"This is a fine wine from the island of Cyprus in their Ottoman Empire, the best wine in the Mediterranean. 70 years ago, Cyprus was also a territory of the Republic of Venice and was later occupied by the Turks. Unfortunately, it took at least a month for the Venetian merchants to send a ship here, otherwise they would be happy to fund us against the Barbary pirates. They had an irreconcilable hatred with the Turks."

The trilateral coalition held a celebration banquet at the occupied Fortress of Penion. Earl of Stratford personally raised a glass with the Colonel Sun Xu of the Fourth Fleet.

"I know that the Republic of Venice was a country where merchants were supreme, and it was once extremely brilliant." Li Jinde recovered his spirit and also held up his wine glass to participate in their conversation.

"Before the great voyage, Venetian merchants and Genoese merchants in the Renaissance region monopolized trade in the entire Mediterranean and the Levante region. They were extremely rich, and had an advanced national budget review system, as well as a special trading committee, a large number of banks, and the entire country was expanding outward for commercial activities. Their local population was only more than 100,000, and their colonization of various islands in the Mediterranean was only more than 1 million. It would have been difficult for the Ottoman Empire to be able to block the Ottoman population for more than 100,000 years. If they hadn't blocked the Ottoman Empire's offensive with the Knights of Malta in front, perhaps the Ottoman army would have landed in Italy and Spain long ago." Earl of Strafford said.

"But their core population is too small, with only more than 100,000 core population. A few years ago, a plague broke out in northern Italy that killed tens of thousands of them, and there were not enough people to maintain peace. They had to hire our sailors and the Netherlands when they fought." Sir Greenville also walked over and said.

After contacting the Western countries, Li Jinde and the others gradually realized that the Western countries seemed to be very enthusiastic about the sea, but their own population was very small!

Venetian merchants traverse the Mediterranean Sea, with only more than 100,000 local people. The Portuguese opened a route from the West to the East, and established colonies from Africa to Asia all the way, with 1 million local people.

The vast ocean makes these countries with insufficient core population prosper in the early stage and unable to follow up. Opening up the sea requires a large number of people to support it, otherwise the huge cost of maintaining the navigation route will cause the state machine to collapse when encountering strong enemies.

If the native population of Venice increased by 10 times, perhaps they could have established a powerful country that dominated the Mediterranean hundreds of years ago. Similarly, if the population of Portugal increased by 10 times, perhaps they could have established the first empire in human history in the 16th century.

However, if, because the European continent is divided, almost few countries can have more than 10 million populations in terms of the population of a country alone.

Sun Xu, Sun Chuanting, Zheng Zhibao and others heard that the Venetian Republic had lost a lot of territory under the attack of the Ottoman Empire. They couldn't help but be glad that China's local population exceeded 100 million and its human resources were rich to an unimaginable level.

The small peasant economy that emphasizes agriculture and suppresses commerce has allowed the government to encourage childbirth, so the population is amazing, but there is no trouble for these small countries.

"They Venetian merchants and Genoese merchants have now changed their national policies. They found that the country was sparsely populated and could not bear the trade risks in the Atlantic Ocean and East India, so their merchants and banks invested on a large scale in the maritime trade in Britain, the Netherlands, Spain, and the Spanish royal family all owed Genoese merchants a lot of debts." Earl Stratts knew the secrets of it and said to everyone.

"If we were to deal with the Ottoman Empire, the Venetian merchants seemed to be a worthy object to win over?"

Sun Xu, Sun Chuanting and other officers were thinking about it.

Venetian merchants have money and ships, but their population is sparse, which makes it possible to cooperate.

"It's great that you can come back alive. My daughter won't have a husband." Sir Greenville raised his glass and talked to Lee Jinde alone.

"Have the news of my disappearance during this period been passed back to the capital?" Li Jinde couldn't help but feel a little worried when he thought of Salina and his daughter.

If the news of his disappearance arrived in the capital, how sad it would be for the people in the capital that was tens of thousands of miles away.

"After you disappeared, your merchants entrusted the British merchant ship who went to the East to buy spices to convey this matter on their behalf, and asked for instructions from the capital. Maybe my daughter would receive this news." Sir Greenville also thought of this and couldn't help but feel a little worried.

"I think I will return to the capital after this matter is over... The business here has been on track. Western companies can sail back and forth every two years, and the sailing route can be said to be fixed. The factory has also started construction, and I can operate on my own even without it." Li Jinde came to Europe for a while and thought of returning to his hometown.

He is not worried about the Western company's industry in London. The company's operation depends on the management system. If he is missing one director, he only needs to dispatch one from the local director to replace him.

"It's good. If the king has no appointments, I want to go to the East again." Sir Greenville wanted to see his daughter and granddaughter for a long time, and also wanted to go to the East.

In his opinion, the capital in the east is even larger and cleaner than the city of London, and it is not a grievance for his daughter to stay there.

However, as a nobleman of Britain, if he was not appointed in Britain for a long time, his influence would inevitably be weakened.

"I plan to invest all the 100,000 taels of silver I got into Western companies to expand the company's production capacity." Li Jinde unexpectedly received a claim of 100,000 taels of silver from Pirates, hoping to smash all the funds into the factory.

"Don't worry about money. As long as you live, you can live well with my wife and I in the Great Manor in Britain. If I can't go to the East, I will pay some money to bring to you my daughter." Sir Greenville didn't care about Li Jinde's disposal.

The two families are now a combination of big merchants and big squires, and can be said to be quite wealthy families, provided that they are fine.

"Several officers, should we return to London after we stayed in Algiers for three days?" After making up for the idea of ​​returning to the local area, Li Jinde, who had been enslaved for more than half a year, could not wait.

The Royal British Navy and the Knights of the Hospital all looked at the officers of the Kyushu Army, who have now become the leader of the coalition forces.

Sun Xu, Sun Chuanting and other officers looked at each other, and Sun Xu, the commander, said hesitantly: "Originally, after we rescued Li Jinde, we should retreat according to the plan, but we want to..."
Chapter completed!