"How does this tea taste?" After Zhu Youzhen took a sip of milk tea, he asked Andre with a smile. Europeans have always been fond of sweetness, and tea is a good way to relieve sweetness. Once they find the right way to drink tea, they will inevitably be inseparable from this Chinese drink, just like the nomads who love tea.

For Chongzhen's inquiry, Andre naturally praised the milk tea in his hand, although it was a bit exaggerated, but most of it was sincere. Especially when he tasted the refreshments served with milk tea, this sweet red bean paste cake with milk tea made him feel happy both physically and mentally.

In addition to milk tea and pastries, Andre also carefully played with the white and crystal teacup in his hand. This porcelain with handles was the first time he had seen it, and it was a work of art compared to the coarse benzene European glazed pottery cups. Of course, this whole set of tea sets is matched together, which makes him add a little love.

Looking at the teacup in his hand for a while, he really couldn't hold back the joy in his heart, so he begged Chongzhen in a daze: "Your Majesty, your hospitality to me today is really touching, I have a small request here." I wonder if you would like to give me this tea set as a souvenir? That way, when I return to England, I will be able to show my friends and family your name for wealth and generosity. ”

Seeing that Andre took the initiative to say what he wanted to mention, Zhu Youzhen couldn't help but smile and said, "How could I refuse such a request." I've heard that you've cooperated with my shipbuilding engineers' request in Tianjin to lend them your Buck for learning, so I'm not going to refuse your request. ”

Andre suddenly smiled and bowed to Chongzhen to thank him, and when he didn't sit down, Zhu Youzhen said to him with great interest: "But the color of this tea set seems to be too plain white... I thought of what gift I wanted to give to the King of England, and I would order a set of tableware and tea sets for the King of England to be fired as a gift from the Emperor Ming to the King of England.

I have heard that the nobles and kings of Europe have their own specific patterns as symbols, and I wonder if you would like to paint a pattern representing the English king, and I will have someone draw it on this set of porcelain. Of course, you can also draw your own family pattern, and I will have someone make a set for you. ”

André was overjoyed to have a set of heraldic porcelain of his own, which was fired with the heraldic porcelain of the British king, which was a priceless treasure for him. Inadvertently, the Chinese emperor had created some kind of mysterious connection between his family and the British royal family, which was an opportunity for both him and his family.

And the current King Charles, after getting this set of heraldic porcelain exclusive to the royal family, is enough to eliminate his offense of pretending to be an envoy of the British king. After all, in Europe, except for King Charles V of Spain, no other royal family or nobleman owned a complete set of heraldic porcelain, which was still made by a porcelain craftsman dedicated to the Chinese emperor.

Andrei couldn't wait to agree to Chongzhen's suggestion, and said with some presumptuous words that he was willing to go to the emperor's porcelain factory in person and fire these porcelain with those craftsmen.

Seeing Andre's somewhat anxious look, Zhu Youzhen interrupted his incoherent request with a smile and said: "The matter of firing porcelain is still left to a professional porcelain craftsman, you just need to design the pattern." Next, let's continue to discuss the trade between the East India Company's Pattani Merchant House and the Ming Dynasty, which you represent. ”

After having a general understanding of the details of Andre and the Pattani Merchant House in the conversation just now, Zhu Youzhen did not give him any opportunity to consider, but said bluntly: "I think that the Pattanii Merchant House of the East India Company might as well concentrate on the porcelain and tea business." ”

Andre looked at the milk tea in front of him, and replied involuntarily: "Your Majesty means, do you plan to grant the concession of porcelain and tea to the Pattanii Merchant Hall?" ”

Porcelain and raw silk were once equal to the same weight of gold in Europe, and with the geographical discovery of the Great Voyage, the Europeans opened the sea passage to China, and the price of raw silk and porcelain fell significantly. However, unlike raw silk, which is easy to transport, porcelain is too easy to break in the turbulent sea, so European merchants prefer raw silk, silk and other goods that are more convenient to transport when buying Chinese goods.

It was only after 1600, when the market for silk and raw silk in Europe narrowed due to the appearance of fine Indian cotton cloth, that Dutch, Portuguese, and Spanish merchants began to turn their attention to Chinese porcelain.

As the number of porcelain shipped to Europe increased, Chinese porcelain finally entered the aristocratic and wealthy families from royal treasures. Even the wars that are now taking place in Europe have not stopped the thirst for porcelain among the nobles and the rich.

Fine porcelain paired with milk tea that suits the taste of Europeans is obviously a big business. In Andrei's view, if Europeans accept this way of drinking tea, then every European family that drinks tea must be equipped with such a set of porcelain tea sets.

After all, neither the pottery nor glassware used in Europe can withstand hot water brewing, and pewter and wood obviously spoil the taste of tea and the elegance of high society.

In order to show their arrogance, arrogance and distinctiveness, the European aristocracy even gave up the freedom to turn their necks comfortably and wore expensive and uncomfortable raff collars. Therefore, André believes that when this way of drinking tea reaches Europe, it will inevitably become popular among the nobility and the royal family, so that they can distinguish themselves.

And even if it didn't catch on to the rest of Europe, André thought it would be no problem for the English aristocracy to embrace this new way of drinking tea.

The reason why he has such a certainty is entirely because of the two things in the milk tea: sugar and milk. As an English squire, he knew very well that the most influential in England were the nobles and gentry of England, and the main industries operated by these nobles and squires were sheep herding in their own country and sugar cane plantations in the West Indies.

Sheep farming is able to provide large quantities of goat's milk, while the West Indies provide large quantities of cane sugar. The emergence of milk tea just perfectly encompasses these two things, and the more tea the British drink, the greater the benefits for these English nobles and squires.

In other words, the tea trade would benefit not only a handful of merchants like him, but also the vast number of English nobles and gentry. Under these circumstances, the tea trade should not be hindered by a narrow group of conservative aristocrats, so Andrei wanted to try his luck and get a trade concession from the uninformed Chinese emperor.

Andre looked at Chongzhen nervously, wanting to hear good news from the young man. However, he was soon disappointed, Zhu Youzhen shook his head with a smile and said: "This year, Daming exported 650,000 pieces of various porcelain, and the export price is equivalent to 2.1 million yuan in Daming. I plan to increase the annual export of porcelain trade to 1.2 million pieces within five years, how many pieces of porcelain can the East India Company eat? ”

Hearing the number proposed by Chongzhen, Andre suddenly froze. He lowered his head and calculated in his heart, now one pound is about five Ming Yuan, 2.1 million yuan is about 420,000 pounds, and the Pattani Merchant House can make up about 220,000 pounds in cash at most, and the total assets of the entire East India Company are only about 1 million pounds now.

In other words, if the East India Company had agreed to buy Chinese porcelain, it would have basically no other trade, which was obviously unrealistic for a colonial trading company.

Now the upper echelons of the company are still most interested in the rich Indian continent, after all, there is no complete and unified country on the Indian continent, and the Portuguese who first arrived in India are in decline, while the Dutch only care about the spice islands, and have no other energy to explore the Indian continent.

The British East India Company was at an extremely favorable time to get involved in the trade of the Indian continent, which is why there was a call within the company to abandon Southeast Asia and concentrate on the development of the Indian continent.

When Andre was still immersed in calculations, Zhu Youzhen continued: "My Daming tea exports a lot every year, but the amount sold to Europe is only a thousand catties. Most of these thousands of pounds of tea were shipped to Europe by the Netherlands and Portugal, and the British merchants had never engaged in the tea trade, and since I had not given the tea concession to the other two countries, I naturally would not have given it to the British.

However, I can promise that British merchants will enjoy the same preferential treatment as other countries in the course of their trade with our Ming dynasty, and will not be treated differently.

In addition, we will give the Pattani Merchant House a special privilege as a congratulatory gesture to the Ming Dynasty on the establishment of trade relations with the British. ”

Andre, who was still a little lost, suddenly cheered up again after hearing Chongzhen's last words, and asked cautiously: "Your Majesty, what kind of preferential treatment will you give to the subjects of the British Crown?" ”

Zhu Youzhen looked at Andre seriously and said, "I will ask the Four Seas Commercial Bank to sign a trade swap agreement with the East India Company Pattani Commercial Hall, which you represent. The agreement will stipulate that the two sides will give each other an equal line of credit, such as 1 million yuan.

The Pattanii Merchant House purchases goods worth 1 million yuan from the Four Seas Commercial Bank every year, and the Four Seas Commercial House must also purchase goods worth 1 million yuan from the Pattani Commercial House, and the procurement of both parties must be based on good faith, and if either party commits fraud, the other party can choose to terminate this agreement.

In addition, the agreement is negotiated once a year, and if either of the parties disagrees, it can be signed for the following year. What do you think of this agreement? ”

André naturally thought that this agreement was too good, and for the Pattanii Merchant House, the biggest problem in trading with China was the lack of funds. Both the declining Portuguese and the wealthy Dutch East India Company had enough silver to buy Chinese goods, but Britain itself was an island nation lacking precious metals, where it could compete with its European counterparts.

The Chinese emperor's proposal perfectly solved the problem of the lack of funds for the Pattani Merchant House. Naturally, Andre did not hesitate to agree to Chongzhen's additional condition, the British East India Company would assist the Central Bank of Daming to establish outlets in mainland India and the United Kingdom to deal with the problem of transoceanic capital exchange.