Chapter 491: Success

From the top floor window of Michira Castle, one can see the entire view of Fort Zeelandia across.

At this moment, Xiao Ming and Claire simultaneously looked at the merchant ships shuttling in the port of Fort Zeelandia. These merchant ships came from Manila and, after being loaded with goods, departed again for the Dutch colony of Manila.

In Manila, the Dutch trading company would transship the goods back to their home country.

Ever since their relationship with the King of Chu deteriorated, and with Japan now attempting to invade Ryukyu, Claire had no choice but to do business with Xiao Ming. After all, Dutch merchants arriving at the port during this period had been complaining about a shortage of goods.

“Your Highness, we have been looking forward to this. Our merchant ships are now docked in the port, awaiting goods. We hope Your Highness can provide us with the goods.” Claire’s expression was solemn.

The recent turmoil in East Asia had severely affected trade.

“Since that is the case, you can now submit your list of required goods to me. I will have merchant ships transport the goods you need back from Dengzhou. Of course, you will have to pay for the goods.”

Claire looked at the calm sea and said, “That is natural. We always abide by business rules. Currently, Europe has a great demand for Great Yu Empire’s porcelain, raw silk, silk, and tea leaves. These goods also have relatively high prices in Europe, which are our main trade commodities. We hope Your Highness can provide them to us as soon as possible.”

“No problem, I will return to Dengzhou in the next two days, and then the goods will arrive.” Xiao Ming smiled. Previously, maritime trade was almost monopolized by the King of Chu. Now, this lucrative business finally fell into his hands. However, remembering something, he asked curiously, “Forgive my presumption, Count Claire, could you tell me how much silver in total flowed into the King of Chu’s hands?”

Upon hearing this, Claire frowned, but thinking that he would likely have no more dealings with the King of Chu in the future, he said to Rhodes, “Rhodes, you should know this better than I do.”

“Over the past forty years, the silver we handed over to the King of Chu totaled three thousand tons. If calculated according to the Great Yu Empire’s measurements, it would be sixty million taels of silver.” Rhodes recalled the accounts from those years.

“Sixty million taels of silver!”

Xiao Ming almost jumped out of his chair. He finally understood why the Cao family was so wealthy and why the King of Chu was so fearless. It was all because of too much money.

Closing his eyes, Xiao Ming gently exhaled. He quickly searched for contemporary economic data in the technology crystal. His heart immediately surged with emotion.

During the Ming and Qing dynasties, China’s overseas trade had a long-term surplus, and for most of that time, the exchange rate of gold and silver was lower than in foreign countries. This made foreigners think they had a bargain, as it was like being able to buy one dollar’s worth of goods with one yuan. Who wouldn’t be happy about that?

Precisely because of this, Europeans extensively used silver as currency to purchase goods. Initially, this silver mainly flowed in from Spain and Portugal. Later, the Netherlands and England established their absolute dominance in silver export.

This large net inflow of silver generally lasted from the 1570s to the 1830s. Domestic and foreign scholars have made various estimates of the silver inflow into Ming and Qing China, concluding that in the 250 years before 1800, China received nearly 48,000 tons of silver from Europe and Japan, and possibly 10,000 tons or more from Manila. Including other sources, the total amounted to about 60,000 tons of silver, or 1.6 billion taels of silver.

“One point six billion taels of silver!” This figure continuously revolved in Xiao Ming’s mind. In fact, due to the lack of some data, Xiao Ming believed this figure was even severely underestimated, as there was also a lot of unregulated trade in that atmosphere.

Claire noticed Xiao Ming’s expression. He smiled, “This is indeed a considerable sum. However, if Your Highness can genuinely do business with us, I guarantee Your Highness will receive more than the King of Chu. Europe is not lacking in silver now. Besides having large open-pit silver mines in Mexico, the ‘Silver Country,’ Europeans have now discovered that the Peruvian silver mines in South America are even richer than those in Mexico. European countries are now extensively mining them. Oh, pardon me, Your Highness may not know about Mexico and Peru yet.”

When speaking of North and South America, which were dominated by Europe, Claire’s face once again showed the arrogance characteristic of Europeans during this period.

Xiao Ming curled his lips, too lazy to refute Claire, as he found it as uninteresting as a primary school student showing off that one plus one equals something in front of a university student.

“One day, my battleships will tell me where Mexico and Peru are.” Xiao Ming said with a faint smile.

Claire and Rhodes exchanged glances, simultaneously suppressing their laughter. Although they admitted that Xiao Ming was powerful in this sea area, it was only in this sea area. In Europe, any country’s fleet could easily defeat him.

So, in their view, Xiao Ming was merely telling a bad joke.

“Hmph.”

Xiao Ming discerned from their expressions that they didn’t believe such a day would come, and he was too lazy to explain. For him, he preferred to prove himself through action rather than words. Now, he needed to enrich his territory and enhance his overall strength.

Seemingly feeling their behavior was inappropriate, the two men regained their solemn expressions. Claire said, “Your Highness, I hope the goods arrive soon.”

Xiao Ming nodded. Then he and Claire discussed the specific trade details and the establishment of a Dutch liaison office in Dengzhou.

At the same time, to prevent Dutch merchants from engaging in espionage in Dengzhou, Xiao Ming decided to establish trading houses. Dutch merchants could only reside in these trading houses during their stay at the port.

After settling these matters, Xiao Ming officially held a ceremony with Claire in Fort Zeelandia regarding Michira Castle, the main island of Ryukyu, and the stationing of troops in Fort Zeelandia.

According to the agreement, Xiao Ming would station two thousand troops in Michira Castle and two thousand troops in Fort Zeelandia. Six warships from the Qingzhou fleet, including second-class and third-class battleships, would be permanently moored in Fort Zeelandia port. They would also be responsible for escort and patrol missions within a thousand li radius of the Ryukyu waters, and this number would continue to increase.

Having completed all these matters, Xiao Ming had basically gained control over Ryukyu Island and the maritime trade routes. After two days of rest, he prepared to return to Dengzhou.

The sea route was only part of his trade strategy. He had more important matters to accomplish, which was to eliminate the threat from the north. Whether for the purpose of controlling Korea or for his own security, he had to deal with the barbarians.

Because in his view, as long as the barbarians were not destroyed, he would not be able to devote his full attention to solving the problems within the Great Yu Empire.

With a formidable enemy lurking outside, he could not act rashly. This was also why he diligently maintained the current state of the Great Yu Empire.

“Your Highness, in a few days I will personally visit Qingzhou City.”

Below the ‘King Qi’ ship, Claire, accompanied by officials from Fort Zeelandia, saw Xiao Ming off. Now that Qingzhou and the Netherlands were officially cooperating, he greatly looked forward to earning substantial profits.