The Necessity and Urgency to Expand Trade

Dear father,

I hope this letter find you well. I am writing to get your approval and support for my proposal for expanding trade. In this letter, the details of the reason, methods, improvement plans, and the final goal of expanding trade are all given. Could you please review and advise accordingly?

Recently I have been approached by the merchants and got informed about the necessity and urgency of the expansion of trade. After a deliberate thinking, I also realized the significance to extend our trade to more areas. We have less land with limited natural resources due to our geographical location. But the population keeps growing, and the demand for gold, slaves, ivory, spices and grains also increases sharply. We also have to support the military expenditure to defend our country. Relying on middlemen would make us less competitive in the international trade. The prices are always raised several times by middlemen so that it is not worth to buy. It is time to improve our position in the trade. Moreover, the current situation in our nation is also conducive to the overseas explorations. For now, our political power is comparatively stable, and most of the people in society are engaged in the production and prepared for further development. Since we have no advantage of developing on the continent because we only have one neighbor country, we can gain our way through overseas exploration.

We can start our overseas exploration first from the coast of West Africa, where we can get lots of gold, slaves, and ivory. Besides that, we can also make full use of the wood there, as well as the sugar, gum, cotton, fishes, etc. By selling slaves, we can earn enormous profits, too. Meantime, we can also eliminate the Muslims there and meet with the eastern monarch of Christianity. If we can’t meet him in West Africa, we can shift our direction to the African interior. If we find him, we can persuade him to join us to fight with the Muslims. As long as we have the exclusive navigating technology, we can further expand our trade areas even to the -Indian Ocean, or the Pacific Ocean. Wherever we arrive, we can build our colonies, through which we can further develop maritime trade and transport. These colonies provide not only the abundant natural resources but also vast markets for our domestic products. However, to realize all those goals, we should have well-designed plans and strategies. Below are my proposals and hope they could be helpful to our future.

Proposal 1: to establish schools for navigation. The navigation school not only can be used to foster navigation professionals but also can be used to recruit navigation talents from the neighboring countries to do research work. Through collecting and studying all kinds of navigation materials, we can keep our knowledge up to date. That would make us a leading position in the navigation field of the world.

Proposal 2: to improve the shipbuilding technique. We should build a shipyard with the most advanced technology and equipment, as well as the most skilled craftsmen. In this shipyard, new designs and trials will be greatly encouraged. That would push forward our innovations in shipbuilding and lead to more progress, which in due time would help with the overseas exploration.

Proposal 3: to update the navigation map. With the newest and the most accurate map, we can sail in the sea with less potential risks. When many mistakes and cost resulted from wrong judgment can be avoided, it would become easy to navigate in the sea. A complete and accurate navigation map will lead us to the right direction and improve our capability of navigation.

Proposal 4: to develop new weaponry. We should design different styles of weaponry and battle suit based on their services. It is also necessary to introduce the most advanced weaponry abroad to our troops. The weaponry needs to be adjusted to the real situation. That would make our soldiers fighting with more flexibility and effectiveness. For example, we can equip our infantry soldiers with hand-gunners or lighter swords. We can also adopt more artillery to strike the local forces when we set foot in one strange land for the first time. By that, we can make full use of our navy’s strength and save cost both for time and money.

Through all above improvement strategies, we will reach our final goal of being a superpower in the world. The expansion of trade would bring us plenty of wealth: gold, slaves, ivory, wood, and sugar, etc. which would make our nation much stronger in economic, political and military aspects than most of the countries in the world. The leading navigation technology continually perfected by series of overseas explorations would also enhance and extend our maritime supremacy. Through spreading Christianism and Portugal culture in the colonies, we can assimilate more local people to serve for us, which would significantly make up the shortage of the domestic human resource. Therefore, we should do the right things at the right time because the good opportunity never waits for anybody. Please consider my plan on top priority. I will be pleased to hear any feedback from you. So, if any suggestions or doubts, please let me know and I will take them seriously. Thank you, and I am looking forward to your approval and support.

All the best!

Yours sincerely,

Prince Henry