Chapter 2347 Great Illusionist (middle)

The story of   West Expansion is probably one of America's favorite epics, and it wasn't just fast-shooting cowboys, marshals, Indians, and warehouse managers who participated in the feat.

   For at least the first 200 years of European colonization of the United States, much of how fast it expanded westward depended on the colonists' ability to ship commodity crops to Europe to sell.

  Most of the pioneers borrowed money to start a business. At least they had to buy shovels for reclamation, as well as mirrors, clocks and other things that represented their identity, which were generally imported. In the 18th century, the United Kingdom generally eliminated pirates, which not only reduced the cost of insurance, but also reduced the cost of shipbuilding. The cargo ship is a ship, and there is no need to build that kind of armed cargo ship, so the cost of shipbuilding is reduced, and it can rely on fewer crew members. operate.

  When sailors go to any port other than their hometown, the owners have to pay taxes for the time they go ashore, or they can hardly survive.

  Napoleon's fleet to Egypt stopped in Sardinia and Malta on the way, and the ships at this time were not the same as the cruise ships of the 21st century. The French army has always lived on land. When the fleet passed through Corsica, it encountered a big storm. It also started from the port of Gibraltar, and Nelson, who intercepted Napoleon, almost reached this sea area. Many light ships for reconnaissance were seriously damaged. . Although the big boat and the small boat are like dead leaves in the face of the stormy sea, the big boat still needs to be more stable.

  This storm greatly weakened Nelson's reconnaissance ability, and it was because of this that he passed by Napoleon's fleet several times.

  While the ship is waiting for repairs, buyers have to go to various plantations, inspect the crops, and negotiate the price before closing the deal. During this period, the expenses of sailors at the port are borne by the shipowner. Before there is a warehouse, the longer the stay in the port, the greater the cost of the shipowner, and the warehouse can solve this problem.

The agent collects cash crops from various states in the United States in advance, stores them in warehouses, and can load them as soon as the ships from Europe arrive. Basically, these two sets of changes have lowered the shipping costs, so that farmers can go to In the west, they can use an agent, or they can send the goods to the warehouse themselves to exchange for the European goods they need. Even if they are produced in more remote areas, they don’t have to worry about the problem that buyers will not come to the door.

  The next step is price competition. For example, Virginians and Marylanders export tobacco. Who will the buyer buy?

  Maryland borders Virginia, their geographical environment is not much different, but Maryland is a slave state and Virginia is Washington's hometown.

  The goods brought by Europe are not like the cash crops of the United States. They take up a lot of space, and there is always room left on the ship to carry a group of European immigrants.

  Jack took the Titanic back to the United States. He was playing cards with people and betting on ferry tickets. The Titanic is a cruise ship, and it looks very comfortable, just like a palace on the ground. That means that when the weather is calm, experienced captains will also choose a route with better sea conditions to avoid the ship from bumping at sea.

   But there are risks in the Atlantic Ocean that the Mediterranean Sea does not have - icebergs, and even the Titanic, which is said to be unsinkable, sank on its maiden voyage.

Before proposing a plan to go to Egypt, the Directorate had hoped that Napoleon would lead his army to the British mainland, thereby forcing the British to surrender and ending the war that began with the French Revolution. However, the British firmly controlled the English Channel, although the channel was much narrower than the Mediterranean. Now, Napoleon didn't believe that the French naval strength could guarantee the supply line of the landing combat troops, and the investment was huge, the success rate was extremely low, and it was basically inoperable, so he turned to the Directorate Government and proposed Egypt's plan.

   This is also related to his selfishness. He has longed for the "East" for a long time, and the Directorate also has this intention, sending him far away and training new generals to replace him by the way.

   There is also a certain reason that the generals of other countries were fooled by Napoleon's fame. The same square array has different effects in the hands of Menou and Napoleon.

   The first choice on this long list is Morrow.

   Originally there was another Osh, but he died during the Guoyue coup. Some people say that he was poisoned to death, and the murderer was Napoleon.

And the troops sent to Santo Domingo this time, most of them came from the Sambre-Meuse barracks, which has been under the command of Moro and Osh, and the 82nd regiment of the regular army. They were sent to that place of no return because several officers were suspected of joining Madame de Stahl and her salon. Although I don't know how the news leaked, when they were about to board the ship, the Swiss mercenaries in Marseille knew they were going to Santo Domingo and also mutiny, as if the place where coffee and sugar were produced became Bonaparte's "grave" to exclude dissidents field".

  Georgianna did not dare to inquire about the "secret" Bonaparte had just said, but told him the plan of the Dutch West India Company.

In fact, coffee was not so popular in the beginning, because it was a pagan drink, and the rulers of the Middle East were worried that coffee would promote the medium of interpersonal communication. At that time, there were almost no so-called restaurants, and pubs were also Muslim. Forbidden places, cafes in Cairo, Istanbul, Damascus, Algiers were one of the few public places to gain secular approval, and later became hotbeds of political intrigue. From refreshing to addictive to subversive, some incumbents, including Charles II, will close some cafes. But he did not reach the level of the Ottoman Empire. The Grand Vizier issued an edict that anyone who ran a cafe would be punished with a stick, and those who violated it again would be sewn into a skin bag and thrown into the Istanbul Strait.

In Europe, cafes have gradually become a symbol of the status of the rich and developed. Successful people with successful careers are determined to have their own meeting places and not mix with the lower class. In Sweden, coffee is included in the national monopoly, in order to prevent the common people from drinking it. Gustav III once conducted an experiment to save two death row prisoners from death, on the condition that they can only drink one kind of drink for the rest of their lives, one drink tea, one drink coffee, the one who drinks tea dies first, so Sweden became the country with the largest per capita coffee consumption.

During the reign of Gustav III, a deal was reached with Louis XVI. France gave the island of St. Barthelemy in the West Indies to Sweden in exchange for tax-free rights in the port of Gothenburg. Dockyards and free ports were developed, and a lot of coffee and sugar produced in Santo Domingo were sold to Scandinavian countries such as Sweden and Denmark.

   Frederick the Great believed that coffee was not good for health and set high tariffs, but still could not stop the rich class from tasting it.

   This is probably the case in France and Austria, where cafés were the first men's clubs, full of bitter coffee and tobacco smells, discussing politics, opera, literature, and whatever they liked. In the 17th century, coffeehouse owners in Vienna added honey and milk to make coffee more acceptable to Europeans, but Arabica coffee was still a very rare specialty.

   The problem at this time is that coffee is very expensive. Yemen adopts the method of artificial production, and middlemen increase the price. Just like the silk on the Silk Road, it is priced in pounds rather than length units to reach Europe.

Yemen’s producing areas are on steep hills without irrigation facilities. There are only a few hundred farmers. The Arabs do not know what the harvest season is. They bring coffee beans to the market every week, but they hold back when the price is low. Indian businessmen and Arabs are in charge of this business, both the Dutch and British East India companies have representatives in Mocha, but their status is not high because they have no political influence, and the only European commodity Yemenis wants is Mexican silver Made of Piaster.

Not only is it difficult to purchase coffee beans, but it is also difficult to transport coffee beans. First, they have to be transported to the port of Mocha, then to Jeddah, the largest port in the Ottoman Empire on the Red Sea, and then loaded on a Turkish ship in Jeddah to Suez, where the coffee beans arrive at Suez. Loaded on camels, transported to Cairo or Alexandria, and then boarded to Constantinople. Before the voyage of De La Roque, almost all coffee beans were taken from Alexandria and then shipped to Marseille. The cost of such transportation was very high. Louis XIV planted a coffee tree in the King's Botanical Garden, which was shipped from Holland. Yes, the king left the coffee beans it produced to his courtiers whom he liked.

  De La Roque's voyage from Mocha, around the Cape of Good Hope, took two and a half years, but found it profitable to transport coffee beans in this way.

  If it is cheap to grow coffee beans in a greenhouse, why not use a greenhouse?

   Later, the seeds of this coffee bean spread all over the world, it broke the monopoly of the Arabs on the coffee trade, and colonial coffee gradually replaced Mocha coffee in the Cairo market.

Arabica coffee beans are produced in the Abyssinian Empire, and now its seeds are all over Brazil, mainly because the Portuguese helped Abyssinia, the reason why Arabica coffee beans are rarer and more expensive than Mocha is simply because It has a low acidity, and many people cannot accept the sour taste, but some people like the "charming sourness".

  The price of coffee beans has risen ninefold due to Europeans' love for Arabica coffee, which angered the Turks, and the Turkish ambassador complained to the king of Yemen about the direct purchase of Europeans.

The   Ottomans feared the collapse of the system they had built after all the trouble they had cost them so much. Americans have not been interested in tea since the Boston Tea Party, and they can also grow coffee beans in their latitudes, so they have developed the habit of drinking coffee instead of tea.

   The business of exchanging wool for coffee beans can be done. No matter how cheap cotton is, it must be exchanged for coins. However, Bonaparte said he had to "think about it".

She directly reminded him that this is a trap, because the Dutch West India Company that proposed this plan may have Hope Bank behind it, that is, the one that monopolized the diamond trade in Brazil, the sugar trade in Russia, nearly facilitated the Louisiana acquisition, and now In persuading Napoleon to attack the United States and become the "King of the United States" Hope Bank.

   He still said he wanted to "think about it".

   She looked at his big head, can he alone surpass so many people's brains?

   It was time for lunch, and he left the lounge. Georgiana also went to Farron, but what was she doing with him?

   She is old, and she really has a bad memory. Next time she has to find a note to write down, so as not to forget.

   (end of this chapter)