My Daming New Empire

Spices were also essential at Roman funerals.The Romans were keen on cremation, and cinnamon was the protagonist in their funerals. The Romans believed that cremation with cinnamon symbolized that the soul of the dead would be reborn like a phoenix, so no matter how the Roman Empire changed, the Romans’ love for spices was always as one.

Even smearing spices and offering incense to someone was a prerequisite for being king in Rome.

Europeans have a long history and tradition of edible spices, which has led to a rising demand.

In a few decades, the European Age of Discovery will rise.The original reason was not for porcelain, not for tea, not for gold and silk, but for spices.

Because porcelain can be replaced by tinware, tea can be replaced by grass juice, silk can be replaced by linen, but spices are irreplaceable.

Before modern times, spices were not just seasonings for preserving meat, because their value was much higher than that of meat. Doing so was like setting diamonds on cheap cloth shoes, which was putting the cart before the horse.

Zhu Zhanji heard a joke that was not a joke in his previous life.

An Archbishop of Cologne in Germany, who can elect one of the seven electors of the Holy Roman Emperor. These seven electors are four laymen plus three archbishops, such as the Archbishop of Mainz and the Archbishop of Cologne. They can directly elect the emperor of the Roman Empire .

He crossed the Alps to meet the Pope of Rome.As a result, the archbishop died of illness halfway through the journey.

Died on the mountainside, there is no spice, and there is no way to smear spice to preserve it, what should I do?Otherwise, the corpse will be rotten and smelly in a few days, and it can't be taken back.

His entourage also really has a trick, just cook it for him, and he won't be rotten if it is cooked.But the workmanship of these attendants was too bad, and the fire was not in place. In the end, the archbishop was boiled into a pot of broth, leaving only a skeleton in it.There was no other way, so I had to pour out the soup and take the skeleton back to the cathedral.

Other bishops were buried with whole bodies, but this bishop was buried with a set of bones.So just from this point, it can explain how strong the desire of Europeans for this spice is.

At that time, people superstitiously believed that a foul-smelling corpse was a sign of a fallen soul. If a person had a holy soul, even if he died, his corpse would smell of spices. This made the Christian Church the largest collector of spices.

Spices are no longer just food, but something closely related to European life.From the baptism at birth to the burial in the coffin of death, spices are inseparable.

In the Middle Ages, the Arab Empire rose and the trade between the East and the West was cut off, making it more and more difficult for Europeans to obtain spices.

That's why Europeans started to do business with this Arab. The Arab is a very shrewd businessman who transports oriental spices to Venice. The Arab is the first dealer, the second boss in Venice, and the wholesaler then wholesales all over Europe.Then the price of this spice shipped from Asia to Venice is equivalent to fifty times the origin.

Although the price may be slightly different, it is not a big difference.

Storing so many spices is actually a hassle.Yu Xian of the Ningbo Shipbuilding Department has mentioned many times that the budget of the Ningbo Shipbuilding Department has been overrun just to store these spices, because it costs a lot just to build the warehouse.

Because Daming also produces a lot of spices, cinnamon, cardamom kernels, cloves, pepper, and star anise are almost available, but the sales volume is not large.Most of them cannot be sold and can only be stored in warehouses.

But for Zhu Zhanji, all these are cost-effective, suppressing all objections.

This time he went to the West, he planned to open the sea route and sell these spices to European countries.

Of course, in order to successfully occupy the European trade market, it is not only about business, it may also require force deterrence or even suppression.

Those disobedient European city-state lords, as well as the Arabs and Turks who monopolized the European spice trade at this time, may all become stumbling blocks for Ming's economic conquest of Europe.

In another world, he wants to re-implement the unequal treaties and unequal trade that were knocked open by Europe with guns.

However, how to get to Europe is also a big problem.

Although taking the sea route costs the least and is the most convenient, it is also the farthest and the least safe.

Today there is no Suez Canal, only the ancient canal.Because he had killed many people here and caused an international dispute, he knew the history of the Suez Canal very well.

In the eighth century BC, the pharaoh of ancient Egypt built an ancient canal here by borrowing a tributary of the Nile River.

In the sixth century BC, after the Persians occupied Egypt, they dredged the canal, but they still needed to be towed by manpower.

In the third century BC, when Qin Shihuang unified China, Alexander's expeditionary force entered the Ptolemy family in Egypt and improved the canal.Manually operated sluice gates and reservoirs help the canal to have water storage and regulation capabilities.

The canal was able to sail independently, and it was used by the Romans and Arabs until the twelfth century.

It's just that the ancient canals are not as good as modern canals in all aspects.The increasingly unstable water level of the Nile and the high maintenance costs made the Egyptians finally abandon the canal.

Many caravans will choose to enter the Nile River from Alexandria, and then land on the banks of the Nile River, and use camel caravans to transport the goods to the port on the Red Sea for transshipment.

Therefore, if the Ming Fleet wants to go to Europe, it cannot use this canal and can only bypass the whole of Africa.

As for the later Venetian merchants wanting to dig the Suez Canal for spices, that will happen decades later, and there is no such plan at all.

Zhu Zhanji doesn't worry about anything else. He is very familiar with the hydrological conditions all over the world, and he will never get lost. He will also bring enough vegetables, dried vegetables, and fruits to supplement vitamins.

But the typhoon of this era is the biggest difficulty for oceangoing.

Even the giant steel ships of later generations seem so helpless when facing the sea, let alone the wooden ships of today.

The Pacific Ocean and the Indian Ocean are easy to handle, as long as the typhoon period is avoided, there will be no major problems.

However, the hydrological conditions of the Atlantic Ocean are dangerous except for the Arctic Ocean. There are not only the threat of typhoons, but also the most dangerous undercurrents and huge waves in the world. This cannot be solved by avoiding the typhoon period at all.

The warm Atlantic Current brings a warm climate to Europe, but it also makes this ocean seem extremely dangerous.

Zhu Zhanji made many marks on a world map. These strongholds are all strongholds that Ming needs to occupy.

Now, he drew a circle and put a question mark on the location of the Suez Canal.

It can be said that this is the most important channel in the next few hundred years, and Zhu Zhanji has not made up his mind whether to occupy it or not.

Defeating the Mamluk Dynasty, which was about to collapse, was easy for Ming.Timur hit Damascus at the beginning and left after looting Damascus, let alone the Ming army with firearms.

It was also easy for Daming to dig the canal after it was knocked down. Several Venetian merchants had the financial resources, let alone Daming.

However, the maintenance after the excavation of the canal, including the complicated situation around it, will involve a lot of energy from Daming.In the next few hundred years, this place will be a huge powder keg.

If there are fewer people in the Daming faction, it will not be able to hold on, and if there are more people in the faction, it will not be worthwhile.So before getting in touch with the Mamluk king and understanding the specific situation, Zhu Zhanji was a little undecided.

He sighed, and wait and see, if the trade is normalized by then, and the annual profit will be more, maybe if he doesn't dig the canal, someone will urge him to do it.

This time, let's go around from South Africa. By the way, we will also build two strongholds in South Africa to prepare for the future occupation there.

(I am going on a business trip to Zhengzhou today, and tomorrow's update will be a little later. Please forgive me)

Thanks to the distant Xingyun honey, who fell in love with me easily, lecwhite, Shangguansha, super cowardly hairball, Master Huoyun, little lunatic, seeing people with lights, I spit you for the reward, thank you for your support

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As the capital of Ming Dynasty, Yingtian Mansion has always been the most prosperous place in Ming Dynasty.There are outstanding people here, guarding the north and south of the Ming Dynasty, and the taxation of the entire Jiangnan continuously nourishes this place.

Whether it is the north-south tax adjustment, or traveling in horses and boats, including some jokes made by envoys from all over the world.They are all topics of interest to the common people in this metropolis with a population of over 150 million.

The recent Yingtian Mansion has become much more lively. The descendants of vassal kings from all over the Ming Dynasty, like those envoys who have never seen the world, have also caused many funny things that make people laugh and cry.

For example, Zhu Zhixuan, the son of King Qing, grew up in the desolate Weizhou since he was a child. After he came to the capital, he fell in love with the amorous beauty of the Qinhuai River, and lingered in the land of fireworks.Although he was young and handsome, he was kicked out of the brothel by the bustard because he couldn't afford the sleeping money.

Zhu Youdun, the prince of Zhou, is sought after by the Land of Fireworks because of his outstanding screenwriting talent. Although he is nearly forty years old, there are countless beauties who are willing to recommend themselves.

Prince Ning's son, Zhu Panshi, wanted to join the young army with a shameless face. He was willing to pretend to be a small soldier and train with the young army, but within three days, he couldn't bear the hardship and quit in embarrassment.

Zhu Jizhen, the ten-year-old son of Shen Wang, came to the capital and became obsessed with going to the zoo to see those animals. If he didn't go every day, he would cry and make noises, which made a group of followers very distressed.