So, I'm thinking about a scenario in which the Roman Empire has less of a trade deficit with China.
You see, I've always thought about what is it that Europe (Roman and post-Age of Discoveries) has that could be desirable to the Chinese.
First, I think that a more direct trade route with China, a sea route, would cut off the middlemen and allow the Romans to get cheaper products. In this timeline, Romans make good seafarers and explorers of the East.
I know that Roman glass was very valued in China at the time, as they didn't know how to produce glass of the same quality. So I was thinking of a world in which Roman glass production develops further than in the OTL. Maybe they manage to develop something like Venetian crystal, maybe even rudimentary optical lenses.
Also, Tyrian purple dye. From what I know, it was valued as far as Persia and only produced in the Mediterranean. If the Romans managed to generate interest in the Indian and Chinese elites, maybe it would give them a good product to trade. I know the Chinese had access to red dyes, but not Tyrian purple, and they could not produce it.
Maybe an earlier and more consistent Roman presence in China will allow for them stealing the secrets of silk earlier on. They would still import it from China, but a sizeable production in the Roman Empire would be very beneficial, and if it were a guarded state monopoly, it would make it harder for the secret to leak to other empires and would bring the state a new source of revenue.
Can you think of other European products that could be of interest in China?
Not only Roman, but products that are European or mostly only accessible to Europeans. For example, in a post-Discoveries timeline I'm writing, Portuguese traders manage to get the Qing elites to become infatuated with yerba mate, a tea-like plant that is native to South America. But not only that, because the mate tea that they presented to the Chinese was processed in a specific way, when the Spanish learn of this and try to sell yerba mate to the Chinese, they are rejected. It further develops in the Spanish trying for years to infiltrate or capture the Southern Brazilian city of Gardamar, in which the yerba mate is processed by a royal chartered company.
You see, I've always thought about what is it that Europe (Roman and post-Age of Discoveries) has that could be desirable to the Chinese.
First, I think that a more direct trade route with China, a sea route, would cut off the middlemen and allow the Romans to get cheaper products. In this timeline, Romans make good seafarers and explorers of the East.
I know that Roman glass was very valued in China at the time, as they didn't know how to produce glass of the same quality. So I was thinking of a world in which Roman glass production develops further than in the OTL. Maybe they manage to develop something like Venetian crystal, maybe even rudimentary optical lenses.
Also, Tyrian purple dye. From what I know, it was valued as far as Persia and only produced in the Mediterranean. If the Romans managed to generate interest in the Indian and Chinese elites, maybe it would give them a good product to trade. I know the Chinese had access to red dyes, but not Tyrian purple, and they could not produce it.
Maybe an earlier and more consistent Roman presence in China will allow for them stealing the secrets of silk earlier on. They would still import it from China, but a sizeable production in the Roman Empire would be very beneficial, and if it were a guarded state monopoly, it would make it harder for the secret to leak to other empires and would bring the state a new source of revenue.
Can you think of other European products that could be of interest in China?
Not only Roman, but products that are European or mostly only accessible to Europeans. For example, in a post-Discoveries timeline I'm writing, Portuguese traders manage to get the Qing elites to become infatuated with yerba mate, a tea-like plant that is native to South America. But not only that, because the mate tea that they presented to the Chinese was processed in a specific way, when the Spanish learn of this and try to sell yerba mate to the Chinese, they are rejected. It further develops in the Spanish trying for years to infiltrate or capture the Southern Brazilian city of Gardamar, in which the yerba mate is processed by a royal chartered company.