There are two types of people who can participate in the State Council. One is the traditional nobles. However, since Pedro II became king, an advisory committee was established. There are many financiers and merchants in this committee, which gave merchants in the Kingdom of Portugal a chance to speak at the top. In England and the Netherlands, countries like the Netherlands are still normal, but in Portugal, a traditional feudal royal country, it is the first time that it has created the world. The reasons for all these changes are related to the empire.

After the rise of the empire, if there is any country in Europe that is the most profitable, there is no doubt that it is the Kingdom of Portugal.

In fact, the friendship between the Kingdom of Portugal and the Empire was also full of various reluctances. The Empire's rise in the ocean was to walk along the corpses of an old colonial country. Among them, the Netherlands and Spain were the most important victims, while Portugal chose the path of compromise with the Empire.

As early as forty years ago, King Joao of Portugal determined his cooperation with the empire, using colonies from Macau, Timor-Leste, Ceylon and other places and Lisbon, Portugal to open the empire in exchange for the empire's protection of the Portuguese colonies in the Indian Ocean and the opening of the market to Portugal.

Although these were opposed by overseas colonies at the beginning, the Portuguese aristocrats and squire quickly discovered that the development of things was not so bad. Although the trade profit between the colonies and the locals was declining because Chinese merchant ships could directly enter the local area, the trade between the colonies and the subcontinent of East Africa and the subcontinent was rising rapidly, and the profit margins continued to rise. A large number of oriental commodities, especially spices and silk fabrics, entered Portugal, which also made Portugal the largest distribution center for oriental commodities in Europe.

A large number of Portuguese benefited from East-West trade, while at the same time, China's relations with other European countries were in a bad state, and Lisbon almost became the only channel for exchange of goods between East and West.

By the time of King Alfonso VI, there were some twists and turns between the Empire and Portugal, mainly the development of South Africa, which caused the ship capacity of trade in East and West to soar. After the profits of goods such as spices and silk fabrics decreased, while the Empire gained a large number of tropical and subtropical territories around the Indian Ocean, a large number of tropical commodities entered Portugal, with sucrose and tobacco being the main commodities. Obviously, this was directly competing with the Brazilian colonies of Portugal.

However, this twists and turns quickly disappeared because the empire invested a lot of resources in Cape Town and South Africa, and the two places rose rapidly, directly promoting the development of cotton planting, logging, minerals and other industries in Brazilian colonial areas. The two sides changed from competing with each other to interdependent.

Since King Pedro ascended the throne more than 20 years ago, everything has changed again. Trade between Portugal and the empire began to explode, mainly because of the booming Atlantic trade. In the original historical time and space, the famous triangular trade in later generations had been born in the 17th century. Of course, this trade reached its peak in the 18th century.

Ships loaded with industrial products set off from Europe to Africa, replaced by slaves and transported to America, and then turned slaves into industrial raw materials such as cotton, sugar, tobacco and other industrial materials back to Europe, and made three profits in one voyage. However, after the rise of the empire, especially after the great development of South Africa, the linkage trade with Portugal had surpassed triangular trade. This trade method, named Atlantic trade or spiral trade, was no longer just a triangle.

The Chinese trade ship will set off from Cape Town and carry industrial products such as textiles, iron products, etc. from South Africa or locally produced. It crosses the Atlantic Ocean to arrive in the Brazilian colony in Portugal. After sale, it will be replaced with consumer goods such as spirits, rice, sugar products, etc., and then transport it to the Portuguese colony on the west coast of Africa. After sale, it will be replaced with black slaves. Then it will be transported to the Caribbean Sea to sell it to colonists from various countries on the West Indies, and then purchases European best-selling products such as sugarcane, tobacco, and cochine, and transport it to Lisbon.

The return journey was to purchase European industrial products from Lisbon, transport them to the West Indies, exchange them for consumer goods such as spirits, exchange them for slaves, transport them to Brazil for cotton, and then transport them to the Empire South Africa region. This kind of trade that travels back and forth across the Atlantic can generate eight profits, which is far beyond the triangular trade in later generations.

Except for the Caribbean, there are colonies of empires and Portugal in all places along the way, and both countries can participate. Obviously, for Portugal, Lisbon is no longer as simple as a terminal in this Atlantic trade. Lisbon and Cape Town are both starting and ending points, and the two places are both commodity markets and must provide competitive commodities, especially industrial products.

This is nothing to Cape Town, because as an overseas province of the empire, Cape Town was strongly supported by the empire, also known as the textile city, and the empire's locality and the South China Sea could also transport enough industrial products. But for Lisbon, this was difficult, because Portugal was never an industrial and commercial center.

At the beginning of the Atlantic trade, Rees could only provide consumer goods such as wine, salt, etc., while textiles mostly come from the United Kingdom and the Netherlands. Because they do not produce cotton, they mainly use wool products. Obviously, the main markets of these goods are Africa and Latin America, both tropical regions, which are not suitable. After King Pedro II consolidated his power, he immediately developed domestic industry and commerce. His greatest contribution was authorization.

Especially for the Imperial merchants, authorizing the Imperial merchants to do business and build workshops in Portugal, but they must join forces with the Portuguese, especially the Portuguese aristocracy. Four years after the decree was issued, the Chinese Point in Lisbon became a Chinese industrial park, and four pillar industries were born. The first was the shipbuilding industry, using the wood from Nordic and New World to build ships. The second was the textile industry, where wool from Western Europe and cotton from Brazilian colonies were dyed and woven.

The tertiary industry was the cigarette industry, which Lisbon once became the tobacco capital. The 4th industry was the smelting industry, with coal from Britain and iron ore from Sweden, and pig iron turned into various iron products. To this end, merchants from both countries also built a canal, which provided both shipping and water.

Now, Pedro has expanded the scope of opening up, and the United Kingdom and the Netherlands are also qualified to invest in Portugal. The entire Lisbon has risen rapidly and has gradually become a European city.

Of course, the cooperation between the Empire and Portugal was not just due to power. The Empire also always attached importance to the interests of Portugal, a traditional ally. For example, at the beginning of East-West trade, the Empire handed over the large profit of gold and silver exchange to the Portuguese royal family, so the Portuguese royal family always supported the empire's commercial expansion in Portugal and even Europe. After the gold and silver exchange industry became a sunset industry (mainly because of the frequent trade between the East and the West, the phenomenon of East-West precious gold and silver precious gold and the phenomenon of European gold and silver disappeared), the Empire assisted the Portuguese royal family to monopolize the tobacco industry, imitating the imperial tobacco state monopoly system, and constructed the tobacco royal family monopoly in Portugal. Tobacco was facing the entire Europe. With the support of the abundant and low raw materials of the colonies and the advanced technology of the empire, Portugal's cigarette industry flourished and was already the largest revenue part of Portugal's finances.

But Pedro knew very well that the status between Portugal and the Empire was not equal. Overseas, Portugal had no choice. Although Portugal now has two friendly countries, one is the Empire and the other is the United Kingdom, Pedro knew that the Empire was irreplaceable, but in Europe, the Empire had many choices. Perhaps Western European countries such as Britain and the Netherlands could not cooperate with the Empire like Portugal due to trade protection and their own East India Company monopoly. However, in southern Europe, the two republics of Venice and Genoa were looking forward to it and were eager to replace it.

The current situation in the continental region is confusing due to the war, and the Kingdom of Portugal remains neutral, but it is not important to Portugal in history. This time, the neutrality is because China has not yet taken the lead. Pedro hopes to maintain a favorable situation for Portugal in the war, but if China insists on joining the war, Portugal has no choice. If that is the case, Pedro will also make a more favorable decision.

Obviously, Portugal's fate in this European war was closely related to the Empire to a large extent, or was controlled by Li Junwei. Therefore, he never tires about paying attention to everything related to the Empire and King Yu, and tried his best to please him during the visit of King Yu. The Port New Area was a gift carefully prepared by Pedro. This was a huge piece of land, four times the size of the Chinese industrial park. Pedro hoped to use it to satisfy the business ambitions of the imperial merchants and even the entire European merchants.

In addition to politics and economy, Pedro himself was eager to show a friendly attitude. In the past few years, he has done several things that have dissatisfied Chinese allies, one of which is to control the local immigration to the Brazilian colonies. Although this is completely internal affairs, the Brazilian colonies are very important to the South African region of the empire. It restricts Brazil and restricts the development of the South African region of the empire.

The second is that Pedro has always refused to support it, and even secretly opposed the Suez Plan, opposing the empire's opening of railways and canals. He influenced Venice through his relationship with the Habsburg, hoping to disrupt the situation in the Eastern Mediterranean and disrupt the financial cooperation of the Suez Plan to destroy this matter.

Pedro did this because he believed that the opening of the Suez Canal would affect Portugal's monopoly over Eastern commodities. At the same time, the reduction of local ships from China has caused Atlantic trade to frustrate. However, with the rise of Suez land transportation and even the opening of railway transportation, Portugal's economy not only did not cool down, but instead injected more vitality, especially since Portugal had its own colonies in East Africa and India, which was cheaper to obtain Eastern goods and had a broader market.

After finishing work in the conference hall, Pedro came to the harem. The beautiful Queen Elizabeth was taking care of his current only son with several maids. He keenly discovered that his son was wearing a pair of colorful shoes on his feet, like two tigers, and there were some toys in the room he was cleaning up.

This Queen Elizabeth was the second wife of King Pedro, and the first one was naturally his sister-in-law, but she had passed away. Queen Elizabeth is twenty-four years old and is a noble woman of noble birth. Her father was the Elector of Pfalci, and her family was known for her fertility. Therefore, her sister was the wife of the current Habsburg Emperor Leobed. The union of Queen Elizabeth and Pedro was supported by Habsburg and Britain, but France opposed it because the fierce and domineering Louis XIV asked the king to marry the French princess.

Although she had only been in Lisbon for three years, the queen showed her family talent - giving birth to a child. She gave birth to two sons for the king, but the eldest son died. The same was true for her sister in Austria. The work that Leobed had not completed by her two wives was completed by her sister, and she gave birth to three healthy sons in one go.

The queen's generosity and wiseness were also praised by the kingdom. Pedro picked up his son and praised him, "Very beautiful shoes."

"This is a gift from the Marquis Chengxing. She came to visit with her children today." The queen said with a smile. The queen said, "The Marquis is a very talkative person. She is interested in everything in Europe, especially in stockings. I specially found a court painter and a tailor to cut a decent dress for her children. We made an appointment to paint the whole body of her children in a few days. I only realized today that she was not the biological daughter of King Yu, but just an adopted niece."

The so-called Marquis of Chengxing is Princess Li Junhua of Jing'an. After she was confirmed to adopt her, she soon married Dan Tai Yunfeng. After Dan Tai Yunfeng ended Tibet affairs, she came to Europe as the emperor's special envoy. Dan Tai Yunfeng had no title, but according to the rules, the princess of the royal family was named Marquis, and Dan Tai Yunfeng made contributions in Tibet affairs and was awarded the title Chengxing. Last year, the couple had arrived, but Dan Tai Yunfeng went to France during this period.

According to the rules of the empire, a special envoy would be sent to Europe every two years. Generally, the right person would be selected from the central court to serve as an envoy, with the priority of those who marry the royal family. This also gave the imperial princess a way to enter politics and serve as envoys abroad. After Dan Tai Yunfeng arrived, he would serve as the deputy of the Minister to Europe and take over his position one day in the future.

Pedro attached great importance to Li Jinghua because this was the only private request from King Yu, and he wrote to request this matter specifically.

"I hope you don't underestimate that lady because of this." Pedro explained in a gentle tone. He knew that his noble wife valued her birth very much. Pedro said: "Her biological father is also a great man, now the emperor of the East India region, and a person who feels terrifying."
Chapter completed!