"It's not impossible." Theodora was not too worried: "If we find a way to control Egypt, we will be basically fine." It doesn't matter if you compete for a while, you can pass on the cost to the barbarians, and you can take profits in the middle. ”

"That's not going to work." Guo Kang shook his head: "You probably don't have a concept of the amount of maritime trade, right?" ”

"I don't have a concept, I often deal with this kind of paperwork." Theodora wondered, "That's an exaggeration. Is there not enough wealth in Europe to sustain trade? ”

"I guess it's enough for the whole of Europe, plus Vinland it's about the same." Guo Kang said bluntly.

"How much gold and silver are there?" Theodora was too surprised to believe it, not knowing if she believed the scale of the trade, or if she didn't believe that Vinland was richer than here.

"I don't know the total amount, but the amount of gold and silver that can be obtained after mining is probably several times the total amount in Europe." Guo Kang said.

"Our Lady......" Theodora's eyes widened, "who else knows this." ”

Guo Kang pointed to the two of them, and then pointed to the heavens: "Heavenly Father knows, Our Lady knows, you know, I know." ”

"I didn't dare to tell Tuhuan, for fear that he wouldn't be able to keep his mouth shut when he bragged."

Theodora didn't say anything and nodded. They know each other well, but they are not worried about the other party saying it on an inappropriate occasion.

"How much financial support does Oriental Trade need? Is it enough to add Vinland's gold and silver? She didn't dwell on it and continued to ask.

"In the case that the Ming Dynasty was not willing to trade and mainly relied on smuggling, it would have required about half of Vinland's gold and silver." Guo Kang thought about it and said.

"Well, isn't that ......" Theodora was already a little stunned.

Guo Kang just shrugged, after all, he was talking according to conservative data.

He hadn't told Theodora about the route from the Americas to Asia before, so she probably hadn't had an idea yet. But in the history he had previously knew, Spain had received one-third of the gold and silver in the Americas, and had never been to Spain – they were shipped directly to Macau via the "Manila galleons" in exchange for Chinese goods. These "Spanish riches" have never been to Spain.

Most of the goods purchased from the gold and silver did not go to Spain, but directly to the American colonies. As a result, the Spaniards were not good at business, and the already fragile local market was violently hit by a large number of cheap Ming goods.

The end result was the destruction of the entire shipping route.

In the Philippines, the Governor reported to the king that the locals no longer spun cotton. Because selling cotton to Ming Dynasty merchants and then purchasing cotton cloth from them was the most cost-effective way;

In Mexico, the governor was surprised to find that the natives wore silk more than cotton: for Ming silk was cheaper than Spanish cotton, even across the Pacific;

In Peru, the price of silk in the Ming Dynasty was only one-third of that of Spanish products, which not only bankrupted the local silk industry, but also continued to spill out. Because even if these Ming Dynasty silks were shipped back to Spain, these textiles, which had traveled half the world, would still be profitable in the face of the weak competitiveness of local Spanish products.

The Spaniards paid a huge price for this. In the past hundred years, they have braved the extremely high mortality rate, opened up the new continent, excavated mineral deposits, and left nothing, even most of the silver went to the Ming Dynasty, which can be called the biggest injustice in the Age of Discovery......

Since then, the Americas have been importing large quantities of Oriental cotton and silk. It wasn't until the mid-to-late 19th century that the United States reversed this trend by extremely low cotton costs.

Moreover, it is worth noting that these results occurred when the Ming Dynasty was not particularly active in ocean trade, and did not organize the trade with state power. If it gets serious over there, even Guo Kang himself can't think of what it will look like.

"If you roughly estimate it, you'll know. The gold and silver of the whole of Europe combined are not enough to fill this hole. He shook his head and told Theodora, "That's why I said that it's useless for us to be middlemen—you sell all the barbarians downstream, and you can't afford the difference." ”

"So, what are we going to do?" Theodora couldn't think of a way now: "Why don't you lay out in advance and find a way to develop Vinland as soon as possible?" ”

"It's too costly." Guo Kang told her: "The early development was very difficult, and often half of the people died on the road. The barbarians who can't survive can bear this kind of loss, and if they are from other places, they are more likely to choose to rebel directly. ”

"Therefore, the best way should be to get rid of the idea - wait for the barbarians to slowly expand westward, and then we will go down and reap the fruits of their exploration. In this way, the cost may be much smaller. ”

"But even then, I don't know if it's enough. The Ming Dynasty is the 'silver pump' of this world, almost a bottomless pit. If they had opened up the ropes in naval warfare with the Javanese Yuan and learned to trade actively to supplement the sailors' funds, the gap might have been even greater. ”

"Isn't Europa and Vinland combined......" Theodora leaned on the table and said with some weakness, "how can this be so exaggerated." ”

"It's all normal." Guo Kang is not so strange.

"The people of the Central Plains like to call themselves 'Zhuxia', which corresponds to 'barbarians'. The place where Zhu Xia lived was called China, which corresponds to 'foreign'. Guo Kang told her: "In the worldview of the ancients, there are basically only these two parts. ”

"They often don't bother to distinguish between them, and like to think of 'barbarians', or 'foreigners', to put it mildly, all as one. But what is more embarrassing is that for most of history, 'China' is indeed about the same as all other 'foreign countries' combined. ”

"That's arrogance...... "Theodora sighed.

"No way. After a long time, everyone has already developed a habit. Guo Kang shrugged.

In the world where he lived before, even those who despised Seris liked to use "China" and "foreign" to make binary comparisons, proving that the Central Plains civilization was backward.

This leads to a very strange phenomenon: even when a Seris despises the civilization of the Central Plains, he still subconsciously adopts a very old and arrogant standard, and regards "foreign" as those "barbarians" who disdain to distinguish between them in ancient times—even if their own subjective intentions are completely opposite, they still behave in performance.

Therefore, the core of a civilization is extremely difficult to change - perhaps impossible to change. This kind of conceited mentality of comparing oneself to the whole world every day may be a habit that has accumulated over a long period of time, and even turmoil and decline cannot be consumed.

"To have a financial back-and-forth with such a behemoth, you need a group of at least about the same size. Otherwise, the Ming Dynasty may not take us seriously. He explains his point: "That's why I think we have to at least try to integrate the Mediterranean world to reach this threshold." ”

"Being a middleman is obviously not enough. Because the management of the barbarians is too backward and inefficient. Only if we manage it ourselves can we realize the potential of this land. ”

"With these guys, how can we build the Roman homeland?" He asked rhetorically.

(End of chapter)