The end of the Ming Dynasty swept the world

Chapter 551 Globe and Rubber
The earliest extant globe in the world was invented by German navigator and geographer Beheim in 1492. At that time, navigators used astrolabes to measure the altitude of the sun, moon, and stars to calculate time and latitude.The use of brass instead of a wooden astrolabe was probably initiated by him.He may have sailed with D. Cow to the west coast of Africa (1485-1486). After returning to Nuremberg in 1490, with the assistance of the painter Glockendon, he began to draw the globe he designed. In 1492, he completed a globe with a diameter of 20 inches.

Because this globe is based on the map in Ptolemy's Geographical Compendium, the world topography is both inaccurate and outdated, on this globe the Indian Ocean is an ocean extending east and west, specifically the west coast of Africa, wrong It is astonishing how many.

The production of Chinese globes began in the Yuan Dynasty, under the supervision of the Western Regions astronomer Zamarudin for the Yuan Dynasty. The spherical surface reflects the distribution of sea and land on the earth's surface, which belongs to the original drawing method.After the Italian missionary Matteo Ricci came to China during the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty, in order to teach China the theory of the circle of the earth in ancient Greece, he personally made globes and wrote "The Complete Map of Kun Yu Wan Guo".

Affected by it, in the 31st year of Ming Wanli (1603), scholar Li Zhizao made a globe.

Around the third year of Chongzhen (1630), the Ming court also made a globe.The latitude and longitude nets are drawn on these globes, which expand the latitudes of only 27 observation points on the previous globes in our country, including the equator, the Tropic of Cancer, and the Arctic and Antarctic circles. The Wuzhou said, so that the people of the current dynasty can understand the new knowledge of the great geographical discovery of the West.

But these things were not appreciated or cared about in the Ming Dynasty at that time.

People in the Ming Dynasty basically didn't know Wuzhou said, and Ding Yi's army basically didn't know there was Europe before he came to Dayuan, and he didn't even know that the place where Ming Dynasty was called Asia.

"It was brought by a Portuguese missionary. He wanted to exchange five thousand catties of white sugar, and I exchanged it for two thousand catties." Yao Xinhan said with a smile, "Dashan said that we have lost blood."

"Is this broken ball worth two thousand catties?" Zhao Dashan murmured.

"It's a bit accurate." Ding Yi took a look at the globe and turned it around: "Yes, yes, find a painter, press this, and make a new world map. If it is not accurate, I can standardize it."

Of course Ding Yi can't draw a world map silently, but if he can draw the approximate location of each continent, no one will know if it is accurate.

Yao Xinhan was very happy to see that Ding Yi liked it.

Zhu Xiangyang said with a smile at this time: "We have also exchanged corn seeds. It turns out that someone in Guangxi planted them the first time."

Corn was introduced to Guangxi in 1531, where it was called Yumai. At this time, corn had been planted in several provinces, but the area was very small and it had not been fully promoted.

Zhu Chaoyang bought it from a Guangdong businessman and paid a thousand catties of sugar.

"Okay, corn is also good, have you planted it? How is the yield?"

"We started planting this year. We planted it for a season, and the yield per mu is about [-] catties."

When Ding Yi heard that the output was not enough, it was only about three shi. Da Yuan’s rice and wheat could also produce three shi, and he could grow two crops of rice.

But Zhu Xiangyang said that it can be rotated with rice, so that the production capacity per mu can reach about five shi.

In fact, after Ding Yi's experiments, the high-yield sweet potatoes, potatoes, and corns in ancient times also failed to achieve the expected results, but in general, they are much higher than ordinary rice and wheat, and can still increase food production.

He thought for a while: "You can decide how to plant here, but I have a little idea that rice, wheat, corn, sweet potatoes, and potatoes must be guaranteed. There must be surplus food that can be sold for money.”

The ones that can be sold for money now, of course, are rice, so everyone nodded to show that they understood what Mr. Ding meant.

Everyone was watching these messy things, and someone brought a black and white thing, which looked the size of a fist.

"Look, my lord, it feels soft and elastic." Yao Xinhan handed it to Ding Yi.

Zhao Dashan murmured: "This broken gadget costs a hundred catties? Yao Xinhan, did you steal it for yourself? Giving him ten catties of sugar would be a big deal."

Knowing that he was joking, Yao Xinhan also blushed: "Fart your mother, what am I doing swallowing so much candy?"

Ding Yi took it in his hand and squeezed it, his face was full of surprise, then he lowered his head and smelled it, haha ​​he laughed: "This value, this value, good stuff, hahaha."

It turned out to be natural rubber.

When Columbus went to the American continent in 1493, he saw the local tribes playing with rubber balls. They saw Indian children and young people playing a game, singing songs and throwing a small ball to each other. High, sticky in the hand and has a smoky smell.They also saw that the Indians smeared some white thick liquid on their clothes, so that they would not soak up the rain in rainy days;From this, Europe initially learned about the elasticity and water resistance of rubber, but did not really understand the source of rubber.

Columbus brought rubber back to Europe and let Europeans know rubber.

But until 1693, the French scientist Lacan arrived in South America and saw the indigenous people playing this kind of ball.

The thinking and vision of scientists and soldiers are different. He traced the root cause of this kind of ball, only to know that this kind of ball is made of thick liquid that flows out of a tree called rubber tree by Indians.

In 1736, the French scientist Condamine brought back detailed information about rubber trees from Peru, and published "A Brief Travel Notes on the South American Inland". Pay attention to.

After that until 1876, the British Wickham collected rubber seeds from the mouth of the Amazon River in Brazil, transported them back to the Royal Botanic Gardens in the UK for sowing, and tried them in Ceylon (Sri Lanka), Indonesia, and Singapore, all of which were successful.

This is the beginning of the establishment of rubber trees in the Far East. Since then, the cultivated rubber industry has developed very rapidly.

On the Chinese side, it was not until Japan occupied Dayuan that rubber trees began to be planted in Daxuan. Hundreds of years have passed by this time.

"What is that man doing, and when will he come?" Ding Yi asked quickly.

"Plier is here. He claims to be from the Shenluo Empire." Yao Xinhan said: "He is waiting for a batch of raw silk these days, and after purchasing the raw silk, he will go to Persia (Iran) together."

"Call him here quickly." Ding Yi said hastily.

After a while, Prior came to Ding Yi with an interpreter.

Poole is in his 30s, blond, tall and handsome.

"Mr. Prior, this is our Lord Ding, the actual owner and real master of Tainan City." Yao Xinhan introduced to him.

With the help of an interpreter, Ding Yi quickly chatted with him.

"What's this thing called, Mr. Prior." Ding Yi asked.

It is said that Prier has two boats, and he is doing business everywhere. He rolled his eyes: "Dear Lord Ding, in our country, this thing is called the jewel of the crown, and it is usually used to make ornaments on the crown. Very precious."

Ding Yi laughed, and said to the translator: "You tell him that his two boats will be confiscated, and he actually challenged the actual owner of Tainan City, the most noble of the Ming Dynasty who has hundreds of thousands of troops and millions of people. Master Ding, he is dead."

As soon as the translator finished speaking, Priel's expression changed drastically.

"Come here, drag it down and chop it up." Ding Yi said again.

(End of this chapter)