Chapter 808: Spice and Tea

Ling Chen looked bewildered.

Spice?

This item had long since appeared within his field of vision.

Because in Yintan City, and even throughout all of Liangzhou and Longyan, with the birth of the Prince's Perfume, the presence of spice seemed to have become less significant. Back in the day, the Prince relied on the debut of perfume to directly cause many spice merchants to go bankrupt and wail to the heavens.

But what Ling Chen did not know was:

How important spice was to Europe.

This can be seen from medieval Europe. As everyone knows, Europe's natural resources were not that abundant. It did not have the fertile, nutrient-rich arable land found in Zhongguo or North America. The European continent is dominated by a temperate maritime climate; it lacks the synchronized rain and heat and the favorable weather of Zhongguo's monsoon climate, having instead high rainfall and little sunlight.

With animal husbandry so developed, when winter arrived, the weather was incomparably cold, making it impossible to continue animal husbandry. The people of Europe needed to store enough food to survive the winter before it arrived, which meant a large amount of meat. When storing this meat, spice was needed. As for whether spice was used for preservation or for seasoning, there are currently many differing opinions.

One theory is that ancient people lacked refrigerators and cold storage, so excess meat had to be processed to avoid waste, which was especially important in tropical regions. In terms of short-term processing, this meant adding spice, or ingredients containing antibacterial substances such as pungent vegetables like green onions, rosemary, thyme, and mustard.

Consequently, agriculture in Europe was not well-developed. What could be done about this situation? People had to survive, so they needed sufficient food. Fortunately, while Europe was not suited for agriculture, its climate was suitable for the development of pastures, so the Europe of that time was primarily based on animal husbandry, and the people of Europe mainly consumed meat.

Then the question arises.

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Throughout a long stretch of history, the value of spice in Europe exceeded that of gold.

And where did the spice come from?

But there is also a theory that spice could not prevent spoilage, but it could certainly bring different flavors to cured meat, preventing it from tasting like chewing wax.

Regardless of which theory is true, at least one point is certain.

But this money-making machine was broken several hundred years ago.

It was broken by the Ottoman Empire.

Zhongguo, Southeast Asia, and India produced the most spice, which was then transported to the West via the Silk Road.

All along, the profits that the spice trade brought to Longyan were quite considerable.

Under these circumstances, Europeans could only endure high prices to purchase spice.

Of course.

The Ottoman Empire monopolized the entire trade route to the West, and naturally, it monopolized the entire spice business in its own hands.

The once-flourishing Ottoman naturally had no one who dared to provoke it.

While the Ottoman was being arrogant and despotic, Prince Henry of Portugal began organizing sailing teams, bypassing the trade routes ruled by the Ottoman, and went directly to India and Asia, and even inadvertently to Africa, thus beginning the Great Age of Discovery, which also made the Portugal of that time the first great maritime power to reap the rewards, and it began to run rampant.

So it is said.

Naturally, there were those who could no longer tolerate it.

As the saying goes, success comes from the Ottoman, and failure comes from the Ottoman.

Spice remained an indispensable item for Europeans.

Therefore.

The inevitability of history is vividly reflected here.

Until now.

Guo Chao naturally also believes it is very important.

East India should become the number one supplier of Eastern spices; this is the reason for Liu Zheng's suggestion that Ling Chen temporarily halt his pace of conquering other countries.

It is very important.

Liu Zheng believes it is very important.

Liu Zheng's suggestion also included tea leaves.

Speaking of tea leaves.

Control the spices of India, control the spices of Central Asia, and then have our own side go and handle the spices of Southeast Asia.

Additionally.

It truly rose to power by relying on trade.

The rise of the Netherlands, a small Western European country with only one million people at the time, is quite interesting. It was because of a type of fish: herring. In those days, almost the entire income of the Netherlands relied on catching herring; eighty percent of the Dutch were fishermen. However, fish resources are, after all, natural resources; you can catch fish, and others can catch fish too.

This brings us to this era, when the maritime hegemony of Portugal and Spain began to decline, and the rising "maritime coachman," the Netherlands, emerged.

The rise of the Netherlands had nothing to do with strong military power.

Later, in order to gain an advantage in trade competition, the Netherlands modified their merchant ships, removing the mounted artillery to increase warehouse space; as a result, their shipping costs became low, and among European countries, their low-cost herring began to stand out.

From then on, the Netherlands began to rise.

At that time, the Netherlands had three wars with Scotland because of catching herring.

So, a Dutchman stood up and invented a method to remove the fish belly with one knife, which began to make Dutch herring very popular.

The business-savvy Dutch seized this business opportunity.

They began to promote the medicinal, health-care, and wellness functions of drinking tea, emphasizing that tea is a healthy beverage and that drinking tea is a healthy lifestyle habit. They also began to boast that the health and longevity of Easterners should be attributed to tea. Very few Chinese people suffered from swelling, neuralgia, or bladder stones, precisely because of long-term tea consumption.

And the so-called tea trade was exactly what the Dutch created.

After they used military power built with money to occupy Portugal's former colonies, at the end of the sixteenth century, the Dutch navigator Jan Huyghen van Linschoten published his travelogues, which described a Portuguese colonial empire located in the East and detailed the item known as tea.

But they did not know.

At this time, on the other side of the world, another East India Company was also slowly rising, and that was the British East India Company.

All of a sudden, Europeans flocked to it.

The Netherlands also became the largest tea distributor in all of Europe, almost monopolizing the tea trade for as long as eighty years.

Some even said.

"Tea revenue is almost the entire profit of the East India Company, and it has even become the reason for the East India Company's existence."

If it continues to develop according to this trend and the trajectory of history, the British East India Company is about to replace the Dutch East India Company as the dominator, promoter, and monopolist of the tea trade.

Their propaganda even surpassed that of the Dutch. It even triggered a beverage revolution in Britain, causing the British to abandon coffee and become addicted to drinking tea.

The tea trade.

Of course.

"Tea is God; before it, anything can be sacrificed."

It also directly triggered the greatest humiliating war in the motherland of Liu Zheng's past life.

Tea Bitter Remonstrance.

Which is the Opium War recorded in the Bitter Remonstrance.