"Long live my lord, I really don't know what 500 large-scale ships can transport. Silk and tea are not heavy, only porcelain has some weight. But if 500 large-scale ships are loaded with porcelain, Europe will not be able to eat it. Long Live Lord, you may not know that all European countries have been busy fighting wars in recent years, and they really can’t use so much silk and porcelain..."
Zheng Zhilong wore the python robe he had just received, bowed and followed Zhu Youjian, walking step by step by the water of Taiye Pond - he was going to the "Yingtai Children's Paradise" to say goodbye to his daughter Cha Gu, and from now on Later, Tea Girl became Zhu Cihong's "child bride".
However, the richest man is very career-oriented. Even if he is about to die, he still puts his own business first, so he talked to Zhu Youjian about maritime trade while walking.
The products exported by the Ming Dynasty were mainly silk, porcelain, ironware, tea, etc. Among them, silk and porcelain were the bulk, and the main markets were India, the Ottoman Empire and Europe. Because silver and gold from the Americas flowed into Europe in large quantities, the purchasing power of the European market suddenly increased. By the beginning of the 17th century, it had become the largest customer of silk and porcelain in the Ming Dynasty.
However, starting in 1618 AD, a 30-year war swept across Europe, involving all European countries. Due to the surge in military spending, the demand for Chinese products decreased.
Therefore, the 500 trade certificates given by Zhu Youjian are indeed a bit too much... Before the start of the Thirty Years' War, there were not 500 merchant ships loaded with porcelain and silk sailing to Europe in a year! Now that everyone is busy killing people and setting fires, do they still need porcelain and silk? As an urn and a corpse wrapper?
Zhu Youjian stopped and looked back at Zheng Zhilong, the richest man with a frown on his face, as if he was thinking hard.
"Admiral Zheng," Zhu Youjian said with a smile, "Traders, do you want to communicate with each other? If you export what the Ming Dynasty has in abundance and import what the Ming Dynasty lacks, won't trade be successful? As for where to export it? It doesn't have to be Europe. No! Can’t we lose it to Nanyang?”
"Long live the Lord, you don't know something," Zheng Zhilong shook his head and said, "Southern Asia is a vast land and sparsely populated, so we can't sell anything..."
"The land is vast but sparsely populated?" Zhu Youjian laughed, "What does Admiral Zheng know about my great Ming Dynasty?"
"I know," Zheng Zhilong nodded, "Silk, porcelain, tea."
"Wrong!" Zhu Youjian shook his head, "Today, the majority of people in Ming Dynasty are poor! Poor people who have no food to eat! Since there are no people in Nanyang and there are many poor people in Ming Dynasty, then I, Ming Dynasty, will export poor people to Nanyang... Admiral Zheng, is this business profitable?"
What? Exporting poor people to Nanyang... Is it profitable?
Zheng Zhilong didn’t even know what to say. Those poor people are all the subjects of your emperor!
Export people? Isn't this too sensational?
Although there had always been slave trade in the Ming Dynasty, most of it was done privately. But Long Live Lord now wants to sell the poor people of Ming Dynasty to Nanyang as slaves... How evil!
"Long live my lord, this is not okay!" Zheng Zhilong shook his head repeatedly, "The native princes of Nanyang are all cruel and evil, and they don't even care about their own people, let alone the people of Middle-earth who trafficked in the past?
"Zheng Zhilong!" Zhu Youjian couldn't listen anymore, "What nonsense are you talking about? I want to export the poor to give them a way out, not to sell them to the native princes as slaves!
If I still have this idea, why would I spend so much effort to win over the Dutch? The sea of Nanyang belongs to the Dutch, while the land will be the land where our great soldiers roam freely. I have formed an alliance with the Netherlands. With the size of Southeast Asia, who can resist it? "
What's the meaning? Zheng Zhilong was stunned for a moment, and then understood what Zhu Youjian was thinking - it turned out that the Emperor of Heaven was more evil than he imagined!
Emperor Chongzhen did not want to sell his people into slavery, but he wanted to join forces with the Western Yi Red-haired Dutch Kingdom to seize the territory of the Nanyang Tuwang!
I originally thought you were a personal trafficker, but I didn’t expect you to be a giant thief who has taken over people’s kingdoms and ruined their countries...
"Long live my lord," Zheng Zhilong frowned as he knew that Nanyang's territory was difficult to occupy. "The Dutch are treacherous and cruel. You must not be trusted! Moreover, Nanyang is full of malaria and development is difficult... I'm afraid the people of the Central Plains can't adapt, so they went It is easy to catch diseases and die early after Nanyang. Last year, I moved many hungry people from Fujian to Dayuan to open up wasteland. In just one year, nearly 20% of the immigrants got sick and died! Dayuan is close to Fujian, and the people of Fujian cannot How about adapting to the situation, let alone moving the poor people of Zhongzhou to Nanyang?"
Zhu Youjian glanced at Zheng Zhilong and said to himself: When did you, the Pirate King, care about the lives of ordinary people?
Zheng Zhilong was startled by Zhu Youjian's cold eyes, and then he remembered the old saying that accompanying a king is like accompanying a tiger. He quickly dropped his hands and shoulders, looked at his nose and mouth, and asked his heart, looking like a virtuous minister.
Zhu Youjian put his hands behind his back and started walking again, "Zheng Zhilong, although you are from a humble background, you have never asked for a meal... and you have never seen hundreds of thousands or millions of hungry people who are desperate!
The natural disasters you have in Fujian are incomparable to the disasters in Shaanxi and Henan! You Fujian people are really desperate, but you can still follow you as pirates, and you can still cross the ocean to Annan, go to Dayuan, and go to Nanyang. You can still risk your life to find a way out! "
But I have never been a pirate... Zheng Zhilong shouted in his heart: I am just an honest maritime businessman who collects protection fees!
Zhu Youjian didn't even look at Zheng Zhilong's unjust face, and continued to educate this great pirate who didn't know how dangerous and evil people's hearts were.
"But the hungry people in Shaanxi and Zhongzhou are truly desperate... Shaanxi and Zhongzhou are geographically isolated. Without me to take them, they would not even be able to go south to Huguang and Sichuan to beg for food, let alone cross the ocean to make a living? But do you think that without me taking them, they would have died of hunger? Impossible!"
Zhu Youjian took a deep breath, and there was a bit of fear in his tone, "They will become evil ghosts! By then, they will no longer be human beings...they will be evil ghosts! God will not let them live. , they will not let the world live! So I must find a way out for them, there must be a way for them to go!
As for how many difficulties and obstacles there are on this road, 30%, 40%, 50% or more will die before they find their comfort zone... They don't care, and neither do I! "
Zhu Youjian said these words, of course from the standpoint of the feudal emperor class... He will not truly realize the disasters in the previous life and the previous life. In the final analysis, it is him, the feudal emperor, and the Ming Dynasty. This feudal dynasty caused it!
So the solution he comes up with now is also extremely reactionary...fill the pit of feudalism with an even more evil form of colonialism!
No food to eat?
Go abroad and grab it!
He died of illness, drowned on the road, was beaten to death by the colonial people, died in a fight with himself...Zhu Youjian didn't care!
All he cares about is whether the surviving people can help him seize the territory and whether his heirs can become overseas kings!
And he doesn’t have as many progressive ideas as his son, such as opposition to Western colonization, the primary stage of capitalism, and the accumulation of capital and technology before industrialization... He doesn’t understand it at all. Although he wanted to engage in colonization, he still valued agriculture over business, so he was not worried at all that Dutch profiteers would ruin his affairs.
Because what he wants to do will not only not block the United East India Company's financial path, but will expand more markets for the United East India Company.
Zhu Youjian said to Zheng Zhilong: "As for the Dutch... what they want is completely different from what I want. What they want is industrial and commercial interests, and what I want is to support the people." , the land of the prince. So as long as they are willing to join forces with me, the commercial cities in Southeast Asia can be developed by the United East India Company. This is much larger than the territory they occupy now! And I only want farms and manors to settle my subjects. This I will share the territory of Nanyang with the United East India Company! Zheng Zhilong, do you think this is okay? Do you, Li Guozhu, Liu Xiang, and Shen Tingyang have anything to gain from this?"
