Prince Clovis, who had been to Constantinople in New Rome, thought it was the center of the world.
The city of Constantinople was so huge, the merchant port was so prosperous, with a population of more than 500,000, and the Romans claimed to have a population of 1 million.
But after coming to the East, I realized that Constantinople actually had a larger population than Paris.
Compared with Dongfang Datang, it is far behind.
The first Tang city he entered was Lijiapo, a commercial port with tens of thousands of people, and he felt so prosperous at that time.
Then he sailed north to the port of Linyi, where he found that it was even bigger.
After he docked ashore in Jiaozhou, he found that this Jiaozhou was no less than Constantinople, with a population of hundreds of thousands, a tall city, several layers of walls, neat streets, and rich people.
There is no mud, not even beggars, and the variety of goods is extremely abundant.
Later, he went to Qinzhou, Guangzhou, Yangzhou, Jiankang, and finally to Xiangyang and Hanjing.
He was already a little numb.
Europe, with the exception of Constantinople, simply cannot find a city with a population of more than 100,000.
However, when I arrived in the Eastern Continent, I found that in this mysterious and incomparably wealthy country, cities of 100,000 people abounded, and even cities with a population of one million people, it is said that there are seven or eight.
Guangzhou, Dengzhou, Yangzhou, Jiangling, Hanjing, Luoyang The population of Europe as a whole may not be as large as that of the Tang Dynasty.
It is not only crowded but also affluent.
You can't see the war, you can walk in the territory of Datang, you don't have to worry about robbers and robbers, the food is abundant, and they don't even have to bring dry food.
The transportation is convenient, no need to take a horse-drawn carriage to bump, he is by boat all the way, quite smooth and comfortable, there are docks and ports along the way, and there are shops everywhere.
The Tang Empire is really vast, rich and abundant, with excellent public security and convenient transportation.
In the Franks, tea was so precious that only the nobles drank it, and even the knights could not afford it.
As for porcelain, it is also a symbol of the aristocracy, if there is a set of porcelain at home, it must be hung up as decoration, where is it willing to use.
Not to mention silk, which was only worn by the aristocracy.
In Western Europe, when they fought wars with other countries, and sometimes won the reparations or ransoms they demanded, they would specify how much silk, how much spices, how much porcelain, and even more important than gold coins.
"Everyone in the Tang Dynasty is a nobleman."
Prince Clovis sighed.
The Sogdian translator was a Tang Dynasty expert and corrected him, "In fact, the Tang Dynasty has a total of more than 5,000 real nobles, and about 3,000 false lifelong nobles."
They also had knights, but knights did not belong to the nobility, they were vassals of the actual nobles, and the number of knights was estimated to be in the tens of thousands. ” "But most of these people you see are not nobles, they are just ordinary people."
"But they're all dressed in silk."
The Sogdian merchant smiled slightly.
"A non-commissioned officer guarding the city gate in the capital of the Tang Dynasty can buy ten silk horses with a month's salary."
Clovis opened his mouth wide in surprise, unable to close.
"The salary of a gatekeeper can buy ten horses of silk in a month" The knight next to him was also surprised, "In our Frankish country, a pound of silk is worth thirty gold solida.
A piece of silk in Datang is a few pounds."
"Datang has twelve silk horses, almost exactly one pound."
Clovis calculated in his heart that a Tang gatekeeper's monthly salary is ten pieces of silk, which is almost ten pounds, which is equivalent to three hundred Sorida gold coins.
In the Franks, a bull was no more than two solidas, and a complete set of equipment was no more than forty or fifty solidas, and this set of knight's equipment included horses, shields, spears, short swords, swords, bows, quivers, helmets, armor, etc.
"Oh my God, the monthly salary of a gatekeeper in Datang can actually buy one hundred and fifty cows and six sets of knight equipment" Ten pounds of silk.
Prince Clovis felt pierced, his dignified prince of the Franks, the heir of the future king of the Franks, was not as chic as this gatekeeper.
The gold coin of Sorida is a gold coin issued by the Eastern Roman Empire, which has been issued for hundreds of years and has a strong and stable value.
Therefore, in Europe, it is actually very popular with other countries.
The Eastern Roman empire, with a population of 20 or 30 million, had an annual income of only about 18 million solida gold coins.
Although the Franks are also very strong now, they reunified and organized the four countries that were separated after the division of the feudal kingdom again, which was relatively powerful among the countries established by the barbarians in the south.
But it can't be compared to Rome at all.
And Rome's annual fiscal and tax revenue, converted into Tang silk, is only 6 million pieces of silk.
Solida is a pure gold coin issued by the Roman Emperor Constantine the Great, also known as Sulledus.
The gold coin weighed twenty-four beans, and in Rome it was also used for measurement because the weight of the beans was fairly uniform.
Twenty-four beans are the weight of one Sorida.
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In fact, it is about 4.5 grams, and these 24 bean gold coins have also become the origin of 24K pure gold in later generations.
Because this gold coin was pure gold, it became an international currency in Europe because it was issued and became a strong currency.
The Frank Merovingians also had their own currency, and they issued silver pennies, also known as Daniel.
The exchange rate was that one pound of silver was equal to twenty solidas, and two hundred and forty silver pounds of silver.
One sorida is equivalent to twelve silver pennies.
A silver penny weighs about 12 grams.
The monthly salary of a Tang Dynasty gatekeeper reached three hundred solidas, which was equivalent to three hundred and sixty frankish silver pennies.
This year, how much do you have to earn The Sogdian merchant said beside him, "Actually, it can't be counted like this, in the Tang Dynasty, a horse of silk is worth 2,000 copper coins."
Ten copper ingots are equal to one silver ingot.
Ten silver ingots are equal to one gold ingot. ” The price of silk in Datang and in Franks is naturally different.
For example, when the silk of the Tang Dynasty was transported to the Mediterranean Sea and sold to Roman merchants, it was only fifteen solidas per pound, but the Romans processed it and sold it to the Franks, and sold it for thirty solidas, which directly doubled.
The price was so high, mainly because there were many tariffs along the way, high tariffs, and the Romans monopolized the trade of silk with the Franks, so the price doubled.
But silk in the Tang Dynasty is also much cheaper than selling to the Romans.
Production, processing, purchasing, transportation, along the way, the price of silk continues to increase.
In Datang, a silk horse is worth two dollars.
A Sorida weighs a little more than a penny, and a gold coin weighs a tael, which actually contains eighty percent of gold, that is to say, a Tang gold ingot contains eight pure gold coins.
If you directly calculate the gold content of Datang gold ingots and Sorida, one gold ingot is actually only worth about seven Sorida.
However, a gold ingot in Datang is equivalent to a hundred copper ingots, which is equivalent to fifty pieces of silk.
Fifty horses of silk are worth 1,500 Soridas in the Franks, and they are worth more than 200 gold ingots in the Tang Dynasty.
In terms of gold alone, the price of silk in the Tang Dynasty is more than 200 times different from the price of silk in the Franks.
After listening to this, Prince Clovis was even more calm.
The silk of the Tang Dynasty was more than two hundred times cheaper than the silk of the Franks Doesn't this mean that even if you don't count the double that the Romans gave them, even if the Tang Dynasty transported it to Rome, this silk would increase more than a hundred times compared to the Tang Dynasty "How much money does this Datang have to make, huge profits, God, more than a hundred times" "Actually, you don't have to be so surprised, this silk is transported from the Tang Dynasty to the Mediterranean, tens of thousands of miles away, transported from the sea, not only the road is long, but also dangerous, there are many storms at sea, and the ship is easy to sink.
If you sink a ship, you can lose a lot of money.
Besides, from Datang to Rome, how many countries have to be experienced along the way, and how many tariffs have to be paid.
For example, on the stretch from Syria to Rome alone, merchants had to pay customs duties twice at 12.5 percent each time. ” "The silk business is really lucrative."
Regardless of what the Sogdians said, Prince Clovis was still shocked.
If the difference in the price of silk is only calculated in gold, then the salary of this Datang gatekeeper is not so amazing.
"If you count it in terms of cattle, this gatekeeper has a salary of 20 yuan a month, and he can buy about five big cows."
"In the Franks, two sorids for one big ox is equivalent to ten soridas. ” In Europe, in the Franks, now in the Middle Ages, the real power of war depended on knights.
And it is not easy to maintain the expenses of a knight.
A knight in full armor would need at least twenty fiefs, or about three hundred to four hundred and fifty acres.
To maintain a knight's daily and wartime expenses, at least three to six hundred acres of arable land and the labor of more than a hundred slaves.
A knight needs to bring his own horses, shields, weapons, armor, and even clothing, equipment and food, and even cutlery and tents.
The knights of the Middle Ages were similar to the soldiers of the Sui and Tang dynasties, but they were more well-trained and well-equipped.
As a result, their numbers have been limited.
Ordinary homesteaders often only have a few dozen acres of arable land, so they can't buy a full set of equipment, and they can't enter this profession.
In particular, knights were often unpaid, and they relied on the income from their own mining and the spoils of war.
In the Franks, a set of ordinary knightly equipment, at least forty or fifty gold solidas.
One helmet, six solidas.
Twelve solidas in armor, one sword, seven soridas, six sorias for a pair of leggings, two sorias for a spear and shield, and one war horse, at least twelve soridas And that's just the cheapest gear.
Prince Clovis was also a knight, and his horses cost more than a hundred gold coins.
In the Franks, knights were trained from childhood.
One of the passing exams for a knight is to have no appointed armor on his body, and then fight the boar empty-handed, and only by killing the boar can he pass.
Prince Clovis was not only a knight himself, he was also a great nobleman, and he had many knights and servants under him, and he had to provide armor for his knights.
"The generals and soldiers of the Tang Dynasty do not need to bring their own equipment, and their equipment is all provided by the state.
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From the war horses to the shining plate armor on their bodies, as well as the sharp Tang knives, they don't have to spend a penny themselves.
The Sogdians took their tea bowls and took a sip of their tea.
Clovis was stunned again.
"Those shiny knights' plate armor are actually provided by the state" "Yes, the Tang Emperor has 600,000 troops, and all military expenses are provided by the imperial court.
In addition, there are more than 5,000 nobles in the Tang Dynasty, and the nobles have territories, as well as territorial knights, and their equipment needs to be purchased from the emperor for their own responsibility. ” "Datang is too powerful" After a long time, Prince Clovis let out a sigh and was sure that he had not come in vain. t1706231537: