Zhu Yunwen felt that Champa, as an important port in this region, had already made him a fortune.
After all, many business travelers stop here.
Once you stay, you'll spend money, and you'll also gain a deeper understanding of the place.
Buy some local specialties and sell them elsewhere.
This natural advantage brought a significant amount of foreign trade business to the Kingdom of Champa.
This can be considered a windfall, a windfall that came out of nowhere, thanks to its geographical location.
Logically speaking, Champa should be secretly pleased, but judging from Ma Sanbao's words, Champa is clearly not satisfied with this and has much greater ambitions.
This made Zhu Yunwen find it somewhat amusing; your small Champa Kingdom originally could only rely on other powerful nations for survival.
Currently, other powerful nations are not targeting him, and he has even benefited from his geographical location, which makes him highly likely to attract envious nations with ill intentions towards this Champa Kingdom.
But they weren't satisfied; they even thought they hadn't gotten enough of the benefits and wanted to get a share of the profits from the transactions between the merchants. That was rather idealistic, even arrogant.
It should be understood that no port has ever thought of taking a cut from the transactions of merchants coming and going.
The reason is simple: the purpose of trading is to earn a profit.
The percentage of profit in goods is usually between 10% and 50%.
This requires deducting labor costs and transportation costs; only what remains after deducting these costs is considered profit.
Therefore, the benefits are usually not particularly large.
These ports, if they are just transit ports, generally don't charge arbitrary fees. At most, they might charge a berthing fee and then make money from the food, clothing, and other necessities of the traders in and around the port.
Only when some goods are shipped out of this country might a small amount of tax be levied at the port of this country.
This is called export tax.
When goods are transported into this country and enter this port, a small tariff called import tax will be levied.
These taxes are generally very reasonable and account for a small percentage of the transaction amount.
Overall, it won't significantly impact profits, which is quite reasonable. I've never heard of any port that takes a cut of goods passing through. Isn't this just making money without lifting a finger?
That's too easy.
Therefore, Zhu Yunwen would certainly disagree with this point.
Because the main trading partner of various foreign countries in the East was the Ming Dynasty.
The Ming Dynasty also exported many things to various overseas countries.
Therefore, most of the merchants in this port travel between the Ming Dynasty and other countries.
Its main purpose was to maintain the economy and trade between the Ming Dynasty and other countries overseas.
Zhu Yunwen would naturally not allow the interests of these people to suffer too much damage.
Thus, under Ma Sanbao's leadership, Zhu Yunwen, along with Zhao Qingzhu and appropriate special forces guards, entered the port of Champa and headed towards the capital of Champa.
The capital of Champa was located in a bustling city next to this port. However, its bustling status was only relative to that of some smaller countries.
Moreover, a large part of the reason why this place is relatively prosperous is due to the natural advantage of its port.
But in reality, this most prosperous royal city was only about the same size as an ordinary city in the Ming Dynasty.
After Zhu Yunwen, Ma Sanbao, and Zhao Qingzhu entered the royal city with a number of guards, soldiers immediately went to report the situation.
The arrival of Ma Sanbao, the imperial envoy of the Ming Dynasty, is a significant event for Champa. Ma Sanbao had previously passed through the area and met with the King of Champa.
The Kingdom of Champa was also intimidated and subdued by the power of the Ming Dynasty. After all, before the Ming Dynasty, during the Yuan Dynasty, Champa was a vassal state of the Yuan Dynasty.
He naturally understood just how terrifying the dynasties that had been established in the Central Plains were.
Therefore, the king of Champa made preparations immediately to welcome Zhu Yunwen.
At the same time, he also had an idea in mind: he thought that this time when he met with the Crown Prince of the Ming Dynasty, he could see if he could implement his previous plan to collect 10% of the profits from the port.
He had this idea a long time ago, but he hadn't put it into practice yet.
His idea was simple: his kingdom of Champa had a special geographical location, making it an easy stop for maritime trade between the East and the West.
Because this country is located on the coast of Eurasia, protruding outwards, people sailing at sea are more likely to pass by this protruding part.
Therefore, it was convenient to stop and rest at this place, which led to the reputation of Zhancheng as the number one port in the south.
It would be a shame not to make use of one's natural and unique position.
Although trade between East and West had boosted the economy of Champa, his ambitions went far beyond that, and his appetite was not so easily satisfied.
If a slice of the profits were taken from these ships that came and went and stopped at the port, then Zhan Cheng Kingdom would quickly become rich and wealthy.
This is absolutely fantastic news; it's like lying down, watching a windfall fall from the sky, and then eating your fill.
So the King of Champa held a banquet in the palace, thinking that the grandson of the Ming Dynasty would definitely agree, since the location of Champa was related to the economic exchanges between the Ming Dynasty and overseas.
This was his leverage in negotiating with the Crown Prince of the Ming Dynasty. This blind self-confidence only fueled his growing arrogance.
Meanwhile, Zhu Yunwen successfully entered the palace. The King of Champa did not forget etiquette and still made a grand gesture to welcome Zhu Yunwen, which pleased Zhu Yunwen.
The King of Champa was a middle-aged man of about forty years old. He had a happy smile on his face, and when he looked at Zhu Yunwen, he immediately stepped forward, bowed to him, and said:
"The arrival of His Highness the Crown Prince of the Ming Dynasty in my Champa Kingdom is an honor to our humble abode."
Zhu Yunwen smiled slightly and said:
"You are too kind, King of Champa."
Meanwhile, the King of Champa was thinking to himself, "This grandson of the Ming Dynasty is really so young. I have naturally heard some legends about the grandson of the Ming Dynasty before."
He knew not only about what happened in China, but also about what was happening in the Western country of Nabaoxiang.
The story of the Ming Dynasty's crown prince single-handedly intimidating ten western nations spread like wildfire in the West, even reaching the European continent.
It's impossible for someone from a small southern country like him not to know.
He just kept thinking to himself, "This person is so young, is he really as terrifying as the rumors said?"
He was somewhat skeptical, feeling that it was an exaggeration.
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