Chapter 2162： Pressure

When I heard that I was going to pay, the princes looked like concubines, and their faces were extremely ugly. Although there are many princes in the German region, most of the economic conditions are very poor. After all, the climate in most parts of Germany is not good. The southern regions with good weather are mostly mountainous. As a result, the princes' territories are not very productive, and everyone has no money.

In addition, the longer the family inheritance, the more prosperous the family, the worse the economic conditions. The simple reason is that a duke originally owned most of the land in the duke. At this time, his economy is the most affluent.

But the duke has a son, and if there is more than one, the land shall be allocated to the other sons. Then, the land under the name of the next duke was scarce. In the era when there was no universal taxation, less land meant a decrease in fiscal revenue.

Then, for the next generation of dukes, the old duke allocated a lot of land to other sons, and the new duke had even less land... From generation to generation, the duchy’s fiscal revenue became less and less.

Therefore, many European princes encouraged the development of business. Why? Because commercial taxes make them rare tax revenues that can be collected legally. In addition, the collection of road and city entrance taxes on the fiefs was also an important source of financial income for the princes.

Because, if you stick to the land output, many princes will not make ends meet. Even so, everyone tried their best to make money, but most of the princes were still short of money. For example, Ulrich, the former Duke of Württemberg, owed a huge debt of 1 million gold coins. Other princes were not so crazy, but many people owed a lot of debts. You know, generally a German princely country can earn 100,000 gold coins every year, even if it is a strong princely prince. Generally, in many principalities, the annual fiscal revenue is only tens of thousands of gold coins. However, many princes owed huge debts of hundreds of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of gold coins. Then, a lot of the land and income of the princes will be mortgaged to the giant lending merchants. However, there are still very few people who owe 1 million like Ulrich, Duke of Württemberg. Generally speaking, there are very few debts exceeding 500,000 gold coins.

It's not that these princes are forced to count and dare not borrow too much. But if you owe too much money, those financiers are reluctant to continue lending for fear that they will not be able to repay it.

There are many princes in the German region, and there are many debts. Therefore, a group of big financial players have emerged. For example, the Fugger family became the top rich family at the time by lending money.

When everyone has a tight hand, asking them to come up with hundreds of thousands of gold coins is simply killing them! Therefore, the princes were very unhappy.

However, Frederick III, the elector of Saxony, told them the truth of "the mouth is dead and the teeth are cold" (almost that is what it means), and in the end, everyone is reluctant to claim the capital contribution.

Anthony, Duke of Lorraine, claimed the quota of 50,000 gold coins, and yelled with anger:

"Damn it, why is this? Oh, I think of it, it was the **** Marlin. He provided the emperor with 900,000 gold coins, so that the poor ghost of the Habsburg family had money to send troops. All blame Marlin, We should find him to settle the accounts!"

Duke Anthony's words resonated with the princes. It is difficult for everyone to get money, and no one is willing to spend money indiscriminately. It hurts to pledge tens of thousands of gold coins at once. For many vassal states, tens of thousands of gold coins is a year's fiscal revenue. Even many small princes may not have so much income.

Seeing everyone's enthusiasm, it seemed that they wanted to use force against the North Sea country, the elector of Saxony, Frederick III, hurriedly dissuaded:

"Farewell, everyone! The Beihai Nation is not weak. If it irritates them and stands with the Emperor completely, then we are in danger. You should remember that the Beihai Nation has 40,000 legions. And, most of them They are all brave and good fighting veterans. In addition, there are still 20,000 people in Marin over England. If we act on the North Sea country and force him to mobilize all 60,000 people with the emperor, it will be an army of more than 100,000. At that time, Together with the French, we may not be able to beat..."

"What's more, Marin is estimated to be able to give more money. If you give the Emperor hundreds of thousands of Gulden in one anger, I am afraid that our Emperor will be able to pull out an army of 10,000 or 20,000 people... At that time, we It's hard to resist..."

Frederick III saw clearly that although Marin was not with them, he was not with the emperor. After all, Beihai country is also a vassal country after all. If the Habsburg family unifies Germany, the North Sea State will also be annexed.

Therefore, in Frederick III's view, emotionally speaking, Marin was closer to discovering and promoting his Maximilian I. But in terms of interests, Beihai State is actually the same as the princes.

Before, Frederick III even thought about winning over Marin. However, the princes refused to get close to Marin because of prejudice and discrimination against Marin's origin. In addition, Marlin had annexed many princes before, which caused panic and hatred among the princes. Then, between the League of Lords and Marin, it was basically impossible to unite. However, because of its interests, the North Sea country was separated from the anti-Habsburg alliance of the princes and the Habsburg family.

For the princes' anti-Habsburg alliance, they were dissatisfied with Marin, but they did not dare to provoke Marin completely, fearing that he would completely fall to the emperor. Moreover, for the Habsburg family, the feelings of the princes are also very complicated. They actually don’t care who is the emperor, but they do care about the emperor who is currently in power. When he was young, they publicly stated that they wanted to unify Germany and engage in centralization...

Although His Majesty the Emperor later stated many times that it was ignorant and nonsense when he was young, everyone remembered that he was always wary of Maximilian I. If everyone is in peace, they are not willing to target His Majesty the Emperor. But His Majesty the Emperor wants to annex all of Switzerland this time, and everyone is disturbed. Once the Habsburg family becomes truly powerful, it is really possible to annex the entire German...

...

"You can't do nothing, right? Although Marin didn't publicly support His Majesty the Emperor this time, his actions are equivalent to supporting the Habsburg family. If we do nothing, wouldn't it be conniving? If so? Marin will give more support..." Brandenburg elector Joachim I frowned.

He didn't want to start a war against Beihai Country. At the beginning, he was captured by Marin, and he was a little bit ashamed of Beihai Country's combat effectiveness. However, if he did nothing, he was indeed worried that Marin would support the emperor more unscrupulously.

"So, we put pressure on him to prevent him from continuing to support His Majesty the Emperor?" the newly appointed Archbishop of Cologne Hermann V suggested.

"Push pressure? What if we push Marin to the emperor's side? Moreover, our strength may not be able to defeat him. He may not be able to counter us, but he can still block our joint attack." The Duke of Saxony George hesitated.

Duke George was also Marin's defeat, but this man is very complicated. Although Marin took away his West Friesland, he suffered a huge loss. But later, Marin heavily funded him to develop silver mines in the Duchy of Saxony, which made him a fortune.

So, afterwards, George's perception of Marin was not good, but it was not bad. After all, most of the princes of this era, unlike the later Tsarists, were greedy for every inch of land. The reason why George and his father Duke Albrecht competed for West Friesland was not for the land, but for the benefit of the land. After all, they provided the emperor with a loan of 300,000 gold coins.

Later, Marin provided him with financial and technical support for the development of silver mines, so that the annual silver output of the Principality of Saxony soared to about 50,000 kilograms, or 110,000 pounds. Although the average annual output of silver between 1526 and 1535 in history is a bit short, it is also fast. Because, with the expansion of the scale of development, this output must be reached within three years.

Therefore, George, Duke of Saxony, is now rich. After all, 50,000 kilograms of silver is equivalent to 1.17 million gold coins. Excluding development costs and Marlin’s dividends, Duke George’s annual silver mine income exceeds 500,000 gold coins.

Of course, the princes are not very clear. Because, Marin advised him to make a fortune in a muffled voice and not to go out to show off, so as not to be jealous. The silver produced by the Saxon Silver Mine also quietly flowed into the market through Marin's trading houses and the Fugger family.

Therefore, now Duke George and Marin are actually private business partners. The two sides worked together to make a fortune, but on the surface, Duke George was playing Infernal Affairs and was active in the German political arena as the leader of the princes alliance.

Because he is rich, Duke George is now rich and powerful, his voice is particularly loud, and his whole body exudes a confident light. Although he dared not speak for Marin publicly, it was still possible to use the combat power of the North Sea country to scare everyone.

Sure enough, the princes listened to Duke George's words and thought of Marin's invincible battle record, and hesitated...

Frederick III, the elector of Saxony, sighed when he saw this situation. But he was flexible and came up with an idea:

"We are indeed not sure to defeat the North Sea country alone, but what if we add the French?"

"What do you mean? The French are now trying to rescue Switzerland. It is impossible to join us in attacking the North Sea country." Duke George said after a daze.

Frederick III shook his head and said:

"George, you are right. The French really have no time to deal with the North Sea country with us at the moment. But who can tell this? Maybe the French are crazy and are willing to join us to deal with the North Sea country first? "

"Moreover, we don't really want to deal with Beihai Country, but frighten the other side, so that they have scruples and dare not continue to support His Majesty the Emperor."

Anthony, Duke of Lorraine, thought for a while, and said happily:

"Yes, we are not really going to send troops. We just use this possibility to frighten each other. Maybe, we can knock a little bit from Marin's hands..." The words were not finished, because Anthony realized that as a Duke, it's not right to say that. Although this is his real idea.

"Yes, yes, maybe we can knock a fortune from this kid. I don't want anything else, I just want to get a batch of salt from him, but I ask for a 20% discount on the purchase price, hehe..." Bavaria Duke William IV said happily. The Bavarian Principality has a population of four to five million, but because it is deep inland, transportation is inconvenient, and the price of salt is high.

Of course, Bavaria has the Rhine Channel to import salt. However, this trade route is in the hands of some powerful and established chambers of commerce and it is difficult to seize. Later, Marin joined forcefully. Relying on the technology of boiling salt with briquettes, the produced salt has low cost and good quality (mainly filtered out the bittern), which has greatly benefited.

Hundreds of thousands of people in the Principality of Bavaria, even if they get a 20% discount, only get 20% of the profit, the income is considerable. William IV could not control other places, but he was still very authoritative in the Duchy of Bavaria. He wants to monopolize the sales of domestic salt, he only needs to have a stable source of saltI like the spirits of the North Sea country..." The elector of Brandenburg, Joachim I, also opened his eyes. He is a man. People who love wine, like Maozi, like spirits. Of course, it is also very profitable to be able to represent the North Sea country spirits in the Electorate of Brandenburg. The Electorate of Brandenburg is located in the northeast of Germany, with a climate It's cold, and the locals have a temperament similar to Maozi, and there are still a lot of people who love to drink hard liquor.

"I hope the North Sea country can purchase more iron ore from Lorraine..." Duke Anthony of Lorraine also has his own abacus...

...

"Well, let’s summarize, and then, ask the Archbishop Albert (Archbishop Albert III of Mainz, the German Chancellor of the Holy Roman Empire and the convener of the Imperial Council, and the empire’s nominal regent and prime minister) to summon the princes. , Held a temporary imperial meeting in Worms to discuss the issue of the Habsburg family’s invasion of western Switzerland, and put pressure on His Majesty the Emperor and Marin!" The Elector of Saxony, Frederick III, gave a final word.

Nominally, the Elector of Saxony is the Grand Marshal of the Holy Roman Empire. But in the absence of a unified enemy in the empire, the empire's general marshal is actually just a title, just like the prime minister of the Archbishop of Mainz. However, among the princes, Frederick III was the most intelligent person, and everyone believed him. It seems that Frederick III is more like the prime minister of the Shenra Empire than the Archbishop of Mainz...