The Eagle of Eastern Europe

As the foundation of the economy, agriculture is Dobroga's top priority. Peter himself had a large amount of manor land in his name, part of which was farmed by serfs, and part of which was leased to tenant farmers.

Before Peter, the economic benefits of Northern Dobroga had been poor. Starting from the Roman Empire, Southern Dobroga had been the main land for cultivation, and the same was true for the Eastern Roman and Bulgarian Empires later; until the arrival of Peter.

Peter bought a lot of slaves from Crimea to take charge of the reclamation. Because he bought a lot, he was given some discounts.

For Eastern Europeans from the 15th to the 18th century, the Tatars of the Crimean Khanate were their nightmare, because the country’s army was ruthless and ruthless, and would capture and enslave Christians as a national weapon. The main source of income is called the "harvest of the prairie peoples".

In addition to personal use and ransom, most of the slaves captured by the Tatars were exported to the Ottoman Empire, Middle Eastern countries, and even Christian countries or cities along the Mediterranean coast. At that time, the price of an adult Slavic slave was between 20 and 50 gold coins, while a horse was only worth 15 gold coins and a sheep was only sold for 2 gold coins. Selling one slave was enough for the slave owner to buy a small piece of prime land with houses, fruit trees, farmland and woods, so the slave trade was extremely popular with the Tatars.

Peter also imported some, some worked as serfs, and others were bound as construction workers. At the same time, he also sent the Chamber of Commerce to train a group of clever ones as spies. But the number is not large, probably around 500 people.

Among these people, there were many craftsmen such as blacksmiths and carpenters. Peter organized them and promised that as long as they worked for him, their children would not become slaves and they would also be free.

Slaves, serfs, freedmen, and the army jointly formed the objects of Peter's rule. For the ambition of the lords, and for more wealth and freedom, they launched a challenge to the uncultivated land.

Most of Peter's land was cultivated by the original manor owners here. They either died or fled in previous wars, so these lands became Peter's private property. There are about 2,000 acres.

However, such a large land cannot be occupied by him. So he asked the steward to manage this large land, in addition to crops, there are also some processed products.

After ensuring food security, Peter set his sights on cash crops. Grapes, vegetables, fruits, honey, he knew very well that these were very common crops in Europe, and if he wanted to open up sales, he had to get something different.

Grapes can be used to make wine, vegetables are a bit more expensive than grain, and honey and fruits can be processed. Although you have refined salt, you still need something else.

The serfs working in the fields knelt down when they saw the master coming. Peter waved his hand and they started farming again.

Peter made some improvements to the manor. In addition to planting, some small workshops were also moved here for processing, which can save transportation costs.

"My lord" Peter was joined by the steward of the estate, who took charge of everything in the estate while Peter was at Constanta.

"What's the profit during this period?"

Peter asked this because the income from the estate and the income from the territory were separate. Although it is Peter's wallet that ends up flowing into it, it is still best to separate the income. Because most of the income from the territory has to be used to rebuild the territory and recruit soldiers and horses, the income from the manor is used as private money when necessary.

(If you feel dizzy, it should be very clear if you substitute the Hubu and Huangzhuang of the Ming Dynasty.)

The butler introduced the income of the manor in the past six months. Wine, cloth and beeswax are the main income. In addition, flax planting and sheep breeding have also increased. These are important raw materials for the textile industry.

"Sir, merchants will come to buy most of the things produced, and the rest will be sold in the market in Constanta."

"And the things you asked us to plant have been planted and will be harvested soon."

What Peter asked the manor to grow was one of the raw materials for sugar, sugar beets.

In the 4th century AD, white and red beets appeared. From the 8th to the 12th century AD, sugar beet was widely cultivated in Persia and ancient Arabia. Its cultivated varieties were later introduced to the Caucasus, Asia, Eastern Siberia, India, China and Japan from the center of origin.

Beet prefers warm temperatures but is quite cold tolerant. It is also a suitable cash crop for Wallachia. Peter had the ripe beets cut into strips and boiled in a large pot. Then perform actions such as filtering, sedimentation, and drying to obtain sugar. Of course the color is different.

"Okay, where's the other one?"

Having said this, the butler quickly brought a jar, which contained a thick golden liquid and exuded an alluring sweetness.

This is maltose made from wheat seeds. First, soak the wheat seeds for one night, then drain the water, wait for a week in a dark and ventilated place, wait until the wheat seeds germinate, and then go through a series of complicated processes to finally get the maltose.

In medieval Europe, sugar was a hard currency. It is not only a condiment, but also a status symbol. Even in the 17th century, King Louis XIV of France once held an extremely extravagant royal banquet at the Palace of Versailles, preparing a large number of extremely sweet sweets for the guests at the banquet all night long. This banquet consumed hundreds of pounds of cane sugar and honey. At that time, only the financial resources of the royal family could support such a large amount of sugar consumption.

This custom was very popular at the time, and even many French court nobles were proud of their rotten teeth as a symbol of their aristocratic status. So much so that Europeans called it gold at that time, and it could even be used as currency for circulation and exchange, which has a similar meaning to salt in China.

Of course, apart from white sugar, they don’t know anything about maltose. After all, this requires millet and malt, and millet, which should be called millet, is only available in Eastern Europe and not elsewhere.

Peter was unsure about these two. After all, Europeans like white sugar. I wonder if they would like this kind of sugar.

"You did a great job, I'm very satisfied."

"Your Excellency, you are so complimentary. I just did a trivial job."

Peter worked so hard just to earn more money. By the way, let’s see if it can promote the upgrading of agricultural production.

For Wallachia, which is still in a semi-developed state, cultivating small farmers is the best option. In the 18th and 19th centuries, France's small-scale peasant economy still occupied a dominant position. And the yeoman farmers were also the main providers of troops.

Wallachia and Ukraine, in particular, had fertile lands ideal for large-scale production. What Peter has to do is to expand productivity and at the same time cultivate emerging forces in his country. That is, the businessmen and citizens. This is the best way to suppress the landed aristocracy without causing a big backlash.

Compared with Western Europe, Eastern Europe has better natural conditions. It not only has flat terrain and vast territory, but also is rich in various resources. Agriculture has been developed since ancient times, and animal husbandry has also developed well. Therefore, from an objective point of view, Eastern Europe has more development advantages than Western Europe.

However, Eastern Europe is geographically closer to Islam and nomadic peoples. There is no stable social environment, plus the lack of access to the sea. This caused Eastern Europe to lag behind Western Europe.

Don’t believe it. In 1911, Tsarist Russia counted 25 million wooden plows and 4 million metal plows in the entire empire. It’s the 20th century, but Eastern European woodware is still the mainstream, no one else.

After all, what Eastern Europe lacks most is wood and grassland. As for those Eastern European minerals, they are still buried underground.

But now, everything is different.

After that, Peter rode around the manor and looked at the working serfs and tenant farmers. He always felt that something was sprouting in his heart, but he couldn't say it.

He is not Song Renzong, nor is he Dragu. He's just a guy who wants more, that's all.