Chapter 1145: The Point of Conflict

"Yes, Your Majesty."

Liu Fu and the other Cabinet ministers exchanged glances; they held the same thought.

In the future, these two systems would be equivalent to a "friends' price" for insiders and a "courtesy price" for guests.

The friends' price would be used for Great Song to maintain its basic foundation in Dongtu.

The courtesy price would be used for making friends abroad.

And to transition from a courtesy price to a friends' price, Great Song's consent would be required.

At the same time, he believed that establishing this global trade system had another important significance.

That was that Great Song was establishing a global order led by itself.

In terms of military, they had already driven the Westerners out of Dongtu.

In terms of culture, they had already infiltrated Dongtu.

And this global trade system was the economic order.

Only countries within the Great Song order could profit from this trade system; countries outside the system that wanted to do business with those inside had to obtain Great Song's consent.

This was the true intention of this system.

He was just about to remind Zhao Xu of this point when he heard Zhao Xu say, "By the way, add a clause to the contract: without the consent of the majority of the member states, no other country is allowed to sell commercial goods to the signatory state."

"I was just about to bring this up," Liu Fu said with a smile.

Zhao Xu nodded.

The essence of a trade system is to monopolize the market, and the two systems he was building were naturally the same.

Countries within the trade system could sell goods to other countries, but for other countries to sell goods to those within the system, they had to obtain permission.

And this clause was aimed specifically at the Xitu Guo.

After all, generally speaking, the order that the Xitu Guo had spent two or three hundred years building had only collapsed in the direction of Dongtu.

They still possessed colonies far more extensive than those in Dongtu.

Coupled with the global plundering by the Xitu Guo over these past few centuries, although they had suffered setbacks in Tianzhu, they were not yet mortally wounded, and their total social wealth was still much higher than that of Great Song.

If given a chance to catch their breath and successfully break through to the Second Industrial Revolution, they would still be Great Song's number one trouble.

To the Westerners, Great Song was likewise their number one mortal enemy, the kind that would not rest until one side was destroyed.

Furthermore, the pirate-like mentality of the Angsa was "winner takes all," with no concept of win-win cooperation.

To them, it was inevitable that either they or Great Song would fall.

It was precisely because he considered these things that he was not prepared to let the Westerners off lightly; he was determined to break their civilizational progress.

This trade system was a Weapon to strike at the Western economy.

He wanted to use this Weapon to sever the Westerners' commodity export markets and deny them the opportunity to accumulate industrial capital.

In this way, their industrial development would wither and stagnate.

And without the support of industry, their technological development would be like duckweed without roots.

Although this move was ruthless, compared to the Westerners' centuries of slaughtering indigenous peoples and plundering the wealth of other nations to accumulate capital, his method was already merciful enough.

Moreover, he had never claimed to be a benevolent gentleman.

If the whole world is full of villains, and only Great Song is a humble gentleman, people will only think you are weak and easy to bully.

(Note: The previous line is a continuation of the thought process.)

Was the prestige of the Han and Tang dynasties gained by relying on the image of a "good guy"?

On the contrary, the Han Dynasty expelled the Xiongnu, and the Tang Dynasty expelled the Turks; only then did the subsequent golden ages follow.

And now, for Great Song, the Westerners were the Xiongnu of the Han era and the Turks of the Tang era.

After discussing many more details, Zhao Xu and the Cabinet ministers finalized the contract terms.

The remaining matters were left to the Foreign Affairs Department.

Guan Tong was only responsible for contacting Persia and revealing the intention to cooperate.

Specific matters still required the professional officials of the Foreign Affairs Department.

Having settled this, everyone returned.

Zhao Xu stretched, looked at the map on the wall, and where he had previously drawn a circle over Persia, he now picked up a pen and drew a checkmark inside it.

On the map, besides Persia, these circles also appeared in many other places.

For example, the Alabo Guo to the west of Persia.

From beginning to end, he had never intended to put all his apples in one basket.

Otherwise, the "apple" would have the illusion that it was very important and would then demand a price from Great Song.

After Persia, the next one he would support was the Alabo Guo, ruled by the Ottomans, to help it restore its independent status.

In this way, he would not need to purchase Petroleum solely from Persia.

Of course, this was just a precautionary strategy.

He did not think Persia would play tricks on Great Song regarding Petroleum.

Because Great Song was the only buyer in the world, the Persians would not realize the importance of Petroleum and would only treat it as ordinary cargo for sale.

By the time the era developed and the value of Petroleum became higher and higher, he would have already secured the oil fields in Siberia, and at that time, no country would be able to hold Great Song by the throat.

Casting his gaze beyond Dongtu, Zhao Xu looked toward the location of the contemporary Suiyi Shi Yunhe.

Currently, the Mediterranean and the Yindu Yang had not yet been connected.

This was also the reason why it took four months for Great Song to reach the Western Lands.

If the canal were dug, the sea voyage from Great Song to the Western Lands would be shortened by nearly half.

At this location, he also drew a circle.

While establishing diplomatic relations with the Alabo Guo, he was also preparing to stir up trouble in Aiji.

At present, Aiji, like Tianzhu in the past, is a colony belonging to Britain.

Whether it is to establish coastal supply points, or to dig a Canal leading to the Mediterranean and open up shipping routes, this place will become a major point of conflict between Great Song and the British.

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