1444, Byzantium Resurrects

Chapter 261: Unified Weights and Measures

Constantinople on the Black Sea.

In the study of the Grand Palace, the fire was burning brightly, the coffee on the table was steaming with aromatic hot steam, and Isaac was sitting at the table, flipping through a pile of reports.

After the death of Constantine XI, Isaac was crowned as the 14th emperor of the Palaiologos dynasty of the Eastern Roman Empire, ending the long regency period and beginning to officially rule the country.

After ascending the throne, Isaac promulgated a number of new laws to fill in some loopholes in the old code, aiming to better deal with a series of problems that might arise during the Age of Exploration and the embryonic stage of capitalism.

Isaac designated Constantinople as the capital of the empire and Carthage as the secondary capital, retaining a complete administrative structure. The crown prince and the ministers left behind in Carthage were usually responsible for managing specific affairs, and the emperor could choose the office location according to the specific circumstances.

Even though Isaac had been regent for many years, the new king was still busy after ascending the throne. There was the formal establishment of the cabinet system, capitalist reforms in the business sector, the operation of several major companies, immigration and taxation in reclamation areas, the establishment of the Royal Academy of Sciences, the promotion of Sunday schools... a lot of things to do.

After years of preparation, Isaac completely abolished the chaotic and complex bureaucratic system of the late Eastern Roman Empire, streamlined government departments, and established a cabinet system.

The cabinet consisted of a prime minister, two deputy prime ministers, and subordinate ministers of religion, foreign affairs, home affairs, economy, army, admiralty, colonies, agriculture, commerce, industry, transport and education, a total of 12 cabinet members, each in charge of a department and responsible to the emperor.

Among them, the prime minister also serves as the minister of the interior, and the two deputy prime ministers serve as the minister of foreign affairs and the minister of religion respectively. In addition to the minister in charge, each department also includes two deputy ministers, one of whom will be a priest trained in several new-style seminaries.

Now, most of the upper-level officials were appointed by the emperor himself, and some of the middle and lower-level officials were appointed by the emperor, some were trained in new-style seminaries, and others were recommended by ministers from various ministries.

When the time is right, Isaac will refer to the previous seminary and establish a civil service examination system to select talents through examinations and maintain the efficiency and integrity of government departments.

In addition to the cabinet, the Eastern Roman Empire had two departments on the same level, namely the Imperial Court and the Senate, the three-level parliament.

The Imperial Court is in charge of judicial and supervisory affairs and has the right to supervise all government officials, including the prime minister. The Senate and the three-level parliament also have partial supervisory, advisory and proposal powers. The two departments are not responsible to the cabinet and are only loyal to the emperor.

From the perspective of later generations, Isaac's administrative system was not perfect. Many powers were not properly distributed and some responsibilities were unclear. It was not because Isaac did not want to, but because objective conditions did not allow it.

Perhaps there is no truly perfect administrative system in the world, and rulers must modify it according to current conditions.

Especially in the Age of Exploration in which we are currently living, today's laws and regulations may be meaningless tomorrow, and an administrative department that functions well this year may be riddled with loopholes next year. We can only choose to trust in the wisdom of future generations.

Of course, the emperor's power is still supreme. He has absolute administrative and diplomatic decision-making power, absolute legislative power, absolute military power, a large number of private soldiers and private property, and can temporarily bypass all officials and issue orders directly.

However, after several officials argued, Isaac agreed to symbolically include companies, colonies, estates, factories and chambers of commerce under the royal name in the tax list in order to set an example for the businessmen.

Anyway, the current treasury of the Eastern Roman Empire has no distinction between public and private. The taxes collected by government departments are far from meeting the huge military expenditures and production and construction expenses in various places, and must rely on Isaac for supplements.

Even without this process, Isaac would inject most of the money into the empire to pay salaries and carry out construction.

Isaac took a sip of coffee and picked up a report.

This report came from the western border region, and the writer was Isaac's deputy who was sent to Abel, a priest with good abilities.

The above describes in detail the recent situation in the Western Frontier Region, mainly regarding immigration and war.

Lured by the Homestead Act, many refugees from southern France, Iberia and Italy began to move south to reclaim wasteland and acquire large tracts of land of their own. Currently, there are more than 4,000 refugees, who have been settled in six reclamation areas.

The majority of these refugees were Iberians, followed by Italians, and the least were French.

The two important kingdoms in Iberia were both in civil war, and there were quite a few people who fled with their families. In addition, the distance between them was very close, so the number of people was the largest.

The report also said that the new Duke of Milan, Galeazzo, was cruel by nature and did not look like a monarch. It was feared that many Milanese would flee south for refuge in the future.

Isaac unified Spanish, Portuguese, Italian and French into Vulgar Latin, and the Iberians, Italians and French were unified into Latin Romans, who were worthy Roman remnants, whether they liked it or not.

As for the war, Abel has successfully established his foothold in Bejaia and is preparing for war. He plans to march west to Algiers at the end of this year.

Isaac nodded slightly, put down the report and picked up another one.

This letter came from the westernmost territory of the Eastern Roman Empire, the Governorate of St. Nicholas. The natural environment here is harsh and sparsely populated, so it can only serve as a temporary transit station for ships.

Isaac casually flipped through the reports, which were all trivial matters about taxes and population, as well as records of ships coming and going, but he did not find what he wanted to see.

There was still no response from Columbus's West India fleet, which made Isaac very confused.

According to the sailing plan he had drawn up for them, the fleet would sail southwest along the ocean current and would soon reach the coast of Brazil and establish a settlement in the southeast corner of Brazil.

The São Nicolas Islands are the Cape Verde Islands, which are very close to the protruding cape in eastern Brazil. The navigation difficulty is very low, and it is even easier to explore than the African coast.

In the original time and space, the Portuguese navigator Cabral happened to discover the South American continent on his journey to India and became the first European to set foot in Brazil.

The Atlantic circulation is a good thing. If Brazil can be discovered, Isaac's East India Fleet can completely bypass the Guinea Calm Zone and no longer have to spend so much time on the West African coast as before.

The St. Nicholas Islands are located at the junction of several ocean currents, with very good trading conditions. It can occupy a place in the triangular trade and become an important slave transit port.

Isaac shook his head and decided to believe in Columbus, this brave and lucky boy.

Putting down the report of the Viceroyalty of St. Nicholas, Isaac took out a letter signed by Esteva da Gama, Governor-General of the East Indies.

There was no news from the West Indies yet, but the East India Fleet had successfully completed its mission. After two years of sailing and conquering, it had recently arrived at the port of Carthage with a ship full of spices.

The second East India Fleet was larger in size and had a richer harvest.

On the first page of the letter, Estevan listed the goods that had been brought back, a long list of precious commodities such as pepper, star anise, frankincense, myrrh, etc.

Isaac glanced at it and turned to the next page.

He cared more about building a trade framework than spices.

According to Estevao's records, the East India Fleet still lost some ships near Cape of Storms, but still successfully brought most of the ships to the Indian Ocean, and with the help of the Antarctic circulation, it bypassed the terrifying Cape of Correntes and arrived in the southern part of Madagascar.

Esteban hoisted a double-headed eagle flag on the island, declared that the entire island belonged to the Eastern Roman Empire, left forty sailors with muskets to establish a stronghold, and then led the fleet into the Mozambique Channel.

The fleet soon arrived at the port of Sofala and learned that the Kilwa Dynasty in the north had once again broken out into civil strife and its control over the surrounding city-states was almost collapsed. So they made up their minds to turn against the Eastern Roman Empire on the spot and sent envoys to demand that the city-state of Sofala submit to the Eastern Roman Empire.

After being rejected, Esteban gathered more than 20 ships and bombarded the port of Sofala, but the effect was not good, so he switched to interception, cutting off all external routes of the port of Sofala and destroying more than a dozen small Arab merchant ships in front of the city-state of Sofala.

As expected, Sofala sent envoys to Kilwa, its northern suzerain, for help, but received no response.

After two months of blockade, civil unrest broke out in Sofala. Merchants eager to engage in maritime trade killed the pro-Kilwa nobles and sent envoys to Esteban, declaring their independence from Kilwa's rule and their allegiance to the Eastern Roman Empire.

Estevan signed a protection agreement with them on Isaac's behalf, took away more than half of their military ships, and demanded an acceptable protection fee.

After gathering information, Estevan decided to take a laissez-faire attitude towards the chaotic Kilwa Dynasty for the time being and wait for the civil unrest to ferment.

However, as he continued his voyage north, Estevan met a Kilwa prince who had been driven from the mainland by his brothers and had taken over the island of Zanzibar with several ships.

Estevan thought this was a good time to intervene in Kilwa's internal affairs, and demanded that the prince of Kilwa convert to Orthodoxy, pledge allegiance to the Eastern Roman Empire, and sign a protection agreement with him.

In return, the Eastern Roman Empire's Third East Indian Fleet would help him seize the throne of Kilwa.

Prince Kilwa, who was trapped on an isolated island, readily accepted all the conditions of the Eastern Roman Empire and promised to give Zanzibar Island to the Eastern Roman Empire after seizing the throne.

Estevan wrote in the letter that although Zanzibar did not have any special products, it could serve as an important transit port for the Eastern Roman Empire in the western Indian Ocean. It could also radiate to the East African continent where Kilwa was located through this island, so it had some value.

Seeing this, Isaac just smiled and shook his head.

Zanzibar Island is a treasure land with excellent soil quality, which can be used to grow precious cloves.

If the Eastern Roman Empire could occupy this precious land and try to transplant cloves native to Indonesia, it could build clove plantations and clove oil processing plants, which would be an additional source of funds.

Isaac drank his coffee and continued reading.

The prince of Kilwa was quite good. Fearing that the Eastern Roman Empire would abandon him, he sent his eldest son to Estevan's ship as a hostage to show that he had no intention of regretting it.

After setting sail from Zanzibar, Estevan bypassed Kilwa and went straight along the coast of East Africa to the port of Malindi in the north.

The Sultan of Malindi was astonished when he saw such a large fleet, and he was even more glad for his choice.

After a short rest, the Sultan of Malindi briefly briefed Esteban on the recent situation of the old enemy, the city-state of Mombasa in the south, and proposed a joint battle to completely conquer Mombasa.

It turned out that in these two years, in order to avoid another attack from the subsequent fleet of the Eastern Roman Empire, the Sultan of Mombasa began to seek help from the surrounding Muslim powers. He not only sent envoys to the Kilwa Dynasty, but also approached the Mamluks and even the Ottomans.

Unfortunately, no force was willing to lend a helping hand to Mombasa. The Mamluks did not make any response, while the Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II received the envoy from Mombasa with great enthusiasm, listened to his complaints patiently, and expressed his determination to stand firmly with the Muslim brothers to fight against the invasion of Christians. Then there was no further news.

As for the old overlord Kilwa in the south, they did send a small team of reinforcements to Mombasa at first, but halfway through the journey, the original Sultan was defeated and killed in the civil strife. In order to stabilize the domestic situation, the new Sultan withdrew the troops.

Esteban agreed to the Sultan of Malindi's request and repeated his old tricks, once again using his absolute maritime hegemony to blockade Mombasa and disrupt their military morale.

Then, 1,500 armed sailors from the Eastern Roman Empire and 3,000 Malindi soldiers surrounded the city of Mombasa, completely cutting off Mombasa's connection with the outside world.

Mombasa is a trading city-state located on the coast of East Africa. Its own output is extremely limited and it cannot be self-sufficient. As time goes by, the city’s supplies are seriously insufficient, and merchants are increasingly suspicious of the Sudan.

Faced with internal and external troubles, the Sultan of Mombasa, who was unwilling to surrender, chose to take a gamble. He took all his soldiers out of the city and fought a bloody battle with the coalition forces on the outskirts of the city, where he was defeated and killed.

After the fall of the Mombasa city-state, the Eastern Roman Empire and the Malindi city-state divided the spoils of war. The city of Mombasa belonged to the Indian Governorate of the Eastern Roman Empire, and some subordinate towns and villages in the north belonged to the Malindi city-state.

Subsequently, the Sultan of Malindi signed a protection agreement with the Eastern Roman Empire, acknowledging himself as a vassal of the Eastern Roman Emperor. In return, the Eastern Roman Empire would support his expansion to the north and seize the trade profits of the Somali countries.

Since then, the Eastern Roman Empire acquired its first piece of land in the East African Plateau, and exchanges with the Indian subcontinent became more convenient.

Esteban left three hundred sailors in Mombasa and signed an agreement with local merchants. Relying on the money left by the Sultan of Mombasa, he formed a 700-man vassal army to build city walls and ports.

After that, Estevan finally embarked on a journey to India and successfully arrived at the port of Calicut. Due to the heavy defenses of the port, there were not many opportunities, so he could only conduct normal trade and assigned merchants from Malindi to search for books, tools and technicians.

Afterwards, Estevan landed on Ceylon Island in southeastern India with 500 armed sailors and occupied a medium-sized seaport. He found many mango trees here, so he named the place Colombo Port according to the local language.

In the next month, Estevan continued to lead his sailors to attack the remaining forces on the island. These natives were very backward. Not only did they have low morale, they didn't even have many iron weapons and had no ability to resist at all.

After suffering several consecutive defeats, several small indigenous kingdoms on the island of Ceylon surrendered to Estevao one after another and obeyed the jurisdiction of the Governorate of India of the Eastern Roman Empire.

Esteban left here a hundred sailors and some priests, and forced the natives to build the walls for the port of Colombo.

However, not long after returning to Calicut, the Zamorin discovered the activities of the Malindi merchants and became furious. He ordered Esteban to hand over the books and craftsmen and leave immediately.

Estevan turned hostile on the spot, bombarded the city, destroyed several Calicut ships, took the spices, books and craftsmen and left the port on his way home.

Isaac closed the letter and smiled bitterly.

Books and craftsmen are precious things wherever they are, and no matter how stupid the Indians were, they would not sit idly by and watch Isaac transport them back to Europe.

This voyage created quite a stir, and Arab merchants would certainly take action, perhaps forming an alliance to resist the Eastern Roman Empire's interference in Indian Ocean trade.

However, compared to the original time and space, they did not have the support of the Ottoman Empire, the Mamluk Sultanate and the Republic of Venice. They were definitely no match for Isaac on their own.

The Arab navy has lagged behind for several generations, and this technological gap cannot be made up by quantity.

In the original time and space, with the help of the Ottomans, Mamluks and Venice, the Arabs gathered thousands of small sampans to encircle and suppress a dozen ships of the Kingdom of Portugal, but were defeated.

Thinking of this, Isaac felt happier, and the fatigue from handling government affairs was swept away. Isaac stood up and stretched.

Looking at the time, it was almost evening. Isaac pushed open the door and bumped into Ulrich who had come in.

"What's going on, Ulrich?"

Isaac asked unhappily.

"Yes, your majesty, I'm sorry to bother you."

Ulrich smiled and bowed.

“What difficulties have you encountered in attracting investment?”

Isaac sighed, asked the eunuch to pour two cups of coffee, and sat back at the desk.

"Your Majesty, the investment attraction is going very smoothly. As I told you before, the Eastern Roman Empire is a hotbed for investors. A lot of valuable things have not yet been developed, and many merchants are waiting for you to relax regulations."

Ulrich's mouth curled up slightly.

"Your rented farm has started harvesting. Have you received the first round of rent?"

"I got it. It is indeed a lot more than before."

Isaac nodded.

“But it’s still not enough.”

"not enough?"

Ulrich was very confused.

"I read in the newspaper today that your second batch of East India merchant ships returned fully loaded. You have such a huge fortune, don't you think it's not enough?"

Isaac smiled and shook his head.

"You've heard about the Aries Dynasty, right?"

"Yes, sire, it is in the papers."

Ulrich was stunned.

"Do you hope to take this opportunity to attack the Ottomans?"

"I do have that intention."

Isaac groaned.

"The Ottoman Empire still occupies most of Anatolia, has a large population, and is a strong military. It won't be that easy for them to fall."

"If we were to march into Anatolia, the series of fortresses they have built along the Aegean coast would be a huge obstacle, and we would certainly pay a very heavy price."

"Besides, Anatolia is not comparable to North Africa and Bulgaria. Even if the Ottoman Empire falls, the large number of Turkic tribes on the plateau will cause us great trouble."

"Furthermore, Central Asia is in chaos, and many Turkmen tribes have migrated westward, which has greatly increased the strength of the Ottomans, allowing them to temporarily deploy a large number of troops."

Isaac sighed.

"Of course they will have conflicts among themselves, but under the banner of jihad, they will probably unite to fight against us, the infidels."

"Besides, even if I can defeat the Ottomans, I will have to spend a lot of time and money to consolidate my rule in Anatolia. Just maintaining stability will require a huge amount of money."

"How can a batch of spices be enough?"

Ulrich listened and nodded silently.

"So what are you going to do?"

"What I mean is, we should conserve our strength, store as many soldiers, money and supplies as possible, and then launch a fatal blow to the Ottoman Empire."

Isaac's eyes flickered.

"I estimate that it will take about 150,000 troops to gain a decisive advantage on the battlefield. It will take about 15 to 20 years to completely pacify Anatolia, and it is estimated to cost one million solidus."

"Of course, this won't happen overnight. This war will be a long one."

"Your Majesty, I am not familiar with military affairs, but what you said seems to be correct."

Ulrich smiled.

"If you treat the Turks the same way you treat the Berbers, you will definitely suffer a great loss."

"The Ottomans' level of civilization, population, technological level and military tactics were not comparable to the Berber natives, not to mention the continuous influx of Turkmen tribes."

Ulrich thought about it and looked at Isaac.

"Your Majesty, if you need me, I can visit the Aq Qoyunlu on your behalf in the name of business and try to establish an alliance to jointly deal with the Ottomans."

"People have been sent, but as I expected, nothing has been accomplished."

Isaac shrugged.

"Uzon Hassan has just won a great victory and is eager to reap the fruits of his victory. How could he risk his family fortune to fight to the death with the Ottomans?"

"His focus right now is definitely on the Persian region. Once the war in Persia is over, he will turn to Anatolia."

"My envoy told me that Uzung Hassan received the envoy of Mehmed II and they had a very pleasant conversation. He had no intention of starting a war at all."

"However, I have also sent some spies to eastern Anatolia to gather intelligence. The situation there is complicated, and we may be able to find other people who are willing to be enemies of the Ottomans."

"And Trebizond and Georgia, I also sent envoys."

Ulrich smiled bitterly and shook his head.

"Then let's just keep waiting. The Ottoman Empire is trapped in a corner and its development speed is limited, while you are singing all the way, your wealth is gradually accumulating, and your military strength is gradually growing. We will find an opportunity one day."

Isaac nodded slightly and looked towards Ulrich.

"By the way, you came to me, didn't you, just to find out these things that have no confidential value?"

Ulrich was a little embarrassed and shook his head quickly.

"Your Majesty, I am here for something important."

He waved his hand, and several servants brought some miscellaneous measuring tools into the study.

"Your Majesty, look, these are the measuring tools currently used in your empire. There are rulers, scales, buckets... There are so many types, and they are very inconvenient to use."

“I discovered this issue during my inspection and did some research.”

Ulrich held up a scale.

“Simply put, your country is too vast and your culture too complex to have unified measurement tools that are so important in industry and commerce.”

"Eastern Empire, Italy, Berber, Mamluk, Bulgaria, Serbia..."

"These places originally had their own measurement tools, but now they are mixed up, which has greatly affected business efficiency and caused many problems in engineering construction."

Ulrich spread his hands.

"Furthermore, the carriages made by carriage workshops in several major cities in the Eastern Empire do not have a unified standard. The different wheelbases make it very difficult for us to build roads."

"Various types of horse-drawn carriages can easily cause urban congestion, which wastes a lot of time and reduces business efficiency."

Ulrich put the scale down and looked at Isaac with a wry smile.

"Your Majesty, please don't blame me. You have to be calculative when doing business."

"No, I think you're quite right."

Isaac nodded slowly.

“This is not only an industrial and commercial issue, but also a political issue.”

"Since it is a unified empire, these things must be unified."

"It takes time to unify the language and writing, but these things are easier."

Isaac smiled and looked up at Ulrich.

"Thank you again this time. I have been very busy recently and haven't visited or investigated for a long time."

"How about this, you go back first, I will discuss with the scholars of the Royal Academy of Sciences and try to finalize these things."

"Then I'll look forward to good news."

Ulrich bowed slightly, pushed the door open and left.

……

On March 1468, 3, Isaac issued a decree in the Great Palace in Constantinople, which established several common units of measurement and required their unified use throughout the empire.

According to the decree, the units of length in the empire were the Roman foot, the Roman step and the Roman mile. According to the old Roman system, the length of Isaac's own foot was defined as one Roman foot, five Roman feet were one Roman step, and one thousand Roman steps were one Roman mile.

After having a unit of length, Isaac also established a unit of weight. According to Archimedes' theory, if a cubic container with a length, width and height of one Roman rule each is filled with water, the weight of the water is one Roman pound.

Isaac then established the Department of Measurement and Units, which was placed under the jurisdiction of the Secretary of Commerce and was specifically responsible for the manufacture and promotion of standard measuring tools.

There are also corresponding regulations for the wheelbase of horse-drawn carriages, which are managed by the Department of Metrology and Measurement.

Just as Isaac was busy working to unify weights and measures, shocking news came from the East again.

On March 3, the White Ayun King Uzung Hasan and the Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II signed an agreement that ended the long-standing hostility. The Ottoman Empire was able to move most of its troops to the Aegean coast to defend against possible attacks from the Eastern Roman Empire, while the White Ayun Dynasty could take advantage of the victory and seize large tracts of land.

On April 4, Uzungol Hassan led his army eastward, triumphantly all the way, and captured the capital of the Black Sheep, Tabriz, in one fell swoop.

(End of this chapter)