Chapter 750: The Japan-Mongol Treaty

Upon hearing Chigi's words, Philip IV's long face immediately grew even longer.

The Spanish world empire is an empire on which the sun never sets! How could it possibly have only a hundred years of hegemony left? Is this the will of God, or are you, a usurer cardinal, cursing the great Spanish world empire?

Seeing Philip IV's face lengthen, Chigi assumed this Habsburg "loan king" was worrying about having no money to fight wars — it never occurred to him that Philip IV's self-regard was that inflated, to say nothing of how those hundreds of millions in usurious loans were to be dealt with.

Even Spain's military strength was looking none too reliable: its navy was being thrashed by England and Holland, its army could not beat France, and its supposedly mightiest Army of Flanders had been shattered at the Battle of Rocroi in 1643 by the novice Prince de Condé.

Moreover, Spain itself was far from stable at home — there was still a Catalan Republic that had not been brought to heel.

The European great powers of this age had no notion that one must first secure the home front before dealing with foreign threats; every one of them was busy going to war with other countries before its own homeland was settled, and busy grabbing colonies all over the world before Europe itself was settled!

Spain was of course no exception. The Kingdom of Spain had not completed its internal unification; King Philip was not king of a unified Spain, but king of Portugal, Aragon, Castile, and Valencia, plus lord of a heap of assorted duchies, marquisates, and counties. Nor were the various territories united among themselves; they struggled against one another for a larger share of the benefits, and clashes broke out from time to time.

And the Catalan independence affair was a territorial conflict that had blown up into something far larger! Because the Catalans did not want to bear the enormous taxes brought by the Thirty Years' War, nor to join the Kingdom of Spain's expeditionary force to attack France, they rose in revolt in 1640, established the Catalan Republic, colluded with the neighboring French, and even gave the title of Count of Barcelona (the title of Catalonia's lord) to Louis XIII in exchange for French reinforcements.

This internal turmoil in Spain had been raging for over a decade and had still not subsided!

Chigi thought to himself: the internal unrest has not yet subsided, the wars with the Portuguese (Portugal's unrest could also be seen as a Spanish civil war) and the French are still ongoing — this Philip IV must be desperately short of money, surely?

With that in mind, he said to Philip IV, "Your Majesty, the Great Qing Mongols of the East (the Great Qing has acquired yet another dynastic title) and the Mughal Empire of India both possess astonishing wealth — the Mughals' wealth in particular is enough to make all of Europe drool. If the Kingdom of Spain could conclude alliances with these two countries, it would surely give all of Europe's lenders tremendous confidence, and then the Kingdom of Spain would be able to borrow a large sum of money at a lower rate of interest!"

"Can we really borrow a large sum?" Philip IV was at once interested. In truth he did not care about the interest — only those who intended to repay cared about interest, and he had no intention of repaying. The problem Spain faced now was not repaying debts, but that it had become very difficult to borrow new ones.

"Of course!" Chigi nodded emphatically. "In Italy there is not a single lender who wishes to see the Kingdom of Spain go bankrupt again. So long as the kingdom has hope of earning large profits from the East, they will certainly be willing to provide more loans."

"How can large profits be earned from the East?" asked Philip IV.

"Naturally by establishing an India Trading Company and a Pacific Trading Company," said Chigi. "If the Italian lenders can be allowed to buy shares, then borrowing ten million escudo gold coins will be no problem at all!"

One escudo gold coin was worth roughly 1.4 taels of silver, so ten million escudo gold coins came to 14 million taels of silver.

Even the Ming's maritime merchant guild and salt merchant guild combined would have difficulty producing such a vast sum at once, yet the Italian financiers could easily come up with such an enormous amount. This shows how wealthy the Italian merchants were!

And it was not without reason that the Italian merchants were willing to lend to the debt-ridden Kingdom of Spain. In reality, Spain as a world empire had neither a strong manufacturing sector nor a developed financial industry; all it had was vast colonies and powerful military force.

The handicraft goods, financial services, and international trade that the Spanish world empire needed were entirely in the hands of Germans and Italians.

From a certain perspective, Spain was the economic colony of the Germans and Italians! The dirty, exhausting work was done by the Spanish, while the profits went to the Italians and Germans.

It was precisely because of this symbiotic, co-prosperous situation that the Italian financiers (most of the German financiers were Protestants) were willing to lend even though they knew full well that debts to Spain would be very hard to recover.

And the Italian profiteers' greatest grievance against the Kingdom of Spain lay not in the difficulty of collecting debts, but in the kingdom's incompetence at opening up overseas trade routes and footholds.

Not only was it incompetent itself, it also refused to learn from England and Holland by chartering licensed trading companies and letting merchants go out and fight for themselves.

As the spokesman for the Italian merchants, Archbishop Chigi naturally had to fight for his countrymen's chance at monopolizing trade in the Pacific and India.

Philip IV thought it over. "If there can be ten million, then very well, I can agree to establish a joint-stock India Trading Company and Pacific Trading Company.

However, the Pacific Trading Company shall not engage in the import of raw silk or other silk products, and its ships shall not enter Ming ports."

Raw silk was an important commodity in the galleon trade. Spain imported raw silk from the Ming, then processed part of it in its American colonies and passed part of it on to Italian merchants. The chain of interests had already taken shape and could not be casually altered.

"As you wish," Archbishop Chigi said with a smile. "Your decision will surely be most conducive to the spread of the Lord's gospel to the East.

Your Majesty, I have one further request: I hope to represent the Universal Church in going to Seville to negotiate matters of missionary work with the representatives of the Great Qing Mongols."

"Of course," said Philip IV. "That is your right! You shall go together with the Duke of Navarre, Fernando Álvarez, and you may stay in the royal palace in Seville."

"Many thanks, Your Majesty."

At the royal palace in Seville, the first people the Duke of Navarre, Fernando Álvarez, and Archbishop Chigi met were not the "Mongol ministers," but Caballero, the man who had single-handedly brought about this "establishment of diplomatic relations between Spain and the Mongols."

The foreign minister Fernando Álvarez first announced to Caballero the good news that the king would ennoble him as Viscount of Manila, and only then asked about the "Mongols."

"Judge, why did you package the Qing state as the Great Mongol State?"

Because of reports from the Dominicans and the Jesuits, the Holy See and the Spanish court could still distinguish between the Great Qing and the Great Mongol State.

"From the standpoint of legal principle," said Caballero, "the Great Qing is the successor to the Great Mongol State. The present emperor of the Great Qing has been enthroned twice, once on the steppe and once in Beijing. The former inherited the legal succession of the Great Mongol State, making him the Great Khan of the Mongols. The latter styled himself as the successor to China's legal succession, making him the Great Qing Emperor.

But China's legitimate dynasty, the Great Ming, still exists, and it still rules the greater part of China's territory and a population of 130 million — more than ten times the population under Great Qing rule! Under these circumstances, the Great Qing's claim of ownership over China cannot stand. But with regard to Mongolia, whether the Eastern Mongols, the Western Mongols, or the Mongol heartland, all now submit to the Great Qing and acknowledge the Great Qing Emperor as the Great Khan of the Mongols. Moreover, the Timurid Empire in India now also acknowledges the Great Qing Emperor's status as Great Khan of the Great Mongol State.

Only one or two small states of the Golden Horde line have yet to acknowledge the Great Qing Emperor's khanate, but they have shown no intention of challenging it either. Therefore the Great Qing is the legitimate successor to the legal succession of the Great Mongol State!"

He really was a judge — he certainly made the legal questions very clear!

"Very well," Fernando Álvarez nodded. "Then do you have any suggestions for the negotiations?"

"I do, Duke. I have been in consultation with the Great Qing envoys for several months and have drafted the text of the Japan-Mongol Treaty. I have brought it for your review."

(End of Chapter)