Greece to roman road

"Furthermore, Your Highness, our Philip Pharmaceutical Company (named mainly to commemorate the contribution of Dr. Philip) is now a listed company, and a considerable part of our stocks are circulating on the stock exchange. We are going to Responsible for all shareholders," Nina emphasized to everyone.

"Your Highness, as you said, using grapes to make alcohol, which is obviously a loss of money, once it is leaked and becomes known, I am afraid that our Philip Pharmaceutical Company will immediately cause trouble."

Only then did Constantine react. He patted his head and forgot that Philip Pharmaceuticals was now a listed company. In order to win over more interest allies, in addition to letting Greek capital invest, Constantine also specifically reminded Nina to sell 10 shares on the Athens Stock Exchange.

Although the Greek royal family still owns a considerable part of the shares and is the major shareholder of Philip Pharmaceuticals, things like this that obviously harm the company's interests will undoubtedly be questioned by other shareholders.

Nina looked at the people in the office who were worried about the overproduction of grapes, and suggested: "Although our Philip Pharmaceutical Company cannot help you, I personally have an idea."

When everyone heard these words, their eyes instantly focused on Nina.

"You also know that Greece's shipping industry is developed. Why don't you think of some ideas on this?" Nina looked at the crowd and said.

"Nina, the shipping industry and wine have..."

Before Constantine could ask the question, Trikupis suddenly understood and said excitedly: "Hey, yes, doesn't the shipping industry need a lot of wine?"

"What Ms. Nina means is that sailors who drift on the sea live at sea all year round and need to consume a lot of wine on weekdays."

After Tricupis' reminder, Constantine also woke up.

In this era, wine was a popular drink among navies of various countries and sailors on cargo ships.

Like the rum that was so popular among the crew.

People's traditional impression of pirates is that they always carry a rum bottle.

There are two reasons for this.

First, wine does not go bad easily. Since ships need to sail on the vast sea for many years, they carry fresh water in wooden barrels when leaving port. It is conceivable that this method cannot be preserved for a long time.

Within a few days, the water in the bucket began to deteriorate and green algae grew, making it sticky, slippery, and smelly.

And the storage time of wine is much longer.

Therefore, for sailors who have been drifting at sea all year round, wine is just fresh water.

Second, rum can prevent scurvy.

On the ship, due to the lack of fresh food, the crew's food was generally dry bread, bacon, salted beans, etc., which were difficult to swallow.

Such a poor eating environment led to a lack of vitamin C among the crew and they were prone to scurvy.

While rum has a preventive effect on scurvy, of course, wine is even better.

Wine is much more nutritious than rum.

Thinking of this, Constantine said: "That would allow the naval personnel to reserve more wine. They need a lot of wine anyway."

There is finally a way to deal with the grape production crisis in Greece.

"It seems that, Mr. Prime Minister, we can only rely on ourselves to solve the problem of grape surplus."

"Your government must find ways to encourage brewing this year, and of course the shipping companies must also work hard to win their orders," King George asked.

"Notify the Greek newspapers of this news and release the good news. It is best to first increase the price of raisins in the international market."

"The Ministry of Armaments also stores some wine to supply to the soldiers," King George turned to Emmanuel and said.

"These measures are all temporary measures. Although they can avoid a large number of bankruptcies among Greek grape farmers in the short term, after all, it is impossible to use non-market methods to alleviate the difficulties every year like this year. Now that the grape planting industry in Western Europe has begun to recover. , then the problem of overproduction of grapes in Greece is the problem.”

"Can some grape growers be allowed to switch to other crops to fundamentally reduce the future grape production in Greece and completely solve the problem?" George I asked.

Greece has many mountains and hills, and the land is relatively barren. The reason why people are planting grapes one after another is not only the guidance of the market, but also the limited choice of crops suitable for planting.

Grapes are precisely a crop that is more suitable for Greece’s geographical conditions.

"Actually, although there are not many other cash crops suitable for cultivation in Greece, it is not impossible," Constantine said.

"mulberry"

The reason why Constantine said this is because, although it cannot be compared with China, the birthplace of sericulture, Greece has the longest history of sericulture, at least in Europe.

Thanks to the Silk Road, silk from China was transported thousands of miles to Europe by merchants.

The emergence of silk triggered a frenzy among Europeans (of course, those powerful people). Europeans wearing crude linen clothes or animal skins did not hesitate to spend a lot of money to buy silk from China.

For example, those portraits of European nobles, businessmen, and religious figures that were widely circulated in later generations. The gorgeous costumes they wore were either bright yellow or pure white. There was no doubt that they were all silk.

Later, the Eastern Roman Empire obtained (stolen) the technology of sericulture from China.

The place where a large number of mulberry trees are planted is in the Peloponnese Peninsula in southern Greece.

As for the later sericulture culture in Italy and France, it was actually passed down from the Eastern Roman Empire.

(As an aside, the high-end silk industry is currently in the hands of France, Japan, and Italy. Although China's silk industry has a large output, it is of low- to medium-grade in the world silk market)

"Mulberry" Trikupis considered Constantine's suggestion with some hesitation.

"But silk is generally used in the luxury goods industry, and consumption in Greece is limited."

"Anyway, it is an alternative to grapes. Moreover, raw silk itself is also useful in the military. For example, raw silk can be used to contain propellant for large-caliber artillery," Constantine said.

"Can raw silk be used as propellant for large-caliber artillery? Your Highness, why don't I know this?" Emmanuel asked doubtfully.

Seeing the confused expression of the chief of general staff, which did not seem to be hypocritical, Constantine couldn't help but be stunned, and then realized that raw silk was used to load large-caliber artillery propellants. This was a later discovery by the Japanese, and it has not yet appeared. Woolen cloth.

So he changed his mind and said: "What's the big deal? Are we still exporting to the Eastern Mediterranean region like the current cotton cloth? They are all textiles anyway."