The Venetians have been blockading the Dardanelles for a long time. From spring to summer, from summer to autumn, although they could not block the Ottoman Empire's sea lines of communication at all times, the Venetian navy still left the Ottomans at a loss, and most of the transportation between the White Sea (Aegean) and the Black Sea had been rerouted by land.

The Ottomans were not without counterattacks, but the sparse elite warships (purchased from the east coast) were lost in the face of the huge Venetian fleet, and the all-sail-powered fast cruisers were not as agile as the galleys in the Mediterranean, so the losses were considerable, and two of the three fast cruisers were sunk and one was seriously injured and fled back to Burgas. As the main force of the Ottoman Navy, the battleship "Bayezid" made great efforts and sank and damaged many Venetian galleys, but it was also seriously injured and fled all the way back to the Black Sea, hiding under the protection of shore artillery to lick its wounds.

At this point, the Ottoman Empire's maritime power had basically conceded that the tens of thousands of Ottoman troops who were attacking the city of Candia on the island of Crete were suddenly in a difficult situation, and they could only survive on the precious supplies brought in by sporadic transport ships that sneaked in at night, and struggled to maintain their military presence on the island.

As for the pirates in North Africa who were attached to the Ottoman Empire, at the moment when the Ottomans needed them most, they all disappeared one by one, hiding in their own territory and becoming the emperor of the soil, unwilling to go to sea to fight the Venetians. There are two reasons for this: one is that you can't really beat it, and the other is that even if you are lucky enough to beat yourself, you will lose a lot of money and it is not worth it.

In fact, there are quite a few people who think this way. For example, at this time, the local Ottoman governors, legion chiefs, and religious leaders disobeyed the Agas of the Ghanishari legion, who had seized the central power and used Muhammad Sultan as a puppet. And there have been a number of small-scale armed conflicts. Local money and goods are not handed over to Istanbul or handed over at a discount. But the task of keeping the country running and fighting the Venetians fell on the central finances. This led to a sharp deterioration in the Ottoman government's financial situation, which had reached a point where it was quite severe.

In recent months, the Aga army, which was in actual control of the Ottoman powers, had been overworked, minting a large number of low-quality coins to pay salaries and maintain the government's operating expenses, while also collecting taxes in the districts two years ahead of schedule, which often caused even more serious problems: inflation and social unrest. To add insult to injury, due to natural disasters and the blockade of the Venetians, the Ottoman grain production was reduced and its circulation was much worse. Famine began to spread among the large cities, which further weakened the prestige of the ruling Aghas.

As a last resort, Kara. Murad was forced to resign, serving as a scapegoat for the Ottoman domestic and foreign dilemma. And after the departure of Murad Agha, the army did not give up power. Myrick. Ahmed came to power as the Grand Vizi, but he was a weak man with little prestige or talent, and was actually a puppet of the army, a marionette in front of the stage.

In the chaotic state of affairs in the Ottoman Empire, it can be a real challenge to do business well – it's mainly your local sales channels and the strength of your allies. Doing business in Europe in this era. It was never just an economic issue, except that the Dutch were free trade. Other countries are big believers in mercantilism. In an era when a food-poor country had to apply for special permission to allow the outflow of silver when importing grain, any idea that I would be able to sell a cheap and good commodity would be ridiculous and unrealistic, and would eventually be shattered by reality.

In this era when handicrafts occupied the mainstream form of industry, almost every industry had a traditional guild, which controlled the sales from raw materials to the end market, and every profit in this industry had already been distributed: nobles, merchants, clergy, officials, guild leaders, craftsmen, etc., each had his own share, and each of them looked closely at his share. And if you enter this market strongly, in fact, what you are competing for is just the cake of these vested interests, and if they don't fight back at this time, isn't it a dead man?

What's more, it's not the era of free trade, it's the 17th century when mercantilism was popular, and they have a way to compete with you. When your so-called cheap and high-quality goods don't even have a chance to hit the shelves, what can you do but sneak around and take big risks to smuggle?

In other words, at this time, if you have a strong political backer, some local aristocratic support, and a businessman with rich sales channels, then doing business will not be so difficult. This was what the people on the east coast did in Bordeaux, relying on the Baron de Toulouse and his relatives in Paris, the Loris family's dual influence in the church and the locality, and the Pasquier, a merchant family that had been operating in the Aquitaine region for hundreds of years, to defeat one of the vested interests, the Jewish merchant Ludwig, and dominate the cotton cloth market in some provinces and regions of south-central France.

And due to the limited influence of the Baron of Toulouse, and the influence of vested interests is too large, the influence of the people on the east coast can only be limited to these provinces and regions, and it is extremely difficult to go further, unless you spend decades focusing on business in France, otherwise the current scale will be at its peak, and no more will be covered.

To put it mildly, these powerful men are the judges who determine the prospects of the East Coast goods in the French market, and they also make huge sales profits in them. If it weren't for the fact that the people on the East Coast concealed their actual production costs, perhaps they didn't make as much money per cotton cloth as these French compradors, and the world is often so frustrating. It's not that the East Coast can't leave these people aside and find another way, but this takes time and chance, and you have the hat of a yellow-skinned pagan country on your head, and to be honest, you can't do it without spending decades on it.

Compared to the arrogant French, the East Coasters were much better off in the Ottoman Empire. Taking advantage of the sale of warships (at the risk of offending the Christian state) and a large number of army weapons, coupled with Mo San's willingness to spend a lot of money, the East Coasters have set up several forces in the Ottomans, and their ranks are quite high.

For example, the local forces represented by the political tumbler Nasukh Pasha - his supporters are the Pasha of Syria, the Pasha of Egypt and the Pasha of the Navy; For example, the head of the Garni Shari Legion, Kara, who became acquainted through the sale of war materials. Murad, Bektash; In addition, he also had a good meeting with the local officials of the Sipahi Army and the Rumili region (who bought female slaves), and in general he was still very strong in politics.

This is true in politics, and it is also very different in business. The Hornisian family from Armenia has been doing business with Genoa and Venice since the time of Suleiman the Magnificent, and has accumulated a rich family background and extremely rich connections for more than 100 years, and is very popular in Anatolia and Rumilia. It was absolutely invincible for them to represent goods on the East Coast, and this was the reason why the Ottoman Empire surpassed France to become the largest trading partner on the East Coast.

The Ottoman Empire changed hands three times during these years, and the power of the court, the army, and the local aristocracy turned against each other, which caused great political chaos and left most of the foreign merchants doing business in the country at a loss. Fortunately, the local aristocracy with which the East Bank has good relations is currently in good shape, and the Governor of Syria, the Governor of Egypt and others are still alive and well. Zade. Hussein was even more happy in the Black Sea, selling goods from the East Coast to Syria, Egypt and Rumili, and selling slaves from Crimea to the East Coast.

Although the military has been in a deteriorating situation in the past year, they have the handle of the knife and cannot be ignored by any force, so they can still barely maintain it. The economic dealings between the people on the East Coast and them were mostly limited to the arms trade, and the timely payment of the Ghanishari Regiment became almost a stable cash cow in the European trading system presided over by Mo San, much better than the infrastructure projects that were in arrears and delayed (the Edirne-Plovdiv road, the expansion and reconstruction of several ports).

Thus, although the Ottoman Empire was in an extremely difficult situation during this difficult autumn due to financial difficulties, inflation, poor harvests, and lost war (the strait was blocked), and many foreign merchants began to evacuate this extremely precarious market, the people of the east coast still lived quite well. The Ottomans ordered not only large quantities of wheat to the east coast, but also a large amount of military supplies (a supply fleet full of military supplies was routed by the Venetians at the White Sea last month), all of which were paid for by female slaves — they would ask the Crimeans for the steppe robbers who had plundered more than 200,000 male and female slaves in Ukraine.

The finalization of these two large transactions made Mo San, who was unable to buy enough female slaves due to financial difficulties caused by the collapse of the French market, suddenly became happy. Who said the Ottomans were poor? They just don't have enough precious metals, but the people on the east coast don't need gold and silver that they can't eat or wear, they want slave girls, good horses, camels, graphite, mercury, lead, tin, copper, and all kinds of materials, and the Ottomans have these and have abundant resources, so there is no problem! (To be continued......)