In other words, the large-scale expedition organized by Ferdinand this time is completely different from the previous expeditions.

It is not that the countries of Western Europe are not able to organize such a large fleet to sail. In addition to the two major factors of safety and cost, the reason why such an incident has not happened in history is that it is not necessary......

After all, if the goal is to explore new lands, three ships or even one ship is really enough.

Even if some great feats are to be accomplished, a dozen ships are sufficient, such as Magellan's circumnavigation of the world.

Even Portugal backstabbed the navies of pacifist countries in the Indian Ocean, and in the event of a naval battle, 110 ships would not have been put on display - so many warships were sent to the Indian Ocean in waves? Portugal doesn't have that capacity.

Even the treasure fleet sails several times a year, and the scale of a single voyage has not reached such a huge scale. Even if there is a large fleet of ships and a large number of ships, because their main purpose is to transport wealth and precious goods, there is no need for so much.

As for spontaneous immigration...... What hell would it be if the emigrants could organize such a large fleet of ships on their own, and His Majesty would definitely not be able to eat or sleep, 110 ships, 10,000 people, of which armed ships and armed men accounted for a considerable proportion? Such a fleet would send a large percentage of heretical immigrants into the depths of the Atlantic?

As for state-organized immigration...... From 1534 to 1755, the population of France's vast colonies in North America was only 20,000 - that is, as soon as Ferdinand sent his personnel to the Americas in 1496, Spain's population in the colonies surpassed that of France.

The British and Spaniards did better than the French, but they were not as good as the Germans, and spontaneous immigrants were the majority.

During the attack on the Aztec Empire, the Spaniards had raised an army of 45,000 men, but most of them were indigenous peoples, who were fooled by the unkind Cortés into cannon fodder.

It was only during the military conquest and colonization of large-scale colonial wars that such large-scale projections of people would be carried out, such as the British military projection to the Americas during the Seven Years' War.

Why doesn't the state carry out large-scale personnel transfers? It's because there aren't enough benefits. It is not necessary to send so many people to the East or the New World to obtain spices, gold, and silver. As for the large-scale annexation of the colonies by the state, the exercise of stronger political and economic control over the colonies, and the eventual annexation of territories, and the overwhelming majority of the economic benefits in the hands of the state/royal family?

If there is no sufficiently advanced technology, the gains generally outweigh the losses.

And because of the limitations of history, few kings saw the need for such a deep control, which could be at a loss.

Charles V had so many international obligations in Europe, owed a lot of money to the bankers, and spent a large amount of Ducats to send 20,000 people to the Americas, so how could His Majesty and the creditors be embarrassed?

It's better to let the residents migrate there on their own and then collect taxes, which is much more convenient and quick.

……

But in short, Ferdinand did not intend to adopt such a convenient and quick method. During this time period, the large-scale transportation of personnel to the Americas is definitely the period when the relative cost of benefits is the largest. What gold, silver, sugar cane, tobacco, nutmeg, cocoa, as soon as the Spaniards settled, these were all Spanish. And it has been scheduled to contract the three major bitter lords of the Aztec Empire, the Inca Empire, and the Iroquois six tribes, two of which produce gold and silver, and one of which produces furs, isn't it happy!

However, these 20,000 people were not sent over in one go, but were divided into two batches in early spring and late summer.

In March 1496, the first fleet set out to send 10,000 men to various locations in the Americas.

In August and September 1496, a second fleet was to be sent, with another 10,000 men.

Eventually, thirteen new bases will be established on the American continent.

Of the 20,000 people, 2,000 will return with some of the ships. The remaining ninety percent of the personnel, a total of 18,000 people, will remain in the New World.

In this way, there were more than 20,000 settlers or garrisons and reclamation corps in the New World, which was already crushed compared to the number of inhabitants of the French.

……

To accomplish such a huge task, it is natural that a large number of Ducats will be required to open the way.

As to the question of the financing of the voyage of the sea, from John Capote's loan from an Italian bank in England to fifty ducats, or sixteen and two-thirds of a pound sterling, and the fact that King Henry VII did not pay a penny for it, it must have been a very nerve-wracking and emotionally scathing thing for the king—and it would be necessary to have a bitter exchange of affection with the members of parliament, unless you had the courage to win the civil war with Parliament, though not without a king.

But for Ferdinand, making a large list of expenses is actually a disguised display of wealth......

Now it is necessary to take stock of some of Ferdinand's assets.

Just in the Canary Islands, pick a cash cow to come out -

The salt pans of Tenerife, with a total area of about 50 hectares, produce about 40,000 tons of salt per year, depending on the high temperatures, sea breezes and high salinity of the seawater. Even at a halved wholesale price – 2 shillings per quart – quadrupling in Northern and Eastern Europe – the total selling price would still be £314,000, or about 628,000 ducats. And because the price revolution did not begin, the cost of the salt pans was only a quarter of the amount of money a hundred years later, about 50,000 ducats per year, which was only equivalent to the cost of Pope Alexander VI to buy a fief for his son. In addition, the salt tax was very low at this time - it was also high, and the tax was handed over to the royal family anyway, and even if other salt merchants were squeezed, the profit margin was as high as 1100%......

Not to mention Ferdinand's lavish spending on salt drying on the Dakhla Peninsula in Western Sahara.

In 1496, an important colonial target was the Turks and Caicos Islands near the Bahamas, when the British colonies in the West Indies exceeded the income of the entire thirteen states of North America.

And wheat production has also climbed further -

Among the agricultural crops in Sardinia, 437.4 million kilograms of wheat and 48.6 million kilograms of buckwheat were produced in 1494!

In 1496 this figure increased by about ten percent, thanks to the reclamation of the margins of the plains from the west to Alghero and to some of the smaller plains and basins to the east and north.

According to the calculation of 0.2 pounds per quart for wheat and 0.04 pounds per quart for buckwheat, if all of them are sold, the total price will be 7,745,386 pounds, which is 2,323.6153 ducats based on the three-to-one comparison between the pound sterling and the ducat! Even if the price of wheat falls, it will not fall below 20 million ducats, after all, in 1495-1496, Italy's grain production was severely affected by the impact of the war.

Not enough money is being made, and this is because the price revolution has not yet happened, so the price of salt and wheat is still very cheap, especially in Spain, where there is only an average price level of one-fifth after the price revolution.

However, there are also many benefits to low prices. First, the soldiers' salaries and workers' wages don't have to be paid so much. Second, Castile was not as poor as a century later, because the tax system at this time was still relatively fair, and taxes of various names were not levied significantly, at this time the price level, the royal family collected more taxes in the homeland, and the living standards and purchasing power of the common people were also okay, and the aristocracy did not degenerate to the point of drunkenness.

……

Well, Ferdinand decided to spend 1.6 million ducats as funds, not necessarily so much, but in 1496-1498 this money was used to supply the American colonies. If Charles VIII wanted to do this, he would have to burn half of the silver coins in the treasury every year, and then the credibility of the French silver coin would have exploded as it had historically been, making it the number one bad coin ahead of schedule......