Chapter 1694： Spice smuggling

As far as Marin knew, as the successor of Julius II, Leo X, the pope from the Medici family, had no problem with his personal ethics, but he paid too much attention to the interests of the family and let the Papal State get Florence Back to the hands of the Medici family.

He is different from Alexander VI and Julius II, and he seems not to have a cold for women. Therefore, he has no illegitimate children. His younger brother seems to rule Florence, even if he has children at home, he will not be a priest.

As a result, Leo X ’s future resources in the Holy See were not snatched. Although Leo X still has a younger three-year-old brother, the future Pope Clement VII is not a minor in the Holy See, but has reached an age where he can stand alone, and even qualified to be a Leo X's help Is the resource heir. Therefore, after Robert Jr. in the Holy See, he can be said to be the successor of Leo X's church resources, and his identity is very unique.

Even if Leo X accepts other disciples in the future, Robert can also be a disciple of Kaishan. As if **** had 12 disciples, the old disciple St. Peter was the chief heir, or the first pope. In Europe, where the eldest son is inherited, the advantages of the big disciples are also unparalleled. Comparable to the older disciples, probably only a son. However, Leo X seems to have no illegitimate children ...

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After talking about his son's apprenticeship, Marin intends to talk about another thing ...

Marin is talking to Giovanni Di Lorenzo de Medici this time about a business, a spice business ...

Everyone knows that the spice business is currently one of the most profitable businesses in Europe, and its profits are higher than those of the later generation du. After dozens of times of profits, those arms dealers and du dealers will be jealous after seeing them.

However, at present, the spice business is jointly monopolized by Spain and Portugal. If you want to buy spices, you must ask them to buy them.

Then, the Venetians that 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 the Spaniards and the Portuguese earn huge profits but were helpless.

According to the agreement between Spain and Portugal, Spain dominates the spices market in the Mediterranean region. Portugal, on the other hand, has a spice market in northern Atlantic and North Sea regions 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.

It's just that Barcelona's geographical location is not good. Because it is too far west. The 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 spice trading port. Why? Because Rome is the city with the largest consumption of spices in Europe!

Everyone in the church has money, especially the cardinals of Rome. These cardinals, relying on the collection of tithes in charge of European countries, do not know how many benefits they have earned. And after they get the benefit, they must spend it. Therefore, in Rome, a lot of the cardinal's money was spent on spoiling for the purchase of spices.

So don't look at Rome as an important commercial city, but the consumption of spices is second to none in Europe!

For Marin, every time he goes to India (once every two years), he has only the right to buy 50,000 pounds of spices. Other spices have been wrapped up in Western Portugal and Portugal.

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Of course, this is only a superficial phenomenon. In fact, Marin already had a secret spice producing area-Grenada!

Grenada is the second largest nutmeg-producing country in the future, with an annual output of two to three thousand tons of nutmeg (before the hurricane destroyed the nutmeg forest in 2005). The nutmeg output of the whole world is only about 12,000 tons ... Moreover, it is said that the nutmeg produced by later generations of Grenada is of the highest quality ...

Marin started growing nutmeg in Grenada as early as ten years ago. Today, after so long, 10,000 acres 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.

At this time in Europe, nutmeg is one of the most popular spices, more popular than pepper. Why? Because the nutmeg has a hallucinogenic effect. People eat nutmeg, which can cause hallucinations and make dreams. In the superstitious Middle Ages, nutmeg, a spice that can dream and dream, belongs to the king of spices.

But the problem is that, unlike pepper, the output of nutmeg is too low ...

Nutmeg is native to the Maluku Islands, the Spice Islands. Where is the spice island P bigger, how much nutmeg can be produced?

Moreover, the nutmegs of the Spice Islands are not all sold to India, only part of them are sold to India. The rest will be sold throughout Southeast Asia and even China.

As for pepper, it is widely cultivated in India and its supply is naturally sufficient. Both are spices, but their rarity is quite different. Pepper is a popular product, and nutmeg is a rare thing in spices ...

Of course, the Spanish now occupy the Spice Islands under the guidance of Marin. In the future, more nutmeg will flow to the European market. Of course, the amount of nutmeg is still inadequate compared to the Indian pepper supply ...

Marin's annual output of 1 million pounds is already scary. Because, the price of nutmeg is 10 shillings per pound. In other words, a pound of nutmeg is worth 2 gold coins! A million pounds is worth 2 million gold coins!

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

After thinking about it, Marin finally planned to send most of the nutmeg to Daming in exchange for commodities such as silk and porcelain. Only a small amount was sold to Europe ...

The reason for this decision is because Marin doesn't want to flip his face with Spain yet. If you sell 1 million pounds of nutmeg all at once to Europe, it will definitely hit the market seriously. Then, Marin and Spain will turn their faces. Once he turned his face, Marin could not guarantee that Spain would get involved in the Americas.

Of course, if Marin teamed up with the French, he would certainly destroy Spain. However, Marin was more afraid of the French. Moreover, the need for Spain to contain the French, naturally will not easily face up with Spain.

However, it would be too wasteful to hold nutmeg in your hand 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 silver, which is 0.6 silver. Before Zheng He sailed to the west in the early Ming Dynasty, the spice was so expensive that it reached the point of twenty-two or two silver pounds. Later, as Zheng He sailed to the west and opened the trade routes in Southeast Asia, pepper fell to the point of a few pounds of silver. The nutmeg is relatively scarce and the price is even higher.

The most important thing is that the Ming Dynasty had a large market and strong digestive ability! Despite your millions of pounds, they were not enough to sell in the Ming Dynasty ...

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

So ~ www.novelhall.com ~ Marin intends to secretly sell some nutmeg in Europe. But because of Spanish relations, it cannot be sold openly. Then, smuggling becomes the only option ...

But smuggling is not something that you can secretly bring in. You have to leave the house. Otherwise, you can't get money when you are out of stock!

As for the target market for the smuggling of spices, Marin chose the Papal State of Italy. Originally, Marin wanted to cooperate with his father-in-law. However, my father-in-law is not very proficient in business. The Rovere family, because of the previous killing of the Borgia family of Alexander VI, is now thin and unable to support the commercial empire. Moreover, his father-in-law, the father-in-law, seems to be ascending to heaven, not a good partner.

In this way, the Medici family of the future pope has become a very good partner ...

The Medici family is a veteran business family, has experience in doing business and has a very complete business channel. Work with them without worrying 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, which is much stronger than the Dover's thin Rovere family.

Therefore, Marin decided to take out part of the nutmeg and work with the Medici family. Marin is responsible for smuggling nutmeg to the Papal State Terminal and giving concessions on the price. Then, the people of the Medici family took the goods away, and began to lay out sales in the entire Papal State and other parts of Italy ...