At the end of Qin, I became a son of the plane

Chapter 582: Global Industrial Chain Distribution and Ptolemy's Worms

In recent years, at the annual meeting of sages, sages from coastal counties such as Kuaiji County, Donghai County, and Linzi County would call on the court to open up the sea nodes as soon as possible.

The interests of the Han Dynasty overseas were growing, and the industrial and commercial groups were no longer satisfied with the Han Dynasty's domestic market. When these people knew that the Han Dynasty was the undisputed hegemon in the world, they used the power of the Han Dynasty to transform the world and open up the global market, and these two canals were their first step in opening up the global market.

Ding He snorted coldly and said, "Then we can't carry out slave trade. Today, the Han merchants transport white slaves, tomorrow they transport black slaves, and who knows if they will transport yellow slaves the day after tomorrow? You fought desperately to overthrow the Qin Dynasty, not for the Han people to be sold as slaves a few decades later. If the Han slaves and prostitutes come back in the future, how can we Han people still have the nerve to talk about building a harmonious world? Whose harmonious world is like this?"

Liu Bi said: "Ideals have to be achieved step by step. Although these people went to the New World as slaves, at least there were no slaves in the New World. In a sense, they were liberated. Although the work was tiring, they were free people. You can tell me for yourself, should we let these people continue to be slaves in their own countries, or go to the New World to work as laborers?"

Liu Bi had long been accustomed to the fact that the Indian fleet had built too many fleets, and he thought it was a good thing since at least these people would not have to continue to be slaves.

Zhang Pijiang thought for a moment and said, "It is very difficult to maintain this unbalanced maritime trade. Sooner or later, the gold and silver of Daqinzhou will be lost too much and affect the economies of the Mediterranean countries. If the Han Dynasty does not find a way to solve this problem in advance, the Mediterranean countries will also prohibit the inflow of goods from the Han Dynasty.

The economic structure determines the political system. If the Han Dynasty wants to rule the world, it must establish a relatively balanced trade system for countries around the world. We must find the goods that the Han Dynasty needs in Daqinzhou, and if necessary, we may even allocate some industries to them to balance the trade, just like we did in Tianzhu. "

In the past two years, the trade between India and the Han Dynasty has been very balanced. The specialty found by India is cotton plantations. Under the development of people like Hu Hai, the land of the Brahmans and Kshatriyas in India was basically acquired by the Indian business companies. At the same time, the advanced steel tools of the Han Dynasty were used to open up a large amount of land in India. Over the past few decades, the cultivated land area of ​​India has doubled. There is no need for the Han Dynasty to limit the development of cash crops due to food needs. The cotton plantations in India have expanded to tens of millions of acres, and the planting area of ​​cash crops such as spices, soybeans, and peanuts has also exceeded 300 million acres. These plantations can be connected into pieces, and the use of tractor tools is more effective and efficient. Coupled with low labor costs, these cash crops in India can bring tens of billions of wealth to India every year.

At the same time, India purchased steel products, textiles, and various machinery from the Han Dynasty. In recent years, the laid rails also brought a market worth tens of billions to the Han Dynasty's industry and commerce.

The actions of the Tianzhu Trading Company in Tianzhu over the past decade can be summarized in three sentences: first, eliminate the charlatans, eliminate the feudal system of dividing the country into different areas, and liberate more Tianzhu people into the global market of the Han Dynasty.

The second is to use the Han people's advanced agricultural tools to continuously open up more new lands, use these lands to grow cash crops, and reap more wealth.

Third, we will vigorously build railways, roads, bridges, docks and other infrastructure in India to reduce the cost of various cash crop raw materials from India entering the Han market.

After decades of hard work by Hu Hai and his men, the commodity market and raw material production base of India was extremely complementary to the industrial chain of the Han Dynasty. In the words of later generations, Hu Hai and his men embedded India's industry into the global industrial chain of the Han Dynasty. Even if they had to accept the Han Dynasty's industrial and agricultural scissors gap, the Indians lived much better than being slaves under the Brahmins.

To be frank, if one does not compare India with the Han Dynasty, India is the richest country in the world. Even the Huns cannot compare with India. Now India's position in the global industrial chain designated by the Han Dynasty is equivalent to that of Japan in later generations.

This is also the reason why Zhang Pijiang was afraid of Hu Hai. Tianzhu's geographical environment and heritage are too strong. The land is fertile, the population is large, the culture is relatively advanced, and the handicraft industry is also very developed. Especially in recent years under the governance of the Tianzhu Trading Company, it can be regarded as an agriculturally industrialized country.

As long as there is a hero in Tianzhu who makes a call and establishes a Tianzhu core, using Tianzhu's strong agriculture to promote industrial development, a powerful country that even the Han Dynasty will be wary of will emerge in Nanshenzhou.

Fan Kang did not think so much, but sneered: "It's just the white slave trade. Apart from this, my Han Dynasty doesn't need anything else. Take Ptolemy for example. Apart from a little more food and a little more slaves, there is nothing else. Iron and steel are luxury goods in this country. If we don't keep a close eye on the steel tools on our construction site, they would have been stolen by these people long ago. I have to set up patrol teams outside and warehouses inside to store tools. I have to count these worthless shovels and pestles every day, and encourage them to report and expose them internally. Even so, some tools are lost from time to time. The court cannot buy their goods."

There is no way for the people of Ptolemy to regard iron and steel tools in other people's hands as treasures. Giving them to use is just inviting them to commit crimes. At the beginning, Fan Kang didn't pay attention, but as a result, thousands of shovels and pestles were thrown away every day. These Ptolemies seemed to be intending to empty the Yanzhou Governor's Office.

Although Ptolemy had a long history, it had always been under the slave system. Fan Kang really couldn't think of any special products of Ptolemy other than slaves. Ptolemy had nothing to show for its food, clothing, housing, transportation, rice, flour, grain and oil.

Zhang Pijiang thought for a moment and said, "The environment in Ptolemy is similar to that in India, and cotton can be grown here. If the Han Dynasty guides the nobles of Ptolemy to establish cotton plantations, they can sell the cotton to us, and we can weave the cotton into cloth and sell it to Ptolemy."

"The agricultural potential of Ptolemy is also huge. They have only developed the fertile land along the Nile River. The land a little further away is left barren. If they could build water wheels and canals along the Nile River, Ptolemy could reclaim several times more land than it does now."

After all, Ptolemy was a slave state, and the fertile land they developed the most was the Nile Delta. Historically, the Romans dominated the Mediterranean by using Ptolemy as their granary. But because Ptolemy and his people only knew how to rely on the weather for farming, the Romans specially sent engineers to build canals for them and teach them how to grow grain. Now the Han Dynasty has to do similar things.

Zhang Pijiang felt that the imperial court should also set up industries in the Mediterranean countries, with some countries growing grapes, some developing animal husbandry and leather products, and each small country being allocated some industries to balance trade with the Han Dynasty.

Fan Kang looked at Zhang Pijiang in astonishment and said, "They actually learned from India. I'm afraid they don't have the ability. Hu Hai and his people were fearless in order to make money. They demolished thousands of temples in India and killed many charlatans. There were so many heads rolling and wailing everywhere. That's why India is what it is today. But even so, Hu Hai suffered many assassination attempts. It is said that he had dozens of guards to protect him when he traveled in India. He suffered dozens of assassination attempts. It's only because he is lucky that he is still alive now."

Fan Kang was not only on the construction site during this period, he would also visit Alexandria, the most prosperous city in the Mediterranean. The result was hard to describe. Except for a few noble manors, the Ptolemy Kingdom was extremely poor.

If it were just poverty, it would be fine, but the key is that the people here are extremely ignorant. There are many temples in the entire Ptolemaic Kingdom. As far as Fan Kang observes, every village here has a god, and each god looks different.

He had heard before that the Indian charlatans were powerful and even ruled the country, and that the Confucian scholars of the Xiongnu Kingdom destroyed temples and cut down mountains, but he had never heard of a country with so many gods. They worshiped almost every animal, river, and mountain they saw as a god. There were crocodile gods, dog gods, and even cat gods. Fan Kang was overwhelmed by the sight of these half-human, half-beast statues.

Even if the people of Ptolemy had some savings, they would probably donate them to the temple. Given their level of ignorance, no industry would be able to develop if you gave them that.

Don't be fooled by the fact that the people of India are developing low-end cash crop plantations. Even though it is the same agriculture, the production model has completely changed. While we are still using slave agriculture here, India is already using a large farm economy under the capitalist system. The logic of their operation is also an industrialized system, and the income generated by people is not comparable to that of passive slaves.

If you want to play with India's economic plantations, you must at least kill all of Ptolemy's charlatans, restrict the power of the nobles, and smash Ptolemy's feudal power.

Without these feudal systems, the labor force can be liberated, and at the same time, the large-scale construction of national infrastructure can reduce the cost of logistics, and the system of cash crop plantations can be put into operation. It can be said that the Ptolemaic nobles can really do this. Even if they close the country and squeeze the peasants to develop industry with the surplus grain, they can still develop a good industrial system. This ability to govern the country is obviously not possessed by the Ptolemaic nobles.

And it is impossible for the Han people to take the initiative. This is a reform that overthrows the ruler of a country and makes things so complicated. It is better to occupy a country directly. Carry out reforms legitimately. Zhang Pijiang also smiled bitterly after listening to Fan Kang's words. He was extremely lost and even a little lonely. He had seen most of the countries in the World Island, but what disappointed him was that the countries and forces he had seen were either primitive nomadic tribes or slave states. Republic slave states like Rome were considered advanced. The Ptolemaic State had both the brutality of the Shang Dynasty and the stupid people of the Indian theocracy. It can be said that it was a mixture of various remnants of slavery. It is not an exaggeration to say that it has all the five poisons. However, Nanyang in the New World is a group of primitive civilizations.

Zhang Pijiang discovered that the Han civilization could not find a partner to communicate with. Not to mention communication, even trying to pull them into the circle of civilization felt very difficult. Looking at this circle of countries, there were primitive slavery, nomadic slavery, monarchy slavery, republican slavery, and theocratic slavery.

Globally, there are only a few countries that have developed industrialization, let alone the feudal peasant system.

These rotten fish and shrimps are not qualified to become the raw material production base of the Han Dynasty's global industrial chain. These countries can only bring two kinds of goods to the Han Dynasty: gold and silver, and slaves. Zhang Pijiang felt that he could not lead them.

June 35, 5rd year of the Han calendar.

The Indian fleet stopped here briefly, unloaded soldiers and supplies, and continued to head to the Ptolemaic port on the Red Sea. They also brought 100 flintlock rifles and cannons, which were the arms that the Ptolemaic State purchased from the Han Dynasty.

The captain of the Han Dynasty's Indian fleet came to Ptolemy and was highly respected and warmly welcomed. The Ptolemy's court minister Diodos welcomed the general from the Han Dynasty.

However, the atmosphere of the first meeting between the two sides was not very friendly. Theodos said seriously: "The arms that the Han Dynasty gave to our country are second-hand. We have the right to ask for a lower price. The queen means to reduce the price by half."

Liu Bi was immediately furious. He was a tall and strong man, and his anger frightened Theodos so much that he started to tremble with fear.

Liu Bi said: "If you don't want this batch of arms, our country can sell it to the Seleucid Empire, Rome, Macedonia, in short, any country that needs this batch of arms."

You dare to bully these big guys. It's only because Naigong's temper has improved in the past two years, otherwise I would have let you leave in disgrace.

Theodos was depressed. If he had a choice, he would not want to come. There were too many parasites in the Ptolemaic Empire. They had seen that the Huns had destroyed the Parthian Empire with great momentum and were about to attack the Mediterranean. Faced with such brutal Huns, the nobles of the Ptolemaic Empire were naturally afraid. They found ways to drain the country's resources and ordered this batch of arms.

But the situation is different now. The Huns were beaten badly by the Han Empire. The Han Emperor has banned the Huns from continuing their westward expedition. The country is safe. It would be a waste to spend so much money to form an army of 5 muskets.

As a result, most of the money they had originally intended to use to purchase arms was embezzled by Ptolemy's nobles under various excuses. When they wanted to purchase arms, they found that the money was not enough. If they wanted to get the money back, they had to resort to all kinds of tricks such as burning warehouses and crying in front of the palace.

Ptolemy's queen, Triopacle I, was a princess of the Seleucid Empire. She was already suspected by the Ptolemaic nobles, who were worried that she would betray the interests of their country, which made it even more difficult to deal with these nobles.

But now the Han fleet has arrived at their doorstep, it is impossible to give up this batch of arms, right?

The queen wanted the nobles to raise money to buy the arms first, but how could she take the money out of her own pocket? The country's money did not belong to her, but the money in her own pocket belonged to her. The prices of silk and sugar in the Han Dynasty were so high. How could she buy silk and sugar without finding a way to get some money?
So the queen could only ask her ministers to find a way to buy these muskets with the limited money. Even if they couldn't buy them, they should try not to offend the Han generals. So he, as a court minister, received the task of being a punching bag.

Zhang Pijiang, who came with Liu Bi, could only walk up to Diodos and whisper, "Didn't you prepare the money before buying the arms? Why are you bargaining at the last minute?"

Theodos said with a bitter face: "There is no money left. This is all the money left in the country. If it were less, we could still solve the problem by levying taxes, but this amount is too large and there is no way to solve it."

Zhang Pijiang looked at Diodos strangely. He had been here for more than half a year and had not heard of any natural disasters or man-made disasters in the Ptolemaic Kingdom. They had not started a war. How could the money that had been prepared suddenly disappear? Could it be that the queen mother had bought too much silk and spices and spent all of it?
In order to lose face together with the others, Theodos had no choice but to tell the whole story.

Zhang Pijiang was greatly enlightened after hearing that, but at the same time he felt amused at his own naivety. He also wanted to set up an industry for Ptolemy to balance their trade with the Han Dynasty.

Judging from the performance of these parasites, even if we give them a gold mine, I am afraid they will dig it up to the point of deficit. Relying on these nobles to carry out agricultural production, they simply do not have the organizational ability.

Zhang Pijiang thought for a moment and said, "I have an idea that will benefit both countries. The Han Dynasty wants to build a canal to connect the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea. The 4-li land around the canal is equivalent to what the Han Dynasty bought with this batch of arms. What do you think?"

Theodos was pleasantly surprised and said, "Although I still need to seek the queen's consent, I think this will work."

Looking at Theodos leaving, Zhang Pijiang shook his head in disappointment.

Liu Bi looked at Theodos in astonishment as he left: "Doesn't he know how much benefit he has given up?"

You know, each canal of the Han Dynasty made more money than railways. The Han court had originally planned to build this canal jointly with the Ptolemy Kingdom, and the profits would be shared equally by both parties. Xu Fan learned from the experience of later generations and did not want to be as extreme as Niu Niu and Gao Lu Ji, who eventually got driven out.

Zhang Pijiang said helplessly: "You can't look at Ptolemy by the standards of our Han Dynasty. You can just look at them as the useless nobles of the Spring and Autumn Period. Then you can understand the rules of their behavior."

After Diodos brought the news back, the nobles of Ptolemy were extremely happy. Not only did they get 5 flintlock rifles for free by paying a little wasteland, but the Han people would need even more efforts to build a canal here. According to the construction standards of the Yanzhou Governor's Office, this canal would require at least 10 people to build. How much food would it consume? How much supplies? How much money would the Han people have to spend?
The Ptolemaic nobles already felt the wealth pouring toward them.

The next things were much simpler. The Han Dynasty paid for the arms, and the Ptolemaic Empire gave up the land around the Suez Canal that they had built over thousands of years in exchange.

(End of this chapter)