At the port of Messina, Alesandro Mota de Doria was silently watching a fleet passing through the straits in sequence. The fleet was huge, and there was a rare powerful warship with 66 large caliber guns. There was no doubt that this was the fleet of the East Coast Republic of China. They went to the port of Smyrna of the Ottoman Empire to trade. Before that, they had just had a tragic confrontation with part of the Mediterranean fleet of the Kingdom of Spain in the Tyrrhenian Sea. The result of the confrontation ended with a complete victory in the East Coast People's Congress, which made many people fall into their glasses, and Doria was one of them.

Alesandro really couldn't imagine that the Spanish fleet, which was extremely powerful in his memory, would be defeated by a nameless country in a new continent, which even made Doria feel a little unreal. But that's the case. The news of their family's eyeliner in Naples spread the news that the "San Diego" was injured as quickly as possible. At the same time, a ship transporting supplies in their family passed by the battlefield on the day of the war, and also brought about similar news to Alesandro. This puzzled him and was also a little excited. Maybe he had found a new investment channel for the family?

In this era, as Amsterdam in the north became stronger, Genoa, which had succeeded Antwerp as a brief European economic center from 1557 to 1627, began to decline gradually. At that time, the Spanish Kingdom, where Genoese bankers invested heavily, experienced a terrible fiscal bankruptcy. Although the Genoese had withdrawn large amounts of funds in time before the bankruptcy, there was no doubt that this financial storm still caused great losses to the Genoese.

Although the Spanish king still transported silver bars from Cadiz to Genoa to repay part of his debts after bankruptcy. However, the country's finances and finance have gradually been controlled by Jewish merchants from its neighboring Portugal. According to some secret and difficult to tell, these Jewish merchants seem to have a close relationship with Amsterdam bankers and wholesalers. In short, the Genoese lost the largest market that they had worked hard to operate in the past hundred years. At this point, the most profitable banking industry has basically nothing to do. Judging from the trends in the past twenty years since 1627, Genoese bankers have voluntarily or passively withdrawn from the Catholic king's financial advisor circle and only retain the commercial network of wholesale Spanish American goods in the port of Cadiz. They continued to re-export trade of these commodities until the 19th century.

In short, this small country with little strategic depth and a population of only 500,000, including its territory, has now lost its largest investment market in the past. The commercial capital accumulated in China is extremely impulsive to find the next worth investing in. In fact, the capitalists in Genoa are also very "energetic". In the early years, they took risks in the Black and White Seas, occupied Feodosia, Chios Island and other places, and carried out trade; later they vigorously invested in the emerging European economy.

The center of Antwerp and had commercial relations with the Welser and Fuger family from Germany; after 1557, they began to lend large amounts to the Spanish kings, with annual interest rates often above 20%. At the same time, they invested in commercial relations between Spain and the Americas and participated in them in depth. At the same time, they even invested in Muslim countries, while investing in a small amount in France (the early days of France's economy was controlled by another Italian capital, Florence), and the Netherlands.

In a sense, the Republic of Genoa, a country filled with huge amounts of commercial capital and the Eastern Coast Republic, which is completely dominated by industrial capital, are natural partners, not to mention that Genoa has a priceless banking network and distribution system that is spread throughout major commercial cities in Europe. Although this system is currently slowly shrinking and disintegrating under the continuous impact of Amsterdam merchants who rose rapidly after 1585.

The Genoese merchants with a strong sense of crisis certainly would not let go of every object worth investing in. Historically, Europeans evaluated them as "they always invest in countries that are in an upward period", and the slightest upsurge in the European textile market in the East Coast Republic over the years have begun to be included in the Genoese's eyes. They have also been slightly interested in this remote country in the distant New World. If this country can properly demonstrate its strength, then the generous Genoese bankers would not mind taking out part of their funds to invest in this country to help them achieve faster development - just like when Venice Capital entered Antwerp and Amsterdam, and Florence Capital entered France in a massive way.

In that year, the Republic of Venetian (capital Venice, with a population of about 2 million) that had fallen into a long-term economic depression due to the rise of the Ottoman Empire. It began to invest capital in the increasingly active northern markets: Antwerp, Bruges, and worked with bankers from Augsburg, Germany to make Antwerp a major economic center in Europe. In 1557, Spain went bankrupt. The bankers of Augsburg who lend to the Kingdom of Spain (led by the Fugers) also went bankrupt in large quantities, from

This withdrew from the European economic stage. In addition, after the war in Antwerp, Venetian Capital began to enter Amsterdam in large quantities, and jointly created the rapid rise of Amsterdam with Jewish Capital, Genoa Capital, Florence Capital and Dutch local capital. According to statistics, at that time, one-third of Amsterdam's residents had foreign ancestry or were simply descendants of foreigners. Most of these people were capitalists from Italy and merchants, staff and helpers who followed them into the northern market in large numbers.

"The interest rate of the lifetime annuity bonds of Saint George's Trading Company has been reduced to 2%, and the domestic capital is seriously oversupply. It seems that people in the East Coast are a better investment target." A thick middle-aged voice suddenly sounded behind Alesandro, and he continued to say: "Currently, the funds of shops and bank branches in Spain, France, Venice, the Netherlands, Ottoman, Morocco and other countries have reached 180 million bank lira (Genoa accounting unit, value is fixed at 0.328 grams of gold, and 180 million bank lira is equivalent to 59 tons of gold). No one knows what to do with this money. Invest in Amsterdam? It is the Venetians and the Dutch people there.
Chapter completed!