1444, Byzantium Resurrects

Chapter 329 Tropical Spring City
On the vast Atlantic Ocean, the breeze stirs up the waves, and the warm sunshine hangs high in the sky, but it can never penetrate the misty fog.

On the sea, a fleet filled its sails and slowly drifted towards the land in the southeast.

This fleet consisted of four caravels and two medium-sized caravels. The two caravels had been specially modified, with wide cabins and not too many cannons on the side of the ship. They could carry more goods and had certain self-defense capabilities. They were obviously dual-purpose military and commercial ships.

Each sailboat has a special coat of arms printed on its sails. In the upper left corner is the golden and red flag of the Palaiologos family, which occupies one eighth of the flag, and the rest is blue and white stripes.

This is one of the flags of the Guinea Company of the Eastern Roman Empire. This company has a history of nearly 30 years. With the continuous development of the Atlantic trade route, it has reaped the benefits of ocean trade and gradually grown into the behemoth it is today. It has many branches and leased properties throughout West Africa. It adopts a shareholding system for dividends, and the emperor is the largest shareholder.

This fleet belonged to Atlantic Shipping, which was also a subsidiary of the Guinea Company. It was mainly responsible for transporting goods, commodities and personnel between various colonies and semi-colonies. It also accepted government orders and transported a group of exiles to New Thrace and New Rome every year.

In recent days, in order to protect the domestic shipbuilding and shipping industries and strengthen the Eastern Roman Empire's monopoly on ocean trade, the emperor promulgated the "Navigation Regulations". The regulations stipulate that only ships owned and manufactured by the Eastern Roman Empire or its colonies can transport goods from the Eastern Roman colonies. Manufactured products from other countries must pass through the Eastern Roman mainland and cannot be directly shipped to the colonies.

This regulation is a product of mercantilism. Its purpose is to prevent other late-developing countries from encroaching on the interests of the Eastern Roman Empire in ocean trade. It forms a complete commodity supply chain between the mainland and colonies. From production to transportation to sales, all profits belong to the Eastern Roman Empire. The Eastern Roman Empire is both a colonial vanguard and a coachman at sea.

Against this background, the Atlantic Shipping Company came into being. Compared with other trading companies, this company only focused on the transportation of goods and personnel, separating itself from the tedious steps of raw material acquisition, raw material processing and finished product sales, thereby improving efficiency and reducing risks.

Compared with the other branches of the Guinea Company, Atlantic Shipping did not have the long history of New Thracian Ivory and Royal African Company, nor could it become rich suddenly like United Fruit and Congo Rubber Company. However, Atlantic Shipping was the first ocean-going trading company in the Eastern Roman Empire that was completely spontaneously established by small private capital. It had no guidance from the emperor or the government. The original founders were just a group of energetic ocean-going sailors. Dozens of wealthy sailors united and raised funds to buy ships in the form of joint-stock companies. Although it was eventually acquired, it still retained a great deal of autonomy.

This group of sailors pioneered the Eastern Roman Empire. With their passion and a little bit of luck, they accurately grasped the market gap and benefited greatly from it.

Some economics researchers at the University of Constantinople believe that their success proves the advancement of free market theory. They cited some of Aristotle's theories and believed that even without government intervention, the market can still exert great regulatory capabilities.

Although their theories were very immature, major newspapers in Constantinople praised the success of Atlantic shipping and encouraged the Roman people to use their talents, invest boldly, start businesses, and make a fortune in the beautiful scenery brought about by the heyday of the empire.

In the captain's room of the flagship Xenophon, Captain Leonos stared at the document in his hand, frowning as he looked at the long list of place names and the tasks behind the names.

"La Palma Island, two hundred quality slaves from Bilinchi... completed."

Leonos marked the back of the first task.

"Bissagos Islands, the North African Lion Mercenary Team disembarked here and was responsible for maintaining the stability of the slave market... Completed."

Leonos marked it and continued reading.

"At Platinum Port, unload cotton and silk and hand them over to the Guinea Company branch. They will also need to be loaded with cotton on the return voyage..."

Leonos draws a special mark.

"Port St. William, negotiating with local plantation owners about the sugarcane transportation business... failed."

Leonos recalled for a moment and snorted heavily.

"Port of John Chrysostom, replenish fresh water and food, four priests disembark here, done."

Leonos looked at the last few lines of text.

"Luanda Port, our destination, is transporting a mercenary team from Rosemary Company. The local lord needs to defend against attacks from the natives."

"We also have to load up some wood for the Canary Islands."

This is the task that needs to be completed at present. Leonos sighed, put down the documents reluctantly, pushed open the door and came to the deck.

A small port is just ahead, the sea breeze is very refreshing, a young man is standing on the bow with his hands open, marveling with a look of enjoyment.

Leonos looked at the young man, a nameless anger rising in his heart. He walked up quickly and pulled him down.

"Boy, aren't you afraid of falling, huh?"

Leonos glared at him fiercely.

"The ocean is dark. It doesn't care what school you go to or how much money your family has. If you really fall in, don't think I will stop the boat to save you!"

"It's almost time, can't you just be quiet?"

Leonos yelled.

"You've caused the most trouble along the way!"

The young man looked at Leonos and apologized quickly.

"I'm sorry, dear Captain, I really didn't expect that there would be such a cool place on the coast of Central Africa!"

"Do you know about cold currents? Our geography textbooks say that the natural conditions in Luanda are much better than those in Chrysostom Port. I think it's because of the cold currents in this area..."

The young man said excitedly.

"Our Governor of Angola is really wise. He actually chose this place to build a colony..."

Leonos was indifferent to the young man's chattering. He took out his telescope and aimed it at the small harbor ahead.

"The environment is really good, much better than Congo..."

Leonos said to himself.

“Without much rainforest, there would be less disease.”

"Captain, now the rain forest is not a completely life-restricted zone. The Colonial Department and the Ministry of Education have jointly issued a "Fever Prevention Manual" that advocates burning trees, applying herbal juices, and most importantly, regularly taking hot water soaked with Artemisia annua and cinchona bark."

The young man continued.

"Some expedition teams even specifically recruit members with hereditary ischemia, who rarely suffer from heat illness."

"Did you come here just to show off your knowledge?"

The captain was annoyed by his noise and turned around and looked at him.

"Of course not, Captain. I am from the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Constantinople. Geography is just my minor. The purpose of my coming here is to study the indigenous languages ​​and submit a report."

The young man replied.

"This is our final assignment. I was unlucky and was assigned to this newly established small colony."

"Studying indigenous languages? What's the point?"

Leonos shook his head in disdain.

“Do you want to write textbooks for the indigenous people?”

"No, even though the College of Humanities has received a lot of funding recently, it won't do something that loses money."

The young man thought about it and looked at the captain.

"If I'm not mistaken, you are a Latin Roman, right?"

"You speak Greek, but you occasionally use Latin for some words."

"What Latin Romans? I grew up in Bulgaria. My ancestors may be Wallachians, pure Orthodox Christians."

The captain frowned.

"I'm not Italian or Spanish."

"That's right. From what we know, your ancestors should be the descendants of Dacians and Romans, living on the Wallachian Plain, and speaking Latin as their mother tongue."

The young man understood.

"Dacian Latin is very close to pure Latin, second only to Spanish, and even closer to ancient Latin than many Italian languages."

"Have you ever met any Spanish sailors? You should have no difficulty in communicating with them?"

"No, but what does this have to do with your final assignment?"

Leonos asked.

"Right now, the languages ​​in the Eastern Empire are too diverse. There are many languages ​​in the mainland alone, and even more in the colonies."

The young man explained.

“After the empire promoted education, it immediately discovered a major problem: Greek was too difficult to learn.”

"In order to better communicate and promote the Greek language, the Faculty of Humanities has set up a project to try to simplify the Greek language according to local conditions."

"For example, the Greek of the Carthaginians was much simpler than that of Constantinople, and many difficult words were directly replaced with local words."

"Even so, a Constantinople native and a Carthaginian could still communicate normally and understand each other."

"Our tutor believes that with the prosperity of education and the advancement of colonial missionary movement, the number of people using Greek will increase, but different places will have different accents, which is a natural occurrence."

Seeing Leonos lost in thought, the young man continued.

"The purpose of my trip is to study the indigenous languages ​​of Angola and Congo and try to write them in a simplified Greek alphabet, trying to create a fusion language to accelerate the spread of Greek and Christianity."

"The Kingdom of Kongo was one of the few indigenous kingdoms that voluntarily converted. Over the past decade or so, many upper-class nobles have learned Greek. But when the missionary work moved from the upper class to the lower class, the spread of Greek immediately came to a standstill."

"The natives here have no written language, and their language has no carrier. The promotion of improved and simplified Greek and Greek script here may face less obstacles."

"You mean, like Saint Cyril?"

Leonos gradually understood.

“There are some similarities, but the primary purpose is different.”

The young man shook his head.

"Saint Cyril created the Cyrillic alphabet to spread Christianity to the Slavs in Eastern Europe, and our primary goal is to spread the Greek language and Greek writing through the improvement of the language and writing."

"Latin is too old and complicated, and later evolved into many simplified local languages, such as French, Italian, Dacian Latin, Spanish and Portuguese. Except for French, most other languages ​​can be understood, at least the most basic meaning can be understood."

"Greek is also ancient and complex. Our goal is to use the improved Greek as a basis, add local loanwords to create various Greek dialects in some regions, and then promote them over a long period of time to gradually solve the language problem."

The young man smiled.

"For example, the Dacian Latin of the Wallachians and the Moldavians only has one or two hundred loanwords that are actually derived from Old Dacian, and very few loanwords from Slavic. The main body is still Latin, and they can communicate normally with other branches of Latin."

"Don't underestimate the language. If the Eastern Empire can achieve a general unification of the Greek language, commerce, administration, and military will all benefit from it."

“If we go one step further and Greek becomes a world language, the benefits we will gain will be immeasurable.”

The young man smiled slightly.

"Think about it. If you were a native chieftain who spoke Greek dialect, and all other conditions were exactly the same, and you were both doing business, but a captain who spoke High German talked to you through an interpreter for a long time, and another captain who spoke Greek talked to you directly and in detail, who would you prefer to do business with?"

"Language is a kind of culture. Commonality in language will also bring cultural closeness, which is very important."

"I understand a little bit. It's a great project."

Leonos put away his previous contempt and nodded.

"But why did you come to Congo and Angola? There is nothing here. The emperor has not built anything. The newly established Governorate of Angola is actually a captain's territory."

Leonos shrugged.

"I know the governor here. He's just an old captain who is extremely eager for a noble title. He found this place nice and decided to occupy it as a colony. The emperor went along with it and made him the Governor of Angola and Count of Luanda. He has left it all up to him to develop."

“So I just said that I have bad luck.”

The young man spread his hands helplessly.

"I am the only one who came here. Four went to New Thrace, three went to Cuba, and six went to New Rome."

"There are even more in the empire itself: three in Bulgaria, eight in Africa, and ten in Anatolia."

"Several vassal states and potential vassal states are also on the list for the next round of investigation, such as the Principality of Serbia, the Kingdom of Georgia and the Kingdom of Cossacks. Serbia and Georgia are easier as these two languages ​​have been influenced by Greek." The young man thought for a moment.

"As for the Russian and Tatar languages ​​of the Cossack Kingdom, I'm not sure. I haven't learned these two languages ​​yet."

"But then again, our relationship with the Congolese has always been good. We have never deliberately provoked hatred, never deliberately captured slaves, and have brought the people goods they like. I think they have a good attitude towards us."

"That's right. The Congolese in Porto Chrysostom like us very much. I'm not sure about the Angolans in Luanda, but the local natives seem to be under attack by foreign races. For his own benefit, our governor has hired some mercenaries to protect those surrendered tribes."

Leonos nodded.

In fact, the Eastern Roman Empire never captured slaves in the Kingdom of Kongo. This was not because the colonists were kind-hearted, but because the Kongo nobles issued a ban prohibiting Europeans from capturing slaves privately, so they had to do it themselves.

The Kingdom of Kongo was originally a slave state, and the king was the biggest slave trader. The Eastern Roman Empire brought a large amount of goods, but did not want their shell currency. In addition to gold and ivory, the main exchange item was their fellow slaves.

Before Europeans used black slaves, blacks themselves were using them. After Europeans used black slaves, the most brutal slave catchers were the blacks themselves.

The Great Turkish War brought a large number of Muslim slaves to the Eastern Roman Empire. The price of black slaves continued to fall, and many black chiefs who signed the protection agreement were quite dissatisfied with this.

"Okay, we're almost there, Luanda. I have some connections with the Governor of Luanda, so I can introduce you to him."

After some conversation, Leonos's impression of the young man improved and he patted him on the shoulder.

"No need for that. My letter of introduction is stamped with the imperial seal. My introducer is the emperor."

The young man said proudly.

"I will investigate here on my own. If I encounter any problems, I will naturally go to our Governor-General."

Leonos was stunned, opened his mouth, said nothing, and turned his head to the side.

The fleet docked one after another, and the port of Luanda came into view. This was a newly established private colony with only a small port. The emperor fulfilled the governor's wish and made him a count, but was not willing to invest in its construction and left it to him to manage it.

In recent years, with the rise of private exploration, there are many such small colonies, and the Eastern Roman Empire has been letting them go and just joining the Eastern Roman market.

The fleet docked and the sailors unloaded the mercenaries. Leonos gave a few instructions to the first mate and walked down the deck with a team of mercenaries from Rosemary Mercenary Company, looking for the governor.

"Here! Leonos!"

A weathered but powerful voice came into Leonos' ears. Leonos looked in the direction of the voice and found the owner of the voice.

"Long time no see, dear Cosimo."

Leonos walked forward and hugged Cosimo.

"If I hadn't read the information in advance, I really wouldn't have known that this Governor of Angola and Count of Luanda was actually you!"

Leonos said with a smile.

"You've made money and you can enjoy life, so why do you still risk your life to come to a place like this?"

"Is it really for a count?"

"Mostly, you know, I always wanted to be a noble when I was in the navy."

Cosimo said with some nostalgia.

"However, the conditions here are actually quite good. It's not too cold or too hot, and it's like spring all year round."

Cosimo looked around his little port.

Luanda is located south of the equator. Although it is in the tropics, the temperature is not hot due to the influence of the Benguela cold current. It has a tropical savanna climate with rain and heat occurring at the same time and mild seasons. It can be called the "Tropical Spring City".

"Have you brought the mercenaries? What is their quality?"

Cosimo pointed to the group of mercenaries not far away.

"I've checked, they're not bad. There are fifty of them in total, all of them are freed slaves, they've been on the battlefield, they belong to the Rosemary Mercenary Company, and they're registered at the Mercenary House in Carthage."

Leonos explained.

"According to the previous contract, they will work for you for two years. After two years, you will have to continue negotiating."

"Okay, that's enough."

Cosimo glanced at the squad of mercenaries, who wore rosemary emblems on their chests.

"Let them go to the barracks to rest first. Come with me. I have something I want to show you."

Cosimo brought Leonos to his wooden castle and introduced him into his study.

The study is filled with various decorations, the most eye-catching of which are three pieces of wood hanging on the wall.

"what is this?"

Leonos pointed to the wood in the center.

"Haha, this is a good thing. It is also one of the most valuable things in Luanda."

Cosimo came to the wall and touched the dark wood with fascination.

“This is rosewood.”

"Rosewood?"

Leonos' eyes lit up.

"What about the other two?"

"One is ebony, and the other is white sandalwood. They are also valuable, but not as precious as red sandalwood."

Cosimo said.

"In the furniture market of Carthage, furniture made of these woods is in short supply, especially red sandalwood. Once it flows into the country in large quantities, it will definitely become the favorite of the royal family."

“So that’s why you invested here.”

Leonos sighed.

"At first, the first mate often said that you had the best brains among us sailors. I didn't believe it at first, but now I have to believe it."

"No, these woods are not the most critical."

Cosimo shook his head, took out a box from a drawer and handed it to Leonos.

"what is this?"

Leonos opened the box and looked at the metal inside with curiosity.

"This is platinum, a very good metal that can be made into very beautiful jewelry and handicrafts. It is extremely valuable."

Cosimo said simply.

"I discovered a platinum mine in the southeast, but it is temporarily occupied by the natives."

"Luanda Port originally belonged to the Kingdom of Ndongo, which was a tributary state of the Kingdom of Kongo. After I discovered that this place was rich in resources, I used my life savings to bribe the Congolese nobles and bought this land through peaceful means."

"I tried to put down roots here, gradually encroaching inland, cutting down timber, prospecting for minerals, and making profits."

"Will this thing... really be liked by the nobles?"

Leonos played with the platinum in his hands.

"I've never heard of anyone wearing this as jewelry."

"Haha, as far as I know, the emperor is looking for platinum, and several exploration teams have gone to various places to explore."

Cosimo said with some pride.

"Also, I got some information. The emperor is looking for platinum not just for making handicrafts."

Cosimo took out a newspaper and pointed out the words on it to Leonos.

"This was brought by a ship a few days ago. It said that the emperor has pacified the Taibessa Mountains and is looking for phosphate mines in the area."

"Phosphate mine?"

Leonos was stunned, not quite understanding.

"Don't worry, there is more."

Cosimo pulled an old newspaper from the bookshelf, dated a year ago.

"Abu, a chemist at the Imperial Academy of Sciences, said he had found a way to mass-produce sulfuric acid, but the product was impure and could not be used."

Cosimo took out a letter with the emblem of the Richmel Fertilizer Factory printed on it.

"I know Lord Li Ximeier. They are developing a fertilizer that can be produced directly from the factory. The main raw materials are sulfuric acid and phosphate rock."

Cosimo was a little excited.

"According to Li Ximeier, His Majesty once evaluated Abu's pyrite acid production method and believed that the main reason was that the reaction speed was not fast enough, and something was needed to speed up the reaction."

"They call this thing a catalyst."

Cosimo raised his trembling hand and took a small piece of platinum from Leonos.

"This is the catalyst that His Majesty mentioned!"

"If sulfuric acid could be produced in large quantities, whether mixed with bone meal or combined with phosphate rock to make fertilizer, it would greatly increase agricultural output."

"Just think about it, if fertilizer can really be produced in a factory, how big the market will be, and how much profit will be generated!"

"How can wood or something like that be better than food? Commodities are always the most profitable!"

Cosimo's eyes sparkled.

"All this is inseparable from the little thing in my hand. Maybe I can get shares in the fertilizer factory from it. In this way, my son will not only be a nobleman, but also a rich man!"

Leonos didn't quite understand what was said, but looking at Cosimo's passion, he didn't have the heart to disturb his sweet dream.

"Cosimo, are there a lot of platinum reserves here?"

"Not much, but at least, we haven't found any platinum sources yet, so I can take advantage of this!"

Cosimo said.

"Then, have you ever thought about why the emperor has no interest in this place?"

Leonos couldn't help but ask.

"He can't go wrong."

"That...I haven't thought about it."

Cosimo shook his head.

"Never mind, let's take down that small mine first!"

(End of this chapter)