Traveling the world in the 15th and early 16th centuries, I, Liliana Aline Palmeiro, was sent on a mission by King Kramer of Portugal as a Portuguese trade official to travel to the Ottoman Empire, India, China, and Japan to investigate their systems of government, culture, and religions to determine if any of them are a good place to conquer or create a trade alliance with. During the missions, I could not reveal my identity of being a Portuguese trade official and therefore I pretended to impersonate Sister Veronica Maria. Upon arriving in the Indian Ocean, my eyes couldn't believe what they saw. Trade routes were established throughout the Indian Ocean as a sort of treasure map leading to treasure, except that the trade routes did not lead to a single treasure, but instead from one treasure to another. Established trade in East Africa, Western India, and the Middle East was controlled by the Arabs. As we entered the Indian Ocean, I saw that Kilwa, an island off the east coast of Africa, was one of the ports on the Indian Ocean trade route where merchants imported and exported luxury goods between China and India. Imported trade products ranged from jewellery, porcelain, textiles and glassware, while goods arriving from the Zambezi River were coconuts, ivory, gold and copper (http://www.indianoceanhistory.org/). Among other Arab trading ports, Aden was an ancient but important port where trade between Africa, Asia and Europe continued uninterrupted due to its port location on the Red and Arabian Seas. Calicut, where Vasco de Gama and I landed after identifying a naval route that bypassed southern Africa to take us to the Indian Ocean. Reaching the land of Cali...... middle of paper ......h is a periodic interstate payment, to the Ming Court. When a tribute commission arrived in China, the group was ordered to send one member and a cargo to the imperial court where periodic payment was made. Any remaining cargo could be sold to Chinese government officials or native private individuals. In addition to direct trade from tributaries, foreign trade and any communication with foreigners was strictly prohibited and essentially illegal. Coastal Chinese residents were prohibited from sailing abroad, but foreigners were also not allowed to come to China, except for tribute missions. However, since smuggling began, the government has rolled out additional bans over the years. As continued bans revealed that smuggling continued, Chinese private sailors were taken out of foreign trade.