Since the Accounting: A Chronicle of the Roman Khanate

Chapter 716 The Great Voyage is Coming to Me
The initial negotiations with the Javanese merchant group lasted two days. After reaching a preliminary agreement, Guo Kang sent his officials to discuss the specific details with them.

His assistants were all very excited about this. The Javanese merchants brought a large number of oriental goods, including precious iron pots, silk, sugar, tea, spices, and so on. The fleet was so large that even the largest port of Tours could not stop there, and the fleet had to be diverted to the Port of Suez and even the Port of Yanbu further south. The locals were shocked by this. Even the camel caravan leader and clerk at the dock said in their report to Guo Kang that they had never seen such a huge fleet.

These goods were literally priceless in the Mediterranean market. After all, when kings sold cities, they usually offered a price of tens to hundreds of thousands of gold coins. Guo Kang's current funds were probably only enough to buy a fraction of them.

However, Sun Shiwan asked the merchant group to bring a personal letter, saying that he could give Guo Kang credit and he didn't need to pay it back in a hurry. According to him, after doing business to this extent, he could look back at the thing called "money" with a more thorough understanding.

Money, after all, is just a medium for exchanging other things. According to experience, as long as you can maintain your credibility, you can exchange it for paper. Therefore, compared with those precious metals that are simply glittering and beautiful, and the various numbers in the account book, he is more concerned about the specific things that money can be exchanged for.

They knew about the Qin Kingdom's waterway construction early on and provided a lot of support, realizing its importance. Now, what they want most is these things. However, he has been in business for half his life and knows that in such occasions, he can't be too ugly and has to get along well with local distributors. Therefore, he is not going to continue to squeeze local and Italian merchants. On the contrary, he hopes that everyone will cooperate and strive for a win-win situation.

At present, his biggest concern is the issue of local trade convenience. He hopes that the Qin government can take this opportunity to further clarify the system, abolish those harsh taxes, and provide more support for business. In addition, he also hopes to allow them to operate in Egypt and Nubia and guarantee a larger share of material purchases, especially bulk agricultural products such as grain, cotton, and sugarcane.

Guo Kang felt that all of this was acceptable. In fact, he himself was constantly pushing for reforms - the reason was that the previous Mamluk system was too outrageous.

When the Mamluks were in power, the tax system and business management were a complete mess, even worse than no management. The sultans and emirs did not know how to run a business, they only knew to increase taxes when they were short of money. In addition to customs duties, merchants also had to pay shop taxes, special taxes on various goods, and so on. Some taxes were simply called "protection taxes" to exempt official looting.

In wartime, there would be various temporary taxes, and even forced sales. Moreover, the Mamluks' management ability was particularly weak, resulting in many cases of collecting money but not providing corresponding public services.

Originally, there were two main routes from the Mediterranean to the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean. One was from ports such as Alexandria and Damietta, along the Nile River to Cairo, then east to the Sinai Peninsula, and into the Red Sea from the Port of Suez or the Port of Tours; the other was from Cairo along the Nile River to the south, as far as Aswan next to the first waterfall. Some caravans would continue south, cross the border, and enter Nubia and Abyssinia; some would land at the port of Kus near Luxor, and travel by camel caravan through a section of the desert to reach several ports on the west coast of the Red Sea.

In theory, the second route is farther away, but the location is better. This trade route can connect the Mediterranean, the Red Sea, Egypt and East Africa, so it has a huge volume of cargo circulation. The products on the East African Plateau and even pilgrims from all over Africa can enter the Red Sea through this route. Although the quality of the ports here is not as good as that of the east coast, it has a long history and a large scale, so it also has its own advantages.

However, the Mamluks were not good at business, which led to the breakdown of order on the trade routes. Upper Egypt was frequently hit by drought and plague, and the Mamluks were completely unable to provide disaster relief, nor did they have the energy to maintain order. The refugees and Bedouin tribes along the way formed large and small gangs, looting everywhere; the officials at the ports were also corrupt and extorted money at every turn. Due to frequent civil unrest, the actual control area of ​​the Mamluks was shrinking, and almost all the areas south of the first cataract were lost.

Successive Sudanese have implemented many reforms, but none of them have been successful. They have also organized several southern expeditions to try to drive out the nomads entrenched there and restore the rule of the Sudan region, especially the important ports of Ayzab and Suakin on the west coast of the Red Sea. However, these expeditions were also short-lived. Not only did they fail to expand their territory, but they even lost the area around Aswan.

This trade route fell into disuse, and the first one was no better. The Mamluks often came up with confusing policies on the spur of the moment, causing merchants to prefer to go around them when conditions allowed.

Most Mamluks were professional warriors with simple ideas and rough behavior. Their way of survival can be basically summarized as "nothing but land, nothing but killing people". The income that the middle and lower-level Mamluks could use to maintain their expenses generally only had their own fiefdoms, and they often did not manage them themselves, but contracted them out to tax farmers. Tax farmers often did their best to swallow up a larger portion, resulting in the Mamluks getting less.

In this era, the Mamluks themselves had no reliable statistics. However, after Napoleon invaded Egypt, he investigated the financial situation of the local Mamluk regime and left some data.

According to tradition, the population of Egypt was divided into several communities according to factors such as faith and status. Among them, local farmers who believed in Islam were called "Fela"; those who believed in the local Christian sect were classified as "Copts". The rulers trusted pagans more, so tax farming and many administrative positions were mainly held by Copts.

With this convenience, the Copts formed secret societies and colluded to make profits. The amount of in-kind tax paid by the "Fela" was determined by them; when paying and exchanging coins, they also had the final say on how much the small copper coins in the hands of the "Fela" were worth. In addition, the Copts also controlled the flow of local funds and had the power to compile tax books and determine the actual tax burden of the owners. In order to reduce the tax burden as much as possible and obtain more benefits, the Fela had to bribe the Copts.

According to Napoleon's statistics, Egypt's total income that year was 4600 million francs, and the bribes alone amounted to 800 million francs. In addition, officials at all levels would also take action, such as the chief financial officer in Cairo, who alone took 600 million francs.

In contrast, the tribute paid by the whole of Egypt to the Ottoman Sultan was only 740 million francs - in fact, the Sultan's industry in Egypt should be 1600 million. I don't know where the rest of the money went. Maybe even the Sultan's money didn't belong to him... In this era, the income of the Mamluks was even more single. Most Mamluks could only increase the area of ​​their fiefdoms as much as possible and rent these lands to "Fela" at a high price to obtain rent. The grain collected by the tax farmers should also be sold at a higher price. Sometimes, they would also purchase additional low-priced grain and then sell it at a higher price to make a profit.

However, in most cases, the profit of this business is very low, and there is no room for improvement. The Mamluks came up with a solution, which is to increase the pressure on the Fellah to give up the grain at a low price, while raising the selling price to make a profit. When the price is too high and the merchant cannot accept it, they simply force the merchant to buy it and will not let him leave unless he pays...

As a result, ordinary merchants fled one after another, and only those monopolists with strong backgrounds could stay. After losing their competitors, the Mamluks were cheated even more miserably by these people...

The upper-class Mamluks were not much better. Their understanding of business was also very simple. Sultan Barsbey ran a sugar plantation. In order to ensure income, he restricted all sugar transactions on the market, and later simply banned the planting of sugarcane. For other industries, there was basically only this simple and crude monopoly method.

As a result, a large number of merchants were forced to leave. Those who stayed behind could not obtain reasonable profits through normal means, so they began to hoard goods and drive up prices, making the market environment even more chaotic. Moreover, merchants who stayed behind with connections would not let themselves suffer losses.

These extra costs will eventually be passed on to the "feelas", making their lives extremely miserable even for outside merchants. Fortunately, the feelas will not rebel no matter how much they struggle, so this system can barely be maintained until now...

This result made almost everyone uncomfortable. Not only did the Fellah have a hard time, but the Mamluks did so many immoral things and didn't make much money. I don't know what they were trying to achieve...

Therefore, when Toghan announced that the feudal system would be changed to an appointment system, and that qualified Mamluks would be directly given rations and annuities, many people even felt relieved. Because the previous status of a lord was not as comfortable as working in Cairo for money...

The collapse of the Mamluk regime actually promoted business in the entire region.

Theoretically, the Mamluks did not want to hinder the development of commerce and shipping, but hoped that shipping would flourish. Because Egypt's location was critical, the development of shipping could also bring huge income to the local area. Later, after the Portuguese developed new shipping routes, the Mamluks, together with the Venetians, fought a war for sea power with the emerging forces. After their failure, the center of shipping shifted from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic.

However, their management level was too poor. Fortunately, the Mamluks' naval power was not very strong, so the impact was not too far away and could be avoided. Therefore, in the past 100 years, the Yemeni port of Aden, which was farther away and outside the entrance of the Red Sea, became the largest port in the Red Sea region.

The Yemen region is still a group of small city-states. However, these people have been dealing with the three plates of Egypt, Ethiopia, and Persia for many years. They are very flexible and good at doing business. They can get along with anyone. Therefore, business has developed.

Although it is in the Arabian Peninsula, there is even a Jewish tribe there. Some say they were the people who stayed behind when the Queen of Sheba visited Solomon, while others say they converted during the Roman era. In short, they have continued to exist, doing business with everyone as usual, and no one bothers them.

In the history of Guo Kang, this small state even lasted until the 19th century. At that time, Zionism began to rise. After discovering that there was a Jewish community here, Zionists began to frequently go to the local area to cause trouble. The locals were annoyed and drove all the Jews away. It was not until the 20th century that these settlements were completely abandoned.

In this atmosphere, the local business environment is quite good. The Mamluks have formulated a series of policies, such as heavy taxes on merchant ships that have docked in Aden, and Yemeni goods may be confiscated, in order to suppress competitors. However, so far, the effect of these measures is still very limited. It seems that there is no way to avoid individual solutions...

In comparison, Javanese merchants must have their own plans for settling here. They hoped to get policy support to explore the Red Sea and East Africa, and probably also to expand their rear areas and compete with the Ming Dynasty. This would probably bring other troubles later. But compared with the abstract actions of the Mamluks, these troubles were actually acceptable.

In the longer term, as navigation technology develops, there will definitely be confrontation between the Mediterranean-Red Sea region and the Atlantic region. Historically, the rise of the Atlantic east coast is closely related to the decline of the Red Sea region. In order to prevent them from dominating, it is also necessary to maintain the commercial prosperity of the Red Sea.

Why was there no Seris during the Age of Exploration? Because Seris was the target of the Age of Exploration. Now, Javanese merchants are trying to move westward, which is like the target has grown legs and is running towards you. How can there be such a good opportunity at ordinary times? Therefore, Guo Kang was very active this time. These negotiations can be regarded as a good start.

(End of this chapter)