In the spring of 1598, Abbas I, who ruled the Safavid dynasty, decided to move the capital and move the capital of the Persian Kingdom from Gazvin in the west to Isfahan in the central region to get rid of the threat of the Ottoman army. (]. From this moment on, the local city of Isfahan jumped into the capital of the entire Safavid dynasty.

This city with an altitude of more than 1,500 meters is located in an oasis, both east and west are blocked by mountains, and can attack and retreat or defend. It is not only avoided from the threat of the capital facing the Ottomans' straight entry, but also closely connected with the central and eastern regions. Whether it is using troops in the northeast (to deal with the Uzbeks and the Mughals), or going south to attack Western colonists, it is quite convenient and can be called the country's geographical center city.

After Abbas I moved the capital, he began to vigorously manage Isfahan to make it a beautiful city that suits his identity. He invited many designers and craftsmen from Italy and India to build the famous Kings Square, Kings Mosque, Trufula Mosque and Alikapu Palace. In addition, he also hired about 300 ceramic craftsmen from China to fire porcelain and ceramic tiles for the king (the tiles are mainly the Iranians' own craftsmanship). For example, the famous Kings Mosque spent no less than 500,000 exquisite ceramic tiles, which was shocking.

In order to develop Isfahan's business, Abbas I also forced the Armenians, who were famous for their cleverness to move to Xinzhulfer, in the suburbs of Isfahan, to settle down, making it called the satellite city of the capital to flourish the capital's industry and commerce. In addition, Abbas I also allowed foreigners to freely open business stations, factories, build residences in Isfahan, and allow them to continue to believe in their original religion. Under this tolerant policy, Isfahan finally looked like a regional international city. Indians, Khwarezmians, Bukharas, Turks, Russians, British, Dutch, French, Venetians, Spanish, Armenians, Georgians and Jews. You can see all kinds of people here.

At this time, when Jiwen and others walked into the wide and straight streets of Isfahan, they saw such a scene. Captain Jiwen rode on a Persian horse, carefully examining the capital city of the Persian Kingdom with a proud look and a slightly picky look. Well, the city streets are very wide, and they are all stone roads. I don’t know how much manpower was spent when it was built. It was really a luxury and desireful monarch of the old continent; the square was very magnificent. It exceeded all the squares in the eight counties on the east coast. However, after the latest Victory Square in the capital Dongfang County (built to celebrate the great victory of the Spanish self-defense counterattack) was completed, its scale should not be inferior to the broken square of these red-headed men (named because the Turkmen who ruled Persia were used to wrapping red turbans).

Although he kept belittling the achievements of the Persian royal city in his mind, Jiwen knew in his heart that this was a great, prosperous, prosperous and civilized city. Perhaps it was not as modern as many counties on the east coast, but in terms of the meticulous construction and historical and cultural heritage, Isfahan completely overcame all cities on the east coast. The East Coast Republic is still too young and lacks historical heritage.

"This city has more than 100 mosques, dozens of colleges, more than 200 public bathrooms, 10 cemeteries, and no less than 1,500 hotels." Mr. Smith, who was traveling with him, had been to Isfahan several times. But he was still fascinated by this great city, and he continued to introduce it: "Please note. Mr. Jiwen, you are in a great city with a population of 600,000. What is the concept of a population of 600,000? Have you seen it? Many years ago, maybe in the last century, when my grandfather passed by Naples, the city with a population of 300,000 was already shocked by him, but Naples, the most populous city in Europe at that time, was only half of the population of Isfahan now..."

"It sounds very desirable." Jiwen compliments, and then fell into silence. The first graduate of the Navy School, who is extremely loyal to the East Coast and loves his career, Captain Jiwen, had already fallen into extreme fantasy at this time. He fantasized that he would see a super city with hundreds of thousands of people on the East Coast in his lifetime. The city was beautiful, with clean and tidy streets, and people wore decent clothes and wandered around the magnificent square after work. There was a huge monument on the square, engraving the name of everyone who contributed to the rise of the East Coast.

The two of them walked for more than ten minutes, and then the Turkmenist officers who were traveling with them led them to a dome building, which looked like a building like a State Guesthouse on the east coast, but the interior was luxurious: exquisite furniture, soft carpets, beautiful lighting and dazzling Persian tapestries. Compared with these decorations, the State Guesthouse on the east coast, which only had a layer of lime water on the walls, was really weak.

It seems that Mr. Smith is the first time he has been here, but he has been to Persia many times and is obviously very experienced. Therefore, he comforts Jiwen not to be too anxious. Anyway, the letter of the country has been submitted, and the Persians will definitely ask the East Coast people for questioning. If you are lucky, the current king, young and promising Abbas II, may also meet Jiwen in person. Of course, this possibility is slightly lower. After all, Jiwen is not a professional diplomat, and he is just a naval lieutenant. The Persian king is unlikely to condescend to see him. However, whether the king meets him or not will affect the overall situation, as long as they agree to what the East Coast people want.

In this way, after arriving in Isfahan at the end of June, Jiwen and others stayed in the State Guesthouse. The Persians did not restrict their outings. Therefore, Jiwen, led by the "old driver" Smith, started eating, drinking and having fun in Isfahan City. By the way, he observed the customs and customs here, and then inspected the market. His life was so cool and pleasant.

Finally, on July 9, the Persians sent an official who looked like a scholar to the State Guesthouse and formally talked about the important matter in Spanish with Jiwen himself (Mr. Smith avoided as usual). The scholar did not look like a Persian, but a Westerner serving Abbas II. He first asked about the relationship between the East Coast Republic and the Ottoman Empire. Even in the Middle East and the news was in the middle east, the news about the East Coast people in the New World was occasionally circulated with the movement of Armenian merchants, and the most of them were their deeds in the Ottoman Empire.

To be honest, this question is difficult to answer. After all, the relationship between the East Coast Republic of China and the Ottoman Empire is indeed too close. The Persian Safavi Dynasty is a feud with the Ottoman Empire. It has just not long been long since the peace treaty concluded between the two sides, and it is common for them to hate each other.

Although Captain Jiwen was not a professional diplomat, he knew that this question was difficult to answer, so he only vaguely stated that the East Coast Republic opened multiple commercial stations in the Ottoman Empire and had certain commercial connections. He also hoped to open the commercial stations within the Persian Kingdom to enhance the connection between the two sides.

Fortunately, the Persians did not care much about Jiwen's answer. Or they didn't care at all, because the Netherlands, which is doing business in Persia, did not still do business in the Ottomans in the Ottomans? Therefore, the Persian scholar quickly changed his subject and proposed whether the East Coast people could provide the Persian Kingdom with a large number of high-quality weapons and even naval ships?

This problem is exactly what Ji Wen thought. One of his major tasks on this trip was to promote goods from the East Coast. Since the batch of weapons and equipment he brought was in the eyes of the Persians, the next business would be easy to do. Now with the end of the 30 Years of Europe, the export volume of military industry in the East Coast has begun to decline. Except for the Crimeans, Cossacks and Ottomans who were still continuing to purchase, sales in other regions have basically stagnated. Therefore, it is possible to find another large customer of the local tyrant level in the Middle East. It is definitely a blessing for the military industry with overcapacity in the domestic industry.

However, they also mentioned naval ships? This was a bit difficult. Mr. Gain Smith kept warning Given. If the East Coast people want to participate in the big market of Persia, they must abide by the tacit understanding reached between the English, Dutch and even the Portuguese, that is, when any country exports two masts or more ships to Persia, they must obtain the consent of everyone. Mr. Smith vividly called this "principle of consistency in civilized countries" and urged everyone to strictly abide by it.

This agreement is actually easy to understand, that is, to limit the maritime power of the Persians, so that merchants from "civilized countries" who came from afar can gain greater benefits. For example, in order to win over the British Navy, which was known to the world's number one (the Persians also heard of it), in 1615, Abbas I ordered that British ships could dock at any port in Persia at any time; British and British goods could reach anywhere in Persia; British and property were protected in Persia, and they could open factories, free trade, and freedom of belief in Persia; the tariffs on British goods were the lowest, less than 3%.

These preferential measures made the British East India Company very interested. They chose the Port of Jasque as their base in Persia, and set up commercial offices in Isfahan, Shiraz, Abbas and other places to vigorously carry out trade. In November 1616, the British merchant ship "King of James" sailed into Jasque Port with full cargo, which was warmly welcomed by Persian officials and Abbas I himself. At the same time, Abbas I also announced that British ships were completely exempt from taxes in Jasque, and Persia provided Britain with 1,000-3,000 dan of raw silk every year, which was another series of preferential policies. In this case, the British finally made up their minds to provide warships to assist the Persians in occupying Hormuz, an island occupied by the Portuguese for nearly a hundred years.

The Persians gave the British such great benefits that they were simply because they had a fancy to the other party's maritime power. But no matter how generous the conditions offered by the other party were, the British still refused to spread their shipbuilding technology to them. What they were afraid of was kicked away by the Persians in the future and would never enjoy any privileges.

Therefore, facing the Persians' earnest expectations, Jiwen could only vaguely state that he had no authorization and had to ask the country for instructions. After writing this down, Persian scholars discussed other matters with Captain Jiwen with expressionless expression, of course, mainly limited to business. At the end of the talk, the other party obviously did not want to continue perfunctory and ended the negotiations with the East Coast people and promised to provide a quota of up to 300 dan of raw silk to the East Coast every year, provided that the East Coast people normally delivered the prescribed number of army weapons and equipment to them.

There is no preferential tax rate, only transactions are allowed at Abbas Pier, no permission to open a factory, and no East Coast people and East Coast goods (except arms) are allowed to enter Persia. The privileges of the British are very different. All of this made Captain Jiwen clearly realize that he was despised.

Grandma, a bear!

On July 25, 1649, when Captain Jiwen returned to the Pier of Abbas Port and took away his raw silk and prepared to sail to the Port of Suez in the Ottoman Empire, he couldn't help but feel nervous: "Maybe next time, the flagship of the Second Navy Fleet stationed in Xinhua Port came here for a walk, so that these Persian terrorists would see what it looked like when the powerful warships equipped with 66 artillery fired. Maybe by that time, their faces would change slightly!" (To be continued, please search Piaotianwen, the novel is better, updated and faster!
Chapter completed!