Give up Manila!

It is not a particularly difficult decision for Spain.

In fact, in history, Spain has had the idea of ​​giving up Manila many times. In addition to the Dutch attacks against Manila many times, Spain can only be on the defensive. The most fundamental reason is that this colony does not make money. Even if it is a sailing route, it can only barely guarantee that it will not lose money.

To the Spanish, the Philippines is like a piece of idiot rib, it tastes boring and it is a pity to abandon it!

Give up, it’s not a loss there, don’t give up, but you can’t make much money there.

But now, all this has changed.

As more and more merchant ships of the Ming Dynasty sailed across the Pacific Ocean and headed towards Yuzhang County, the lifeline of the Philippines was in a state of loss, and it was losing more and more year by year.

"The Philippines cannot create any wealth except for spending hundreds of thousands of pesos per year!"

Is it more than hundreds of thousands of pesos?

Now Spain is in serious inflation due to the excessive issuance of silver coins by Philip IV and the frequent debts caused by the frequent wars. Now, the interest on debts is just swallowing up silver shipped from the Americas.

For Spain, which is heavily in debt, hundreds of thousands of pesos have long become an unbearable burden.

On one hand, the Dutch were eyeing Manila, while overwhelmed with financial pressure.

It would be better to take the opportunity to "sell the Philippines at a good price". If you can sell it at a good price, it is worse than to lose money yourself.

This is also why King Philip sent Gaspar to come.

When he learned that the Ming Dynasty was going to deal with the Netherlands, Gaspar secretly endured his inner ecstasy and naturally expressed his rationality and support.

Everyone can do this trick. For Gaspar, he is in a happy mood. He even wants to shout Dutchman, you are today too!

The little Gaspar, who was in a very happy mood, naturally had no need to get involved in the issue of the Netherlands. As for England... the problem between them and Spain is actually the battle between the British and the Spanish navy, including threatening the Spanish harbor with fleets and systematically capturing ships transporting silver to Spain. As early as the Cromwell era, the British did this.

During the talks, Gaspar of course proposed that he hoped that the Ming Dynasty could come forward as a sect leader to restrain the attack on the Spanish treasure ship by the English Navy. Of course, Fang Yizhi expressed his understanding of Gaspar's request, but what else can be understood?

Of course I ignored you. You made so much money in the Americas, but the Ming Dynasty didn’t go over and robbed it. It was already very sorry for yourself. She also restrained England... I’m sick! Besides, England also had to rely on robbery to pay off debts. Now the Ming Dynasty is the big creditor of England.

After a while, finally, the discussions between the two sides finally entered the substantive content. After the Ming Dynasty promised to write to England on the issue of "robbery" and restrict its behavior (of course, it was verbally).

"the Philippines!"

Little Gaspal said, taking a deep breath.

"The king knows very well that for your country, you neither want the Dutch to occupy Batavia nor accept the Philippines occupied by Spain. If we can promise your country that if the Dutch handed Batavia over to the patio, then Spain could also handed over the Philippines to the Celestial Empire. Of course, this premise is based on the constraints of the Celestial Empire on the expansion of New Spain!"

Gaspar's words made Fang Yizhi smile on his face. In any case, the Spaniards finally made practical concessions on the Philippines issue. In recent years, the Ming Dynasty has been extremely "restrained" on the Philippines issue. While restraining, it also tried every means to make the Spaniards voluntarily withdraw from the Philippines through economic suppression.

Just like why the Spaniards took the initiative to withdraw from Keelung, why did they withdraw from Taiwan? To put it bluntly, it was because of the loss!

They will definitely not do business at a loss. After all, colonization... itself is to make money.

Although Spain threw out the "Philippines" as soon as it came out, Fang Yizhi smiled distractedly.

"I think we should discuss another issue!"

He turned the globe and pointed to the east side of the Mediterranean, which is in Jerusalem, and said:

"We should discuss it here!"

"here!"

Although the location of Jerusalem was not marked on the globe, Gaspar, little, still saw that he recognized it from that very special position.

"Jerusalem!"

"right!"

Fang Yizhi smiled and said:

"Empress, I think everyone knows the significance of Jerusalem to Christians. It has only been ruled by pagans for five hundred years. Now, we may be able to talk about this issue!"

"Talk about this issue? Jerusalem? It was occupied by the Turks!"

"So what?"

Faced with Xiao Gaspal's questions, Fang Yizhi said directly.

"I think you have to figure out one thing, for the Ming Dynasty, there was never Ottoman Türkiye!"

"But this does not change the fact that Jerusalem is under their occupation!"

Gaspar continued,

"Your Excellency, we all know that no matter what Jerusalem means to Christians, it is always occupied by the Turks."

Fang Yizhi smiled and said:

"Of course, but what if, I tell you, the Ming Dynasty can no longer accept the Turkish damage to the Mediterranean trade?"

Türkiye destroys Mediterranean trade!

This is definitely not a crime, but an iron-like fact. In the 17th century, the Mediterranean had no blue waves or beautiful scenery as written by poets, and it could even be said to be unfortunate. Because the Ottoman Empire at this time was as high as the sun, occupying most of the coastline of the Eastern Mediterranean. More than a hundred years ago, in order to attack European countries, they encouraged the people of North Africa to "fall into the sea and become enemies" and loot Christian towns in the north of the Mediterranean. From then on, for hundreds of years, the Mediterranean became a paradise for pirates, and millions of Europeans were plundered as slaves.

In fact, for the Ming Dynasty, the Ming Dynasty had very little trade volume in the Mediterranean, and the looting of Europe as slaves had nothing to do with the Ming Dynasty. Moreover, the merchants of the Ming Dynasty themselves were participants in the "white slave" trade. After all, in the Ming Dynasty, "Semubi" was a best-seller.

However, the threat of North African pirates to the Ming merchant ships was an ironclad fact, and the Ming merchant ships could not even go to the Mediterranean to trade. The Ottoman Empire was the supporter of North African pirates.

"In 1518, the Algiers were still under your occupation. In order to resist the Spanish attack, the local Moors turned to the Ottoman for help. The Ottomans regarded this as a good opportunity and sent troops to drive Spain away from the Algiers, while also cultivating local pirates and providing them with warships and cannons. For more than a hundred years, North African pirates were like the nightmare of Christians on the entire Mediterranean coast, and were also the nightmare of merchants. They attacked merchant ships everywhere, whether from European countries or from the Ming Dynasty, and the Ming Dynasty had been attacked. The Ming Dynasty had lost patience for all this!"

In fact, the Ming Dynasty merchant ships rarely enter the Mediterranean. The Ming Dynasty merchant ships often bring goods to Ganquan Port in North Africa. It is the trading post of the Ming Dynasty in the northernmost part of Africa. In another world, it is Ayuen, the capital of Western Sahara. It is across the sea from the Spanish colony Canary Islands. It is named after the oasis and Ganquan on the coast. It is the Ming Dynasty colonial port in North Africa. The Ming Dynasty merchant ships transport the goods here. Merchants from Portugal and Spain can directly purchase goods at Ganquan Port and become their second-hand dealers.

所以大明商船几乎很少进入地中海,但是对于大明而言,自然不可能接受这种被拒之门外的日子.当然,大明商船想要进入地中海,就必须要承担相应的风险,需要面对北非海盗的袭击,这样的贸易损失并不是大明商人能够接受的.

It’s not that the loss cannot be accepted, but that the Ming Dynasty cannot accept the reality that it is attacked!
Chapter completed!