Daming Town Haiwang

Chapter 2112, a generation of hero Suleiman the Great
In the royal palace of Istanbul in the Ottoman Empire, the young Suleiman the Great was looking a little sad. Suleiman was thin and pale, but his eyes were piercing, his neck was slightly long, he had a hooked nose, and he had a crown on his head. Big surprisingly big bag.

As the sultan of the Ottoman Empire, he is now facing many difficulties.

Different from the strength of the Ottoman Empire in history, the current Ottoman Empire failed in two consecutive wars with the Ming Empire. Not only was it cut off a large amount of land, but it also faced heavy war reparations, which greatly weakened the strength of the Ottoman Empire.

In the east, the Persian Empire, supported by the Ming Empire, became stronger day by day under the rule of Ismail I, and the Mamluk Dynasty in Egypt benefited from the considerable income brought by the Egyptian Canal and the prosperous east-west trade.

All of these make the current Ottoman Empire far less powerful than it was in history, and it faces many problems.

The internal economic pressure is high, the taxes are too heavy, and the tribal leaders are ambitious and ready to move. The Hungarians, Austrians, and Tatars in the western European border area have been trying to occupy the land of the Ottoman Empire, although these lands belonged to them originally. .

Persia and Egypt in the east are also competing with the Ottoman Empire for the fertile Mesopotamia. It can be said that internal and external troubles have brought great pressure.

But this is not the thing that caused him the most headache. The thing that really caused him a headache was that the businessmen of the Ming Dynasty entered the Ottoman Empire to do business, and gradually tied the Ottoman Empire to the capitalist chariot of the Ming Empire.

The original handicraft industry of the Ottoman Empire was extremely developed, especially the textile industry. The cloth of the Ottoman Empire could not only meet its own needs, but could even be exported in large quantities to Europe, the Middle East, Persia and other places. The carpets of the Ottoman Empire are world-famous. .

However, in recent years, with the dumping of cheap cloth from the Ming Empire, it had a devastating impact on the handicraft industry of the Ottoman Empire, and countless handicraft workers lost their jobs.

This not only affected the employment and taxation of the Ottoman Empire, but also made the economy of the Ottoman Empire more difficult. As a result, a large number of people lost their important source of livelihood and life became more difficult.

In addition, the continuous import of a large number of commodities from the Ming Empire also caused a large loss of precious metals in the Ottoman Empire, resulting in increasingly serious deflation in the Ottoman Empire. From the Ottoman Sultan to the ordinary people, they became less and less wealthy. .

There is no way, on the one hand, there is a large amount of war reparations, and a huge amount of wealth must be compensated to the Ming Empire every year; on the other hand, the products of the Ming Empire are too popular in the Ottoman Empire.

From traditional trading commodities such as silk, porcelain and tea, it gradually developed into cloth, sugar, and then to the current industrial products such as automobiles, motorcycles, clocks, bicycles, etc.

All kinds of goods from the Ming Empire are very popular in the Ottoman Empire. However, there are very few goods that the Ottoman Empire can export to the Ming Empire. It seems that there are no other commodities except slaves.

Naturally, a huge trade deficit would form, leading to the outflow of a large amount of precious metals, and gold and silver were continuously imported into the Ming Empire.

Taking over such an empire, the young Suleiman the Great faced many pressures and difficulties.

"It is absolutely not allowed to grow cotton on the fields where food is grown!"

Emperor Suleiman couldn't help being furious when he saw a memorial written by the local governor.

It clearly stated that more and more lords and nobles are now planting cotton and sheep on a large scale, because cotton and wool can be exported to the Ming Empire, and they can be exchanged for white money from the Ming people.

If it is to grow grain, the grain cannot be sold at all, and the people of Daming don’t want it. The people of Daming themselves have too much grain to eat, so there is no need to import grain from the Ottoman Empire.

This also means that although these lords have a lot of land in their hands, they can't get any wealth from it. Food is really worthless now.

This year, the Ottoman Empire suffered from a drought, and its food production dropped sharply. However, thanks to the continuous import of cheap food from the Ming Empire, the price of food not only did not skyrocket, but was even lower than in previous normal years.

This made the nobles and lords of the Ottoman Empire clearly aware of one thing. If they continue to grow food, their territorial gains will be minimal, while growing cotton and raising sheep will have quite good returns.

Naturally, everyone will choose what is more beneficial to them, choose to use a large amount of land to grow cotton and raise sheep, and produce cotton and wool for export to the Ming people.

But for Suleiman the Great, he naturally knew clearly that once a large amount of land was used to grow cotton and raise sheep, it meant that the Ottoman Empire would have to rely on food from the Ming Empire from now on.

Once dependence is formed, how will the Ottoman Empire compete with the Ming Empire in the future?
The Ming Empire doesn't need to do anything else, just cut off your food, and your whole country will fall into famine and chaos.

Suleiman the Magnificent saw this clearly.

"Agriculture is the foundation of the country, and food is the cornerstone of social stability. How can we entrust important food security to the people of Ming Dynasty?"

"Farmers are the creators of social wealth and the economic basis for ensuring the strength of the empire. Farmers' arable land and interests must be protected, so that farmers can grow food with peace of mind, and the empire can be stable and strong!"

Suleiman the Great said angrily while thinking.

The family background of the Ottoman Empire is still very rich, thanks to the expansion of territory by his grandfather and father, not only owns a large area of ​​​​land in Asia.

On the European side, the Ottoman Empire also occupied the vast and fertile areas of the Balkan Peninsula and the middle and lower reaches of the Danube, and possessed an extremely large amount of cultivated land.

"However, even if the grain of the Ming people reaches consumers, its price is cheaper than that grown by ourselves, and the quality of the grain of the Ming people is much better than ours."

Ibrahim thought for a while and said.

He was an important playmate and friend of Suleiman when he was a child. After Suleiman the Great ranked, Ibrahim was also reused and became an important minister of Suleiman the Great.

"How did the Ming people do it?"

"Why is their food so much cheaper than ours?"

Suleiman thought for a while and asked.

"The reason why the price of grain in the Ming Empire is very cheap is because the people of the Ming Dynasty adopted a large number of mechanized farming methods. A single farmer can cultivate thousands of acres or even tens of thousands of acres of land, and the total grain output is very high."

"And in the process of grain processing, a large number of machines are also used. Hulling, grinding, etc. can be mechanized, and the efficiency is very high and the cost is very low."

"The grain production of our Ottoman Empire still uses a lot of traditional farming methods, using cattle, and the processing environment still relies on manual methods."

"The output and quality are not as good as the Ming Empire, and the cost is even more incomparable."

"If these lords and nobles are not allowed to grow cotton, they will simply not be able to grow food from Daming people. This food is worthless at all, and it cannot be exported to Daming people in exchange for Daming people's goods."

Ibrahim explained to Suleiman the Magnificent in detail.

"I've also heard that the Ming people's agriculture is extremely developed and they use a lot of machinery."

Suleiman fell silent immediately after hearing this.

His father has always lived in the huge shadow of the Ming Empire, so Suleiman has learned the Chinese and Chinese characters of the Ming Dynasty since he was a child, and has a relatively in-depth understanding of the Ming Empire.

"The Ming Empire not only used a large number of machinery in agriculture, but their industry was more developed, and almost all commodities could be mechanized."

Ibrahim nodded solemnly and said.

"Can we ban Ming's food and goods from entering our Ottoman Empire?"

Suleiman thought for a while and asked, it seems that you can't play the Ming people in the price war. The food and cloth of the other party are cheaper than your local ones in the hands of your consumers. How can you play this?
After thinking about it, it seems that the only way to protect the country's products and agriculture is to prohibit the inflow of Ming goods.

"No, according to the agreement we signed with the Ming Empire, Ming merchants have the right to free trade in our Ottoman Empire. We can't even tax Ming merchants, let alone restrict the entry of Ming goods."

Ibrahim shook his head slightly and said.

"They have the right to free trade, but they can't tax Ming merchants?"

Suleiman was shocked when he heard it.

"Yes, the Erzincan City Agreement stated this in detail. After this, the second war with the Ming Empire broke out, and we were still defeated in the end."

Ibrahim carefully reminded that this is obviously not a glorious thing, the key is that Suleiman's grandfather and father did it, and the two generations have been placed in the hands of Daming.

"Since Ming people can use machines, why can't we use machines?"

"This time, isn't the new emperor of the Ming Empire going to hold a grand enthronement ceremony? When the time comes, you can go to the Ming Empire and carefully examine all aspects of the Ming Empire. When we come back, we will learn from the people of the Ming Dynasty."

"They use machines, and we also use machines. I don't believe that we are any worse than the Ming people. If they can do it, we can do it too. One day we will take revenge!"

After Suleiman heard this, he fell silent immediately. This disgraceful incident caused the Ottoman Empire to bear a heavy burden and pressure. After thinking about it carefully, he said with a smile, determined to emulate the people of Ming Dynasty.

(End of this chapter)