Where did the maritime merchants in the Ming Dynasty sail?

There are many different opinions, but one thing that is certain is that in the records of Western navigators, they have encountered Ming maritime merchants in ports along the Indian Ocean and Persian Gulf more than once. Even after the Portuguese occupied Goa, they racked their brains to attract Ming maritime merchants.

One thing that is certain is that from "Longqing Kaihai" to the Jiashen Heavenly Change, without the will of the state, the Ming Dynasty's maritime merchants had already expanded their footprints to the Indian Ocean driven by profits. In fact, even in the era of maritime prohibition, the Ming Dynasty's half-gang and half-business maritime merchants had already spread all over the Southeast Asian region, and even in various Indian states.

However, their expansion was not smooth. After all, the Chinese and Western sea merchants in this era may turn into pirates on the sea. The mutual plunder and attacks between sea merchants are inevitable.

It is also because of this that after the Ming Dynasty occupied the South Gate of Heaven and turned its attention overseas, the Ming Dynasty's maritime merchants narrowed their routes. Compared with the risky Indian Ocean navigation, the South China Sea... that is the Ming Dynasty's inland sea.

It is safe to sail here, and the profits are also extremely considerable at the South Gate of Heaven. However, their contraction also expanded with the expansion of the Ming Dynasty. When Pingguo was founded in India, maritime merchant ships began to appear on the east coast of India.

In short, except for a few maritime merchants, most maritime merchants have long tied their trade routes to the expansion of the Ming Dynasty.

On the day Zheng Zhilong occupied Goa, the first one to arrive here were merchants and even merchant ships arrived in Goa with the fleet. With the Ming Dynasty's occupation of the Portuguese colonies such as Guihua City and Goa, the Ming Dynasty's maritime merchants finally appeared on the west coast of India and in the Persian Gulf.

In the early morning, when the sunlight in the Persian Gulf shone on the Fuze River, Li Wenqin's face was filled with a smile. He stood on the tall stern of the Garen ship, holding the side railings, feeling the sunshine while feeling the surroundings.

The same fresh ocean smell every day, the smell of asphalt, wood and cables, and of course the smell of sewage from the bilge in the distance.

It's all the smell of the boat.

How many years will it take to go from sailor to captain?

Seven years!

Seven years ago, Li Wenqin was a sailor who went to sea for a living, but now he is the captain of the Fukuze. Even though the ship was a second-hand ship, a Portuguese ship seized by the Navy in Goa, he only spent 300 taels of silver to buy the 400-ton Garen ship, and then spent 300 taels of silver to buy six cannons.

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Six hundred taels are all his belongings. All his belongings accumulated after seven years of going to sea.

After buying the ship, he was penniless, but that didn't matter. In addition to inviting a few friends to invest, he also credited a ship of cargo from the Chamber of Commerce, and then used the ship to mortgage it to buy more than 30 slaves. They went to be sailors on the ship.

Then, the goods were transported to other places for sale.

"Wenqin, if we ship this cargo to Persia, we can earn at least 1,500 taels."

Zhao Hai took a cigarette in his mouth and sniffed.

"I heard from my grandfather that the price of shipping freight to Persia is twice as high as that to Tianzhu. On the return trip, bring Persian carpets, copper goods and other things, and you can make twice as much money in Tianzhu. We sell the goods to the chamber of commerce to offset the silver owed, and then take a boat of Tianzhu maids to the Nantianmen, exchange the silver from the Nantianmen, and return to the West Sea. After this round, we have to earn at least 3,000 taels of silver."

The Zhao Hai family is a sailor of generations, but he has never accumulated any property. Their family has common problems such as sailors, are good at gambling, lust, and wine. It is only barely enough to make money, but he has been making a living at sea for generations, and he is indeed a good player. Even the sea that Zhao Hai brought Li Wenqin to the sea back then.

Because I have been struggling with my life at sea for many years, Zhao Hai naturally talks about the ways on the sea.

"Not that much. Our goods are from the Chamber of Commerce on credit. When we return, we have to distribute half of the goods to the Chamber of Commerce and buy Ferris and the others' money. It is God's blessing to have 400 taels left. This trip will only make some money..."

Ferris and the others were slaves on the ship, all captured by the navy in the West Sea. Thousands of slave sailors were all plundered by the Portuguese from Africa. For Li Wenqin and others, these slaves were the cheapest sailors and did not need to pay wages.

When maritime merchants started their business, they often did not make money in the first ship or even the second ship, and the real money was at the back. In just three to five years, they could earn tens of thousands of taels of family business. But the premise was that nothing happened at sea.

"Mazu bless you, everything goes well..."

Just as his words fell, someone shouted on the mast.

"A boat approaches at ten o'clock!"

Picking up the telescope and looking at the direction of ten o'clock, Li Wenqin saw a European-style sailboat, sailing towards this side.

"It's not Portuguese!"

...

"Roar up and grab barely the things on the boat!"

Standing at the stern of the boat, Ali stared at the Portuguese ship with a passionate look. He was from Muscat, an officer of the Ariba Sultanate Navy. The Ariba Sultanate was Oman hundreds of years later. Last year, after the prince occupied Zanzibar Island, he lost his arm and turned into a slave trader, transporting slaves from Zanzibar Island to Muscat.

Muscat is the largest slave port now, and tens of thousands of black slaves are trafficked from there to the Ottoman Empire and all over the Arab world every year.

In fact, the Arabs engaged in black slave trade thousands of miles earlier than Britain and Portugal and other countries, and were more keen on this trade. Many Western slave traders were even more willing to buy slaves from them, because in Samba and other places, this had long formed an industry.

For thousands of years, Arabs have been plundering slaves in Africa. These slaves are engaged in heavy labor such as drying swamps, collecting salt and nitrate, and opening up arable land in the salty land in the lower reaches of the Euphrates River. Moreover, unlike Westerners, these slaves were castrated. As for female slaves, they will become the reproductive machines of slave owners, and they will breed mixed-race slaves with white slaves...

Although Ali was a slave trader, for Ali, who had a hatred with the Portuguese in the war, it was naturally impossible for him to let them go when he encountered the Portuguese merchant ship at sea. So he immediately set sail and chased after him, and opened the cannon window and pushed out the cannon.

"It's a pirate!"

Li Wenqin shouted in horror.

In fact, no one can tell whether it is a pirate or a sea. Anyway, as long as you have the chance, everyone will make a guest appearance. There is no obvious boundary between sea merchants and pirates, both at home and abroad.

"Quick, push out the cannon!"

The sailors were busy and pushed out the cannons on the deck. Almost at the same time, the sound of cannons rang out, and amid the howling of the shells, water columns rose around the Fukuzawa.

When the splashing sea water fell on his body, Zhao Hai, who was standing on the side of the side, shouted.

"put!"

The gunners immediately ignited the cannons, accompanied by roars. The shells roared towards the pirates. Their counterattack was very fast. After all, everyone knew that if they did not fight back firmly, then there was only a dead end to them...
Chapter completed!