The Rise of the European Emperor

As far as Marin knows, as the successor of Julius II, Leo X, the pope from the Medici family, has no problem with his personal morality, but he just values ​​the family interests too much, and Florence, who let the Papal State get his hands, Returned to the hands of the Medici family.

Unlike Alexander VI and Julius II, he seemed to be less interested in women. Therefore, he has no illegitimate children. And his younger brother, who seems to want to rule Florence, even if there are children in the family, he will not be a priest.

In this way, no one will snatch Leo X's future resources in the Holy See. Although Leo X has a younger brother who is three years younger, the future Pope Clement VII is no longer a junior in the Holy See, but has reached the age where he can take charge of himself, and is even qualified to be the arm of Leo X. is the resource inheritor. Therefore, in the Holy See, Robert Jr. can be said to be the successor of Leo X's church resources, and his identity is extremely unique.

Even if Leo X accepts other disciples in the future, Robert can still be regarded as the great disciple of Kaishan. It's like Jesus had 12 disciples, and the eldest disciple, St. Peter, is the chief heir and the first pope. And in Europe, where the eldest son inherited the system, the advantages of the first disciples were incomparable. The only one who can compare with the eldest disciple is his own son. However, Leo X seems to have no illegitimate children...

...

After talking about his son's apprenticeship, Marin plans to talk about another matter...

Marin is going to discuss a business with Giovanni Di Lorenzo de Medici this time, the business of spices...

Everyone knows that the spice business is currently one of the most profitable businesses in Europe, and its profit is higher than that of peddlers in later generations. Dozens of times the profit, the arms dealers and drug dealers of later generations will be jealous when they see it.

However, the business of spices is currently monopolized by Spain and Portugal. If you want to buy spices, you must ask them to buy.

Then, the Venetians who originally monopolized the spice trade, as well as the original spice trade channels of the Italian states, were all abolished, and they could only watch helplessly as the Spaniards and Portuguese made huge profits but were helpless.

According to the agreement between Spain and Portugal, Spain occupied the spice market in the Mediterranean region. Portugal, on the other hand, has the spice markets in the northern Atlantic and North Sea regions of Europe such as northern France. And Portugal's spice wholesale center is located in Antwerp, Netherlands...

As for the spice trade wholesale center in Spain, it was temporarily established in Barcelona, ​​the most important port city on the west coast of the Mediterranean Sea.

However, the geographical location of Barcelona is actually not good. Because it is too west. A reasonable location should be Genoa, and the port of Naples, including the port near the city of Rome.

Moreover, the port near the city of Rome is actually a very important port for the spice trade. why? Because the city of Rome is the city with the largest consumption of spices in Europe!

Everyone in the church has money, especially the cardinals in Rome. These cardinals, relying on the collection of the tithes of European countries, do not know how much benefit they have made. And after they get the benefits, they will definitely have to spend them. Therefore, in Rome, many cardinals' money was spent on buying spices.

Therefore, despite the fact that Rome is not an important commercial city, the consumption of spices is second to none in Europe!

And Marin,

Right now, every time he goes to India (every two years), he only has the right to buy 50,000 pounds of spices. Other spices are covered by Spain and Portugal.

...

Of course, this is just a superficial phenomenon. In fact, Marin has long had a secret spice origin - Grenada!

Grenada is the second largest producer of nutmeg in later generations, with an annual output of two to three thousand tons of nutmeg (before the hurricane destroyed the nutmeg forest in 2005). And the yield of nutmeg in the whole world is only about 12,000 tons per mu... Moreover, it is said that the nutmeg produced in Grenada in later generations is of the highest quality...

Marin started growing nutmeg in Grenada ten years ago. Now, after such a long time, 10,000 mu have been planted in the local mountain forest, and the annual output of nutmeg has reached the level of one million pounds of dried nutmeg.

In Europe at the moment, nutmeg is one of the most popular spices, more popular than pepper. why? Because nutmeg has hallucinogenic effects when eaten. People who eat nutmeg can cause hallucinations and have good dreams. In the superstitious Middle Ages, nutmeg, a spice that can cause hallucinations and dreams, is definitely the king of spices.

But the problem is that, unlike pepper, nutmeg is produced in very little...

Nutmeg is native to the Maluku Islands, also known as the Spice Islands. How much nutmeg can be produced in places where the Spice Islands are bigger?

Moreover, not all the nutmeg from the Spice Islands is sold to India, only a part of it is sold to India. The rest will be sold to all parts of Southeast Asia, even China.

As for pepper, which is widely grown in India, the supply is naturally abundant. Both are spices, but the degree of rarity is completely different. Pepper is a common commodity, while nutmeg is a rare commodity among spices...

Of course, the Spaniards now occupy the Spice Islands under Marin's guidance. In the future, more nutmeg will flow to the European market. Of course, the amount of nutmeg is still very low compared to India's supply of pepper...

Marin has an annual output of 1 million pounds, which is already scary. For the price of nutmeg is ten shillings a pound. That is, a pound of nutmeg is worth 2 guineas! If it is 1 million pounds, it is worth 2 million gold coins!

In the European market, the total value of the spices flowing into the European market every year is only a few million gold coins. Marin shot 1 million pounds at once, which seems a bit scary!

After thinking about it, Marin finally decided to send most of the nutmeg to Daming in exchange for commodities such as silk and porcelain. And a small part is sold to Europe...

The reason for this decision is that Marin does not want to turn against Spain yet. If all 1 million pounds of nutmeg were sold to Europe at once, it would definitely have a serious impact on the market. Then, Marin and Spain will turn their faces. Once turned, Marin can't guarantee whether Spain will get involved in the Americas.

Of course, if Marin joins forces with the French, he will definitely be able to destroy Spain. However, Marin is more afraid of the French. Moreover, Spain is needed to contain the French, so naturally it will not easily turn against Spain.

However, it would be too wasteful to keep the nutmeg in your hands and not sell it. Even in the Ming Dynasty when prices were very low, spices were not cheap. For example, in the Ming Dynasty, the price of a liter of pepper was as high as 6 qian, which is 0.6 taels of silver. Before Zheng He's voyages to the West in the early Ming Dynasty, spices were quite expensive, reaching the point of twenty or thirty taels of silver per catty. Later, with Zheng He's voyages to the West and the opening of trade routes in Southeast Asia, pepper was only reduced to a few coins a catty. The price of nutmeg is even higher because it is relatively scarce.

The most important thing is that the Ming Dynasty has a large market and strong digestion power! No matter how many millions of pounds you have, it won't be enough to sell in the Ming Dynasty...

...

However, although the consumption power of the Ming Dynasty was strong, the prices could not be sold because of the generally low prices. It would be a bit of a loss if all of them were sold in the Ming Dynasty.

Therefore, Marin plans to secretly sell some nutmeg in Europe. But because of Spain's relationship, it cannot be sold publicly. Then, smuggling became the only option...

But for smuggling, you don't just have to sneak in the goods, you have to have someone else. Otherwise, you won't get money if you have empty goods!

As for the target market for spice smuggling, Marin chose the Papal State in Italy. Originally, Marin wanted to cooperate with his father-in-law, the Pope. However, my father-in-law is not very proficient in business. As for the Rovere family, because of the hunting down of the Borgia family of Alexander VI before, the population is now thin and cannot support the business empire. Moreover, the pope's father-in-law seems to be about to ascend to heaven, so he is not a good partner.

In this way, the future Pope's Medici family has become a very good partner...

The Medici family is an old-fashioned business family, very experienced in business, and has very complete business channels. Cooperate with them and you will not worry about sales. Moreover, as Giovanni di Lorenzo de' Medici became a popular figure in the Holy See, the influence of the Medici family also expanded from the Florence area to the entire Papal State. At least, they have a large number of business talents under their command, which is much stronger than the Rovere family with a small population.

Therefore, Marin decided to take out some nutmeg and cooperate with the Medici family. Marin was responsible for smuggling nutmeg to the Papal State wharf, and gave price concessions. Then, the people of the Medici family took the goods away, and began to distribute and sell them in the entire Pope's country and even other parts of Italy...