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Chapter 995: Crazy poor

Where to go for naval battle? The New World. At this time, European countries were not only fighting fiercely on their homeland, but also on the New World on the other side of the Atlantic.

The vested interests represented by Spain and Portugal and the newcomers represented by England, France and the United Provinces often fought fiercely for more and more valuable colonies.

However, as the Minister of Naval Warfare, Villiers personally commanded several naval battles, all of which were declared failures. Not only did he fail to seize a square meter of colony from the Spanish, but he also lost the stronghold on the island of St. Kitts and Nevis.

In 1630, Charles I, who did not have the support of Parliament, had no choice but to sign the Treaty of Madrid with Philip IV.

Although a little dignity was saved, Charles I did not think so. He felt that the Duke of Buckingham was still right, and the mistake was that he was constrained by Parliament, so he never convened Parliament again.

Although Britain had the Magna Carta and the parliamentary system at that time, it had not become a true constitutional monarchy. Some kings had a smaller desire for power, so the parliament could play a role in decentralization, while some kings had a greater desire for power, so the parliament could not play any role.

Charles I belonged to the latter. In fact, his father, James I, also believed that the king's power was granted by God and never thought that the king should be subject to the control of parliament.

However, the financial power was mostly in the hands of Parliament, and the king could not collect taxes at will. If he wanted to do something, he still had to discuss and reach a consensus with Parliament, otherwise neither side would have an easy time.

As the victorious party, Philip IV of Spain also had a hard time. The victory in the Caribbean was only temporary, and the fight for colonies never stopped. For this reason, Spain had to continuously send more people to the New World to maintain the safety of its colonies.

The battles on the European continent never ended, as one opponent fell and another stood up, one after another. In order to cope with this protracted war, Spain had expanded its army to 30, which was another huge expense.

The war left Spain in a difficult situation both internally and externally, and the economy was bleeding continuously, with the government already heavily in debt. Faced with such a predicament, Philip IV and Charles I were in the same boat, both of them were extremely short of money.

"I understand what you mean. The English and Spanish cannot get money in the European continent, and it is difficult to support the war expenses by relying on the colonies in the New World alone. So they want to make a fortune in Asia to make up for the deficit in their own country."

In the past ten years, Hong Tao has never stopped collecting intelligence from European countries, but he has never heard any ambassador or intelligence officer analyze it as clearly as Cohen. This is the difference between a local snake and a dragon from across the river. It seems that the Advisory Office will have to find a way to hire more Europeans as intelligence officers in the future.

But those are all later stories. What we need to deal with now is the attack of the Anglo-Spanish Fleet. Only by figuring out their intentions can we find the right remedy.

"Other than that, I can't think of any other reason why they could unite and face the outside world together. And this is probably the work of the Duke of Buckingham and the Earl of Oliverius. There have been rumors in the European courts that the two of them are also very close friends."

Cohen was very confident in his analysis. Not only was he able to determine the general intention of the Anglo-Spanish Fleet, he was also able to identify the planner.

"It seems that emperors and kings all over the world are facing similar problems!"

At this point, Hong Tao had basically no problem. Favored ministers like the Duke of Villiers and the Earl of Oliverius were not uncommon around Chinese emperors. When they met a more sensible emperor, they would play a supporting role, but when they met a more confused emperor, they would become treacherous villains who brought disaster to the country and the people. Britain in the 17th century was under the rule of the Stuart dynasty. Compared with other European countries, it was neither strong nor advanced, and it was poor, even worse than the United Provinces Republic across the strait, which did not have the qualifications of an independent country.

Britain was also a latecomer in terms of maritime trade and colonies. Portugal and Spain only started to think about the past after spending hundreds of years in the New World, and were left far behind in the exploration of Asia.

To make up for the late start, the British set up three foreign trade companies, one of which was very famous, the British East India Company. The other two did not develop much, one was the Moscow Company responsible for Russian trade, and the other was the Levant Company responsible for the Ottoman Empire business.

But no matter how hard they tried, it was still too late. Even without the rise of the Ming Empire, most of Asia's maritime trade share had been divided up by the Portuguese and the Dutch.

When the British ships first arrived, they were beaten badly by these two predecessors. They could not stand in the Spice Islands and the waters of Southeast Asia at all, let alone the spice trade that was as valuable as gold.

They could only miserably make their way to the Indian Peninsula, lingering in a few ports that were not fully controlled by the Portuguese, and barely making ends meet by trading second- and third-rate goods such as Indian cotton, indigo, and saltpeter.

As the saying goes, a blessing in disguise. The British arrived too late and didn’t find a foothold in Southeast Asia. They didn’t get the fattest meat, but they also got the worst beatings. If they had hindered the expansion of the Ming Empire like the Spanish did, the outcome might have been even worse.

But then again, a blessing is not a curse, and a curse is inevitable. After more than ten years, the British were finally pushed by fate to the opposite side of the Ming Empire.

This group of poor and crazy guys actually set their sights on the most profitable maritime trade business and planned to use force to rush in to get a share of the pie. The first target was the Port of Ennior, located at the southernmost tip of the Cape of Good Hope. This was not only the largest cargo transshipment port for Dutch merchant ships, but also the most critical supply port on the route to Asia.

If they could not get the Port of Ennis, British, Spanish and Portuguese merchant ships would have to set out from Elmina Castle on the Gold Coast on the west side of Africa, go around the Cape of Good Hope and reach the Port of Sofala in Mozambique on the east coast of Africa to get supplies, a total journey of 8000 kilometers.

With the navigation technology at that time, it was not difficult to sail 8000 kilometers in one go, but it would be too difficult to replace the expedition ship with a merchant ship. Unless it was not fully loaded with cargo, the profit of a trip would be greatly reduced.

For nearly two decades, Port of Ennior has not blocked the Cape of Good Hope route, cutting off the only sea route between Europe and Asia.

The main reason for doing this was that it was too difficult to blockade the waters around the Cape of Good Hope. The Ming Empire Navy could not provide so many ships and sailors to cruise in the vast sea all year round.

In addition, Hong Tao did not want to provoke the Europeans too early and make them realize the importance of the Cape of Good Hope, and then send waves of fleets to harass them.

Overall, this strategy was quite successful, as it took nearly twenty years before any trouble arose. At this time, Enniao Port had transformed from a simple trade warehouse into a solid military fortress, and was completely self-sufficient except for weapons and ammunition.

(End of this chapter)