Chongzhen's domineering

Chapter 182 Internal Cultivation and External Power (Part 2)

At this time, the only way to purchase large quantities of raw materials for making steam engines was to go to Spain.

This was because the main copper and rubber producing areas were still Spanish colonies at that time.

The Ming Dynasty did have copper mines, but the grade was not high, and the easy-to-mine mines had already been almost completely mined out. The remaining mines were buried deep and difficult to extract.

If mining and smelting costs are taken into account, copper produced in the Ming Dynasty would not even be worth three catties of silver, let alone five catties of silver.

Therefore, they might as well buy directly from the Spanish.

As for rubber, needless to say, even if you secretly transported rubber tree seeds back and planted them immediately, it would still take seven or eight years before the rubber could be tapped.

They can't wait seven or eight years to develop further; for now, their only option is to purchase large quantities from Spain.

This is also the fundamental reason why Zhu Jue chose to do business with the Spanish. To put it bluntly, he was interested in the cheap raw materials from the Spanish colonies.

Other countries like the Netherlands, Britain, and France didn't have many colonies, nor did they have many raw materials to sell for manufacturing steam engines.

Moreover, Spain is currently under siege by European countries and needs to purchase large quantities of goods from the Ming Dynasty to convert gold and silver into currency that is accepted in Europe. It also needs a large amount of high-quality steel to manufacture weapons and equipment.

He could use these advantages to control Spain.

This time, he also had Zheng Zhilong send a fast ship to notify the Spanish envoy to come again, and he finally solved the problems of copper and rubber.

Actually, communication with Spain was still very convenient at that time. They had steamships, and it only took four or five days for a steamship to travel from the capital to the south of Dongfan. Moreover, the southernmost part of Dongfan was only seven or eight hundred miles away from Luzon, and a fast ship could reach it in two days at most.

However, it was more troublesome for the Spanish envoys to get to the capital; they still had to rely on the monsoon.

In winter, it would be virtually impossible for Spanish envoys to travel from Luzon to the Ming capital, as the north wind blows in winter, making it easier for sailing ships to go south but less likely to come north.

Fortunately, it's summer now, and the height of summer. The southeast monsoon gets stronger the hotter it gets, and in the sweltering heat of summer, typhoons can even form. The wind is so strong that it can blow a boat away without a sail!
Therefore, the Spanish envoys arrived exceptionally quickly this time. Their fast ships rushed over, and the Spanish envoys then sailed north and made their round trip in less than twenty days.

This time, Zhu Jue received Valdes in the factory building, which was hidden among flowers and plants south of Wanshou Palace.

He actually transformed this entire factory area into a shoe-making workshop.

This was because there were many palace maids in the palace, and most of them had nothing to do.

These palace maids were not selected to enter the palace just to serve others. Most of them were actually selected through a talent show, which was essentially a process of choosing concubines for the emperor.

The saying goes that there were three thousand beauties in the imperial harem. These three thousand beauties were definitely not selected to enter the palace as maids, but were specially chosen to accompany the emperor.

The phrase "three thousand beauties in the harem" was originally just an approximation, generally used to describe the large number of concubines and beauties an emperor had.

However, no matter how many beauties an emperor has, it is very rare for an emperor's harem to actually have three thousand beauties; the number three thousand is a bit of an exaggeration.

The Ming Dynasty palace rarely had three thousand palace maids; usually, it had a little over a thousand but less than two thousand.

However, last time Wei Zhongxian selected over a thousand young women for him, this time the number of palace maids in the palace is almost three thousand.

He couldn't let these palace maids be idle, nor did he need so many palace maids to keep him company.

Therefore, he thought of having the palace maids learn to make shoes.

These days, shoes are usually made by family members, and the vast majority of them are made by the women in the family. It's rare for palace maids not to know how to make shoes, so it's a good opportunity for them to use their skills.

Of course, the shoes made by the palace maids were not ordinary, cheap shoes sold to commoners; he intended for them to make high-end shoes for sale in Europe.

The workshops nestled among the flowers, trees, and shrubs on the south side of the Longevity Palace already looked high-end and classy. In addition, the shoes were all made by the hands of beautiful women, which alone was enough to command a high price. Moreover, they used high-quality materials.

Valdes was amazed as he watched the palace maids making shoes with their delicate hands.

Of course, he didn't dare to look any longer.

He only glanced at it before immediately bowing deeply to Zhu Jue.

Zhu Jue nodded slightly, then said expressionlessly, "Valdes, the rubber you sent this time is still too little. Including the last one, it only amounts to a little over a million catties. What I need is at least tens of millions of catties a year. If the rubber you sent is not enough, and I hire so many people and build so many factories, it won't be long before we have to stop production and wait. Not only will I not make money, but I will also lose money."

Oh dear, His Majesty the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty is quite angry!

After listening to Zheng Zhilong's translation, Valdes quickly explained, "Your Majesty, the people you sent should be arriving in America soon. With their help, we will definitely be able to deliver five million catties of rubber on the next trip."

Zhu Jue shook his head slightly, still expressionless, and said, "Five million catties of rubber is not enough, far from enough. Our Great Ming has a population of over 100 million. One catty of rubber can only make three or four pairs of shoes at most. Even if we have ten million catties of rubber a year, it will only be enough to make thirty or forty million pairs of shoes. This number of shoes is not even half the population of the Great Ming."

Moreover, each person has more than one pair of shoes. If our soldiers were to train, they would wear out more than one pair of shoes in a year. If we calculate it this way, even 30 million catties a year would not be enough for the consumption of our Great Ming.

"If you still want to buy shoes to sell in Europe, then you'll need to send us more rubber—at least forty to fifty million catties a year."

Ah!
How come you're talking about tens of millions of kilograms all the time?

Valdes said with some helplessness, "Your Majesty, our King thinks this business is easy to do, so he is preparing to send more cargo ships to trade with you."

"But we can only bring in a maximum of twenty more cargo ships, and each trip can only carry a maximum of twenty million catties of cargo. If they are all used to transport rubber, then we won't be able to transport copper. Don't you need copper?"

We certainly need copper.

I just want to use this power to control you.

Zhu Jue seemed a little impatient and said, "Who said we don't need copper? The amount of copper you sent is far too little. Our Ming Dynasty has a population of over 100 million, and each person has more than one tael of silver in wealth."

Most of them could not trade directly with gold and silver, and could only use copper coins. Each person had five catties of copper coins, which amounted to five hundred million catties of copper. If they wanted to have enough copper coins, they would need at least one billion catties of copper to mint copper coins.

You only send ten million catties of copper every year, which is far from enough. Are we supposed to wait a hundred years to mint enough copper coins?
You also need to send us more copper, preferably hundreds of millions of catties every year, so that we can mint enough copper coins in about ten years.”

Ah!
This isn't just tens of millions of kilograms, it's over a hundred million kilograms!

How many ships would it take to haul this up?
Even if we send all our ocean-going warships to deliver goods to you, it still won't be enough!

What should I do?
Valdes could only look to Zheng Zhilong with a pleading expression.

This guy's expression is just...well, I don't know what to say.

Seeing this, Zhu Jue said authoritatively, "If you don't have enough cargo ships, we can send some to haul them away."

Our cargo ships are much faster than yours. They can make at least three round trips a year along the North Pacific Circumpolar Sea Route. Transporting 50 million catties of rubber and 100 million catties of copper annually would only require about 200 cargo ships; this number is nothing to us.

You send your own cargo ships to pick them up?
Can I agree to this?
If I disagree, His Majesty the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty will probably get really angry.

If His Majesty the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty gets angry, then we'll be in big trouble.

Our King has sent a message saying that the goods from the Ming Empire are extremely important to us. We must ensure that our trade with the Ming Empire proceeds without any problems, no matter what.

By the way, no matter what, we must ensure that the transaction goes smoothly.

If His Majesty the Emperor of the Great Ming Empire wants to send ships to pick up goods, then let them send them. This should not go against His Majesty's wishes!
Valdes hesitated for a moment, but still gritted his teeth and nodded, "Yes, Your Majesty, you can send your own cargo ships to pick up the goods."

Do you agree?
Very good, saves me the trouble of explaining.

Zhu Jue nodded slightly, then decisively said, "Ruoyu, draft the agreement."

Liu Ruoyu had already prepared the draft agreement, and even had his desk ready. He quickly sat down and started writing, finishing the draft in no time.

Zhu Jue picked it up and looked at it, then handed it to Zheng Zhilong, instructing him, "Attach a Spanish translation."

Zheng Zhilong quickly sat down in the seat Liu Ruoyu had given up and began writing furiously.

Valdes was stunned by what he saw.

This is?

(End of this chapter)