In September 1881, a large ship flying the Ottoman Turkish flag sailed out of the Strait of Gibraltar from the Mediterranean. High freeboard, wide hull, beautiful bow. The ship gracefully paddled the sea and continued north along the coastline of the Iberian Peninsula.

There are many ships along the coast of Europe, passenger ships, cruise ships, merchant ships, as long as they see the figure of this big ship, many people will run to the deck to see. The all-metal merchant ship nominally belonged to the Ottoman Shipping Company and had a capacity of 10,000 tons. The huge hull resembles a castle moving on the sea, and the reddish-brown paint on the lower part and the blue-gray paint on the upper part are particularly eye-catching. It would have been surprising if the merchant ship had a British flag, and the Ottoman flag on board.

Most of the sailors on merchant ships are Chinese, and it is very refreshing to look condescendingly from the side of the ship at the "short" ships of other countries. Many of the Chinese sailors are from the navy, and in addition to the daily surveys, it is also the job of these personnel to collect intelligence on European shipping routes, especially the naval intelligence of European countries.

Of course, it is impossible to blatantly put up a sign of intelligence work, and this ship is loaded with Sudanese alfalfa and the destination is the Netherlands, a large dairy country.

Sudanese alfalfa was originally planned to be shipped back to China, and this fine forage grass will play a huge role not only in China, but also in Europe. China began the second industrial revolution, and Europe is also undergoing the second industrial revolution. The rapid development of the industrial level has led to a rapid increase in the urban population, and the food supply has become quite tight.

Dutch dairy products are famous in Europe, and cheese and butter are delicious and easy to store, making them a favorite food in Europe and the United States. With the surge in exports to Europe and the United States, the number of dairy cows raised in the Netherlands has skyrocketed. Importing cheap alfalfa has become very profitable. For China, it's good to ship all the alfalfa back home, and it's good to sell some of it to Europe. The money earned from buying alfalfa in Europe can subsidize the cost of transporting alfalfa back home, which is a good deal.

It was really a journey of thousands of miles to read thousands of miles, and set off from the Red Sea to the North Atlantic, and the Chinese on board saw the figure of the new Italian warship. The Italians had a very spiritual design, and instead of stubbornly pursuing a piggyback turret structure, they adopted the hexagonal layout already used by the British.

The British Mediterranean Fleet is still the same old battleships of about 10,000 tons, but there are some changes on the deck. The mix of old and new, at least in the eyes of the Chinese, looks a bit unconventional.

There were also a number of French ships in this large bathtub in the Mediterranean, which, outwardly, looked more like Chinese warships, if not the turrets of the French. The kind of battery that completely missed the point was placed in the center position, and the French warships were really speechless.

After leaving the Mediterranean Sea and walking for another half day, the merchant ships finally got their wish to see the Spanish fleet. The Spanish Navy no longer uses the world-famous Spanish galleons, but ironclad ships. Sail with steam hybrid, wooden deck. While the Chinese staff worked hard to take pictures, they also found it very interesting. The European countries have an indescribable fascination with wooden decks, and China has no such demand at all.

When it comes to wooden decks, especially teak decks, Weeser is no stranger to them. As early as the early 60s, the name teak appeared in the urban greening of several southern provinces. When a state is committed to advancing science, it is far more efficient than any organization. The Chinese species collection department quickly obtained a large number of teak seeds, which were not only planted in southern cities and southern mountainous areas, but also introduced in large quantities to Lanfang, Java, Sumatra and other places.

Weeser only did this, but did not materially advance the wooden deck. Weeser did not think it was cost-effective to build merchant ships out of wood for ocean-going routes. There is a shortage of good wood in China, and it will take several more years for the wood to dry. Not to mention the time it takes for the wood to grow, thousands of tons of steel are made just by letting the large wood dry.

Fostering the steel industry is one of China's basic industrial policies, and thousands of tons of profiles processed by hydraulic presses are made into keels and ribs. A large number of steel and iron plates were riveted and installed with three-rise steam engines, and the merchant ships of several thousand tons and tens of thousands of tons could be put on the road for transportation after the commissioning was completed. Most of the materials used in merchant ships can be reused in furnaces, and there is basically no room for recycling the shells of wood-hulled ships. Compared with the two, the utilization rate of metal ships is higher.

The decks of Chinese ships were made of steel, and the steel decks were painted with anti-rust paint. Navy personnel have a very simple view that steel provides more effective protection than wood. At the same high temperatures, wood burns, but steel does not. Combining these characteristics, it is possible to use wood without wood on warships. For the kind of wooden decks of European ships, the Chinese naval personnel really can't understand it.

Bypassing the Iberian Peninsula, you arrive off the coast of France. It won't be long before the ship will be passing through the English Channel. In the past few days, all the personnel have cheered up, and the warships of the Royal Navy of the British Empire, the biggest rival of the Chinese Navy, may appear in the field of vision at any time. According to intelligence, the latest warship of the Royal Navy of the British Empire has been launched for sea trials and may now be part of the British Navy. The 14,000-ton battleships of the Chinese People's Navy have entered the sequence, and the basic conditions for war have begun to mature.

China has been willingly "blocked" by Britain for seven years, and the time has come for the two countries to compete with each other. Whether Britain is willing to keep peace with China will be known after this naval battle.

To the disappointment of observers, British warships were indeed present in the English Channel. All that appeared were small ships, and none of the real large warships were seen. When the merchant ship arrived in Rotterdam, the people of Rotterdam appeared in large numbers in the harbor to watch the giant merchant ship. Alfalfa merchants came to inspect the goods in high spirits, and they had been waiting for the alfalfa hay for a long time.

The Dutch agriculture was very good, the Dutch divided the land into three plots, one of which was planted every year for alfalfa and cattle, and at the same time for fertiliser, and in addition to summer wheat, short crops of oats, barley and spring wheat in spring and autumn. After the introduction of rotational tillage, the planting area was reduced, and the total grain production did not decrease. The supply of meat has increased significantly. The Dutch cheese industry developed and became one of the most famous products in Europe. Exports to Europe are getting bigger and bigger.

As more and more dairy and beef cattle were raised, rotational farming could not provide enough pasture. After learning that the Sultan had begun to export pasture, the Dutch businessman tried to contact him, and the two sides hit it off, and soon an agreement was reached on the supply and marketing. The average temperature in the coastal areas of the Netherlands is 16°C in summer and 3°C in winter. The average temperature in the interior is 17°C in summer and 2°C in winter. Alfalfa produces two crops a year, which is not comparable to the growth rate of alfalfa in Sudan, which is less than 10 seasons a year.

The landed price of forage in Sudan is 20% lower than the price of local and European alfalfa, and the price of Dutch cheese exports has also been reduced by as much as 10% in this era of neck-wrenching competition. The German cheese industry, which had tried to compete with the Netherlands, was once again defeated.

As soon as the grass arrived in Rotterdam, telegrams were sent from Rotterdam to Paris, London, Berlin, and Frankfurt. The Netherlands exports at least 100,000 tons of cheese to Europe a year, and the news of the arrival of pasture has caused some fluctuations in cheese-based financial products in the European financial industry. The basic reaction of the market is bullish.

In the VIP room of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, agricultural brokers from the United Kingdom, France, Germany, and the Netherlands are entertaining a distinguished guest. Wei Changrong's eldest daughter, Wei Wenrui, visited the Frankfurt Stock Exchange with her husband and son. From a European point of view, Wei Wenrui is the real princess. Her Royal Highness wore a beautiful dark blue high-thread cotton dress, a dark blue wool coat on the outside, a dark blue octagonal hat on her head, and a pair of black mid-heeled boots on her feet. Like China's Type 65 military uniform, this kind of clothing is also known as the "Chinese worker style" in Europe, and its appearance borrows many elements of Chinese factory uniforms, and is full of popular elements.

The Chinese princess's style of dress seemed odd to Europeans, and this androgynous style gave the financiers an indescribable taste, and a woman in such a costume who negotiated business with men made them feel faintly offended. But they wouldn't dare say such things to a princess, especially if this was a Chinese princess.

"What do you think of my suggestion, gentlemen?" Wei Wenrui has finished speaking at this time, and he will hand over the rest of the time to these financial industry professionals.

"Will cheese futures trading be volatile?" The Frankfurt Stock Exchange is the host, so their first instinct is to question it.

"We don't have a volatile supply of Dutch cheese." The vice president of the Dutch Cheese Association was quick to defend his country's flagship exports.

The French are indispensable, and they are here to see if there are any opportunities to lend. After receiving the contact between the Netherlands and China, the French financiers did not particularly want to get involved in the cheese business. The invitation makes it clear that this is about futures trading.

The Dutch cheese has a large production and high quality, and the accumulation of hundreds of years of tempering has given Dutch cheese a more recognized grade classification and quality assurance in Europe. If you want to expand the total volume of Dutch cheese exports, you have to invest in the Dutch cheese industry. France prefers the business of loan sharks, and the trading of cheese futures is not a business of usury, but an estimated export of Dutch cheese production.

Britain, France and Germany are the largest importers of Dutch cheese, for example, Dutch cheese is expected to be exported to these three countries in 1882 with 100,000 tons of cheese. In order to produce these 100,000 tons of cheese, a certain amount of money needs to be invested. Then in the futures market, according to the cost of producing this 100,000 tons of cheese, some merchants will buy futures shares in advance. Pay the money to the production enterprise. When the time comes, the cheeses are delivered in good quality and quantity, and the producer completes the commercial contract. Based on the delivery of this cheese futures, the sales expectation contract that has been in place for a long time can be carried out normally.

The purpose of futures is to allow producers who lack funds to obtain production working capital in advance and continue production normally. Those investors can also have a prediction and understanding of the production and supply of the entire market in advance, and with the improvement of market transparency, the problem of sharp rises and falls of agricultural products can be solved to a certain extent. The more definite the future supply, the more stable the price will be in the future.

In the first round of speeches, it was the turn of the British financial representative, who asked only one question with a straight face, "If there is a war between China and Britain, then how can we guarantee that Sudanese forage will still be supplied to the Netherlands in a stable manner?" ”

As soon as this question came out, all eyes fell on Wei Wenrui's face, and everyone wanted to know the opinion of this Chinese princess.