Chapter 201 Potential Expansion in the North and East

Chapter 201 Potential Expansion in the North and East

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

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

Palma, the administrator of the city of Kaffa, has been looking sad recently. Their tax revenue has been greatly affected. The political situation in the Golden Horde is not optimistic, the supply of slaves has been reduced, and the plunder of nomadic tribes. All of these are situations that have not been encountered before.

Kaffa is also undergoing a transformation. They have begun to get involved in entrepot trade and increased investment in the industry, but it is only a drop in the bucket. It could only survive by relying on trade with Wallachia. He even wrote to the Council, offering to sell Kaffa to Wallachia to cut his losses, but there has been no news yet.

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

Firewater was also part of the Cossacks' loyalty to Wallachia, and the tribes living on the steppes loved this exciting drink. However, fire water is only produced in Wallachia, so the price is very expensive. The Cossacks also began to pillage and harass the surrounding areas to obtain more funds for purchases or to contribute more soldiers to serve Wallachia.

The towns established at the mouth of the Dnieper River gradually grew, and the population exceeded 5,000. 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 current only land route.

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

Although Lithuania has a vast territory, local governance is very loose. Strong centralization was only maintained near Vilnius, and other places were ruled by feudal nobles. In the vast Rus area, the principal princes such as the Duke of Kiev and the Duke of Chernigov were ennobled 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. To this end, they strongly support the spread of the Catholic Church in the local area. In northern Rus cities such as Novgorod and Minsk, Catholicism has a considerable market.

In the southern region, most 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 was occupied by the Catholic Church, and the glory of Rus seemed to have become history.

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

The Rus Company bribed the Duke of Kiev and Vilnius with more than 40,000 gold coins to obtain trading concessions and large amounts of land in the cities on the middle and lower reaches of the Dnieper River. The company has lived up to expectations and has directly contacted Moscow and other northeastern Russian countries. The surrounding trade is carried out at these nodes, and the shareholders have also made a lot of money.

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

However, there will always be some people who are unhappy. They were the big landowners in Lithuania. Because the establishment of southern towns caused some serfs on their land to have inappropriate thoughts, they ran away and ran south to avoid pursuit. Even if they can catch them, they will hide in the city. If they attack the city, the nature will change. They don't want a war.

Another unhappy group was the local Catholic Church, which felt hindered by missionary efforts in the South. I thought that after Rus was gone and Rome was about to fall to the ground, Eastern Europe would be their world, but who knew that Wallachia suddenly appeared. Their path to spreading the gospel seems to be temporarily cut off.

In addition to Moscow, Ross Company has also established trade and diplomatic relations with Suzdal, Ryazan, Novgorod and other northeastern countries. The company expanded its business to the Volga River, and relied on entrepot trade to increase its assets.

Leu has become as common as ducats in Eastern Europe. Because of its good quality and high gold content, people in the Russian countries like to use lei for transactions. Wallachian merchants became very popular in Eastern Europe, much better than Polish and Lithuanian merchants.

In the Caucasus, trading relations were established between the kingdoms of Wallachia and Georgia. In 1386, Timur led his army to capture Tbilisi. The Georgian army was defeated. Tbilisi was bloodbathed by the invaders, and the king and queen were both prisoners. A year later, Timur again attacked Georgia. In 1394, Timur invaded the principality of Samtskh, and the residents there fought fiercely. Timur then defeated the Golden Horde in the North Caucasus, thus occupying the North Caucasus. After that, Timur attacked Georgia many times. Under the resolute resistance of the people everywhere, the two sides reached an agreement and Georgia paid heavy taxes to him. The war with the Timurid Empire dealt Georgia another huge blow. The royal power was severely weakened and the economy was paralyzed.

Wallachian merchants mostly trade with Georgia in Sukhumi, but many of the products between the two countries overlap, especially wine. Wallachia also deliberately raised taxes on imported wine, wool, grain, etc.

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

Anyone with a discerning eye can see that the Bartlan family is launching an attack on the throne of Constantinople. How is this possible? In terms of the legitimacy of the throne, the Comnenus family is more suitable than Valleolo and Bartland. One of them is a conspirator, 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 fully support them.