Since the Accounting: A Chronicle of the Roman Khanate

Chapter 268 With these barbarians, how can we build a Mediterranean world!
"It's not impossible." Theodora was not too worried about this: "If we find a way to control Egypt, we will basically have no problem. It doesn't matter if we can't compete with the opponent for a while. We can pass the cost to the barbarians and win in the middle." Lee will do."

"It doesn't work like this." Guo Kang shook his head: "You don't think you have any idea about the volume of maritime trade, do you?"

"Why is there no concept? I often deal with documents in this area." Theodora wondered: "What you said is too exaggerated. Could it be that the wealth of the whole of Europe is not enough to maintain trade?"

"I guess the whole of Europe is enough, and Wenlan is about the same." Guo Kang said bluntly.

"How much gold and silver is there?" Theodora was so surprised that he couldn't believe it. He didn't know whether he didn't believe the scale of the trade, or whether he didn't believe that Vinland was richer than here.

"I don't know the total amount, but the gold and silver that can be obtained after mining is probably several times the total amount in Europe." Guo Kang said.

"Holy Mother..." Theodora's eyes widened, "Who else knows about this?"

Guo Kang pointed to the two, and then pointed to the sky: "The Heavenly Father knows, the Holy Mother knows, you know, I know."

"I didn't dare to tell Tuo Huan, for fear that he wouldn't be able to control his mouth when he was bragging."

Theodora nodded without saying anything.The two of them knew each other well, but they were not worried that the other would speak out on inappropriate occasions.

"How much financial support does Eastern trade need? Is it enough to add Wenlan's gold and silver?" She continued to ask without entanglement.

"Under the circumstances that the Ming Dynasty was unwilling to trade and mainly relied on smuggling, it would probably need half of Wenlan's gold and silver." Guo Kang thought for a while and said.

"Then, isn't that..." Theodora was already a little dazed.

Guo Kang just shrugged his shoulders, after all, he spoke according to conservative data.

He hadn't told Theodora about the route from America to Asia in detail before, so she might not have the idea yet.But in the history he knew before, one-third of the gold and silver obtained by Spain in the Americas had never been to Spain—they were directly transported to Macau through the "Manila Galleon" in exchange for Chinese goods.These "Spanish riches" never made it to Spain.

Most of the goods purchased by these gold and silver did not flow into Spain, but directly into the American colonies.As a result, because the Spaniards were not good at business, the already fragile local market was severely impacted by a large number of cheap Ming Dynasty goods.

The final result was that the industries along the entire route were destroyed.

In the Philippines, the governor reported to the king that the natives had stopped spinning cotton.Because it is the most economical way to sell cotton to merchants in the Ming Dynasty, and then purchase the cotton cloth they shipped;
In Mexico, the governor was surprised to find that more locals wore silk than cotton: because even across the Pacific Ocean, silk in the Ming Dynasty was cheaper than Spanish cotton;

In Peru, the price of silk in the Ming Dynasty was only one-third of that of Spanish products, which not only bankrupted the local silk industry, but also continued to spill over.Because even if these Ming Dynasty silks are shipped back to Spain, these textiles that have traveled more than half of the world are still profitable in the face of Spanish local products with poor competitiveness.

The Spaniards paid a huge price for this.For hundreds of years, they braved the extremely high death rate to open up new continents and dig mineral deposits, but they left nothing behind. Even most of their money went to the Ming Dynasty.

Since then, the Americas have also been importing large quantities of oriental cotton cloth and silk.It was not until the middle and late 19th century that the United States reversed this trend through extremely low cotton costs.

Moreover, there is another point worth noting: these results occurred when the Ming Dynasty officials were not particularly active in ocean-going trade and did not use state power to organize trade.Even Guo Kang couldn't figure out what it would be like if things got serious over there.

"Just make a rough estimate and you'll know. All the gold and silver in Europe is not enough to fill this hole." He shook his head and told Theodora: "That's why I said that it's useless for us to be middlemen—— You sold all the savages downstream, and none of them can afford the difference."

"Then, what should we do?" Theodora couldn't think of a way now: "Why don't we plan ahead and find a way to open up Vinland as soon as possible?"

"The price is too high." Guo Kang told her: "The early pioneering was very difficult, and half of the people often died on the road. The barbarians who can't survive can bear this kind of loss. People from other places are more likely to choose to directly rebel. "

"So, the best way should be to get out of the way of thinking - wait for the barbarians to slowly develop westward, and then we will end up and reap their pioneering achievements. In this way, the cost may be much lower."

"But even so, I don't know if it's enough. The Ming Dynasty is the world's 'silver pump', and it's almost a bottomless pit. If they get the hang of fighting the Javanese dollar and learn to actively trade to supplement the navy's funds, there may still be a gap. bigger."

"Could it be that the combination of Europa and Vinland won't work..." Theodora said weakly as she lay on the table, "Is this true or not? How could it be such an exaggeration?"

"This is a normal phenomenon." Guo Kang was not too surprised.

"People in the Central Plains like to call themselves 'Zhu Xia', which corresponds to 'barbarians'. The place where Zhu Xia lives is called China, which corresponds to 'foreign countries'." Guo Kang told her: "In the worldview of the ancients, generally speaking Just those two parts."

"They often don't bother to distinguish, and like to treat 'barbarians', or to put it mildly, 'foreigners', as one. But what is more embarrassing is that for most of history, 'China' did indeed add up to all other 'foreign countries' almost."

"This is really arrogant..." Theodora said with emotion.

"No way. After a long time, everyone has already formed a habit." Guo Kang shrugged.

In the world he lived in before, even those who despised Seris liked to make binary comparisons with "China" and "foreign countries" to prove that the civilization of the Central Plains was backward.

This has led to a very strange phenomenon: even when a Serisian despises the civilization of the Central Plains, in his subconscious, he still adopts a very old and arrogant standard, and regards "foreign countries" as those who disdain ancient times. "Barbarians" who are not able to distinguish - even if their own subjective intentions are completely opposite, they still do so in performance.

Therefore, the core of a civilization is extremely difficult to change—perhaps impossible to change.This kind of conceited mentality of comparing oneself to the whole world every day may be a habit accumulated over a long period of time, and even turmoil and decline cannot dissipate it.

"To get back and forth economically with such a behemoth, you need a group of at least similar size. Otherwise, the Ming Dynasty may not take us seriously." He explained his point of view: "That's why I think , we have to at least try to integrate the Mediterranean world to reach this threshold."

"Just being a middleman obviously can't meet the requirements. Because the management of the barbarians is too backward and the efficiency is too low. Only when we manage it ourselves can we realize the potential of this land."

"With these guys, how can we build the old site of Rome?" he asked rhetorically.

(End of this chapter)