BXBX NOVEL Chapter 492: Lisbon Treaty
And if it goes well, after this war, the area of Ceuta will soon reach 60 square kilometers, equivalent to two Macau regions, which will greatly expand the influence of the English in the Mediterranean.
As the other party to the contract, the English need to provide 500 matchlock guns, 5 bronze cannons, and recruit 1,000 mercenaries for the Berbers. Of course, the wages are paid by the Berbers themselves.
Although muskets and artillery cost a lot of money, England\'s munitions production is mature, matchlock guns are beginning to be phased out, prices have plummeted, and His Majesty the King is beginning to prepare to dump them throughout Europe.
So, excluding these expenses, England earned a total of nearly 10,000 pounds in profit, which is really amazing.
However, this also made the English understand one thing, Morocco has a lot of gold.
With the help of the English, the Berbers quickly organized a joint army of 5,000 Berber tribes, and a 1,000-strong German mercenary army, waiting for the Assad army.
At this time, the Portuguese soon learned that the English had occupied their port of Ceuta, and the Portuguese ambassador met His Majesty the King in person.
"Your Majesty, your country has invaded our territory for no reason. Does this mean that your country is preparing to fight with me, Portugal!"
After meeting the young king, the Portuguese ambassador raised his **** beard and said straight to the point, with a heavy tone.
It is estimated that he thought that Portugal was in the period of great empire decades ago!
His Majesty the King smiled inwardly.
"Your Excellency, come, please have a sip of tea, sit down, and let\'s talk slowly!"
His Majesty Edward has a very good attitude. He doesn\'t care about the ambassador\'s domineering attitude, but speaks very kindly.
As the saying goes, you don’t reach out to hit a smiling face. Your Excellency, the ambassador, treated the king of a country like this, and the original face immediately relaxed a lot.
"Your Excellency, we took Ceuta Port from the Berbers. How can it be said that it is an invasion of your country\'s territory?"
After taking a sip of tea, Your Excellency the Ambassador said in an orderly manner to King Edward\'s explanation:
"Your Majesty, the Ceuta area is only temporarily occupied by a group of heretics, but legally it is still our Portuguese territory. It is extremely rude for your country to invade for no reason!"
"Hehe! Your Excellency is too unreasonable to make trouble. We in England don\'t know whether the Ceuta region belongs to the Portuguese. Anyway, we took it from the heretics, but we didn\'t see half of the Portuguese at that time!"
His Majesty Edward sneered, without the kind expression just now, but with a teasing expression on his face.
"Does Your Majesty think that our country is easy to bully? Our hundreds of warships in Portugal are not for display!" The ambassador immediately jumped up and said angrily.
"Hmph!" The young king also stood up, raised his chin, and said dismissively: "Our United Kingdom is not a vegetarian. In the past few years, if nothing else, hundreds of warships can be produced, or even thousands of tons. There are also many battleships!"
"The strengths of our two countries are almost the same, and we will lose out if we fight. Your country does not have the English Channel! And Spain has been coveting your country for a long time!"
Facing His Majesty Edward\'s difficulties, Your Excellency the Ambassador was a little impatient, and he said loudly:
"Although the warships are equivalent, we have more skilled sailors in Portugal. Naval battles don\'t just need ships!"
His Excellency the Ambassador spoke the truth a little proudly, which blocked the young His Majesty for a while.
"Even so, your army can\'t do it!" His Majesty the King said calmly.
"Our Portugal has a lot of money and can hire a lot of mercenaries!"
"Your army can\'t do it!"
"We Portugal are in solidarity!"
"Your army can\'t do it!"
...
No matter what the ambassador said, His Majesty the King still said a word with a smile and directly refuted.
Portugal is a country where the navy and merchants occupy a large population. Not only is the agricultural population missing, but even the army is incomplete.
With a population of two million, the army has only 20,000 people, and most of them are sent to protect the colonies around the world. The local strength is extremely weak.
And its neighbor, Spain, has the most elite army in Europe, and the number has reached 200,000. What a frightening number.
Therefore, Portugal would rather lose some interests than lose its military power, not even the navy.
After all, the Spanish navy is number one in the world.
"Your Excellency, Ambassador, I have a method here, I wonder if you are willing to adopt it?" His Majesty the King looked at the Portuguese Ambassador with a constipated expression in front of him, and said in his heart.
"Please speak, Your Majesty!" The ambassador said with a little dodge in his eyes, and he did not see the arrogance at the beginning.
"The United Kingdom is willing to invest 5,000 pounds to buy the Ceuta region from your country! Moreover, if noble merchants stop at the port of Ceuta, they can enjoy the most-favored-nation treatment!"
"Most Favored Nation?"
"That is to say, among all foreign businessmen, Portuguese businessmen enjoy the lowest tax rate!"
After hearing this proposal, Your Excellency the Ambassador couldn\'t help thinking.
"Your Majesty, I have no right to make decisions, please allow me to report to the country!"
"Yes, I am waiting for your good news!"
bingo! Mission accomplished!
Looking at the departing Portuguese ambassador, Edward could not help but congratulate in his heart.
Exchange 5,000 pounds for the Ceuta region, and the group of mercenary and cowardly Portuguese will, in all likelihood, agree.
Although they have lost the Ceuta region, but if they want to throw their arms and fight the English, especially when the strength is not much different, the Portuguese, who have been lying down and making money, don\'t want to try.
His Majesty Edward proposed to buy the Ceuta region with money, which not only saved the face of the Portuguese Empire, but also made up for some of their losses.
Especially the subsequent most-favored-nation treatment, which comforted the wounded hearts of Portuguese businessmen. Under such circumstances, how could they not agree.
Sure enough, as Edward expected, the Portuguese generally agreed to the proposal of the United Kingdom, but asked the United Kingdom to also apply most-favored-nation treatment to several Portuguese commodities.
In this way, His Majesty Edward did not stop at nothing, and simply proposed that the two countries form an alliance and treat each other with most-favored-nation treatment.
Subsequently, the foreign ministries of the two countries conducted consultations for a month and finally reached an alliance agreement.
Among them, in addition to the most-favored-nation treatment, the most important one is that if an allied country is attacked by another country, the other country must unconditionally launch a military counterattack and automatically join the ranks of confrontation.
Portugal is looking for an ally in order to prevent the Spanish from invading.
England is not only for Portugal\'s gold market, but also to prevent it from being attacked by the Armada in history. It can only helplessly defend and counterattack, and it is still fighting alone.
This treaty, which is beneficial to both countries, was unanimously approved by the two governments.
Of course, in order not to arouse the dissatisfaction of a certain big country, the military content was naturally hidden and became a secret agreement.
The treaty was signed in Lisbon, Portugal, all known as the "Lisbon Treaty".
And because the treaty began in King Edward\'s study, the "Treaty of Lisbon" is also called the "Treaty of the Study".
Internationally, Britain and Portugal, which hadn’t even begun to budge, suddenly reconciled, which left many European countries puzzled.
(end of this chapter)