The Rise of the European Emperor

What is the most profitable business in the world? Of course it's a monopoly! Just like Venice, the mercury-plated tin foil glass mirror with very low technical content, because it is an exclusive business, and the confidentiality work is in place, it is too dark to dare to ask a lion to ask for 10,000 or 20,000 gold coins.

Marin, who came from later generations, also knows how profitable companies with monopoly positions such as Shifting Freezing, Electric Power and Two Barrels of Oil are profitable. Moreover, don't look at mobile telecommunications, etc. at the beginning of the dog's brain, bringing benefits to the common people. But later on, I don't know who came up with the idea. After the heads of several companies were swapped, because they were all "our own people", the price war stopped, and they no longer played dog brains on each other. Several companies that were originally split up to engage in competition began to gang up and work together to harvest wool...

That aside, Marin couldn't let Portugal and Spain in if he wanted to get the most out of the Ming silk and porcelain trade.

Portugal has committed suicide by itself, and has greatly offended the Ming Dynasty. It is difficult to obtain the opportunity to trade with the Ming Dynasty in a short period of time. And Spain has not offended the Ming Dynasty, and plans to copy its own methods, how can this be done?

You know, Spain has already taken half of the huge profits from the spice trade from Portugal. If they were to get a share of the trade with the Ming Dynasty, then Spain wouldn't have to fly?

In particular, Spain is also a maritime power. If you share the huge profits from trade with the Ming Dynasty, it will be a disaster. Because, they will have more strength to compete for America.

So, despite the fact that the two countries have a good relationship on the surface. However, Marin also did not allow the Spaniards to take a share of the Ming trade. Back stabbing or something, it's just a basic operation...

This is not just a simple interest dispute, but a national fortune dispute! You must know that in the original history, after Spain occupied the Philippines, relying solely on the smuggled Manila galleon trade, between 1 million and 3 million silver dollars flowed into the Ming Dynasty each year. But did the Spaniards lose? No loss! They earn more!

That is to say, the average Spaniard gains from the Manila galleon trade every year is worth at least one million gold coins...

In this era of rampant mercenaries, gold coins mean military power!

According to the daily salary of a German mercenary of 3 pfennig, the annual salary of an ordinary German mercenary is about 1825 gold coins. And 1 million gold coins can hire 5.47 million mercenaries for a year...

That is to say, if Spain can obtain a channel for trade with the Ming Dynasty, it can raise tens of thousands of troops a year. If it is used for shipbuilding to develop the navy, the scale is also very considerable. You know, a Spanish Karak warship of two or three hundred tons now costs only a few thousand gold coins (excluding bronze cannons). The annual income of 1 million gold coins can maintain a strong fleet...

Therefore, regardless of the interests of China or the future of the country, Marin could not allow Spain to be involved in the trade with the Ming Dynasty. As long as he dares to stretch his claws, he will be cut off...

For French missionaries, Marin plans to send someone to the Holy See to find them. There are quite a few French missionaries there, and there are also some who do not love their motherland, France. As long as the money is in place, it would be no problem to bribe them to preach in the Ming Dynasty, and then, at the right time, to stab Spain.

Of course, the loyalty of people who pay for it is very problematic.

For example, he could go to Daming for money and stab Spain. But at the same time, he can also report the advanced production technology of the Ming Dynasty to the French royal family for money in exchange for rich rewards.

There are too many good things in the Ming Dynasty, the production secrets of porcelain, more advanced papermaking, and advanced agricultural technology with a yield of several hundred kilograms per mu... These are all very important to France and extremely valuable...

So, while buying this man to stab Spain, Marin is also ready to kill him...

Marin wouldn't be too hard on him if the man had just stayed there and preached and stabbed Spain as planned. However, once he revealed that he wanted to use the technology acquired in the Ming Dynasty to exchange the last idea with the French King François I, Marin's people would immediately kill him.

You know, Kong Tai bought many of his subordinates in the Ming Dynasty, all of whom were natives of the Ming Dynasty. Among these people, there are resourceful scholars, some thieves, and some are desperadoes. Once the French priest shows signs of something wrong, the outlaws can take action and kill him...

As for who the Holy See will send to replace him after he is killed, it must be a missionary from Beihai Kingdom to Guangzhou. Their own missionaries don't have to worry about betraying themselves. After all, before choosing to send to the Ming Dynasty, Marin must have picked a reliable one.

In short, French missionaries are easy to buy and easy to kill. Kong Tai is now throwing a lot of money in the Ming Dynasty. Maybe the eyeliner cannot be spread throughout the Ming Dynasty, but it is enough to place enough eyeliner in several cities such as Guangzhou, Fuzhou, Xiamen and Ningbo. After all, hiring a clever intelligence officer and giving 1 tael a month is more than enough. After all, that's an annual income of 12 taels of silver. For many gangsters, this is a very high salary. You must know that many skilled craftsmen can only get 300 yuan a month in salary.

As for the desperadoes responsible for the murders, the money needed is not much. A few taels of silver was enough to hire them to kill disobedient French priests. You must know that during the Battle of Luowan, Zheng Zhilong offered incentive rewards to his soldiers but only 2 taels of silver per person, which made his soldiers scream with excitement. Killing a Western Yi missionary, it is estimated that for ten or eight taels of silver, you can hire a dead man who is willing to do it...

...

However, after sabotaging the Spanish "fake tributary" plan? What will Spain do?

Marin fell into contemplation. After thinking for a long time, Marin felt that the Spaniards might choose to repeat their old tricks and go north from the Spice Islands to occupy the Philippines. Then, based in the Philippines again, I surrendered to the Ming Dynasty for the second time... If surrender is rejected, maybe, the Spaniards will follow the old path of history in the future. Based in Manila, the smugglers of the Ming Dynasty are welcome to come...

Marin remembers that in order to attract smugglers from the Ming Dynasty to Manila, the Spaniards offered a high price of 240 taels for each raw silk, which was only slightly lower than the 260 taels of Japan. In the Ming Dynasty, a strand of raw silk, even the finest Huzhou silk, sold for less than one hundred taels of silver. For ordinary raw silk, it was only fifty or sixty taels of silver per load in Daming.

That is to say, even if Marin tried every means to destroy Spain's way of defrauding the tributary trade qualification, the Spaniards could still occupy the Philippines and use it as a base to engage in smuggling.

At present, there seems to be no country in the Philippine Islands, only a small Sulu country on the southwest side of the Upper Sulu Islands. And Luzon Island and other places in the north are still unoccupied places...

"That's right! The Philippines...no owner..." Marin was suddenly inspired...