The Venetians have blocked the Dardanelles for a long time. ︾ From spring to summer, from summer to autumn, although they cannot block the Ottoman sea transportation lines every moment, the Venetian Navy, who has gone around for no reason, still left the Ottomans helpless. Most of the transportation between the White Sea (Aegean Sea) and the Black Sea has been changed by land.

During this period, the Ottomans did not have counterattacks, but the rare elite warships (purchased from the East Coast) were incapable of advancing and retreating when facing the huge number of Venetian fleets. The fast cruise ship, which relied entirely on sail power, was not as maneuverable as sail warships in the Mediterranean, so the losses were quite large. Two of the three fast cruise ships were sunk, and one was seriously injured and fled back to Burgas. Although the battleship "Bayerzid" was the main force of the Ottoman Navy, which was powerful and sank and injured many Venetian sail warships, it was also seriously injured. It fled all the way back to the Black Sea and hid under the protection of shore defense artillery.

At this point, the maritime forces of the Ottoman Empire had basically admitted defeat. Tens of thousands of Ottoman troops who were attacking the city of Gandiya on Crete were immediately in trouble. They could only rely on precious materials transported by transport ships that were scattered at night to survive, and struggled to maintain their military presence on the island.

As for the pirates in North Africa who depended on the Ottoman Empire, at the moment when the Ottomans needed them the most, they all disappeared, hid in their own territory and became local emperors, and were unwilling to go out to sea to fight the Venetians. The reasons are nothing more than two: one is that they really can't beat them, and the other is that even if they are lucky, they will suffer heavy losses and are not worth it.

In fact, there are quite a few people who have the idea of ​​them. For example, the local Ottoman Governors, legion leaders and religious leaders lip service to the Agas who controlled the central power and regarded the Sultan of Muhammad as a puppet. Some small-scale armed conflicts have occurred. Local money cannot be handed over to Istanbul or given a discount. However, the important task of maintaining the operation of the country and fighting the Venetians was on the head of the central finance. This has caused the financial situation of the Ottoman government to deteriorate sharply again, and it has reached a very serious point.

Judging from the situation in recent months, the Agas, who actually held the Ottoman power, have been busy. In order to pay their salaries and maintain government operation expenses, they have minted a large number of low-quality coins, and have also collected taxes in the control area in advance for two years, which often creates more serious problems: inflation and social unrest. To make matters worse, due to natural disasters and the blockade of the Venetians, the Ottoman grain was reduced while its liquidity was also poor. Famine began to spread between big cities, which further weakened the prestige of the Agas in power.

As a last resort, Kara Murad, an important general of the Ghanishari Legion who was originally the Great Vizi, was forced to resign and acted as a scapegoat for the internal and external dilemma of Ottoman. After Murad Aga left office, the army did not give up its power. Abaza Malik Ahmed came to power as Great Vizi, but he was a weak person with no prestige and talent. In fact, he was a puppet of the army and a puppet in front of the stage.

In the current chaotic political situation of the Ottoman Empire, it is really a test of people to do a good job - the main test is your local sales channels and the strength of your political allies. In this era, doing business in Europe was never just an economic issue. Except for the Dutch people who value trade freedom, other countries are loyal believers of mercantilism. In an era when food-deficient countries need to apply for special applications to allow silver to flow out, any idea that I can sell my cheap and good goods is ridiculous and unrealistic, and will eventually be crushed by reality.

In this era when handicrafts occupy the mainstream industry, almost any industry has traditional guilds. Guilds control sales from raw materials to terminal markets. Every profit in this industry has long been distributed: aristocrats, merchants, priests, officials, guild leaders, handicraftsmen, etc. Everyone has their own share, and everyone is also very close to their share. When you enter this market with strong force, you are just fighting for the cake of these vested interests. At this time, if they don’t fight back, wouldn’t that be a dead person?

What's more, it's not the era of free trade, but the 17th century when mercantilist ideas were popular. They had ways to compete with you. When your so-called cheap and affordable goods didn't even have the chance to put them on the shelves, what else can you do besides taking big risks to smuggle them?

In other words, if you have a strong political backer, and some local aristocrats support, and merchants with rich sales channels, then it will not be so difficult to do business. That was how the East Coast people did in Bordeaux back then. In politics, they rely on the Baron Toulouse and their relatives in Paris, and in local areas the Loris family's dual influence in the church and the local area. In business, they rely on Pasquere, a business family that has operated in the Aquitaine region for hundreds of years, which defeated one of the vested interests, the Jewish businessman Ludwig, and occupied the cotton market in some provinces and regions in central and southern France.

Due to the limited influence of the Baron Toulouse and the huge power of the vested interests, the influence of the East Coast people can only be limited to these provinces and regions. It is difficult to go further. Unless you spend decades of focusing on operating in France, your current scale will reach its peak and you will not be able to cover it any more.

To put it bluntly, these powerful figures are the judges who determine the prospects of East Coast goods in the French market, and they also made huge sales profits in it. If the East Coast people had not concealed their actual production costs, perhaps they would have made more money on each piece of cotton than these French compradors. Things in the world are often so helpless. East Coast is not that they can't leave these people alone, but this requires time and opportunity. You have a yellow-skinned pagan country on your head. To be honest, it would be impossible to do anything without spending decades of operation.

Compared with the arrogant France, the East Coast people operated much better in the Ottoman Empire. With the east wind of selling warships (at the risk of offending the Christ state) and a large number of army weapons, and Mo San was willing to spend a lot of money, the East Coast people successively gained several forces in the Ottoman, and their level was quite high.

For example, local forces represented by the political tumbler Nasukhpasha - his supporters are Syrian Pasha, Egyptian Pasha and Navy Pasha; for example, Kara Murad and Bektash, the leader of the Ghanishari Legion whom he met for selling war materials; in addition, they also met with local officials in the Sipashi Legion and Rumili area (who bought female slaves to meet). In short, their political backing is still very strong.

This is the case in politics and is very similar in business. The Holnession family from Armenia has been working hard to run the business with Genoa and Venice since the reign of Emperor Suleiman. Over the past hundred years, they have accumulated rich family background and extremely rich personal connections. They are very good at Anatolia and Rumili. They are definitely invincible for agents on the East Coast, and this is also the reason why the Ottoman Empire surpassed France and became the largest trading partner of the East Coast.

In recent years, the Ottoman Empire has changed its throne three times, and the palace forces, military forces and local aristocratic forces have fought each other, which has caused great political chaos and made most foreign businessmen who do business in this country feel at a loss. Fortunately, the local aristocratic forces with good relations with the East Coast are in good condition. The Syrian Governor, the Egyptian Governor are still living very well. They have representatives, former Aleppo Pasha Nasukh Zad Hussein, who is even more happy in the Black Sea area. While selling East Coast goods to Syria, Egypt and Rumili, while selling purchased slaves from Crimea to the East Coast, counting the money and counting them.

Although the situation in the military has been deteriorating in the past year, they are in control of the knife handle that no force can ignore, so they can still maintain it. The economic exchanges between the East Coast people and them are mostly limited to arms trade, and the Ghanishari Legion pays in time every time. This has almost become a stable cash cow in the European trading system hosted by Mosan. It is much better than those infrastructure projects that have defaulted on payments and delayed construction periods (Edirne-Plovdiv highway, expansion and reconstruction of several ports).

Therefore, although in this difficult autumn, the Ottoman Empire fell into an extremely difficult situation due to financial difficulties, inflation, food failure and war defeat (the strait was blocked), many foreign merchants began to evacuate this extremely unstable market, but the East Coast people were still living quite well. The Ottomans not only ordered a large amount of wheat from the East Coast, but also ordered a batch of military funds (the fleet full of military funds was defeated by the Venetians in the White Sea last month), and the required funds were paid by female slaves - they would ask the Crimeans for what the raft robbers plundered more than 200,000 male and female slaves in Ukraine.
Chapter completed!