The Ministry of Rites, the conference room, and a discussion was underway. Among the participants, there were officials wearing official uniforms and civilians wearing regular uniforms. In such an inconsistent scenario, everyone was not concerned about officials and people sitting around, but a huge map.

The map draws the situation around Persia in the extreme west. The discussion is how the court should deal with Persia so that the Nanyang Trading Company can better make money in the extreme west.

Ding Zhengyuan, director of Nanyang Trading Company, is now the interpreter, reported the "requests" of Nanyang Trading Company to the officials of the Ministry of Rites present.

If the court promotes a ceasefire between Persia and Roman countries and signs trade contracts with these two countries, the Nanyang Trading Company's future business volume and profit will experience explosive growth.

"As the map is shown, the Persian capital Taixifeng hundreds of miles southeast of the southeast is a narrow bay. This bay is northwest-southeast and is currently named the 'Persian Gulf' by the Ministry of War."

"The southwest of the Persian Gulf is a vast desert area called the "Saraxon Desert". The Saracen Desert is surrounded by the sea on three sides. Please look at its southwest..."

"There is also a long and narrow bay here, which is like the Persian Gulf. The Ministry of War is named the Red Bay. Its northwest section ends and land to the west is the General Administration of Africa in the Roman Kingdom."

"The southeast of the Red Bay is Haikou, and the land to the north is the southern section of the Saracen Desert. This southern area is transliterated as 'Yemen' and is now under the jurisdiction of Persia."

"The land in the southwest facing across the sea from Yemen is the territory of the 'Aksum Kingdom'. This country has a vast territory and a long history. The land border to the north borders with the Africa General Administration of the Roman Kingdom. Decades ago, Yemen was its territory and later seized by Persia."

"Aksum is an ally of the Roman state, but because of its relatively weak national strength, it cannot recover the lost territory of Yemen."

"Since Persia and Rome have become a feud, the Persian navy in Yemen has blocked the export of the Red Sea Bay, so the sea trade between the Roman Kingdom and India and even the dynasty was interrupted, and the Aksum navy was weak and powerless."

"So, if the court can persuade the two countries to reconcile this time and sign a trade contract with them, then please see here..."

"The company's claim is to rent a port area in Yemen as a trading port that the company specializes in, namely the concession, the concession affairs and personnel are under the jurisdiction of the company. If there is any crime elsewhere and flee into the concession, the Persian government will arrest it and will also require the assistance of the concession and will not enter without permission."

"When the company's fleet arrives in Yemen, the Persian government can only collect taxes on the ship, not board the ship for inspection, nor interfere with the in and out of the ship. Whether the fleet goes to the Roman country at the end of the Red Sea or goes to the Aksum country on the other side of the sea, it has nothing to do with the Persian government."

"If the Persian State does not agree, the company will go to the other side of Yemen, and set up trade transit ports and concessions on the coast of Aksum. The relevant fees and maritime taxes will naturally have nothing to do with the Persian State."

"At the same time, there is a large island outside the southeastern sea of ​​Yemen. It is deserted and has no government offices, but there is a Tamsui River. This island just guards the bay's import and export channel, so there are many pirates. The Persian navy cleared it out many times, but it has not cured the root cause."

"This island must be controlled by the court, and then fortresses, ports, and shipyards are established so that the company can moor fleets and guard against accidents."

"What is an unexpected situation? Of course, it is a pirate, and the other is to prevent Persians from going back on their word."

"If there is any change in Persia, the company's personnel and cargo in Yemen can at least evacuate to this big island, and the company's armed personnel and ships can also be stationed on this island and protect merchant ships at any time, but do not need to be stationed on Yemen, which will cause all kinds of trouble."

Ding Zhengyuan said something wildly and described the trade layout of Nanyang Trading Company in the "Western" region one by one. In short, it is not only necessary to have several trade strongholds in the "Western" region, but also several armed strongholds.

You can fight pirates at any time or serve as an emergency shelter in case of accidents.

The so-called "Western" currently refers to the vast sea area that starts from the western end of the Malacca Strait in the South China Sea in the east and ends at the east of Aksum.

The "Western region" Ding Zhengyuan mentioned at this moment refers to the sea areas west of Tianzhu, south of Persia, and east of Aksum, which is the western half of the West. Here, Zhou can carry out maritime trade with Persia, Western Tianzhu, Aksum and Roman countries.

The tea, porcelain, silk, raw silk, textiles, paper, various handicrafts and Nanyang spices from the Zhou Kingdom can be sold on a large scale in the West, and then specialties are purchased from various countries and transported back to the Central Plains.

Not to mention Persia, Rome, and Western India, just talk about Aksum, which has been a trading country for hundreds of years, producing gold, ivory, spices, rhinoceros horns and tortoiseshell. The specialties of the Central Plains can also be very popular with the country. If the two sides further carry out trade, the profits will not be low.

Therefore, in order to increase the fiscal revenue of the court, it is necessary to vigorously develop Western trade. It is important to establish a complete trading system, but without the protection of armed forces, all this is just a mirage.

In the Western region, there has been a prosperous maritime trade since ancient times. The Zhou fleet came here to do business, which was an outsider. Before, the trade volume was not large, so it was nothing. However, in the future, the Zhou Dynasty maritime merchants entered the Western market on a large scale to do business, which was to grab other people's jobs.

Cutting off people's and wealth channels is like killing parents. The maritime merchants from all over the world who were doing maritime trade, as well as those pirates who were both businessmen, as well as naval masters from all over the world, must be ready to move when they see the Zhou ships loaded with a large amount of cargo.

There are only a few main routes in the Western Seas, so it is not possible that there are many unidentified ships pretending to be pirates along the way "waiting for the rabbit" waiting for the Zhou fleet to come to your door.

Therefore, a reliable armed fleet must be stationed in the West to ensure the safety of merchant ships. This requires the court to come forward and negotiate conditions with Western countries so that the armed fleet can have a foothold.

As a director of Nanyang Trading Company, Ding Zhengyuan spoke in the conference room of the Ministry of Rites, representing Nanyang Trading Company and maritime merchants, to clarify trade needs to the court so that the court envoys could negotiate with Western countries according to their needs.

These requirements are not requests, but requests.

Officials of the Ministry of Rites may have different opinions. Both parties can sit down and discuss and negotiate, but they must not be perfunctory.

Because today is different from the past, Ding Zhengyuan can sit here and talk, not because he is so rich, but because the interest group he represents needs him to make a request to the Ministry of Rites.

The imperial court promoted sea trade, which brought huge revenue to the finances. At the same time, civil and military officials in the court, wealthy merchants from all over the country, and wealthy merchants also participated in sea trade. Countless people gathered together to form interest groups, and urgently needed sea trade to bring more profits to the court and itself.

The West is thousands of miles away from the Central Plains. What happened there and what happened to the Roman and Persian countries were originally unrelated to the court, but now it is different. The court has tried its best to make more money and fill in the increasingly large financial expenditures.

Therefore, officials of the Ministry of Rites may look down on the businessman "Ding Zhengyuan" and privately mocked the merchants for participating in state affairs as "purple conquering red blood", but no official of the Ministry of Rites dared not to give face to the directors of Nanyang Trading Company, and no one dared to take the negotiation requirements put forward by Nanyang Trading Company as a warning.

Ding Zhengyuan finished speaking, listened to the others' speeches, and looked at the well-dressed officials, disagreed.

Purple and red are used to mean villains pretending to be gentlemen. Now many officials say that merchants participate in formulating national policies (referring to what requirements should be made for negotiations with Western countries), which means that a group of villains pretend to be gentlemen and discuss matters with gentlemen.

Ding Zhengyuan heard this private sarcasm, of course he was unhappy in his heart, but it doesn’t matter, times have changed: we can make a lot of money for the court, can you?
Chapter completed!