Great Qing Dynasty talker

Chapter 465: They started fighting!
Jinshanwei Fortress in Songjiang Prefecture.

A few white sails appeared in the open sea.

The sentry on the tower put down the palm-leaf fan in his hand, stood up slowly, and opened the telescope.

In the lens,
The outline of the ship gradually became clear.

……

The flag on the top of the main mast is faintly visible.

One of the soldiers grabbed his shirt and climbed down the ladder to report the situation of the ship at sea.

on the way,
He put on his shirt neatly and looked like a soldier again.

The summer in Jiangnan is hot and humid!
There is less rain this year than in previous years.

but,

It is said that there is more rain in Zhejiang and Fujian than in previous years.

God is probably a beautiful woman with a bad temper who always likes to cause trouble for the world.

……

A patrol speedboat sailed out of the port and met the Dutch merchant ship.

Clipper Deck,

The warrant officer shouted loudly to the merchant ship that was within reach:

"Lower the sails, furl the gunwale, and lower the rope ladder."

after that,

He climbed the rope ladder onto the merchant ship and met a group of red-haired barbarians with submissive expressions.

"Where are you from? What cargo are you carrying?"

The interpreter beside the red-haired barbarian immediately stepped forward with a smile~
"Hello, General. We are from Batavia. Our cargo includes sulfur, saltpeter, sugar, silver, diamonds, nutmeg, cloves, and sandalwood~"

……

Three merchant ships slowly entered the port.

As Wu Ting became more and more formalized, he began to improve the details in various fields.

Any foreign merchant ship entering Hong Kong,
You must be accompanied by two of your own soldiers on board before you can enter the port.

Beautiful name:
Pilot.

If you don't cooperate, you may be bombarded by the fortress.

……

The Military Industry Department, which was operating at full capacity, put down its work and mobilized outstanding craftsmen to cast four 4-pound fortress cannons despite the extremely high scrap rate.

They are jokingly called the Four King Kongs internally.

It was placed here with the muzzle pointed at the sea.

Fortress cannons are not as difficult to manufacture as carronades.

Overall,
From the breech to the muzzle, there is an obvious three-level transition from coarse to fine.

Large charge and long range.

The loading process is very laborious. One gun requires 35 people to serve, and it takes 250 breaths to fire one shot.

It is also equipped with a pulley crane to transport the shells.

The biggest highlight of the fortress cannon is not the caliber, but the rotatable base. Simple bearings and human collaboration enable the cannon to rotate 150 degrees on the spot.
It can be said,
This is a culmination of the Wu State's metallurgical technology and casting technology.

……

The invention reward system vigorously promoted by Minister of Industry Du Ren fully mobilized the enthusiasm of craftsmen.

Any improvement measures in any field that can improve current efficiency (time, manpower, quality) by more than 3% will be rewarded with 500 to 2000 taels of silver.

All new inventions (technology, objects, concepts) related to industry, agriculture, mining, transportation, construction, navigation, astronomy, water conservancy, medicine and other fields will be submitted to Your Majesty for personal review after the information is sorted out.

The Wu Kingdom formally established the Royal Academy of Sciences, located in the scenic Dongshan Peninsula.

Less than a year later,
claim to fame.

Due to a series of outrageous incidents such as fire, explosion, poisoning, fights, singing in the middle of the night, etc., it successfully earned the title of "Madhouse"!
As the saying goes, the later a school is founded, the greater its reputation.

The earliest established Infantry Officer School was unknown, with students coming and going in batches, and it had no sense of existence.

……

To be selected as a fellow of the Royal Academy of Sciences, one must have made inventions.

Generally, they will be granted the title of temporary researcher, who can enjoy the resources provided by the Academy of Sciences and concentrate on research with pay.

If no further research results are produced within 2 years of admission~
discharge!

If new results can be produced but they are not groundbreaking enough, the period will be extended to 5 years.

The title of lifelong researcher is not easy to obtain.

Must be personally certified by His Majesty (President Li)~
……

The Maritime Trade Administration of the Ministry of Commerce stepped in and took over all three shipments from the Netherlands.

Both sides tacitly ignored the dispute over Lantau Island.

Wu State could not follow the example of the past in Macao and lease a piece of land to foreign merchants, and would definitely take it back in the future. However, it did not have a navy at present, and did not want to affect the maritime trade situation, so it kept silent.

The Dutch were unwilling to voluntarily give up this golden land. After all, they had seized it from the Qing army and had no friction with the Wu State, so they did not mention it.

According to the idea of ​​the Governor of Batavia - let's wait and see.

future,

If the Wu Kingdom controls the area south of the Yangtze River and shows signs of replacing the Qing, we can use Lantau Island as a bargaining chip to negotiate for better commercial terms and then return it.

If Wu and Qing are evenly matched and have a fierce battle, I will not plan to return it.

……

now,

Two troublesome matters involving overseas trade remain unresolved.

1 item is,

Countries have requested to set up trading posts.

The other one is,

The chambers of commerce in various places under its jurisdiction jointly requested the court to clarify the authority of maritime trade:

Which goods are exclusively sold by the imperial court and which goods can be sold by the people themselves?
(Currently, Wu Ting has temporarily monopolized all export rights of tea, silk, and porcelain.)
After Li Yu calmly pondered,
I readily approved Article 1.
All countries were allowed to set up trading houses on the banks of the Huangpu River in Songjiang Prefecture and to set up branches in Guangzhou city.

Countries can build houses within the designated areas, but are not allowed to build churches.

Pastors and priests were allowed to live in trading houses, but were prohibited from preaching.

……

His Majesty pointed out
Missionary work should be two-way and equal.

European priests wanted to spread the Gospel in the East.

The eminent monks and Taoist priests in the East were also eager to impart the Buddhist and Taoist teachings to the lambs in Europe.

Therefore,
If missionaries can obtain written permission from their own king and the Vatican to preach the same doctrine.

That's ok.

after.

There is no limit to the means, whoever can attract as many believers as possible is considered capable~
Your Majesty does things in such a civilized, open and unscrupulous way.

……

As for the rights over maritime trade goods, this needs further discussion.

The rest of the products don't matter.
alone,

The three-piece set of tea, silk and porcelain is the lifeblood of the empire, and the control must be firmly in one's own hands, but one can share some of the profits with merchants from various provinces.

Catch the big ones and let go of the small ones.

This means that in order to formally open up private overseas trade, it is necessary to formulate corresponding tariffs and finalize a list of coastal trading cities.

As a result,
Wu Ting faced the same embarrassing situation as the Qing Dynasty. Management had to keep up, and coastal defense had to keep up (the reality is that neither could keep up at the moment).

Without coastal defense, the fawning foreign merchants would be ready to cause trouble at any time.

18st century,

Merchants and pirates are just self-perceptions of identity, or if you like, they can also be plastic bags.

……

current,

Wu Ting would certainly give priority to ensuring the import needs of the Saxon East India Company and merchant ships from various countries that docked there.

For now,

The output is enough~
If it is not enough, go find Wang Danwang.

Give him a commission and let him, as the governor, order that tea from Wuyi Mountain in Fujian must be sold to the State of Wu. Anyone who refuses to sell it is against the Qing Dynasty.

After thinking it through,
At a breakfast meeting, Li Yu clearly informed the dozen or so presidents of various prefecture chambers of commerce who were dining at the same table.

The imperial court could grant export quotas for tea, silk and porcelain to maritime merchants, limited to no more than half the volume of the ship's hold.

but,
At the same time, these merchants were required to bring back goods that were any combination of seven categories: rice, saltpeter, sulfur, brass, sugar, machinery, and professional and technical personnel.

Only three ports, Guangzhou, Chaozhou and Jinshanwei, are open for the time being.

among them,

Chaozhou Port is open in one direction and does not accept foreign ships to dock for the time being.

……

Wu's trade surplus gradually declined.

This phenomenon makes Europeans extremely excited.

In the small Southeast Asia, there have been 7 East India Companies in history. They belong to Britain, the Netherlands, Denmark, Portugal, France, Switzerland, and Austria (in order of establishment time)~
on the one hand,

Exploit the local indigenous people and transport all kinds of resources from the colonies back to the mainland.

on the other hand,

They sold spices, gold and silver to Guangzhou, purchased tea, silk and porcelain and then shipped them back to their homeland for profit.

This was the common pattern among all East India Companies.

2 very clear trade lines.

The Eastern Empire took a large share of their profits, and the proportion was gradually increasing.

They dreamed of changing this situation, but hundreds of years later, the trade deficit became increasingly serious.

Until the Wu State emerged!
under such circumstances,

European merchants' favorable impression of the Wu Empire almost reached its peak.

……

In addition to material aspects, there are also spiritual aspects.

Ming and Qing dynasties,

The European merchants knelt down humbly, shouting "Long live Daddy", and only after they had the connections could they purchase tea, silk and porcelain.

and,

The Ming and Qing empires basically only accepted three payment methods: gold, silver, and spices.

The trade surplus is outrageous.

A full 500 years,
The world's silver continued to flow eastward.

The term silver black hole is not given for nothing~
……

And now,
The emerging Wu Empire changed its previous trading habits and was willing to take almost any goods carried by merchant ships from various countries.

Whether it was metal resources, precious spices, diamonds, sandalwood, rice, sugar, ivory, fur, cotton, linen, horses or animals, they were all eaten.

The breadth of interest and the huge appetite drove all East India Companies crazy.

What is particularly shocking is that

The Wu royal family was actually also interested in industrial products and machinery.

……

The Governor of Batavia lamented in a letter to a local friend:

last month,
I heard a strange story.

A group of mixed-race wandering sailors without nationality found new jobs in Guangzhou Port with quite good salaries.
now,

Batavia under this governor,
Countless frustrated people are eager to go to Guangzhou to look for opportunities.

The mysterious Wu Empire had the strongest purchasing power, the most voracious appetite, and the most fertile land in the world.

All colleagues in the company agree that the golden 30 years of global business are about to begin.

This will benefit the whole of Europe.

In this huge Eurasian business cycle, the European continent will be able to add at least 50 wealthy middle-class people and 1 truly rich people.

……

but,

If European merchants knew that Wu Ting was not satisfied with the current scale of trade, they would be surprised and speechless.

Li Yu was accustomed to the trade in later generations, which was often measured in tens of thousands of tons. How could he look down on the small-scale shipping in the 18th century?

In this era, the most common ocean merchant ships were around 500 tons.

100 ships are only 5 tons.

Jinshanwei and Guangzhou have received a total of 331 overseas merchant ships this year.

The total volume of cargo in both directions will not exceed 50 tons at most.

In the era before the time travel, it was not even enough to fill the gaps in a fourth-tier city.

Even if the ships of Wu merchants are included, which numbered about 200 voyages, the total annual trade tonnage was less than 100 million tons.

Not enough, far from enough.

……

Anyway,

Of the seven East India Companies, except for the French East India Company which was founded in 7 and closed down in 1628, the other six all built trading houses along the Huangpu River.

Plus the Iberian Trading House which took the lead.

(Note: Iberia did not establish the East India Company. They preferred missionary work and robbery to normal trade.)
Finally, we got together 7 companies.

Songjiang Prefecture is next to Suzhou Prefecture.
This distance is just right.

On weekdays, out of sight, out of mind; but when something happens, you can see him quickly.

The foreigners presented precious gifts sensibly~
From battleship models, gold-inlaid clocks, to various weapons, Arabian war horses, and singers of various skin colors.

The Saxon East India Company's trading post in Songjiang was the largest.

Also the most hated.

Because of that valuable memo~
……

Minister of Commerce Hu Xueyu met with representatives from various countries.

tell them,

The export principle is - leave enough for the Saxons and try to ensure enough for the rest of the countries.

Anyway,

The share is tight.

In the future, Ngo Dinh hopes to see competition.

The Wu court would tilt the proportion towards whichever merchant ship brings better goods, which merchant ship's similar goods are cheaper, which merchant ship can make special contributions to the Wu State, and which merchant ship's purchasing quotation is higher.

It takes time for tea and raw silk to grow.

Moreover, it is impossible to expand the planting area indefinitely, so the output growth is extremely slow.

……

At the meeting,
The anger of various countries towards the Saxons reached its peak, and they criticized them verbally and in writing.

The tea and silk share of the six countries combined barely reached 6% of that of the Saxons.
Why?
unfair!
In response to the protests, Hu Xueyu expressed regret:
"The friendly attitude of our country towards all countries is clear, friendly and consistent. We call on all countries to maintain friendly restraint and try to resolve issues through negotiations."

"Your Majesty has instructed that the area of ​​tea and raw silk cultivation should be appropriately expanded, while the consumption of tea by the domestic people should be reduced to meet the needs of European consumers as much as possible."

It sounds good, just listen to it.

after that,

Hu Xueyu invited representatives from various countries to taste Huaiyang cuisine and visit the scenery of the Grand Canal.

Send troops back to Songjiang~
Your Majesty showed sympathy for the people and even graciously allowed representatives from various countries to bring their wives and children to stay in the trading house as a consolation.

……

After the meeting,
Everyone praised Emperor Wu highly, considering him a typical enlightened despot.

During the Qing Dynasty, Guangzhou was the only port for trade. Women were strictly prohibited from going ashore, and merchants were also strictly prohibited from spending the winter in Guangzhou.

Comparing the two,

It's like a God and a devil.

but,

You can praise your majesty as much as you want.

The five-year contract between Wu and Saxon could not be modified midway as it involved contractual integrity.

Countries are helpless and cannot find any reason to complain.

……

A competition arose among the six countries over how to divide the remaining share.

Wu Ting sat on the mountain and watched the tigers fight.

Anyway,

Li Yu hopes to see the competition become more intense.

under such circumstances,

Peter, the Dutch business representative, secretly asked for a meeting.

This person is no simple person. He is proficient in foreign languages. Language is just the basics. Mastering the culture behind the language is the essence.

He found out a relationship.
Both of the husbands of female translator Zhang Xiaomei are Dutch.

Her ex-husband was an employee of the Dutch East India Company. Although she did not know him, it did not prevent her from sending a condolence fund to the widow in the name of her boss.

Her current husband is a Dutch sailor.

A perfect entry point.

……

A social interaction,
Zhang Xiaomei happily accepted the 200 gold coins on the spot.

Then he turned his head,

He went to the palace, reported the whole story to the female official, and asked her to pass it on to His Majesty.

The key point is just one sentence:

The red-haired barbarian wanted to bribe me, so I took his money but didn't do anything for him.

It’s not considered corruption!

……

(End of this chapter)