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Chapter 1091 Arguing with the Philosopher 3
"I estimate that it won't be long before... chocolate appears in Europe. The Spanish have already planted a large number of cocoa trees and produced cocoa tea in the Viceroyalty of the New World. This tree originally grew in the West Indies."

Descartes ignored the advice and took two more pieces and stuffed them into his mouth. It was obvious that his human nature had not changed much because of his study of philosophy, and he had a natural preference for sweets.

"I have heard about this matter, and we have already come up with a countermeasure. All cocoa tea sold to Europe has a fixed brand, and a regional agency contract is signed with local distributors. Each agent can only sell within the agreed area, and the amount is set in the first year, and no more sales are allowed.

Governor Cohen of Batavia once asked me why Europe was divided into a dozen regions, with each region only allowed to have one general agent who could get cocoa tea from Amsterdam.

I didn't give a direct answer at the time, but just said that it was to make the goods more evenly distributed and easier for locals to remember the Empire's cocoa tea brand. In fact, this was only one of the reasons, not the most important one.

Now I can tell you the answer, this is mainly to prevent competition.

The production and manufacturing process of cocoa tea cannot be kept secret for a long time. Sooner or later, people will know about it and quickly follow up. The origin of cocoa trees is in the New World, where the climate and soil are more suitable for its growth, and the quality and yield are also higher.

At that time, cocoa tea produced in the New World will flood into Europe, the empire's cocoa tea market will be squeezed and shrunk, and then many cocoa farmers in the empire will lose money and have to find other ways to make a living.

As the emperor of the empire, I cannot help but consider the people of my country. In order to cope with possible competition, I deliberately set up an agency system in Europe.

The agents initially made huge profits from the imperial cocoa tea and tasted the sweetness, and over time they became tied to the imperial interests.

When someone planned to replace it with cocoa tea produced in the New World, the most anxious ones were not the empire, but the European agents and the numerous distributors below.

Without anyone's instigation or the empire having to pay a single silver coin, they would do their utmost to prevent New World cocoa tea from entering the European market.

Imagine that a large number of cocoa trees were planted in the New World, and they could finally bear fruit after five or six years. When merchants took the cocoa beans purchased from plantations all over the world to the factory to process them into cocoa powder, and then happily shipped them back to Europe, they were likely to be greeted not by ecstatic dealers, but by various forms of resistance.

Such a large output needs to be distributed to all parts of Europe, which is definitely impossible to accomplish in a short period of time relying on a small number of merchants, not to mention that the original agents are obstructing and making things difficult at every turn.

At this time, if Empire Cocoa Tea suddenly increased its shipments, lowered its wholesale price, and even dumped it in large quantities in Europe under the guise of organizing events, what do you think the outcome would be?
It is easy to guess that people who grow cocoa trees and process cocoa powder in the Americas will be on the verge of bankruptcy due to unsale of products and inability to recover funds.

That’s not all. At that time, the imperial merchants will take a lot of silver coins and purchase large quantities of cocoa beans and cocoa powder from the American continent at low prices through the Dutch or Portuguese, or maybe the British.

It is shipped to Enniao Port by ship or processed locally in Europe, and then labeled with the Imperial cocoa tea brand, transformed into Imperial cocoa tea and sold directly in the European market.

The cost of doing this is cheaper than planting cocoa trees, harvesting cocoa beans, processing cocoa powder, packaging and transporting it to Europe. However, if you want to enter the European market, you still need to get permission from the regional agent, and the regional agent must get the consent of the merchants in the empire. Now the question is, the unsalable backlog of cocoa powder in the Americas is caused by the regional agents across Europe. And the regional agents are also responsible for regulating the market order and preventing people from passing off fake products as real ones. So is their role positive or negative? "

They treated him to chocolate and discussed the production process, but it was all nonsense. But it was not a complete waste of time. Hong Tao used this time to think carefully about how to answer and whether to continue the discussion.

"…Nothing in the world can be clearly described as positive or negative. From the perspective of one group of people, this thing is negative, but from the perspective of another group of people, this thing is positive. Your Majesty seems not to be discussing the problem, but setting a trap for me!"

Descartes may or may not have understood the example given by the emperor, but his logical thinking was not ambiguous at all and he immediately realized the trap.

"No, I didn't set a trap on purpose, it was just the title. My intention was not to quibble, but to explain a common phenomenon.

That’s right, in different groups of people and from different perspectives, regional agents play different roles, and may even be in conflict with each other. But have you ever thought that it is precisely this conflict that creates wars between people, ethnic groups, and countries? "

Hong Tao refused to admit Descartes' accusation. He really did not intend to play the language game. Even if he won verbally, what would it matter? Descartes was not Ferdinand III, nor was he King Louis or King Charles. He did not hold much power and could not have any influence.

We are just discussing a problem, but this problem involves too many aspects, so we must first define a scope and then determine whether the basic cognition is similar. Otherwise, it will be useless even if we talk for a hundred years, and no one can convince anyone.

But why bother trying to convince a powerless scholar? This is Hong Tao's foresight, and it can also be said to be a benefit for time travelers. Although scholars have no power, they can change the level of productivity through knowledge and indirectly affect the distribution of power.

If they really developed the steam engine, it would not only subvert the traditional agricultural society of the Ming Empire, but also nurture real capitalists on this land by greatly improving productivity. The emergence of this new class would certainly lead to a power struggle with the traditional ruling class.

Therefore, before this situation occurs, it is necessary to confirm whether they are on the same side as oneself, otherwise there will be a lot of powerful enemies that are difficult to deal with.

The best way to confirm this is to have an in-depth discussion on world views and values, to understand each other's understanding of the world and what they want to do, and the attributes will naturally be revealed.

"Your Majesty, are you trying to say that there is a way to resolve human disputes?"

After a brief exchange of ideas, Descartes realized that today was no longer a simple chat, but an in-depth discussion of very sensitive political issues. He instinctively took a defensive stance and was no longer willing to express his views easily, but he was still willing to agree with the more basic understandings.

(End of this chapter)