Ming Jiajing: Starting from Immortality

Chapter 294: Strait threat, navy’s empty pay!
In the Temple of Virtuous and Good People.

There was a heated exchange of views within the Portuguese mission.

As ambassador of the mission, Alfonso de Albuquerque had no objection to the equal and civilized trade exchanges of the Ming Dynasty.

"The Ming court has shown full sincerity and goodwill towards our country. I think we can agree to it." Alfonso Jr. looked at the deputy envoy Pedro Alvarez Cabral, the real decision maker in the delegation.

"I'm sorry, Duke Alfonso, but our country cannot accept such trade. The Ming court rejected opium and Kunlun slaves. If we start trade between countries, we will have to buy precious oriental things such as tea, porcelain, silk and other treasures with gold, silver, gems and other treasures. However, our output, textiles, shoes, wine and other things, are not very attractive to the Ming court. Our country and its colonies will become a transit point for the Ming court to dump goods. This is a completely unequal trade, which we absolutely cannot accept." Pedro shook his head.

Again.

Portugal is just a small country with very little local output, and it is impossible to engage in equal trade with a big country.

Once the Ming Dynasty court's trade idea was agreed, the whole of Portugal became a "merchant", importing goods from the Ming Dynasty and then selling the goods to the colonies and the world.

The money Portugal earned was just the difference between buying and selling. Not only did it not make money from the Ming Dynasty, but it made money for the Ming Dynasty instead.

From the very beginning, the Portuguese royal family and the Governor-General's Office in India were serious about the six requests for trade made to the Ming Dynasty.

If Portugal and the Ming Dynasty started bilateral trade, the Ming Dynasty would have to open ports, allow leasing, free trade, and reduce tariffs. In this way, Portugal could use means to dump opium, Kunlun slaves and other profitable goods into the Ming Dynasty, and use the money earned from the Ming Dynasty to buy tea, silk, porcelain and other items from the Ming Dynasty, and then ship them back to Portugal.

In the two triangular trades, or the entire five-corner trade, the Portuguese royal family and the Governor-General's Office in India had only one idea, that is, the center of the world was Portugal.

Portugal could not accept becoming a tool for the Ming Dynasty to make money.

"Pedro, we can be less stingy. The center of the world cannot be Portugal." Alfonso Jr. said seriously.

Thanks to his father, the former Governor of India, who was known as the "Caesar of the East", Alfonso Jr. was well aware of how much wealth Portugal had earned from its colonies and from controlling the pricing of oriental goods in the past half century.

Alfonso the Elder once made an analogy to Alfonso the Younger that in this world, no country is richer than the East, and in the West, no country is richer than Portugal.

Don’t forget that Spain also conducted triangular trade between Europe, America and the Americas.

The Spanish Invincible Armada went to Africa with muskets, gunpowder, textiles and other items, hunted Kunlun slaves, and then took them to America to cultivate plantations. The sugar, cotton, tobacco, gold and silver produced by the plantations were then shipped back to Spain.

But Spain's triangular trade is nothing compared to Portugal's pentagonal trade. At the beginning, Portugal used the Wangxia Peninsula as a springboard to privately sell opium to the Jiangnan scholars of the Ming Dynasty, and the gold and silver earned were simply incalculable. Now, the opium business has been abandoned and banned by the Ming Dynasty court, but Portugal is absolutely unable to give up this huge profit. At the same time, it wants to sell the equally profitable Kunlun slaves to the Ming Dynasty.

In short, Portugal's wealth is the richest in the ancient European continent. If it is per capita, Portugal's per capita wealth is more than the total per capita wealth of all countries in the entire European continent.

With countless wealth and too small a population, in the eyes of old Alfonso, the era of Portugal, and even the era of hostile Spain, will one day fall.

By then, wealth might become a disaster. Old Alfonso told young Alfonso that only the gold and silver coins that are spent are yours, while those that are not spent are just cold "stones".

Now, the Portuguese royal family, nobility, and church had so much wealth in their hands. In Alfonso's view, they could establish normal trade with the Ming Dynasty with real gold and silver.

Even if Portugal becomes a tool for the Ming Dynasty to make money, it will not affect the status of the royal family and the Governor's Office in the world.

Don't be as stingy as the legendary dragon.

Hearing this, Pedro's face suddenly darkened and he said, "Dear Duke Alfonso, I need to remind you not to try to interfere with or influence the will of the royal family or the Governor's Office. The Almighty has favored you and your family once, but you cannot expect God to favor you every time."

Among the Portuguese nobility.

The Afonso family, including Afonso the Elder and Afonso the Younger, were deeply concerned about the future of Portugal and believed that Portugal should be ruled by other countries.

Such unorthodox ideas are not mainstream among the Portuguese nobility, but they are also a significant school.

This was one of the charges against old Alfonso when he was dismissed as Governor of India and recalled to his homeland.

If the late king had not cared about the old friendship when he was a servant, the title of duke and the bounty for pioneers and conquerors of the Alfonso family would never have been passed down.

In recent years, Sebastian I's congenital physical defects have caused the Alfonso family's claims to be mentioned again, and the impact is even greater than in the past.

Many nobles believed that it might be a good thing for another country to rule Portugal.

The Portuguese royal family was very angry about this and repeatedly reiterated "Portugal supremacy" both at home and in the colonies. Sheffield, the governor of the Governor-General's Office in India, and Pedro were both staunch supporters of the royal family. Faced with the Duke Alfonso's weak will during the negotiations between the two countries, Pedro was filled with anger.

Pedro believed that Duke Alfonso had betrayed Portugal. When he returned to India to meet the governor, he would impeach Alfonso the Younger to the royal family and the Senate.

"Pedro, please don't forget that in the four naval battles between our country and the Ming Dynasty, our army was completely defeated. Our country has no qualifications to make unequal trade demands to the Ming Dynasty. If you think we have the qualifications, I would like to give you the position of ambassador and let you insist on those unequal trade demands to the Ming court." Alfonso Jr. did not give in.

It is an unrealistic fantasy for a defeated country to ask the victorious country to sign an unequal treaty.

Especially without the participation of other countries, Portugal would not be able to use its power to suppress the Ming Dynasty court.

If they persist, they will inevitably anger the Ming Dynasty court. At the very least, the Portuguese delegation will be expelled from the Ming Dynasty. At worst, the Portuguese delegation will die here and the two countries will declare war.

"Duke Alfonso, what belongs to you is yours, and you cannot give it up. I need to remind you again that the Strait of Malacca is in our hands. As long as we are willing, the Ming Dynasty cannot sail to the West. And this is the qualification for our country to make trade demands!" Pedro said with his eyes slightly lowered.

A duke is a duke after all. He has no title and no equivalent title can be offended. It's okay to contradict the will of the royal family and the governor's office, but transferring the ambassador is a joke.

The Strait of Malacca is in the hands of Portugal, and the fleet in the port of India is Portugal's reliance.

Pedro believed that as long as the Ming Dynasty wanted to communicate with the world, when sailing westward, whether it was through the safe Strait of Malacca or the dangerous Lombok Strait or Sunda Strait, it could not bypass the Portuguese sphere of influence or pursuit.

Unless, the Ming Dynasty sailed eastward, crossed the vast Pacific Ocean, reached America, and then went to Europe from America.

Pedro knew that the world was a circle, but he didn't believe that the Ming Dynasty court would make such a choice.

The Portuguese royal family and the Governor-General's Office in India had already decided that if the Ming Dynasty court refused to sign an unequal trade treaty, they would completely blockade the Ming Dynasty.

Since the Ming court had already taken the move of closing the country to the outside world two hundred years ago, let it become a reality.

The Portuguese royal family and the Governor-General's Office in India called such measures "sanctions"!
"Oh, crazy! Really crazy! Sheffield is a lunatic! The royal family is also filled with stupid lunatics!" Alfonso said in disbelief. Portugal not only earned countless wealth from controlling the Eastern route, but also maintained the dignity of the royal family, the nobility, and the church.

Portugal is now in the hands of a group of lunatics who, instead of considering peaceful exchanges, have the radical idea of ​​"destroy it if they can't get it."

This was obviously against the will of Portugal's original explorers, and Alfonso the Younger believed that this was the path to Portugal's destruction.

Pedro did not even frown at the insults. He looked at little Alfonso and said solemnly, "Please Duke Alfonso fulfill your duties. A high position has great responsibilities. Please explain our country's position and ideas to the Prime Minister of the Ming court."

Those who hold high positions have heavy responsibilities.

This has been the idealized expectation of the nobility in Europe since the Middle Ages, and is the self-image of all nobility.

However, when the nobles obtained the wealth, land, power and status that matched their status, these words became a joke.

But in public, the nobles were indeed bound by this sentence. The Portuguese royal family gave Alfonso's family titles, wealth, and land. Although they had no power, as an ambassador of Portugal, whether Alfonso was willing or not, he had to explain Portugal's attitude to Gao Gong.

So, when Alfonso the Younger spoke, he apologized one word after another, and his words sounded arrogant and humble. Gao Gong, Liu Wenzhen and others just found it ridiculous.

Even though there was a language barrier, the problems of the Portuguese delegation were visible. Gao Gong believed that the two sides had fully exchanged their views and enhanced their understanding of each other, but the result was full of regrets.

After Gao Gong said "let's wait and see", he announced the end of the negotiations and asked officials from the Ministry of Rites to "invite" the Portuguese delegation to return to the Siyi Pavilion.

After the Portuguese delegation left.

A translator who was fluent in Portuguese came out of the dark room next door, and there was a record written in Chinese about the debate between the chief and deputy ambassador of the Portuguese delegation, Alfonso Jr. and Pedro.

Gao Gong, Liu Wenzhen, and officials from the Ministry of Rites all felt very comfortable with this. They had all come to the Ming Dynasty to negotiate, and the court naturally had to take some "necessary measures."

Surveillance and wiretapping is one of the means.

Gao Gong, the chief minister of the cabinet, quickly extracted several key points from the wiretapped documents.

First of all, Alfonso the Younger, the ambassador of the Portuguese mission, was a "pro-Ming" Portuguese, or a neutral person who did not reject the Ming Dynasty.

Secondly, Portugal was determined to sell opium and Kunlun slaves to the Ming Dynasty.

Again, the wealth owned by the Portuguese royal family, nobility, and church ranks first in Europe.

Again, Portugal was very determined about its demand for trade and was willing to suffer mutual losses with the Ming Dynasty.

Finally, there were major divisions within the Portuguese royal family, the nobility, and the Church, especially within the nobility.

Combined with the briefings that the Embroidered Uniform Guards had presented to the cabinet, Gao Gong deduced that there were many conflicts in Portugal thousands of miles away.

Because of the second key point, Gao Gong could be sure that the time for normal trade between the Ming Dynasty and Portugal was far from coming.

The imperial court would never allow opium and Kunlun slaves to flow into the two capitals and fourteen provinces.

The emperor's plan for a Western version of trade was thus wasted.

……

Ok Hee Palace.

Zhu Houcong was a little surprised that the plan failed to come true. This kind of mutually beneficial and fair trade should have been unimpeded as expected.

But after reading the eavesdropping documents of the Portuguese delegation, Zhu Houcong fell silent.

It is not so much that Portugal wanted to dominate the Pentagonal trade, but rather that it wanted to maintain its hegemony in the eastern part of the world.

Based on the debate between Alfonso Junior and Pedro, it is not difficult to see that the idea of ​​hegemony occupies the mainstream of the Portuguese royal family and aristocracy, but more and more Portuguese aristocrats are thinking that their vital interests should not be harmed for the sake of hegemony.

The word "Ba" in hegemony means exclusivity. Portugal does not want to become a "commercial country" of the Ming Dynasty.

It was also very simple to break Portugal's illusory hegemony. Zhu Houcong smiled, shook his head, looked at Gao Gong and asked, "How is the progress of the treasure ship fleet?"

"In reply to Your Majesty, the construction of the first treasure ship has just been half completed, and the construction of grain ships, warships and other servant ships has just started." Gao Gong replied.

More than a month has passed since the map of the treasure ship of Zheng He, the eunuch, was obtained from the Chen family of Minister Chen Yiqin. Minister of Works Zhu Heng went to Tianjin in person to supervise the construction. The progress is faster than expected, but it is still too early for the expedition to be launched.

Zhu Houcong nodded and continued to ask: "How many warships and soldiers are there on the southeast coast?"

After Hu Zongxian wiped out the Japanese pirates, the Southeast Navy only took action during the Huizhou merchants' rebellion, but there was basically no movement at other times.

"Your Majesty, there are about 2,000 warships in the southeastern provinces, more than 10,000 horse boats, passenger boats, and grain ships, and more than 450,000 registered naval soldiers." Gao Gong thought for a moment and replied.

Once the eleven treasure ship fleets are successfully built, all these warships will be eliminated, and the same goes for horse boats, passenger boats, and grain ships. Some coastal provinces even requested to sell their horse boats, passenger boats, grain ships, etc. and convert them into civilian ships, but the cabinet reprimanded and rejected their request.

"More than 450,000 registered soldiers?"

Zhu Houcong looked at Gao Gong, his face slightly cold, and asked, "What's the reality?"

"Between 360,000 and 390,000." Gao Gong lowered his head slightly.

Eat money.

It will always be there!
Any time, any country, any army!

(End of this chapter)