"Serari?" Chen Xi began to think about whether he had heard of this person. Later, he discovered that his Roman history was not very good during this period, whether it was the Five Wise Emperors in the past or the Third Dark Century in the future. Not bad, I guess I can get to know a lot of people.
But regardless of whether he knew it or not, Chen Xi still looked calm and bowed. After all, reciprocity was something that the Han Dynasty always emphasized.
Listening to what Serali was saying, Chen Xi said that he could only make out a few words. There was no way that the Indo-European Germanic language family had been changing for thousands of years, but fortunately, the Roman era was the era when it began to take shape, so he could barely Understand a few words.
"Uh, what do you mean by biting the silk?" Chen Xi said while looking at the other person's changing expression.
I don¡¯t understand other words. The pronunciation of the words silk and porcelain has not changed much for thousands of years. Doesn¡¯t calling the Central Plains people Selis people mean silk people? Similarly, calling China porcelain has not changed much. Of course, it was later called Tea also means the same thing.
After listening to An Yue's translation, Chen Xi finally understood what Selis meant. First, he sincerely expressed his admiration for the Han Dynasty, thinking it was an empire as great as Rome, and then turned to silk, culture, and wisdom. Laws and civilization are all ignored
"Oh, your country needs silk very much. I hope we can give this treasure to our friends from far away, so that we can form a life-and-death alliance?" Chen Xi rolled his eyes and asked, who has the brains to give you the method of making silk? has a problem. one
"Yes, for this reason, after the two sides form a life-and-death alliance, we in Rome are willing to donate five hundred boxes of gold coins and give 200,000 gold coins to the Han Dynasty every year. I hope that you, who are also nobles, can understand the Roman nobles' attachment to silk. Emotions." Serali said sincerely.
Chen Xi rolled his eyes, as if this was a casual matter. Five hundred boxes of gold coins, converted into a standard box, would be 10,000 gold coins per box. Five million gold coins sounds like a lot. Whether you can buy 500 pieces of silk in Rome is a question.
I really thought Chen Xi didn¡¯t know about the ¡°Battle of Silk¡±. He had been fighting another empire for more than 20 years for silk tolls. In the end, the toll was not paid down, and a roll of silk was settled according to gemstones.
It seems that silk in ancient Rome had not reached its highest point in this era. Silk was almost equal to gold. After that, silk continued to rise. I remember correctly that in the third dark century of Rome, that is, a few years later, the weight of silk was exchanged for the weight of gold. It reached 1:1.35.
After that, Sasanian Persia became completely shameless. The price of Roman silk finally increased to 247 gold coins per pound of silk. Of course, this was not the most important thing. The most important thing is that this is the official price of the Roman Emperor Diocletian.
A mere five million gold coins can only buy 20,000 pounds of silk, which is equivalent to 18 tons in today¡¯s tons. Sure enough, five hundred carts of silk is a fantasy.
So this seemingly sincere price is actually just putting it in your pocket. Even if the price of Roman silk and gold is only one to one now, the Romans have no shame to say that, and they also mention technology. You Is it the rhythm of wanting to die?
"I deeply understand Rome's desire for silk. However, my family does not care about this matter, but I can recommend you to talk to the Mi family and the Zhen family. As a noble, I understand your mood and I like it too." Chen Xi completely He didn't turn his face, but instead had a smile on his face.
The translator of the other party translated it truthfully, and Serali was overjoyed after hearing it. He immediately took out a box from the carriage behind him, opened it and saw a cut gemstone placed inside, reflecting the bright light.
"Thank you for your advice. This gem is given to you as a gift." Serali said excitedly, Chen Xi's face was light. Obviously this was not difficult, and this allowed Serali to see the possibility of obtaining silk. Silk was really important to Rome.
As expected, you can only get more information by communicating with nobles, especially high-ranking nobles, and what high-ranking nobles talk about must be the same status. Serali thought excitedly, as if the silk was already in his hands.
Chen Xi accepted it unceremoniously. This thing can only be given to Chen Yun. If there are not three, anyone else will be unhappy.
"You're welcome. I just heard that envoys from the distant Qin Dynasty were coming, so I came to take a look." Chen Xi leaned over and said, "I have something to do and need to leave now. Please forgive me for being rude."
An Yue translated truthfully. The other party felt sorry for Chen Xi's departure, but did not stop him. Chen Xi smiled and walked away from the Roman mission, and his face suddenly darkened. Rome wanted to take advantage of him, but it actually took advantage of him.
"Let's go, this is the one." Chen Xi turned his head and turned into a shop. This shop is a special shop. It is the kind of shop that collects prohibited goods and buys information. There is only a shopkeeper sitting at the table.There are not many items for sale.
"Dang Dang Dang!" Chen Xi knocked on the table a few times with an expressionless face. The shopkeeper didn't even raise his head. "We only sell news here. Of course we also buy all kinds of supplies. As long as it's hot materials, we can do it." "
It was at this moment that the shopkeeper could no longer speak. He saw who was opposite him.
"Is this how you do business?" Chen Xi raised his eyebrows and said dissatisfied.
"This subordinate is guilty!" the shopkeeper quickly bowed and reported.
"Forget it, I won't pursue your problem anymore. Let me take a look at the account books." Chen Xi reached out for the account books, but the other party immediately asked Chen Xi to come in, and then handed Chen Xi a thick stack of account books, and Chen Xi quickly did the calculations. For a moment, then put it aside.
Chen Xi didn't have much time to calculate these things. He could only roughly calculate the monthly in and out. Even if the accounts were falsified, the monthly increases and decreases could still be seen. Not long after the implementation of this new account, the person who falsified the accounts Haven't practiced yet.
"There will be a certain increase every month, so that's up to you." Chen Xi said casually. Since the income is increasing, and the increase is obvious, there is no need for Chen Xi to ask too much for these things.
The shopkeeper obviously wiped away the cold sweat and looked as if he had been granted amnesty.
"Notify the major aristocratic families and ask them to manage the silk industry under their names, and the farmers who raise sericulture. If someone steals it, take it down directly. Don't spread the technology of sericulture and silk spinning to others." Chen Xi stared at The shopkeeper said.
The reason why I gave the order here is very simple. The shops here belong to all the major families. Even though they all look like merchants, in fact they are all from aristocratic families wearing vests. So I gave the order here, and soon all the major families were there. Can be received.
As for the official, Wang Xiu will follow the official instructions and Liu Bei¡¯s orders, so that both the official and the people can do their own things. If the Romans want to have a complete set of technologies for raising silkworms and spinning silk, just dream! (To be continued.)
ps: Every time I read this period of history, I feel that the Romans were too obsessed with silk. One pound of silk, which is 0.9 kilograms, was officially priced at 247 gold coins at the time of Diocletian. This would not destroy the country. It's only natural, this is what people say when they are extravagant and lustful, right?