Chapter 21: Imperial Clash

  The Byzantine Empire was short of grain, no, the shortage of grain in Eastern Rome had been an unsolved problem for many years. In the past, when the empire still owned Egypt, the empire never worried about food. Unfortunately, Egypt was occupied in the 8th century.

  After that, the Eastern Roman Empire was always looking for a substitute for the Egyptian granary, but within the empire's territory, it was really impossible to find any fertile land comparable to the Nile River basin in Egypt. As is well known, Greece has never been a grain-producing region since ancient times, otherwise the Phoenicians would not have gone out to sea. The eastern Anatolia region has many mountains, minerals and good horses, but arable fertile land is only available along the Mediterranean coast. The Thracian plain and the more distant Danube River basin are not bad choices, but the rise of Bulgaria makes that vast plain really unsuitable as a production base. So the population of the Eastern Roman Empire has not increased much since losing Egypt. In modern times, the rising Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth finally replaced Egypt as the empire's granary, with cheap grain passing through the Southern Bug River and Dnieper River to enter Constantinople from the Black Sea outlet.

  It's just that the Poles are like the Greeks, they have a natural talent for comedy, they cultivate, and before you know it, they've cultivated themselves into a mess. Alright, this is also partly because of our Roman mischief, but who would have thought that the famous Polish Winged Hussars of the 15th century would wither away so quickly! So quickly that after we finished off the Muslims, Poland's defeat in the north was already a foregone conclusion. We ended up having to buy grain from the French.

  But the French were even more dishonest, as the only country in the entire continent capable of massively exporting grain, they seized the soft underbelly of the Roman Empire. Our old friend from France, Finance Minister Jean-Baptiste Colbert, citing poor harvests in France, once again increased various grain export tariffs. The increase ranged from 20% to 50%. Among them, buckwheat had the largest increase of 50%. After this tax increase, the barley export tariff reached 70%, and the wheat and processed flour export tariffs reached 90%.

  According to the investigation by Imperial Foreign Minister Erix in Constantinople's grain market not long ago, 3 aspers can buy 1 pound of fairly good wheat flour, and about 2 pounds of mediocre quality wheat flour with some insects. If news of France increasing tariffs spreads on the streets, it is very likely that prices will rise to three times their original value, or even more!

  "I think prices may be driven even higher."

  "It's not possible, it's certain. This morning, I had someone specifically pass by several grain stores, and the flour there was already sold out. This is the prelude to a sharp rise in grain prices!"

  "A commoner consumes an average of one pound of bread per day, which is a considerable burden on their income!"

  "Provocation! This is sheer provocation!" "For Rome, for the Empire, attack France, march on Versailles!" "We must return in kind!!!" "Yes! Declare war! Drink deep of French blood!!!" Several generals were already excited beyond measure. The excitement of those generals was justified, because the French had raised tariffs to such an outrageous level that they might as well have put it in black and white that they intended to rob the Empire's treasury!

  As the generals present were about to escalate the situation into a full-scale imperial war council, with saliva flying everywhere, the civil officials exchanged opinions in hushed tones. The Constantinople official, seated at the lowest rank among them, proposed: "Considering that some people will take advantage of the opportunity to hoard grain and drive up prices, Caesar, we must act quickly. Otherwise, once the situation expands, it will damage your reputation!"

  "Poland?" asked Old Cheap. "What's the situation with the merchant ships on the Polish side?"

  "...It's terrible..." frowned Erichs, the Minister of Finance responsible for managing and keeping records of Constantinople's taxes. "According to the documents I've retrieved from the tax courts, in the past four months, only 117 merchant ships have entered or exited Constantinople through the Black Sea ports, which is seven-tenths less than the same period last year, and a full nine times less than ten years ago. The prices of goods sold are also twice as high as before."

  "I didn't think that it's been so long since the Polish Succession War ended, yet the market on the Polish side still hasn't recovered." Navy Minister Vatakis was very depressed.

  Foreign Minister Leo said sternly, "This move to raise tariffs is obviously a deliberate act by Cobell, who has seen our predicament! The Empire must protest!!"

  "What do you mean?" asked Cheap Father to the Imperial Minister of Finance.

  The Minister of Finance, Ericks, gave a slight nod to an official sitting next to him, who handed over a prepared document to the guard to pass on to the Emperor. After the Emperor finished reading it, he said: "When grain merchant ships arrive at the port, the Imperial Treasury will be responsible for purchasing grain through the Financial Court, which manages the port, and then stabilize grain prices through coordination with the Chamber of Commerce. Although this will cause a significant outflow of funds from the treasury in the short term, we can increase the export tariffs on perfume, silk, lace products, coffee beans, face powder, and wigs, which are necessities for French nobles, to give Kolbert a tit-for-tat! Additionally, after completing transactions at the port, French merchant ships will not be allowed to leave with currency; they must purchase goods of equivalent value here. I think that the revenue from export tariffs can basically offset the impact of this incident."

  I frowned, the items that the Minister of Finance said need to raise export tariffs are all luxury goods!

  Cheap dad looked at the manuscript in his hand, raised his eyelids and glanced at the Minister of Finance: "Do you want to use the trick of raising luxury goods export tariffs as a knife to cut towards the French upper class? Not bad, very good thinking. Anyway, all the nobles in France are concentrated in Versailles Palace, Kolbel let our people bleed, we will make those French nobles suffer a bit. A pound of coffee beans soared from 10 écus to 20 écus, 30 écus, even the richest nobles would frown. And Kolbel, who caused all this consequence, will be hated by the entire French class, thus eliminating our biggest enemy. But have you thought about the consequences of doing so?"

  Consequences... If that's really what they did, it would be walking into Colbert's trap! Increasing the export duty on luxury goods is increasing the cost for merchants to sell them in France. French merchants who buy something for one franc and then have to pay the export duty will have to add this cost when reselling it in mainland France. As soon as Rome raises taxes, Colbert can lower the price of domestically manufactured goods by reducing his profit margin, making French goods cheaper than Roman ones.

  People are after profit, in this way, the Roman goods that occupy the mainstream of French luxury goods will be expelled, and French luxury goods will occupy the French market at the lowest cost, squeezing out the Roman goods that can be replaced by France! For example, coffee is a commodity that cannot be replaced. If Colbert is ruthless enough, he can let the Sun King take the lead in making drinking coffee an unrefined behavior, thus cutting off the entire coffee market! Moreover, there is a major flaw in the proposal put forward by the Minister of Finance, which is where Rome will find a substitute for France, this grain-producing giant.

  This is no simple provocation, this is a trap set by Corbulo for his Sun King to ensnare the Roman beast!

  People think that the grain for living is not a luxury that can be had or dispensed with! The empire has to spend money to buy grain in order to maintain stable grain prices. If it follows the example of the Roman finance minister and increases taxes on luxury goods to fleece the French nobility, the money obtained will fill the gap created by buying grain. As a result, no matter what the Roman Empire does, its financial revenue will be harmed.

  The former would reduce Rome's revenue by filling the food gap, as Rome is short of food not for tens of thousands of people, but for hundreds of thousands of Constantinople soldiers and civilians and millions of permanent residents in Anatolia, and the money consumed each year will be a huge sum. The latter, although temporarily allowing Rome to pass through difficulties and gain benefits, would soon occupy Rome's luxury market in France, causing huge losses to personnel and families relying on luxury goods within the empire, and the imperial finance would also suffer a severe blow. How important is a healthy national financial system for war? French Finance Minister Colbert, who has the money to conquer other countries at will, clearly has more say!