Originally, the Portuguese wanted to continue trading with the empire's home coastal ports, but they were directly rejected.
The empire finally conquered the Indian Ocean. Naturally, it wanted to monopolize the profits from overseas trade in the Indian Ocean and Southeast Asia. How could it possibly let the Portuguese come back?
And more importantly, this policy does not target the Portuguese alone, but actually targets all countries.
The Tang Empire canceled the commercial ports on its own coast and completely blocked the Strait of Malacca and the Strait of Sunda. The reasons were complex, with economic factors being one factor and also political factors.
Economically, it is naturally to protect one's own maritime trade profits. This protection does not mean trade protectionism, excluding other countries' goods from entering the empire's domestic market.
On the contrary, except for a few contraband items, the Tang Empire did not prohibit foreign goods from entering the local market. Instead, it very much welcomed special products from other countries to enter the domestic market, such as various industrial raw materials, especially cotton and cashmere.
Not to mention bans, the empire even went to the point of directly launching wars to obtain these industrial raw materials. In the era of the Industrial Revolution, the Tang Empire was unimaginably hungry for various industrial raw materials.
Therefore, the contemporary Tang Empire, more than any other country in the world, pays more attention to the freedom of trade, pursues free trade, and adopts a low-tariff or even tariff-free policy for many imported goods.
The Tang Empire did not prohibit foreign goods from entering the empire, it only prohibited foreign merchants from entering the mainland!
The two concepts are completely different.
The ban on foreign businessmen from directly entering the mainland is mostly due to technological protection, knowledge protection, and national protection!
The protection of technology and knowledge is naturally to prevent foreigners from living in Datang, learning various advanced technical knowledge, and then going back to their own country to develop industry and carry out reforms. This kind of thing has always been done in Datang.
They are taking strict precautions. They don't want the originally weak and bullied indigenous kingdom to turn into an industrial country in a few decades, and then use a lot of guns and ships to fight against the Tang Dynasty!
In addition to the protection of knowledge and technology, there was another important reason why Li Xuan made the decision to completely ban foreigners from entering the country.
That's why in recent years, overseas natives from various countries like to go to the empire's trading ports, and they never leave once they come.
Despite the lively fight between the Portuguese and the Empire before, even during the war, there were still at least two to three thousand Portuguese merchants and their descendants living in the commercial port city trade zones along the coast of the Empire.
Then there are Spanish fever, Indians, Persians, Ottomans and all kinds of messy natives!
In the trading zones of more than twenty trading ports along the coast of the empire, the total number of merchants from various countries and their descendants living and living all year round is at least tens of thousands.
In fact, these people are nothing, but more importantly, these people show a characteristic that makes Li Xuan's balls hurt, that is, they never leave once they come.
Don’t underestimate the appeal of the contemporary Datang Empire to people from other countries. For many foreigners, the Tang Dynasty these days is paradise. The air is sweeter than the air in their hometown, and the moon is rounder than the moon in their hometown.
Because many foreigners have come to Datang in recent years, although some of them are pure businessmen, they just leave as soon as they come.
But there are also some who are just ordinary immigrants. Their purpose of coming to Datang is not to do business at all, but to live here, and they even bring their families with them.
So they only need to get off the ship and stay in the trading area of the empire's trading port.
Over time, the empire has established a permanent foreign population of tens of thousands in the more than two dozen trading ports in the empire.
If no changes are made, more and more foreigners will flock to the Tang Empire every year. It is estimated that this number will exceed one million in a few decades.
By that time, it would be a big pain if these foreign immigrants shouted that I am also from the Tang Dynasty and then asked to obtain the nationality of the Tang Dynasty.
The empire originally had a lot of people but little land, so it was trying every possible means to immigrate overseas. How could it be possible to accept immigrants from foreign countries?
So taking advantage of this opportunity, Li Xuan directly issued an order prohibiting foreigners from entering the empire!
If you want to immigrate to the Tang Empire, you will have a good pregnancy in your next life!
Therefore, Li Xuan directly blockaded Nanyang and canceled trading ports. His purpose was not to impose a maritime ban or trade protection, but simply to prevent foreigners from immigrating to the empire.
And doing so will not affect the import and export trade, because what is banned is people, not goods.
Regardless of whether it is Spanish or Portuguese goods, although they cannot personally transport the goods to the coastal ports of the empire, these goods can still be transported to the local market by the merchants of the empire through the transit ports in the colonies.
The goods are still the same goods, the only thing that has changed is that the ship has become an imperial merchant ship, and the merchant has become an imperial merchant.
The Tang Empire's foreign trade policy changed again with the armistice agreement and the friendly trade agreement signed with the Portuguese.
And the effect of this change is also very obvious!
As soon as the agreement was signed, the merchants of the two countries took action upon hearing the news. A large number of Portuguese merchant ships entered South Africa City and Xiyin City, and some even went directly to Gohe State. Their only purpose was to acquire enough
Datang goods are then shipped back to Europe as quickly as possible.
Nowadays, in the European market, there is an extremely thirsty for various goods from the Tang Empire!
The main channel for trade between Europe and the Tang Empire was through the Portuguese. Although the Spanish also had some share, it was too small. In addition, there was also a share through the Ottoman Empire and the overland route, but the tolls charged by the Ottoman Empire were so low.
It is not ordinary high. The same goods, after passing through the hands of the Ottoman Empire, are more expensive than the Portuguese who went all the way around the Cape of Good Hope for maritime trade.
After the war between the Portuguese and the Empire, the Portuguese channels were cut off for several years. In the past few years, the prices of goods from the Tang Empire on the European market continued to rise, and even reached the point where there was no market for them.
Especially in the past ten years, perfume has been the most popular and most popular in the European market, and has even become the largest commodity in trade between the empire and Europe. It is even more in short supply.
Because Europeans these days don’t take baths, so in order to cover up their body odor, they must use a lot of spices.
In the early years, Datang soap sold well in China, Southeast Asia, and even India, Africa, and the Americas. However, it suffered a disastrous failure in the European market. Tangtang soap, a leading export product, actually suffered a shameful failure in the European market.
.
Several domestic companies that develop and produce soaps specially found a large group of Spaniards and Portuguese people to conduct research, and finally came to a conclusion that left them speechless: Europeans don't take showers these days!
I don’t even have to take a shower anymore, so what the hell can I sell this soap for taking a shower!
After learning the reason, they quickly adjusted their product research and development, and specially developed products such as perfumes and sachets for the European market to cover up odors.
Among them, Nanyang brand perfume produced by Nanyang Fragrance Company, a subsidiary of Datang Royal Assets Division, has won unanimous praise from European consumers for its expensive price, luxurious packaging and rich aroma.
A small bottle of Nanyang perfume, no more than 100 ml, retails for tens of yuan in the Empire, but in Europe, the price can reach hundreds of yuan!
For the special market of Europe, many companies in Datang have specially launched various perfumes. There are all kinds of perfumes, some are expensive and some are cheap.
Perfume from the Tang Dynasty quickly occupied the European market, which also made the Portuguese make a lot of money.
However, after the war between the two sides broke out, trade was interrupted, and all kinds of goods from the Tang Empire, whether silk, porcelain, or perfume, were cut off.
Although the Portuguese managed to survive for a while with their previous inventory, they soon ran out of stock. In the following two years, they basically relied on a small amount of goods brought back by the Spanish Global Fleet and expensive goods from the Ottoman Empire.
Goods are maintained.
But this obviously cannot meet the huge European market demand.
Now that the two sides have ceased war and re-signed a friendly trade agreement, they no longer even need to go to the distant east to transport goods. They only need to go to the city of South Africa in southern Africa to buy perfume, silk and other goods.
As long as the goods can be shipped to Europe as soon as possible, what can be obtained will be real huge profits.
But it’s not just the Portuguese who are smart, businessmen from other European countries are equally smart. Since the Tang Empire occupied South Africa, they have basically regarded these as a bridgehead facing the Atlantic Ocean.
It is not only a military bridgehead, but also an economic bridgehead.
The Tang Empire also emphasized free trade. As long as merchants came to South Africa to do business, the Tang Empire welcomed them.
It's just that at that time, the Portuguese had been taking strict precautions and blocking the west coast of Africa.
It has to be said that the Portuguese have very strong control over the west coast of Africa these days. Even here in Spain, they are no match for the Portuguese and can only pay tolls.
Not to mention other European countries.
The Portuguese blocked the western coastline of Africa, and it was not easy for other European countries to trade with South Africa.
However, after the war ended, the Portuguese gradually relaxed the blockade. Although there were still many restrictions, they would not impose a complete blockade indiscriminately like before, which would not even save the Spaniards' face.
No more.
In this way, South Africa City, the westernmost and southernmost colonial city in the empire, instantly became a super market.
From Europe, mainly the Portuguese and Spanish, followed by the newly emerged English in recent years, and some Dutch, in short, there are all kinds of people, these businessmen from all over Europe came to South Africa
Behind the city.
Crying and shouting to buy various goods from the Tang Dynasty, especially the three major items of silk, porcelain and perfume.
Those merchants who were lucky enough to snap up perfume and other in-demand goods immediately loaded the ships and set sail back to Europe. However, the material reserves in the South African city were insufficient and supplies were not available for a while. More merchants from various countries were still empty-handed.
Maybe they are waiting for the arrival of the local merchant fleet of the Tang Empire!