After leaving Shanghai, the speed of the fleet slowed down sharply, and Andre, who followed the Chinese ships behind, found that the Chinese captain was also unfamiliar with the route to the north.

After three days of sailing, Andrei finally couldn't help but take over the position of leading the fleet. Thanks to his vast sailing experience, the fleet was able to speed up considerably.

Although Andrei had been to Japan, he had not yet been to the north of China, so he had to sail north along the coastline. Although the coastline in northern China is gentler than in the south, the prominent Shandong Peninsula still caused a lot of trouble for the fleet.

The fleet rounded the Shandong Peninsula to reach the port of Tianjin, which ultimately took 16 days. When they appeared outside the port of Tianjin, Tianjin was experiencing its first snow of the winter.

The strong north-westerly wind brought a dense snowflake that turned the sky and the earth white, and Andre, standing at the bow of the boat, found that he could no longer see 30 feet away.

Although he had already obtained it from the Chinese pilot, which was already outside the port of Tianjin, he did not dare to follow the instructions of the Chinese pilot who had come up from Dengzhou.

The fleet stayed outside Tianjin Port for two days before the wind and snow slowly subsided. Only then did the fleet, under the guidance of the Chinese pilots, bypass the sandbar outside the harbor and enter the tortuous Haihe River channel.

In the southeast of the Tianjin Acropolis, on the west bank of the Haihe River in Majiakou, a newly built wharf called Zizhulin, two ships finally docked.

André found that the river from the city of Tianjin to the east was full of docks where ships were moored.

On the opposite shore of Dazhigu, dozens of Chinese ships are anchored there. After walking around here for a few days, he realized that this was the only way for ships to enter the old port area of Sanchakou from the sea.

Although the heavy snow covered the ground, it can still be seen that the ditches on both sides of the Haihe River are crisscrossed and the fields are staggered. Moreover, the river bay here is wide and deep, and the shore is broad, so it has the superior geographical conditions for building wharves, warehouses and ports.

From the moment he entered the mouth of the Haihe River, Andrei found that the banks of the Haihe River had been artificially repaired, and in some places the stone berm had been built. Soon after the snow stopped, teams of Chinese began to appear again near the dock where he was moored.

Unlike his native Britain, these Chinese who dig up the earth and repair the slopes do not seem to be punished slaves, nor are they serfs who have been conscripted by their lords for unpaid labor.

The reason why Andrei felt this way was because although these Chinese who worked were poorly dressed, there were no overseers and soldiers with whips standing behind them. And they worked in a very orderly manner, and they didn't see many people who were slacking off.

The range of Andre's activities is the distance from the wharf to the Tianjin Acropolis. Although the Chinese captain who accompanied him reported his identity and origin to the local officials in Tianjin.

But the officials here were obviously not as approachable as the local officials in Shanghai, and apart from allowing him to sell the goods brought on the ship, they were obviously very suspicious of the fact that he had come to present his credentials to the Ming Emperor on behalf of the King of England.

Andrei, who was suspicious, was in his heart, but he also had to stay in Tianjin, waiting for the results of the report to Beijing.

In the past few days in Tianjin, in addition to going ashore to travel the local customs, Andre is wandering around the market outside Tianjin.

Having shopped in Shanghai, André was apparently more comfortable dealing with Chinese merchants, and he even learned a few words of Chinese. Unfortunately, the Chinese captain who taught him Chinese was a Hokkien man, so the Chinese merchants in the north still couldn't understand what he was saying.

After a few days of wandering around the Tianjin market, Andrei finally discovered the difference between Tianjin and Shanghai.

One is the difference in people, Shanghai businessmen are more enthusiastic about their customers, they are more flexible in their transactions, and they will always give some extra benefits to a new customer.

But the merchants here in Tianjin are a little different, although their way of treating customers is not cold, but they are by no means proactive. If the customer doesn't take the initiative to speak, the guy in the store won't take the initiative to introduce the product.

Compared with the flexibility of Shanghai businessmen, the trading model in Tianjin is quite fixed, and it can even be said to be rigid.

For example, when Andre was buying goods in Shanghai, when he encountered that he did not have enough belongings to carry, or that he could not carry too many goods to carry, the other party could call some coachmen for him to send the goods to the dock, or send someone to go back to the ship with him to get the balance back.

Shanghai merchants called it accommodation, but this kind of accommodation is rarely seen in Tianjin. Even if there is, it is for regular customers who often come and go, and overseas Yi people like Andre obviously can't enjoy this kind of treatment.

Although he was quite dissatisfied with the details of the trade revealed by the merchants of Tianjin, André also had to admit that the merchants of Shanghai and Tianjin were simply angels in terms of business ethics compared to his fellow Europeans and his British compatriots.

At least the goods sold by these Chinese merchants are genuine good goods. They did not deceive the natives with worthless glass beads, like the British merchants.

Nor did he throw the peppercorns on the ground and wrap them in a thick layer of dust, making pepper dust and selling them to his fellow citizens. In the hands of some savvy British merchants, a pound of pepper could make tens of pounds of British-style peppercorn.

In addition, the huge difference between Tianjin and Shanghai in terms of commerce is more in the types of goods. In Shanghai, traditional Chinese goods dominate the market. But in Tianjin, there are some novel, never-before-seen goods, which are more popular in the market.

For example, all kinds of canned fish, glassware, all kinds of metal objects with a silver-white coating, scented soaps, toothbrushes and toothpaste, etc.

From Shanghai to Tianjin, Andre only went to two places in China, but he felt that he already knew the country well.

Although China is not as full of gold as Marco Polo's travels says. But in Andrei's view, the wealth of the country is no less than that of Europe as a whole.

But with such a huge mountain of wealth in front of him, André found himself at a loss, and he could not think of a way to take it from the mountain.

The country is rich in natural resources and hardly needs any external resources. And the sheer population of this country also makes labor ridiculously cheap.

In Andrei's memory, there was no other race other than the Indians who could make such cheap handicrafts. As long as the goods can be made by the Chinese, then trafficking such goods from other regions to China is a loss-making business.

The only goods that satisfied the Chinese merchants, and which they never felt satisfied, were gold and silver, which the Europeans regarded as real wealth.

But for British merchants like Andrew, they risked their lives overseas to trade for precious metals such as gold and silver.

It is obviously not a cost-effective business to give the precious metals earned at the risk of their lives to these Chinese businessmen who sit back and enjoy their success. This is also not in line with the European businessman's philosophy of overseas trade.

European navigators used their lives to explore the secrets of the sea, and the most fundamental purpose was to chase wealth. Instead of sending the wealth looted by Europeans from all over the world to China for those Chinese to enjoy.

A trip to the markets of Shanghai and Tianjin cooled Andrew's enthusiasm for opening the trade route between Britain and China. As a well-educated squire, Andrey was well aware.

Britain was not Spain, and it did not have the gold and silver that the American colonies could supply with a constant supply. Britain was also not Dutch, and the Dutch, who controlled the commerce of all Europe, could draw a great deal of wealth from the European countries by virtue of their monopoly on the spice trade.

The British economy was now supported mainly by the indigenous wool textile industry and the tobacco cultivation industry that was emerging in the North American colonies.

Whether it is the wool textile industry or the tobacco cultivation industry, it requires a large investment of capital. This determined that the British could not spare a large amount of capital to compete with the Netherlands and Spain for the Chinese trade routes.

From this point of view, even if he succeeds in establishing Britain's trade relations with China, Britain will not be able to gain much from it. Because almost every piece of goods produced by the Chinese, the British need it.

However, the British can hardly provide what the Chinese need. No, it should be said that it is not clear to the whole of Europe what the Chinese like in addition to gold and silver. Obviously, this kind of unilateral export of gold and silver trade relations cannot be long-lasting.

His Majesty the King would not like it either, his own treasury was empty, just because he and his subjects wanted to enjoy, fine silk and porcelain made in China.

Silk and porcelain were good things, but they could neither be used as cannonballs to defeat the British enemy, nor could they be turned into a mighty fleet to defend the British.

André was hiding in his captain's room, writing down his thoughts in his diary when there was a knock on his hatch.

Andrei, who was struggling to write, was dissatisfied, and he was disturbed while writing his diary, but he put down the quill and got up and walked to the hatch.

When the hatch opened, the first mate of the Bucks saluted him respectfully before pressing his chest and saying, "Captain Andre, the Chinese captain is at the customs office at the dock with a few Chinese officials, and they want you to go down and meet them now." ”

Although after the hatch was opened, the cold wind outside made Andre shiver, but after hearing the first mate's announcement, his face finally brought a little joy.

Andre took off his tweed coat and said to his first mate: "It seems that our wait has finally come to fruition, I hope this is good news." ”