In the study room of Qianqing Palace, Emperor Hongzhi and his ministers were discussing national affairs.
"Your Majesty, news has just arrived that Spain has defeated France and has entered France. King Louis XII of France has chosen to have peace talks with Spain."
Zhu Fu reported to Emperor Hongzhi about the war in Europe. The Spanish-French war that lasted for several years had exhausted Spain and France.
In the end, Spain was able to win because the Ming Dynasty continuously provided loans and arms and weapons to Spain. This allowed France to persist until France could no longer persist, and finally ended the war that lasted for more than five years with a great victory. The Spanish-French War.
Through this war, Spain established its status as the big brother in Europe, and France completely lost its status as a land hegemon.
The long-term war and the raging Japanese pirates have caused wars to spread all over France, and the people are in dire straits. In fact, when the war reached this point, Louis XII gritted his teeth and persisted, but finally failed.
Even if there is no peace talks, it is no longer possible, because the army in hand has been lost, and the remaining strength will be reserved to suppress the internal peasant uprising. Once the peasant uprising overthrows his rule, Louis XII will not know it at that time. How to die?
Of course, for Spain, they are also eager to end the long war with France and get out of the quagmire of the war.
In order to win this war, Spain invested hundreds of thousands of troops, and more than 300,000 soldiers died. For a Spain with a population of only a few million, this was almost a tenth loss. s population.
In addition to population losses, economic losses are even greater.
The long-term war seriously hindered Spain's economic development, and more importantly, it owed the Ming Empire a huge war debt of up to 50 million taels of silver.
Spain will gradually pay back the principal with interest in the future.
Therefore, Spain is also eager to get out of the war. In this way, Spain will have the strength to compete with the Persian Empire and North Korea for the colonies in West Africa at sea and in the West African colonies.
The gains from the colonies are the gains that Spain is most interested in now. The gains from the war with the French are really too small.
Of course, now that France has been defeated, the Spanish army rushed into French territory and plundered everywhere like bandits.
Everything in sight was robbed, not to mention property. Even people were the most valuable things. A white slave sold to the Ming Dynasty could be sold for 20 taels of silver. Capturing 10,000 people would be worth 200,000 taels of silver. , catching 100,000 people is equivalent to 2 million taels of silver.
If we can earn 1 million people, Spain's debt to the Ming Dynasty will be almost paid off in half.
The Spaniards, who are well aware of the huge profits from the slave trade, are now letting their troops plunder the population in the French territory, and the more they can capture, the better, so as to quickly make up for their own economic losses.
As for negotiations, don't count on how much money the French, who have been beaten to a pauper, will have to compensate you. Their money has already gone into the hands of the Ming Dynasty. Louis XII wanted to sell his wife to him. Now that the people of Ming Dynasty have come to exchange money, you can count on how much oil and water they can have left.
Fortunately, the population of France is large enough, and grabbing a large number of people is also a huge wealth, which can also slightly make up for the losses of the Spaniards.
The most important thing now is the golden coastline in West Africa. The colonies here cannot be lost. If they are lost again, Spain will not have many colonies left.
Without the colony, it will take God knows how long it will take to pay off the debts of the Ming Dynasty.
It owes the Ming people more than fifty million taels of silver, and Spain's current population is only a few million. This means that everyone owes the Ming people ten taels of silver. This is not a small number. Spain needs to rely on colonial plunder to survive.
This debt can be paid off quickly.
After defeating the French, the Persian Empire and Koreans will be much easier to deal with. On the sea, the Spaniards have not been afraid of anyone. As for the Persian Empire, it is just at the end of its war effort.
In the Middle East, the Ottoman Empire's army is enough to give the Persians a headache. If they are not careful, the Ottoman Empire's army may directly kill the Persians' home base.
Although the Koreans are a vassal state of the Ming Dynasty, the situation in Korea is actually similar to that of Spain, and the national strength is also similar. The key is that the Koreans are far away from West Africa, and Spain has a natural advantage.
By accepting the war on land, the Spaniards no longer had to fight wars on multiple fronts and could concentrate their efforts on grabbing colonies.
"Well, they are finally done fighting. The war they have been fighting for several years is finally over."
When Emperor Hongzhi heard this, he couldn't help laughing.
They were fighting a war, and both sides of the Ming Empire were selling arms, weapons, and housing loans. They were so quick that they made so much money that they almost took out the underpants of the King of Spain.
Of course, the one who benefited the most from this was Emperor Hongzhi.
He is a shareholder of the First Bank of the Ming Dynasty and a major shareholder of the Miyun Arsenal. The money shipped back by the boatloads filled up Emperor Hongzhi's internal funds, and he has already expanded the internal treasury to an unknown number.
.
"Your Majesty, there will be no war in Europe for a while, but there may be another wave of war in the West African colonies."
When Liu Jin heard this, he thought about it and said.
Originally, Spain was waging war on multiple fronts, and the pressure was too great, so its strength in the West African colonies has never been very strong. Now that there is no war on the mainland, the Spaniards can fight for the colonies in West Africa with all their strength. This is the only area where there is no war.
A colony occupied by the Ming people.
There is no reason for Spain to let these places go, not to mention that this place has always been a Spanish colony, and the Spaniards are very aware of the benefits.
Gold, silver, ivory, gems, diamonds, slaves, land, precious wood, etc., any colonial stronghold can contribute millions of taels of silver to Spain every year.
This is also the reason why Spain dared to borrow a large amount of money from the Ming Empire. The debt of 50 million taels of silver, as long as there was no war in Spain, Spain might be able to pay off the debt in two or three years by plundering its colonies.
Of course, this is why the Ming Dynasty is willing to lend as much money to Spain as they have the ability to repay the debt. At worst, Spain can just use its colonies to repay it.
As for France, the reason why we don’t lend them money is because they don’t have a colony, they are a pauper, and they only rely on them selling wine and God knows when they will be able to pay off their debts, so we can’t lend them money.
"Hmm~"
"On the West African side, there are now Spain, Japan, the Persian Empire and Korea. The competition for colonies between the two sides is already very fierce."
"With Spain's mainland separated from the war, I'm afraid the Persians and Koreans will be under great pressure in the future."
Zhong Zhong also nodded and said.
"Then it doesn't matter what happens to our Ming Dynasty. If they want to rob or fight, that's their business. We, the Ming Dynasty, can just watch from the other side."
Han Wen also said with a smile.
Now everyone can also appreciate the benefits of being a war dealer.
Arms and weapons are very easy to sell, which can support its own military industry. A large number of people will have jobs and food to eat, and it will also give Ming Dynasty enough funds to research new arms and weapons.
Grain is also very easy to sell. They have to rely on the Ming Dynasty's trading companies to transport the grain to them, and they can make a fortune. You must know that the colonies and vassals now produce so much grain that they can't eat it all.
It's not valuable, and it will cost a lot to ship it over.
Then, they can make a fortune by transporting gold, silver, ivory, gems, diamonds and slaves back from their colonies. This allows many businesses to make huge profits, even by doing business in West Africa.
Do you know how much silver it is?
Incidentally, it also led to the development of colonies and vassal states in West Africa, turning many colonies and vassal states into fertile fertile soil. Large-scale plantations sprung up like bamboo shoots after a rain. Wherever the Ming people went, they would
The talent of farming is fully utilized.
"Ha ha!"
When everyone heard this, they immediately laughed in unison.
If this had happened in the past, naturally some sanctimonious civil servants who spoke of benevolence, righteousness, and morality would have stood up and said that they wanted to convince people with virtue and conquer the world with benevolence and righteousness. They said that the Ming Dynasty could not do these unjust things and earn these unjust things.
fiscal.
But now, everyone has no guilt about this, and they must earn every penny they deserve, because every one tael of silver earned from outside can drive the economic development of the Ming Dynasty's 10 taels of silver.
It can also increase the income of the people of Ming Dynasty and make the national power of Ming Dynasty stronger.
Therefore, the morality of benevolence and righteousness refers to the morality of benevolence and righteousness for one's own people. Externally, in the final analysis, the interests of the Ming Dynasty should be the highest code of conduct. The interests of the Ming Empire are above all else!