My father Zhu Gaoxu

Chapter 870 Military and Economy

In the Doge's Palace of Venice, a grand welcome ball was being held. Zhu Zhanhe stood with the Doge and chatted with a group of officials and nobles from Venice, mainly talking about the Ottoman war and the subsequent cooperation between the two countries. content.

Helen and her son were surrounded by a group of noble ladies, asking her about her experiences in the years since she had been missing. Helen did not hide anything about this, and told some important things about her experiences, which attracted the ladies to marvel.

Young nobles such as Jonny and Ma Ning were not qualified to talk to Zhu Zhanhe, but they did not dare to disturb Helen. After all, Andre was an example before. He had not seen anyone since he was thrown out. It is estimated that this period Time will be locked up at home.

In the end, Zhu Zhanhe had an impromptu dance with Helen. He didn't know how to dance, but he was bored on the road, so Helen taught him some Venetian customs, including dancing. Zhu Zhanhe is tall and has long legs. , coupled with the nobility developed through years of holding high positions, she danced gracefully, which made the ladies and girls at the ball blush and their hearts beat. They looked at Helen with envy and jealousy in their eyes.

When the ball was over, the Governor originally arranged a luxurious residence for Zhu Zhanhe, but Helen wanted to rest in her own room. After all, she had been away from home for many years. Apart from her parents, what she missed most was the room where she had lived for many years, so Zhu Zhan He also stayed with her at the Governor's Mansion.

"Husband, look, my room is still the same as before. My mother must have sent people to clean it frequently, and the furnishings in the room are exactly the same as when I left!"

Helen came to her room, and after walking around for a few times, she stopped and excitedly introduced her room to Zhu Zhanhe. There was a pink princess bed in the room, and there was a huge cloakroom next door, which contained many things. Wearing the clothes Helen wore as a girl, everything was exactly the same as when she left.

“The scenery here is really nice, you can see the sea in the distance from the window!”

Zhu Zhanhe also praised at this time that Helen's room was located on the south side of the second floor. Standing at the window, you could see the sails on the sea in the distance. It could be said that the entire window was like a beautiful moving picture.

"My husband is really discerning. This window is my favorite. I used to sit on the window sill and look at the sea in the distance for a long time. I imagined in my mind what it would be like overseas?"

Helen suddenly paused when she said this, then sighed and continued.

"I didn't expect that I would actually live overseas and suffer a lot. If I hadn't met my husband, I would..."

Helen's mood was a little low when she finished speaking, but Zhu Zhanhe stepped forward to hold her little hand and said: "But it was this suffering that allowed you and me to meet, and now even more so with Qi Kai , and even promoted the cooperation between Dahan and Venice, so the result is still very good!"

Hearing what Zhu Zhanhe said, Helen felt that it made sense. She immediately leaned against her husband gently and looked at the scenery outside the window quietly.

In the next few days, Zhu Zhanhe and Helen visited some places of interest in the city of Venice. They also met with some important officials and nobles in the city, such as the most important Council of Ten. The power in their hands could even Deciding on the removal of the Governor.

On behalf of the Han Dynasty, Zhu Zhanhe also had some discussions with the Council of Ten, mainly on two aspects, one was the upcoming war against the Ottomans, and the other was the future commercial cooperation between the Han Dynasty and Venice. The first one is actually nothing to talk about. Although the Ottoman navy in the Mediterranean has been annihilated, there are still remaining navies hiding in the Black Sea Straits. As the saying goes, all evil must be eradicated. Venice also understands this truth. They don’t want to wait a few years. , the Ottoman navy came back again.

The Han also wanted to eradicate the Ottoman Empire, not only by attacking at sea, but also by splitting the Ottoman Empire on land.

Therefore, the opinions of both parties are surprisingly consistent. Next, Venice will send its navy again to assist the Han Dynasty in entering the Black Sea Strait. It must wipe out all the Ottoman maritime power. Even when the Ottomans are divided in the future, Venice is willing to contribute. After all, for them , Osman is really a terrible enemy. As long as this enemy is still alive, they will have no peace.

Compared with military cooperation, economic cooperation seems a bit complicated. As early as when the Ottomans still occupied half of Egypt, Han products appeared in Venice. Some bold Venetians even relied on smuggling Han products. He made a fortune and became a new noble in Venice.

After the opening of the Suez Canal, the economic cooperation between the Han Dynasty and Venice became closer. A large number of Venetian merchants went to the Port of Mufas or even the Port of Suez to purchase goods, and then shipped them to countries along the Mediterranean, thus making a fortune.

After tasting the sweetness of Han products, these Venetian nobles also wanted to go one step further, that is, monopolize the agency rights of Han products, such as silk, cotton, porcelain, etc., which were all in high demand.

However, the monopoly of goods by the middleman, Venice, has its own advantages and disadvantages for the Han Dynasty.

On the bright side, with the help of Venice's developed commerce, Dahan's products can be sold to various European countries in the shortest possible time, thus causing a considerable impact on the economies of various countries.

For example, take cotton cloth as an example. Steam engines have been widely used in the textile industry of Han Dynasty, and textile machines have also been improved, making the quality of cotton cloth far superior to handmade cloth. If these cotton cloths are sold to Europe, they will impact the local handmade cloth market, eventually leading to handmade cloth. If the weavers go bankrupt, the entire cotton cloth market will be monopolized by the Han Dynasty.

Using commodities to impact the economies of European countries and even further weaken their strength is very consistent with the national policy formulated by Zhu Zhanhe. Even when European countries are weakened to a certain extent, the Han Dynasty will not rule out the possibility of directly sending troops to Europe.

Therefore, in this process, Venice acts as a middleman and can help the Han achieve his goals faster.

But if all the goods are controlled by the Venetians, then they will also take away the majority of the profits of the goods, and the manufacturers of Dahan will lose their bargaining power and become controlled by others. This is also extremely detrimental to the commercial development of Dahan.

Therefore, Zhu Zhanhe is also very cautious about the economic cooperation between the two parties. It is definitely impossible to hand over the agency rights of all goods to Venice, but he cannot but give the other party a little sweetness.

So in the end, Zhu Zhanhe decided to hand over a few luxury goods with little impact, such as mirrors and perfumes, to the Venetian agent. The remaining goods were mainly free trade. As for who can benefit from it, it depends on the business relationship between the two parties. The above means.

(End of this chapter)