pepin's family. Pepin has no right, whether everything in the family is bestowed by the earl. He can use the earl's power to instruct the farmer on weekdays, but as a tool, he must find a way to make money for his master.

Pepin simply came up with a plan he had planned.

"The wool of the Earl of Flanders is only sent to the Kingdom of Rus, and it will cut off transactions with other forces, and Ross will enjoy exclusive interests. The Earl does not have enough capacity to transport wool to the ports controlled by the Rus, but the Earl can restore By building the port of Antwerp, perhaps the Rus ships can go straight to Ghent along the river. Rus ships can directly enter the ports in the country for direct trade, and the price is negotiable.”

The two foxes were young but not fools. They had heard the business experience of their father and brother, and instantly understood that this Pepin provided great benefits!

Monopoly, if you want to make a fortune, you must achieve a monopoly in one area.

Today, financial capital is still a non-existent concept. If a kingdom wants to become prosperous and strong, it needs to develop industrial capital. Boguo is personally looking for a big buyer of bulk commodities, handing over the "franchise rights" to the buyer, and declaring an embargo on other countries, which is tantamount to independently binding its own economic lifeline to the buyer.

Smart black foxes and red foxes have already understood what is hidden behind such generous terms of trade.

The black fox asked his younger brother with a serious face: "This plan is very beneficial to Ross. Obviously, your conditions are not pure."

Although the big businessman of Ross is young, he is very satisfied to see Pepin at this level. He still pretended to be smeared on purpose: "Why not pure? Don't you like huge benefits? This is better than going to our site to rob you in person? It's like we are paying tribute."

"Tribute? A joke." These words made the black fox happy: "If you get a tribute, you have to pay something, which is the norm in the north. Indeed! We will import wool because of your cost and output advantages. We import The more you have, the more you can’t lose it. At this time, if someone else attacks you and gets your impression of the production of wool, it will ultimately affect our interests. You! You are using wool to buy our military protection!”

"What a young wise man!" Pepin lined up in a large group: "It is indeed the case. How? Your ships can go directly into Ghent, and the whole country has been opened to you. In fact, as long as you organize a large army, you can perish and only what is left is left. Half the territory of Flanders. As long as King Ross wants, my country can be destroyed in an instant."

Pepin's last words were so serious that he seemed to be clenching the last of his teeth. He said this with personal anger, because part of his family's property is in Antwerp, but unfortunately the old city has been demolished by the Rus, and he has suffered a lot.

This guy speaks with anger, which shows that he is afraid, and the so-called fear is losing his existing wealth. The two foxes looked at each other and made such a judgment, and then looked at each other again, and it was the red fox's turn to speak: "If the king intends, your country will be destroyed. You claim to be only the earl's housekeeper, it seems that the earl is indeed kind. As for you, you are very willing to work for it."

"Yes. This is also my country, and I'm afraid that Flanders will always collapse. Listen, the south bank of the Yinhe River is the best wool producing area. You want to grow peacefully and steadily in Frankland without looting. Cai, must cooperate with us.”

"You? Are you teaching us what to do?"

"It's just a simple business. Young man, you won't have trouble living with wealth." After that, Pepin smiled meaningfully.

Seeing him laugh, the two foxes already understood everything, and after looking at each other, there was a happy laugh from the whole room.

There is no need for the two sides to discuss more. For the Red Fox, he even felt that the Ross store was built in the wrong place. However, it was the king's order to build a stronghold in Rotterstad, and the land was explored by the king himself, and even its name was named by the king.

But the king did not prohibit the construction of "No. 2 shop".

The secret conversation had a very constructive result:

The city of Antwerp was rebuilt. Ross had a "second shop" in the city, which was a military stronghold. He gave an overview of the commercial activities of the Flanders country, which mainly focused on the wool monopoly trade, and placed a small number of armed personnel, and if necessary, mercenaries. Way to assist Count Baudouin.

The country of counties cut off the wool trade with other forces, except for other material trade.

The Rus must act as interlocutors to prevent the Danish Normans from attacking the settlements of the Earlland.

The Counties unilaterally decided to adjust the "Northern Alliance" tariff principles and abolish all taxes on Russian official merchant ships.

It's like a dog lying on its back and opening its belly to its owner in obedience! Red Fox can't wait to organize a ship to go directly to the port of Antwerp to pull the goods away after the shop has settled down.

Now the red fox is holding the heavy "Ross shop" in his hand to start himself, the king's gift and his own, he came with a huge sum of money, but he can buy it in the Western European world at the first time, the "business machine" because of this Huge amounts of extra capital can quickly start operations.

So when Pepin learned that the young red fox held more than one hundred pounds of silver in his hand, he was so excited that he could not wait to invite the local tyrant to Ghent and arrange for him to have dinner with the count. Wool delivery is done directly.

…

It is impossible for the black fox to stay in Rotterstad and Utrecht for a long time. He supervises the construction of shops here not only out of brotherhood, but also because Rotterstad is the core node of the Western European business layout of the Rus Kingdom. No matter how the black fox makes trouble in the inland, the profit that it extracts must be shipped out in Rotterstad. If the port here is not done well, it will be catastrophic trouble.

Today, Rotterstad is even more significant because of a new agreement with the country of Flanders.

The two brothers had to get together and have a good chat.

"It looks like the Danes aren't making a lot of money in Britain, they're selling pots and pans."

"I haven't seen Ragnar. Now their main force is still on the island. I'm afraid the good things have been hidden and tucked away."

"What good can they have? The best thing is to grab gold and silver."

"Ah, I'm itching to talk about that. If I have enough people, I'll try to get a vote too."

"Forget it! It's very profitable to do wool business with guys from the south. The premise is that you have to successfully transport the wool to Cologne and the locals will receive it peacefully."

"That's not a problem. They may be worried about us attacking, so they must be reassured. I think as long as a few priests from Utrecht get on board and get them and the Cologne people to guarantee that we are just businessmen, everything will be fine."

Two brothers, you have already discussed and understood the business route.

In the past, the special geographical environment of Greater Flanders made it more suitable for the development of animal husbandry and salt production. Even the winter in Northwest Europe is relatively cold, and wool textiles are better than hemp products in terms of keeping out the cold. As long as the conditions are available, the locals will get some wool products to keep out the cold. Ragnar's original nickname came from "blood-stained wool pants after a duel", although he hated it.

The Greater Flanders region is certainly not the only place where wool is produced, but it provides the highest quality wool in the region, and the output is so substantial that it feeds Cologne's textile industry and supports the city's population of 10,000.

Therefore, what has been criticized by a vote of priests in the Utrecht Diocese and the Great Northern Diocese of the "Cologne Diocese of Extravagance", Cologne does have extravagant capital.

Nowadays, there are only primitive textile machines in Western Europe. The cotton thread produced by rolling wool is much thicker than the linen thread. The efficiency of pure hand spinning is naturally higher than that of the latter, and the ability to keep out the cold is still dominated by wool. It doesn't even need weaving, it is constantly rolled and ironed to make felt, and it can go straight to tailoring to mass-produce characteristic hoods, gloves, felt shoes.

These light industrial products can make a lot of money than pure agriculture. By relying on the processing industry, the citizens of Cologne can create more wealth, and the church as the ruler can also collect more wealth. The 11th tax is a serious exploitation to the farmers, because the farmers' material output is low, and the surplus assets left after paying the taxes and production costs are also low. Weavers are far better off, provided they really have a steady stream of raw wool.

The area around Cologne can provide some wool for the main city, but it cannot meet the needs of various handicraft workshops at all.

The quickest way to fill the gap is to import from Flanders, where there must be plenty of surplus wool to sell.

In the past, various tourist merchants took over the logistics activities, forming the trade line of Ghent→Antwerp and Brussels→Maastricht→Aachen→Cologne. In this way, the trade line should take advantage of the natural inland waterways of Western Europe, change it to carriage transportation after arriving in Maastricht, and go directly to Cologne after passing through Aachen.

Some shrewd merchants knew very well that from the outset they would save a great deal of freight by taking the water by boat, transporting wool in sacks to Cologne. However, all they have are sampan-class boats. First of all, the capacity is not enough. Second, because they have to travel a long way, they will go upstream on the Lai Yin River. The poor seaworthiness of the boats makes the merchants unable to bear Risk, and wool absorbs water, once the boat capsizes, it does not matter whether the personnel are safe or not, the most critical wool must sink into the sea and disappear.

Inland rivers are small rivers with small widths. There are no storms and waves for shipping, and they can dock at any time to avoid all kinds of troubles. Maastricht is also a very good ferry town. There is a local church that does not belong to any military lord. The priests only need to collect business taxes and tolls to make a living. This is the foundation of their lives, so they also started Boat charter, wagon charter guy. Clergy, of course, cannot be directly engaged in business, but there are cooperating professionals who do so.

This inland communication line integrating water and land has existed since Roman times, and it still retains its vitality after wars, so as to support the business atmosphere of Cologne and the development prospects of Aachen.

Merchants are extremely sensitive to commercial security. Traveling merchants who walked this "Wool Road" already knew about the large-scale war in the north in 840, and then inquired about what happened to the Diocese of Cologne and the Country of Flanders after the war.

The territory of Flanders shrunk, the Norman forces invaded, the Earl of the Netherlands was established, the Bishop of Cologne swallowed the Earl of Westphalia, a new duchy of Saxony was born, and Prince Ludwig of East Frank was born. Admit cowardice.

This group of slaughtered forces finally became a whole. It seems that the power reshuffle is actually a big integration. The smart travel merchants realize that this group of forces has their own demands, but they all oppose the Middle Kingdom. penetration of power.

This can deal a fatal blow to the traveling merchants. The buyer and seller are allies in many ways, but the trade route has to pass through the core area of ​​the Middle Kingdom, which they collectively oppose. Today, Aachen has become a salient on the macro level. Even though King Lothair has the ambition to dominate the Franks, a huge pincer appears to the northwest of him. beheading". Apparently it was also part of the Civil War.

Lothair thought that this was the situation of the Battle of Canning, so he arranged more troops in the north.

The garrison guarding the road is an artificial interruption of the trade line. The trade line has been interrupted as early as the spring of 841, and this does not even require the Country of Flanders to do it again.

The fortunes of the traveling merchants have been interrupted, and the news has spread in the city of Cologne.

Archbishop Hadbold, who had just returned, wanted to make up for the loss by raising taxes, and soon learned from the merchants that the trade line was cut off by King Lothair. In fact, even if there is no trade line, life will not be unbearable, that is, the prosperous life of the church will come to an end.

The living standard of the people in the whole city of Cologne is higher than that in other areas. They can't bear the life of eating chaff, and if possible, they still have to fight for it. The archbishop has only recently sent someone to Aachen to negotiate, hoping that the local garrison will open up to the merchants. As for the negotiation results, they have not yet come back.

What if the messenger ate the door behind closed doors?

Archbishop Hudbold has been openly supporting Ludwig in the Eastern Kingdom, even more so after the war.

A group of cardinals and archbishops gathered for a meeting. Paradoxically, the meeting was not about how to be pious, but about pure business practices.

They discussed a very pragmatic result. The so-called Rus people built a stronghold at the mouth of the Laine River, and they would build a stronghold upstream. Rus has a big ship that can go directly to the wool producing area of ​​Greater Flanders. Why not negotiate with it and ask the Rus to be the transporter?

Faith has to stand aside in the face of absolute interests. They even helped the Rus people to justify - one of the Rus people who can trade on the Inn River has been converted, and it is not blasphemy to cooperate with them.

So, things became very straightforward, because no one would have a hard time with the interests.

Ross' shops are still under construction, and the bilateral trade between Ross and the Country of Flanders has only been negotiated and has not yet been finalized, and Ross has not negotiated with Cologne.

But the three parties have their own strong demands. A brand-new wool trade line with logistics controlled by the Rus and only larger in scale. How it can be built depends only on the appropriate actions of the red fox.

Red Fox has the ability to be the initiator of this lucrative sea trade line, and he has realized that only he can do it.

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Chapter 1092 The New Wool Road Free Read.https://