Chapter 333 The Prince's Life

Mircea has entered Bohemia, and he has received support from the citizens in Brno. As for the nobles, they are still in Prague and have not returned. They wrote to Mircea that they will give His Majesty the Emperor a grand welcome banquet there.

The imperial reputation brought by the emperor's tour is constantly improving, and Peter's policy decisions in Constantinople are also affecting this new country.

"Your Highness, the Sultan is very eager to live in peace with your country. What happened before was purely accidental. It was done by those escaped Venetians."

The Mamluk envoy spoke to Peter about peace and friendship between the two countries, but Peter was not interested at all.

"If your country really wants to live in peace, then you won't let this happen."

What is this?

After the recovery of trade in the Roman Empire, the Mamluks also benefited a lot from it. But this is limited to the upper nobles and government officials, and the lives of the lower people are more difficult. Especially those merchants and laborers, a large amount of Eastern trade was occupied by Roman merchants and the East India Company, but they could only do business in the desert, otherwise they would go bankrupt.

What's even more infuriating is that Constantinople and Cairo signed an agreement. Roman merchants only need to pay 2% tax to do business in Egypt, while locals have to pay various taxes, such as head tax, business tax, city entry tax, etc. As a result, local Egyptian merchants are naturally inferior to Roman merchants.

This made them more and more resentful, and even the Coptic Church was hostile to them. Some robberies and attacks occurred from time to time, but just a week ago, a group of thugs broke into the Roman merchant residential area in Cairo and killed 16 Roman merchants. After the incident, they ran directly into Al-Azhar Temple and were protected by the imam. The local people also applauded, thinking that these Roman merchants robbed their interests and must die.

This tragedy naturally spread to Rome. The Mamluks thought that this would cause a war between the two countries, so they sent envoys to cool down.

"This situation is completely unexpected. The Sultan wants to protect your merchants, but it happened too suddenly. Our country expresses sorrow for the tragedy."

"Sad, if your country really wants to protect our merchants, then this incident would never happen."

Peter's angry expression made the envoy feel that he was going to declare war on them.

"Your Highness, please listen to me. The two countries should not go to war over such a small matter. Besides, your country has just returned from victory and should rest and recuperate."

"Besides, your country's current situation is not very good.

This is a threat. The Mamluks know that Rome and the Ottomans will fight to the death. If a war breaks out in the future, Cairo may join the war. They can find an excuse at will. Anyway, the Caliph is in their hands.

"Regarding this, I think someone will give you a more detailed explanation, but I hope your country can understand that the empire is not a regime that only cowered in Constantinople before. Whoever hinders the empire will be destroyed like Venice. "

The messenger did not speak, and the eunuch beside him took him away. And Peter lost his temper for the first time after he left.

"Damn pagans, don't be complacent just because you defeated the Eastern army. One day I will break through your holy land. I want to see what is in that black house."

Peter hated these people very much. If they were not in a key position, he might not look at them straight. Now the colonial business cannot be stopped, and we can only think about solving the Ottomans first.

"Dad"

A childish voice sounded, Alexander ran over, and Sophia followed behind with Theodosius.

"Why are you here today? Shouldn't you be in the garden normally?"

"Alexander said he missed you, so I brought him here. Didn't I disturb your work? "

Peter shook his head and then kissed his eldest son. Alexander laughed out loud. This prince born in the new century was undoubtedly the happiest member of the royal family. As the second heir to the empire, Alexander's future journey was arranged by his grandfather. If he was not too young, his marriage could have been arranged at the same time.

Peter also understood the social responsibilities that the eldest son had to bear. In a few months, he would have to start his enlightenment education. Mircea had very high hopes for him. In addition to hiring teachers for Alexander, including Romanian, Greek, Latin, history, geography, etc., this made Peter wonder if Stefan's was given to him.

Who said that the life of a prince is easy? Look at Philip II of Spain, who worked from eight in the morning to eleven at night. He was a Spanish version of Yongzheng.

"You will go to school in a few days. You must study hard. Your responsibility is heavier than that of others. "

Peter spoke earnestly to Alexander, while the little prince kept nodding. Sophia could not stand it any longer and gently reprimanded her husband, saying that he should not let the child have such a heavy burden.

"If he was an idle prince, I would not do this, but he is the future heir of the empire, and he must learn how to govern this huge country."

When Alexander is older, Peter will ask someone to teach him military knowledge. The teachers selected from the University of Constantinople and the library are all top talents. This prince also grew up with the hope of Rome's revival, hoping that he can restore the territory and culture of the Roman Empire.

Before that, Peter had to pave the way for his son. Using the growing fiscal revenue to carry out military and other construction, the income of 1.2 million gold lei was actually low even in the Komnenos Dynasty. This was because Peter simplified some taxes and re-established tax agencies to collect taxes directly, instead of the tax farming system used by Western European countries. In order to increase the population, some concessions had to be made on taxation.

Mircea issued an order after the Venetian War that all foreign merchants must pay taxes, unless the emperor personally approved tax exemptions, otherwise they had to pay the same tax rate as domestic merchants.

This move brought 80,000 lei of income to the empire every year. As for the idea of ​​consumption tax proposed by Peter, it ended in partial failure after practice. Because there were too many types of goods, it was levied on luxury goods such as spices and ivory and consumer goods controlled by the government such as salt. However, this would cause prices to rise, but fortunately the people did not say anything.

As for construction, most of it was based on infrastructure construction. For example, bridges, canals, roads connecting various places, and water conservancy projects for irrigating farmland. The government also encourages the construction of water conservancy and road projects in various places. For example, part of the road connecting Cluj to Bukulieşti was sponsored by local businessmen.