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Chapter 868 A rare opportunity
Chapter 868 A rare opportunity
At this time, the dark clouds of war were spreading over Europe, and all countries were stepping up their arming of the army. The price of guns and cannons was soaring, and there was no demand for them. It was a great opportunity to make money from the war.
This order made the English shareholders of the Moscow Company jubilant, while the Dutch merchants of the United Provinces were dismayed.
Seeing that the Dutch merchants were about to be squeezed out of the port of Arkhangelsk by the English merchants, Liu Shimin appeared. When he heard the news at the port, an idea immediately popped up in his mind: could he transport muskets and artillery from the Ming Empire to Europe to sell?
His Majesty said more than once in class that arms were one of the most profitable businesses in the world. And that was what he did, selling the weapons and armor that were discarded by the border troops to North Korea and Annan, letting them use them to fight, and then exchanging their good stuff for them.
Since they could sell it to Korea and Annan, why couldn't they sell it to Russia? After all, it was 108,000 miles away, and the products were richer than those of Korea and Annan. Even if Ming Dynasty was not short of wood, fur, caviar and food, it wouldn't be a loss to exchange some gold and gems for them.
The most important thing is that the muskets and cannons used in Europe are too backward, and are similar to those used by the Portuguese in Macau. If they were used in the Ming Dynasty, you can just find a few machinery factories that can produce four-wheeled carriage parts, and the cost is not worth mentioning compared to Europe.
As the saying goes, traveling thousands of miles leads to reading thousands of books. Although Liu Shimin had never worked in a factory nor served in the military, he had only participated in military training, touched a musket and fired a cannon, but he was able to draw correct conclusions based on his rich experience.
But he did not dare to tell anyone at first, but after returning to Rotterdam, he consulted with two partners. Both of them were from the Sea House Department, standard emperor's disciples, and they must have understood more about many professional issues.
The result of the discussion was two words: capable! However, there were still two issues that needed to be clarified. First, whether the Dutch were willing to be middlemen; and second, whether His Majesty would agree.
Even a clearly profitable deal may backfire when viewed from a different perspective, so you must first clarify these two issues before you can determine whether it is a good idea.
The first problem is very easy to solve. Don’t bother Governor Cohen who is thousands of miles away. Just ask the head of the Rotterdam branch of the East India Company directly.
When the pot-bellied, hairless, bearded guy heard that Liu Shimin could get cheap muskets and cannons from the Ming Empire, he immediately found two soldiers from the United Provinces Republic.
He asked Liu Shimin to draw the appearance of muskets and cannons on the spot, asked a few questions, then patted Liu Shimin on the shoulder, forced a smile, and asked when he could set sail for home.
At this time, Liu Shimin was no longer an accountant, but a special envoy of the East India Company, fully responsible for the purchase of firearms and artillery for the Ming Empire. Of course, this full authority did not include signing commercial contracts, and Governor Cohen of the Indian branch would assist in handling it.
So after more than four years, Liu Shimin returned to the Forbidden City after a long absence, with a nominal assistant following him.
When Hong Tao saw him in the Yangxin Palace, he immediately summoned Yuan Keli after hearing what happened, and gave him the details of the quantity, price, and delivery method of the muskets and artillery to negotiate with Governor Cohen, and then closed the door and left everyone. The muskets and artillery must be able to sell. Liu Shimin was right. He must make a lot of money by exchanging backward weapons for real money. In a price war, with the current industrial level of the Ming Dynasty, even if the freight is included, it is still not something that European countries can compete with alone.
And we can't just consider the selling price, there are more potential benefits. The Russian Empire is limited in its armaments. Given the character of this nation, it will definitely not hide its strength and bide its time. As long as everyone has a kitchen knife, they will dare to challenge neighboring countries, such as their mortal enemies, the Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania and the Kingdom of Sweden.
Once they start fighting, the source of Russia's weapons will be exposed sooner or later. Then what? Don't be afraid, don't worry that European countries will unite against the enemy. On the contrary, some countries will immediately contact the Dutch secretly, and their purpose must be to buy weapons, and in large quantities.
Because at this time, Western Europe, Southern Europe, Central Europe, and some Eastern European countries were also fighting over the issue of who had the final say between religion and imperial power. Even without external support, the fight would have lasted for decades. If there was more fuel, it could have lasted for several more years, with tens of thousands more deaths.
The more chaotic Europe became, the less it cared about Asia, especially the East Indies, which greatly facilitated the layout and expansion of the Ming Dynasty. This convenience could not be calculated with gold and silver currency at all, and was a priceless treasure.
In addition, Hong Tao has made a rough assessment of the threat value of the United Kingdom to European countries, among which the United Kingdom ranks first. The politicians of this country are very good at playing tricks, and have been stirring up trouble among European countries to prevent being isolated, and they have been successful.
Hong Tao would rather let Russia become stronger and then the Ming Empire fight to the death, rather than let Britain rise too quickly. The biggest enemy of a shit-stirring stick is not shit, but another shit-stirring stick!
By supporting the Netherlands to export arms to Russia, the Moscow company was hit, which indirectly weakened the UK's income. Didn't the ancients say that a small act of kindness should not be ignored? Even if it can make Britain earn one pound less, Hong Tao is happy to do it, even if it is a little troublesome.
What kept Hong Tao indoors was not the situation in Europe, but the map. Liu Shimin returned alone, but he brought back three large boxes filled with hundreds of parchments, each of which was covered with tiny seal characters and Arabic numerals.
This is the result of the hard work of the members of the European tour group over the past four years, covering the coordinates, routes, customs, economic conditions, industrial and commercial development scale, etc. of some European cities. With these data, Hong Tao can roughly grasp the development status of European countries even if he is not there in person.
But there was a rather annoying problem. In order to keep it secret, the members of the expedition used small seal characters to write. Even if there were some missionaries among the Europeans who had been to the Ming Dynasty and understood Chinese, they probably would not recognize this font.
It was a secret, but Hong Tao didn't know the small seal script, so he had to ask the eunuchs in the inner study to help translate and transcribe it. This made things even more complicated, as the eunuchs had never heard of most of the European cities and names, and the translation often had problems with punctuation.
This was a tough situation for Hong Tao. Not only could he not just sit there and do nothing, he had to sit there and do corrections every day. The problem was that he didn't know many of the European place names of that era, or they were called differently.
In order to mark accurately and avoid mistakes, he had to summon Silva, Oyani and others to the palace every now and then to personally supervise the team. As a result, he became the busiest and most tired, running back and forth between the two places, and had no time to rest every day.
(End of this chapter)
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