Chapter 2253: Spanish preparation (1)

Latest website: Felipe IV assigned work. First of all, the bitter-faced finance minister, Count Don Rodrigo, was arranged to find major bankers in Europe to borrow money to replenish the national treasury and spend it on military expenditures.

The soldiers and horses have not moved, the food and grass go first, and there is no military expenditure to fight any wars!

In his position, Count Don Rodrigo wanted to quit, but he had been in the ocean for half his life, knowing that he must be politically conscious at critical moments. If he escapes, even if he can get away, he will definitely get out. Take blame.

He bit his head and invited representatives of various banks in Madrid, contacted them, borrowed money from them, and planned to use the kingdom's normal tariffs and salt taxes as collateral.

The kingdom of Spain’s finances went bankrupt many times, and the king did not pay the debts, and anyone else borrowed money from them?

some!

Not only did they have, but many people were willing to borrow from the king.

The Kingdom of Spain is loved and hated. They have the most silver production in the world!

With so much silver produced, there is no need to worry about finding someone to take the order. Bankers risked being owed and scrambled to lend money to the King of Spain in order to obtain expensive bank interest.

At that time, there were not many investment channels, and bankers had money and couldn't spend it, even if they risked taking loans from the Kingdom of Spain.

Needless to say, when the Kingdom of Spain was fighting for loans, the bankers opened their mouths and increased the interest rate by another 30% on the basis of the current bank interest rate.

Of course they wanted more, but Count Don Rodrigo threatened them and said: "Don't be too greedy, otherwise you will have nothing if we are defeated!"

If you win, you may repay the loan, but if you lose, you will repay your debts. Faced with this kind of hob meat, the bankers can only pinch their noses to admit that they formed a joint bank group to contract the borrowings of the Kingdom of Spain.

The strong irony is that the Kingdom of Spain belongs to a Catholic country, and the bankers who loaned them include Protestant countries such as the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Sweden, etc. Catholic countries and Protestant countries are coming together. It can be seen that anything can be done in the face of interests. Leave it behind.

Count Don Rodrigo borrowed 8 million Spanish silver coins, of which 2 million silver dollars were paid immediately, and the remaining 6 million silver dollars were paid in one month and three months later.

Not only that, the United Banking Group also underwrites bonds of 5 million Spanish silver coins, which are learned from the Chinese. In the financial markets of the two Chinas, the bond industry is very developed, and many bonds have been issued, including national construction bonds, such as The construction of large reservoirs, dams, roads and ports may all be guaranteed by national credit, but China’s credit is much better than other countries, and it will always pay principal and interest on schedule and never default.

Bonds are sold to all classes of society to encourage everyone to love their country and buy bonds to arm the kingdom fleet, go to war against those heretics, and send them to hell.

Also, Count Don Rodrigo was authorized by the king to compulsorily issue five million Spanish silver coins of treasury bills. This was also learned from the Chinese. The task of selling treasury bills was assigned to the central ministries and local officials, who were responsible for sales. Forced sales to public officials and local wealthy people. Officials who can sell are rewarded, and officials who cannot be sold are punished.

List the sales ratio and rewards and punishment indicators. For example, officials who only sell less than half will be demoted, those who sell more than 75% will have their salaries cut, and 90% of sales officials will not be promoted within three years. Officials who complete the tasks will be given priority Promoted, officials who overfulfill the task are promoted immediately.

There are indicators for assessment. This is more reliable than Emperor Chongzhen of the Ming Dynasty. Emperor Chongzhen had no money to collect donations from the ministers, and the ministers were crying poor...

All in all, Count Don Rodrigo was able to borrow a large sum of money. This time, he personally controlled the whereabouts of the money to ensure that every silver coin was spent on the military.

The Minister of Military Affairs, the Marquis of Don Marco Asensio, was obliged to organize the army to prepare for war with the South China Empire.

In fact, King Felipe IV is not ignorant. He has already taken precautions and invested a lot of money to speed up the construction of battleships. New battleships are constantly under water, causing financial strains in the kingdom. At the same time, the accounts of his naval fleet have changed. It's quite glamorous.

At the military meeting, the Marquis of Don Marco reported to the king the preparations of the Royal Navy.

Its fleet consists of seven first-class battleships with three-layer full gun decks, namely the "Immaculate Conception", the "Salvador del Mundo", the "San Vincent Ferrer", and the "Guardian". "Our Lady of Darup", "San Joaquin" and "San José" and the earliest "Mother Concepcion", these warships are tall and mighty, like a hill on the sea, with guns. Over a hundred doors, super firepower!

This is the essence of the Kingdom's fleet, and each one can be called the country's heaviest weapon.

Since the 17th century, the strong rise of the Imperial South China Navy, in particular, has promoted the great development of sailing battleships. The naval powers have entered the golden age of the sailing age, vying to build first-class battleships with three layers of full gun decks, that is, "owning three A battleship with a perforated battle deck and full of artillery shooting.” In the sailing age, this battleship was undoubtedly the most powerful naval weapon at the time.

In the thriving three-tiered full gun deck battleship competition, the Kingdom of Spain did not lag behind, even as early as the 14th century, Spain’s Cantabria’s Santander, Vizcaya and Guipúzcoa, and Catalonia The shipyard in Nia has built a three-deck combat sail ship, but the deck was not used to install artillery. Before artillery became a naval weapon, the main weapons of warships were bows, crossbows and some throwing weapons. equipment.

The "San Clemenza" built by the Spaniards in 1331 had 500 crew members, which was a miracle in the 14th century!

The Spaniards made great efforts to build ships. Just as they were preparing to start war with the South China Empire, the latest "Our Lady of Guadalupe" was launched. This is really good news. King Felipe IV personally presided over the giant battleship. Launching ceremony.

The ship is parked in a dry dock ~www.wuxiaspot.com~ Its artillery deck is 81.22 cubits (about 46.68 meters) long, the keel is 69.6 cubits (about 40 meters), the width of the ship is 22.5 cubits (about 12.93 meters), and the draft is 11.67 cubits. Elbow (about 6.71 meters), there are 102 blastholes on the three-layer gun deck, the maximum gun caliber reaches 42 pounds, the light load displacement is 1665 tons, and the heavy load displacement is more than 2000 tons. This is an uncompromising first-class battleship. !

The king smashed a wine bottle at the giant ship, and people cheered, proud of the battleship, and full of confidence in defeating the infidels!

The workers opened the sea gate of the dry dock to release the water according to the supervisor’s order. It happened that at the time of high tide, the sea was surging, and suddenly the "Our Lady of Guadalupe" floated, and then the sea brought the huge ship. The side wall slammed into the left side of the dry dock violently, making a terrible harsh sound!

The huge ship bounced back to the right side of the dry dock by the impact force. Under the violent collision, the two shipbuilders staying on the ship were unstable and screamed. Darup’s "Our Lady" hit the ship ups and downs, life and death unknown.

At least a thousand people at the scene saw this scene, and they were all dumbfounded!