Chapter 1176: A Leaf

The Tea Horse Road in history, along with the tea, salt, and iron trade with the nomadic peoples in the north, were all domestic trades centered on Tea Leaves; it is precisely because of a tiny leaf that so much of the historical process was influenced.

Looking at external trade, because green tea is difficult to store and Tea Leaves could not be transported to the distant West by sea, Black Tea and other Fermented Tea that could be preserved for longer appeared, and the Noble of the West also began to drink Tea Leaves from the East.

It was not until the Age of Discovery and the Industrial Revolution that the silver that the Western powers snatched from the sea and from the Americas all flowed in large quantities into the Great Qing, which occupied the rule of the silver standard, in order to purchase the Silk, Porcelain, and Tea Leaves of the Huaxia land.

If not for the trade with the Great Qing, the primitive accumulation of the West might have been easier and faster; after all, they did not need to send more than half of their silver to the East.

As a result, when their industry developed and they wanted to send their industrial products to the East, the East did not buy it, because under the Small-scale Peasant Economy of self-sufficiency, they did not need their goods.

And the barbaric West, with its short history, had nothing that could be called a luxury item to move the Noble of the East; even now, they do not have many things that can truly be called "luxury items"—they are all about inflating brand value, and in reality, they are all things like the tulip bubble, but vain rich people just like these things, just as they liked tulips.

The only things that can be called luxury items are those produced by advanced industrial technology, because they indeed possess sufficiently high value.

The West, lacking luxury items, had no choice but to reverse such a trade deficit by dumping opium—a thing that, whether Noble or commoner, once touched, could never be quit.

Coupled with the fact that it was a Primary agricultural processed product, the cost was low and the selling price was high, allowing for the earning of exorbitant profits.

First use opium to open a crack, then use cannons to open the gates and open treaty ports, dumping cheap industrial products, gradually squeezing the living space of the Small-scale Peasant Economy, plundering resources, and forcibly turning the trade deficit into a trade surplus.

And Tea Leaves, because they occupied tea-producing regions like Asan and Lanka, and then through theft and seizing tea seeds, planted Tea Leaves in large quantities in these two places, finally solved the West's demand for Tea Leaves.

It is a pity that they only stole the tea seeds and could not snatch the technology; there is all that talk of high-quality Lanka Black Tea advertised everywhere, but one only needs to use their brain to think: would truly good Tea Leaves be industrialized into a beverage?

The arguments that some people keep touting about Western Tea Leaves being better are laughable to anyone who knows even a little about tea; only Tea Leaves that cannot be made into Lao Ban Zhang or Sui Yin Zi are used to make tea bags.

To save costs, the tea gardens planted in places like Asan, Lanka, and now Africa are all sprayed with pesticides, harvested mechanically leaf and stem together, and crushed to make tea; one bud and one leaf—who knows what that even is.

Of course, saying so much is just to explain that Tea Leaves are indeed very important; coffee and cocoa did not change the world situation, but a leaf like the tea leaf has caused a huge impact.

And now, although it is only a matter between two tribes, such a leaf is likewise influencing the situation of both sides, as well as the relationship between the two sides.

Use, demand, interest.

A leaf carries too much; if Baifeng could occupy a territory where Tea Leaves can be grown, then everything would naturally be completely unnecessary to consider.

But is Baifeng willing to change his plan for a leaf, reducing investment in the west and focusing on competing for the resources of the central world?

It seems there is still one place, the Yanzhang Land where no one is willing to go at this time; even after a few thousand years, not many people are willing to go there, and even the dynasties that unified Heaven were unwilling to spend too much effort on it; in every great war under Heaven, they never had much of a showing.

It is likely still ownerless land now, and one could snatch it before Chiyou and occupy it, but just to grow some Tea Leaves, is it worth it?

It is a place where the land is never flat for three miles, the sky is never clear for three days, and in modern times, it is also a place where people have no three taels of silver; Baifeng feels that occupying it would not be of much use, and as far as transportation is concerned, it is a huge problem—could it be that one would open a Tea Horse... New Road now?

Before transportation was sufficiently developed, such a place indeed had no advantages, but later, after highways and high-speed railways were all opened, it developed rapidly, especially in tourism; Qian Land always seemed obscure, but once you look at the statistics, tourism revenue is number one in the country.

Baifeng recalls his old hometown, historically the Guanlong Group, once the wealthiest place under Heaven, and for a long time, one did not even need to add "one of."

Now it is a fine state of affairs; not only has the label of a poverty-stricken county not been removed, but when others see you, they ask, "Do you have water to drink at home? Is there no water, and are there no trees on the mountains?"

There are indeed not many trees on the mountains, because back in those most prosperous years, as long as there was soil, it was reclaimed as farmland to support the establishment of a powerful kingdom, and coupled with the responsibility of being a port for foreign trade, it was naturally very wealthy.

It is a pity that the modern transformation failed, industrialization did not succeed, resources were exhausted, and tourism did not develop; falling behind year after year, from a place in the eighties and nineties where the provincial capital rivaled Shanghai, to today, it is mentioned only as being too poor to survive.

Baifeng had long ago realized the situation in Yunqian; it is almost impossible for him to control it, and he never had this thought before, but ever since Ayuduo came to Huaxia, he has had a slightly different idea.

Now, the relationship with the Xuanyuan Tribe is very good, but after the future struggle for hegemony, it might not be so; they and the Jiuli still have Ayuduo as a link, so it might be easier to talk.

If the Jiuli are defeated and flee to the southwest, regardless of whether the Master of Soldiers or some other son Baifeng does not know takes over the tribe, he can help them when they are in their greatest difficulty, and then reconnect the ties.

If Huaxia needs to trade, he believes they should not completely abandon him as an assistant; it is only a trade of a leaf, after all.