The Rise of the European Emperor

The Rise of the European Emperor 1519 Author Taishang Laoniu has a total of 3023 words

Lack of money is certain, even in the whole of Europe, no matter which country is short of money. At this moment, Marin estimates that India is probably the one that lacks the most gold and silver. The Ming Dynasty has not opened trade with Europe, so the Ming Dynasty is also short of money, gold, silver and copper, so prices are cheap. Unlike India, India has been trading pepper and other spices with Europe since the Roman Empire. Although some Arab merchants made a lot of money as middlemen, India itself also made a lot of gold and silver. For thousands of years, Europeans have spent a lot of gold and silver to buy Indian spices every year. Some of these gold and silver were earned by Arab merchants, and some flowed into India. However, most of the gold and silver earned by Arab merchants flowed into India. Because, in addition to importing spices from India and reselling them to Europeans, Arab merchants also needed to import a large amount of materials from India. For example, Uzi steel for making Damascus scimitars, as well as various materials such as sugar, grain, cotton, timber, and even horses. After all, there are many deserts in the Arabian region and the products are poor, so it is necessary to import a large amount of living materials from India, which is rich in products. Therefore, although Arab businessmen made a lot of money, most of the money they earned was used to buy cheap materials in India. Therefore, most of the gold and silver used by Europeans to buy spices for thousands of years fell into the pockets of Indians. It is precisely because there is a lot of gold and silver that Indians have developed the habit of wearing gold ornaments all over their bodies. This habit is still popular in India in later generations. When Indian girls get married, unless the family is really difficult, they will basically wear gold ornaments on their bodies. No way, the Europeans sent too much gold to buy spices, and they didn't want to wear it to show off. Could it be moldy in the warehouse? In addition to letting Indian women wear gold and silverware all over their bodies, Indians believe in Hinduism, and there is also the habit of believers donating large amounts of gold to Hindu temples. As a result, there are a lot of gold hidden in Hindu temples in India. Marin remembers that the Padmanabaswamy Temple in Kerala, India, was built in the 16th century, but when the gold treasure was discovered in the 21st century, it actually contained gold and silver jewelry worth 11.2 billion U.S. dollars . As for other Hindu temples, Marin doesn't know if there is so much gold and silver, but it is true that every temple basically has a lot of gold and silver. Because of the lack of money in hand, Marin even had the idea of ​​forming an expeditionary force to grab a vote in India. Marin remembered that he had seen it in the history books. The Fourth Mysore War took place in 1799. After the British army broke through the city of Mysore, it was only the gold, silver and jewels snatched from the Mysore Palace. , worth 12 million gold rupees. The looting of the whole city filled the pockets of ordinary British soldiers with gold and silver. And Arthur Wellesley, the supreme commander of the British army in that war, who later became the Duke of Wellington, also made a lot of money. The Kingdom of Mysore is actually just an inland country in the southern part of the Indian Peninsula. It is not very prosperous and its products are not too rich. If you change to a coastal country, you will have a lot of money. For example, the British East India Company conquered the most important Battle of Plassey in India. After the East India Company army defeated the Bangladeshi coalition forces of the Mughal Empire in India, they looted the treasury of Bangladesh. As a result, the British army looted gold, silver and jewels worth a total of 37 million pounds from the treasury of the Governor-General of Bangladesh. This does not include the £21 million worth of gold, silver and jewels that East India Company soldiers and staff pocketed. All in all, after the Battle of Plassey, the British East India Company snatched a total of 58 million pounds worth of gold, silver and jewelry from the Bangladesh treasury. And according to the gold standard system where one pound was equal to 7.322 grams of gold at that time (one pound was almost equivalent to two ducats), 58 million pounds was equivalent to 116 million ducats... Thinking of this, Marin's saliva would fall I can't wait to organize an expeditionary force to attack Bangladesh immediately. In this era, even if there is no gold, silver and jewelry worth 116 million gold coins in the Bangladesh treasury, there will always be tens of millions. After all, the Bengal region was one of the richest regions of the Mughal Empire in India.

What? You said that Bangladesh is a poor country in future generations? That's right, Bangladesh in later generations is indeed a poor country with a large population, and it is still an agricultural country. But, you have to look at the times. In this era, the world is dominated by agriculture. Then, Bangladesh, which occupies the fertile land of the Ganges Delta, is an out-and-out rich area. The status of this side in India is almost equivalent to the Jiangnan area of ​​the Ming Empire, and it belongs to the most developed agricultural area. And a small southern country like the Kingdom of Mysore, because it is located in an inland plateau, is economically inferior to Bangladesh by many grades... Even the Arabian fairy tale "Arabian Nights" describes A "white rich and beautiful" Bangladeshi princess... Thinking of the huge amount of gold and silver in the Bangladesh treasury, Marin almost lost his mind. But in the end, Marin came to his senses and gave up his plan to send troops to expedition to Bangladesh. Why? Marin is not worried that he will not be able to defeat Bangladesh, which is still part of the Delhi Sultanate, but he is worried that it will not end well after defeating Bangladesh... Right now, both the Spaniards and the Portuguese have entered the Indian region, and Marin will send troops to Bangladesh. Portugal. If these two countries knew that they had robbed Bangladesh of gold, silver and jewelry worth tens of millions of gold coins, they would definitely be mad with jealousy. At that time, the hostility between the two countries against Marin will be light. If he comes back and makes such a publicity again, it is estimated that Marin will be jealous and hated by countries all over Europe. Therefore, although the economic benefits of sending troops to Bangladesh are great, the political risks are also extremely high. The current Marin can't bear this risk, so he can only reluctantly give up. Unless, until Marin has the confidence to crush the Quartet, he can send troops to India and rob Bangladesh's treasury. By the way, Calicut, the trade center, was also robbed, including the temple of Calicut, and it was also demolished to find gold... But now, Marin does not have the strength to single out countries. Therefore, we can only endure not to rob India. However, if you don't think about it, you will see that domestic gold and silver will not be enough. Therefore, Marin has to think of other ways... First of all, Marin thought of the newly acquired Rammelsberg silver near the city of Goslar in the Principality of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel. mine. It is necessary to expand the output of the Rammelsberg Silver Mine, and Marin has invested a lot of manpower and material resources for the expanded production of the Rammelsberg Silver Mine. However, Marin now needs a lot of silver to maintain trade with Daming. Most of the silver from the Rammelsberg Silver Mine happened to be used for trade with the Ming Dynasty. As for the excess, it is estimated that there are not too many, and it is difficult to solve the problem of lack of money in Beihai. Then, Marin thought of sending troops to the Aztec Empire in Mexico to rob. The Aztec Empire had a lot of gold and silver, and if one vote was made, it would immediately alleviate the plight of the North Sea country lacking gold and silver. However, Marin calculated that it would take thousands of troops to conquer Mexico. Marin can't guarantee that thousands of soldiers will keep their mouths shut. If other countries know that Mexico in the Americas has so much gold and silver, something big will happen. Like attacking India, Marin dared to attack Mexico only after ensuring that he had a powerful fleet capable of crushing other countries. Otherwise, you can only endure it for a while. Finally, Marin finally thought of a place to solve the problem of gold and silver shortage - Japan... Japan has extremely rich reserves of gold and silver, and the Iwami Silver Mountain was once the world's largest silver mountain. Moreover, Japan is very far away from Europe, and it is extremely difficult for other countries to go to Japan. Marin plundered Japan's gold and silver. Even if other countries knew about it, they could only envy it, and it was difficult to intervene. After all, Japan's voyages that far are no joke. Such a long nautical distance, without the latitude and longitude coordinate method developed by Marin, it is extremely difficult to find the right route, it is almost a narrow escape. Therefore, the development of gold and silver in Japan can not only alleviate the domestic shortage of gold and silver, but also avoid the coveting of other countries. Therefore, Marin finally made up his mind and ordered the preparation of 10 500-ton warships and 3,000 soldiers and horses to prepare for an expedition to Japan and plunder the gold and silver there... But considering that 3,000 people are not enough to fight against the Japanese daimyo coalition forces, Marin plans to ——Start colonizing Sado Island... Sado Island is far away from the main island of Japan. The island is sparsely populated and weak. Even if there are a few samurai, the 3,000 soldiers sent by Marin have thousands of musketeers, enough to beat those samurai into sieves, and occupying Sado Island is easy. On Sado Island, there are not only Sado Gold Mountain, but also Osu Silver Mountain and Crane Silver Mountain. It is said that during the Edo period, Sado Island produced a total of 78 tons of gold and 2,300 tons of silver, which was an important financial support for the Edo Shogunate of Japan. Attacking Sado Island is much easier than attacking Izumo Country where Iwami Ginzan is located. Moreover, even if the gold and silver mountains are developed, it is not easy to cause beatings by the Japanese village chiefs on the island. After all, if they wanted to besiege Sado Island, they had to come by boat first. Marin doesn't think he can't stop them by sending 10 500-ton warships... 3000 soldiers and 10 500-ton warships are still in preparation, but Marin first sent two 250-ton armed merchant ships to Keelung to inform Kong Tai, let him make logistical preparations for the fleet's expedition to Sado Island, Japan, and wait for the arrival of the expedition fleet...