Xinshun 1730

Chapter 535 Why Ceylon

Shi Shiyong knew that Valkneer was in a difficult situation right now, so he deliberately put on an attitude of being proud and incapable of crossing the bottom line, and used his power to suppress him.

However, in fact, he has no idea.

A steamed bun or a pile of excrement, which one is better depends on whether the chooser is a human or a dog.

In the eyes of the Netherlands, Batavia is the pearl of Southeast Asia and the pillar of Dutch rule in Southeast Asia, because of its unique location as a transshipment port.But Dashun doesn’t need such a transshipment port. Why does Dashun’s goods have to turn a corner to Batavia and then leave Malacca?Isn't that taking off your pants and farting?
Therefore, Liu Yu's plan is to force the Netherlands to transport a large number of Chinese to Ceylon as much as possible.To the Netherlands, Ceylon is just a cinnamon producing area.If the Netherlands were to choose between Ceylon and Batavia, the Netherlands would definitely choose Batavia.

But for Dashun, Ceylon is an outpost before going out of India, a transit point for going to Australia with the help of ocean currents in the future, a middle place for contact with Swedish pirates in Madagascar, and a place for France to voluntarily cede to induce China and Britain to go to war in the future. Continuing to remain a stepping stone to the alliance.

If Ceylon and Batavia choose one, Dashun will want Ceylon and Malacca.

If it is only to ensure that the Chinese are not slaughtered, Dashun will actually lose this game, and all the troubles will be in vain.

If you want to win this game of great powers, you must force the Dutch to migrate the Chinese to Ceylon.

Now the two sides can be said to be afraid of beating wolves with a stick.

The Dutch were afraid that Dashun would stare at Batavia and covet him.

Dashun was afraid that the Netherlands would grow up, so he did not dare to engage in forced relocation, and acquiesced in allowing the Chinese to stay in Batavia.

But fortunately, the people on Dashun's side knew what the Dutch were afraid of; while the people on the Dutch side didn't know what Dashun really wanted.

With the help of this kind of one-way information, Shi Shiyong could only pretend that the side of Dashun could not retreat one step, and used this to force the Netherlands to come up with a solution.

As for the possible solution in the Netherlands, Liu Yu also analyzed it. If the massacre is not possible, then the first choice is to migrate to Ceylon.

Therefore, what Shi Shiyong had to do was very simple.

Defining the uprising as an anti-nature of the government taking the people to kill the family, made the Netherlands worry about Dashun's interference.

Pay the poll tax for those left behind, but they cannot be used as debt slaves—Although Dashun only wants Chinese in Ceylon, if tens of thousands of people are treated as debt slaves by the Dutch, these tens of thousands must be to rebel.Once all the Chinese participated in the uprising, this matter would be blown.

The Dashun court knew best what the bottom class of the Chinese looked like.It’s not that those who didn’t participate in the uprising were useless, they were just waiting and watching, and they still had a little trust in the imperial court, any form of imperial court.But once you are desperate, you will not leave yourself a way out.

Now we have come to the most difficult and also the most critical part of this negotiation. Shi Shiyong knows in his heart that at this time, he must keep his temper and must not be in a hurry.

So he drank the local coffee deliberately and methodically, one cup after another, quietly waiting for Valknir's response.

"Mr. Special Envoy of the Great Emperor of China, I need to think about this issue again. Of course, your request is not too much. The poll tax owed before can be reduced or exempted."

"However, you also know. As your Majesty the Emperor said, these people came to Batavia to make a living. However, Batavia's industry is not good, and it is difficult for them to make a living."

"If you live here and don't have a job to earn a living, I think they will definitely go down the path of crime. This is the key to solving this problem."

Shi Shiyong was overjoyed in his heart, but he remained calm, and knew that he could not take the initiative to mention Ceylon at this time, so he said calmly: "Of course. We have a saying that treats the symptoms and the root cause. Paying the poll tax is a solution to the symptoms; The industry can be relied on, and the solution is to cure the root cause. The governor's idea is right."

"Since we can't reach an agreement for the time being, I'll go back and rest first. When an idea is reached, please inform me as soon as possible. His Majesty the Emperor hopes that this matter will be finalized within half a month without further delay. If it cannot be reached, then I can only Return to the capital."

After uttering a harsh word, he left the governor's mansion, and went straight back to Lian Fuguang's manor, shutting the door.

As soon as Shi Shiyong left, Valknir called Batavia officials together to discuss this issue.

Ceylon, this is a direction that does not need to be discussed.

The key is, after being transported to Ceylon, in what capacity will they be resettled?
Is it based on employment standards?So how much salary do you need to give these Chinese people a month?

If it is not in accordance with the employment standards, then what attracts these Chinese to go?

Emperor Dashun's internal funds were all real gold and silver, and hundreds of thousands of silver coins were in front of him. As long as he wanted to take this money, he could no longer use his status as a "debt slave".

Since Batavia was the center of Dutch colonial rule in Southeast Asia, the officials here knew something about Ceylon.

Now, Ceylon is indeed short of people.

Ceylon is a good place. Four kinds of things are produced, all of which are very valuable.

Cinnamon.

Betel nut.

pearl.

gem.

The local Sinhalese Kandy Dynasty in Ceylon must have a lot of common language with Xun Yu, and what they have been thinking about is "driving tigers and devouring wolves".

The Tamils ​​were in the north, so they found the Portuguese.

The Portuguese came, so they took the initiative to find the Dutch.

Later the Dutch came and took the initiative to find the British.

Then every time, it was a mess to drive the tiger and devour the wolf, driving away the weak and coming a stronger one.It can be said that he has a good vision. Every time he finds the strongest of the era, he loses himself in the end.

Now the Dutch have replaced the Portuguese, occupying the southwestern lowland area of ​​Ceylon, and the Kandyan dynasty of Sinhala in the highland area.

Ceylon was once the only place where cinnamon was grown.

Cinnamon may be the only spice that has maintained sales growth as the European body's four-liquid theory ebbs.

Because the taste of cinnamon is very special, it can be matched with the new favorite tea in Europe, especially black tea, which has a special fragrance.With the spread of the custom of drinking tea in Europe, cinnamon, as an ingredient of tea, has not retreated but advanced.

Even before the Portuguese ran away, they strategically brought cinnamon saplings to Brazil, causing Brazil to start planting cinnamon on a large scale.

But this thing has to be rubbed by hand, and workers have to peel off the bark and knead it into rolls.

However, Brazil's population is insufficient, and it is far less abundant than Asia's human resources, so it can't produce much.

Now this thing can be regarded as one of the few high-profit spices in the Netherlands in recent years.

The Dutch, especially Valkner, have been thinking about introducing Chinese to Ceylon, one is to solve the problem of the "excess" Chinese population in Batavia once and for all; the other is because Ceylon is really short of manpower.

The main labor force of the Dutch in Ceylon were Tamil slaves bought from India and low-caste cinnamon workers in Ceylon.

The Tamil slaves saved money. They took a branding iron engraved with the [VOC] logo and burned it on their bodies to make a mark. There was nowhere to run.

Basically, we only need to provide food, and the place is hot, and even clothes are saved, which is quite cheap.

But in recent years, Britain and France have been guarding against the Netherlands in India, and Tamil slaves have not been easy to buy in recent years.

From India to Ceylon, it is not as far away as from Black Africa to America, where the death rate is too high.

Before the civil strife in India, various land states captured each other and sold slaves. The price of Tamil slaves was extremely low and the transportation was close, so they were not used like black slaves in the Americas. Proper consideration should be given to reproduction and longer working periods.

That is to say, raise a slave, let the slave reproduce and continue to produce slaves, and keep a long working life for a long time.In fact, it is more cost-effective to spend money to buy another batch after you die.

When a black slave was transported from Africa to America, the long tidal flats along the way and the half-way death rate had to be taken into consideration. The overall price was quite expensive.The Tamil slaves are transported from South India to Ceylon, which is much cheaper.

It's like buying a small tool for ten yuan. Do you use it carefully so that you can use it for a few more years?Or if it is broken, pull the chicken and replace it with a new one?
But if you buy a tool for 1 yuan, you must be careful when using it in order to use it for a few more years.

So this leads to a bit of ruthlessness.

As the saying goes, rabbits bite people when they are anxious, and they use it too hard. Even the Tamils ​​of low caste broke out in an uprising the year before last.

Those who chop and rub cinnamon are basically Sinhalese.They are all low castes in Sinhala, and their life was quite miserable.

The special caste system of the Sinhalese is a bit similar to the humble nationality of Ming Dynasty.It's not the same as caste in India.It is that generations of fishermen have been fishing, generations of farmers have been farming, and generations of cinnamon rubbing have been rubbing cinnamon.

However, the Dutch introduced the manual factory system, making life even worse for those who rubbed cinnamon. Two uprisings broke out in 34 and 36.

Many people went to the mountains and would rather return to the kingdom of Kandy as a lower caste than work in a cinnamon handicraft factory.Factory workers in this era... are really not as good as serfs in low-caste village communities.

Last year, the old king of the Kandy Kingdom passed away, and the new king was a royal branch from southern India whose Sinhala language was somewhat incomprehensible.He simply couldn't suppress the princes and military leaders under his hands.

Originally, there was peace with the Netherlands. With the death of the old king, the new king could not control the situation temporarily. Many military leaders and high-caste feudal lords chose to go to war against the Netherlands.

This is not what Valknier thought, the Batavian rebels had the British behind them as crap sticks.It's that the British are really acting as shit-stirring sticks inside, shooting guns and cannons.

That's why after the Chinese uprising in Batavia, Valkner's first reaction was that the British were messing around again.

Liu Yu just took advantage of the situation. The root cause is that the British have too many criminal records, and the Dutch almost reflexively think about the British.

The origin of it can be regarded as the deep seed of evil fate.

The King of England married a Portuguese princess back then, and the Netherlands went to Japan to sue, saying that Britain married a Catholic princess, which led to the failure of Britain's attempt to trade with Japan.

In turn, Portugal took Mumbai as a dowry, and told Britain by the way: If you kill the Netherlands, half of our family in Ceylon is also considered as the dowry of Princess Catherine, and half of the cinnamon trading family.I want Colombo, you want Gore.Coupled with the huge conflicts between Britain and the Netherlands in Europe and North America, Britain and the Netherlands started fighting.

As a result, just after the war, a baker in London was baking bread. His wife called him for something, and forgot to close the stove door in a hurry. A big fire burned the whole of London.

The fire was over, London was being rebuilt, and everything was in chaos.In the chaos, the Dutch took the opportunity to raid the Thames estuary, used their housekeeping skills to raid the military port, and reimbursed the British for the family foundation left by the Lord Protector in one fell swoop.This is also the reason why Liu Yu spent a lot of money to build forts in Weihai and Liugong Island. He had to guard against the courage of the Dutch who raided the military port and the bayonets were popular.

In that battle, Britain was defeated and completely withdrew from Southeast Asia.

But after the UK slowed down, the little tricks never stopped.

Send a batch of guns today, send two instructors tomorrow, and open a joint venture cinnamon factory the day after tomorrow... These are all common things.

Now that the old king is dead, and the new king is an offshoot of the South Indian royal family, he can't control the situation. The nobles have completely let themselves go, and from time to time they will fight the Netherlands with British guns.

Today's situation is roughly like this: the Tamil slaves revolted; the cinnamon factory workers revolted and would rather go back to be low-caste pariahs;

lack of people.

There is a shortage of people who are obedient, obedient, submissive, and able to work with little money.

So the Dutch very much hope that the Chinese will go, especially to get a group of debt slaves who don't need to be paid.

(End of this chapter)