Chapter 36 A Brand New Alliance
The talks to expand the alliance on the fourth day finally began, but the mentality of the representatives of the envoys from various countries was very different from when they first arrived in the Ming Dynasty.
When they first arrived in the Ming Dynasty, they almost all believed that their country was equal and on the same level, and should take the principle of equality and mutual benefit as much as possible for their country to fight for more rights and interests.
However, after three days of study, they finally understood that the Ming Empire was far ahead of them in terms of military, economic, technological, and even culturally. The concepts proposed by the Ming Empire were extremely forward-looking, and several decisions of the Ming Empire were very beneficial to them. Of course, the premise was that they had to accept the dominance of the Ming Empire!
Should I accept it? This is not a cede land compensation, a loss of power and humiliation of the country. Moreover, these concepts and decisions are of great help to the development of their country, so why not accept it!
Therefore, the talks went very smoothly, and the terms proposed by the Ming Empire of various countries were almost undisputed.
For example, Chinese is used as the common language of the five alliances, and Chinese teaching is promoted in various countries to facilitate exchanges and communication among countries and promote cooperation in military, economic, and technology fields.
Okay, no problem, I will vigorously promote it when I go back. The Ming Empire can establish Chinese schools in major cities of allied countries. You don’t have to recruit students, all officials will be assigned!
For example, dragon coins are used as the standard currency for trade settlement between countries to facilitate economic exchanges between countries.
Well, as long as the Ming Dynasty guarantees that it will not issue dragon coins indiscriminately, we can consider gradually accepting dragon coins as the standard currency for transactions between countries.
In response, the Ming Dynasty immediately made a promise in the form of additional terms. The Ming Dynasty would never issue dragon coins indiscriminately, but would issue strictly according to the reserves of the Ming Dynasty's gold and silver. That is to say, the Ming Dynasty's treasury would issue as many dragon coins as the amount of gold and silver stored in the Ming Dynasty, ensuring that it can be recycled with equal amounts of gold and silver at any time according to the face value of the dragon coins.
This promise seems to be fine, but it is nonsense. How much gold and silver reserves does the Ming Dynasty have? Countries may still see it with their own eyes and see a rough idea. However, how many dragon coins issued by the Ming Dynasty are counting? The dragon coins are circulated on the market at any time. If you want to count, it is impossible to take back all the dragon coins in everyone's hands. With such a huge economic total amount of the Five-Nation Alliance, the Ming Dynasty will not be noticed even if it issues hundreds of millions of taels of dragon coins.
This is actually boiling a frog in warm water. This is how a certain yuan was done in later generations. At the beginning, it seemed that it was issuing it based on gold and silver reserves. However, after all countries got used to using a certain yuan to settle, they began to issue more and more crazily. The plundered wealth was simply impossible to calculate.
Of course, the Ming Dynasty may not necessarily act like a hooligan. The key is to look at future development. If the Ming Dynasty develops smoothly, there is no need to do such things that are pointed out by thousands of people. If the development is not smooth, it will be another matter. These are all later things, so I will not be able to explain it here for the time being.
Representatives of various countries can even accept unification of language and currency, not to mention the establishment of telegraph networks and the construction of Eurasian Railways later.
In these two points, the Ming Empire was particularly generous. The construction of all telegraph networks and railways does not even require a penny from each country, and all the costs are borne by the Ming Empire!
Is Zhu Cijing silly? Of course not, the Qian Daming Empire was released, but this telegraph network requires copper, and the construction of railways requires iron and sleepers. The trains require coal. Such a huge project requires how much copper, how much iron, how much sleepers are needed, and how much coal it will consume after the railway is completed. These cannot be borne by the Ming Empire, right?
Therefore, in various countries, there are copper ore output copper ore, iron ore output coal, and wood supply wood. The materials are actually distributed to various countries, and the Ming Dynasty only paid a processing fee.
In fact, the Ming Dynasty did not suffer any loss at all, because the processing was carried out within the Ming Dynasty, and the money was made by the Ming Royal Machinery Group and the Ming Construction Legion. It was just a left hand and a right hand. The Ming Dynasty did not spend much money, but the subsequent operating income belonged to the Ming Dynasty, and the profit was simply too generous!
As for the sale of machine tools, it is purely up to the Ming Empire. The Ming Dynasty’s asking price is not high, but the quantity is strictly controlled. Zhu Cijiu’s instructions are very simple. It is enough to allow the four continental countries to withstand the anti-Habsburg Alliance. If there are too many, they will not be sold!
Of course, the four continental countries dare not have any objections. It would be nice if the Ming Empire could sell machine tools to them. They also promised to teach you how to use it to ensure that you can make advanced muskets and artillery. If you make any quantitative requirements, you would be too greedy.
Finally, the five countries signed the alliance treaty in a friendly and harmonious atmosphere. This alliance treaty added several more to the Valencia Alliance Treaty, all led by the Ming Dynasty and needed active cooperation among all countries.
Judging from the content of the treaty, it seems that the European countries suffered a loss because they recognized the dominance of the Ming Empire. However, in a practical sense, the European countries actually made a profit.
Whether it is laying a telegraph network or building a railway, it is beneficial to them without any harm. It is even more a good thing that Ming Dynasty sells machine tools to help them build military systems.
As for promoting Chinese and promoting dragon coins, it was not something that the Ming Dynasty forced them to do. According to the trend of world development, internationally common languages and internationally accepted currencies are inevitable. Apart from Chinese and dragon coins, it seems that they have no more options. So what if they let the Ming Dynasty dominate? In fact, at this time, they need the guidance and help of the Ming Dynasty.
At this point, the Ming Empire, Spain, Portugal, Holy Roman Empire, and Ottoman Empire formed a new alliance. The five-nation alliance was negotiated and finally named the Ming Habsburg Alliance against the name of the Anti-Habsburg Alliance of Britain, France, the alliance of the five countries was negotiated.
The three-day course that Zhu Cijiuo had worked hard to prepare achieved a successful result. The Ming Empire gained a dominant position in the Daming Habsburg Alliance, and a new world pattern began to slowly form.
In the history of later generations, these years were also the beginning of the change in the world pattern. It was in these years that the Ming Dynasty collapsed and the center of the world began to shift toward the continent.
It was also in recent years that Spain was defeated by the Anti-Habsburg League and since then, it gave up its position as the Lord of Earth, allowing the Netherlands, France and Britain to take turns to take turns to take over.
Finally, Britain became the biggest winner in the Age of Discovery and Colonial Ages, and became an extremely huge empire that never sets.
Chapter completed!