My Pen Pal Zhu Yuanzhang

Chapter 429: Refusing to be a middleman
Zhu Yuanzhang read the letter while marking the route on the map.

After Li Han's words, he had a concrete impression of this most important trade route in history.

By the way, all other countries also remembered it.

“Because the craftsmanship in Europe is poor, there is no silk weaving technology at all, not to mention porcelain firing and tea planting, so the goods from the East have become the most precious and rare items favored by European nobles.

Of course, the goods need to be transported over such a long distance to Europe, and there are unknown natural and man-made disasters along the way, which leads to high transportation costs. If the goods are then resold by Arab merchants, China's good things can be sold at sky-high prices in Europe.

How should I put it? To give a simple example, in Europe, silk is almost equivalent to gold, and sometimes even exceeds the value of gold! "

Is silk more valuable than gold?
Now it was Zhu Yuanzhang's turn to be surprised. In the Ming Dynasty, although silk was expensive, it was not so expensive. Ordinary people, as long as their social status was high enough, could still afford silk.

At this moment, he suddenly recalled the shocked looks on the faces of the Count Makaros and the Catholic monk Antonio when they saw their ministers wearing silk. It seemed that they were not acting!

Just think about it, if you saw someone wearing clothes made of gold, you would be shocked.

No wonder when envoys from foreign countries came to pay tribute, once they were rewarded with silk, they were so happy as if they were getting married. It turned out that they really were making a good deal!
Alas, so much fine silk was wasted. I can’t give rewards casually in the future. If you want silk, that’s easy. You have to exchange it with gold!

Having said that, this thing is too expensive because it is rare. Thinking of this, Zhu Yuanzhang suddenly became angry. The high prices were all made by those Arab merchants. This would not do. He could not let those guys eat up the profits for nothing!
Trade must be done by merchants from the Ming Dynasty and Europeans, and the middlemen should be killed!

“Although the trade volume with the East only accounts for a small part of Europe’s total trade volume, this small part cannot be replaced by other countries.

In other words, Chinese products are unique and irreplaceable to them, and they can really make a fortune by buying and selling Chinese goods. After understanding this, Lao Zhu, you will understand why they decided to embark on the great voyages.

To put it simply, their trade route to the East was cut off by a newly rising power, so they thought of finding a route to the East by sea, which was the main reason for the opening of the Age of Exploration! "

A new rising power?
Zhu Yuanzhang immediately became alert. Could it be that a new empire had appeared in this world?
It turns out that the Count Makaros was not lying when he confessed that he was here to find a route to the East!

It was because this emerging force cut off their trade routes with the East that they ran to the sea to look for opportunities!

Now, it all makes sense.

"This newly rising power is called the Ottoman Empire. Old Zhu, look at the map. It is located in Asia Minor, and its capital is Istanbul. They control the trade routes between the East and the West!"

Zhu Yuanzhang hurried over and soon found Asia Minor where Istanbul was located. After a careful inspection, he couldn't help but gasp.

The Ottoman Empire really occupied a good piece of land, which was right at the throat of the transportation between the East and the West!
So if the Ming Dynasty wants to move towards Europe, it will inevitably have to face the emerging Ottoman Empire?
Judging from the map, the Ming Dynasty is tens of thousands of miles away from the Ottoman Empire, which really feels a bit out of reach. Moreover, there are a series of large and small countries along the way, such as the Timurid Empire.

In other words, the Ming Dynasty really has no way to deal with the Ottoman Empire now.

In this case, if the Ottoman Empire could not be resolved, the only way out was the Great Voyages. "According to the original historical development, after the rise of the Ottoman Empire, due to their blockade, checkpoints, high tolls, and sometimes even direct prohibition of East-West trade, Europe finally couldn't stand it after enduring for more than a hundred years and wanted to find a way out on the sea, which is how the Great Voyages began.

So let’s take a look at how this great voyage began.

The first countries to embark on the great voyages of discovery were those on the Iberian Peninsula.

In the second year of the Jingyun reign of the Tang Dynasty, the Arabs, of course you can also call them Arabs now, began to invade northwards from Egypt and occupied the Iberian Peninsula. Over the next few hundred years, the indigenous people of the Iberian Peninsula began a hundreds-year-long resistance.

In this process, three major forces emerged, namely the Kingdom of Portugal, the Kingdom of Castile and the Kingdom of Aragon.

Today, the Arab influence in the Iberian Peninsula has been gradually eliminated. Except for a few remaining city-states, there are no other forces. This also gave the indigenous people of the Iberian Peninsula the prerequisite to start the great voyages of discovery.

A few decades after the 16th year of Hongwu, the Kingdom of Castile and the Kingdom of Aragon will gradually merge into one country through political marriage. This newly established country will be called the Kingdom of Spain.

However, the first country to embark on the great voyages of discovery was not Spain, but Portugal in the southwestern corner of Spain.

The Portuguese first went around the southernmost tip of Africa to the Indian Ocean, and then reached the East from the Indian Ocean, but this route was still too far.

So Makaros was able to successfully reach Temasek from the Iberian Peninsula. I don’t know whether this guy was lucky or his ancestors had done good deeds, but he didn’t die on the way.”

Seeing this, Zhu Yuanzhang compared it with the map and pointed his finger from the Ming Dynasty's Quanzhou Port, across Malacca, across the Indian Ocean, around the Cape of Good Hope in Africa, and then to Europe.

It's far, really too far. With the current national strength of the Ming Dynasty, it is almost impossible to control this route. It would be more realistic to think about fighting all the way from Timur to the Ottoman Empire.

Unless multiple bases are established in the Indian Ocean and along the coast of Africa, this route will be completely uncontrollable.

However, establishing a stronghold would consume a large amount of Ming national strength, which would be an unprofitable deal.

Tsk tsk, our Old Zhu now considers whether something is cost-effective or not. He has really been led astray by Old Li!
"Because this route is too far, a magical Portuguese man came up with a crazy idea. He thought that since the earth is round, why not go around Africa from the south and then cross the Indian Ocean, and go directly from the west, wouldn't it be possible to reach the east as well?"

Zhu Yuanzhang was also stunned for a moment. This guy was not only magical, he was simply a freak!

The earth is round, and this was already a preliminary concept in the previous dynasty, but the concept of the earth was not realized until with the help of Lao Li.

Going westward all the time is like drawing a circle on the earth. It is indeed possible to reach the East. However, this is too unbelievable as one has to cross the vast Pacific Ocean!

Wait, that’s not right. There must be a deeper meaning behind what Lao Li said. Then his eyes turned to the location of America on the map!

(End of this chapter)