Always choose, as wives for the Russian princes, German princesses, so as to increase family alliances, to draw mutual interests closer, and, by propagating our principles in Germany, to enlist her in our cause. VII. England—requiring us for her navy, and she being the only power that can aid in the development of ours, seek a commercial alliance with her, in preference to any other. Exchange our wood, and the productions of our land for her gold, and establish between her merchants, her sailors and ours a continual intercourse; this will aid in perfecting the Russian fleet for navigation and commerce. VIII. Extend your possessions toward the North, along the Baltic, and toward the South by the Black Sea. IX. Approach as near as possible to Constantinople and its outskirts. He who shall reign there will be the true sovereign of the world. Consequently, be continually at war—sometimes with the Turks, sometimes with Persia. Establish dock yards on the Black Sea, get entire possession of it by degrees, also of the Baltic Sea; this being necessary to the accomplishment of the plan. Hasten the decline of Persia; penetrate to the Persian Gulf; re-establish, if possible, the ancient commerce of the Levant through Syria, and make your way to the Indies—they are the emporium of the world. Once there, you can do without the gold of England. X. Seek, and carefully keep up an alliance with Austria; acquiesce, apparently, in her ideas of dominating over Germany, at the same time clandestinely exciting against her the jealousy of the neighboring provinces. Endeavor that the aid of Russia should be called for, by one and the other, so that by exercising a kind of guardianship over the country, you prepare a way for governing hereafter. XI. Give the House of Austria an interest, for joining in banishing the Turks from Europe; defraud her of her share of the booty, at the conquest of Constantinople, either by raising a war for her with the ancient states of Europe, or by giving her a portion, which you will take back at a future period. XII. Attach to yourselves, and assemble around you, all the united Greeks, as also the disunited or schismatics, who are scattered either in Hungary, Turkey, or the south of Poland. Make yourselves their centres, their chief support, and lay the foundation for universal supremacy, by establishing a kind of royalty or sacerdotal government; the Slavonic Greeks will be so many friends that you will have scattered amongst your enemies. XIII. Sweden severed, Persia and Turkey conquered, Poland subjugated, our armies united, the Black and Baltic Seas guarded by our vessels, you must make propositions separately and discreetly—first to the Court of Versailles, then to that of Vienna, to share with them the Empire of the Universe.