Every year they wring from the Christians more than 300,000 ducats for the alum, with which we dye wool various colors. But I have found seven mountains so rich in this material that they could supply seven worlds, if you will give orders to engage workmen, build furnaces, and smelt the ore, you will provide all Europe with alum, and the Turk will lose all his profits. Instead, they will accrue to you. So the Pope was like, heck yeah! More importantly, he granted a monopoly on the mining rights of alum to a particular Florentine family, the Medicis. You know, the ones you always see painted. But vitally, Italian alum mines didn't bring victory over the Turks, or cause them to lose all their profits, just as mining and drilling at home never obviate the need for trade.