Black Corporation: Joseon

Episode 1001 Meanwhile, elsewhere….. (6)

When they were ousted from the court in Paris, the conservative nobles did not worry too much. Even though the king’s power became stronger, their own power was also formidable.

“Let’s think of it as returning to our hometown and resting for a while.”

This was the thought of the nobles who were ousted and returned to their hometowns. But this was their misjudgment. I had taken too lightly the impact of the existence of scent.

* * *

France had been maintaining exchanges with the empire since the time of its predecessor, Louis XI – to be exact, the end of Charles VII’s reign.

– A monarch with absolute power.

The emperors of the empire that the kings of France, starting from Charles VII, saw were the kind of people they had dreamed of. Even in history before the intervention of the French, French monarchs had tried to suppress the power of the nobility since the end of the 100 Years’ War. And the peak was Louis XIV, the ‘Sun King’. However, the intervention of incense gave a tremendous acceleration to it.

The King of France’s royal army, armed with imperial firearms, overwhelmed the private armies of the nobles. Exchanges with the empire drew absolute support from the city residents, who were responsible for the human resources of the Imperial Army. Having secured two of the three absolute ingredients for seizing power: force and the support of the people (albeit limited to urban citizens), the French kings were soon able to obtain the last one.

It was to secure independent economic power through the Suez Railway. Through this, the kings of France were able to escape the pressure of the nobility based on traditional agriculture. Of course, the noble powers were not unaware of this. However, conservative aristocrats with agricultural-centered values downplayed this change.

“Business? Trade? That too requires money! Where does that money come from? Wheat and wool, that is, from the ground! Everything we eat and wear comes from the ground! Without these goods in kind, business is just a numbers game and a play on words! ”

Conservative aristocrats had absolute faith in the value of goods derived from agriculture. But they forgot. The land wasn’t just in France.

* * *

Charles VIII was well aware that the nobles who had been ousted by him were conscientious of their benefactors and were aiming to gain power. Soon after, Charles VIII took away their traditional power one by one.

The first and most passionate thing to do was to take away the ‘right to collect taxes.’

-From now on, all citizens of France, regardless of their status, will pay taxes according to the tax rate set by French national law.

The nobles strongly opposed Charles VIII’s unprecedented announcement. However, the backlash from those who were pushed out from the center was bound to have limits. Eventually, the nobles demanded the convening of the Estates General, and the Estates General was convened. However, this convening of the Estates General was the final blow that led to the downfall of the nobles.

* * *

The Estates General was a meeting held by representatives of nobles, clergy, and commoners. When convening this Estates General, the nobles had their own calculations.

The first cards to be discarded were the commoners’ representatives. The words were ‘representatives of the common people’, but their exact identity was the city’s civic forces nicknamed the ‘Third Estate’. To be precise, these plebeian representatives of the city’s commercial power were staunch supporters of the king.

The next card to be discarded was something unexpected. Nobles like themselves, to be exact, were nobles who worked in the government of Charles VIII. With the succession of Louis XI and Charles VIII, new aristocratic powers emerged in France. They were not orthodox nobles who boasted long traditions and history, but nobles who received titles based on achievements such as meritorious achievements in war.

These new nobles, who did not have an economic base like the fiefdoms of the conservative nobles, had to give absolute loyalty to the king in order to survive. Therefore, these new nobles had to be considered a throwaway card. In the end, the people whom the conservative aristocrats regarded as their last support were the high-ranking clergy of the church.

And this was their mistake. Since the unification of Italy, the Vatican has lost most of its territory. The kings of other countries, seeing that the Italian unified government was safe despite confiscating most of the papal states within Italy, rushed to confiscate the papal states in their own kingdoms. Even so, it was safe.

With the disappearance of the Papal States within the European powers, high-ranking clergy in each country were economically weakened. And as the kings were spared the confiscation of the Papal States, the political power of the high-ranking clergy also weakened. As the situation unfolded, high-ranking clergy were also faced with a choice.

Either stand on the side of the nobles or on the side of the newly powerful city’s citizens and king. This didn’t just happen in France.

* * *

Thanks to this miscalculation, the nobles’ reactionary actions through the Estates General ended in failure. However, King Charles VIII was not the only winner.

-All citizens of France must pay taxes determined by law.

-However, all matters related to taxes, such as tax items, tax rates, and tax payment ranges, must be agreed upon by the Estates General.

-In addition, decisions of the Estates General are made by majority vote.

Of these three clauses, the first clause could be seen as a victory for Charles VIII, and the second clause could be seen as a victory for the nobles. But the last clause was truly a victory for citizen representatives. The place where the largest number of people gathered in the Estates General was the common people’s representatives.

In order to pass the first article, Charles VIII had no choice but to side with the plebeian representatives, and to keep the second article, the nobles also had to side with the plebeian representatives.

* * *

In any case, with the passage of this bill, French nobles were deprived of their tax exemption benefits. Because they too were the ‘walls of France’. By taking away the tax exemption benefits of the nobility, France’s pockets suddenly became richer.

On the other hand, orthodox nobles with an agricultural-centered economic structure suffered from a double whammy. No, I fell into a vicious cycle. With tax exemptions abolished, nobles, whose pockets were tight, raised the rent they received from farmers in their manors and estates. Accordingly, in manors and rural areas owned by nobles, many farmers began to run away at night with their families.

Those who left their hometowns to survive soon gathered in nearby cities. As farmers left, a lot of farmland was abandoned, and a vicious cycle began where the pockets of the landowners, the nobles, became even thinner. In the end, in order to survive, the nobles had to come up with a new household policy.

They raised sheep to supply wool to the French and Italian woolen industries and entered the wine industry, especially brandy manufacturing. During this time, the industry that the nobles focused most on was brandy.

* * *

Wine was a popular alcoholic beverage or beverage enjoyed regardless of status. However, if you are a little negligent about the wine, it will go away right away. At some point, brandy, a liquor distilled to prevent it from turning into vinegar, began to gain popularity. And with the discovery of the New World in the South, brandy’s popularity increased further.

The arduous long-distance voyage was mentally and physically exhausting. To relieve this hardship, sailors enjoyed alcohol. However, the problem arose that the wine went sour quickly. But Brandy didn’t have this problem. In addition, the significantly higher alcohol content compared to wine made you definitely drunk even if you drank a small amount.

Therefore, the beginning of preparation for a ship going on a long-distance voyage was to load oak barrels full of brandy. And this brandy became a new source of income for French nobles. Among the French nobility, there was no one who did not have a wine farm. And the quality of the wine was good as it suited the nobles’ tastes.

Therefore, brandy made from these high-quality wines boasted excellent aroma and taste, and soon became a strong challenger to multi-colored liquor.

Here, nobles with commercial wealth went one step further. Instead of high-quality wines, they began to target the mid- to low-priced market by producing low-priced brandy distilled from medium- and lower-quality wines. Other aristocrats, seeing the popularity of these mid-priced brandies, soon made similar brands and entered the market.

And this change once again made the scent appealing.

* * *

As brandy became more popular in the European market, the mills run by mills fell into crisis. The main liquor sold at Giru, run by wheat workers, was multi-colored liquor. Many wealthy people still enjoyed expensive multi-colored liquor, but as high-end brandies became available in the market, the number of those leaving began to increase.

Accordingly, the guild leaders of Milwi tried to import brandy, but the competing guilds tried to block this. Accordingly, executives of the Militia Committee immediately sent an urgent report to Seoul.

-Although it is not our main business, we will soon be in danger of closing down at this rate.

-If the stoma is closed, there will be no base in Europe.

After receiving Milwi’s urgent report asking for help, Hyun immediately went to Hyang.

“What should I do? The best thing is to gather skilled craftsmen, but it is not easy as it is a mill job.”

Hyang also responded to Hyeon’s complaint with a frown.

“Hmm, that is a problem. I will try to think about this problem.”

“I believe that Tae Sang-tae will give us the wise answer.”

After Hyun left, Hyang, who had been thinking for a while, let out a long sigh.

“Whew. In the end, this is the only answer, right? It reminds me of the Bacardi nightmare I had when I was a college student and almost died after blowing on the liquid without realizing it.”

Hyang, who shuddered slightly as he recalled the dark history of his past life, soon muttered quietly as he wrote down the distillation method on a piece of paper.

“By the way, it was rum during the Age of Exploration, right?”

Soon, rum began to be produced in the southwestern provinces, which grew the most sugar cane in the empire, and in the islands off the east coast of Sinji. And these rums caused a sensation in the European distilled spirits market. Because it was an alcoholic beverage made from the by-products left over from sugar cane production – hence its name, sugar wine – the production cost was very low.

In addition, it boasted a very strong alcohol content by selling distilled liquor directly without any maturation process.

-Strong but cheap alcohol.

-You can drink until you die for a small amount of money.

Thanks to these characteristics, as soon as sugar liquor was released to the European market, it captivated not only sailors but also the city’s lower class. Meanwhile, Milwi’s Giru included a cocktail recipe based on sugar liquor and the highest quality crystal glasses to match.

-Until high-quality candy liquor is released, we will maintain our customer base by using mixed liquor and glasses tailored to this recipe.

And about three years after its release, high-quality sugar liquor that had undergone a proper maturation process began to come out and capture the tastes of the wealthy.