Chapter 449 Overseas Territory with a Firm Foothold

Chapter 449 Overseas Territory with a Firm Foothold

In January 1410, a few days before Epiphany, Peter was crowned in Hagia Sophia.

"By God's will, Peter Bartland ascends the throne, ruler of Wallachia, Moldova, Bulgaria, Dalmatia, Illyria, Roman Anatolia, emperor of all Rome, ruler and protector of all overseas territories By."

Peter wears a purple robe, a crown on his head, and holds a cross and a scepter in his hand, which were recreated after the sack of Venice.

Families and officials alike paid tribute to Peter, who from now on was Peter I, the second emperor of the Bathran dynasty of the Roman Empire.

On the day of his coronation, Peter still had fun with the people, so he distributed 100,000 silver lei to the people. It can be seen that there is nothing that money cannot solve.

Outside the church, there is the military parade of the Guards. The uniform pace makes the people proud, but also scares the envoys from various countries. They have never seen so many soldiers. Usually they are only called in for war. If the number is not enough, some mercenaries will be recruited. Now a country can maintain so many troops all year round. If there is a war, who knows how many people there will be?

This is not possible. Can these people still have a way to survive? They must unite quickly.

Of course, overseas territories thousands of miles away do not have this idea. Local officials just want to manage the local area well so that they can be promoted.

Among the many overseas provinces, Ceylon is undoubtedly the fastest growing. Thanks to its geographical location and rich climatic and land conditions, the Roman people who settled here quickly cultivated a large area of ​​land.

Locally produced gemstones were an important export product. With the popularity of coffee drinking in Rome, Abyssinian coffee also spread to Ceylon and became an important drink for the upper class.

Senior official Nikolayev drank coffee from Abyssinia and did not forget to add some locally produced sugar to it. There are already fifteen local sugar workshops, and the value of exported sugar exceeds 100,000 lei.

As Constantinople paid more and more attention to this place, the government's resources began to tilt toward Ceylon. This is the destination of 60% of the immigration movement, and this is also the final place where most of the prisoners are exiled. Their arrival has greatly increased local development.

The number of Romanians in Ceylon has increased from 100 at the beginning to 3,200 now. Almost all the indigenous people in Colombo have been driven away. The local government is relatively nervous about them. In addition to levying a poll tax, there are many ways to assimilate and enslave. Many people are also forced to work in local plantations, and the income they receive is less than one percent of the plantation output.

Moreover, most of the local people believe in Buddhism and Hinduism, and are psychologically resistant to foreign Orthodox Christianity. Therefore, if you want to rule for a long time, it still takes some time.

"Sir, the barbarians in the north have started to act again. They burned down one of our plantations and killed ten people."

Colsteve, the commander of Ceylon's army, reported to senior officials that the barbarians had repeatedly harassed them with the support of the Kingdom of Jaffna in the north. This forces them to hit hard.

"Now we need to eliminate them. The other forces have been defeated. We only need to eliminate the north and we can unify this place. By then, won't we have the final say here?"

Nikolayev knew very well that no matter how numerous the northern countries were, they were no match for their firearms. Now we need a suitable weather, firearms cannot be used on rainy days.

Ceylon's annual fiscal revenue, after excluding the taxes and expenditures to be handed over, still has a surplus of 20,000 lei. With this fund, Ceylon can also maintain an army of 9,000 people, composed of a small number of Roman officers and a large number of servants. . It has the largest army among the colonies.

These people are composed of converted believers. In order to express themselves to the above, they fight particularly fiercely. The southern region had come under Roman rule.

"The most important thing now is to get more immigrants. Ceylon's population is still insufficient. If we want to develop it, we need more people."

Everyone knows what the senior officials said. In order to develop Ceylon, they have captured many people hiding in the mountains and forests as free laborers. However, the plantations require a lot of labor, so it is still not enough. Their representatives have gone to Constantinople to request the import of slaves, but they don’t know if it will be possible.

Apart from Ceylon, the East India Company and the Oriental Trading Station were most in need of people. There were too many local trading stations and the area was too big, so the East India Company recruited 1,000 people. But local efforts are rewarded. In India, the East India Company has gained support from a group of Vaishya merchants. In the East, the Ming Dynasty’s Zhejiang and Fujian provinces, the Gyeongsang region of North Korea, and Japan’s Kyushu merchants have all or more A small number of people gathered near the Roman trading station to do business. Because the trade conducted by Rome fed many people, the local economy also developed.

Tea, porcelain, and silk imported from the Ming Dynasty, wood and ginseng from Korea, and Japanese lacquerware are all rare items in the West. Most of these routes passed through Ryukyu and Formosa, and these two routes prospered until the Yuan Dynasty. Although all the ships sailing on the sea were Roman ships.

In the past, there were many agents in Europe; now there is only one in Rome. Those who let go were all Roman ships, not even the Mamluks, unless they were willing to go to Constantinople to buy them. Alexandria serves as more of a temporary port of call than a final market.

The Roman Empire also began to become extravagant, just like Portugal, which suddenly became a nouveau riche after finding the East. The king even bought a ship of porcelain from the East and posted them in the palace, and renamed it the Porcelain Hall. (Yes, just stick the porcelain directly on the walls and ceiling of the palace)

Of course, such a two-hundred-and-fifty approach is impossible. It really lowers the level. So starting from Mircea, the royal family set aside a room in the palace for decoration, decorated it with amber, glass, and mirrors, and also opened a garden next to the palace filled with exotic flowers and plants from all over the world. , anyway, the only remaining value of those Venetian slaves is to help them produce glass, so they don’t use it in vain.

I don’t know how much wool Rome harvested from Western Europe. This constant supply of luxury goods every year directly wiped out the wallets of many urban nobles. The nobles of Florence even asked for government relief, and Castile was even forced to postpone two conquests to the south. This was all caused by lack of money.

Gee, it feels so good to have control of Europe's wealth these days. Who has allowed them to dominate for hundreds of years, and even burned the capital, and the things they plundered have not been returned yet. If they don't fight, it is considered a mercy of the emperor.