Chaling in the Persian Gulf, the colony of the Li family.

After several years of investment and construction by the Li family, Chaling has taken shape. There are quite a few ships parked here at the port. Surrounding the port, a small city with a population of tens of thousands is neatly planned.

.

Buildings stand beside the port, and the glass above them shines brightly in the sunlight.

In the port, you can see a large number of slaves constantly decorating goods, and you can also see slave ships leaving the Persian Gulf loaded with slaves.

The ships arriving here are basically filled with food, medicine, weapons and equipment, swords, bows and crossbows. These things are very popular in the Middle East now, and there is not enough to sell.

"Mr. Li, we need a batch of food, gunpowder, arrows, armor, and weapons. Here is the list. Can you help us transport it to Baghdad?"

Charland delivered a list to Li Zhaofan, and then drank tea silently. The habit of drinking tea has now become not only popular in Europe, but also in the Persian Empire.

After being in contact with people from the Ming Dynasty for a long time, they gradually started to like drinking tea.

As the teacher and important minister of the Persian Emperor Ismail I, he had been running around for the Persian Empire and working hard all his life.

Of course, he traveled all over the country and became well-informed. He even visited the Ming Dynasty several times. He was very aware of the power and wealth of the Ming Empire and the predicament the Persians were facing now.

"One hundred thousand dans of grain~"

"Thirty thousand swords~"

"One hundred and fifty thousand arrows, one thousand barrels of gunpowder, and several medicines."

"Ten thousand muskets, thirty thousand sets of clothes..."

Li Zhaofan looked at the list carefully. There was no doubt that this was a big deal. After calculation, the amount was more than two million taels of silver. It was a really big deal.

But Li Zhaofan habitually looked at Charland in front of him. He knew very well that the Persians were as poor as ghosts now. It was said that not even a single gold item could be seen in the palace of their emperor Ismail I.

Already.

Where do they have the money to pay for such a huge military purchase demand?

"I can prepare all the things you want and send them to Baghdad. However, you must have a rough idea of ​​the price. I wonder how you are going to pay for it?"

Li Zhaofan's meaning is very clear.

I have the goods here, and I can also help you raise them. The key is the issue of money.

"We only have 50,000 slaves on hand now. We are on the edge of the Persian Gulf, and you can directly ship them away."

When Challand heard this, he sighed helplessly.

Continuous wars have made the poor life in Persia even worse. Now I really can't get any money out, so I can only send soldiers to capture slaves in the Mesopotamia in exchange for things.

"Fifty thousand slaves!"

When Li Zhaofan heard this, he immediately raised his eyebrows. You Persians are about to capture and sell all the people in the two river basins. In just a short time, you have captured another 50,000 slaves.

"These fifty thousand slaves are far from enough."

However, for 50,000 slaves, even if they were counted as 20 taels of silver each, they would only be worth 1 million taels of silver, and the goods purchased by the other party were worth at least two million taels of silver.

One hundred thousand dans of grain. Although the grain is not valuable, it still has to be transported from Tianzhu. In addition, it is a war period and the price of food is soaring. These 100,000 dans of grain will cost at least 50,000 taels of silver.

This is still a reasonable price. If the lion really asks for one hundred thousand taels of silver, you will still have to buy it when your army has no food to eat. What's more, it will be shipped to Baghdad.

The sword costs thirty thousand, and this one is even more expensive.

Swords are made of iron. Although the colonies and vassal states of the Ming Dynasty are blooming all over the country, there are also many vassal states and colonies that are smelting iron, but they cannot be compared with the mainland of the Ming Dynasty. There is no excess at all.

Can be exported.

Therefore, these swords need to be imported from the South African colony. Only the South African colony now has large steel plants and large iron ores have been discovered, and can export a large amount of rich iron.

Including transportation costs, these 30,000 swords require at least 300,000 taels of silver to make a profit. If it is cheaper, there is no way for me to make it.

With 150,000 arrows, this thing is relatively cheap. Because of the war, Ningguo and the Western United Trading Company in Tianzhu are producing these things in large quantities.

One hundred and fifty thousand arrows and thirty thousand taels of silver can help you transport them to Baghdad.

There are a thousand barrels of gunpowder and several medicines. This gunpowder needs to be imported from the mainland of the Ming Dynasty. Currently, only the Miyun Arsenal has mastered a large amount of gunpowder manufacturing technology. It has high output and good quality, but the price is really not cheap.

A thousand barrels of gunpowder, without 300,000 taels of silver, I would never do this business. As for medicines, many of them need to be imported from the mainland of the Ming Dynasty. After all, these medicines do not cost 50,000 taels of silver.

I have no money to make either.

The most expensive thing is 10,000 muskets. Although the requirements are not high, a musket produced in the South African colony is enough. But even a musket produced in the South African colony costs 150 taels of silver. Ten thousand muskets are enough.

With one and a half million taels of silver, I hardly made much money.

As for the 30,000 pieces of clothes, these are quite cheap. You can purchase them from Ningguo. You can get as many as you want for a few thousand taels of silver.

After all, this transaction requires at least 2.3 million taels of silver, and I don't even make much.

Of course, if the other party pays all with slaves, the slave can make a fortune by himself. In the end, it will still be a huge profit, at least 300,000 taels of silver.

But the other party only had 50,000 slaves, which was obviously not enough to pay the amount.

"I know this is definitely not enough to pay, but in the future, all the slaves we captured will be handed over to Mr. Li for you to handle until the amount is paid off, how about that?"

Of course Charland knew clearly that fifty thousand slaves were not enough to pay this amount.

There are many large and small commercial firms in the Ming Dynasty, and they are not dealing with one or two companies. Li Zhaofan in front of him is quite conscientious. If this matter is allowed to be done by the sinister Sihai Commercial Bank, Tianjin Ocean Commercial Bank, Ningguo Commercial Bank, etc., at least it will be done.

I want to repay you four million taels of silver.

At first, the Persians just hired Sihai Trading Company to transport tens of thousands of troops to West Africa, and directly asked for millions of taels of silver. Later, tens of thousands of troops were required to eat, drink, and receive medical treatment in West Africa. They directly sent Sihai

The trading house was stretched to death.

Up to now, Persia still owes millions of taels of debt to Sihai Trading Company, and every year the interest alone accounts for hundreds of thousands of taels of silver.

From then on, the Persians knew that the Sihai Trading Company was really powerful. Li Zhaofan in front of them, who built a colony here in the Persian Gulf and did transit trade, was really more conscientious in comparison.

If you use Li Zhaofan to do what you need, you can have a lot of money left over.

Li Zhaofan is the stepson of Li Dongyang, the cabinet minister of the Ming Dynasty. Because of this relationship, everyone has to give them face. They can get everything and the price is not expensive.

"We are also old friends, we have not cooperated once or twice."

"To be honest, I already made little money from your transaction, and now I still need to pay millions of taels of silver in advance. The risk is really too great."

When Li Zhaofan heard this, he thought that he had to advance the funds himself. This business could not be done. If he did not make any other money, he would even lose his own capital.

God knows when you Persians will be able to capture enough slaves.

If we can't defeat the Ottoman Empire, we will have to return to the Persian Plateau, hoping that you will sell your cattle and sheep and mine lapis lazuli to return the money to me.

Who doesn't know that you Persians are now in debt, with the Sihai Trading Company alone having millions of taels of silver yet to be repaid?

"Mr. Li, this is wrong~"

"Given Mr. Li's status in the Ming Dynasty, many of these things can be paid on credit."

"In addition, we have cooperated with Mr. Li many times, and you have made a lot of money from it."

"Especially this slave trade, you can make a lot of money once you change hands. We in Persia are under great pressure right now, otherwise we wouldn't be able to sell it so cheaply."

"Now, we in Persia and Egypt have suppressed the Ottoman Empire army in the Middle East. As long as we have this batch of supplies, we will definitely be able to achieve a great victory. It's only tens of thousands of slaves, and it will only take you a few months to capture them."

Charland smiled and said.

"No, no, really not!"

"Those of us who do business, even though we can buy on credit depending on our credibility, we still need to see the money, and we can't just take things from others with empty words."

"This is the market for slave trading. It doesn't matter who you sell to, because transportation is a big deal. It is indeed more expensive here in the Ming Dynasty, but to transport it there, the freight is a huge amount."

When Li Zhaofan heard this, he immediately shook his head.

No matter what you say, I won't do business with you just like this. You should give me hundreds of thousands of taels of silver so that I can do things easily.

"You Ming people are really good at doing business."

"This time when I came here, I also brought a boatload of lapis lazuli. This can be used as part of the payment, right?"

Charland looked at Li Zhaofan and suddenly felt helpless.

These Ming people are all really good at doing business.

"A shipload of lapis lazuli?"

"Haha, then we have made this deal."

When Li Zhaofan heard this, he readily agreed.

Lapis lazuli is an expensive dye because of its natural deep blue, cyan blue, purple blue and other colors. This color cannot be artificially produced by either the Ming Dynasty or the West.

Therefore, since ancient times, they have been extremely expensive dyes. Europeans like to use them for painting. Blue dye made of lapis lazuli is the most expensive dye. It is more expensive than gold and is often difficult to obtain. It is the dream of countless painters.

color.

In the Ming Dynasty, painters in the Ming Dynasty also like this color very much. At the same time, the textile industry in the Ming Dynasty is extremely developed, and the requirements for dyes are getting higher and higher.

Cyan is an extremely important color and is often used on the most high-end clothes and fabrics.

Therefore, the price of lapis lazuli is very high, and it is now the most important export product of the Persian Empire. For this reason, the Persian Empire even spent huge amounts of troops and manpower to conquer Afghanistan and firmly control the output of lapis lazuli.

A shipload of lapis lazuli was extremely valuable, and Li Zhaofan could make a huge profit just by selling it.
To be continued...