Chapter 2079 The relationship between Daming and the Spanish Empire
In Hong Kong, in the southwest corner of the island of England in Western Europe, in the Governor's Palace of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Governor Tang Bohu was discussing something with Duke Brand, the minister sent by King Charles V of Spain.
"Sir Governor, we in Spain need food, the more the better. Please help us, Mr. Governor, for the sake of the friendly relations between our Spanish Empire and the Ming Empire!"
Duke Brand came to Hong Kong to buy grain.
Spain, like the whole of Europe, has experienced extremely bad years in the past two years. The land has almost failed to harvest for two consecutive years, leading to a great famine.
However, compared to places like England, France, and Italy, life in Spain is relatively better, because Spain also has huge colonies in West Africa.
Because the competition for colonies became increasingly fierce, the Spanish Empire also increased the development and plunder of colonies, unlike the low-level colonial methods in history that only relied on some strongholds to plunder precious metals, ivory and other low-level colonial methods.
Now the Spanish Empire is still learning more from the Ming Dynasty and their colonial methods, migrating a large number of people to the colonies in West Africa and developing the colonies.
This has many benefits. First of all, it consolidates the Spanish Empire's rule over these colonies. The existence of a large population makes these places firmly under the control of the Spanish Empire. It is difficult for Korea, Persia, Japan, etc. to escape from the hands of the Spanish.
Take away these colonies.
Secondly, a large number of people migrated there, which also increased the development of these places, allowing more land to be reclaimed to grow food, cash crops, etc. The benefits brought by this kind of development are far greater than just plundering a little gold from the colonies.
and silver.
Of course, the population of Spain itself is not very large, and in many cases it is impossible to have large-scale immigration like the Ming Dynasty, which had a large population but little land.
Even after the migration of part of the population, overall, Spain is still vast and sparsely populated. In order to expand its population, it also learned many methods like the Ming Empire. One of the methods is to purchase female slaves. Female slaves can not only
Working, you can also have children, increase the population, there are many benefits.
Generally speaking, Spain's life was pretty good. In several European wars, Spain was the winner. Not only did it retain its colonies and interests, it also gained a lot of benefits from England and France.
Now that there is a famine, other countries have to sell people to exchange for food, but the Spanish Empire has the money to come to the Ming Dynasty to buy food on a large scale.
Of course, Duke Brand not only represents Spain this time, but also represents the Holy Roman Empire, because the current King of Spain, Charles V, is not only the King of Spain, but also the Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, a Habsburg
members of the family.
Therefore, Duke Brand is also responsible for raising food for the Holy Roman Empire, Austria, the Netherlands and other regions.
(The territory of the Holy Roman Empire was very wide, including later Germany, northern Italy, Burgundy, the European Low Countries, etc. It was a large area. Later, with the rise of German national consciousness, it was renamed the German Roman Empire)
"Your Majesty, Duke, I need to send a message to our Ming Dynasty regarding this matter, leaving it to our Ming Emperor to make a decision."
"However, this year we have a bumper harvest in many places in Ming Dynasty, and there is a large amount of sufficient food. I think this matter should not be a problem, but the price may be more expensive."
Tang Bohu smiled and said to Duke Brand in front of him.
In history, Tang Bohu was arrogant and full of knowledge, but because of the imperial examination questions, he could only serve as a minor official and not an official. Therefore, he had no ambitions, but he was always depressed.
Later, even his first wife despised him for being worthless and left him. This was a huge blow to him, and he eventually died of illness in his fifties.
But because of Liu Jin, a time traveler, Tang Bohu is still living well. The imperial examination went smoothly, and his official career was smooth. Tang Bohu has been the governor of Hong Kong for many years.
It can only be said that people still have to live happily and smoothly sometimes, but if they are always depressed, it will be difficult for people to live long.
Having been the governor of Hong Kong for many years, Tang Bohu naturally knew the situation in Europe very well, and knew that the entire Europe was experiencing an unprecedented famine.
Shiploads of slaves are shipped to Hong Kong every day, all of which are exchanged for bags of grain. These slaves are then transported to the Golden Continent, where they can be bought at a good price in Africa, and the profits are astonishingly large.
As for food, it is very cheap now. There is a large amount of food here in Huanghuangzhou. The great plains in the central part of North Huanghuangzhou are natural granaries.
Although the people of the Ming Dynasty did not focus on developing this place, with the promotion of mechanized farming, there is still a huge amount of cultivated land here. Only a handful of farmers cultivated a large amount of food, which not only met the needs of the people of the Ming Dynasty in Huanghuangzhou, but also
There is a large amount of food that can be exported to Europe.
In addition, in African vassal states and colonies, as development continued, the Ming people's farming attributes came into play, and these places also became important food-producing areas.
Especially South Africa, since South Africa got the Monomopata region, it was the Zimbabwe region that was most suitable for the development of agriculture in Africa in later generations.
After the South African colonies obtained this land, they learned the farming methods of Liaodong, Hezhong, Black Soil and other areas of the Ming Dynasty, and used mechanized farming on a large scale.
Combined with the superior natural conditions, this area quickly became a large granary. The South African colonies could not eat all the food produced every year, and exported a large amount of food to surrounding vassal states and colonies.
The output of grain is very large, but the population required is very small, and mechanized farming methods are very efficient.
Therefore, the people of the Ming Dynasty had so much food that they had no place to sell it. If someone bought it, it would be a big deal.
"That's really good news."
"This year we have experienced continuous rainfall across Europe, and food production is very low. Coupled with last year's drought, the whole of Europe is going to fall into a famine."
"Your Ming Empire is better. It's vast but sparsely populated, the land is vast and fertile, and there's so much food that you can't eat it all."
Duke Brand said with a smile.
He is proficient in Chinese and reads newspapers from the Ming Dynasty every day. He also knows a lot about the situation in the Ming Dynasty. The newspapers have reported that the Ming Dynasty will usher in a bumper grain harvest this year.
In Liaodong, Hezhong, Black Earth Province and other places in the Ming Dynasty, there was so much grain that no one purchased it. In addition, the thirteen provinces in the Ming Dynasty also had good weather this year, and grain production increased significantly.
Although there was a severe drought like Europe last year, and the food harvest in the northern region was almost extinct, it had little impact on the Ming Dynasty. Even the plague, which made people laugh, the people of the Ming Dynasty were able to quickly stabilize and control it.
It wasn't affected too much.
This made Europeans lament the power of the Ming Empire and the wealth of the Ming people.
"Spain is not bad either. It also has vast colonies on the Gold Coast of West Africa. The land in many colonies is also very fertile. If the land can be developed and utilized, Spain will not worry about food."
Tang Bohu said with a smile.
The relationship between the Ming Empire and the Spanish Empire was very good. Although the original Spanish kings had passed away, the new king Charles V still chose to maintain friendly relations and contacts with the Ming Empire.
For this reason, Charles V has always pursued a policy of encouraging the import of foreign goods and the export of domestic raw materials. Although such policies have dealt a heavy blow to the development of the country's industry and commerce.
But it allowed him to gain the friendship from the Ming Empire and the support of the nobles within the Spanish Empire, because the feudal nobles in Spain liked products from the East and were very keen on growing cotton and raising sheep. In addition, Spain's hind legs
, cheese, and wine are also products that the Ming Dynasty people liked very much, and they are also the main export commodities of the Spanish nobles.
These are undoubtedly the favorites of the Ming Empire.
The booming Ming Empire needed vast markets and raw materials. The Spanish Empire catered to the development needs of the Ming Empire, and naturally it has always been the most important friend and partner of the Ming Empire in Europe.
For this reason, in the past, when the two Spanish kings were still alive, the Spanish Empire even wanted to enter into a marriage alliance with the Ming Empire, but this was ruthlessly rejected by the Ming Empire.
The reason is that the Ming Empire has never had the tradition and habit of foreign marriages, although this once made the Spanish very depressed.
The nobles and ministers of the Spanish Empire have actually been looking forward to having an heir with the blood of the Eastern Ming Empire to lead them to unify Europe and complete an unprecedented great feat.
After chatting with Duke Brand for more than an hour, Duke Brand got up and left.
Tang Bohu personally delivered Duke Brand to the door and watched him leave in a Mercedes-Benz car.
"This is a good opportunity to extract a lot of money from the Spanish and the Holy Roman Empire. Spain has not fought any major wars in these years, so there must be a lot of money in this pocket.
.”
Looking at Duke Brand leaving, Tang Bohu began to think in his heart.
"Alas~"
"Liu Gong has become the chief minister of the cabinet again. I don't know if there is a chance to be transferred back to the Ming Dynasty. I am getting tired of staying in Europe."
Tang Bohu sighed, he had been the Governor of Hong Kong for several years, but he had never been promoted or transferred, which made him very depressed.
"Your Majesty the Governor, Your Majesty the Governor!"
"We found that there are many stowaways sneaking into Hong Kong!"
At this time, an official came hurriedly to report.
