From the top window of Michira's Castle, you can see the whole city of Geranja opposite. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

At this time, Xiao Ming and Claire looked at the merchant ships shuttling in and out of the port of Geranza, which had come from Manila and were loaded with goods and then headed for the Dutch colony of Manila.

In Manila, the Dutch Chamber of Commerce transfers goods back home.

Since the relationship with the king of Chu broke down, and now the Wa Kingdom is trying to invade the Ryukyus, Claire now has no choice but to do business with Xiao Ming, after all, the Dutch merchants who have arrived at the port have been complaining about the shortage of goods during this time.

"Your Highness, we have been waiting for a long time, and now our merchant ships are waiting for goods in the harbor, hoping that Your Highness can provide us with goods." Claire looked solemn.

During this time, the turmoil in East Asia severely affected commerce and trade.

"In that case, you can now hand over the required goods to the king, and the king will have the merchant ships from Dengzhou to traffic back the goods you need, and of course, you will have to pay for the goods."

Claire looked at the sea and said calmly, "Of course, we have always abided by the rules of commerce, and now there is a great demand for porcelain, raw silk, silk, and tea in Europe, and the price of these goods in Europe is relatively high, which is also our main trade commodity, I hope Your Highness can provide us with it as soon as possible." ”

"No problem, this king will return to Dengzhou in these two days, and then the goods will arrive." Xiao Ming smiled, in the past, maritime trade was almost monopolized by the King of Chu, and now this piece of fat meat finally fell into his mouth, but remembering something, he asked curiously: "Forgive this king for taking the liberty, can Count Claire tell this king how much silver has flowed into the hands of the king of Chu." ”

Hearing this, Claire frowned, but thinking that she might not have anything to do with King Chu in the future, she said to Rhodes: "Rhodes, you should know this better than me." ”

"In the past forty years, we have handed over a total of 3,000 tons of silver to the King of Chu, and if it is measured according to the measurement of the Great Yu Kingdom, it will be a total of 60 million taels of silver." Rod said as he recalled the accounts over the years.

"Sixty million taels of silver!"

Xiao Ming almost jumped up from his chair, he finally understood why the Cao family was so wealthy, and why the King of Chu was so fearless, it was all because of the money.

Closing his eyes, Xiao Ming exhaled softly, he rummaged through the contemporary economic data in the science and technology library, and his heart suddenly fluctuated.

During the Ming and Qing dynasties, China's long-term overseas trade surplus, coupled with the fact that the exchange price of gold and silver was lower than that of foreign countries most of the time, made foreigners think that they had taken advantage of it, after all, it was like taking a dollar of RMB to buy a dollar of goods, who wouldn't be happy?

As such, this led to the massive use of silver as currency in Europeans to buy goods, which at first flowed mainly from Spain, Portugal, and later the Netherlands and England established the absolute status of silver exports.

This large net inflow of silver roughly lasted from the 1570s to the 1830s, and scholars at home and abroad have made various estimates of the silver inflow in Ming and Qing China, and concluded that in the 250 years before 1800, China received nearly 48,000 tons of silver from Europe and the Japanese state, and possibly 10,000 tons or more from Manila, plus others, totaling about 60,000 tons of silver, a total of 1.6 billion silver taels.

"1,600,000,000,000 taels Xiao Ming's mind kept circling this data, in fact, because of the lack of some data, in Xiao Ming's opinion, this data was even seriously underestimated, after all, there were many unregulated trades in the atmosphere at that time.

Claire noticed Xiao Ming's expression, and he smiled: "This is indeed a large number, but as long as Your Highness can sincerely do business with us, I guarantee that Your Highness will get more than King Chu, and now there is no shortage of silver in Europe, in addition to having a large open-pit silver mine in Mexico, the country of silver, now Europeans have found that Peruvian silver mines in South America are more abundant than Mexico, and now European countries are mining on a large scale, oh, sorry, Your Highness may not know about Mexico and Peru." ”

Speaking of North and South America, which was dominated by Europe, Claire's face once again showed the arrogance peculiar to Europeans during this period.

Pouting, Xiao Ming didn't bother to refute Claire, because in his opinion, it was as boring as a primary school student selling one plus one in front of college students.

"One day Ben King's warship will tell me where Mexico and Peru are." Xiao Ming smiled faintly.

Claire and Rhodes glanced at each other and held back a smile at the same time, although they admitted that Xiao Ming was very strong in this sea area, but it was only in this sea area, if it was in Europe, any country's fleet could easily defeat him.

So in their opinion, Xiao Ming was just telling a bad joke.

"Hmph."

Xiao Ming could see from the expressions of the two that they didn't believe that there would be such a day, and he didn't bother to explain, for him, he likes to prove himself with his actions rather than his tongue, and now what he needs is to make the fiefdom rich and improve his overall strength.

Feeling that something was wrong with their behavior, the two regained their normal colors, and Claire said, "Your Highness, I hope the goods will arrive as soon as possible." ”

Xiao Ming nodded, and then he discussed with Claire the specific details of trade and the establishment of a Dutch foreign affairs office in Dengzhou.

At the same time, in order to prevent Dutch merchants from espionage in Dengzhou, Xiao Ming decided to establish a merchant hall, and Dutch merchants could only live in the merchant hall during their stay in the port.

After agreeing on these matters, Xiao Ming officially held a ceremony with Claire in the city of Geranza about the fortress of Michira, the main island of the Ryukyus, and the garrison in the city of Geranza.

According to the agreement, Xiao Ming will garrison 2,000 troops at Michiralenes Fortress and 2,000 troops at Geranza City, and the six warships in the Qingzhou fleet, including the second-class warships and third-class warships, will be anchored in the port of Geranza City all year round, and at the same time be responsible for escort and patrol tasks within a range of 1,000 miles in the Ryukyu Sea, and this number will continue to increase.

After completing these things one by one, Xiao Ming basically completed the control of Ryukyu Island and the sea trade routes, and after a two-day break, he prepared to return to Dengzhou.

Sea routes are only part of his trade strategy, and he has more important things to accomplish, which is to eliminate the threat from the north, whether it is to complete control of Goryeo or his own security, he must deal with the barbarians.

Because in his opinion, as long as the barbarians are not destroyed, he will not be able to spare all his energy to solve the problems in Dayu.

A strong enemy is eyeing him outside, and he can't act rashly, which is why he is trying to maintain the status quo of the Great Chongqing Kingdom.

"Your Highness, I will personally visit Qingzhou City in a few days."

Under the King of Qi, Claire took the officials of Relansha City to see off Xiao Ming, and now that Qingzhou and the Netherlands are officially cooperating, he is looking forward to making huge profits.