Prince Chongzhen

Chapter 457 Do you want a loan?

Zhu Cilang did not hide anything from Du Chen. After telling him the Dutch's actions truthfully, he waited quietly for the other party's response.

To others, such frankness is totally unnecessary. If Spain did not know about this, then Ming Dynasty would be able to take the absolute initiative in this cooperation and maximize its benefits.

But this is not the right way.

Small countries like those have always been thinking about making as much money as possible and have almost no long-term plans.

But today you can gain temporary benefits by using despicable means, but if the time is prolonged, whether it is an individual or a country, once your reputation is ruined, you will inevitably suffer backlash at the most critical moment.

This is the most fundamental difference between Chinese civilization and those bandits.

For thousands of years, the great Chinese nation has never had the intention of exploiting small countries. Even hundreds of years later when the new dynasty was first established, it set an excellent example of being kind to others.

Such an action did not bring any economic return at the time, and there was no actual benefit either. However, when the development of the times reached the most critical moment, the reputation accumulated over the years turned into a serious trend, which made people exclaim that those who are righteous have many supporters, while those who are unrighteous have few supporters.

At this time, the Dutch aid to the Qing court could not be concealed for too long. Even if the Ming Dynasty could gain some benefits from Spain by taking advantage of this information gap, once the news was exposed, the other party would inevitably make up for it in other ways.

Not only is it possible that what you have eaten will be vomited out, but if you get stabbed in the back at the critical moment, you will end up losing more than you gain.

"I wonder how Your Majesty wants to cooperate?"

"I know that Philip IV is not unable to defeat the Dutch, but is just short of money, so I am prepared to provide the Kingdom of Spain with an interest-free loan of 2 million taels to help him stabilize the situation in Europe."

Du Chen was a little surprised by Zhu Cilang's frankness, but he thought about his majesty's reputation and understood the reason. But the interest-free loan was not just a casual talk. If things didn't go well, wouldn't it be a waste of this huge amount of money?

"Your Majesty! No!" A loud shout echoed in the Qianqing Palace, making people think that Master Xu was possessed. Du Chen immediately knelt on the ground and kowtowed before saying anxiously, "The Holy Roman Empire is already weak, and Spain is almost fighting against the whole of Europe on its own. If Philip IV is defeated, all this money will be wasted!"

"Wait till I finish. This silver is not given for free. First, the Kingdom of Spain must use Luzon as collateral. Second, the Governor-General's Office of New Spain must not block trade with Ming. Third, the goods purchased with this loan must come from Ming."

In those days, ordinary people would associate the strength of a country with the size of its territory, which directly led to countries like Spain and Portugal having huge resources but failing to utilize them effectively.

Therefore, in Zhu Cilang's concept, although the Ming Dynasty had to reach out overseas, compared with this, transforming the mainland into a pre-industrial country was the top priority.

With this idea in mind, obtaining a huge market that can foster industrial civilization is naturally much more important than Luzon alone, and half a foreign girl is not even within his consideration.

just
Zhu Cilang gave up the marriage and his claim to Luzon, but Du Chen hesitated.

The first one is nothing. Originally, Philip IV planned to use Luzon as a price in exchange for the support of Ming Dynasty. Now Ming Dynasty only uses it as collateral, which can be considered an extremely generous condition.

The second clause was not too harsh. Although asking New Spain to lift the trade ban would meet with local opposition, those people were just selfish and greedy people who would bring no benefit to the Kingdom of Spain. I think Philip IV would be happy to agree to it.

The key is this third point.
Thinking of this, Du Chen's mouth moved, but thinking that his wealth would still fall into the hands of Daming, he finally did not express his doubts.

However, after Zhu Cilang stated the conditions, he had been paying attention to Du Chen's reaction. When he saw that he was hesitant to talk, he asked directly.

"If you have anything to say, say it."

"Your Majesty, the first two are very safe, the key is the third one." At this point, the Ming Dynasty Customs Director paused, and after a moment he seemed to have figured something out before continuing: "Your Majesty, forgive me for being blunt, but the Kingdom of Spain is going to war. If we purchase military equipment from the Ming Dynasty, I'm afraid the price will be sky-high when it is shipped back to Europe."

"What's the price, Europa?"

When this question was asked, Du Chen was stunned for a moment. It was only after looking at Zhu Cilang's serious expression that he remembered.

When he left Europe, it cost about thirteen or fourteen Dutch guilders to make a matchlock rifle, about sixteen or seventeen Dutch guilders to make a flintlock rifle, more than three hundred Dutch guilders to make a small field gun, and more than a thousand Dutch guilders to make a twelve-pound gun.

In his opinion, the Ming Dynasty had a large number of craftsmen and cheap raw materials, so its cost would naturally be cheaper than that in Europe. However, these things were not ordinary goods, so even if they could be cheaper, it would be limited. If Philip IV really bought weapons from the Ming Dynasty, there would be no need for him to go through all this trouble.

As his thoughts turned, Du Chen told everything he knew.

In order to make Zhu Cilang understand the price difference, he even thoughtfully added the exchange rate of the Dutch guilder to one tael of silver at the end.

But to his surprise, after the words fell, not only did the smile on His Majesty's face not change at all, the Minister of Works standing beside him even turned around and looked at him in surprise.

"Li Qing."

"The minister is here."

"Tell our Director Du about the prices there."

"Yes," Li Yongmao bowed and said yes, then turned to Du Chen openly: "The cost of an old-fashioned fire gun is about three taels and four cents, and the cost of a self-propelled gun is about four taels and seven cents. The cannons that Du Guanchang mentioned are different from the regulations of our Ming Dynasty, so they cannot be compared. However, the French cannons imitated by our Ming Dynasty only cost fifty taels of silver each, and the largest cannon on the navy warships is less than three hundred taels, not to mention..."

Li Yongmao said something in the most calm tone that made Du Chen drop his jaw. But when Du Chen was waiting to hear how shocking it would be after "what's more", he saw Li Yongmao turned his head and took a look. After seeing that His Majesty did not seem to have any special reaction, he continued speaking.

"What's more, under the guidance of Your Majesty, our factory has improved the cannon casting method. Its output and performance are incomparable to the previous ones, so the cost and output of cannons can be reduced further."

Hearing this, Du Chen looked blankly at the Ming Emperor sitting in the hall.

At this time, Zhu Cilang still had a faint smile on his face, and was not surprised at all by the difference in cost between the two parties.

Du Chen knew that the cost of many Ming products was lower than that of Europe, and he also knew that some things of the Ming Dynasty could not be produced in Europe at all. Otherwise, there would not be so many merchant ships crossing the ocean to the Ming Dynasty, and the Governor of New Spain would not be forced to order a ban on Ming Dynasty fabrics.

But he really didn't expect that the firearms manufacturing, which he thought he could compete with the Ming Dynasty, would be crushed to such an extent. He was so ashamed that he wanted to find a crack to hide in.

This is ridiculous. I thought I could compete with the Ming Dynasty, but I didn't expect
Hey~~~~~, it is indeed the Celestial Empire that has been passed down for thousands of years. Thinking of this, Du Chen's eyes became complicated. Even though he was striding towards the direction of Mingming people, he couldn't help but feel mixed emotions when facing such a situation.

Zhu Cilang had anticipated the series of reactions from these Western officials.

Ultimately, what affects cost are nothing more than materials, labor and technology.

There is no need to say much about the labor costs. Tens of thousands of skilled craftsmen gathered in Yingtian. Even if Zhu Cilang did not treat them harshly, this scale could greatly reduce costs.

In terms of materials, the Ming Dynasty was rich in resources. Except for coal, which was of slightly lower quality due to its sulfur content, it had almost everything. Compared with Europe, which had to ship materials from overseas at all times, the cost was much lower.

The rest is technology.

To be honest, the Ming Dynasty's artisan household system was extremely unfair to artisans, but it also played a vital role in the inheritance of technology in an era when the industry had not yet flourished.

By this time, although Europe had shown a tendency to surpass the Ming Dynasty in many aspects, the Ming Dynasty was also proud of itself in some aspects.

Of course, Zhu Cilang’s role cannot be ignored.

Take the method of casting cannons for example. Although Europe also had a method of forging iron cannons, this method required too much experience and skills from the craftsmen, so bronze cannons were gradually eliminated in Europe until one or two hundred years later.

On the other hand, although there are records of casting copper cannons in the Ming Dynasty, due to the high cost, the country moved further and further away from forging iron cannons.

There is no need to explain the advantages and disadvantages of copper cannons and iron cannons. Generally speaking, copper cannons cast by casting are not prone to explosion and are genuine high-end products, while iron cannons made by forging are inferior products because quality control is extremely difficult.

It is obvious that if iron cannons can also be produced by casting, their low price and light size will definitely have an overwhelming advantage over copper cannons.

However, iron cannons are extremely difficult to cast. If the clay mold method is used, the production cycle will be extended to an unacceptable level due to the long drying time of the clay mold. If the iron mold method is used, the cannon body will become brittle.

Sand molds and lost wax molds are difficult to use for casting iron cannons for various reasons, so copper cannons have become the representative of high-end products.

At this point, Zhu Cilang's role becomes apparent.

Although the iron mold casting method was the lowest cost method, its fatal flaw was that it made the cannon body brittle. As a student who had received higher education, Zhu Cilang naturally knew that brittleness depended on the carbon content in the iron cannon, so he could easily imagine what would happen next.

After Zhu Cilang pointed out the direction forward, the craftsmen of Jiaziyuan exercised their subjective initiative under the generous rewards.

After countless attempts, they found that compared with the clay mold casting method, the iron mold casting method would cause the gun body to cool down too quickly, which would cause the gun body to become white iron.

Once we recognize the problem, the only thing left is to choose a solution from among the various technologies.

Finally, the craftsmen of Jiaziyuan preheated the iron mold in advance to slow down the cooling rate of the gun body, and the cast cannon naturally reached the reliability level of bronze cannon.

Of course, since the temperature still needs to be controlled manually, this casting method still has a certain defective rate.

However, compared with the high price of bronze cannons and the requirements of the forging method on craftsmen, this defective rate can be completely ignored. Zhu Cilang could also ask Philip IV to spend all the loan on Ming Dynasty without any hesitation.

"Li Qing has already explained the cost of firearms. I think it will be cheaper to ship them to Spain than to produce them locally."

After Zhu Cilang said this, he found that Du Chen seemed to be still in a daze, so he stopped, giving the other party time to digest his thoughts.

He had the same reaction when he learned that soybeans from America shipped to Shandong were much cheaper than those produced locally. Du Chen could empathize with him at this time.

After a moment, Du Chen finally came back to his senses, and Zhu Cilang's voice reached his ears.

"Then there are warships. The dozen or so galleons that Shen Aiqing has are not much different from Charles of England's Sea Monarch. You should know this," Zhu Cilang paused for a moment, and after Du Chen nodded repeatedly, he continued, "As far as I know, Charles spent more than 30,000 taels on that ship, about 7,000 to 8,000 taels more than Shen Aiqing. If Philip wants to form another fleet, my shipyard can help him."

At this point, Du Chen looked numb, Zhu Cilang looked confident, and Li Yongmao, who was standing next to them, felt a little embarrassed.

Although he did not know what the Sea King looked like, as a Ming Dynasty official who had close ties with Shen Tingyang's fleet, he was very familiar with the more than ten "gallens".

Although these warships were named "Gallen" by His Majesty, their hulls were all built earlier by Shen Tingyang.

Of course, these warships have undergone certain modifications in accordance with the direction proposed by Your Majesty, with improvements in both sailing speed and number of artillery.

However, the late emperor's fundamental purpose at that time was to transport military supplies to Liaodong by sea, so these warships were somewhat lacking in ocean-going capabilities.

But then again, these differences are all happening beneath the water and cannot be seen unless you get to the bottom of the warship.

Moreover, based on his understanding of His Majesty, if Philip IV really wanted to purchase warships from the Ming Dynasty, His Majesty would definitely not use such modified items to fool the other party.

The slight embarrassment that Li Yongmao felt because of Your Majesty's bragging disappeared in an instant.

Having said this, all of Du Chen's doubts were dispelled. After confirming his Majesty's conditions again, he set out on the journey back to Guangzhou overnight.

When he left, there were still a group of red-robed officials standing solemnly on both sides of the main hall of the Qianqing Palace, with no intention of leaving. He knew that they had important matters to discuss, so he did not think of waiting for a while to build relationships with the court officials.

After the Western minister of the Ming Dynasty left, Zhu Cilang pondered for a moment and finally brought the topic of tonight to the point.

"Well, the matter with the Spanish has finally come to an end. Let's talk about how to deal with the Jiannu."

(End of this chapter)