Chapter 46: Worthy of being the Merchant of Venice (continued)
I have to admit that when you are collecting property in a strange land, having a functioning and efficient government organization do it for you is definitely better than the time-travelers themselves wandering around in a ruins full of rotting corpses. It is much easier to steal people and money by luck.
Although the quantity of gold, silver and jewelry that Venetians can provide is not satisfactory, there are still many other valuable things after all.
The first is the wood accumulated in the Venetian state-built shipyard - tens of thousands of tons of high-quality beech and oak, as well as some more valuable apple wood and walnut. At this time, Europe was sparsely populated and had high forest coverage, so these natural woods were not very valuable. And Venice is the overlord of most of the Mediterranean. Just to meet the huge consumption of ship building and repair every year, it must always stockpile a large amount of wood for use.
At present, due to the invasion of the Black Death, most of the shipbuilding craftsmen who lived in dense environments and poor sanitary conditions died in one breath, and the hoarded wood became waste for a while. In addition, many newly completed ships have become unmanned and can only lie on the dock waiting to rot and rust. They are simply offered to the "angels" as favors - these lumber and ships were finally pawned for about six billion yen.
Secondly, there are poultry, meat livestock and horses collected from nearby villages. As a prosperous city with a luxurious living standard, Venice consumes a large amount of fresh meat, dairy products and eggs every day. In the villages near the city, Naturally, non-staple food supply farms of corresponding scale will emerge spontaneously. Now that half of the people in the city have died from the plague, the remaining people are in panic all day long and have no intention of feasting. Therefore, these backlogs of agricultural products can be used to pay off the bills: as green and pollution-free organic food, these things can be sold in the modern world The price is pretty good.
Although Venice is a water city that uses boats instead of cars, and there is basically no place to ride horses, the territory of the Republic of Venice is not just an island city, but also has a large traditional land in the Po River Plain in northern Italy, also known as "Veneto", plus a later Croatian name A large area of land was called "Dalmatia" at the time, so it was still necessary to raise a certain number of horses. Therefore, like other European countries, many wealthy families in Venice also had their own carriages and mounts. In addition, the government There is also a limited cavalry force. Although due to the impact of the Black Death, many horses have lacked care in recent times and many have died of starvation and disease, if the government ordered the remaining horses to be gathered together, there would definitely be one or two thousand. In addition, some donkeys could be collected... put together, they actually collected another 300 million yen.
Then there are the high-grade stones such as marble and alabaster used in building luxury houses. At the moment, the whole city of Venice is full of uninhabited haunted houses. Only the tombs are selling hotly, and there is no market for building houses. As for export orders to other city-states... During the Black Death era, almost all cities in Europe had more dead people than living people. The urban space vacated by the dead would have to be multiplied by the living to fill it. If the country is full, no one will be willing to build new houses in at least ten years. Where will there be any demand for construction industry?
But even so, the wealth that the time travelers can collect in the Republic of Venice is still far away from the expected goal of 10 billion yen. In the end, even Professor Guo, who had full confidence in the wealth of Venice, had to admit that his judgment was wrong - the Republic of Venice in the fourteenth century was indeed very wealthy, and it could indeed afford a million dollars worth in this era. Carter's property... But the problem is that in this era, property worth one million ducats may not be exchanged for 10 billion yen in the modern world:
In fact, Doraemon only raised about 4 billion yen in Venice despite all his calculations...
"...Tsk, tsk, in this case, it will only be enough to pay off next month's loan interest, and then repay the debt principal of 10 billion..."
Doraemon pouted and settled the accounts, while sighing and saying, "...and the 500 million yen we borrowed from Kazuki Koizumi's 'organization' before, we can't continue to be in arrears... Although it can be done like this." Not bad, but...hey, let’s keep trying!”
——For the vast majority of debtors in the world, when debts pile up, they are likely to become discouraged and desperate, without any motivation to earn money to pay off debts. But when there is only a little bit of debt left, the desire to be "debt-free" often leads to an astonishing amount of action... At this time, Doraemon happens to be in the background. a state.
How difficult it is. In the past nights when he was in debt, Doraemon would wake up from nightmares almost every day, thinking that he was being sent to a waste robot dismantling factory to pay off his debts. But after waking up, he was awakened by nightmares. The headache of astronomical debt and interest accruing every month.
Walking on this road of debt repayment with no end in sight, he was weighed down by the heavy debt and almost lost all his integrity, and even polished off his innocent and kind nature. Sometimes when he looked back, he felt that he had become different. In the past, he was almost mentally ill... Now that relief seems to be not far away, Doraemon naturally wants to fight hard to get rid of this nightmare that has been bothering him for many days. .
In order to make more money, the time-travelers took the initiative to help the Venetians withdraw foreign funds - opening [arbitrary doors] to various Venetian business stores abroad, and then asked Governor Andre to lead a group of high-ranking officials in a menacing manner He rushed over and ordered those expatriates to quickly hand over all the working capital and valuable goods on hand to pay the angel... After a lot of The war of words frightened a large group of expatriate Venetian businessmen, soldiers and diplomats, and they used the [Random Door] to go back and forth countless times. Even the poor Governor Andre was regarded as a "phantom of the devil" After being splashed with holy water several times, the time travelers finally received more than 700 million yen, plus a series of unexpected bonus points:
"...spread the Black Death to London early and get 500 bonus points..."
"...spread the Black Death to Hamburg early and get 200 bonus points..."
"...spread the Black Death to the Netherlands in advance and get 500 reward points..."
"...spread the Black Death to Oslo early and get 300 reward points..."
"...spread the Black Death to Copenhagen early and get 500 reward points..."
"...spread the Black Death to Danzig Port in advance and get 100 reward points..."
……
When classmate Wang Qiu accidentally noticed this problem, he finally remembered that the area under his feet still seemed to be a plague area that needed to be isolated, so he should ask the Doge of Venice and others to disinfect themselves first, and then go through the [Random Door] to the opposite side to do errands. , everything is too late...
——Many people who could have lived in peace for another year or two before encountering the catastrophe of the Black Death now had to bear the scourge of the disease in advance... Fortunately, during the process of ransacking homes one after another, The "angels" also did not forget to vaccinate all the Venetian merchants and their family members who were sent out to work against the plague. I think they should be able to survive the upcoming outbreak of the Black Death. What's more, these places would have been devoured by the Black Death one after another, and no one could escape. Now they are just "slightly" ahead of schedule.
But no matter what, millions or even tens of millions of innocent lives will soon be called by the Lord months to years in advance because of their sins. Wang Qiu and the others have really played the role of the "World-Destroying Demon King" again... eh? Wait, why do you say "again"?
All in all, even after withdrawing most of the overseas investment that could be withdrawn quickly, the money squeezed out by the Venetians is still far from the goals of the time travellers. So, the anxious Doraemon rushed the Venetians to do business to make money. It would be best to collect gold and silver directly!
He first opened the "Random Door" to the Mali Empire, which is rich in gold in West Africa, and asked Venetian merchants to use salt, glass beads, dyed linen and other surplus materials in the Republic's government warehouses to exchange gold with the local black uncle. This business went smoothly at first, because the price of salt sold by Venetians to Uncle Black was much lower than that of Arab merchants who had to use camels to carry salt blocks across the Sahara Desert. Uncle Black in West Africa did not have cotton cloth from Indians. , I don’t think European linen is too rough... so this trade can still be done for a while.
Unfortunately, not long after the business opened, it touched the sensitive nerves of the Arabs who had long monopolized this golden trade route. Soon many aggressive Muslim businessmen came from nowhere, holding scimitars and crossbows to teach them. How do these European guys behave... Doraemon originally planned to use a lightning storm to beat all these troublemakers to ashes, but Venice People begged Doraemon to stop and retreat - it turned out that these Arab merchants were also regular patrons of the Venetians. They used to do transshipment business at both ends of the Sahara Desert and purchase goods from the Venetian merchant fleet at ports along the Mediterranean coast. Then load up the camels and transport them to Uncle Hei's territory in the south... Now it's enough to take advantage of the other party's inattention. If you really start a fight over this bit of gold, break the rules and hurt the harmony, then what should you do with your business every year in the future?
In this way, the travelers and Venetian merchants ended their business in West Africa in despair with less than fifty pounds of gold, and then reopened the [Random Door] to the Mayapan Kingdom in Central America (the last famous large-scale empire in history). Mayan city-states, still existing at this time), attempted to obtain the gold of the Americas— -Although this Mayapan city-state is not the same Mayan kingdom that Doraemon's five-person team visited in the big adventure, the language and customs are still relatively similar. Doraemon just used a few "magic" skills familiarly. "Traces", they were regarded as honored guests by the Mayans and entertained them hospitably...
But when it came time to raise money, trouble came again - these Mayans were completely in the Stone Age and had almost no gold or silver! Although there is a bit of jade, the texture is very rough, and the Mayans regard them very dearly, and Doraemon is too embarrassed to force them to take them out.
In fact, there are no decent metal minerals in the entire Mayan civilization area, let alone gold and silver mines. The currencies they traded were cocoa beans, obsidian and shells, and they treated a few shiny pieces of pyrite as rare treasures... In the end, the travelers returned empty-handed and disappointed, but the Venetians were eye-opening. Later, I brought back a lot of American specialties such as corn, pumpkins, peppers, and tropical fruits.
Next, Doraemon finally found the right place and opened the [Random Door] to the foot of the Andes Mountains in South America, the real land rich in gold and silver in America, on the territory of the future Inca Empire, and was delighted to see, Many of the local indigenous people wear gold and silver... However, After using things like glass beads, knives, iron axes, and cloth, I exchanged more than a dozen gold earrings, gold bracelets, and small gold ingots with the local aborigines. The time travelers discovered another problem: they came too early!
——Indeed, there are many gold, silver and copper mines scattered in the Andes Mountains, and they have been exploited in large quantities in prehistoric times. But at this point in time, the Inca Empire has not yet been born, and the gold in the Andes has not been concentrated in a "great capital". If you want to collect a lot of gold and silver, you have to go one tribe after another, one tribe after another. Village after village, countless transactions must be carried out... Although the Venetian merchants must have this patience, the time travelers, Doraemon to be precise, can't wait.
So, after dragging back a few wretched-looking alpacas (grass-mud horses) from the Andes, the doge of Venice, Andrea, who had been traveling around the world, had been in good temper and allowed himself to be ordered around by the travelers. Dandolo finally revealed his real plan with a smile: "... Lord Angels, if you just want to collect gold and silver, why bother looking far away? Although there are not many gold and silver currencies in European cities, But if collected together, one million ducats can be collected no matter what. And these cities are now trembling in the face of the plague, eager and looking forward to your salvation. ——As long as the noble angels grant us the status of a plenipotentiary agent, let our messengers come forward on our behalf to negotiate the price of 'salvation' with various cities and kingdoms, and then continue to borrow that wonderful door that can lead to all parts of the world. We use it to prevent our envoys from being delayed during their journey, and then there will surely be good news coming soon..."