Chapter 247
"That is to say, except for wine, Westeros has almost nothing to sell, so it's not poor?"
"This..." Baelor was stunned, and said: "It's not poor, right? It can only be said that the specialties are different from place to place. The Arbor golden wine world is unique, and the supply is almost in short supply."
"Does Ser know about the trade deficit?" Dany asked curiously.
"What is that?" Baelor was at a loss.
"Take Westeros as a whole, the Golden Dragon coming in every year minus the Golden Dragon going out, if there is a surplus, it means that Seven Kingdoms has made money in the world's sea trade, which is a trade surplus; if it is a negative number , then it means that King has lost money, which I call a 'trade deficit'."
"Um..."
In addition to those aristocrats with long brains, Garlan, Baelor, Garth, Perestan and others who understood her, all looked at Dany in surprise.
"Miss Rhaella didn't expect not only martial skills, but also knowledge." Earl Garlan said with sincere admiration.
Westeros also has customs, and Littlefinger Petyr rose to prominence by raising customs revenue, and was even promoted to Master of Coin.
But the customs in this world has only one mission - to collect taxes, to combat smugglers, and to increase taxes as much as possible for King.
Adjusting tariffs, controlling the trade deficit, and adjusting the domestic industrial structure are completely not part of the Master of Coin mission, or in other words, the Seven Kingdoms nobles have no such awareness at all.
“How does the trade deficit affect Westeros?” asked the old Archmaester nervously.
"It will have little impact in the short term. Sea trade goods are luxury goods that ordinary people can't use, and the gold and silver accumulated by nobles for thousands of years are of little value. In exchange for high-end goods, it makes no difference to the country."
"This woman is crazy, she said that gold and silver are worthless." Someone sneered.
Not to mention, there are still many people who agree with him, even Baelor and the old Archmaester are puzzled.
“winter is coming, I believe that with the wealth of House Tyrell, two million Golden Dragon should be able to get it?” Dany looked towards Earl Garlan.
"This..." Garlan was a little embarrassed, not to mention two million, four million Golden Dragon his family can also get together, but it is known Iron Throne has a hard life , is short of money, if you know that you have...
"Yes." He suddenly realized that the wealth of Highgarden, the number one in Seven Kingdoms, and even Tywin lent Iron Throne 3 million Golden Dragon, if he said that Tyrell didn't even have two million Golden Dragon, who would believe it?
Dany nods and asks: "According to the price of wheat in Oldtown at this time, two million Golden Dragons can almost buy two million people's food for ten years."
A Golden Dragon Dragon = 23520 copper plates, two copper plates sell a sausage (pure meat sausage) and a dime of ale - converted into ten dollars, is it not expensive?
(Original setting)
The price difference between meat and grain in this world is not as exaggerated as in modern society, but under normal circumstances, a Golden Dragon should be able to buy ten tons of wheat.
“How can Lannister give out another one or two million Golden Dragons. In winter, it is calculated as five years. Can this money easily save the entire Westeros people?”
"No," Baelor shook his head, "you buy so much grain, the price is estimated to increase tenfold."
Dany nodded, glanced at everyone and asked, "Now everyone understands? Times and normal prices The difference between the prices represents the degree of depreciation of the gold in your hands.
Only one purchase of wheat can depreciate gold to one-tenth or even several tenths of the original value in disguise. Is gold and silver valuable?"
"This..." Everyone was at a loss and wanted to refute, but they couldn't find a reason to refute in their minds.
The old Archmaester was also a little confused, but he quickly came back to his senses, changed the subject and asked, "What the hell are you trying to say? Didn't you say Westeros was poor?"
" Well, let's go on."
"The trade deficit has no effect on Westeros for a short period of time, but over the centuries, the cumulative loss of gold from the Seven Kingdoms is so great that Iron Throne has to pay Braavos Iron Bank Borrow money from bankers in Myr, Pentos and other city-states.
Iron Throne's lack of money is certainly the reason for King Robert's extravagance, but he spent nearly 10 million Golden Dragon in fourteen years (except 6 million Foreign debts, and Mad King's legacy of millions of Golden Dragons, and the treasury itself has income).
Then, please Noble, King Robert spent the real million Golden Dragons. Dragon, do you have access to your family's vault?"
"No, my family has been sending money out for the past ten years, and it has no income at all." Green Apple Earl wondered.
"Hey, so is my family. Even fighting and participating in Tourneys cost money!" Uplands Earl nodded and said.
"It's been a lot of money in the past few years. Although my family didn't lose money, it didn't make any money." Dickon wondered.
"Really, my family can't make ends meet, and I borrowed money from Iron Bank three years ago, what's going on?" Nightsong Earl asked in surprise.
"I also borrowed."
"I also..."
"You all borrowed? Now I can relax Hey, hahaha..."
"This..." Baelor was also at a loss, "Everyone is spending money, but Miss Rhaella is right, King Robert's ten Absolutely spent 10 million Golden Dragons in four years, where did such a large sum of money go?"
"Is someone making a fortune secretly? Does Archmaester know what's going on?" Turn your eyes to the only expert on site.
Archmaester Perestan is quietly pulling the long chain around his neck, trying to hide the gold chain link representing Economics in the back of his neck collar, and this action happens to be seen by everyone.
Awkward, the scene fell into a suffocating silence.
"Uh..." old fogey flushed and almost burst into tears.
“Archmaester Perestan mainly studies history,” Baelor touched his nose to relieve Archmaester, “perhaps as Miss Rhaella said, trade deficit, lost abroad?”
” Lost more than 10 million in 14 years? Including all of us, how much did we lose?"
"Hehe, now you know why I say Westeros is poor?" Dany laughed serenely, a matter of no concern to oneself.
To be honest, when rebuilding the Slaver's Bay business system, she guessed that Westeros may have been in a trade deficit all the time, and also guessed that Robert's extravagance would speed up the loss of gold, but she never thought of Seven Kingdoms The foundation of most nobles is also about to be hollowed out.
Can't help but think of the era when a group of Jews led by Rothschild controlled the economic lifeline of Europe.
Perhaps the Braavos moneylender is equivalent to the Jewish boss of the other world?
“What should we do then? Closing customs can only cheapen smugglers, but cannot cut off the trade deficit you mentioned.” Garlan facial expression grave.
"I have a solution that can solve this problem once and for all, do you want to know?" Dany mysteriously said.
"What plan?" Everyone looked over together.
"Let's all borrow from Braavos Iron Bank, the maximum amount, and the Seven Kingdoms nobles."
"What do you mean?"
"renege On a debt!" Dany smiled badly, "Westeros also has specialties, Knight! It can be said that Seven Kingdoms Knight world battle strength is the first, 20,000 Dothraki screamers can't take Qohor, but 10,000 Golden Company mercenaries, a wave of excellence Occupied Qohor, understand?"
Well, Qohor fell.
The story of three thousand Unsullied defending Qohor has been circulating for hundreds of years, and it seems that the Qohor nobles have an illusion that as long as the Unsullied protects, no one can touch us.
Several decades ago, the Westeros exiled Knight formed the Golden Company, and Qohor hired them to take turf in the Rhoyne Plains. The Golden Company charges a high price, but has the ability to complete the mission easily.
As a result, the Qohor nobles wanted to renege on a debt and refused to pay the balance - similar to the way some unscrupulous merchants deal with migrant workers.
Unfortunately, the Golden Company is not a migrant worker, so they directly turned over the Qohor iron cavalry and thousands of Unsullied, and won the Qohor city in just one day and one night.
It's just that the founder of the Golden Company, Bittersteel Aegon Rivers (one of the Dragon Family illegitimate children who initiated the Blackfyre rebellion) is very disciplined, and in order to make a name for himself, he didn't loot or burn the city to get their commission After receiving the compensation, he voluntarily left Qohor.
Well, Golden Company's motto is "word as good as gold", they never break the contract, and their reputation and battle strength are famous all over the world.
Not counting ordinary cavalry, the Golden Company has only 500 real Knights with three horses and one squire.
Not to mention the entire Seven Kingdoms, only Highgarden can make up a thousand and eight hundred real Knights. Thousands of real Knights led tens of thousands of cavalry in formation. Who would dare to come and ask for the account?
"This, isn't it honorable?" Garlan sighed, stunned.
On the outside, this woman is beautiful and gentle; but the inside is not like the outside at all, her muscles are strong, and her martial skills are superb, even a man is not as good as her; if you go deeper into the heart, although she is extremely intelligent, but And too shameless cunning.
It's a bit terrifying!
"Yeah, if you do that, Westeros' credibility will collapse, and even local bankers won't dare to lend money to the nobles anymore." Devout Peter sweated nervously.
Church Bank also put millions of Golden Dragon money (Iron Throne only borrowed one million Golden Dragon) outside, how can everyone follow the example, they can't go bankrupt?
"I'll just say it, your oneself thing is up to you to choose." Dany waved his hand and said casually.
"But," she then returned to the previous topic, "you should understand, too? The Dragon Queen occupies the wealthy Slaver's Bay, where there is almost no winter, the land is fertile, and the seasons are like summer, It is also close to the big sea trade line, with agriculture and commerce.
Especially in terms of people's hearts, the newly liberated Free Folk calls her 'Mhysa'.
Know what 'Mhysa' is '?
The 'mother' in the ancient Ghiscari language shows how popular she is in Slaver's Bay.
If it were you, you would be willing to leave that rich and friendly land , and go back to this poor and cold country where the people don't support her?"
"That makes sense!" Even the stupid Knight with the turnip on his shoulders could understand, and said express approval.
"Is she really not coming back?" Perestan muttered.
"Not necessarily," Dany shook his head and said uncertainly, "when she defeats the coalition, not to mention the unification of the Essos continent, at least she will win the Lys, Tyrosh and other city-states that declared war on her.
At that time, her army was strong and strong, and there was only one Narrow Sea left from Westeros. She led a million armies to come back to show off one's military strength and make you jealous, which is normal."
"Million army, show off one's military strength?" The corners of the nobles' mouths twitched, and their expressions were extremely complicated.