The Rise of the European Emperor

Jacob Fugger couldn't hold back the smile on his face these days, why? Because money is so easy to make lately! As bankers, the Fugger family likes high-quality clients to borrow from them. Just like the Five Great Banks of China in later generations, seeing the wealthy such as Papa Ma and Lao Wang looking for loans from them. Insurance is good enough...

Moreover, the interest on loans in this year is much higher than in later generations. For the nobles and the Fugger family, the annual interest starts at 15%. This is still a noble with relatively good repayment ability. Those who have a lot of debts need to increase the interest to borrow money. For example, 20% or more... Sometimes, in case of war, the annual interest rate can even skyrocket to 40%...

What? You said those nobles might not be able to afford it? impossible. why? When dealing with those manors this time, those nobles mortgaged the land they bought. No matter what, the land will not depreciate in value. It's really not good, it's a big deal to confiscate those manors bought by mortgage...

In short, a loan with a land mortgage is still a relatively safe loan. In addition, the introducer of this business, Ma Lin, is also a very high-quality customer in the eyes of Jacob Fugger, no less than the Ma Papa and Lao Wang in the eyes of the five major banks of later generations. Because, Marin has hard currency collateral - food and spirits!

Marin and Duke Ulrich bought the population, and there was a gap of several hundred thousand gold coins. All this money needs to be borrowed from the Fugger family, and the annual interest is 15%. And Marin also has a mortgage, which can be grain or spirits brewed from grain. They are all mortgaged at 80% of the market price, which is the purchase price. Of course, food or spirits are only mortgaged if Marin can't pay them back. According to the information of the Fugger family, the value of the food and spirits in Marin's hands far exceeds the value of the mortgage. So don't worry that Marin won't be able to repay the loan. In this way, this business is lying to make a profit.

Therefore, before Marin developed the Americas into a prosperous country, the Fugger family was probably the most profitable. Secondly, it is the Duke of Württemberg Ulrich who took a lot of cash.

However, from a long-term perspective, the most profitable person, Marin, is not counted. The most profitable people are actually the nobles who have carved up most of the manor. Because arable land is always preserved, especially in southern Germany with few plains.

Of course, in the long run, it will take hundreds of years. The value of these lands will not be reflected until later generations start to speculate on the land. If it is purely farming, the profit is far less than that of the Fugger family who opened a bank. But for hundreds of years, who can say whether the descendants of these nobles can keep the land of their ancestors?

From the perspective of risk, the most unreliable Duke of Württemberg, Ulrich, has become the biggest winner. Because, he has already put it into the bag for safety...

But it is a pity that most of this money is used to repay debts, not to invest money to make money. Moreover, with the extravagant style of this product, even if there are hundreds of thousands more after repaying the debt, most of them will be spent...

Otherwise, with the income that he can cash out one hundred and hundreds of thousands of Gulden gold coins,

It is enough to buy a few counties.

Marin, however, liked a prodigal like Duke Ulrich the most. Because, if this guy hadn't owed a huge debt of millions of gold coins, how could he be forced to sell people? And Marin lacked the population the most, and he was so happy that he could not wait to kiss him a few times for such a prodigal duke who dared to sell people.

Moreover, Marin wanted to use Duke Ulrich as a benchmark and an example for others to follow. You must know that in the German region, there is more than one Duchy of Württemberg with a large population. In the entire South German region, most of the vassal states are overpopulated. Mainly, there are too few plains here.

Hundreds of years of stable life, no wars, and constant population increase, all the vassal states in southern Germany have the problem of overpopulation. Therefore, the well-known German mercenaries mainly come from the South German region. Because, there are only extra people here to die as soldiers...

In addition to these peasant uprisings this year, there will be even larger peasant uprisings in the next ten years, also in southern Germany.

In the German Peasant War in 1524, more than 100,000 peasants were slaughtered by the oppressors. Moreover, most of these are strong men! If they were packed together with their families, that would be hundreds of thousands of people!

If you can take the opportunity to buy it, you can completely reclaim a large area of ​​land in North America! You know, when the thirteen states of North America became independent, there were only two or three million in the thirteen states. Hundreds of thousands of people can completely reclaim places in two or three states. That is the old American state, a state is at least 100,000 square kilometers! Two or three states, bigger than the entire German region!

Of course, the so-called development of two or three states is unlikely to be fully reclaimed. However, the fertile land on both sides of the main rivers can still be developed. In the beginning, the pioneers of the colonists who colonized the Americas did just that. They are too lazy to develop places that are not convenient for irrigation without the river, and only develop the fertile land that relies on the river...

In Europe, the fertile land by the river is generally only in the hands of the nobles...

Marin now spends a lot of money to buy people from the prodigal Duke Ulrich, in fact, he is doing it for others to see. At an appropriate time after completing the transaction, Marin will deliberately reveal the news to make other southern German princes jealous. Then, in a few years, when the peasant uprising broke out in 1524, they would remember - it seems that these rebellions can be exchanged for money! Then, without Marin saying it, they'll take the initiative to sell. After all, most of the German princes were not financially good. If they can exchange money, they will not be willing to kill...

Or, it can also be said that the feudal lords with good economic conditions will not oppress the peasants too much. Without squeezing the peasants, there will be no peasant uprisings...

That is to say, in any vassal state where a peasant uprising broke out, its vassal would definitely be short of money. Otherwise, the peasants would not be squeezed so hard that they would be forced to revolt.

When the time comes, these princes who are short of money will catch the rebellious peasants and sell them for money. They will definitely be willing. After all, no one wants to be a poor ghost...

...

When Marin urged the Principality of Württemberg to escort the 26,500 peasants and their families to Karlsruhe for loading as soon as possible, the native Emden port, the 3,000 peasant families bought from the Breisgau region, a total of 1.3 10,000 people, and the last batch of 3,000 people has left the port and left for the American continent.

This time, the destination of the 13,000 immigrants is still New Jersey, just east of the Delaware River. There is an area of ​​20,000 square kilometers over there. In the past, it was mainly dominated by tens of thousands of English refugees and only a few thousand Germans. Including the New York area on the edge of New Jersey, it is also dominated by refugees from England.

Marin was a German after all, and naturally he didn't want the English people in the place he valued most to have an advantage, even if they were also Germanic.

Therefore, whether it is this batch of 13,000 people or the next batch of hundreds of thousands of Württembergers, they must be preferentially placed in New York and New Jersey, so that the Germans will dominate. Of course, the little fools taught by Taylor also need to be equipped. Marin needs these missionaries to help fool the newcomers to themselves.

Fortunately, now many of Taylor's disciples can be on their own, and there is no need for Taylor to teach Xiao Huyou in person. And Taylor's many disciples work together, and they can also teach more small flickering missionaries to help Malin settle down...

However, New Jersey will certainly not use hundreds of thousands of people. Therefore, when the hundreds of thousands of immigrants from the Württemberg area arrived, Marin's colonial army would cross the Delaware River and march in the direction of the later Delaware and western Pennsylvania, occupying and developing these areas. .

In later generations, the red oaks of Pennsylvania are very famous. The famous "Constitution" battleship is mainly built with red oak. Moreover, Pennsylvania is rich in resources. The coal resources of the western Appalachian Mountains are very rich. Pittsburgh, the famous American steel center in later generations, is located in western Pennsylvania, near the coal mines of the Appalachian Mountains.

In addition, the world's first modern oil well was drilled by "oil originator" Derek in 1859 in Testerville, not far from Lake Erie, in northwestern Pennsylvania.

Marin didn't know exactly where Testerville was, but he knew that for an early oil well like Testerville, before it was developed, there would definitely be oil seedlings out of the ground, emitting a smell similar to sulfur. Otherwise, the oil practitioners in the early years would not have drilled there. After all, at that time, the oil industry had not yet started, and there was no theory of "looking for water in the syncline and oil in the anticline". They can only drill because the oil seedlings are outcropping...

And control of Pennsylvania, then, you can go further west, looking for high-quality iron ore in the Great Lakes region. There is iron and coal, and the industrial conditions here are even better than those in Germany. After all, the German mainland actually lacks iron ore. High-grade, high-quality iron ore like the Great Lakes, less so…