Chapter 444 "Southern Thousand Valley Free Trade Agreement"
Of course, it is impossible for Horn to directly agree to the proposals of Gigannon and Cassani.
He just excused himself by saying "the boss is often empty-handed", and then held a cardinal meeting the next day and began to discuss the matter with several cardinals.
The merchants and citizens within the Salvation Army naturally welcome the assistance of the French people.
When the economy is prosperous, it is necessary for people like them to exist. Otherwise, they can only beg for mercy and receive military orders from the Salvation Army.
Even some military forces are welcome. If they want to defeat Prince Condai, they need more sophisticated weapons and more soldiers.
Because they know that the army costs a lot, it would be good if the French could add some.
There are also a group of people who believe that the French people will slowly infiltrate the Salvation Army, causing everyone to be short-tongued and merciless.
Of course, most people are die-hard royalists. They will support whatever Horn supports. Anyway, Horn is right.
This is the sequelae of Horn's long and hard-earned journey. Many Salvation Army members and veterans have this mentality.
They didn't have much knowledge to begin with, and they didn't have the habit of independent thinking. Anyway, they just followed Shengsun.
Since Horn has the final say, most of the participants in these cardinal meetings can only play the role of political advisors, and the final decision must be made by Horn himself.
After three consecutive days of meetings, summoning several bankers and obtaining the information collected by Armand, Horn finally made up his mind.
The agreement of the Kingdom of France is a sugar-coated cannonball. Horn is temporarily unable to swallow the sugar-coated cannonball and fire it back, but at least he can spit it out.
But if you want to do this, you must make a fuss about the agreement between the two parties.
On the fourth day of the meeting, Horn finally summoned Cassani and began the twelve-hour agreement signing process.
In the small study room, several people were at each other's throats, coming and going.
Every time Cassani proposed a plan, Horn said, "It's a good plan, but I want to make some changes." Then the plan was changed beyond recognition.
The voided support agreement was stacked as thick as bricks, even forcing Cassani to leave the meeting several times, wondering whether Horne came with sincerity.
In the end, he was relieved. After all, this is how diplomacy works, everyone has their own master. If it is signed quickly and conveniently, then there is a high probability that there will only be a surrender letter.
As the candles began to sway, Cassani, Giganon and the others, who were exhausted for the Kingdom of France, finally couldn't bear it any longer.
They went to another small room for a small meeting and finally reached a consensus on the plan proposed by Horn.
The draft of the "Minami Qianhe Valley Free Trade Agreement" was released in full swing. Of course, this only finalized the general scope.
Specific figures, such as tariffs on different goods, specific arrival of support funds, etc., need to be discussed later.
But the signing process of the agreement was finally over. Seeing that Horn did not continue to agree that it was a "good strategy", several French ambassadors finally breathed a sigh of relief.
On the surface, this trade agreement is a private trade treaty signed by merchants from the three counties of the Southern Thousand Valley (Langsand County, Lower River County, and Kasha County) and the Royal Chamber of Commerce of the Kingdom of France.
Qianhe River Valley was originally considered the core territory of the Church, especially the Church of Laia. This kind of private trade treaty would have been disturbed in the past.
But now, in the Southern Qianhe River Valley Church, except for the two townships in the northwest of Kasha County and the northern part of Upper River, the remaining local churches have basically been wiped out.
And among the three counties, Kasha County even borders the Kingdom of France. Although the border area happens to be the remaining area of the church's influence, they do not dare to attack the French people again.
Currently, one king and two justices in the Kingdom of Leia are fighting a civil war. They took action, but no one came to protect them.
"Don't leave yet. I've just asked the kitchen to make some hot soup and roasted Saint-Sun duck, which can be used as a midnight snack." Catherine looked at Horne who was doing the finishing work with Gigannon, and faced several Franks. The messenger smiled.
The sloppy Kasani immediately straightened his back and even his stomach growled in time: "What is the roasted Saint-Sun duck?"
For Hua, who is naturally good at eating food. For French people who are accustomed to French culture, they are as curious about new food and new clothes as they are about new territories.
“This is a roast duck developed by your Majesty yourself. It is brushed with maltose, air-dried for half a day, and then baked with fruit wood in a brick oven. You should use honey and red bread sauce when eating. You are very particular about it.”
"Red bread sauce, I haven't eaten this before." He had been hungry all day, but when Catherine said this, Cassani's mouth watered.
If he hadn't signed an agreement before, he would definitely not do anything to avoid delaying the important matter.
But now that everything is done, the laziness is coming back again. If the roast duck is delicious and the wine is delicious, so what if I give a little profit.
"Gigannon, stop looking, you are just like a Leian, you are so stingy."
Took Gigannon's position and was bored to death by this day's deliberations. Cassani picked up the agreement: "Sir Horn, let's read the main agreement first. If it's almost right, I'll send the agreement."
Horn, who was still confirming everything one by one, put it down. The pen in hand: "This is better, just read it." "First, during the signing of the trade agreement, the French promised to refuse to accept any proposal to jointly attack the Thousand Valleys with other countries."
"Agree." This is an announcement to the empire that we, the French, are covering the three counties of the Salvation Army.
"Second, the Marigold Chamber of Commerce will subscribe for jihad bonds worth 50,000 gold pounds from the Megdi Chamber of Commerce in multiple batches within one year. As for the interest rate, I heard that your interest rate is 10% ?”
“Yes.” Horn nodded, speaking bluntly.
Katherine immediately added: "But those are bonds for preparing for the war. For this new foreign bond, we will have someone to calculate the specific interest rate..."
"No need to forget it, let's calculate it at 4%. The wealthy French people will look down on this interest dividend." Cassani waved his hand carelessly.
The 4% interest rate is considered an almost interest-free loan in this empire where usury is common.
"Third, the Megdi Chamber of Commerce and the Royal Chamber of Commerce of France will jointly establish a Franchise Valley Investment Bank and issue bonds.
We will call on the citizens and nobles of France to buy the bank The bank pays interest every year on the bonds.
But we don’t guarantee how many people will buy them, so one-third of the jihadi bonds we buy need to be injected into investment banks as shares.”
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"Agreed."
This bank and the Marigold Chamber of Commerce are the channels through which the French people provide support to Horn. They are mainly composed of several local French Chamber of Commerce in the Thousand River Valley.
Through this investment bank, there will be a steady stream of funds flowing into the Redeemer Papal Kingdom from the rich Kingdom of France.
“Fourth, France will move a group of immigrants, including unemployed and bankrupt craftsmen, citizens who believe in heresy and heresy, laborers without pants who were exiled by the French king, and a dozen people with radical opinions or duels to kill people. The number of college students who have to go out to avoid the limelight is about 10,000, and they will enter in five or six batches, mainly trousers and bankrupt craftsmen.
These people, the Thousand Valley Investment Bank, will invest money for them to build local workshops, and they will open shops within the territory of the Redeemer Papal Kingdom, and open the border to allow French immigrants to enter. "
"Agree, but their identity can no longer be French, but locals, and they must be entered in the household registration register. "
"Acceptable. "Cassani picked up the pen and made two strokes, "But you can't force them to naturalize. "
"Of course not. "
"Well, the fifth secret clause is that if the Salvation Army expels the Church of the Thousand Valleys, it will join the market of the Kingdom of France. The two parties will negotiate a unified tariff and declare friendly relations with each other. It is best to It's a marriage. ”
"Everything else is fine, but marriage is probably not possible. I am the Pope and cannot marry and have children."
"What are you afraid of?" Cassani looked at Horne in surprise. He didn't expect him to be so innocent in this matter. , "Which pope doesn't have a lot of illegitimate children? Just give her the identity of the first mistress, there are people who are here to catch up."
"Let's see when the time comes, and don't discuss things that haven't happened yet. "Horn rubbed his temples, really unwilling to continue discussing this topic.
After both parties read the last few details, such as delivery time, the principle of mutual respect, etc., the "Agreement" is completely finalized.
As long as Montyac agrees, he can sign directly.
"On the day of signing, we will make a one-time subscription of 8,000 gold pounds, of which 2,000 gold pounds will be used as half-breastplates and one-handed weapons. Remember to send your drawings of armor and swords to the villa where I live."
In order to prevent being recognized, Cassani still had to do some face work.
Otherwise, when the Salvation Army goes to the battlefield wearing the flange-style half-body armor, even fools in Laiya will know that it is the flange who is causing trouble.
Although they can guess it now, they have no evidence. The standard armor is a bit too much.
Cassani looked at the monk who was re-copying, smiled and asked Horn: "I'll ask one last time, are you sure you don't allow the Chamber of Commerce to enter directly? They are willing to provide you with more than 2 A donation of 10,000 gold pounds will give you a personal income of 900 gold pounds every year.”
"Of course I am willing to have large and small chambers of commerce move in, but that will have to wait until the Salvation Army completely defeats the Thousand Valley Church and becomes independent. At that time, I will establish a stock exchange to ensure that you make a lot of money."
" I'm waiting for that day."
After confirming the signing of the agreement, Gigannon hurriedly went to Montyac with the draft agreement.
Before he left, he left Horn with a piece of good news, that is, it was confirmed that Prince Condai had returned to Feiliu Castle with his troops.
This means that the situation has basically stabilized.
After many days of fighting, many soldiers were tired and homesick. Just as the nobles in Gouhu Township were almost cleared, Horn was ready to return to Fort Joan of Arc.
In mid-August, more than a dozen officers were left to train and recruit local soldiers. Horn and two regiments took the first batch of 2,000 immigrants and headed for Happy Hometown.
(End of this chapter)