1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 3667

Li Yuande and Dong Shangyi may not be able to fully understand the long-term prospects described by Qian Tiandun, but they both admire Qian Tiandun very much. Since the other party claimed that he would be able to witness it with his own eyes during his lifetime, they had no doubt about it. They just felt that they were very lucky to be able to participate in such a grand cause.

After leaving Calicut, the fleet continued to travel northward along the coastline. In the next thousand miles of sailing, almost all the coastal ports were controlled by Portugal, and the century-long operation had achieved some results.

The fleet did not stay in any ports along the way until it arrived at Goa, Portugal's largest colony on the west coast of the Indian peninsula. It then contacted local authorities and allowed the fleet to dock for rest and replenishment.

It was also thanks to Da Gama that Goa came under Portuguese rule. Soon after landing in Calicut, he chose Goa as his next target.

However, this place is not an unowned land. It took the Portuguese a lot of effort to conquer it. From 1510 when the Portuguese fleet defeated the Bijapur Sultanate and occupied the old city of Goa, to 1570 when the two sultanates of Bijapur and Ahmednagar near Goa formed a coalition and carried out an eight-month siege on the Portuguese-occupied area of ​​Goa, during this period of decades, Goa has been plagued by wars of all sizes.

It was not until the Mughal Empire unified most of the Indian peninsula that Portugal took the opportunity to establish diplomatic relations with the new dynasty. The external pressure faced by the Goa colony was finally alleviated, and its governing authority was recognized by the new dynasty. This overseas enclave was finally preserved.

As one of Portugal's most important overseas colonies, Goa was once the political and economic center of Portugal in the entire Far East. Portuguese colonial institutions including Malacca, Macau, and even Nagasaki, Japan, all obeyed the command of the Governor's Office of Goa.

Qian Tiandun's arrival was the first visit to Goa by a senior Hai Han official, and the Portuguese attached great importance to it. Goa Governor Fernandez personally went out of the city to welcome Qian Tiandun and hosted a banquet in the Governor's Mansion, treating this visit as a formal diplomatic event.

Goa is not a natural harbor in the traditional sense. In fact, it is a coastal impact plain formed by the estuary of the Mandubi River. The city of Goa is also built on the river bank more than 20 miles away from the coast.

Judging from Hai Han's perspective in selecting a port, there is no natural bay here, and the terrain is flat and has no strategic location to defend. It is also not a key pass on any key waterway. It is not an ideal environment for building a large coastal city or port.

However, the Portuguese are obviously not so picky. From the many tall churches that have been built in and outside Goa, it can be seen that the Portuguese are very attentive to the infrastructure here. They have invested a lot of resources over the past hundred years to make Goa what it is today.

Dong Shangyi had also been to Macau and Malacca. The infrastructure level and prosperity of those two places were indeed quite different from those of Goa.

Moreover, when he came here, he noticed that on the downstream river bank adjacent to the city of Goa, there was a large area of ​​docks and boat sheds, which stretched for several miles. It must be that the scale of shipbuilding here was quite considerable.

The level of armament in Goa was much higher than that of the Portuguese colonies he had visited before. The armed personnel on duty inside and outside the city were obviously regular troops, not the militias seen in other colonies. Even the proportion of Portuguese settled here was much higher than in other places, accounting for almost half of the population.

The Governor Fernandez in charge of Goa was said to have a deep relationship with the Portuguese royal family and had some background, so the topics he discussed with Qian Tiandun at the banquet were not all empty diplomatic rhetoric, but also had a lot of practical content. For example, Portugal's rights and interests in the Strait of Malacca were the focus of the Governor's attention.

He proposed to Qian Tiandun that he hoped to differentiate the trade items in the region, set up some items exclusively for Portugal, or unify market prices to avoid vicious competition that would prevent both countries from obtaining due profits.

With the rise of Hai Han in the South China Sea, maritime trade between the East and the West is no longer monopolized by Western merchants. The downward trend of Portugal's trade share is irreversible, and many traditional projects originally operated by Portuguese merchants are gradually being taken away by Hai Han trading companies with greater operational advantages.

In the Far East, whether in terms of maritime capacity, business scale, settlement methods, or communication costs, it was difficult for foreign Portuguese merchants to compete head-on with the more localized Hai Han Trading Company, and the trading status of Malacca City was gradually replaced by Sing Tao Island.

Seeing that the income from the Far East is getting less and less every year, the Goa Governor's Office is certainly unwilling to sit idly by and watch this downward trend continue to accelerate. It is also planned to start trade negotiations with Hai Han, but the arrival of Qian Tiandun has brought this time point forward a little.

The Portuguese idea was correct, but the problem was that Qian Tiandun did not manage affairs in the trade field, especially the Strait of Malacca, which belonged to Sing Tao's sphere of influence, and he would not take the initiative to intervene.

The Governor of Goa discussed trade issues with Qian Tiandun, which was somewhat unprofessional.

However, Qian Tiandun did not shirk the responsibility, because he knew that even if he pushed the trade issue of the Malacca Strait to Sing Tao, the establishment of the Indian Ocean route by the special operations division would inevitably create direct competition with Goa.

For some things, communicating them earlier may save you from a lot of trouble in the future.

“Regarding the trade issues between our two countries, I need to remind His Excellency the Governor that since the cooperation agreement between our country and the Portuguese Council in Macau 30 years ago, all the trade agreements signed over the years have clearly stated the rights and obligations of both parties, and there has never been any division of exclusive projects.”

"As for the unified market price, it is only an agreement between private businesses. Officially, we have never adopted such practices, which is inconsistent with our country's consistent advocacy of free trade."

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"The Governor wants to maintain a prosperous trade. I think it is more important to maintain trade between the two sides and the same trade treatment, such as equal tariffs, equal free trade rights, and convenient and smooth settlement methods."

"Our country has built a new port, Hamban Port, on the island of Ceylon. In the future, trade with Goa will surely increase. I hope the Governor-General will agree to open Hamban Port and Goa Port simultaneously to receive each other's merchant ships and allow each other's commercial institutions to settle in."

Qian Tiandun finally took the initiative and proposed new conditions to the other party.