Not to mention before, even in the next few hundred years, silk tea and porcelain are also symbols of status and wealth, with incomprehensible lethality to Europeans, in the past, they bought all kinds of merchants to sell to the land of Europe, because no country and caravan established formal diplomatic relations with the Chinese government, naturally no Chinese will come to Europe to do business, and this time, for the first time.

Matteo Ricci, as Chen Longzheng's deputy and translator, also wore silk, a top hat, and a Chinese appearance stood up and announced to the people here - I am a missionary who came back from China, they are all Chinese, businessmen who came here from China to do business, they brought Chinese tea, silk and porcelain from China, and do business with everyone, these are real Chinese goods, Chinese goods sold by Chinese themselves, absolutely authentic! No bullying!

After Matteo Ricci made a relevant declaration, the enthusiasm of the Europeans was aroused, Chen Longzheng said that he didn't understand what Matteo Ricci was talking about, and those Europeans suddenly began to cheer, and then men, women, and children rushed up together, took out all kinds of coins that Chen Longzheng didn't know, and said something, anyway, Chen Longzheng knew that it was a coin made of gold and silver, which was different from the gold and silver of the Ming Dynasty.

The Ming Dynasty has only been a few decades of gold and silver as a circulating currency, and the market is basically dominated by copper coins, but I didn't expect that the Europeans have made gold and silver into coins for circulation, Chen Longzheng was very surprised by this, and asked Matteo Ricci very in surprise - are these foreigners richer and richer than the Ming Dynasty? That's not right! Da Ming is the richest, right? How could these people have more gold and silver than the Ming Dynasty?

Matteo Ricci explained that they were actually poor, but this was a thriving commercial area, and people who didn't have money couldn't mix here, and in fact most of Europe was poor, but Genana was richer.

How else could Matteo Ricci explain it? To say that this is a lot of wealth plundered by countries such as Spain and Portugal to colonize Africa and the Americas, and they have only a small part of it, and then you Chinese earn it in China with silk, tea and porcelain?

Xiao Ruxun laughed when she heard Matteo Ricci's complaint.

That's right, in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, most of the gold and silver obtained by the slave trade led by Spain and Portugal in the early days entered China through trade with China, and it was precisely because of the inflow of a large amount of gold and silver that China, which originally lacked the basis of the silver standard, got enough gold and silver as reserves, which prompted Zhang Juzheng to determine the monetary function of silver for the first time in a legal sense.

In the following decades, the monetary function of silver continued to consolidate, until the early and middle Qing Dynasty, because of the further inflow of silver and gold, silver finally became the same currency as copper coins, which could be circulated in the market, and China finally established the silver standard.

It can be said that without the gold and silver accumulated by the bloody slave trade of Europeans, there would be no great prosperity of gold and silver in China, there would be no silver tax payment in Zhang Juzheng's reform, and there would be no thunderous scenes in film and television dramas where a large number of Tang and Song Dynasty heroes took big ingots of silver to the street to buy wine, drink and buy beef to eat.

The wealth accumulated by the Spaniards and Portuguese over the centuries is all cheaper for China!

It's an interesting historical trivia.

It was only later that Chen Longzheng learned of these things, and they received an extremely warm welcome in Genoa, initially after the sensation at the port, followed by the sensation of the citizens and the arrival of the official Genoese troops.

The arrival of the army brought the frenzy of the people under control to a certain extent, at least the men, women and children with gold and silver coins asking them to buy porcelain did not happen, but then there were more strange things.

The Genoese army escorted them to a magnificent building, where Chen Longzheng met with the governors of Genoa, the governors and the bankers of Genoa, and according to Matteo Ricci's explanation, Chen Longzheng knew that the leader was the "consul for life" of Genoa, similar to the emperor of the Ming Dynasty, but obviously did not have the power and status of the Ming Emperor, because Genoa was a republic, not an empire.

Chen Longzheng couldn't quite understand this strange name, but he still realized that this yellow-haired guy was Genoa's bearer, the head snake here, the pride of the scholars did not allow him to kneel to anyone other than his parents, ancestors, heaven and emperor, and when he saw Matteo Ricci bowing deeply to show respect, he just led the accompanying clerks to arch his hand, which was counted as a meeting etiquette.

The Governor of Genoa was not unhappy in any way, and expressed his friendly greetings to Chen Longzheng through Matteo Ricci's mouth - Distinguished Chinese guests, you are very welcome here, and I hope you can spend a wonderful and unforgettable time here.

After that, a banquet was held.

If you don't agree with the banquet, Chen Longzheng can be regarded as seeing the customs of Europeans, that is, his mother's enthusiasm and unrestrainedness, not only men, but also women are quite enthusiastic and unrestrained, wearing strange skirts, painting strange makeup, and the male host showed up together, and talked to Chen Longzheng enthusiastically, Chen Longzheng and the accompanying clerks looked confused, at this time, Matteo Ricci explained to him the customs of Europeans, unlike Daming who did not let women show their heads.

Chen Longzheng expressed his understanding, but as a disciple of the saint, his nobility and pride did not allow him to communicate with other people's female dependents, and he couldn't even touch them, the female relatives greeted Chen Longzheng, and stretched out their hands to accept his kiss, Chen Longzheng hurriedly took a few steps back to show avoidance, and didn't even look at the other party's female relatives' faces, which made everyone stunned, and then Matteo Ricci hurriedly stepped forward to explain.

The customs of the Chinese are very strict, they are very serious and upright, in order to avoid unpleasant things, they never touch other men's female family members, except on special occasions, otherwise they must retreat to show respect for the master, otherwise they do not observe the etiquette, which is a very serious faux pass in China.

Only then did the Europeans present understand Chen Longzheng's approach, expressed their appreciation, and paid tribute to the seriousness and etiquette of the Chinese - no one knows what they think of the Chinese in their hearts.

In addition to feeling that these women do not abide by women's morals and these men do not abide by etiquette, Chen Longzheng also feels that their so-called food is very unpalatable, it seems that in order to reflect their nobility and elegance, they actually use gold and silver to make tableware, and mixed with some porcelain tableware from Daming, slowly nouveau riche style, there are no stir-fried vegetables and chopsticks, knives and forks, Chen Longzheng does not know how to use these things at all.

What is this bread? Oh, similar to Daming's steamed buns! The meat is obviously still served raw, not afraid of eating it and spoiling your stomach? Beef? You eat so much beef? What a luxury! What is that plate of rolls that looks like noodles? Is it noodles? How come I haven't seen it? What is this sauce? Bolognese? Oh! Jam, a sweet sauce made from fruits, this one sounds pretty good and should be edible...... What's the horse? Meat stained and eaten? You didn't lie to me, did you?

Chen Longzheng, a typical oriental scholar, was seriously shaken in his heart after experiencing the first cultural exchange and collision!