章 80: Marriage.
"It is good to know that not all the secrets travel at the speed of light." Chuckling deviously, Felipe laughed at the astonished Ambassador.
A monarch getting married was influential! It would be even more critical in the future when Queen Victoria showed the world the power of marriage by creating the biggest royal family in the world.
Too bad it would probably end up being the reason World War 1 happened—all the monarchs were more familiar with each other than they should have been, making things more personal than they should have been.
"But, this is an important matter… There have already been proposals from the Hapsburg."
"Fuck no… My family was spared by being ousted from power in Spain, or we would have ended like the royalty of Castile, dead and not by revolution but by genetic suicide; remember the Harpsburgh chin. I believe God intervened and prevented the tainting of my family's Blood so a strong person like Moi would be born." Felipe laughed a bit.
"Still, it is an essential thing for the Empire."
"Yeah, she will be the mother of my heir… she is a year younger than me." Felipe chuckled, "She also has Red hair… her father is a horse breeder, and I offered a place in the empire to breed horses… we're, after all, quite horseless… the only ones we have are to breed mules… we have mules breeding grounds and not of horses… which is quite funny if you ask me."
"Please do not shove this under the rug. You got engaged to a horse breeder's daughter from America?" Aurelio looked quite surprised. "Not even a noble!?"
Felipe could only smile at his Ambassador's desperation and quickly explained it further: "The future of the Colombian Empire will have a lot of redheads; the very fact that my heirs will most likely be red will be a huge plus for their popularity when social issues come knocking the door, don't you think?"
Of course, he did not care about it; her dedication to becoming his wife amused him.
"What, don't judge me; I do as I please with my love life; I made quite the point when I wrote the fucking constitution." Felipe laughed at Aurelio's still gaping mouth. "Plus, she is a good girl."
"… It does not matter!"
"It does matter; it matters only to me, and that is all that matters."
"… Ufff… Okay… but a relationship between the Austrians and yourself would help validate your divine right and help our country in international matters.
"The only thing that helps in International Matters is money… plus, the only advantage of having a European wedding is if you are a European Country… we are 2-3 Business Weeks away from them… plus, the current Austrian government would suck a dick if it meant avoiding conflict, there is zero to gain from them… and Excuse me… My family is the last dynasty of the Roman Empire! Rather Shameful, but my ancestor willingly charged against the Ottomans for the defense of Constantinople."
"It was 400 years or so ago," Aurelio said.
"My family has enough nobility, thank you very much." Felipe shook his head as he took some honey and put it on his tea.
"The Vanilla Production back home is rather lacking. We are out to make the Chocolate Area and some forests part of the country's Vanilla production capacity." Felipe connected the honey with the bees and the orchids, who were the only ones able to pollinate the vanilla orchid plant.
"The vanilla bees? You were always happy with your insects, huh?"
"Well, yeah, bullet ants are rather impressive. I fucking love them." He said, making a huge like a little kid with his new toy.
"Right," Aurelio remembered how Spanish soldiers were being fucking tortured for multiple days, and their entire skin inflamed due to bullets and poison.
He remembered the prince's excitement and how sadistic and cold Felipe could be. The changes were so great and so instant that he would forget from time to time.
Felipe extended his hand up and wide, expressed his dreams, and wished, "I want to make honey a huge industry for the empire… making every single farmer a honey maker."
"We are also the single biggest exporter of sugar cane at the moment…, so we will be competing with ourselves," Aurelio said.
"We export sugar, not sugar cane… I painstakingly was able to create processing factories during my time as de facto dictator of the Empire." Felipe quickly corrected as he felt offended that one of his biggest accomplishments was not acknowledged.
Sugar Cane would be refined into Blocks of Brown Sugar and then shipped across—that is what the Spaniards and any other colonial power would do. However, Felipe invested enough to create a place for the brown sugar to be refined into a final product: white sugar, which could fathom way more in the international market than normal blocks of brown sugar.
Felipe Added, "Honey and White sugar will never compete; after all, they have completely different tastes, even though their sugary composition is the same."
"Plus, we have the land, the conditions and everything in between to make mass production of Vanilla… we can make it a normal sweetener across the empire and become a big export to the USA." Even though Felipe was looking to make swarms of orchid bees as he was able to find ways how to house them and give their houses, he was not naïve; sooner or later, the secret of artificial pollination would go public and multiple European countries would begin mass Orchid production.
However, he knew that technique already, so it didn't matter if he invested or not, as long as he was able to create a great federation of industries across the Empire, the rise of artificial colourants and tastes would be not a problem.
In the 21st Century, most Vanilla would come from Madagascar, which the French introduced as a compulsory crop. However, a country stricken by poverty would not be able to set its terms in the vanilla market, and so on. Even though Vanilla would be incredibly costly occasionally, the vanilla farmer would mostly make a few cents on the dollar.
A federation would be a union, but instead of negotiating with a business, it would be a negotiation with the market! The market manipulation is done by storing Vanilla while the price is low and selling it when it is high.
If Felipe successfully implements Federations of Commerce in the biggest industries in the Empire, he will not have to worry about the future. However, he is more worried about that idea than before as he remembers the massive corruption and stealing that will happen.
"That is what you are going to put the Irish to do? Plant orchids?"
"Some, yeah… but I intend to spread them across the country so they are not associated with any stereotype," Felipe added before taking a long sip of his tea.
"You do have very unorthodox ideas." Aurelio could only sigh.
Felipe would do things no matter the possible consequences. Though he would learn, for instance, the moment that trying to liberate the slaves did not work, he made laws to partially liberate the slaves through the government, that way not annoying powerful people… not that there were many powerful people left.
"Well, the Pope considered me a heretic and a spawn of the devil."
They were in the late stages of the Spanish Inquisition, which was mostly a power trip into censorship and the declaration of heretics.
Nevertheless, they made him an pseudo heretic. However, they would not dare to make him an illegitimate heir as they knew that he ran the Empire, and any disturbance by the church would cause them to lose all their holdings in the Empire, which included the majority of Spanish-speaking colonies in South America.
"They are truly afraid of you… that is not a good thing to be proud of." The Ambassador became rather annoyed as he saw a huge grin on Felipe's mid sentence.
"So what? I have given the schools; they are the only religion to establish churches in the Empire! I gave them something to lose. You can control people like that. If they have nothing to lose, you lose control, as nothing you say or do would matter to that person."
"…"
"That is why even though they hate the fact that the Empire encourages polygamy due to the sheer amount of dead men, they still acknowledge us as emperors… rightful ones… those slimy popes, though… I do not mind exterminating them if they get out of line." Felipe laughed, not interested in seeing the same headlines of priests touching kids across the world.
"Maybe the influence of Orthodox teachings would help them to not be celeb etc..… for god sake, I need more people in the empire… and these people there having relationships with god and waiting to be the next fucking Virgin Mary." Even though Felipe was using that as an argument, he would prefer headlines of nuns and priests having harems and being heretics over sexually frustrated priests touching little kids, especially now that he has attached the church to the education of his Empire under his merciless hand.
"…"
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