open sea

Chapter 426 Arrears
This time, the Spanish court physician did not dare to mention bloodletting.

King Philip is still not over fifty, otherwise Salcedo's death letter alone would piss him off. Even so, the doctor's goal was achieved by rushing to the heart and fainting from anger.

His Royal Highness's mood was much calmer.

The reason for his irascibility comes from the fear that the huge empire will fall apart and that he will soon lose his land.

Now he doesn't need to worry - the Philippine Islands were taken away by a Ming general named Chen Mu, and he really lost his land!

"Wouldn't it be bad enough to reach Spain without the Manila Galleon via Mexico?"

Philip was lying on the bed, and the Genoa velvet blanket brought him an excellent sense of comfort. Looking at the portrait of himself when he was young hanging on the wall, during the brief enjoyment, he thought of the debt he had not paid to the painter Titian, and felt annoyed. close your eyes.

European velvets are different from large velvets.

China's velvet refers to piled silk fabrics, such as the earliest velvet brocade in the Han Dynasty, the velvet back brocade and velvet yarn in the Southern Song Dynasty, and now the velvet of the Ming Dynasty refers to velvet, which is a silk fabric developed on the basis of the brocade in the Yuan Dynasty. .

The appearance of Western velvet was during the First Crusades. They brought fine cloth, canopy, brocade, plain spinning, twill five-color silk satin, velvet, silk, and satin from Central Asia back to Europe, and they were very popular.

Later, as the war progressed, Europeans got skilled weavers, and mature textile centers gradually appeared in Italy and Avignon, and Genoa velvet became a specialty product, but Genoa velvet is not a silk fabric, it is a fabric that originated in Egypt. Craft made cotton wool.

"I don't want the Philippines, is it okay? He actually said that I owe him 260 tons of silver?"

Mr. Philip has a big chin and a little bit of coverage, and he looks like a bearded and bald man with a successful growth. At this time, he showed a contemptuous look to the palace adviser, and said sarcastically: "Idiot far away on the other side of the ocean, why do you want to be a fool?" Think I need Manila and be willing to redeem the Philippines for 260 tons of silver?"

The palace adviser stood upright and said expressionlessly: "His Royal Highness, we really need Manila. The Philippines is a necessary place to buy large quantities of goods. If you mortgage the business route to the banker, you will be able to form an army to suppress Ned. Lan and those who sent troops to France..."

For Spain, which wants to rule the world, every year is an eventful year. The French King Charles IX has just passed away. This is an opportunity for Philip II to firmly seize the opportunities of Sharenzo, Toulon, and Marseille.

Although this is difficult in terms of law, it doesn't matter. As a human being, the most important thing is the spirit of contract. Based on the principle of complete equality and voluntariness, when soldiers come to the city, they will be willing to sign a treaty and accept rule.

Philip didn't move too much, he just raised one hand, pointed the palm upwards to the court adviser in a very aristocratic manner, and said, "In that case, I trouble you to get 260 tons of silver and give it to that man named Chen Mu." Well, as a king, I will write a letter, and I will also ask the Pope to write a letter and conclude a contract, as long as you get the silver, it will not be a problem."

Of course, this was just a joke, Philip shook his head slightly, and said: "I want to report, all means of obtaining information, collecting all the letters that Manila sent to Madrid in the past, I want a report, what do they believe in, what they own, what they eat What to use, summon consultants, and give me a report analyzing the Ming Dynasty."

As he said that, he lifted the velvet quilt, and while wearing the silk stockings of this era, that is, pantyhose, he said: "Let the Chancellor of the Exchequer count all my arrears, and he will prepare new loans and tell everyone that we The land of ... was attacked!"

"Uh... Actually, Your Royal Highness, the Governor General of Mexico has already sent troops to attack Chen Mu."

Philip's black shirt hadn't been buttoned yet. Hearing this, he froze and turned his head and blinked his eyes. The Viceroyalty under the control of the Governor of Mexico includes the Philippines, and he does have such power.

but.

"Great, great. Those goddamn English protesters attacking my fleet at sea, Dutch rebels calling themselves partisans attacking my soldiers on land, heretics from Constantinople taking Tunisia, As if my troubles weren't enough." Philip's eyes widened, "My governor is now declaring war on a country five thousand miles away!"

Although Philip has the legal principles of the king of England and Ireland on his head, his wife who has the same belief as him, known as Bloody Mary, has passed away long ago. The current Queen of England is Elizabeth who supports Protestantism.

Mr. Philip failed to propose marriage to Elizabeth, and the Protestants in England attacked their fleet at sea.

Due to the lack of natural resources in the handicraft-developed Netherlands, people engage in commercial activities to earn money from all over the world, making the Netherlands one of the wealthiest regions in Europe and Philip’s main taxpayer, but now many people in the Netherlands are fighting for it. independent.

Philip was also thinking of taking this opportunity to get rid of all his creditors in the Netherlands.

Plus his enemies are the mighty Ottoman Empire.

When did the Spanish Empire begin to decline?There is no doubt that even now, before the construction of the fleet called the Great and Lucky Navy, known by others as the Armada, the Spanish Empire has ended its golden years of continuous rise amid internal and external troubles and never-ending wars .

In fact, Philip knew better than his chancellor how much he owed, and that figure was more than 6000 million ducats.

Each ducat weighs 210 grams, which is close to pure gold. In other words, his arrears are as high as [-] three tons of gold.

The exchange rate between gold and silver is much higher in Spain, but even so, the arrears requested by Chen Mu are very exaggerated, fully [-]% of Mr. Philip's arrears over the years, which is higher than his interest.

The principal of his debt is not important, because half of the taxes are mortgaged to the creditor, not to mention the silver mines and other assets in America are mortgaged, so he can only pay the interest, but now the interest is almost repaid , There is actually one more enemy.

Being able to quietly eliminate the Philippine Governor, this in itself means that the enemy has not weak strength.

Philip scratched his chin when he summoned the court ministers, and finally decided to cancel the meeting temporarily, and summoned several ministers alone.

Needless to say, Philip now kind of hopes that the army sent by the Governor of Mexico to the Ming Dynasty will be defeated.

If there is no war, the Philippines can't be called a treasure land. Once it goes to war with Ming, it will become a quagmire, dragging down its military and financial resources... He doesn't think Spain can dispatch partial forces to attack Ming.

In this way, losing the Philippines is not a bad thing, and it may be a good thing.

"I'm going to send a fleet to the Philippines to negotiate with Ming general Chen Mu. Maybe he is an opportunity to reverse the royal family's finances. Ming, Madrid, England, Netherlands..."

Philip believes that there is an inevitable connection among them.

　Good morning!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)