Xinshun 1730

Chapter 869 "Unfair" Competition ([-])

On the Songjiang Mansion side, the internal information has been conveyed, and those outside who are not qualified to know the inside information and are looking forward to buying shares are waiting anxiously.

A so-called "despicable" trade war method of "unfair competition" has also quietly started in Guangdong.

Everything is for the profit of trade.

Guangzhou, Guangdong.

The Jiedu envoy of Guangdong was looking at his memorial approved by the emperor, with an extremely ugly expression on his face.

Jiedushi's melodies may not necessarily have something to do, even if there is nothing to do, it is best to play one every other month or two.

There is nothing wrong with this memorial.

But the emperor's criticism of Zhu in the back was extremely harsh, and seeing the Guangdong Jiedu made cold sweat break out.

"In the 42nd year of Wanli in the previous dynasty, Guo Shangbin, who was in charge of the Criminal Division, reported to Chen Zou, saying that the barbarians were in Macau, abducting the city's male and female population as slaves... This dynasty issued repeated orders, and the gentry were not allowed to keep slaves, let alone the barbarians? "

"However, when Duke Xing Guo went to Nanyang, he often saw Chinese slave labor in places such as Bangka and Betelang. When asked where he came from, they all said they were from Macau..."

"What's more, the envoys of the Kingdom of England reported to Lord Xingguo that there were slaves trafficked in Macau on an island called St. Helena outside the ocean, who planted vegetables and cultivated them for the ship to transfer supplies. As for Goa, Bengal and other places, there were many Chinese people as slaves as early as 200 years ago..."

"Also, since the first year of Taixing, I have decreed that merchant ships from all countries are not allowed to bring opium, dinoka, etc. into the country."

"However, someone reported it to me, saying that four or three of the opium in the heavenly dynasty came from Macau..."

If you only read these few lines, you can't seem to see how angry the emperor is.

Moreover, the emperor comforted me very "gently" later, saying that you are the Jiedu envoy of a province, and you have many things to pay attention to on weekdays. You may not have noticed things in small places like Macau for a while, and I also I can understand this.

But even though the emperor was so "gentle" and relieved, the Guangdong Jiedu envoy was still so frightened that his limbs became cold.

Some things, if you don't study them carefully, no one will care.

Once studied carefully, it is extremely heavy.

The key lies in "scrutiny", which is an attitude.

Say you have something to do, you have something to do, and you have nothing to say.

Just like the words of the emperor Zhu Pi, it seems serious, but it doesn't seem to be too serious.

It's just a human trafficking point, and it's a well-known thing in many places.

Especially after the poll tax was abolished and included in the land tax, this population has nothing to do with taxation. The local officials wished that these "excess" population would go away, and they might rebel if they stayed.

Before sailing to Nanyang, there were many boats transporting slave labor to plantations, sugar cane gardens, and spice hills in Java; and there were also a large number of boats transporting slave labor for tin mining to Bangka and other places.

If the imperial court doesn't know, it's probably not necessarily true.But before, the imperial court didn't take much care of it at all.

This time, the emperor did not go to the six governments, but directly gave instructions in the memorial, and reprimanded the Guangdong Jiedu envoy.

How can this keep Guangdong Jiedu envoys from being frightened?
While panicking, someone reported: "My lord, the admiral of the Lingdingyang Fleet, the garrison of the Kowloon City Naval Fortress, and the Guangzhou Defense Envoy are asking to see you."

As a Jiedushi, he was not the governor who was caught by civil and military officials in the previous dynasty. The admirals of the Lingdingyang Fleet and the fortress guards were all members of the navy department, and he was not in the same system at all.

Although nominally his official rank is higher than theirs, firstly, the two sides are not in the same system, and secondly, just after receiving such a reply from the emperor Zhu, these people came to ask for an interview, obviously it must be for the affairs of Macau.

He didn't dare to be negligent, and hurriedly asked someone to prepare, and went out to meet him himself.

By the door to go out, four or five people were already standing outside.

The defense of Guangzhou made him think that he is a descendant of the barbarians who surrendered when Li Ting swept the caves in Liaodong. The Western Regions suppressed the Junggar rebellion, and his name was Jiaolaobutu.

These years, because things in the north have been stable, I was transferred here, and I can be regarded as coming here to enjoy my old age.Although this is not the best place, it is worse than Jiangnan, but those places in Jiangnan are not his turn.

It is said that they traded with Luocha in the north and made a lot of money. Now that they come to Guangzhou, a place of luxury, they come here to spend money and enjoy themselves.

As for the remaining admirals of the Lingdingyang Fleet and the garrison of the Kowloon City Fortress, they are all very standard naval personnel.They are all around 30 years old, with dark complexion, neither too old nor too young, and those who can reach this position are the earliest batch of students from Jinghai Palace back then.

In addition to the defense envoys and the people from the navy, there was also a man in the uniform of a Beijing boy.Although the rank is not high, the Guangdong Jiedu envoy dare not neglect the Haierjun people.

He hurriedly invited these people in and asked them to serve tea. After exchanging a few pleasantries, he got straight to the point.

"I don't know how many of you are here this time, but what's the matter?"

The man wearing the boy's officer's uniform cupped his hands and said, "By order of His Majesty, I'm here to do a few things in Guangdong."

The Guangdong Jiedu envoy asked hurriedly, "But because of human trafficking and opium?"

"Exactly. Your Excellency must have heard the news?"

The Jiedu envoy of Guangdong looked at the rest of the people and knew that they all came because of this. He subconsciously thought, could it be that the imperial court wants to take back Macau?

The Defense Envoy, the Admiral of the Fleet, the Fortress Defense Officer, and the spies from the Boy Army have all come. It seems that the matter is not small!

The Lingdingyang Fleet is one of the several main fleets of the imperial court. The previous fleet commander is now the Nanyang Governor.The previous deputy is now the governor of Ceylon.

Although the strength is far inferior to the real main force in the Bohai Bay, this is also the sea power that the court can count on.

The city wall of Macau has been forcibly demolished before, because when the imperial court expelled the Catholics last time, it also took care of the affairs of Macau by the way, thinking that building the city wall in Macau is illegal, how can the city wall be built without the imperial court's permission?
It was demolished a few years ago.

Even if the city wall is still there, and the Guangzhou defense envoy joins the Lingdingyang Fleet, isn't the capture of Macau just a matter of money?

Could it be that the imperial court wanted to take advantage of the trend of going to Nanyang to take back Macau, and this military envoy had to adjust and supervise logistical matters?
In fact, he thought too much.

Dashun doesn't want to take back Macau now, because there are a lot of Catholics, it's better to stay here first.And now I don't want to have a dispute with Portugal.

It's just that there is nothing wrong with deliberately finding fault with these four words.

Since it is deliberately finding fault, then human trafficking and opium smuggling are not the real reasons.

The real reason is the change in the Sino-European trade pattern caused by the War of Austrian Succession, and the profits of the Western Trading Company after the cooperation between China and the Netherlands.

Since the start of the War of Austrian Succession, it has spread to the whole world in the later period.Fighting is happening everywhere from Luzon to South America, from Canada to India.

Fighting everywhere means hijacking ships everywhere.

After the Netherlands and the United Kingdom officially declared war on France, and after the United Kingdom and France started fighting in India, ship hijacking has become the norm.

Privateers, pirates, navies, nowhere is safe at sea.

Historically, the War of Austrian Succession brought short-lived prosperity to the Swedish and Danish East India Companies.It is also early that the Swedish East India Company invested excessively during the war, so that the post-war peace profit rate was greatly reduced.

The famous shipwreck named Gothenburg in history sailed from Guangzhou in 45 and finally sank. It was also a voyage during the Swedish war to increase trade volume and excessive investment-because Sweden was neutral.

In addition to Sweden and Denmark, Macau, occupied by Portugal, also experienced a short-lived abnormal prosperity during the war, and there was such a feeling of "ZTE".

Britain, France, Spain, etc. are all at war, robbing each other's ships, and companies have all reduced their trade volume.

The Netherlands was directly copied by Dashun, and sent to the west of India by Dashun's navy.

Originally, with the development of trade in Songjiang Prefecture, the foreign trade center moved from Guangdong to Jiangsu, and with Dashun’s attitude towards opening up trade, the status of Macau, a special transit port, declined rapidly.

After the expulsion of Catholics, it has basically become a place where human traffickers and opium dealers gather.

Formal trade... whoever goes to Macau for formal trade.

What is Portugal in decline now? It has lost its unique status as a transit port. Businesses from various countries are all built in Songjiang Prefecture. The decline of Macau can be seen with the naked eye.

However, with the outbreak of war, Macau briefly regained some prosperity.

As the war became more and more fierce, from Europe to the sea, many businessmen in Dashun found that Songjiang Mansion's shipments had dropped significantly in the past few years, and shops in Britain, France, the Netherlands and other countries did not accept goods.

Although the volume of goods traded to Japan is increasing every year, the amount of increase is lawful and there is no explosive increase.

Dutch trade was directly cut off.

As a result, the already half-dead land transportation line from Jiangxi to Guangdong became busy again.

The Portuguese have also increased their currency and purchases of goods in recent years, taking advantage of the opportunity of Europe's neutrality in wars to make a fortune.

Liu Yu intentionally allowed Macao's trade to prosper for a short time. Not only did it not cause any obstacles, but it also provided a lot of convenience up and down.This is called leading the snake into the hole and then filling it with boiling water.

Because he wants to take the opportunity to trap the Portuguese merchants in Macau and the British East India Company, and use means other than war to strive for more trade volume for the Sino-Dutch trade as much as possible after the European war is over.

The market is so big, and it is impossible to expand the market for the time being, so look for it on the intermediary business.

To deal with Denmark, his solution is to let Qi Guogong go to Denmark to find fault, and directly increase export tariffs here.Then Sweden, Russia, and Dashun divided up the trade share of the Danish East India Company.

To deal with Portugal, he must first take advantage of the short-term prosperity of Macau and the opportunity of the Anglo-French war to continue to maintain the export of Dashun goods.

After all, the war against the Netherlands and the war between Britain and France will greatly affect the export of Dashun.And the war is always coming to an end, he doesn't want this war to cause a backlog of goods, so as to deplete Dashun's handicraft production capacity.

At the same time, the convenience was provided up and down, allowing the British East India Company to temporarily transfer the pick-up location to Macau, and use the Portuguese asylum to transport the goods.

This is not only the credit of the French and Spaniards for hijacking the ship; but also Liu Yu, with his consistent anti-British and pro-French attitude, set up a small obstacle in the Songjiang Mansion, so that the British East India Company had to consider whether to put all the eggs in a basket.

Now that the war is coming to an end, negotiations on the Dutch side are already underway, and Europe is about to usher in a wave of retaliatory consumption after the war... In this case, of course, it is necessary to take action against Macau.

Ask the Portuguese and the British to learn what "unfair" competition is, and teach them the logic of doing business in Dashun.If bureaucrats want to do you, they can make your life worse than death.

Anglo-Portuguese relations are at stake here, France is robbing British ships, and the British East India Company is operating under the banner of Portugal in Macau.Portugal, a small player, but who made him get closer to England.

(End of this chapter)