February 25, 1654, Lisbon, sunny.

To be honest, the Portuguese Kingdom, which was only more than ten years after the Resurrection (1640), was far less degenerate than decades later. After all, they were still fighting with the Spaniards, and there were quite a few people willing to fight for the country's preservation and freedom. Of course, after only a few decades, the Portuguese, who were indulging in peace, fell again. According to the description of some Portuguese in later generations, it was: "...a generation of backward, suspicious, distrusting and distrusting the country's youth, he

They ignore the traditions of the country, sneer at the system of the country, complain about the lack of this and that, but they do not strive to create any wealth for the country. This generation of young people hates the land that gave birth to their own, the language they used and the education they received. They are like owls nesting in their nests, with a stern face all day long, full of anger. Indeed, this generation of young people throws the spirit of their motherland and their motherland out of the sky, and they are like those imported from Le Havre in large wooden boxes to Portugal."

The generation of Portuguese youth who grew up after peace was undoubtedly not doing well enough, which echoed the general background of the loss of overseas colonies of their country: they succumbed to the Dutch in the Far East Islands, looked at the British in India, and had a difficult time operating in Africa and the New World. If Brazil hadn't been really rich (there was a mahogany economic cycle before, the sugar economic cycle in the middle, and the gold and diamond economic cycle afterwards, the Portuguese made a big profit), the country might have been unable to maintain a luxurious and prosperous life long ago (state.

Of course, in today's time and space, the crisis of the Kingdom of Portugal may come earlier than in later history because of the variable of the East Coast Republic. There is no doubt that from a geopolitical perspective, the Portuguese have sufficient reason to be wary of the East Coast Republic of China located in the New World. They may cross the Geral Mountains at any time. Then they gain a foothold at the southern end of the Brazilian Plateau and then peek at the entire rich Brazilian Plateau, which is also the most worrying thing for the Portuguese.

When Mo San was in Istanbul, he received diplomatic letters twice from Portugal's instructors. The letters were written by the confidential servant of King Joao IV of Portugal. If the content was eliminated, it was actually a letter inviting Mo San to go to Lisbon for a diplomatic visit. Mo San was busy at that time, so although he accepted the invitation from the Portuguese diplomatic visit, he did not agree on a specific time. Fortunately, the messenger explained that the invitation was valid for a long time. Therefore, today, when Mo San left office and returned to China, he finally decided to go to Lisbon to have a break with the Portuguese.

Although Lisbon in the mid-17th century was far less prosperous than a hundred years ago, the masts of ships in the port were still telling people the glorious past of the Portuguese colonial empire at its heyday. Of course, everything has changed now. The Portuguese kingdom, whose colonies have shrinking, can no longer hide its decline in the face of emerging countries, and has collapsed, and even the business has been greatly depressed and cannot be compared with the prosperity of the past. Perhaps Portuguese business will have to wait until Brazilian sugar enters markets around the world to make such a slight improvement.

Mo San and others handed a well-written letter to the dock officials in front of people's surprise eyes and showed their identity. While asking them to rest, they sent people to the palace to report the letter. Outside the window was a small distribution center for goods. Some commercial brokers shuttled through the crowd and kept introducing business to each merchant or captain. Among these people, the largest number of people was obviously practitioners in the spice industry, followed by the middlemen selling sugar, and some brokers serving foreign merchants Portugal needed to import a large amount of goods from other countries.

Today, when the East Indies were lost, the only spice trade that the Portuguese could make and scale was probably pepper (in addition, there were some spices such as cloves and cinnamon smuggled from the Dutch-controlled area, but in very small quantities). These spices were exported abroad (in fact, the main export transaction places for Portuguese pepper were not in the country), and many were used domestically.

Mo San knew for a long time that the two countries on the Iberian Peninsula were almost agricultural feudal countries, and rural economies accounted for the main body. In early summer every year, due to the lack of feed in rural areas, a large number of cattle and sheep must be slaughtered. When beef and mutton were marinated with salt and smoked, pepper must be used to prevent corrosion (storage fish is the same). Therefore, it can be said that spices, especially relatively cheap peppers, have almost become a necessity for daily life at this time, and this is also one of the important reasons for the huge profits in spice trade.

The city of Lisbon entered the fast lane of development during the period of the prosperity of spice trade. At that time, the city was home to a large number of immigrants from other places and even foreign countries (of course, it is also now), so that the rural output around the city could not support them. Some Portuguese once said sarcastically that Lisbon's raw meat came from the UK, cabbage came from the Bay of Biscay, and even their eggs were imported from abroad for a time, which seemed to be "crazy" to Mo San.

Of course, the most imported goods from Portugal are still various industrial products, such as weapons, clothing, furniture, paper, vehicles, ships, shipbuilding tools, stone, prints, leather, etc. These imported goods greatly impacted Portugal's already extremely fragile national industry, so that by the 16th and 17th centuries, their industrial level was almost no different from that in the 13th century. They were still blacksmith shops, tiled kilns, local fabric textiles, shoes, horse harness, shipbuilding, etc. What's more terrifying is that these only handicraft production can only be used as a supplement to the needs of major towns. Most of the demand needs to be imported from some areas of the United Kingdom, France, the Netherlands and Germany, which is speechless.

"Perhaps, we will find a way to transfer East Coast goods into Portugal in the future. Now, only the Almeida family imported some East Coast cotton fabrics to Lisbon for sale every year, but most of the textiles here still come from Italy, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. The share of East Coast textiles is simply inconspicuous." Mo San looked at the noisy market outside, but his business story began to turn around.

"Sir, the honorable envoy, I am Luis de Vasconcelus I Sosa, from the respected family of Castro Mellor. You can call me Luis, and I am very happy to see you." Just as Mosan was wandering outside the sky, a young and polite voice rang out not far away.

Mo San turned his head and saw an overly young man (maybe he is a nobleman?), which made him a little dislike. The Portuguese are really unreliable. Since I invite myself to come to meet, I should send an experienced official or nobleman. Now, I actually sent a young man with no hair on his lips. Is this what Ruo O IV himself meant? Is it my Great East Coast?

"Very good young man." Mo San walked over and shook hands with Louis, and asked in a slightly cold tone: "So, is it you who came to discuss with me on behalf of His Majesty Ruo's behalf?"

"I'm sorry, Your Majesty is seriously ill and bedridden and cannot meet guests. Some respected court ministers are also leading the army outside. At present, Queen Gusman from Sydonia is the decision in the palace, but she has been overly sad recently and obviously cannot meet guests. So please forgive me, but I think I will do my best to hold a sincere meeting with you with my knowledge and wisdom to eliminate misunderstandings between the two countries and improve relations between the two countries. Are you willing?" said the young Mellor family.

There is no tiger in the mountains, and monkeys dominate the king! This sentence unexpectedly popped up in Mo San's mind. All the nobles with some status went out to fight, so they sent such a young boy to receive him. Although his identity seems to be quite low (from the Earl family), this is too underestimated. Forget it, I'll be a little perfunctory with the Portuguese and then go back to China. I'll be too lazy to talk to these people in the future.

"Young man, I'm willing to talk to you, please sit down." Mo San almost regarded himself as the owner of the dock official office. After inviting the young nobles to sit down, Mo San also found a chair to sit down, and then said: "Then, Louis, last year, the king of your country wrote me a long letter, which mentioned some of his views on the situation and future status of Brazil. I want to know if you have your own opinions on this aspect. Please feel free to say it, without restraint."

"Envoy Mot, can your country withdraw from the battle in Recife that has been intervened?" Louis was indeed young, and he was too lazy to even go around the circle, and asked Mo San directly: "Maybe you don't know that our government is very determined to expel the Dutch who illegally entered Recife, and he will pay any price for it. But in terms of the relationship accumulated by our two countries over the years, we really hope that your country will not interfere in the battle in Recife anymore, so as not to destroy each other's relationship. Of course, if possible, our government will even consider giving you certain compensation, provided that you no longer protect and support the Dutch."

"Haha." Mo San laughed when he heard this, and only heard him ask, "What compensation can you give us? Money, materials, slaves, land? Or something else? You know, our appetite is quite large, don't let me down, young man."

"We can transfer Ceylon to your country, or replace some land on the coast of East Africa to you, what about the plan?"
Chapter completed!