Eagle Byzantium

"This will also hit the trade between Marash and Danishmonde and make them poorer!" Wright also stood up from his seat and echoed.

However, although the other six departments and military personnel were tempted, they were still skeptical and still couldn't let go of the slave trade.

Gawain made the final decision, "Immediately rely on the funds of the Bari City Bank to add large warehouses and large trading companies in the city of Iconium, allowing the leaders of the Brocade Brotherhood and the military Dugelius to purchase shares at the price of fifty, one hundred and three hundred Byzantine gold coins."

"Agree, agree, buy, buy, buy!" As soon as Gawain's words fell, this group of people instantly confirmed their position, and they were eager to knock "Gawain's words" out with a stick and put them in their pockets before they were satisfied.

Because the rumors about the Rela Duck and the Pisans setting up a trading company in the Roman Empire have been rampant: the Rela Ducks bought the frankincense monopoly of Chios Island, and the Pisans bought the large alum mine in Smyrna. It is said that the Relais hired local people on the island to make frankincense, and then they would go to the island to purchase it in batches at the end of the year. If there was a poor harvest, they would hoard the goods and raise the price. If there was a good harvest, they would buy all the frankincense at a high price and burn most of it. The remaining small part would continue to be sold in Italy or Spain at ten times the price to maintain monopoly profits.

Alum is an indispensable dyeing agent for fabrics. The way the Pisans treat it is almost the same as that of the Relais. It is said that the stock price of Relais merchants on Chios has risen by ten times, and it may be fifty or even a hundred times in the future.

Now Gawain also wants to "seek benefits" for everyone. This group of officers and brothers have been with him for a long time, and they all know a little business knowledge. They know that such opportunities are hard to come by - apart from other things, Cilician saffron and Cappadocia's lake salt are also standard sources of profit - they are now spending all their property to buy ten or twenty shares, and the future return will be ten or twenty times.

In this way, no one really had any psychological burden. Gawain agreed on the spot to divide the shareholding rights of three commodities, saffron, salt, and honey (Gawain still listened to Zhao Zhao's letter of advice on citrus, silk, etc., and the future rights would be exclusively enjoyed by the Tarsus royal family composed of him and Anna). Everyone rushed to buy, and the entire venue became an auction.

Finally, even Lord Anselm, who had originally strongly opposed it, squeezed into the crowd and subscribed to a lot of shares. The little hair left on the side of his bald head also stood up happily and excitedly because of the friction between his shoulders and hands and feet...

The meeting ended smoothly and successfully, and all departments "openly and wholeheartedly supported the national policy of the great patron without hesitation."

But it was not made public throughout the kingdom. Gawain privately and everyone decided on the following plan: Zhao Zhao, the chief merchant of the royal family, was the envoy to go to Amasya City to discuss the opening of the "Iconium Trade Route".

At the same time, Gawain also promised everyone that no matter when this trade route is opened, or whether it can be opened, he will abide by the original order of "dividing the shares".

Once it is opened, 1,500 slaves will be purchased experimentally from the Adyge region along the sea route to operate the "Araman Waterwheel Workshop", because it will probably be completed ahead of schedule in the summer of next year, and then it will be a time of shortage of manpower, so this group of people must be bought in the New Year of next year and trained together for three months.

About a month later, Zhao Zhao returned from Amasya City with exciting news: Theodore, induced by the lucrative benefits, decided to abandon the Sivas trade route and switch to the Iconium trade route.

At the same time, Brennus and his wife also secretly participated in it. Under the auspices of Dido, they secretly leased the port route rights of Attalia, Smyrna and Rhodes to Gawain, and carried out sea and land transportation trade under the flag of Venice or Amalfi, and then divided the spoils with Gawain. The Kurlamite merchants in Tarsus appeared in the city of Attalia.

As for Bohemond's Antioch, Baldwin's Adana and Apsomartes' Cyprus were included, and they originally enjoyed reciprocal trade terms.

According to Zhao Zhao, Gawain's trade plan was actually the combination of "Iconium Trade Route" and "Levant Sea Commercial Belt", which was abbreviated by Zhao Zhao as "the Belt and Road". It was this bright and blinding term that completely shocked the old general Theodore, because he felt that under the stimulation of "the Belt and Road", the price of Trebizond nuts increased a lot...

Now, if a merchant ship sets sail from Egypt, it can be loaded with spices, "Fustat linen", coral, and oil, and then arrive at the port of Beirut to sell them in Syria. Then it will carry fish, asphalt, wine, and wheat flour to the port of Salamis in Cyprus, where it will sell the goods in exchange for lime, copper, and bricks, and then sail to Marrus or Seleucia, where it will get saffron, honey, salt, wax, wood, etc. The captain and the first mate will then have three choices: they can send these goods to Italy (and then transport them back to Apulia's sulfur or saltpeter), or to Egypt (where wood is very popular), or of course they can unload the goods and head north along the Iconium trade route. Along the way, with the large hospital as the core, there are inns at intervals to provide loading and unloading and food and accommodation, where the caravan can easily After getting supplies, they crossed the plateau and headed to both sides of the Pontus Mountains, and finally to Trebzon, where they sold some of their goods, replenished some nuts and raw silk that Governor Theodorus strongly recommended, and sailed from the Rela Duck ships on the Euxen Sea (there was no other way, some of the pragmatic Rela Duck family chambers had joined the Belt and Road to get a share of the pie) to Adygea and Georgia, where all industrial products, condiments and luxury foods were very popular, and lords and kings were willing to exchange them with beautiful young slaves and hard and high-quality birch. Even the gold and silver from the Ural Mountains, the war horses on the grasslands, and the saltpeter from the valleys were all sent to the market in large quantities, and then concentrated in the warehouses of the "Iconium Great Trading Company", and then distributed to workshops, coin furnaces, and docks in various places by popularized horse-drawn carriages for secondary processing.

When it came to September taxation and financial accounting, the amount of money marked in green ink on the accounts of Tarsus increased dramatically: on the basis that the burden on the peasants had not increased, relying on the four major financial pillars of trade, warehouse leasing, pilgrimage business in the hospital and post district, and salt tax (of course, there was also a lot of war plunder), after deducting various expenses, the net profit of the entire treasury was enough to reach more than 280,000 Byzantine gold coins. Add to that the various annual tributes and taxes collected, and the money now available for circulation and expenditure has reached nearly a million! (To be continued ~^~)