My life skills in Daming Liver

Xu Wei was not surprised at all when the Southeast Navy appeared in Nanyang.

The rise of Southeast China is fundamentally about this navy.

Back then, Su Ze started by monopolizing the Ming-Japanese trade. Later, he relied on Shanghai's Anti-Smuggling Corps to train the navy, and this was how he established his current business.

It can even be said that the Southeast was originally founded on the navy.

This is completely different from the previous dynasties in the Central Plains.

The bigger difference is reflected in the maritime policy of the Southeast.

The Southeast attaches great importance to maritime trade and encourages coastal trade. What is more important is the safety of external route trade.

Su Ze said to Xu Wei: "General Lin received intelligence from Nanyang. The Spanish transferred a fleet from Mexico to Manila."

The letter in Xu Wei's hand explained the situation in detail.

Manila is one of the most important ports in Southeast Asia.

The reason why Manila is so important is because of its location and unique geographical features.

Manila is located on the east coast of Manila Bay on Luzon Island, the largest island in Luzon. This is a natural deep-water harbor!

Xu Wei naturally understood what a natural deep-water harbor meant.

Although there are so many coastal areas, there are not many places suitable for deep-water harbors, and they can even be said to be rare.

With such a long coastline in the entire Central Plains, there are not many places suitable for deep-water ports. In this era, deep-water ports are a proper strategic resource.

The most typical example is Yuegang.

Yuegang is not a good port. The rise of Zhangzhou Yuegang is entirely due to policy reasons.

Due to the sea ban policy implemented by the Ming Dynasty, Fuzhou Port and Quanzhou Port, which were originally natural ports, were abandoned. When Su Ze was just a crew member, the largest port in Fujian and even the entire southeast was Yuegang.

Yuegang was chosen because its winding waterways were suitable for smuggling.

In the historical timeline before Su Ze's time travel, Yuegang flourished for a while after the Longqing switch. Because in the early days of the Longqing switch, it was only initially liberalized. There was only one port open to trade, so Yuegang relied on the economy. It thrives because of its status as a special zone, not because of its natural environment.

Later, in the late Longqing period, and even in the Nanming period, more ports on the southeast coast were opened, and Yuegang declined and deteriorated.

In this historical timeline changed by Su Ze, Yuegang's decline is faster.

After comprehensive trade, Fuzhou Port and Quanzhou Port, the two best ports in Fujian, were quickly opened, attracting a large number of merchants.

Quanzhou was a famous port during the Tang and Song Dynasties and was a natural port.

Then Guangzhou's Chaozhou Port and Guangzhou Port also began to rise, constantly robbing merchants.

Even several fishing villages in the northern part of Taiyuan Island have been developed into ports, attracting many merchant ships to dock.

Moon Harbor has declined rapidly, which fully illustrates the important value of natural harbors for maritime trade.

And all of this is just commercial value. A natural port that can dock warships has extraordinary strategic value.

And Manila is such a valuable natural port.

Therefore, from very early on, Manila established a city-state and became the center of the entire Southeast Asian trade.

The Spaniards quickly discovered the value of Manila.

This is related to the Spanish trade routes.

Part of the silver that the Spanish merchant ships obtained from South America would be brought back to the mainland from the Atlantic, while the other part would be brought to Manila.

The silver was used to purchase Eastern goods from Manila, including silk and tea from the Central Plains and spices from the South Seas, all of which were the most popular commodities in Europe.

The Spaniards soon discovered that they could make greater profits by exchanging their silver for these commodities and shipping them back to Spain.

So when Liguez of the Manila advance team wrote to the King of Spain, King Philip II of Spain quickly noticed the value of Nanyang.

What does it mean to be a completely open Central Plains dynasty with free trade?

This is the golden route in the true sense!

It’s definitely not some spice trade run by the Portuguese!

Su Ze said to Xu Wei: "The Spanish and Portuguese still belong to the first stage of the Ocean World Kingdom."

SeaWorld Kingdom?

This is the first time Xu Wei has heard such a statement. This must be Su Ze's own definition.

Su Ze said: "In the first stage of the Ocean World Kingdom, they no longer stick to local production, but spread colonies all over the world, using their military and technological advantages to extract gold, silver and various resources from backward areas in exchange for Wealth is brought back to the homeland.”

Xu Wei nodded. Su Ze seemed to be right. Spain was indeed like this.

Su Ze said: "Spain is a powerful country in Europe, but it will decline soon."

Xu Wei was a little confused.

Among the Westerners who came to the Central Plains, the Spanish and Portuguese were the largest, with a small number of British.

But all these Western businessmen recognized that Spain was a powerful country.

And because of the colonies in South America, the Spanish royal family was very wealthy.

Portugal, a mere small country, has become an important country through maritime trade, so Xu Wei believed Su Ze's statement, "The mainland represents the present, and the ocean represents the future."

This is also the reason why the Southeast is vigorously developing its navy.

Such a powerful Spain, in Su Ze's eyes, is like a withered bone in a grave?

Su Ze said: "Spain's problem is that his wealth came too easily."

“The American continent was an untapped treasure trove, and the Spanish had a head start.”

"Those tribes in the Americas were like guilty children carrying a treasure. They were easily robbed by the Spaniards of the wealth they had accumulated for thousands of years, and fell into a state of national subjugation and annihilation."

Xu Wei also sighed. Naturally, he would not mourn for the Native Americans he had never met thousands of miles away, but there had been such a moment of sinking in the history of the Central Plains.

A nation will be beaten when it falls behind. This is a fear that goes deep into the bones of all Ming Dynasty scholars.

"Spain's wealth was taken from children, with very little effort."

"Just like people who get rich overnight, what will they do with their wealth after they get it?"

Xu Wei thought of the many reports in newspapers today about the myth of sudden wealth. He had also followed some news. It was easy for those nouveau riche to fall into enjoyment and destroy their wealth.

Su Ze said: "The wealth in Spain only flows into the hands of the royal family and nobles, and is only used for their ever-expanding material desires and desire to conquer the land. However, ordinary people in Spain not only do not receive wealth, but instead have to work for the royal family and the nobles. The aristocrat’s unlimited desires foot the bill.”

"The Spaniards, on the other hand, do not produce goods themselves, but are just transporters of wealth."

"In the Spanish trade, they were simply plundering gold and silver, or selling goods from the East to the West."

"Even the Spanish royal family purchased many consumer goods from France and Britain."

"Spain did not gain anything from this colonization."

What Su Ze said is of course true. In fact, apart from shipbuilding, Spain's industry and commerce did not develop much at all during the colonial wave.

Even the shipbuilding industry is just relying on the old foundation. Spain was occupied by a certain religion in the Middle Ages, which brought a relatively advanced shipbuilding industry.

Then in the shipbuilding competition, half a century later it fell behind the United Kingdom and the Netherlands, and even its most advantageous industry was eventually lost.

What Su Ze was talking about was indeed the history of Spain. In the historical timeline before he traveled through time, Philip II launched a war with violence. Spain could not support itself with the wealth it plundered in South America, and the royal family went bankrupt several times.

This also allowed subsequent Western countries to see the weakness of Spain. Afterwards, it can be said that France, Britain and other European powers took turns serving Spain. Until modern times, Spain was still languishing.

To put it bluntly, the Age of Discovery and the Industrial Revolution are actually two different things.

The wealth brought by the Age of Discovery was not necessarily invested in social change and transformed into the power of the Industrial Revolution.

Only Britain, which had made two trips, won this time's competition and entered the golden age of an empire on which the sun never sets.

Although Southeast has not caught up with the Age of Navigation, Su Ze is confident that Southeast can catch up with the Industrial Revolution.

It's just that the current Southeast Navy is actually not strong enough to face the Western Navy.

Su Ze is thinking about Manila.

Regardless of colonialism or not, important trading ports must still be occupied.

In fact, cities like Manila are essentially ownerless.

This is incomprehensible to the unified Central Plains dynasty, but in the diversity of civilizations in this world, this is a normal phenomenon.

It is not that there are no countries in Luzon. For example, Jala is a country established by the Malays and once paid tribute to the Ming Dynasty.

However, these countries are not strong, have no effective governance at all, and cannot even clearly define their own national borders.

In other words, the concept of territory is too advanced and too progressive for these countries.

There are also some countries, such as the princes in India, who don’t have much awareness of territory. Western colonists sold a lot of land themselves. For example, Portugal’s largest city in India, Goa, was brought from India. Bought from the prince.

Not to mention the current America and Africa, it's a first-come-first-served basis, and some lands even the colonists don't bother to ask for.

This era can be said to be an untapped treasure house!