Chapter 191: Indian trade

卡 Carrickat, southwestern Indian Peninsula. Columbus's fleet has arrived in Carrickart for more than a month. It stands to reason that Columbus should end his voyage and return home.
However, Columbus waited for a while to wait for the clove boat from Indonesia's Spice Islands. And, even if he waited for more than a month, he didn't wait for the Da Gama's fleet.
In fact, after leaving Malindi, Da Gama headed all the way north and arrived in Mogadishu in Somalia before spending money to explore India's location.
Then, Da Gama ordered the fleet to sail northeast ...
More than a month after Columbus arrived in Calicut, Da Gama's fleet arrived in Surat on the west coast of India ...
Susurat is also an important commercial port in western India. It is closer to the Arab region and the business is also prosperous. However, the price of spices is slightly different.
Of course, the price of pepper, Surat and Carrick Carter are similar. Because, India is where peppers come from. However, cloves, cinnamon and nutmeg are more expensive than Carrick Carter.
Because cinnamon is from Sri Lanka, cloves and nutmeg are from the Indonesian Spice Islands. Shipping from overseas still costs a lot of freight, so the price cannot be lowered.
In Surat and Carrickart, the price of pepper is 1.5 fennies a pound. However, the prices of cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg are different.
In Carrickart, because it is close to the south and closer to Sri Lanka, the price of cinnamon is also 1.5 fennies a pound. For cloves and nutmeg, when Arab nautical merchants went to the Spice Islands and asked the local indigenous people to buy, the purchase price was very cheap. Therefore, even if it arrives in Carrickart, India, it is 1.5 fenny a pound. But in Surat, prices are higher. Cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg, for example, cost around 1.7 Finneys per pound.
Of course, even the price difference is so ecstatic. Because in Europe, the price of spices, whether pepper, cinnamon, cloves, or nutmeg, is more than 10 shillings per pound. Even though it cost 2 Finneys and 1 pound to buy it back to Europe, it still made a profit.
Columbus's fleet in Carrick, it's not just buying spices. Under Marin's instructions, Draka also went looking for soybeans ...
However, this thing is not difficult to find. On the roadside stall, Draka quickly found the legendary soybeans ... took out the picture handed by Marin and compared it, Draka determined that this was what he needed. So he immediately bought 10 hemp bags of soybeans, and the cost was only 5 gold coins. In Europe, even the cheapest rye requires 1.6 sacks of gold. Needless to say, wheat requires 8 gold coins in a sack. On the Indian side, a sack of soybeans costs only 0.5 gold coins, which is much cheaper than European rye prices.
After purchasing soybeans, Draka started selling stained glass products worth 10,000 gold coins, a special product of Venice on board. However, this thing is not as popular as it is sold, and it is not so tepid. In fact, in India, stained glass products are not particularly rare. Because the Venetian merchants also sold a lot of stained glass products to India through Arab merchants. Therefore, Indians have not seen stained glass. Therefore, they did not have the desire to these stained glass products.
Therefore, Draka sold glass products in Carrick for more than a month. Other than waiting for the Spice Islands in the Spice Islands, it's because stained glass products are selling slowly.
However, when the spice ship of the Spice Islands arrived in Calicut, they were more interested in Draka's stained glass products. Because these stained glass products may not be rare for Indians, but the indigenous people on the Spice Islands like it ...
As a result, the Arab ship owner of the spice boat directly consumed the general stained glass products that Draka sold, and exchanged the spices ...
的 Stained glass products worth 10,000 gold coins were quickly replaced with spices. These spices weigh 400,000 pounds, or 181 tons. Columbus vacated the two and a half ship warehouses before loading the spices.
Then, Draka took out the 17,000 gold coins Marin had prepared for him ...
Originally, Marin gave Draka 20,000 gold coins. However, according to Marin's instructions, Draka paid 3,000 gold in bribes to the local chiefs and princes in Malindi and Calicut. Of course, this is not a white flower. No, Chief Malindi became a good friend and sent navigators to help lead the party. The Prince Caricart also showed great kindness and sent staff to help prevent them from being pitted by the locals.
For example, Da Gama, who originally came to India for the first time in history, was actually a lot of money by Caricart's businessmen. Because the gift they gave to Prince Caricart was too embarrassing, and the local prince ignored him. When buying spices, I sold 1.5 fenny a pound of spice to others, and I sold 2 fenny a pound to Da Gama. Of course, even so, the profits of Da Gama's fleet are still huge. Because the price difference between European and Indian spices is too big.
Draka figured it out, and now she was wearing 181 tons of spices. However, the total carrying capacity of the four ships is only 260 tons. In other words, the fleet now has less than 80 tons of cargo.
Draka thought about it and decided to buy another. For example, gems that sell well locally. In addition, he also purchased a lot of copper ...
欧洲 In Europe ~ EbookFREE.me ~ At this time, the price of silver and copper is about 1:15. In India, the price of silver and copper is 1 to 100.
Draka remembered that Marin had said that he would build more cannons. So he started buying copper ingots for Marin to make guns. To this end, Draka spent 10,000 gold coins and bought 35 tons of copper. Then, a few tons of rare things like gems were also bought.
Then Draka remembered that it seemed that Marin was coming to India to buy saltpeter. So he went looking for saltpeter again ...
India saltpetre is really cheap, only 2.72 fennies per pound. One ton of saltpeter costs 150 gold coins. At this time, the price of saltpeter in Europe is at least 10 fennies a pound. A little taller can reach 15 fenny a pound. The most important thing is that there is less saltpeter production in Europe. You want to buy in large quantities, you can't buy it at all.
Because the saltpeter in Europe is basically found out from that pit, the output is very small. On the Indian side, saltpeter is abundant and the price is cheap. No wonder the British East India Company made a fortune after intervening in the saltpeter trade in India.
Draka bought 30 tons of saltpeter in one breath, and packed it tightly in a leather bag that was drained. It was placed on the bilge of the last ship to prevent water and fire ... Then the ship was full of cargo ...
After purchasing another batch of grain and storing a batch of fresh water by heating mud seal method, Columbus officially returned with the fleet ...
As for the return route, of course, the return route is the same. Now, even without Majid, Columbus is confident that he can return to the original route with the help of the logbook in between. Because, he is an excellent old driver in the maritime industry ~ EbookFREE.me ~ Welcome the book readers to read, the latest, fastest and most popular serial works are all in ~ EbookFREE.me ~ Mobile users please read.