Chapter 600 Merchants’ Route

Chapter 600 Merchants’ Route

"Everyone, today's meeting determined the resolution to march to Mecca. We will have in-depth discussions on this and make some secret preparations." Peter looked around at everyone and said solemnly: "But - in order to ensure the smooth holding of the next sports meeting, it will not be announced to the public for the time being. I hope everyone will abide by the laws of the empire and not leak this matter!"

"Yes, Your Majesty!"

The eastern strategy was determined, and at this time, the peace talks between Romania and the Holy Roman Empire were officially held. Martino was in charge of the meeting, and Lajos assisted. More than 20 envoys attended the meeting. When the framework of the big agreement had been established, the envoys still had a fierce debate on some small details.

After three days of debate, the final agreement was established, and its main contents were:

1. The Vienna Alliance represented by Austria restored peace with Hungary and Romania.

2. The Vienna Alliance compensated Hungary and Romania 400,000 lei. At the same time, members of the Vienna Alliance were not allowed to wage war against each other, and Romania would attack the initiators of the war.

This was established for the peace of the southern region, and Albrecht dared not speak out.

Of course, if the members of the Vienna Alliance want to launch a war, they must inform Romania in advance. Constantinople will provide assistance after discussion, but Romania will not guarantee the security of its territory.

After the peace agreement, Romania has extended its influence to the southern part of the Holy Roman Empire. Although Vienna was not taken, the goal was basically achieved.

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There is a small town called Alicia in the Dalmatia Province. To its east is the once glorious city of Venice, which is famous for its exquisite textiles.

There are many textile machines in the town. Every day there is the sound of weaving, day and night. Outsiders often worry about the residents of the town when they see this situation, and every time the locals will calmly tell them: This is a good thing, which means the prosperity of the textile industry!

In fact, this is true. Even if Venice is completely transformed by Romania, the worries of textile merchants have not appeared. The textile industry has not declined, but the orders are far better than before.

Early in the morning, Harold set out from the suburbs of Venice with a caravan and rushed to Alicia.

A large house near the town gate in the west of the town is his textile workshop. As soon as he entered the yard, the foreman in charge of the entire workshop came to report to him: the last batch of textiles will be completed soon.

He immediately ordered everyone to work quickly, and to check carefully after all the finished products were made. Everyone present was accustomed to this, because these things were customized by the buyer, and these styles were also provided by the buyer, and the buyer was a Constantinople merchant.

If it was more than ten years ago, Harold would not have the courage to settle down and do business in Venice, because he was a small businessman from Norway, which was once regarded as a barbarian land by the Venetians, but Harold was fortunate to meet a big businessman from Constantinople, and with his support and funding, he moved his family to Venice to engage in the textile industry.

Venice is an open city, and various industries are full of a large number of foreigners, but most of them are of low status. Equal opportunities allow everyone to compete freely. Harold no longer has the desire to return to Norway, and prefers to stay in this city full of business atmosphere.

In the evening, Harold held a banquet at home and invited several Nordic merchants who were doing business here like him. Everyone sat at the banquet, eating delicious food, drinking wine, and talking about the great changes Romania has brought to them in the past few years.

The atmosphere of the banquet was very warm, and everyone drank a little too much. Harold went to bed early, and he still needed to go to Constantinople tomorrow.

After breakfast the next day, he led the caravan to the Port of Venice. At this time, Venice was the largest commercial port on the Apennine Peninsula after land reclamation. Thousands of cargo ships entered and exited the port every day, and it was extremely prosperous.

Harold came to a remote dock. Although it was still early, it was already full of cargo ships, and the ground was full of various commodities. Countless dock laborers were busy moving goods onto the ship. Fortunately, at the banquet last night, several businessmen agreed to set off for Constantinople together today. They had already booked a cargo ship and found laborers. Harold hurriedly asked the laborers to move their wooden boxes of textiles to the warehouse at the dock one by one, and then the laborer's foreman took him into the warehouse.

In the center of this huge room filled with goods was the office of the Venetian port officials at the dock. After confirming the types and quantities of goods Harold was going to ship out, they asked him to register and sign, and then calculated the value of the entire batch of goods according to the market price, and asked him to pay one-tenth of the exported goods as tax immediately.

There was also a complete set of official measuring tools in the office. The clerk carefully tested the coins and approved his cargo ship to leave the port after confirming that they were correct.

It was almost noon when the goods were loaded on board and the cargo ship left the dock. Harold and his crew were on the largest cargo ship. After the entire fleet left Venice, the wind direction happened to change, and the fleet with sails raised sped as if it had wings. Several merchants were happy, because with the help of the sea breeze, it meant that the fleet could reach Constantinople earlier.

But the helmsmen and lookouts of each cargo ship always maintained a high degree of concentration, and even a little nervous, because since Dalmatia was returned to the control of Rome, this route to Constantinople has been much busier and more lively than before. At such a high speed, you must be especially careful to prevent collisions. Similar accidents happen every year on this route.

And since Romania took control of the area, it has taken many measures to strengthen trade in the past few years, the most important of which is to ensure the convenience of sea routes. For example, cracking down on pirates, each coastal town or city-state must expand and improve its own port, especially to build a lighthouse...

So Harold and his fleet sailed day and night, passing through the entire Adriatic Sea without stopping at the shore, and it only took two days to reach the Peloponnese.

The crew took a short rest in the Peloponnese and continued to sail eastward into the Sea of ​​Marmara. Some people have lived in Dalmatia for several years and have always thought that the prosperous and bustling Port of Venice is the largest port in the world. But when he looked at the coast of Constantinople from the ship, he was stunned because he could not see the coast at all. All he could see from the south to the north were ships. Those densely packed masts turned this place into a lush forest.

Due to the surge in Constantinople's trade in recent years, ships from all over the Mediterranean have come here to trade, and the originally deserted Golden Horn is now crowded with ships. In order to restore order, the Ministry of Commerce classified all imported and exported goods, and each major category of goods corresponded to a port, which greatly improved management efficiency.

Since Harold and several other merchants sold different goods, everyone waved goodbye here and each took their merchant ships full of their goods to the corresponding port.