On November 1, 1671, Zakynthos Island was clear and clear.?

Although he has traveled to and from the United Provinces and the Ottoman Empire many times, this is the first time Li Qing has come to Zakynthos, an island located near the coast of the empire, which has been ruled by the Venetians. Of course, he came to Zakynthos this time not to visit, but to meet with a "guest". This was also what the two sides had agreed last year and contacted in the center. You would never imagine that it was the Ottomans who had just signed a peace treaty with the Venetians.

The Crete War that lasted for many years almost wiped out the last fortune of the Venetian Republic, and also overwhelmed the Ottoman Empire, which had suffered 400,000 casualties in the military and civilian casualties. The small Venice was so tenacious in this war of disparity in strength, which really surprised the Ottomans and even more respectful.

Therefore, after the conclusion of the peace treaty, the Venetians almost instantly restored many commercial privileges before the war. They even obtained a piece of sea-side land in Kajibey (i.e., Odessa Port) on the northern coast of the Black Sea to establish a commercial station, specifically purchasing the increasingly large-scale agricultural products trade on the northern coast of the Black Sea in recent years.

Li Qing was slightly surprised when she first learned the news, thinking that the Venetians came to grab business. However, after learning that it was only the Fengyu Office of the Republic of Venice that came to set up some places to purchase grain, livestock and other agricultural and sideline products, he immediately calmed down because there was no business conflict between the two sides and could coexist, although the heat of the Hot, who also opened a commercial station in the Port of Cafa, might be a little unhappy.

Awaiting Li Qing on Zakynthos is Morosini, a Venetian naval officer. His ancestors were commander-in-chief of the Republic's fleet, and he was considered a descendant of a famous family. This time, this time, this gentleman also took the assignment of his superiors to conduct a series of negotiations with the East Coast people on trade issues. To put it bluntly, the Venetians, who started out with business, continued to make profits through commercial behavior after 24 years of fierce wars and slowly restored their strength. In this regard, East Coast goods with a wide variety of products and good quality have always been the darling of the market. Therefore, the Venetians now intend to give up some prejudices from the past and instead cooperate with the East Coast people to better sell East Coast goods in Italy, Austria and other places, just like the Hot Nayans helped the East Coast goods to sell in the Greater Spanish market.

As a Venetian rival and old enemy, the Republic of Hot Naya was surprised that Venice had recovered its influence in the Ottoman business field so quickly, and was also a little scared, because it would inevitably have some adverse effects on them, such as the competition for limited food on the northern coast of the Black Sea, the competition for the six-place trade routes, etc. The latter was particularly tragic. This can be seen from the recent open and secret struggles between the two countries at the port of Trabzon, Turkey. Both sides attached great importance to the end of the six-place trade routes that could lead to Tabriz and Persian Gulf, so they began to stab and slander each other in order to achieve their own goal of dominating commercial interests.

The East Coast people are naturally very clear about the grudges of the old enemies of Hona and Venice, but they have no intention of interfering in it at all. Even now Hona Asians and the East Coast are as good as wearing pairs of pants. There is no other reason. To put it bluntly, it is still economic factors, because in the Eastern Mediterranean, without the assistance of the Venetians, many things are always half the result with twice the effort, and commercial profits are greatly affected. Therefore, when it comes to interests, unless the Hona Asians can show that they have a lot of value in Venice, don't expect the East Coast people to reach a strategic cooperation agreement with the overlords of the Adriatic Sea.

Although Morosini is not a worm in Li Qing's belly, he is extremely smart and can see some clues. Therefore, when he was assigned by his superiors to discuss with Li Qing, he felt that it was not difficult to complete the task.

"...We need exclusive monopoly of goods in Venice, Austria and other places, and merchants from other places (such as Genoa, Tuscany, Lucca, etc.) are not allowed to sell specialty goods from your country here; in addition, please also approve our country to open a plantation in New Huaxia Island in your country, purchase tropical goods and ship them back to the country for sale, and the price should be the average price of your country to sell to other countries; recognize each other the validity of bills, checks, promissory notes and other commercial papers of a major bank in your country, and promise to give convenience to the other party's customers, well, according to the previous communications In the agreement, the brand new Venetian Circulation Bank will recognize the commercial paper of your United Industrial Credit Bank. In exchange, your United Industrial Credit Bank will also provide bill exchange and discount services to customers of the Venetian Circulation Bank." In a scenic winery, Morosini said to Li Qing on behalf of the Venetian government: "As a return for your country's agreement to agree to the above conditions, our government will make every effort to facilitate the sales of your goods (the product list will be negotiated and decided by both parties) and give a slightly lower discount than the import tariffs of other countries."

To be honest, the things Morosini said were not considered any condition at all. They were just normal commercial requirements. Li Qing did not intend to refuse. Therefore, he readily agreed to the Venetians' request, but also emphasized one point, that is, to require the Venetians to open their own ports to supply and repair ships on the East Coast. If the East Coast Fleet conflicts with other countries in the Mediterranean, the Venetians will provide one or two ports with ship maintenance capabilities for use by the East Coast Navy (of course, it is paid). They shall not refuse the entry of East Coast warships for any reason. The validity period of this right is ten years, and the two sides can continue to discuss it ten years later.

Morosini was also stunned for a moment because it seemed to be the authorization he received. But it didn't matter. He immediately sent a brisk sailboat to leave Zakynthos Island and quickly headed to the Port of Venice, asking the local Governor's Council (a parliament composed of more than a dozen prominent families in Venice, which is the supreme authority of the Republic of Venice).

"I heard that Grey Khan of Crimea gave you a wetland land at the mouth of the river, and allowed you to build stone warehouses, residences, churches, docks, livestock and walls? That's a great place. Alberto, Grey Khan and Ottoman Sultans do not often allow foreign ships to sail into the Black Sea. We, you, the Genasians and the French, are the only four countries that can send merchant ships into the Black Sea for trade. It's a natural market." Li Qing picked up a stack of seedless raisins on the table and said while tasting: "In fact, we had a lot of effort to enter the Black Sea trade back then. Now the Ottomans are not as tight as before, so you have slowly squeezed in. To be honest, some of the merchants in our country have a lot of complaints."

"We have no intention of having direct competition with your country." Morosini waved his hand immediately when he heard this and clarified: "In the past, commodities sold to the Black Sea region, such as weapons, iron and woolen products (coarse woolen products processed in Bruges, South Nederland) are no longer as usual. It is difficult for us to get started. For example, woolen is monopolized by British goods, and others cannot compete at all; weapons and iron are divided by your country, England and Germany, and your country may have the largest share. What we can sell is just some cotton textiles, silk products, leather products, wine, etc. produced in Italy, and the scale is not very large. The income can only be used to pay for the purchase of rye, and there is almost no direct competition with your country."

Morosini's words are not false. After more than 20 years of war, Venice is now extremely weak. The originally prosperous handicraft industry is now half-dead, and the textile industry has declined with the decline of the overall Italian textile. Therefore, there are not many goods they can export to the Black Sea now, even if there are still very few foreign goods they resold.

It is also because of this that, as Morosini said just now, there is really no competition between them and the East Coast. What the Venetians are looking for is just a stable supply of food in the Black Sea. Of course, there may be some Venetian merchants who are interested in gems, silks, wood from the Asian Sea, salted fish, salt, copper from the Trabzon, pearls from the Red Sea, and ginger, pepper, cinnamon from the East Indies, but they are basically not very large-scale.

Of course, Li Qing was also very clear about this, but he was still ready to explain everything clearly in advance. He said again: "In addition, Alberto, I may need to remind you another point, that is, you must not interfere in the slave trade in the Black Sea, or even if you want to interfere in the slave trade, you must communicate with us in advance and obtain permission. I know that you still retain a considerable slave trade in the Black Sea area, but I have to emphasize that the slave trade in the Black Sea is also very important to our country. You do not want to see any commercial order out of control and cause damage to our interests. This is the bottom line and cannot be overcome. Please consider it carefully."

Speaking of the slave trade in the Black Sea, the Honas and Venetians are really old-fashioned, three hundred years earlier than the latecomers of the East Coast. This kind of business was first traced back to the time when the Mongols swept the Black Sea. At that time, a bunch of Russians, Caucasians, Bulgarians, Armenians, Poles, Lithuanians, Belarusians were captured by the Mongols and then bought by the Honas, Venetian merchants and loaded them elsewhere with ships to this day. To this day, some villages on Crete still have the "characteristics" of the past, such as "slave villages", "Russian villages", etc., and weren't there a large number of Venetian plantations on Crete at that time?

Therefore, people from the East Coast are still very vigilant about such old slave traders, worried that they will break into this market and disrupt order, so that people from the East Coast cannot buy enough quantities of non-nationals who are transported back to their local areas at low prices.

Morosini also understood this and agreed with the demands of the East Coast people because in fact they did not intend to do this kind of slave trade again, because the blow to the reputation of the country was really a big blow. After all, the slaves sold were actually Christians. It is not as good as three hundred years ago. At that time, no one cared about such messy things, and it is hard to say now. What's more, in the 24-year-long Crete War, the Venetians also received strong support and assistance from the Pope and Christian countries. It is indeed a bit unreasonable if you buy and sell Christian slaves in a large manner.

Li Qing was very satisfied with the Venetians' guarantee because it solved a major event. Now everyone has unified their minds. The Venetians sell brocade silk, high-end textiles, wine to the Black Sea, and focus on importing rye, wheat and barley, supplemented with wood, salted fish, copper, spices, pearls and other commodities; the East Coast people exported a large number of iron products, mechanical parts, weapons and other commodities in the Black Sea, vigorously importing slaves, livestock, copper, graphite, asbestos, olive oil, raisins, amber, beeswax, pearls and other special products, which can basically not interfere with each other, at least for a few years.

At the end of November 1671, after a month of time, the Palace of the Consuls (the Supreme Power) in the Water City Venice finally entrusted someone to send a letter to Morosini on Zakynthos. In the letter, perhaps in a hurry to reach a cooperation agreement with the East Coast people, the Venetians fully agreed to the East Coast people's request, including opening the port to the East Coast military and civilian ships. You must know that this is a condition that the Gena*Asian Republic did not agree to, which shows the great courage of the Venetians.

Since the new trading partners are so informed and tactful, what else can Li Qing worry about? After preparing a small gift for Morosini and others, Li Qing left several capable subordinates to finalize the details with the Venetians as soon as possible. He himself, Secretary Xiao Sun and some other members boarded the ships that the Venetians had maintained for free during this period and headed towards Istanbul, the Ottoman Empire.
Chapter completed!