Greece to roman road

Pliakos has been very prosperous in recent years. Since he was connected with Kontoriotis, a big boss in the Greek textile industry, by virtue of his identity as a Greek and his proficient business experience, he relied on transport from Greece. With the high-quality and low-priced cotton, Puliakos, a second-rate cotton dealer, became prosperous.

After several years of hard work, due to excellent sales performance, and after consulting Kontoriotis, Pliakos officially obtained the status of the exclusive agent of Greek cotton in Constantinople, and the money situation was prosperous. .

As the largest city in the Ottoman Empire, Constantinople was also the capital of a country. High-ranking officials and wealthy businessmen gathered here, and their consumption levels were much higher than in other cities.

There were almost no Greek, Jewish, or Armenian tailors or cotton retailers in Constantinople whom Priakos did not recognize.

Knowing through a telegram that a batch of cotton cloth would be sent from the Greek port of Piraeus to Constantinople today, Pliakos hurried to the dock to avoid delaying the receipt of the goods.

Leading five freight carriages, after receiving the goods from the cargo ship, Pliakos directed the driver to go to the warehouse area of ​​​​the dock.

After the cotton cloth arrives, according to past practice, Priakos will notify the large and small cotton retailers and tailors in the city of Constantine to come here to wholesale cotton cloth.

As soon as Pliakos sealed the goods in the warehouse, a group of police suddenly came and surrounded Pliakos in front of the iron gate of the warehouse.

Looking at the malicious and uniformed policemen around him, the panicked Priakos walked towards the leader, the head of the Constantinople police station, Seliku, and said with a smile on his face: "Sir, what happened?" What happened?"

"Mr. Pliakos?" Seliku, with a stern face, looked at the businessman in front of him and said coldly.

"I am me"

Before Puliakos could finish speaking, Seliku waved his hand and shouted: "Mr. Puliakos, you are suspected of tax evasion, take it down."

The surrounding police officers swarmed over him, ignoring Pliakos's constant excuses. His hands were cut behind his back and he was taken away under the escort of two police officers.

Seeing Pliakos who didn't know how to struggle, Sericu secretly said: If you want to blame, blame yourself for being a Greek.

Yesterday, British and French businessmen Jefferson and Derek jointly visited the mayor of Constantinople, and Seliku happened to be present.

As an Ottoman official who studied in the West, Sethcu felt sad for the backwardness of the Ottoman Empire after broadening his horizons in Western countries.

Although he despises the despicable behavior of foreign businessmen bribing Ottoman officials and suppressing business rivals through power-for-money transactions, the words of the Frenchman Derek impressed Sethku: Greece has gained a steady stream of profits by exporting textiles to the Ottomans. With the profits, Greece is getting richer and richer, and the Ottomans are getting poorer and poorer. If things go on like this, the millions of Greeks in your country will probably want to change their minds.

Driven by this sense of crisis, even though Sethcu hated the mayor, as a high-ranking official of the Ottoman Empire, for his corrupt and greedy behavior, he still agreed to the suggestions of two foreign businessmen to suppress Greek businessmen in Commerce within the Ottoman Empire.

Among the foreign merchants in the Ottoman Empire, those who actually came from Greece had the most embarrassing position.

According to the treaties signed by the Ottoman Empire, foreign merchants had the privilege of extraterritoriality when doing business in the Ottoman Empire.

The laws and government institutions of the Ottoman Empire could not govern foreign merchants.

According to such rules, Greek businessmen should also have such privileges.

However, since there are millions of Greeks who rule in the Ottoman Empire, from a national perspective, the Greeks cannot be given such privileges. Otherwise, the Greeks in the Ottoman Empire will be turned upside down?

Due to historical reasons, the Ottomans looked down upon Greece. When facing the Greeks, the Ottoman people always had a sense of superiority.

In recent years, after obtaining the management rights of the Congo colony, Greece's economic development has been smooth sailing. In contrast, the Ottoman Empire is still sluggish and has shown little improvement.

The insightful people of the Ottoman Empire saw this situation and were anxious in their hearts. Of course, the Greek textile industry, a major industry that relied heavily on the Ottoman market, must be suppressed and blocked.

Thinking of this, Saisiku gave instructions to the left and right: "Confiscate the cloth in the warehouse and dispose of it."

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In the Tatoy Palace, on the grassy road, Constantine was playing with his three-year-old son, George.

Crown Princess Sophie sat under the umbrella and couldn't help but smile as she looked at the father and son playing on the grass.

Suddenly, the butler Capet hurriedly came to inform: "Your Highness, Prime Minister Trikupis and Mr. Kontoriotis from the textile factory are here to visit. They look very anxious."

Constantine handed his son George into Sophie's arms, looked at Contoriotis, who was sweating profusely with anxiety, and Trikupis, who was also anxious, and asked: "What happened?" What's going on? Gentlemen"

"Your Highness, since this year, there have been many cases against Greek cotton dealers in the Ottoman Empire. Not only did these merchants have their goods confiscated, but they themselves were also imprisoned for tax evasion." Kontoriotis said eagerly.

The Ottoman Empire was the largest market for Greek textiles. If the Ottomans made some moves, the Greek textile industry would immediately sense a crisis.

As for why Trikoupis is so anxious, it is not difficult to understand. The textile industry plays a pivotal role in the Greek economy. Unlike in the original time and space, Greece's fiscal revenue relied entirely on exporting raisins.

Among Greece's main export commodities, cotton cloth ranks first in value, reaching 130 million drachmas.

As for the second, it relies on the export of medicines from Philip Pharmaceuticals. The market is mainly facing the Ottoman and Congolese, such as artemisinin and morphine, which reached 50 million drachma.

As for the export of raisins, although it has recovered somewhat after experiencing the crisis of plunge in market prices, the total export value is only 20 million drachmas.

It is precisely because of the strong rise of the textile and pharmaceutical industries that Greece's trade deficit has remained flat in the past two years, offsetting a large amount of imported iron ore and coal.

Under such an economic situation, once Greece's textile exports encounter trouble, the Greek economy will be significantly affected.

As the backbone of Greece's economy, the textile industry involves a series of domestic industries in Greece, such as Nobel's chemical plant (dyes), the income and work of tens of thousands of textile workers, printing and dyeing plants, and even power stations.

The textile industry is a major power consumer in Greece. Once the textile industry encounters a crisis, the operation of power stations will also be affected.