Chapter 2163: Right in the middle

The princes were discussing how to blackmail Marin, but no one noticed, the eyes of a priest sitting at the very edge of the chamber flashed.

This priest, of course, is our outstanding spy James Bond of the North Sea country, that is, "Calvin", the newly promoted professor of theology at Wittenberg University. As a distinguished guest and friend of Frederick III, the elector of Saxony, Bond and Martin Luther sat in the most corner of the chamber, although Bond was not qualified to participate in the meeting, and watched the whole process of the meeting.

Martin Luther, an idealist, was stunned by the last wave of discussions among the princes-is this still a nobleman? Why is money when you open your mouth and shut your mouth? Like a bottomless businessman...

Martin Luther didn't react until he left the chamber. Because the scene before him had too much impact on him, a bit subverted his three views. After all, he is only 34 years old and has been working as a teacher in an ivory tower-like university. Although he has seen many injustices at the bottom of society, there are still few sordidities among the nobles.

But Bond, as a spy, is more informed and knows a lot of secrets, which is not surprising. Seeing the loss of Martin Luther, Bond patted him on the shoulder:

"Martin, don't mind, this is life. You know, nobles also want to eat and drink, and they like to talk about ostentation and spend a lot of money. That's why they care about money so much."

Martin Luther regained his senses, grinned reluctantly, but then asked seriously:

"Calvin, do you say that we are determined to promote church change, does it make sense? You have also seen that these nobles are not as noble as they advertised, but very cheap. I am worried that even if the change is successful, it will only be cheap. I can’t help ordinary people who really need help."

Martin Luther is a noble person, he likes to help the weak. Originally, he thought that the nobles he was going to cooperate with would be as noble and kind as advertised in the knight novel. As a result, I realized that the princes were just a bunch of fat-headed and big-eared profiteers who kept talking about their interests.

Bond was open-minded, and Marin raised this question with him. So he thought about what Marin said at the beginning, and comforted Martin Luther:

"You are right. Many of these nobles are not good people. But you have to know that if they don't help us, we will be alone and will soon be suppressed by the Holy See, unable to fulfill our wishes. Although cooperation with them is not the best A good choice, but we have no choice. Moreover, although most of the benefits after the reform will be taken away by these noble lords, the common people will still get some benefits. As long as there is progress, we will have a clear conscience!"

Martin Luther listened to Bond's words, thoughtfully, and then pondered these words over and over again. It wasn't until a few days later that Martin Luther figured it out. Many difficulties cannot be solved overnight. Cooperating with the nobles is mainly based on their strength. Solve the problem first, and then solve the problem of aristocracy's greed. Of course, he may not have time to solve the latter problem. Because, to solve the problem of the Holy See, Martin Luther is not confident that he can do it in this life. But as Professor "Calvin" said, even if only part of the benefits can be obtained, it is of great benefit to ordinary people. After all, the people's demands are extremely low, they just demand to be alive.

...

As for Bond, after separating from Martin Luther, he immediately passed the details of this private meeting to Marin in the form of a password.

After seeing the information, Ma Lin was also very speechless-a group of princes, just like that. Fortunately, these people are not stupid enough to blackmail themselves directly. If you want to do business, it doesn't matter if you make a profit.

In fact, Marin has always wanted to do business with the princes. But the princes had great opinions on him and have been reluctant to cooperate. Even if he is willing to make profit, most of the princes will suspect that he is "improperly conspiring." Therefore, Marin built a lot of "small" chambers of commerce in a roundabout way, hiding the background of the North Sea country, and establishing trade relations with some vassals.

But the problem is that there is no official way. These low-key small chambers of commerce often encounter all kinds of difficulties and are blackmailed. Therefore, in the end, there is actually not much money to be made.

This is also normal. You know, even in the 21st century, when Chinese go to Maozi to do business, they are often blackmailed under various names by Maozi's "catchers". Even Huaxia has a legend that investment is not enough. In this era when there is no legal system, business must consider not only purchase costs and transportation costs, but also extortion and extortion along the way.

There are so many states in the German region that businesses often have to "enter and exit" and then pay road taxes and customs duties. These costs make Ma Lin's small chamber of commerce miserable. Often, if there are a few more barriers on the road for products that are obviously very profitable, the profits will be knocked down to only a little bit. But Marin could not speak for these small chambers of commerce, otherwise, these chambers of commerce would be even more unlucky and even more targeted.

And if the goods were handed over to these princes to "agent", the situation would be very different immediately. Among other things, no one dared to charge tolls in the state where the princes were located. After all, that state is the chassis of this prince, who would dare to blackmail the local emperor?

Then, the cost of being blackmailed along the way can be directly lost. At least, it doesn't need to be undertaken by the Chamber of Commerce under Ma Lin. In the end, although it looks like a profit, it actually makes more money.

Moreover, the so-called "purchase price" itself includes those tolls that have been extorted. Even a 20% discount is far more than the cost price. And the shipping price of the place of origin is actually less than half of the "purchase price" ~ www.wuxiaspot.com~. Calculated like this, even if the "purchase price" is discounted by 20%, Marin still earns more than 30%.

In addition, those businesses that are personally represented by the princes will not only be unimpeded in their home states and will not be blackmailed, but they will also pay a lot less tolls when crossing the borders of other princes. Because the princes gave face to each other and would facilitate each other.

When the prince’s family flag is inserted, the family badge is hung. When passing the checkpoint, not to mention tax exemption. Even if tolls are collected, depending on the face of the family flag and clan emblem, they must be collected in accordance with the minimum standard. In addition, officials and soldiers at the checkpoint did not dare to blackmail the caravan in private. Because this will offend the great nobles behind the caravan.

Therefore, the benefits of entrusting the merchandise to these princes' agents are too much. It can save a lot of tolls and will not be blackmailed by cats and dogs.

It's just that, because of the extremely tense relationship between the two sides, Marin has been unable to let those princes act as agents for his own products.

Now, the relationship between the two parties is still tense. However, this time some princes want to force Marin to make a profit in business. Although it is not to give face, but in fact, it is in the arms of Marin...

After that, Marin kept thinking about whether I would lie down and not resist, or pretend to resist, to make the other party more proud, and then cooperate...