Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 770 Across the Ocean ([-])

Just as Shao Shude entered Jinan city proudly, two east coast expedition ships were mooring at the wharf of Bandar Abbas, a new port city along the coast of the Persian Gulf.This port city, which flourished in 1623, is now prospering with the continuous expansion of trade.

Although the Dutch East India Company ended the raw silk, cotton cloth and spice trade in Bandar Abbas a few years ago, this did not affect the prosperity of the city.The British East India Company quickly took over the role of the Dutch and then opened up a profitable short-distance trade between Surat and Abbas.

It is fair to say that Persia is still of considerable value in the eyes of the Western world—particularly the Habsburgs, Venice, Poland, and Moscow—today.Since Timur, the Western world, under the military pressure of the Ottoman Empire, has been looking for a ruler who rose behind enemy lines.At first they took a fancy to Uzon Hassan of the Aries Dynasty. After the rise of the Safavid Dynasty in Persia, they sent people here to form an alliance with Persia, which was repeatedly bullied by the Ottomans, to fight against the Turks.

In 1569, the Russian mission arrived in Persia to discuss the joint fight against the Turks.This mission brought Persia for the first time powerful weapons from the West, and this is the secret of the Turks' repeated victory over the Persians: 30 artillery pieces and 4000 matchlock guns.

After that, the Persians also took the initiative to contact the Western world several times, mainly the Venetians and Russians, hoping to launch an offensive against the Ottoman Empire with these countries in order to improve Persia’s passive strategic situation, but always due to inconvenient communication or failed for other reasons.The most famous one was when the Persian envoy arrived in Moscow in 1586 and proposed to the tsar to reward Darbanda and Baku in exchange for the Russians attacking the Turks from the north, but a rebellion broke out in Russia at that time, so the matter was dropped.

Generally speaking, in the past 100 years, Western countries have been engaging with the Persian Safavid Dynasty intermittently, and signed many agreements with the nature of offensive and defensive alliances, but they are always limited by various difficulties. It failed to achieve a substantial strategic goal of attacking the Turks.

On the contrary, the Turks relied on their own army honed in years of war with the West, as well as advanced weapons and equipment and tactical concepts, and repeatedly won victories on the western border of Persia, and captured the Mesopotamia of present-day Iraq (at that time, where the Persians lived). area), and forced Persia to move the capital again and again, and it was extremely embarrassing.

Of course, the above are old calendars.With the advent of the Age of Discovery, the Portuguese, the Dutch, and the British came to the Persian Gulf successively. Among them, the Portuguese blatantly occupied the Emirate of Hormuz, which was originally subject to the Persian Kingdom, for a hundred years. Other surrounding areas, including Bahrain and Muscat, expelled Persian and Arab merchants, monopolized the trade in the Arabian Sea, and were arrogant.

The arrival of Western ships opened a whole new window for the Persians.The Persians were particularly interested in the muskets and cannons they brought with them, as these provided a bonus to the combat effectiveness of their armies.The Persians have never gotten rid of the shadow of the Ottomans, and the Turkmen and Uzbeks in the northeast have never given up harassing the territory of the Safavid Dynasty. In addition, they have disputes over the ownership of Kandahar by the Mughal Dynasty. Therefore, the Persians He has always been very concerned about strengthening the combat effectiveness of the army, and linked the number of weapons brought by foreigners with the most important Persian commodity they could take away-raw silk.

Under the reminder of the fellow British, the people on the east coast naturally prepared a batch of sophisticated weapons and equipment early on: 30 muskets, [-] sabers, [-] sets of full-body armor, [-] various types of artillery, and a little matching gunpowder. and shells.These weapons were provided to Persia's elite unit "Ghuran". This army is similar to the Turks' Ganishari Army. It is mainly composed of Georgian and Armenian slave soldiers. It is equipped with muskets and cannons. The Turkmen military nobles (with about [-] cavalry in their hands) became the most important armed force of the Safavid dynasty.

Captain Shay, as the special envoy to the east coast, lived directly in the British East India Company trading station in Bandar Abbas under the leadership of the middleman, the British East India Company businessman Mr. Smith.They didn't wait long in the trading station, and soon, the servants in the trading station sent news: their request to go to the capital Isfahan was approved, and someone would come to accompany them to set off soon.In addition, the quality of the weapons brought was very good, and the leader of Ghulan was very satisfied, and gave a price of 4.5 Tumans (the Persian currency unit, 70 Tumans are equivalent to about 100 East Bank silver dollars).According to the rules, these expenses will be deducted with raw silk, and when they leave, they can go to the wharf to pick up about [-] dan (approximately [-] kilograms) of raw silk.

"The price is so reasonable." Mr. Smith raised his beard in surprise when he heard the news, "The Dutch have been doing business here for so many years, and the price of each load of raw silk would cost 1920 guilders, otherwise they wouldn't have Don't even try to take a single piece of raw silk from here. God, five thousand tumans, seventy bales of raw silk, that's a fair price. Honestly, we East India Company can't get it at such a low price. It seems , The quality of the weapons you provided is really not something to brag about, those red turban Gehulan must be very satisfied, this is really enviable, you obviously made a good start."

"Thank you Tianzun, our efforts across the ocean were not in vain." Captain Shay murmured, then turned to Mr. Smith and said: "Of course I also thank Mr. Smith, it is you and your sailors who are selfless With the help of you, we were able to come to the magical place of Bandar Abbas. Now it seems that we are one step closer to our dream. Don’t worry, Mr. Smith, whether this time things come true or not, you will be the future Distinguished guest of the East Coast people, the benefits we promised to you will be fulfilled one by one."

"I have never doubted your character." Mr. Smith smiled, and then said: "Then, shall we set off now?"

"Of course, I can't wait."

Bandar Abbas, formerly known as Gumbolon, was originally a Portuguese colony. In 1613, Governor Fars of the Safavid Dynasty led his army to destroy the Portuguese fortress, occupied the port city, and built a larger fortress on this basis. In 1623, Abbas I captured the island of Hormuz with the help of the British fleet, so he ordered the expansion of its fortress, upgraded it to a city, and renamed it Bandar Abbas.

Therefore, Bandar Abbas is not so much a commercial city, but its military color is quite strong.There are a considerable number of troops stationed inside and outside the city, including the "Old Army" of the Turkmen military nobles (tribal soldiers, mainly cavalry), and the "Gehulan" troops equivalent to the central army of the Safavid Dynasty (infantry, mainly artillery).However, these have nothing to do with the people on the east coast. They have no territorial ambitions for Persia, only commercial plans.To be precise, it is intended to export goods from the east bank to Persia, and then bring Persian raw silk back to the east coast to support the production of the Rocha textile factory.

Persia has a vast territory, a large population, and is a typical feudal dynasty. It is a good trade partner for the East Coast Republic.A large amount of surplus textiles, munitions, and metal utensils on the east coast can be dumped here in large quantities-although it is difficult, because any normal country will not allow a large amount of its own silver to flow out, but how will you know if you don't try? It can provide the east coast with a vital textile raw material: raw silk.

Raw silk is very important on the East Coast today.In the middle of the 17th century when mercantilism prevailed, with the end of the Thirty Years War, trade frictions between countries began to intensify.In fact, this is not specifically aimed at a certain country. The main reason is that the habit of the miser of the monarchs of European countries, coupled with the impulse of the national capital of various countries to expel foreign goods after the recovery of industry and commerce, all these will make the business of the East Coast Republic resume again. It's not as easy as it used to be.

Especially at the moment when all countries are doing their own textile industry, the East Coast textiles, which are as dazzling as fireflies in the dark night, will surely become the target of public criticism, and will be the first to be double rejected by the governments of various countries and national capitalists.The footsteps of the trade war are actually not too far away from the people on the east coast.

In order to deal with this possible situation, the East Bank Republic Administration Council and the General Administration of Textile Industry have adopted various proactive policies in the past two years.Among them, the launch of silk fabrics (including pure silk fabrics, and various silk-cotton, silk-linen and other blended series) is a major move for East Coast Textiles to expand its market and consolidate its advantages.

This kind of product does not have any similar competitors in the market, and it is the darling of the market just like the British launched new products such as kether, especially its silk gimmick and relatively low price, most of which can provide people on the east coast with higher The profits will also be an important weapon for the textile industry of the East Coast Republic to survive the long and suffocating trade competition.And this, in fact, is the reason why the ships of the people from the east coast traveled thousands of miles to the Kingdom of Persia.

On June 6, Captain Given appointed Sergeant Esposito to temporarily manage the two expedition ships, and then, with several entourages and credentials issued by the Executive Committee, under the escort of Mr. The capital of the Favid Dynasty - Isfahan.There he will, on behalf of the East Coast Republic of China, request full trade with the Kingdom of Persia.

(End of this chapter)