Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 1740 Loans

The port of Cadiz, Spain, mid-December 1676.

Sufficient rains for three consecutive years have brought great benefits to Spanish agriculture. The reservoirs in traditional agricultural areas such as Andalusia and Granada, which were gradually drying up, have been filled again, and agricultural production has been restored to a certain extent. Gradually increasing, which can be seen from the decrease in food imports for three consecutive years.

Of course, Spain's agriculture has only partially recovered.The large-scale farmland water conservancy facilities left over from the Moorish era gradually deteriorated during the Castilian rule, although the Spanish government also restored it vigorously, and carried out several rounds of agricultural infrastructure in Andalusia, Granada and other places. Investment, but to be honest, it is still far inferior to that of the Moors, which is doomed that their food production will never be able to return to the peak period of the year.

I don't know if the nobles in Madrid regretted that after witnessing this situation, they expelled Moors and Jews in batches that amounted to one-fifth of the country's population.Most of these people were later absorbed by the Ottoman Empire, which greatly enriched the empire's agricultural population, commercial talents, and technician reserves, and played an inestimable role in the development of the country's economy.Of course, we all know that in the kingdom of Spain where religion is in charge, it is acceptable to expel anyone who does not conform to their ideology.

Well, let's talk about agricultural production again.These three consecutive years of grain harvests (of course, relatively speaking, the Spaniards still need to import part of the grain, although the gap is already very small), greatly slowed down the outflow of precious metals and eased the financial difficulties of the Kingdom of Spain , which made Spain greatly relieved.Originally they worried that successive years of poor harvests and the heavy burden of war would have a catastrophic impact on the country, but now it seems that they will not.

But excessive optimism should not exist. This is the cognition of Li Qing who left the Crimean Khanate and returned to the office in Cadiz Port in mid-December.The Kingdom of Spain is now mired in the quagmire of war, but the palace expenses and other unnecessary expenses are very huge, which has caused great financial difficulties.Coupled with the heavy financial burden caused by past debts, it can be said that the Spaniards' finances are on the verge of collapse every year. The gold and silver they get from New Spain and Peru are often only enough for the Dutch. The interest and a very small part of the principal of the debt repayment show the degree of financial difficulty.

In fact, the Franco-Dutch war has become such a big scene now. The Kingdom of Spain is willing to join the war and declare war on France. In addition to the persuasion of relatives the Kingdom of Austria and its own desire to avenge its shame, the Dutch promised to forgive a considerable part of the historical debt principal and interest. It is also a very important reason.These old debts owed by Philip IV decades ago have tortured the Habsburg family for two generations, and they have been unable to pay off the principal and interest of the arrears.This time the Prince of Orange mobilized various relationships to coordinate the interests of domestic bankers and businessmen, and removed this part of the debt burden from the Spaniards. The Spaniards were still greatly relieved.

However, they may have underestimated the intensity and length of the war, which made their already tight financial situation worse.Although the Dutch allocated an additional aid of more than 200 million guilders at the beginning of this year, this amount of money disappeared after only a splash, because the Spanish navy and army, which numbered more than [-], The cost is huge, and this amount of money will not last long, unless they immediately negotiate a unilateral peace with the French and then disband at least half of the army. This is the only way to save the finances.

Of course the Spaniards can't do that now because the war is still going on.As a last resort, they could only find people from the east coast and ask for further financial assistance. This is one of the main reasons why Li Qing returned to Cadiz urgently from the Black Sea.But at present, it seems that he will not be able to play a big role when he comes back. The East Bank is still engaged in infrastructure construction in the country, and the government is heavily in debt and owes a lot of money; In the past two years, they have been withdrawn in batches, and the funds that can be used for their own use are very small, especially for the trading stations located in Kaffa and Haji. In the past two years, I don’t know how much they spent to buy slaves from Poland and Ukraine. At present The Venetian has already been asked for help—since the end of last year, the Venetian Circulation Bank and the newly established Bank of Rialto Square have provided credit support of more than 100 million ducats to the above-mentioned two commercial stations, so that they can eat a large amount of money. slave.

Such a large amount of money, to be honest, once it is used up, I don't know how to repay it.Fortunately, the annual interest rate of the loan provided by Venetian is only 4%, which is an absolute price of conscience, and the term is very long, so there is no danger of being chased behind to collect debts for the time being.The big deal is that in the future, part of the cash will be repaid, part of the material will be offset, and then some land will be granted to others for free on Xinhua Island for 50 years. It should be able to barely repay the principal and interest, and this should also be a payment that the Venetians prefer. Way.

Therefore, how can it be possible to spend a large sum of money to support the Spaniards when the people on the east coast are very short of money?What's more, they can't even provide much materials, because it is obvious that the production of these materials also requires money, and the people on the east coast are very short of money now, and all production plans have been planned, and it is impossible to change them at will.Therefore, after much deliberation, Special Envoy Li Qing still found Paul of the Doria family today to discuss with him and see if he could raise a loan from the "magic" Italian businessman.

"The situation in Italy is very complicated now. The French army has invaded Sicily for the second time. This time the scale has increased slightly compared with the last time, and the total number probably exceeds 3000. King Carlos has ordered the Naples army to cross the sea to Sicily and fight with them. The army of the local nobles united to expel the French invaders. As you know, there are many big families in Genoa who run manors in Sicily and make profits from growing grain and sugar cane. In this war, everyone suffered a lot. Even the source of food is quite insufficient, so the government has issued two bonds to raise funds for the Fengyu Office to import more grain from Crimea and Egypt.” Paul Doria complained a lot when he came up.

Recently, he has been managing the family business in the port of Cadiz. Thanks to the people on the east coast, although the Caribbean Sea has become a pot of porridge recently, the import channels have been dispersed-the family not only ships directly from the New World, but also from Canada. There are also products that are directly produced in the Xinhua Island plantation—the business of the Doria family has not been greatly affected, and they can still supply relatively stable supplies to lower-level wholesalers. A little nervous, but much better than others.Therefore, the relationship between families like them and Dong An is very close. If it is not an issue involving major interests, they will not hide anything from Dong An. Therefore, Paul said this, and Li Qing also agreed. I listened carefully.

"So, a lot of domestic idle funds have been invested in public bonds issued by the government, and in the first half of this year, they also raised 800 million bank lire for Vienna. Now the funds are a bit difficult." Paul Doria finished. After doing this, she looked at Li Qing and said: "The Spanish royal family still owes us a huge loan of more than 6000 million lire to our Genoese merchant group. If we provide them with financing, many people may not be willing, because the risk is really high. Too high."

"This can't work. Spain is very difficult now. The Southern Netherlands, Frans Comte, Lorraine, and Sicily are fighting everywhere. Even in the Pyrenees near the mainland, their army has just eaten A defeat. Coupled with the fact that the navy is still attacking from time to time to meet the French's Eastern Fleet, this loss is not ordinary. The Dutch have already forgiven many of their debts and agreed to a large number of debts that will expire in the next few years Debt rollover may temporarily suspend interest calculation, but this still cannot fundamentally solve the financial problems of the Spaniards. They now urgently need a new injection of funds to maintain their recovery of Sicily, Franche-Comte, and Billy. The defense line of the Niusi Mountains." After hearing this, Li Qing immediately stopped Paul Doria's next complaint, and said in a slightly serious tone: "Listen, Paul, we can't let the Kingdom of Spain fall, no matter what. No. They now need money to continue the war, and if the financial aspect cannot be guaranteed, then there will be unpredictable situations, which is anyone’s guess.”

Speaking of this, Li Qing asked the secretary to bring herself a hand-drawn map of Western Europe, pointing to the various countries on it and said: "Louis XIV is a very ambitious monarch, and he never forgets to expand the territory of the Kingdom of France. See Look at this war. After they lost their best chance to march into Amsterdam a few years ago, they have stagnated before the Meuse River, and there is a high probability that they will not be able to make a breakthrough, even if Prince Condé leads the army. East Facing Franche-Comté and Alsace-Lorraine, the princes of the Holy Roman Empire are very afraid of them, and Austria is ready to chop back at the claws of the French expansion at any time. Look at the south, tsk tsk, Savoy, Italy, such a big piece of fat, seems to be easy to fight, and Italy has always been very rich. Guess if Louis XIV's expansion in the northeast and due east is hindered, will he send his troops south to occupy the rich Italy? North? Paul, you can see now how important it is to have a Spanish Kingdom that maintains certain strength and is full of hatred for France?"

"When King François I of France occupied Italy in the last century, the tragic situation of the major merchant groups in Genoa and Milan, I think there must be many records in the family documents? How much money was stolen by others? Was arrested How many people? No, Paul, don't think that this situation will not happen again. The Kingdom of France has had two or three years of bad harvests because of the heavy rains during the autumn harvest. Although they have more than 2000 million people to provide wealth to the monarch, the war still continues. Drained their treasury dry, not to mention that Louis XIV is a spendthrift and building-loving monarch, I think he may be very interested in a rich Italy. It's time for the United Provinces to make peace with France, Austria to withdraw from the war, and Spain to submit , I don’t think Genoa, Milan, Parma, Tuscany, Lucca, Venice, or Pisa can’t be alone? Are you willing to put another ruler on your head who treats you as pigs and sheep?” Li Qing put down the map, looked at Paul Doria with pity, and said, "It's time to make a decision, Paul! Spain cannot fall, no matter what! Now take my words back to Italy, and the fastest Raise at least 2000 million liras in bank loans at a speed of at least 8 million lire, the interest rate is random, preferably not more than 12%, Spain can't hold on for too long. Don't look at me with that look, I know that many of the interest rates you lend to the Spaniards are 15%, 20%, the Dutch even borrowed at an interest rate of [-]% (to be honest, the Dutch never thought that the Spaniards would pay back the principal for loans at this interest rate, and the interest would be paid forever), but this time it is not Similarly, the Spaniards are short on funds, and the interest really cannot be too heavy, so we can provide a certain degree of guarantee for this.”

This is what Li Qing said. Naturally, Paul Doria can no longer evade this. Besides, what he said is true. Italy is indeed one of the expansion directions of the French.Once Louis XIV is blocked in the other two directions, it is difficult to guarantee that he will not change the main direction of attack and target Italy. Who will rescue them at that time?

It’s just that the truth is true, but 2000 million lire is a huge sum of money. Even the well-known St. George’s Firm cannot raise it in a short time, and it still depends on everyone to share it—the basic form of operation is, The governments of Genoa, Tuscany, Milan and other countries issued Spanish war bonds, which were then contracted by major merchant families and banks in the country. Anyway, retail investors have no interest in and cannot buy such high-risk bonds. Yes, although the East Coast people have agreed to provide guarantee, but what the guarantee is and the extent of the guarantee are still unknown.

"Can't we persuade the Kingdom of Spain to stop losses in time and sign a peace treaty with Paris?" Paul Doria suddenly asked again.

"No, the Paris side disagrees." Li Qing replied: "In addition, those gentlemen from the Madrid court and the Privy Council still don't know themselves very well, and imagine that the Dutch and Austrians will fight to the end with them. Neither. In fact, they just rejected an attempt by us to mediate in peace."

(End of this chapter)