Chapter 1250, the wealth and power of Daming people
At West Pole Port, Ali~Pasha and Moses took their men to hang out here very casually. After taking the boat for several days, they were already very tired, so they planned to rest here for a day before setting off again, all the way east.
Head to the capital of the Ming Empire.
"It's incredible. The Ming Dynasty people actually mined so many stones to pave the road, making the road so wide and flat."
Ali Pasha stepped on the concrete road paved with cement and tried to avoid his feet. The road was very hard.
"This is not a stone, but a road built using something called cement, mixed with sand, gravel, etc. They call this road a cement road. The high-rise buildings on both sides of the road are also built with cement and steel bars.
"
When Moses heard this, he quickly explained.
"cement?"
Ali Pasha couldn't help but lower his head and take a closer look.
"Yes, it is cement. It is an adhesive that can be mixed with sand, stones, etc. by adding water. Once the water dries, it becomes extremely hard."
"The cities and buildings of the Ming Dynasty were all built with this kind of stuff."
Moses nodded and said. He was a Jewish businessman and was very familiar with the Ming Dynasty's goods. His family also frequently traveled to the West Pole Port to specialize in related trade.
"What a good thing!"
"If we in the Ottoman Empire can master the manufacturing method of this kind of cement, we can build a large number of strong city walls and passes."
Ali Pasha immediately realized that this was an extremely important building material and its huge role.
"The people of the Ming Dynasty keep their cement manufacturing methods very secret, and we foreigners are subject to many restrictions in the Ming Dynasty. It is difficult to obtain the cement manufacturing methods of the Ming Dynasty."
"I've already ordered people to think of a solution."
Moses nodded solemnly and said.
"The people of Ming Dynasty always come up with some incredible things."
Ali Pasha nodded with satisfaction and looked at the bustling street in front of him.
On the spacious cement road, people came and went, and four-wheeled carriages kept flowing. People from all over the world gathered here, including the northern Mongolian Tatars who looked extremely barbaric and brought a lot of furs.
There were Kazakhs riding BMWs, wearing sheepskin jackets, and carrying machetes, as well as Persians with their heads wrapped, Europeans from Europe, and carrying crosses.
Of course, the most common people are Ming people with dark eyes and black hair.
There are many shops of all kinds, some specializing in buying all kinds of goods, and some specializing in selling various specialties. Of course, what is done in the shops are all small businesses.
Real big business deals are negotiated in each business house. From time to time, you can see Ming businessmen at the gate of each business house greeting guests from all over the world with smiles on their faces.
"Sir, if it is a big deal, you can go to these big trading houses to negotiate. These Ming trading houses are extremely powerful. It is said that some of their firms can earn tens of millions of taels of silver a year. No matter how big the deal is, they can do it.
be able to eat."
"In the past, when I was in charge of selling slaves, I sold them exclusively to these big trading houses. The price was a little lower, but no matter how many slaves they had, they could eat them all at once, and they all paid money in advance, so they were very honest."
Moses was relatively familiar with this place, and while taking Ali Pasha shopping, he introduced the situation here to him.
"Earn tens of millions of silver a year?"
When Ali Pasha heard this, he opened his mouth slightly. This country is really rich. At least the Ottoman Empire's sultan cannot receive tens of millions of silver in taxes a year. Now he can only survive by selling slaves.
of life.
"Yes, the people of Ming Dynasty are extremely rich~"
“Having wealth beyond imagination.”
Moses nodded enviously.
Jews are famous for their business and are famous for their wealth in Europe.
But Moses knew clearly that compared with the people of Ming Dynasty, the little wealth held by the Jews was simply insignificant.
A random trading house would be enough to destroy the Jews.
However, Moses and other knowledgeable people among the Jews also knew clearly that the reason why the Ming people were so wealthy was because their country was the most powerful country in the world. Relying on such a powerful empire, they could do whatever they wanted.
You can do a lot of business and make a lot of money.
Therefore, the Jews have been trying to find ways to enter the Ming Empire, want to do business in the Ming Empire, and immigrate to the Ming Empire.
But unfortunately, the Ming Empire was very xenophobic and did not welcome Jews like them, so even a savvy Jew could not make much money from this huge empire.
"Hmm~"
Ali Pasha nodded. Everyone knew how wealthy the Ming Dynasty people were.
Just as described in Marco Polo's travels, it was an empire paved with gold and extremely rich. The Ming people's silk, porcelain, cloth, sugar, ironware, etc., everything brought a steady stream of wealth to the Ming people.
Rolling wealth.
But the greater wealth is the huge land owned by the Ming people. From the edge of the Black Sea to the east is the territory of the Ming Empire. It is hard to imagine how huge an empire this is.
Just from the West Pole Port in front of you, you can see the wealth of the Ming Dynasty people.
The roads are very wide and flat, and the entire Xiji Port is extremely clean and tidy. It is completely different from European cities, which are extremely dirty and smelly.
Here, you can truly enjoy the beauty of a city physically and mentally, instead of worrying about the dirty things you may step on everywhere.
Building after building, the glass windows reflect the dazzling light under the sunlight, and the confident expressions of the Ming people. This is what a powerful empire should look like.
Here, whether it is the barbaric Tatars or grassland people, or the Spaniards, French, Turks, Persians, etc. who claim to be a civilized world.
Everyone here became polite and self-conscious. Ali Pasha saw more than once that some dirty people did not even dare to step onto the clean concrete road, as if they were afraid of getting dirty.
Same here.
No one dares to act wild here. People who act wild in the Ming Dynasty will not be polite at all. They will be served with whips. If someone is killed, they will be beheaded directly. The country and tribe behind you do not even dare to express any objection to the people of the Ming Dynasty.
Dissatisfied, everyone who came here was repeatedly told not to cause trouble, especially not to provoke the Ming people.
Because of the lesson of the Ottoman Empire, no one wants to provoke the revenge and massacre of the Ming army. Come here to do business honestly. The Ming people will not bully you. The Ming people attach great importance to their own credibility. Every business is
The reputation is excellent.
It was a very leisurely stroll here, looking at the products from all over the world in each store, which also opened Ali Pasha's eyes.
"It's incredible. The cloth of the Ming Dynasty is so cheap. If we in the Ottoman Empire produced this piece of cloth ourselves, the cost would be at least two to three times the price of the cloth of the Ming Dynasty."
"As for the people of Ming Dynasty, they traveled thousands of miles to get here, but their price is only less than half of ours. How did they do it?"
In a cloth shop, Ali Pasha was dazzled by the dazzling cloths. They were of high quality and dyed in various beautiful colors and patterns. But when he asked about the price, he found that they were very cheap.
One Ming Dynasty silver dollar could buy ten pieces of cloth. The price was so low that it was unimaginably low.
"I have also conducted specialized research on this."
"Businessmen in the Ming Dynasty said that their cloth is now woven using machines. The efficiency of machine weaving is very high, many times faster than human labor, so the price of their cloth is so low."
Moses thought for a while and replied.
"Even if we use machines to weave cloth, it is very efficient and low-cost, but it is tens of thousands of miles away from the mainland of Ming Dynasty. For such a long distance, the cost of transportation should be very high, and the price cannot be so low."
Upon hearing this, Ali Pasha thought about it and raised his own question.
"Sir, maybe you don't know something about this."
"In order to connect the east and west and strengthen its rule over Nanyun Province and the Hezhong area, the Ming Empire spent a huge amount of money to build a cement road that extends from the capital of the Ming Empire to Nanyun Province. It is said that it has almost reached the Hezhong area.
It is estimated that the repairs will be completed almost next year."
"This cement road is very flat. If we use the most popular four-wheeled carriages in the Ming Empire, the transportation cost will be very low."
"And didn't the people of the Ming Dynasty say in the newspapers that the Ming Empire has raised hundreds of millions of taels of silver to build a railway connecting the east and west. Once the railway is built, trains will be used to transport goods in the future, and their transportation costs will still be high.
It will be lower, and the price of these Ming Dynasty cloths will also drop by then."
Moses also quickly explained to Ali Pasha.
Since ancient times, whether in the Ming Dynasty, Europe or the Ottoman Empire, transportation has been extremely inconvenient. In the circulation of goods, transportation costs account for a large proportion, sometimes even greater than the cost of the goods themselves.
"In order to promote the development of commerce and strengthen their rule over various places, the Ming Dynasty people spent huge sums of money to build cement roads in various places. Now they are also building railways on a large scale. It is said that the Ming Dynasty people's trains can transport two thousand or hundreds of thousands of people at a time.
You can carry a kilogram of goods and travel thousands of miles in a day."
"If the train goes to Nanyun Province, it will take more than two months to travel from here to the capital of the Ming Empire by horseback, but if you take a car, it will only take more than ten days."
"It's just that until now, we still don't know what this train is, but it's so magical and powerful."
