Working from the main event backwards, the inside edge that the European merchants have in the Asian carry trade is access to cheaper silver, which is to say cheaper finance, than local merchants.

So you need ships that can go back and forth between Europe and the Indian Ocean and/or the Seven Seas, bringing silver in, leveraging the silver into trading profits in the Asian carry trade, and skimming some profits as high value merchandise in Europe to go home and raise more silver.

You will lose ships in both long legs, which is a big reason why the active carry trade on both sides is important ~ you have to be able to keep generating profits in the European trading zone to be able to keep skimming profits as silver and sending it over, even if the last ship went down (or was taken out by Javanese pirates), and have to be able to do the same in the Asian trading to be able to keep skimming profits as high quality trade goods and sending it over.

They are complementary, so its hard to say how much strength in the European carry trade support building up strength in the Asian carry trade, and visa versa.

I've been accused of being a Marxist, yet while Harpo's my favourite, it's Groucho I'm always quoting. Odd, that.