The Rise of the European Emperor

However, before opening the Persian route, Marin must first do one thing-negotiate with Portugal to obtain the other party's permission.

why? Because judging from the arrangement of the Holy See, Persia belongs to Portugal's sphere of influence. Moreover, the warships of Portugal and Spain are still wandering in the Arabian Sea.

Of course, Marin was not afraid of the Portuguese. Rather, he didn't want to break the rules...

Why does Marin maintain this "rule"? Because he is the biggest vested interest in this "rule". For example, in America, if the rules are followed, Marin will naturally occupy all of them. But if you break the rules set by the Holy See, not to mention the bad face of the Holy See, others will have a reason to covet the Americas—you don’t follow the rules yourself, and we will learn from you...

Therefore, in order to prevent others from breaking the rules and thinking about America, Marin must take the initiative to maintain the nonsense rules set by the Holy See.

In this case, even if Marin looks down on Portugal, he must first say hello to the Portuguese. Moreover, Marin is not worried that the Portuguese will disagree.

Because, Marin will say clearly-I don't buy Persian hot-selling carpets and silks, I only buy livestock, and... black oil for livestock to treat skin diseases...

Well, this black oil is naturally oil. Of course, no one is paying attention to the value of oil these days. In addition to being used as fuel and burned in vain, the biggest function of oil is to apply it on the skin of animals suffering from skin diseases to treat the skin diseases of animals.

There are multiple organic hydrocarbons in petroleum, and some organic hydrocarbons contain certain toxicity and have a bactericidal effect. Therefore, oil can be used to treat skin diseases in livestock.

In Baku, Azerbaijan, most of the hundreds of ships of oil produced each year are sold to herders to treat livestock skin diseases. After all, the Middle East is mostly nomadic people, and there are not many other things, that is, there are many livestock and a large market.

The Portuguese and Persians had been in contact for some time, so they would naturally know that oil can treat livestock skin problems. Marin imported a large amount of oil from Baku in Persia under the pretext of "treating livestock skin diseases", and the Portuguese would not doubt anything.

Speaking of it, the Baku Oilfield is probably the earliest oil-producing area in the world. The local oil reserves are extremely rich, and oil seedlings have already appeared. In areas where local oil seedlings are outcropping, just dig a well a few meters deep, and oil will gurgle out. Bud also went to Baku and saw that there are hundreds of small oil wells like water wells dug by local herdsmen. The output of each oil well is not high, but when added up, the total annual output is several hundred ships.

Marin intends to establish a good relationship with the Persian Safavid Empire by providing guns, weapons, and swords and armor. Then, send the chamber of commerce to settle in, and then control the oil wells in Baku, and send people to dig deep oil wells to expand production.

In this way, there will be no shortage of gasoline in Beihai in the future. When fighting with people, you can throw incendiary bombs as much as you like. Especially for burning the opponent's warships, it must be very cool.

...

After Marin sent Kohler as an envoy to Lisbon, Portugal, he expressed his intention. The Portuguese didn't know what was happening in Persia at this time, and they were still very unhappy. But after Kohler told the King of Portugal that Persia had lost to Turkey and was stunned by artillery, Manuel I urgently summoned his ministers to discuss countermeasures. Because, if Turkey annexed Persia, then the entire world structure would usher in major changes.

In order to keep Persia, a potential ally that can contain Turkey, the Portuguese government finally agreed to trade between the North Sea State and Persia. But in the treaty, the Portuguese strictly stipulated that the North Sea country could only sell weapons to Persia.

Nothing else shall be involved. At the same time, the goods purchased from Persia can only be livestock and black oil... Moreover, in the waters near Persia, North Sea merchant ships must accept spot checks by Portuguese warships at any time, so as to prevent North Sea merchant ships from carrying "illegal goods"...

This condition is very harsh, even a bit slap in the face. But after Kohler asked Marin for instructions with a carrier pigeon, Marin agreed without hesitation. Because, he never thought of buying other things from Persia. Therefore, this condition looks harsh, but it is nothing.

It's just that it is too much to be inspected by Portuguese warships at sea at any time, and it is too embarrassing. Therefore, Marin proposed an alternative plan-when North Sea merchant ships pass through the Strait of Hormuz, they must stop at the Portuguese colony of Hormuz Island for "supply". Then, Portuguese personnel will be invited to "visit" on board... So, it sounds much better...

Although both are subject to inspection, one is a compulsory inspection without face, and the other is "invitation to board the ship for a visit". Although the actual situation of the two is the same, it sounds too good to say.

After discussion, the Portuguese also agreed to this plan. After all, it is indeed insulting to allow another country's merchant ships to be inspected by warships at any time. Anyway, the goal has been achieved, so there is no need to be too shameless.

In this way, Marin used a peaceful method to obtain permission from the Portuguese to go to Persia to trade limited varieties of goods...

...

After the agreement was reached, Marin immediately sent a ship to the shipyard in Long Island, New York, and ordered the shipyard to develop a merchant ship specially used for loading livestock. Moreover, the requirement is 500 tons.

The reason why people from the New York Shipyard were asked to develop this kind of ship is because the New York Shipyard has treasure ship craftsmen dug from the Nanjing Longjiang Treasure Shipyard of the Ming Dynasty. Among the treasure ships, there are horse boats specially used to load horses.

Marin hopes to combine the experience of Longjiang Bao Shipyard craftsmen in making horse boats with the European keel shipbuilding method to produce a European-style 500-ton horse boat for the transportation of Persian war horses.

Moreover, Marin hopes that the horse boat should be double-decker. In this way, more horses can be loaded, or Persian cattle and sheep. Persia is a big animal husbandry country, and the livestock can't be sold in the Middle East, a place full of animal husbandry countries. Probably only Marin, the "big guy", is willing to buy them. So, the price will definitely not be expensive at that time.

It is quite sad to say that Persia is located in central Asia, and the surrounding countries, except India, are almost all animal husbandry-based countries. Therefore, even if Persia has a large number of livestock, it cannot be sold. Even in India, an agricultural country, the western states are also important horse-producing areas, and Mawari horses are also exported to Egypt.

In addition, because Persia is the only Shia country in the entire Middle East, it has a bad relationship with the surrounding Sunni countries, and people may not be willing to trade with them. Only the Portuguese wanted to trade with Persia.

However, the Portuguese's thinking is obviously very European, and they don't think much of Persian medium-sized horses. Because medium-sized horses are only suitable for riding light cavalry, not for plate armor knights. Portugal, on the other hand, is a typical European country, and its thinking is also Europeanized. Naturally, it looks down on the "little horse" of Persia. Therefore, the Portuguese didn't feel anything about Marin's desire to buy horses from Persia, and even felt that Marin was full...

How did they know that the Arabian horse, a medium-sized horse, would become a popular object in Europe after the European knight class had completely fallen behind. Many famous horses in later generations are mixed with Arabian blood. And the Persian horse, because Persia was ruled by the Arab Empire for a long time, has long been mixed with Arabian horse blood, which is a very good light cavalry war horse.

Of course, there is another important reason - nomadic horses are cheap, and they mainly eat grass, so the cost of raising them is low...

In addition to horses, there are also many Persian cattle and sheep. Especially sheep, very many. The famous Persian carpet is made of Persian sheep wool. Moreover, Dorper sheep, a famous mutton sheep breed in later generations, was bred from Persian black-headed sheep and introduced from British Dorset sheep.

Although the wool of this kind of sheep is relatively thick, it grows fast and has good meat quality, which belongs to the top mutton. Therefore, Marin doesn't mind bringing out the mutton sheep breed of Dorper sheep in advance.