Upon hearing the staggering figure of "300 million Divine Shields," Wessenberg would have sprayed out the wine in his mouth if he had not weathered so many storms.
To be frank, he very much wanted to counter with a targeted offer of "3 million." But considering how childish that would seem and how it would damage his towering image, he held back.
"Your Excellency, surely you are joking! In the entirety of human history, there has never been a colonial transaction this expensive.
Only half of the Moroccan region consists of valuable land. At your quoted price, the average cost per square kilometer would be as high as 150 Divine Shields.
At that price, one could buy land in your country's homeland. Apart from areas surrounding cities, most rural land in your country costs no more than that."
That was an exaggeration. Spanish land might not be worth much, but it was not so cheap as to cost only 150 Divine Shields per square kilometer.
Unless it was the worst mountain terrain, calculated together with adjoining uncultivable land, then perhaps one could buy it for that price.
No matter how poor the land was, as long as it could be bought, that was enough. By the standards of this era, European land had to be the most expensive.
Without special resources, even the worst mountainous terrain within Spain was more expensive than fertile Moroccan fields.
This price was determined by market supply and demand. Compared with sparsely populated colonies with vast tracts of land, Europe was crowded and short on land, so land prices naturally rose with the tide.
Brad remained unmoved. "If one calculates only the value of the land, the Moroccan region is indeed not worth 300 million Divine Shields. But once its strategic and political value is