At the headquarters of the Holy Order in Paris, Art received warm hospitality.
Henry Sir Henry, who helped Art borrow huge sums of money from the Holy Order's treasury, not to mention, even the Inspector General in charge of the entire Holy Order's treasury (equivalent to the financial chief of the Holy Order) personally met with Art.
For the Holy Order Treasury, Art, who has now been promoted to the count of a country's province, is a friend worth making friends with.
Since Art, who was the frontier baron of Burgundy, borrowed 500,000 pfennigs from the Holy Order's treasury four years ago, the Holy Order's treasury has not only received the loan principal and the interest of 15,000 pfennigs on time every year, but the treasury stewards at all levels who helped Art borrow money can also receive an additional valuable "thank you gift" every year.
However, in recent years, although Ater has been promoted to nobility and his fiefdom has gradually expanded, he has not borrowed many large sums of money from the Holy Order's treasury.
It's not that Art doesn't want to borrow money, it's just that the interest rate in the Holy Order's treasury is too high, and he doesn't dare to be a "lazy guy" in front of the powerful Holy Order. In addition, he has been fighting wars and robbing money every year, so there is really no need for him to make money for the Holy Order's treasury.
But today is different from the past. If history can really get on the right track, why not take a big gamble. Even if the outcome of the holy group is different from its original history, there will be no loss. It is just like borrowing a usury.
Hands briefly exchanged greetings for a while in the VIP side hall of the Holy Group headquarters. After the distance between them became closer, the two sides got down to business.
At took out fifteen thousand pfennigs from the money he carried and gave it to the Holy Order. According to the agreement four years ago, the principal of the annual loan repayment will be handed over by the European Commercial Bank to the treasury branch of the Holy Order in Besançon before the last day of summer, and the annual interest of 15,000 pfennigs will be paid at Christmas at the end of the year.
Of course, the "gifts" given to the stewards of the Holy Order this year must have been doubled, and they were presented by Art himself.
Since everyone received favors every year, their favorable impression of this young Earl naturally doubled.
The preliminary preparations have been made, and Art has entered into the main topic.
"...Inspector General, fellow stewards, this time I went to Paris for a purpose other than going to the palace to meet and visit friends of the Holy Order." Art went straight to the point.
A vassal count went to the headquarters of the Holy Order and met with the inspector general and several treasury stewards to repay and send money. The purpose was of course obvious.
"How much more will Earl Art plan to borrow this time?" The Holy Order's Inspector-General was stroking the exquisite ivory and gold cross presented by Art under the table while looking at Art.
Matt glanced at Robert beside him, and then the Inspector General of the Pilgrim Mission held out five fingers.
"Half a million? No problem!" The Holy Group's Inspector General immediately agreed.
Matt laughed and shook his head, "Lord Inspector General, half a million is really not a large amount for a newly prosperous count province. For this little money, there is no need for me to come to the Holy Order to see you in person."
"Five million pfennig, I hope the Holy Order treasury can lend me five million pfennig."
The movements in the hands of the Holy Order's Inspector General suddenly stopped. He looked at several treasury stewards, then turned to Art and said: "Count Art, five million pfennig? Do you dare to say such a big number?"
Another treasury steward interjected, "My lord, do you know how much tax revenue your Burgundy kingdom has received from the treasury in recent years? Less than two million pfennigs! In the past two years, Burgundy has been in turmoil, and this tax revenue may not be reached. How dare you mention this? Huge loan~"
Ate waved his hand, "Inspector General, fellow stewards, you are only talking about the tax revenue of the treasury during the period of the Count of Burgundy. But now that the country of Burgundy has recovered its national strength, people's livelihood is getting better, and commerce and trade are prosperous, the treasury tax revenue is not comparable to the past."
"Besides, my province, Wells, is different from other places. I have an increasingly powerful continental trading house, which can bring me millions of pfennig in revenue every year, and this number keeps rising."
Matt waved to Ron behind him, and Ron took out a piece of parchment and handed it to Art.
"And just today, I have obtained commercial privileges from the King of France. From now on, my Continental Trading Company will occupy the entire southern trade route from the southern seaport to Paris and even to the North Sea~"
"Everyone, I believe you have seen the commercial power of the Hanseatic League. In less than ten years, the Continental Trading Company will rival the Hanseatic and become another commercial giant at the southern end of the European continent."
Matt returned the privilege certificate that only authorized the free trade of southern goods in Paris to Ron, and then looked at the senior officials of the Holy Order opposite him with an extremely "arrogant" look, "How about it? Do I dare to mention these five million?"
Before the other party could recover, Art put on another mysterious expression and lowered his voice, "However, the reason why I borrowed money from the Holy Group this time is not to develop the territory. The profits of my European trading company are completely sufficient for the construction of my territory."
"I borrowed money from the Holy Order this time just to fulfill a long-cherished wish."
The people on the opposite side were confused.
"You all must know that I use force to gain power, and you may have heard old Sir Henry tell me about my life experience."
"I am the son of a baron in the north of the Principality of Lombardy. When my father returned home with the Holy Order from the Eastern Expedition to the Pagans, he was persecuted by political enemies. His family was destroyed, and his honors and lands were taken away from him."
"I have been constantly fighting, training, and building momentum over the years, in order to lead my troops back to Lombardy, kill the enemy with my own hands, and regain the honor that belongs to my family."
"Facts." I have already started taking action. This summer, I have occupied a pass in the legal territory of my Burgundy kingdom in the north of Lombardy and stationed troops there. "
"Now I have three infantry legions and one cavalry legion with nearly 3,000 elite professional soldiers, and there are also 5,000 peasant soldiers in the territory. Next summer, at the end of autumn at the latest, I will send troops to the north of Lombardy."
At this point, Art stopped and brought the topic back to the center, "You are all elites in the Holy Order. You know that the most expensive thing is the battle, and the most profitable thing is the battle." The third is one of the richest lands in Europe. I believe you can estimate how much I will gain in the battle next year. "
"Of course, you should doubt whether I can win. But you also know that I have a provincial territory and a growing trading company under my name. Even if I lose, I am not afraid of not paying back the Holy Order's loan."
Several senior officials of the Holy Order on the opposite side were stunned for a moment, and then began to whisper among themselves.
Matt added to the fire, "Friends, I have already inquired. The maximum interest rate for borrowing money from the Holy Order's treasury is one-tenth of the annual principal. The maximum interest rate for the loans you privately issue to merchants is only one-eighth. If the Holy Order can lend me five million Fenni, I will pay one-fifth of the interest, and the loan period is only one year." "
"In other words, in just one year, I will bring millions of fenni to the Holy Order. Of course, my friends will also get an additional trophy from my campaign to restore honor."
Several senior officials of the Holy Order could not sit still, and they had begun to discuss loudly.
While the people opposite were having a heated discussion, Art patted the hem of his armor and skirt, stood up and said: "Everyone, the five million loan is definitely not something you can decide on. You can report it to the Grand Master and the Priest later. I will wait in Paris for two days. If If not, I will go northeast and ask for a loan from the Hanseatic League. People from the Hanseatic League have contacted me. Those businessmen are more courageous than you~" After that, Art said goodbye to the servants and left the Holy Order headquarters with Robert and Ron.
Walking out of the gate of the temple, Robert couldn't help but raise his hand to wipe the sweat from his forehead, turned his head slightly and glanced behind him, and whispered to Art: "My Lord Count, do you really dare to say when did we have 3,000 elite soldiers and 5,000 peasant soldiers? When did the Hanseatic League contact us~"
Matt laughed and said, "My Lord Bishop, it is useless not to speak louder when dealing with this group of people. If I were not too worried, I would even want to involve the Emperor of the Shinra Empire."
· Robert glanced at Art, "My lord, you are so shameless~"
· "This face is not cheap." Art said with a smile and got on the horse...
· ......
· Two days later, the holy group invited Art to the temple.
He agreed to a huge loan of five million pfennigs, but asked Art to use the taxes of the Province of Wales and the ownership of the Continental Trading Company as collateral, and asked Robert to use the tithes of the parishes of Wales as security on behalf of the church.
At the same time, the Holy Order proposed that when the Welsh Legion goes to Lombardy next year, the Holy Order should be allowed to send inspectors to follow them so that the loans and interest can be recovered from the spoils of war in a timely manner.
At the negotiation table, Art fully agreed to the requirements of the Holy Order's treasury, but he proposed to immediately cash the loan in gold from the Holy Order's treasury in Paris. His reason was to save the heavy tax on withdrawals from other places, and he was eager to use the money to purchase weapons and armor from the French Kingdom's arsenal.
With such a lucrative transaction, the Holy Group’s treasury didn’t care about the taxes, so both parties made a decision.
After Ron led six guards to take out more than 1,600 pounds of gold (discounted at 5 million pfennigs) from the Holy Order's treasury in Paris, he immediately sent it to a excrement cleaning carriage to transport it out of Paris and hid it in a fisherman's hut near the southern port of Paris.
An ordinary courtyard-style warehouse in the south of Paris was recently rented to a group of businessmen from the south.
Since it was leased to a trading company, few people have come in or out of this warehouse, and there are some strange homeless and beggars outside the closed door.
In a clean attic in the warehouse, several guys dressed in merchant clothes gathered around a man who was staring at the map of Paris on the wall and studying it carefully.
…Sir, Secret Letter has sent people to the headquarters of the Holy Order. Today, there are more people monitoring the Holy Order's treasury. As long as they transfer their property, our people will keep following them."
"Sir, there is one more thing to report. At noon today, a group of suspicious guys appeared near the Holy Group's treasury. They stayed in a hotel near the Holy Group's treasury. Our people found that those guys were also monitoring the Holy Group's treasury." "Stanley, from today onwards, change the group of surveillance people every half day, don't let anyone find out."
Art took his eyes away from the temporary map of Paris and ordered Ron behind him: "Give orders to the guards lurking outside the city and tell them to take action at any time..."