"How great benefits have been brought to the agricultural production in Granada in recent years." On June 10, 1675, Li Qing, a special envoy to Europe in the east coast to Europe, was visiting a farm. Looking at the lush orchards and fields around the farm, he sighed sincerely.

These orchards and fields are becoming increasingly rare in the southern Granada area. Spain has arid climate, and it is inherently more difficult to develop agriculture than other countries. However, if there are farmers who are good at operating and develop it well, they may not be able to take advantage of the situation to develop characteristic agriculture.

For example, in history when the Moors ruled southern Spain, they carried out large-scale transformation of the arid land in the south. To be honest, these Muslims from arid areas are still very good at operating water-saving irrigation agriculture, and they are still hardworking and transforming the southern part of Spain, which was originally a low-development, was almost unrecognizable: the Valencia Plain was built into a model pastoral, with irrigation technology almost perfect; the water in Guadalaviar was used extremely frugal, economical, and even

At one point, it could meet the needs of sugarcane cultivation, not to mention the common crops in the Mediterranean such as oranges and olives; Andalusia, which was once extremely drought, was transformed into a first-class pastoral countryside, abundant and productive, and the olive plantations flourished; in Seville, even after the Spaniards occupied the place and drove away the Moors twice, the tithe tax on oil crops reached 32,000 Ducats per year (about 80,000 East Coast silver dollars), and its output could fully meet the soap making industry of the Moors at that time.

However, the Castiles and Catalans messed up all this! Especially the former, after regaining Andalusia, Granada and other regions, they drove away more than 400,000 hard-working Moors (not to mention killing, burning, and many), but they were unable to inherit the industrial and agricultural foundation laid by the Moors well. The Spanish, who were only good at fighting and killing, were not well cultivated, and the social atmosphere also despised this behavior. They admired brave and warlike soldiers, so the foundation left by the Moors was worse than that of one year. To this day, there are only some good Spanish farmers or nobles who are good at operating, and they can still maintain good agricultural facilities and output.

In this way, you can understand why the Spanish country imports a large amount of food every year! And they still use real money and silver to import it, instead of exchanging it with a large amount of wool, livestock, olive oil, wine, cheese, flax, and salted fish one to two centuries ago. It can be seen that the country's material production capacity has been "steadily decreasing", which is a strange thing.

The place where Li Qing is now located is a farm bought by the Doria family in Spain, where dozens of farmers from southern Italy were living, helping to manage the orchards and wheat fields. These people have basically married and settled locally and become standard Spanish. There is no legal obstacle, because Naples is also a territory under King Carlos.

Paul of the Doria family has now arranged a special person to contact the East Coast. This time he received the instruction from the upper class of the family to invite Li Qing to visit the farm and discuss some commercial cooperation. After hearing Li Qing sighed about the benefits of peace to Spain, he immediately heard the song and knew the elegance, and said in agreement: "Yes, years of peace have given this country a precious respite. Money no longer flows out of the random way, and the people live and work in peace. The only dissatisfaction is probably some nobles and usury merchants who regard war as a romantic action."

"In recent years, Spain's ships have increased a lot, and more people have immigrated to the New World to do business. In some northern cities, because peace has been maintained with France and Portugal, the wine and wool textile industry has recovered, and Bilbao has whaling ships heading north again after many years. This is really not easy." Paul Doria said: "Of course, the burden on this country is still very heavy. The church's taxes, the aristocracy's annuity (Spain has more than 600,000 nobles, more than four times that of France. Most of them are military aristocrats, without land, but they also have to pay annuity) and the interest paid for excessive debts in the past few years have made the country breathless, but it is much better than ten or twenty years ago, right?"

"But this time they made another serious mistake and joined the war in a confused manner, and once again stood on an hostile position with the French. What did King Carlos think? Or, what did the regent Queen Mother Anna and military commander Don Juan think? Are they all crazy? Why didn't our government seek opinions before signing the alliance treaty with the United Province?" Although it has been a long time since the incident, every time I think of this,

Li Qing was still a little annoyed. The fact that Spain, a bird country, has formed such a big alliance with United Provinces, Olidi and other countries, did not seek advice from the East Coast in advance, and stepped into this huge pit again just talking to himself. This made Li Qing slightly dissatisfied. What is the Spanish mind in his mind? Not being beaten by the French enough? Why can't he live quietly? Anyway, it's hard for Li Qing to understand the so-called ambitions of the Spanish.

Paul Doria naturally empathized with the Spanish's such a pitfall, because it brought great uncertainty to a family like them who had invested a lot of resources in southern and northern Spain. What if the French army defeated the main force of Spain and broke into the heart of Spain? Should we do that business?

In addition, the wealthy merchants and giants in northern Italy, such as the Doria family, have always been extremely vigilant about the French, fearing that they would annex Spain or Northern Italy, and their lives would be difficult. After all, in this era, they are relatively free and gaining a lot of benefits. However, if they are ruled by the political power Louis XIV, they will become the French merchants who are randomly extorted and exploited, and no one wants to see such an end.

Therefore, after hearing Li Qing's words, he immediately said: "The United Province has exempted a considerable amount of debt, many of which have tortured the Spaniards for 30 years, and the gold and silver transported back every year are only enough to repay the benefits. This time, the United Province encountered a great crisis. Their government raised huge amounts of funds through the public issuance of bonds and then acquired a lot of bonds, including what the Kingdom of Spain owed. Using money to let other countries stand on their own side and fight, is it

What the Dutch are best at is that the Kingdom of Spain has plunged into a bigger debt trap for the sake of this money. What is this for is really puzzling. Even, I suspect that the decision was made this time, King Anna, King Carlos and Prince Don Juan (this lord was the illegitimate son of the former king who had defeated the French army in the war. Before his death, Philip IV urgently transferred him back to Madrid and recognized his prince's identity) to have no say at all."

Li Qing smiled and made no comments when he heard this. However, in his opinion, the Dutch side who participated in the French-Dutch War was actually the collective will of the Spanish Kingdom court and the Privy Council, not someone like the Queen Mother who could make a decision with one hand. Although King Carlos II was indeed a puppet, Prince Don Juan had no say.

After all, the Spanish still did not completely find their position and put their position in the right place. They still fantasize in their hearts that they are a big country and a strong country. They are unwilling to develop agriculture, industry and commerce steadily, practice their internal skills and manage their own well, and are still a huge colony. Instead, they try every means to restore their past glory. This is so unwise.

However, the Spaniards insist on being stupid, and the East Coast people had nothing to say. The war of heritage has only been a few years since the Spanish rushed to send the French the excuse to seize the South Netherlands. To deal with such idiots, no matter how much you help you, it is useless. What the East Coast people should consider now is how to cure the Spanish for the aftermath and see if they can gain enough benefits in this war. This is the serious matter.

Therefore, after briefly complaining about the strategy of the Kingdom of Spain with Paul Doria, they tacitly ended the topic and instead talked about commercial affairs in the Western Mediterranean. According to the planning of the East Coast people, the Mediterranean is a business circle that needs to be focused on operation. The market in the Western Mediterranean is mainly transferred to the Toutaiya merchants to use their ready-made sales network and bank settlement system. This market roughly includes the southern France, Spain, southern Italy and the Moroccan market that the Toutaiya is currently developing. It is still quite large in size and can bring back a large amount of profits to the East Coast industrial and commercial system every year.

In the Eastern Mediterranean, the East Coast people have decided to hand over to Venetian merchants as agents, and they also take advantage of their deep connections and influence in the local area, mainly including the rich areas of central and northern Italy, Austria and some Ottoman areas. Although the size and market capacity seem to be somewhat inferior to the Western Mediterranean, they are quite large, and the growth potential seems to be quite large. Once the Venetians straighten out many relationships in the future, there may not be no possibility of further development.

As for the markets in most of the Ottoman areas and the Black Sea area, they are either self-operated on the east coast or handed over to local agents to operate. There is nothing wrong with these two companies, except that they import a large amount of wheat, rye and other agricultural products from the Crimean Khanate and Ottoman Egypt every year.

Basically, such division can just make the Italians who have been traversing the Mediterranean trade circle for hundreds of years exert their subjective initiative, continuously expand, consolidate the existing market, and allow the East Coast people to retain the market of a country with a huge population. At the same time, they maintain their considerable influence through trade links, playing an immeasurable role in the national strategy.

The Honnaya came to Li Qing this time, mainly to ask the East Coast for assistance when opening up the market of the Kingdom of Morocco. After listening to the Honnaya's request, Li Qing also agreed readily and said that she would do her best to help. After all, it is not easy for the Honnaya to "run for sale" outside. It is a matter of "manufacturers" like the East Coast to provide help. Isn't it just to send some warships from the Cape Verde Islands to "visit" Morocco with the Honnaya, what a simple thing!

After talking about these commercial matters, Li Qing stayed in the farm for a few days and, together with the young men of the Doria family, hunted in the suburbs. It was not until June 15 that he returned to the port of Cadiz under the escort of his entourage. At this time, a merchant ship coming from London brought him an unexpected guest, the Marquis of Montespan of the Kingdom of France.

Marquis Montespan is really proud now. His wife Faransus became Louis XIV's mistress. It was not a good thing to be green, but because Louis XIV gave him several more vacancies, he of course easily chose to forgive his wife (of course, he has divorced now, and the certificate was issued by Louis XIV himself). The last time in the United Province, he had tentative contact with the East Coast people. This time, due to the long-term delay in the French-Dutch War, he was sent out by Louis XIV and chased him all the way to the port of Cadiz (because Spain and France are already hostile, he could only come to Spain with the ships of the war-neutral England). In order to test the current attitude of the East Coast Republic.

As we all know, because of the "good things" done by the East Coast mercenaries in The Hague, the relationship between the East Coast and the United Province has plummeted, and the French, who have been paying close attention to the development of the situation, are naturally no exception. This is because there are more and more enemies - United Provinces, Spain, Brandenburg-Prussia, Austria, etc., and their allies, Münster and Bishops of Cologne, have successively announced their withdrawal from the war, and Sweden has been dragged in the Baltic Sea - the financial sources are getting dryer, and Louis XIV, who is a little anxious, actually thought of the East Coast people! This time, the Marquis Montespan secretly came to Cadiz to meet Li Qing to see if there is any possibility of an alliance between the two countries.

After Li Qing understood the purpose of the other party, she was a little surprised, and then relieved. In fact, this is normal. The two countries had a disagreement today and made an alliance tomorrow and then started a war the day after tomorrow. For Europeans, they had long been accustomed to it. Seeing that the relationship between the East Coast and the United Provinces was very stiff, it was ordinary to send people to test sexual contact and win over. This also proves from the side that the East Coast has greatly enhanced its influence!

Li Qing was very interested in improving relations with the Kingdom of France and strengthening trade ties, but he expressed his lack of nature in forming a military alliance because the East Coast was not ready for war. Marquis Montespan was naturally disappointed with this, but he was mentally prepared before coming, so he did not seem particularly frustrated. He just kept asking Li Qing to consider it again and there was no need to rush to reply. He might come again in a while, and both sides could talk again.

Li Qing was speechless in the French attitude, and at the same time she was a little secretly happy. The feeling of watching the fire from the other side of the river was really cool. In the later years, the feeling of the American imperialist during World War II was probably like this...
Chapter completed!