Xinshun 1730

Chapter 553 Policy Closeness
The military officer, whose pseudonym was Wang Wu, followed Liu Yu's intentions and directly stated that he wanted to buy armaments.

Sure enough, Fazaklei didn't ask too much about "sell or not", but directly asked how much he wanted to buy.

The British East India Company had guns and cannons. At this time, India was still strong, and it looked scary.

Britain and France fought endlessly in India. The French took the lead in arming the native soldiers, and the British also learned from them.

The maharajas of India also fight all day long and buy arms. The East India Company has a lot of firearms and artillery, which are high-profit goods, and there are a lot of them in warehouses.

"How much are you going to want?"

"A thousand and two hundred brown basses, and bayonets to match. Three hundred to five hundred Indian cutlasses for the cavalry. Six three-pounders, four twelve-pounders. And some gunpowder and lead. Money, no Question, we also did business in Batavia before, opened a sugar factory, and worked on a spice plantation."

The number is not too much. Britain and France gave gifts to the maharajas of Indian states, and they also gave gifts of [-] to [-] cannons.Be it firearms or cannons, everything is in stock.

Since the opposite side has money, that's the best.

It is easy to do things with money, but if he has no money, even if he wants to support the people here, he still needs permission from the company headquarters.

Gifting and buying and selling are not the same thing. If it is buying, he can directly discuss with the local person in charge.

"These instruments are not a problem. But do you know how to use them?"

"Don't worry about this. There are Bugis people in our team, and they can play cavalry. We can also shoot guns. As for cannons, we also have people who can operate them. People have worked in the army of the Celestial Dynasty."

Among the Chinese who went to Nanyang, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, no matter what their status is, as long as they are not officials, they can be trusted.

Fazakle calculated the price and quoted a price of 3000 taels of silver.This price is quite conscientious. If you count the follow-up gunpowder, the price will be more, but it is all negotiable.

"The price is about this. It can be sold to you, but the Dutch are very strict in patrolling Southeast Asia. I'm afraid it will be difficult for us to send the goods to the shore. After all, you use our country's guns and cannons, which is no problem. Back then, the French and the Dutch The French also used Dutch guns. However, if our direct shipments were seized, the Dutch would protest.”

"We pick up the goods ourselves. The trading place is at your Fort Marlboro in Bengkulu. Once it leaves the shore, the delivery will be completed, and it has nothing to do with you. We will load a large amount of gunpowder on the loading ship. If the Dutch patrol When it arrives, light the gunpowder. You will not be implicated, after all, as long as the Dutch don’t know about the deal between us and you, there will be a chance next time.”

Wang Wu knew that the cooperation time arranged by Liu Yu was relatively generous.

Crossing the Sunda Strait from Bengkulu, if the wind is good, it only takes one day to reach the coast on the south bank of the volcano.

Fazaklei was also very satisfied with this, and it was not difficult to send it to Bengkulu.

Wang Wu urged again, and said: "Before the Indian Ocean storm comes, it's best to get the goods in Bengkulu. If the storm season comes, I'm afraid your transportation will be difficult, so we have to wait until next year to get the goods gone."

"Don't worry about this. As long as the deal is concluded, I can contact you to deliver the goods immediately. Of course, we also have to consider the transportation difficulties during the storm season. But before the deal is concluded, there is one thing I must ask clearly."

"Speaking?"

"Actually, I think you should also know that with your strength, it is impossible to drive away the Dutch. The Netherlands will send soldiers in a steady stream, and they can also directly arm the Javanese soldiers. And a thousand guns, and Not enough to take Batavia."

Rather than opt for euphemisms, Fazakle went straight to the point.

Although he believed in his inference in his heart: that is, once these people succeeded, they would neither choose to stand with the Celestial Empire, nor would they make peace with the Dutch, let alone cooperate with the local Javanese Sultan.

There are economic and religious reasons for this.All in all, the main force of these people is still the Chinese, and the circle of the Chinese is relatively closed. This also involves a reason that as long as they are Chinese, they have a chance to seize the destiny, so it is impossible for the Netherlands and the Celestial Dynasty to tolerate Batavia being overthrown by the Chinese. Occupying an independent state, the Sudan is even less likely or unable to make these "heretics" surrender.

However, Fazaklei hoped to get an exact answer from the other party to confirm his own judgment.

As long as these people do not capture Batavia, the British side can intervene to ensure that they can become an independent regime.

But if these people have illusions and even want to capture Batavia, there is no possibility of compromise with the Netherlands.

In this case, these people are worth selling arms, not worthy of follow-up in-depth cooperation.

Wang Wu nodded and said: "Originally we planned to develop to the north. There are more Chinese there. However, the court stepped forward to pay the Dutch poll tax and resettled most of the Chinese to Ceylon. We are really powerless to seize the whole of Java, so we Prepare to take the South. Just make sure the Dutch pay more for their attack than they get for it, and I don't think the Dutch East India Company will put money into this bottomless pit."

"Our program and demands will not change. This is what we must do. Abolish the Dutch forced planting system, abolish forced labor, abolish the poll tax policy, and equalize the land."

Fazaklei nodded approvingly, picked up the written request planning and program document again and read it carefully, calculating the interests of the British East India Company if the other party separatists in the south.

This written planning and program document is more in line with the British colonial policy.

I have to say that the British did a lot of research on colonization.

The Dutch have ruled Java for 200 years, but no one has ever written an investigation report on acquaintances in Java. The 17-member committee and the governor of Batavia often make many decisions by brainstorming.

After the fourth Anglo-Dutch war in history, the British ruled Java briefly. In the second year, the McKinsey Investigation Committee was established, and people were sent to the Javanese countryside to write detailed investigation reports, class inspections, and land systems.

Generally speaking, the "Li Fan Yuan" in the 18th century when Great Britain was in full swing, compared with the official Li Fan Yuan of the Chinese Dynasty, its professional level was not 01:30.

In the words of the British, [the land is the source of all Java's wealth, and the British do not have many engaged in farming.Only by fully understanding Java’s land system and village community structure can we formulate a scientific development direction for the characteristics, customs, economy, and system of Javanese society].

It's just that the ass decides the head. No matter how detailed the investigation report is, no matter how clear the investigation is, if the direction is wrong, the more you know, the more reactionary you will be.

It's like dragon slaying technique. After you learn it, you can reverse it and become the strongest dragon.

To put it simply, Britain wants to carry out land reform in Java, and to be more specific, it means "breaking well fields, opening rice fields, exempting from labor, and young crops."

【Our goal is to inspire Javanese industriousness.Let them share the fruits of labor instead of separating the fruits of labor from personal interests.Let them associate labor with personal wealth].

The way to do it is:

Reform the village communal land ownership system, divide the land among individuals, give it to small farmers, and levy land tax by the colonial government.

Cancel the forced planting system in the Netherlands, and cancel the feudal corvee system.

The village land ownership system was abolished, the land was returned to the colonial government, the lease contract was implemented between the government and the peasants, the lease period was specified, and the specific amount of land rent was determined according to the fertility of the land.

Abolish all kinds of compulsory labor and obligation to reduce the burden on farmers.

Loans were granted to small farmers by colonial policy to ensure that they had the capital to produce, at low interest rates, payable after the harvest.

This is basically the platform of the Batavian Chinese rebels on land policy.In fact, it is the idealized "ideal well field where currency-in-kind land rent replaces labor land rent", "exemption law", "green crop law", and "square field average tax law".

The problem is that the British say so, but they know where their butts sit. They defeated the Netherlands to rule Java, not to serve the Javanese people and the Chinese.

Therefore, the pilot reform of the labor service system was announced in January, but the reform failed in June.

The company directly sent a letter to the governor who presided over the land reform, telling him that the company's purpose is to make a profit.And you abolished the feudal labor system, abolished compulsory labor and obligation, and you have to spend money to hire people, who will pay for it?The bloody battle between the company and the Dutch came here to serve the people of Java?

This reform can be regarded as changing from "feudal servitude" to "exemption law".

The problem is that from Song’s exemption law, to Ming’s Zhang Juzheng’s reform, and then to Dashun’s completion of Zhang Juzheng’s reform, collecting taxes and hiring people to work to reduce corvee, the reason why all these can be implemented is that the imperial court is not a company.

The imperial court has no shareholders and does not need to read profit statements.

But the East India Company couldn’t do it. It announced reforms in January, and found in June that it costs money to hire people to work, which is far less economical than the feudal labor system, so it issued a patch: “The previous policy of exempting corvee should be determined according to the specific situation. Certainly."

As long as there is a "as the case may be" patch for any policy, it is tantamount to no.

The patch was released in June, and in October it was announced that the reform would not include the Bandung and Batavia regions.

Because the UK has taken over from the Netherlands, the only places that can really manage it are Bandung and Batavia.

There are still a large number of feudal princes in the remaining places, and they can't control them at all, and the whole reform has become a joke.

Subsequently, the British also continued the forced planting system in the Netherlands, but "changed their appearance".

From the original village communal planting to individual forced planting, it is stipulated that the rent of each farmer allocated to the land is 240 pounds of coffee.

Forced labor was restored, and each farmer was supposed to work for the company 28 days a year.

After the British Council of Legislature made an investigation report, it believed that the land policy in Java should be a government-peasant, two-tier structure, so that the profits would be greater.

Instead of adopting a government-landlord-peasant three-tier structure, this three-tier structure is not conducive to the long-term interests of the company.

This is a typical wrong direction, the more knowledge the more reactionary.

Because of this, the British colonial rule was indeed more efficient than the Dutch taxpayer middlemen.

There is no middleman to make the difference, and the profit doubled that year. A large number of Javanese characteristic agricultural products are used as land rent and become the company's profit statement.

The company is not accountable to the people of Java, only to the shareholders.

But now, Britain did not fight the Fourth Anglo-Dutch War, nor did it really rule Java.So for such a clear programmatic document, he showed strong interest and appreciation.

Of course, this is not out of ideals and beliefs, but because if this is done, these crops, tropical cash crops, can be sold to the London East India Company.

The Dutch are hostile, and there is no shortage in Dashun, so it is obvious that after such reforms, the productivity has increased, and the adjustment of production relations is very suitable for the productivity of the cattle farming and iron age, and the excess products must be sold.

Who do you sell to?
Among the surrounding buyers, there is only the London East India Company left. Doesn't this mean breaking the Dutch monopoly on Southeast Asian goods?
(End of this chapter)