Why did Lubeck and Hamburg (mainly hamburgers) covet the Hanseatic merchants in Bremen? At first, Marin thought that it was mainly because he was attracted by the wealth of the Hanseatic merchants in Bremen. After all, business activities in this era were subject to taxes. But after Marin learned in detail, he realized that the reason why Hamburg covets the Hanseatic merchants in Bremen was desperately trying to attract them was not for wealth and taxation.
Of course, wealth and taxation are also part of the reason. The real reason is - the business channels of Bremen...
The two cities are both important Hanseatic cities on the northwest coast of Germany, and they are both big shots, and the two sides are full of competition. However, the advantages of the two companies are different. The basic structure of Hamburg is mainly in the German region, including the inland Elbe River Basin. For example, the Saxony region (including the Saxony Electoral and the Duchy of Saxony) and the Archbishop of Magdeburg in the Elbe River Basin, and the import and export of goods must be carried out by Hamburg. Therefore, the coastal region of the northwest Germany and the Elbe River Basin belong to the basic structure of Hamburg.
But Bremen City is different. Their basic board, in addition to the Wesser River Basin and part of the northwest coastal areas of Germany, also includes England and the Netherlands. Even the overseas boards of England and the Netherlands have no less interests than local interests.
The Hanseatic League's main force in London and Antwerp's trading houses are the Hanseatic merchants in Bremen. Although Hamburg also has its own power in London and Antwerp's trading houses, it is far inferior to Bremen. Mainly, Bremen made overseas use as the main direction of development. Therefore, overseas markets in London and Antwerp are Bremen.
The result is that the three Hanseatic League leaders - Lubeck, Hamburg and Bremen. The basic balance of Lubeck is the Baltic region; the basic balance of Bremen is mainly England and the Netherlands, and their interests exceed their local interests; and Hamburg, although it is the deputy leader of the Hanseatic League, also has power in the Baltic, England and the Netherlands, but they both ranked second... It is only when Hamburg is strong in its local strength, relying on the trade rights of the Elbe River Basin, that he barely suppressed Bremen and became the second strongest in the Hanseatic League.
This time, Marin wanted to move Bremen, and the one who was most excited was to count Hamburg. Because the Hamburgers really wanted Bremen's interests in England and the Netherlands...
In other words, whoever annexes the Hanseatic merchants in Bremen will be who originally had the commercial channels of Bremen in England and Antwerp in the Netherlands.
If Hamburg poached the Hanseatic merchants in Bremen who controlled the commercial channels of England and the Netherlands, it can be said that Hamburg's strength in the North Sea region will increase significantly. Perhaps, it will rely on these channels to surpass Lübeck.
The Lübecks obviously knew this, so they did not agree at first. However, in order to achieve their goal, Hamburg did not hesitate to share these benefits with Lübeck, which made Lübeck finally agree to swallow Bremen together. In addition, Lübeck was unwilling to offend Marin for Bremen. After all, Bremen was committed to his own death and took the initiative to be hostile to the North Sea.
But Marin knew that the Hamburger proposal actually had a trap. Although Hamburg proposed to divide the Hanseatic merchants in Bremen, Hanseatic merchants in Bremen are not goods, and they will have their own choices...
After all, the core interests of the Hanseatic merchants in Bremen are in the North Sea, while the core interests of Lübeck are in the Baltic Sea. If Lübeck and Hamburg recruit Bremen merchants at the same time, then the Bremen merchants will definitely choose Hamburg for the sake of interests. After all, Hamburg is also a port in the North Sea. If you defect to Lübeck, where will the ship be parked? The Baltic Sea? In that case, it will be inconvenient to go to England and the Netherlands...
But Lübeck is not without benefits. After all, as long as a businessman is willing to go, he will inevitably bring a lot of capital. How important is capital? You can understand it by looking at the various goodwills made by local Chinese officials in later generations. Not to mention anything else, the taxes generated by commercial activities every year are in vain.
In these days, Europe has no agricultural tax, only commercial tax and import and export tariffs. For rich Hanseatic merchants, import and export trade is a basic activity. If you fool a Hanseatic merchant to live and do business in Lubeck, the annual tax revenue will definitely increase a lot.
In order to get Lubeck to support the North Sea Kingdom to swallow Bremen, Hamburg also put forward conditions that Lubeck could not refuse - no matter what the Bremen businessmen's intentions, as long as Hamburg recruits half of the Bremen businessmen, he will stop immediately. Then, he encouraged the remaining Bremen Hanseatic merchants to go to Lubeck...
For the sake of half of the wealth and taxes brought by the merchants of Lubeck, Lubeck finally agreed...
...
In fact, Marin was also quite envious of the business channels in England and the Netherlands that Bremen merchants had, and he also wanted to keep the Hanseatic merchants.
However, after thinking about it for a while, Marin gave up recruiting those people. Why? Because these Hanseatic merchants had too much political influence on the city of Bremen.
In Bremen, these Hanseatic merchants were not only local wealthy people, but also political leaders. When they called out, there were many responders in Bremen.
If Marin wants to keep these people, then it is not certain who has the final say in Bremen City in the future. Even if these people dare not understand and oppose Marin, it is very easy to secretly encourage the citizens of Bremen to confront Marin.
Don’t underestimate the civic class of this era, the early revolutions and other things were all created by the civic class. The French King Louis XVI was also sent to the guillotine by the citizens.
Of course, the citizen class is stupid, and they are often bewitched and led the rhythm. However, if all the Bremen Hanseatic merchants who are capable of bewitching them and leading the rhythm are driven away, these citizens will be without leaders. After all, although the citizen class is the main force of the revolution, it is by no means the leader of the revolution.
Therefore, in order to maintain long-term stability in Bremen City, Marin had to give up the business channels of those Bremen merchants and let them be recruited by Hamburg and Lübeck.
...
In fact, it is difficult for Marin himself to recruit those Bremen merchants. Because the two sides have long formed a grudge...
At the beginning, after Marin formed the Beihai Chamber of Commerce, he began to mainly engage in grain and salt, but he was in peace with the Bremen merchants. However, as the territory of the Beihai Kingdom expanded, the conflict between Marin and the Bremen merchants intensified.
This is mainly because in order to keep domestic agricultural technology confidential, Marin prohibited foreign merchants from entering and leaving the Beihai Kingdom. However, the original vassal states of the Beihai Kingdom were originally the commercial sphere of influence of the Hansea merchants in Bremen. Marin prohibited foreign merchants from entering and leaving casually, which was equivalent to cutting off the financial paths of many Bremen merchants. Cutting off people's wealth, such as killing their parents, it was strange that those Bremen merchants could live in peace with Marin.
The Beihai Kingdom is not a small vassal state, with an area of ​​tens of thousands of square kilometers, which is at the forefront of Germany. Before that, most of these territories were the commercial sphere of influence of the Hanseatic merchants in Bremen.
After Marin took control of these areas, he not only expelled all the Bremen merchants who belonged to "foreign merchants", but also established the Beihai Chamber of Commerce to compete with the Bremen. It would be fine if the Beihai Chamber of Commerce monopolized the trade of the Beihai Kingdom, but he also extended his tentacles to London and established a branch that was no less than the Hanseatic League store, which would have been furious to the Bremen merchants. If it weren't for the defeat, the Bremen merchants would have been attacked by Marin long ago. Therefore, it was not surprising that they turned to the princes of the Eight Kingdoms after seeing the opportunity.
...
After Marin blocked the Wesser River, although the business activities in Bremen were greatly hit. However, out of hostility and hatred towards Marin, the Bremen did not surrender. Marin sent people to contact those Bremen merchants many times, but they refused. Many Bremen merchants even became ruthless - even if they did not do business, they would never give up the city of Bremen.
As for the merchant ships cannot enter and exit the Weisshe River? The merchants of Bremen decided that the merchant ships will not return to the Weisshe River...
As for the merchant ships trapped in Wessel Hanoi, they would rather abandon them. Then, purchase ships from the outside world to run the sea route. After all, a ship is expensive for ordinary people, but not a big problem for those Bremen merchants.
Therefore, even if the Wesser River was blocked, Marin's early contact with Bremen merchants was not successful. In addition, Hamburg's contact with Bremen Hanseatic merchants was not smooth.
Even a radical Hanseatic businessman in Bremen even put forward the banner of "I would rather not do business than give up the city of Bremen."
Marin was so angry when he saw this banner. So he decided to use some more advanced means - to cut off food...
...
Indeed, although merchant ships cannot go out to sea to do business, Bremen can change ships and avoid Marin's blockade. The basic foundation of Bremen merchants is mainly in Antwerp, England and the Netherlands. As long as they do not return to the home port of Bremen City, Marin has no choice but to do anything about them.
But, as Bremen is such a big city, people in the city always have to have a meal, right?
Bremen City has a population of nearly 20,000, and the daily consumption of food and vegetables is astronomical. However, Bremen City is a pure commercial city with no farmland at all. Therefore, the grain in Bremen City needs to be transported in from other places. The largest grain supplier is naturally Beihai Country.
Even if the Beihai Kingdom does not provide grain, transporting grain from other places into Bremen City must pass through Beihai Kingdom.
So, Marin decided to cut off the grain transport route in Bremen...
The method is also very simple - block the water and land passage from Bremen City to outside the city...
...
For this reason, Marin suddenly announced that he would "strengthen the infrastructure construction near Bremen City." So he ordered the waterways upstream of Bremen City to be blocked for centralized dredging. At the same time, the land routes around Bremen City were also completely blocked by the Beihai Army. The reason is that road construction...
This time, Bremen City was in trouble immediately...
Once upon a time, even if the North Sea Kingdom did not sell grain to Bremen City, Bremen could still transport grain from other countries through the Weiser River.
Even if Marin blocked the mouth of the Wissel River, the Bremen could transport grain from Hessen and Thuringian in the upper reaches of the Wissel River.
However, once Marin blocked the route upstream of the Wiessel River, Bremen suddenly panicked, because this means that Bremen has no channels for food transport...
Chapter completed!