Chapter 1579: Louis the Great Debtor

Louis the Great truly needed sufficiently capable officials to sort out the Roman Empire's shattered finances. Ever since the able Colbert had died seventeen years before, the Roman Empire had sunk step by step into a quagmire of debt. And it sank deeper and deeper, owing more and more; several finance directors had been replaced in succession, yet none could pull the Roman Empire out of the debt quagmire.

Of course, the financial crisis the Roman Empire faced could not all be blamed on the finance ministers' incompetence — the empire itself was the problem!

No one knew what was wrong with this Roman Empire: no matter how "mercantilist" it tried to be, it simply could not attract, or even retain, industry and commerce.

The industry and commerce that could have brought the empire rolling wealth had been steadily draining away for more than twenty years.

From the Roman Empire's home provinces they flowed to the vassal states, friendly powers, and neutral states... most of it to the friendly powers and neutral states, a small part to the vassal states.

Among them, England, Portugal, and Austria were the three countries that absorbed the most "Roman capital."

The handicrafts of the West Netherlands and the Rhineland flowed in large quantities to England, while the Roman Empire's shipping industry kept relocating to Portugal.

And the financial industry, which directly controlled capital, flowed to the Archduchy of Austria — Vienna had now become the undisputed financial center of Europe!

At the same time, the Roman Empire's five home provinces grew bleaker by the day, seemingly left with only agriculture, the arms industry, and services...

Faced with this situation, Louis the Great and his finance ministers were utterly helpless.

Because they could not place the encouragement of the Roman Empire's industry and commerce in a position of special importance.

As emperor and ministers of the Roman Empire, their foremost goal was still to forge a unified Roman Empire!

Therefore they could not use high tariffs or other barriers to drive away the goods of the vassal states, friendly powers, and neutral states.

And to preserve and advance the unity of the Roman Empire, Louis the Great could not do without the support of the Catholic Church!

One Rome can have only one state religion!

So Rome's exclusion of Protestants, Jews, and Muslims remained unavoidable...

Moreover, in order to win over the empire's nobles great and small, Louis lavishly handed out tax-exempt privileges — a situation very similar to the earlier Ming dynasty, but for the Rome of the present, it seemed equally necessary.

But in this way, there came to be a great many nobles who paid no taxes, and they also held vast agricultural estates!

Thus the wealth the Roman Empire could extract from agricultural production was quite limited.

Yet this empire's expenditures were enormous!

Louis had an army of several hundred thousand men, a huge naval fleet, and a huge bureaucracy. And he himself was a master of extravagance and waste. Not only had he built the Palace of Versailles outside Paris, he had also built the Palatine Palace in Rome; these two palaces alone had cost countless gold louis.

To raise enough funds to meet the enormous expenses, Louis's finance ministers had no choice but to levy heavy taxes on those industrialists and merchants who had no backing.

And the heavy taxes put these industrialists and merchants at a disadvantage in competition with their foreign counterparts, until in the end they had to move abroad.

After such a terrible vicious cycle had persisted for more than twenty years, the state of the Roman Empire's finances could well be imagined!

After the three Grand Secretaries in charge of the civil examinations had left the Bull's Eye Salon, the Roman Empire's finance minister, Chamillart, was led into the Bull's Eye Salon by the Emperor's attendants.

Seeing the slightly furrowed brow of this finance minister, who wore a wig and was dressed up rather like a flowery parrot, Louis XIV's mood turned somewhat gloomy.

Louis asked, "My minister, have you discussed Rome's debt problem with Henri?"

Henri of Austria had also arrived at Versailles in the past two days; he had come for his father-in-law's financial problems, and at the same time to prevent a financial crisis in his own archduchy.

"Your Majesty, Grand Duke Henri and I held in-depth discussions," Chamillart said. "He hopes to speak with you in person. He says he can raise another sum of funds for Rome... He is now waiting in the audience chamber for your summons."

"Very well. Then I shall see him!" Louis the Great's brow furrowed as well.

At the thought of meeting this money-god of a son-in-law, Louis the Great's brow furrowed — if there was anyone who could truly give Louis the Great a headache, it was certainly not Zhu Cilang far off in the East, nor the Ottoman Sultan and Grand Vizier in Istanbul, but his fine son-in-law Henri de Mancini.

Because this Henri de Mancini had somehow become the leader of the Vienna Banking Association — an association made up of dozens of great European banks with their head offices in Vienna.

Not long after the death of Colbert, the finance director Louis had relied upon, this Vienna Banking Association had exploited a financial crisis suffered by Louis the Great to obtain the exclusive underwriting rights for the Roman Empire's public bonds.

From that time on, without this banking association's consent, Louis the Great had no way to get money from the European financial markets — get, not borrow!

Because Louis knew he could never repay so much debt in his lifetime, and his foolish son, little Louis, had even less hope of repaying this mountain of debt!

So he felt he could only rely on his good son-in-law Henri to deceive that pack of utterly treacherous bankers in Vienna, in order to obtain more new debt to repay the old debt already owed. And to keep the Roman Empire's balance sheet presentable, he could not pay too high an interest rate. Otherwise the empire's balance sheet would soon "explode," and then it would be hard to swindle more money.

Henri de Mancini had come together with his chief minister, François Eugène — François Eugène was Prince Eugene of history. Now that there was no Holy Roman Empire, his princely title would probably come to nothing. But he was Henri's cousin and brother-in-law (he was, after all, Louis the Great's illegitimate son), and moreover brilliantly clever, having performed outstandingly at the Roman Empire's military academy, so he could certainly secure an important post in Henri's archduchy.

After Henri and Eugène bowed to Louis the Great, they seated themselves on two sofa chairs, smiling, waiting for the Emperor to speak first.

"Henri, how is your grandfather? Is he in good health?" Louis XIV asked.

"Not too well," Henri de Mancini shook his head. "He is eighty-nine this year. At that age, one can hardly be too well."

Louis the Great nodded and said with a smile, "How many years has he been the Retired Emperor?"

"Fifty-two years," Henri said with a laugh. "He has been truly fortunate — enjoying more than fifty years of leisure, and he has fathered more than a hundred sons."

"How enviable!" Louis said with a laugh. "If only I had a capable son who could take over the heavy responsibilities and let me become the Retired Emperor as well!"

Louis the Great had ascended the throne in 1643, and by now had been king and emperor for fifty-seven years!

Hearing his father-in-law's words, Henri could not help glancing at the short fellow beside him, François Eugène — was this not Louis the Great's most capable son?

Louis also glanced at François Eugène, then sighed and turned his gaze back to Henri. "My finance director tells me you can raise another huge sum for my empire?"

"Yes," Henri said with a smile. "It will be a great deal of money! Enough for you to launch a war against the Ottoman Empire after Carlos II's death. Your Majesty, I imagine that after inheriting all of Carlos II's territories, you will launch a war to recover the lost lands of Eastern Christendom?"

"Of course!" Louis's eyes lit up. "Henri, how much interest do those profiteers in Vienna want this time?"

"Interest?" Henri seemed to pause for a moment, then smiled and shook his head. "Your Majesty, I imagine you never intended to actually repay the debts at all?"

Louis the Great was somewhat embarrassed and cleared his throat a few times. "Henri, I am a man of the utmost good faith, for I devoutly believe in God — how could I ever fail to repay my debts?"

(End of Chapter)