Mo San sat in a shaking carriage and walked on the road to Valladolid, while Alesandro, from the Doria family, sat opposite him and closed his eyes to rest. ()

They got ashore from Barcelona, ​​then rode through the entire ancient kingdom of Aragon, and stayed in the relatively prosperous Zaragoza for a few days. Alesandro handled some affairs in the Zaragoza Bank where their family held. Then the group drove west again to Valladolid, a capital that was previously the capital of the Kingdom of Spain, and is still the seat of many Spanish government agencies, and a city that the powerful and kings often patrol.

Mo San was distraught by the carriage that lacked shock absorption system, and was bored in sitting in the car, so he lifted the curtain hanging on the lathe and looked at the vast field outside the window.

This should be the northern edge of the Castile Plateau, with a temperate marine climate, and an important agricultural area in Spain. But when Mo San looked out from the inside of the car, he saw a dilapidated scene everywhere. First of all, the number of villages is small and the scale is not large, far less than what he had seen in France, Italy and even the Rumili region of the Ottoman Empire. The sparse and small size of the villages mean that the population here is not very abundant, and the population is not abundant, which means that the economy here is not very developed.

In fact, this is the case. As a peninsula kingdom with a larger territory than France (excluding the Iberian Peninsula in Portugal, France's eastern border has not yet expanded significantly at this time), compared with France's population of more than 21 million, Spain's population is only more than 4 million, less than five million. Although the territory of the Spanish kingdom may not be as suitable as France, it will never cause such a huge gap in the population between the two countries.

To a certain extent, it was Spain's own continuous death that caused the population growth of its own country to be weak. They first expelled Jews and Moors who mastered technology, capital and knowledge. The population of these people even accounted for one-quarter of the population of the Kingdom of Spain at that time. What's even stranger is that the Spanish even allowed these expelled pagans to leave with property, livestock and tools; after expelling the pagans, there were endless trials of heresy, and a large number of Spaniards died after suffering cruel religious trials. Finally, it was the short-sighted eyes and stupid policies that caused the economy to collapse in an all-round way, and the people's willingness to give birth was greatly reduced. This was the most important factor leading to the slow population growth of this country.

"What's good about it?" Perhaps a cold fresh air blew into the window. Alesandro, who was sleeping, opened his eyes and glanced at the view outside the window, quickly lost interest: "I have walked this road many times, and every time I see this dilapidated scene without a trace of bright color. The residents here are not very interested in farming, and they are more accustomed to raising sheep. Of course, raising sheep is just their last choice. If there is a chance, their first choice is still to act as clergy, followed by noble servants. Then there are soldiers and sailors. Almost no one is willing to act as craftsmen, merchants, etc.."

"If the Spanish were willing to act as craftsmen or merchants, then what else do you Genoese or Jews?" Mo San replied lazily. Outside the window, a group of dirty sheep walked along the road, driven by an equally dirty herder, and the sheep were gnawing at random on the roadside with yellow thatch on the road, as if they were about to go to a winter camp where enough forage was stored.

In Spain in this era, the ancient guild system was still playing a tenacious role. For example, the guild of wool merchants who had undertaken most of the domestic taxes was so powerful that no one dared to control the flock of sheep eating wheat seedlings in the field. Over time, this behavior undoubtedly led to the deterioration of the planting industry and the prosperity of the animal husbandry. The animal husbandry was obviously not as good as the planting industry, so the Kingdom of Spain needed to import a large amount of grain from abroad every year to ensure that there would be no large-scale famine in China. In other words, small-scale famines were almost every few years in Spain.

"Haha, the Spanish society always looks weird, I don't know how to describe it." Alesandro laughed twice when he heard this, and then changed his subject and said, "We will rest for a day after arriving at Valladolid the day after tomorrow, and then we will meet with the Registrar of Valladolid. He happened to have just arrived from Madrid to Valladolid with the king. As one of the two major clerks of the West Indian Affairs Department, his judgment will ultimately affect the king's decision. Therefore, if your country wants to end the war quickly, it is crucial to obtain the understanding of His Excellency Barboa. Of course, I know this is not easy, but we have to give it a try. After all, Mr. Barboa's attempt to start a dialogue with us is a good start, right?"

"Maybe." Mo San said uncertainly, "To be honest, I don't think the Spaniards would choose to end the war with us at this time, especially when the Ceuta tragedy just happened, and the Spaniards would be in a state of anger. What else can we get except for the cold face of the Spaniard?"

The Ceuta tragedy referred to by Mosan happened a month ago. When the huge East Coast trade fleet led by Captain Guo Zili passed through the Strait of Gibraltar, he encountered a small Spanish fleet. After seeing that the Spaniards had only three galleys, Guo Zili immediately ordered several battleships to escort attack them and completely sank the three Spanish galleys at night. Then, Guo Zili, who was worried that the Spanish Mediterranean fleet warships would come, did not order the rescue of the Spanish who fell into the water, but led the fleet to Livorna directly. However, this caused more than 1,200 Naples civilians who fell into the water (prepared to go to Peru through Cadiz) to drown. Because the scene of the incident was near Ceuta, it was called the Ceuta tragedy.

After the Ceuta tragedy, the Spaniards, who were used to slow-paced life, showed rare high efficiency. As soon as they heard the news, they asked Mr. Mo San, a plenipotent diplomatic envoy to Europe, to summon Mr. Mo San, through the Doria family. After expressing strong indignation at the East Coast warships attacking Spanish civilian ships (one immigration ship, two grain transport ships), they asked Mo San to set off for Valladolid immediately, and officials of the West Indian Affairs Department of the Kingdom of Spain would conduct formal negotiations with them.

When Mo San, who was staying in Messina, heard the Spanish's request conveyed by the Dorian family, he was even furious. Is the Spaniard crazy or something? If my warship hits your civilian ship, why did you fight? Could it be that we still have to compensate you? And what's the matter good to negotiate? Any behavior during the war is normal. If you have the ability, you can get the place back. The main force of your navy went out to the Caribbean, causing your home to be empty and the civilian ship is not protected. Who can I blame?

However, the Doria family, who has been operating a business in Spain for hundreds of years and is deeply aware of the internal affairs of Spanish society, had a different view at this time. Alesandro was very optimistic and always said that the Spaniards were disdainful of the East Coast, and they were not even willing to give formal and equal dialogue to diplomats on the East Coast. At this time, the Spaniards were willing to summon diplomatic envoys on the East Coast. Although they still seemed very impolite in tone and had a taste of inquiries, this was ultimately a huge breakthrough, because the Spaniards were finally willing to start a dialogue with the East Coast people, which was definitely an amazing progress.

After hearing Alesandro say this, Mo San, who was about to return to Istanbul, decided to go to Spain after thinking about it for a while and see what they have to do! It’s a big deal that they parted in a bad mood! And as Alesandro said, if the Spaniards are willing to have a limited dialogue with the East Coast on this, it will definitely be a very good start for the East Coast Republic, which is eager to end the war, and it is worth Mo San to take a good grasp.

"This may not be, Mo." Alesandro smiled mysteriously and said, "You should know that the Spanish are having a hard time now. The northern border was attacked by the French, the western territory was occupied by the Portuguese, and the southern Netherlands was also occupied by the cities of the South Netherlands. The situation on the Italian battlefield was even more unoptimistic. What qualifications do they have to be proud of? Now the whole world is hating them, jealous of them, and attacking them. Their navy was severely damaged by the Netherlands, France and your east coast. The remaining ships were even reluctant to escort the two fleets of trade to America, and the army was wiped out in large quantities, which was extremely bad. They can't even guarantee the urgent food to be transported back to the country in time. The country is on the verge of collapse. She urgently needs to end some of the excess and overwhelmed wars to get a breather."
Chapter completed!