Chapter 32 The development of Dobroga and the industry of Moldova
Reaching a trade agreement with the Hanseatic League will not only promote the development of Moldova, but also obtain the funds needed for development. The refined salt and maltose produced are hot commodities.
After Mircea returned to Kemplonga, Hungarian envoys came to the court immediately. He asked why Moldova was annexed, but Mircea fooled him with trade sanctions.
In fact, Hungary also expressed an attitude. You can annex, but the expansion stops here. Next, you must jointly send troops to fight against the Ottomans.
Mircea agreed, as long as Hungary recognized the expansion, that would be fine. Next, we have to confront Osman.
Bayezid was still running wild in Asia Minor, and Suleiman Pasha attacked Bulgaria and Varna in the Balkans. His main force, except for some Sipaxi, was the Serbian army. Serbian monarch Stefan has been leading troops to fight against Bulgaria, and Bayezid is very satisfied with this.
At this time, the Grand Vizier Ali Pasha was still persuading the Sultan to go north to attack Wallachia. The annexation of Moldova further proved his idea. Wallachia was a difficult enemy to deal with.
But not only was the Sultan displeased with the idea, Suleiman Pasha also didn't want to hear it. It's not easy to deal with. Wasn't the Serbian Empire, which once controlled half of the Balkans, also defeated by the Ottomans? Wallachia is nothing.
In Constanta, the first printing and paper mills were built, and they began printing Bibles and other books in large quantities. The number of students studying at the college is also on the rise.
In the late Middle Ages, intellectuals were still a tiny minority. And large-scale territorial management cannot be done without them, so they are very popular.
In the East, the only place where a large number of intellectuals could be found was in Constantinople. Although the Palaeolian dynasty was not good militarily, it was the most prosperous culturally. The University and Library of Constantinople are the cultural essence of the entire Eastern Rome.
A number of people who saw the crisis in Rome but could not change were recruited to Wallachia and put their lifelong knowledge to use. These included architects, artists, and officials with great enthusiasm. They spoke the local language and built this Orthodox country in the Balkans.
————The flow of time————
By midsummer, Iasi is beginning to take shape. Markets, mills, and shops have been built, and some merchants and craftsmen have settled here.
Outside the city, farmers worked hard on their land. Some farmers began to switch to iron farm tools. During their off-farm days, they had to receive military training from adults or engage in engineering construction. Unlike labor, public works are employed, which makes those people willing to sell their labor in exchange for some money.
Boyar meetings have also become regularized into government meetings, and Peter has turned this into his own advisory body. In order to check and balance the old boyars, Peter brought three religious officials and six new boyars into the meeting. Together with those who have surrendered and the centrists, they can suppress the other party.
Some people may ask, is dictatorship bad? Why is there a meeting to decentralize power?
First, as an outsider, do you rely on these nobles to become familiar with this land? You have to rely on these boyars that grow on this land for governance.
Second, even if you are a dictator, you must have a consulting agency to help you. Whether it is Ottoman or Russian, there is an imperial meeting or a meeting of gentry to provide consultation. You are not Lao Zhu, so you cannot do everything yourself.
It is important to have an advisory body, which is why Peter has made boyar meetings a regular occurrence.
Seeing that they could not make waves, the boyars either operated within their own territories or obeyed the governor and made suggestions at the boyars meeting.
The mineral exploration team sent by Peter also came back with news that they had discovered a clay mine in the south of Moldova. This can be considered a treasure.
During the Roman Empire, Egyptian lead-glazed pottery technology was introduced to Italy, and production continued until the tin-glazed pottery technology was introduced. The production technology of tin-glazed pottery was introduced to Italy from the Middle East via the island of Mallorca in southern Spain. Tin-glazed pottery produced in Italy is called Majorica.
The main feature of Italian tin-glazed pottery is that the painted decoration was initially multi-colored. Later, when luster color was introduced from Spain, luster color was mostly used to make the product golden yellow. Italian tin-glazed pottery has simple shapes and is well suited to the artist's talents. Venice produced tin-glazed pottery from the 16th to the 18th century. The products often imitated Chinese Ming Dynasty porcelain, forming a new style with oriental colors.
The history of porcelain is relatively late. Around the end of the 8th century, Chinese porcelain began to spread westward. First arriving in the Middle and Near East, it had a great impact on pottery production there. By the end of the 14th century, Syria had been able to imitate China's blue and white porcelain. Around the 13th to 14th centuries in China's Yuan Dynasty, Chinese porcelain was introduced to Europe and was immediately appreciated by Europeans. At the same time, many manufacturers rushed to imitate it. However, due to the inability to correctly select flux raw materials, imitation has not been successful.
According to their speculation, the reserves of this clay mine are very large. What are you waiting for? Let’s mine and make it.
Wait, he has the materials and funds, but he has no craftsmen. This is worrying again. Northern Italy's pottery technology is controlled by various small countries, and it is not easy to poach people.
Since making pottery requires hiring people, there is no need for glass. The exploration team also discovered a sand mine suitable for glass production, which should be no problem for building a glass factory.
In the 12th century, with the development of trade, Venice became the center of the world's glass manufacturing industry. In order to monopolize glass manufacturing technology, the government at that time concentrated glass artists on Murano Island, across the sea from Venice. But some craftsmen escaped and hid in Bohemia, Genoa, Constantinople and other places. If they were found, the glass industry would be able to start.
If you can't find it, don't worry. There was another center for glassmaking in Europe: Bohemia. A kind of dark green glassware is produced locally and is called "forest glass". A typical work is a wine glass with small convex balls all around, a high circle bottom below, and a flared rim at the top. Known as the "Rhine glass".
No matter what, he would not give up on glass and ceramics. He sent an order to the Chamber of Commerce, asking them to find glass ceramics craftsmen in Italy. No matter how high the price, they must win.
Vaccination, I am not very good at war scenes, so I farm more. Dear readers, please forgive me.