Chapter 2343: Betes Fauves (Part 1)

Chapter 2343 bêtes fauves (Part 1)

Father Gregory was known for his honesty and courage to expose some absurd and radical behaviors, whether in the court or in the Great Revolution.

In the 11th century, as the Benedictine monks increasingly violated the spirit of the order, some monks came to the swamps near Dijon in Burgundy in eastern France to create new monasteries and live a more peaceful, simple, labor, prayer and reading life.

At that time, Burgundy was still an undeveloped inland area, and the convenience of trade was far less than that of port cities, but the Cistercian monks were hardworking and capable. After meeting self-sufficiency, they began to sell wool, grain, salt, etc.

Wine was praised as flowing red gold. Before the 14th century, it had been monopolized by Italians. The Byzantine Empire only collected 4% of the tax from Venice and 10% of the tariff from its own merchants, but even so, it was still not as good as the privileged monastic wine. Not only did they not have taxes, but they also had to collect tithes, so the monks soon became very rich.

Bordeaux also has the privilege of tax-free self-made wine. Bourgeois originally referred to people living in Bordeaux, and later became the "middle class". In the 15th century, they also began to sell wine, but Bordeaux was classified by winery, while Burgundy was classified by vineyards. Pomona still remembers that she took a hot air balloon in Burgundy at that time, and saw an abandoned Quidditch field on the hot air balloon.

The Cistercians were experts in winemaking in the Middle Ages, as well as experts in grape cultivation. Those grand cru vineyards in places such as Côte de Nuits originally belonged to the church and the nobility. After the outbreak of the Revolution, the church's assets were confiscated, and these grand cru vineyards were the first to bear the brunt.

Basically, the vineyards in Burgundy were divided into many large and small pieces during this period, and a vineyard was often jointly owned by several or even more than a dozen wineries. Among them, the one that had been divided for the longest time was Clos Vougeot. Napoleon had always wanted the "king of wine" produced in this winery, but was rejected by the priest who guarded the vineyard.

Gabriel Houffral had a relative named Julien Houffral, who was a professor at the University of Paris and also Napoleon's law teacher. He bought a Burgundy vineyard from a banker who was heavily in debt.

Last year, the "Bread and Blood" movement broke out in Britain. This slogan sounded very Jacobin. Georgiana always felt that it was related to Julian Houffral.

He refused the position of a member of parliament and instead succeeded Brongniard as the director of the Sevres ceramic factory. She could not forget his sudden confession like a mental illness. In the eyes of many people, Julian Houffral was also a golden bachelor. He had not married yet and had several nephews who helped him run the winery. He worked as a professor and a factory director in Paris.

Georgiana could smell the smell of a beast in him, and she did not think she could get married three times.

The Cistercians are also known as white monks. After they reclaimed the vineyards, they stopped cultivating them themselves. Many poor farmers came to the monastery to become "lay disciples". They did not need to shave their heads like formal monks, and could only wear brown robes. They can be seen in many medieval movies.

These people are different from hired farmers. The temporary laborers hired can spend their money at their own disposal. These lay disciples eat in the canteen like the white monks, because in order to avoid repeating the Benedictines, they eat very poorly, but the white monks can drink very good wine. In their internal saying, "drink less, but it must be good". In order to cater to their picky taste buds, the wine is brewed better and better.

The white monks also have a privilege, that is, they can read, while the lay disciples have no opportunity to receive education, so their "hobby" is to steal wine.

This situation continued until the 16th century. The Duchy of Burgundy was first divided by the Habsburgs and the Kingdom of France. In 1516, King Francis I of France signed the Treaty of Bologna with the Pope, stipulating that the king had the right to appoint church officials and levy taxes on the clergy, and ordered all provinces in the country to use French instead of Latin, the language used by the church. Then the Cistercian Order ushered in a reform. It was also from that time that the Cistercian Order began to decline gradually until it disappeared during the French Revolution.

Confiscating church assets, disbanding the order, and forcing monks and nuns to return to secular life, the former white-robed monks also put on brown robes and worked in the fields like farmers.

Gregory was interrupted by the Archbishop when he was speaking. Although Gregory was a father of the French Republic and a priest of the French Church, and the Archbishop was the Archbishop of Belgium, his clergy rank was lower than that of the Archbishop, and he could not disobey, unless Archbishop Roquerol made an unforgivable mistake, such as using the Inquisition to murder an innocent maid.

In the same way, if Georgiana was still a powerless woman, she would not even have the opportunity to sit at this table, and she would have to be careful when she had the opportunity to speak, so as not to be underestimated by others. If she spoke like she did just now, others might think that she had a problem with her brain.

It is also possible that Gregory will replace Archbishop Roquerol as the new Archbishop of Mechelen. After he takes office, he can disband the current clergy and promote French. This is another topic discussed at this meeting. The cathedral clergy are the senator priests of the cathedral, assisting the bishop in handling church affairs. The Archbishop of Mainz retired after his diocese and electoral status were taken away, and his church affairs were replaced by his assistant Dahlberg. Other church territories compensated to Prussia will probably be promoted in this way. Mechelen does not need to make such a fuss.

Another thing is the vineyard. There is a count's second son in Antwerp, and his father is a winemaker from Germany. There are many high-quality vineyards on the banks of the Moselle River, most of which are also controlled by the church. Some of these vineyards were compensated to the directors of the nationalized tobacco company.

Although they were given, it is also possible that due to poor management, the special vineyards will be sold to others in the end, just like the banker. There are very few people who can afford so much money. A university professor's salary would not be able to afford it, but Julian and Gabriel Ouvrard are relatives, and he has more than one vineyard.

If you can't give the other person love, then give him power. The Paris Institute of Technology has a ceramic art school, and the manufacturing process of porcelain is strictly confidential. In particular, Chinese porcelain is a luxury like the colorless glass of Venice, but the market demand is so great that even sea transportation cannot meet it. Then the Dutch began to imitate blue and white porcelain and had an imitation called Delfler porcelain. Because they didn't know the key materials, although they could be smooth, the whiteness was not enough, and the patterns were also drawn on the fired porcelain. Only the middle class would use it.

Until the 18th century, a German alchemist claimed to have obtained the formula for refining porcelain. The ruler August at the time established a porcelain factory. In order to preserve the secret recipe, the porcelain factory was very heavily guarded, no less than the glass island in Venice.

Originally, she thought that the escaped Venetian glass craftsman would only be sentenced to imprisonment, but she didn't expect it to be directly executed.

In short, the German porcelain factory took away the market originally belonging to the Dutch Delfle porcelain, and the formula of the Sevres porcelain factory was not from Germany. When Madame Pompadour established it, Marie Antoinette had not yet married to France. Before that, the castle in the Forest of Vincennes had been a porcelain factory, just like the porcelain factory established in Albrechtsburg by Germany.

In order to make higher purity glass and searchlights for lighthouses, Fresnel found the formula from somewhere and used Bologna stone, which also came from the alchemy laboratory.

She didn't know much about glass, but she knew that alkali was needed, just like the colorless glass in Venice, and plant ash needed to be added. As long as the secret recipe was in hand, Belgium could make optical instrument-level glass and improve Hooke's microscope.

This would not take away the market for British glass. There were also British people who supported the Peruzzi Bank. In the 17th century, tens of thousands of exquisite "crystal glasses" flowed into England from Venice every year. Soon, not only did people want to get these dazzling glasses, but they even planned to imitate them.

But it was not so easy to "invite" craftsmen from Venice. The earliest glass workshop outside Venice was in Antwerp, and then it spread to Britain and France.

In order to save the declining Delft ceramic trade, Maria Theresa gave Tourne the privilege to establish a porcelain factory by the city hall to see whose porcelain was more popular.

"Is that right, Ms. Sevres?"

Georgina came back to her senses and found that everyone was looking at her.

"Sorry, I was distracted. What did you say just now?"

"Are the textbooks shipped from France or printed locally? I said, they are printed locally, are you right?" Gregoire said.

"Of course." Georgiana said immediately, "But the content must be reviewed, or do you want the same freedom of publication as Prussia?"

The archbishop smiled and shook his head, as determined as he rejected France's "equality" and "freedom", and then started the next topic.