"Victory! The emperor has won at the border! The trespassing adventurer and the pagan sultan were both defeated before the emperor! We are victorious! Of course their entire army was destroyed!"
The man in purple walked through the Goldsmiths' Street in Constantinople with great fanfare, and the horse's hooves kept raising dust. Even on the bustling Messe Avenue, people tried their best to get out of the way to let the messenger passing the news.
After the envoy passed by, the citizens of the imperial capital began to discuss excitedly, "The emperor defeated that adventurer." "The war will definitely come to an end, because so much of the eastern territory has been recovered." "Ha, this kind of thing.
Who knows?"
Yuri looked at the lively crowd and their discussions about the war, and began to think thoughtfully. He remembered the report he had heard before. Well, this was a little different from what he knew. It seemed to be a classic language.
It's art.
As Prince Rurik, Yuri, who was studying abroad in Constantinople, would have someone come back every two days to report to him the recent important events. He had already known about the news such as the emperor's victory, and he knew it in great detail.
.
The emperor indeed won the war, but the other party in question could also claim to have won the war.
In this fierce decisive battle, Alexios's army blocked the advance of the adventurers, forcing the adventurers to abandon their strategic plan to invade the imperial territory, but the death of the Greeks was twice that of Monomach's side.
Now Alexios declares his victory by achieving strategic goals, while Monomach declares his victory by casualties. Well, strictly speaking, both arguments are valid.
Anyway, it’s just the use of language arts.
However, Yuri did not continue to think about this matter for a long time, and he soon put it behind him, because he might as well care more about his own affairs than those political events.
Today, he came to Messer Avenue just to complete the task assigned by his grandfather. His grandfather told him that he should take a good look at Constantinople and this big city in Christendom, especially the market.
If it weren't for his grandfather's request, Yuri would not even come to this place. He was regular and orderly at the University of Constantinople. He was really not very interested in the colorful world of Constantinople. He was not interested in Hagia Sophia.
Places like the Grand Racecourse were just glanced at, and Messe Avenue was only glanced at.
Now taking a good look at this avenue, Yuri discovered many details, and somewhat understood why his grandfather wanted him to take a good look at Constantinople.
The prosperity of Messer Avenue is still so amazing. All the markets in Kiev are not as prosperous as this avenue. As the Goldsmiths Street of Constantinople, this is also the place where gold and silver flows most exaggeratedly in the city.
Although this is Goldsmiths Street, it does not mean that there are only gold and silver craftsmen here. In fact, there is everything here. You can see everything on the streets here, from the simplest daily necessities to Eastern and Western curios.
Treasures, everything you need is here.
The streets were not only citizens of the imperial capital, but also nobles and wealthy people from Christendom and even outside Christendom. They swaggered through the streets, spent money like water, and exchanged the gold and silver they scraped from the hands of the people for Constantinople's.
Luxury goods, gold and silver are concentrated in this huge city.
Yuri noticed that the various raw materials that the locals bought from the Russians were sold in Constantinople, and the prices were at another level, which made him very concerned.
For example, after Ross's fur was made into a fur coat, the price immediately doubled several times, but the fur coats sold from Ross either could not reach that price.
Yuri also spent money to sell two coats for comparison, and found that although Ross's coat was also a finished product, it could only be considered to be of inferior quality compared to the work of the imperial capital's craftsmen.
The same situation occurs with those expensive fur products that are used entirely for decoration. The craftsmen in Rus are really not as good as those in the imperial capital.
Yuri therefore specifically talked to the Russian businessmen in the imperial capital. At first, they did not take young Yuri seriously, thinking that he was just a young Russian who came to the imperial capital for adventure to get close. Then they found out that he was the eldest grandson of the Grand Duke of Kiev.
Quickly invite him into the guild hall.
Compared with the obvious Italian-style guild hall, the Ross guild hall is obviously very down to earth, just like a typical Constantinople apartment, but in fact it is a gathering place for Russian businessmen.
After talking to the merchants in the guild hall, Yuri understood why this situation occurred. That was that Ross's finished products were not very competitive in the imperial capital under normal circumstances, so they could only be sold at low prices, and sometimes they were even sold at low prices.
You have to sell at a loss.
Ross's handicraft industry has indeed made a lot of progress in recent years. They have achieved a lot in exporting some simple daily necessities, but they have failed when it comes to more advanced and more profitable items.
The level of craftsmen in Russia rarely reaches the level of the Imperial City. In most cases, the things produced are much inferior to those in the Imperial City. The handicraft industry group in the Imperial City has existed for thousands of years, and many technologies and the number of masters are not as strong as those in other places.
Too much.
Moreover, if there were heavy taxes, although the Grand Duke had obtained commercial privileges for Rus from the Greeks, the Greeks were masters of word games, so Rus' finished products were charged high taxes.
In this way, Ross's products naturally have no competitiveness in a big city like the Imperial Capital, and the gold and silver they can earn are not very much.
Moreover, people often refuse to buy products when they hear that they are not from Imperial City. Imperial City has long added huge added value to the products manufactured here.
However, Ross's manufactured products also had a period of popularity in the imperial capital, which was the period of war in the empire. The war caused great damage to the production and life of Constantinople, so people could only choose some not-so-good things -
—Because those are the only ones on the market.
It was only at this time that Yuri truly understood why his grandfather always provided a large number of mercenaries to the empire while stumbling upon the empire, because if there were problems in the empire, then the business market in Russia would become more and more prosperous.
But once the situation in the imperial capital returned to normal, Rus' manufactured goods were defeated, and trade profits became lower and lower. Yuri remembered that his grandfather and father had discussed relieving some of Kiev's emerging factories. Alas, it is a pity now
Why didn't you listen more at that time? If you listen more, you can analyze more things.
The businessman was dejected when he mentioned this. It seemed that the situation in the imperial capital had put a lot of pressure on them, but one thing he mentioned made Yuri very concerned.
That is to say, the Justice is looking for emerging markets for Ross's goods and has discovered new markets. Ross's manufactured products, ready-made clothing, candles and other industries can slow down for a while.
It's a pity that this businessman doesn't know where the superiors plan to excavate. Yuri feels that if he can ask about the target, he may know the strategic focus of the elders now.
After gaining everything the merchants knew, Yuri also left the Ross Guild Hall. He gained a lot from this trip. He truly understood why his grandfather asked him to look at the market in the imperial capital, and he also realized what the bustling market represented.
Horror - The Imperial City is sucking gold and silver from the entire Christian world, and Ross is the one who is being sucked particularly seriously.
In the past, Yuri really felt very low about this, and even felt that some of his grandfather's resistance and targeting of the imperial capital were a rejection of civilization, but now he understands that this is an act that is responsible for the interests of Ross. If he goes by what he did when he was a child,
With this idea of fully embracing the imperial capital, Ross is afraid that it will become an outright economic colony of the imperial capital.
But it's actually not a bad thing to become this colony. The Grand Dukes of Rus before my grandfather came here like this, but my grandfather didn't want to.
Recalling these events that touched him a lot, Yuri returned to his residence at the University of Constantinople. As the son of an important imperial ally, he had a separate villa and especially called this place his Red Mansion.
However, Yuri ran away immediately after seeing the beautiful girl in purple at the entrance of the red house. He knew that Anna was coming to trouble him again and planned to enter through the back door.
Ever since they were in the library, Her Royal Highness Anna had been coming to see him every now and then, and the purpose of coming was to attack him, which made Yuri confused. He really didn't know what the hostility was about.
However, although Anna came frequently, she was still easy to deal with. Anna despised him mainly because of knowledge and language, but Yuri came to the imperial capital to learn these things.
So Anna often retreats, and then becomes furious. I have to say that her blushing face is still very cute, just like a kitten with fried hair, but it is annoying to have this kind of thing too often.
But he doesn't dislike Anna either - mainly because she is a beautiful girl.
So now when he saw Anna Yuri subconsciously ran away and went straight to the back door. But what he didn't expect this time was that Anna actually arranged for guards to block the back door.
There is no other way, Yuri has no choice but to face that annoying eldest princess.