In the 2000 years after the Common Era, most of the time, China's development is far more than the rest of the world, accounting for more than 80% of the world's output value for a long time, even in the Qing Dynasty period, the premise that the whole science and technology has been backward, is still the world's GDP first, all kinds of Chinese products, marketed in the world. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

From the Tang Dynasty onwards, a large number of maritime merchants came, throughout the Han and Tang dynasties, to the Song Dynasty, and then to the Ming and Qing dynasties, Chinese goods attracted maritime merchants from all over the world, and of course, before Europe opened new routes to the Far East, mainly from Central Asia, India and Southeast Asia.

In the whole history of China, maritime merchants are a rather magical existence, and they have always been a business full of wealth.

The huge profits of maritime merchants have also pushed countless people to devote themselves to the field of maritime merchants, and maritime merchants are mostly associated with jewelry, gold, and valuables.

When the shipping industry was not very developed and most maritime merchants only had one ship, if the ships were relatively small, the sea goods used for trade were all expensive things, because expensive things could be doubled in price, and it was ten times more than a hundred times.

Expensive things, can create the highest profits, more than double the income, is not enough to support maritime business, from thousands of miles away, come to China, at least dozens of times the profit, the profit ratio is only one aspect, and there is the total value.

A ship of ordinary raw materials, even if it exceeds 50 times the price, the original cost of a ship is only 10 times, 50 times is only 500 times, the absolute value is not high, it is not enough to support huge interests, but high-value things, the original price is 10,000 yuan, doubling can earn 10,000 yuan, which can be higher than the previous high profits.

Since the Han and Tang dynasties, China has been popular products, silk, tea, porcelain, these things can create tenfold, hundredfold profits, the weight of a single thing is very small, and the overall value is also quite high, this is the mainstream of shipping.

Why can Chinese silk and porcelain be sold at a high price in Europe, because its artistic value is really very high, and Europeans cannot imitate and reproduce it, but on the other hand, rare things are expensive.

The saying that scarcity is expensive is really a wise saying, there are fewer things, and the relationship between supply and demand is high, which is the fundamental reason for the high price of this thing.

At a time when Europe did not open a shipping route to the Far East, Chinese goods, which were absolutely rare, were not all expensive.

Chinese goods can only go through two routes, one is the maritime Silk Road, through China, through the Strait of Malacca in Southeast Asia, into the Indian Ocean, and finally to the Arab countries, and then through the Arab land channel, gradually transported to Europe.

This maritime Silk Road, on behalf of one of China's foreign exchange channels, is also the beginning of China's influence to Central Asia and even Europe radiation, in the 21st century, there are constantly shipwrecks on this channel, was salvaged up, in fact, in the Song Dynasty, has consciously carried out some attempts to export products.

For example, porcelain with Jesus and the Bible, and for example, obviously Western-style silk, these should never appear in China, and will not appear, obviously export orders.

The real large-scale popularity was in the Age of Navigation, especially after Europe discovered the road to India, in the Song Dynasty, Europe was still in a relatively ignorant medieval era, chaos restricted the circulation of commerce, Europe's relatively poor shipping, also made bulk goods unable to circulate, most of the goods shipped to the Arab region of Central Asia, or were digested locally, or dissipated.

Maritime transportation is one of the largest and most influential routes, but in fact, China has a more magnificent Silk Road on land.

The overland Silk Road refers to the land passage opened by Zhang Qian's envoy to the Western Regions during the Western Han Dynasty (202 BC - 8 AD), starting from Chang'an (now Xi'an), passing through Gansu and Xinjiang, to Central Asia and West Asia, and connecting the countries of the Mediterranean.

But in fact, more and more archaeological evidence shows that as early as 202 BC, and even earlier in the Shang and Zhou dynasties, and even in ancient times, Chinese goods had flowed into the steppes and even into Europe.

Eurasia is a whole continent, on this continent, in the middle is the vast grassland, the mobility of the grassland, and the emergence of horse gangs, so that the goods began to flow simply, perhaps there is no way to be like the Silk Road of the Western Han Dynasty, in a short period of time to transport Chinese goods, mainly silk, to Europe, but over time, under the change of years, slowly, there are exchanges.

After all, even if there is a Silk Road, Europe or Central Asia, there is no demand for silk, how can there be trade, it is the first hundreds, thousands of years, slowly cultivated this market, which promoted the large-scale flow of goods.

Whether it is at sea, or on the road, any road, is tens of thousands of miles away, the vast journey, so that a large number of goods, or lost, or damaged, these traditional Chinese goods silk, porcelain, or tea, are not easy to preserve, easy to damage due to various accidents.

The scarcity of quantity is one aspect, after layers of losses, transported to Europe, there is no one in ten thousand, which is also the basis of the high cost of Chinese goods.

In fact, when the east-west route was opened, the transportation volume and safety were expanded, the price of Chinese goods showed a downward trend, the most obvious is silk, from a luxury that can only be circulated among the nobility and the royal family, can be exchanged for the price of gold ten times the same weight, quickly lost to ordinary luxury, even the smallest stockings, ordinary people can afford to buy.

Under the premise of such a large-scale supply, the total amount is constantly rising, in the Ming and Qing dynasties, and even before the modern 1840, the profitability of Chinese products is terrifyingly amazing, even Britain, which has begun to industrialize, can not bear it, and has to use opium as a bargaining chip, otherwise, it will not be able to break China's surplus.

Silk, tea, porcelain, these things are supplied in large quantities, the price of these things will be greatly reduced, and even if China keeps up with the world pattern at that time, after the industrialization of these things, it will inevitably be unsalable because of oversupply.

At this time, except for the Northern Song Dynasty, most of the other countries were in an uncivilized state, and the purchasing power of these countries was very low, you know, in the middle of the 18th century, after the Age of Navigation, as well as the plundering of Africa and the Americas, Europe was already quite rich, which could support the growth of Chinese products.

With the card of God Speed, it is even said that even if there is no God Speed card, Zhao Xin will choose the opportunity to enter the ocean, whether it is the amazing benefits of maritime trade, or the acquisition of high-yield crops such as South America, maritime trade is a must-win, and he has to consider one thing in the middle.

Products shipped out of China, that's no problem, don't worry about sales, after all, China's influence is huge, but maritime trade, you can't just go out and not enter.

As the number of ships increases, there must be enough sales and enough profits, and some lower grades of things begin to appear, and then there are just needs and necessities.

It really let him go to the ocean, Zhao Xin is not disgusted with the ocean, and even for the Song Dynasty, under the premise of being surrounded by foreign enemies, going to the ocean is the only way out, after losing the entire north, he can only retreat to the Southern Song Dynasty south of the Yangtze River, so he has a similar income as the Northern Song Dynasty, it is because of the relationship between the ocean, and now, the Northern Song Dynasty has the appearance of Zhao Xin, he has this foundation, and he can appear in the Age of Navigation in advance.

Zhao Xin's understanding, whether it is Fan Zhongyan's restructuring or Wang Anshi's, their reform is more internal, mainly restricting a part, or taking money from the pockets of some people, this method can smooth the class differences, but it is a little too taken for granted.

Cutting off people's financial roads is equivalent to making money and killing people, let alone paying money directly, this time it caused huge turmoil and backlash, Fan Zhongyan's reform, because of Renzong's keenness, ended quickly, did not shake the national capital of the Northern Song Dynasty, Wang Anshi's restructuring was about to die, Shenzong's income was increased at that time, but it cut off the incense of the Northern Song Dynasty.

Since then, the Northern Song Dynasty has fallen into the endless party and government, and opposition for the sake of opposition has also appeared, and the strong Northern Song Dynasty forbidden army has actually become a juggling and trick, only face, which is also the basis of Jingkang's shame, how many people are there in the Jin State, defeated the Liao State, and how to compare with the Northern Song Dynasty, as long as the Northern Song Dynasty's forbidden army still has combat effectiveness, even if it is a layer of defense, it is enough to resist the Jin army, and countless cities are enough to offset his power.

Navigation is a real external gain, and every profit obtained from the outside can increase the basic plate of the Northern Song Dynasty, and on top of these basic plates, the most important thing in Zhao Xin's feeling is copper, and the second is grain.

Copper represents money, China has always been short of copper, but since the beginning of the dynasty, copper money has become the most basic currency, under the premise that copper money has not flowed out, barely enough, but in the Northern Song Dynasty, the copper money of the Northern Song Dynasty is quite strong, the economic circle of Asia, North Korea is not to say, Japan, Vietnam, Dali, and even in Liao and Western Xia, copper money is an important base currency.

In the era of credit currency paper money, it is a good thing to use money to control the periphery, but for the Northern Song Dynasty, this is a precious metal currency, and copper itself has a certain value, which does not reflect this control, but makes the Northern Song Dynasty cause a money shortage.

China's copper production is insufficient, the whole world, the output of copper is quite a lot, Southeast Asia, the Americas, and even Japan, there is copper, as long as these places are controlled, copper continues to come in, the Northern Song Dynasty money shortage can be solved, under the smooth transition, it will produce quite a different effect.

In addition to copper, another focus is grain, which is an aspect that maritime merchants ignore, but Zhao Xin must pay attention to.