Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 1126 Research and Judgment of the Situation ([-])

"Conrad, after all, your country has not agreed to the Chinese government's right of first refusal to the New Netherland..." In a box on the second floor of the newly renovated People's Grand Theater, Mo San, the foreign minister of the East Coast Republic of China, whispered to his side Conrad Van Beuningen, United Provinces ambassador, sighed.

At this time, a play is being performed on the stage ahead, called "The Forgotten Southern Continent", which tells the story of the pioneers on the east coast overcoming obstacles and building their homes in Patagonia.The actors' enthusiasm, professionalism, and powerful dialogues also won warm applause from the audience from time to time, making this drama with realistic and educational significance a great success.

This is the second time for Mo San to watch this play. The first time was with his family, and this time he was with the Dutch ambassador Van Boiningen.However, both of them are political figures after all. Halfway through watching the play, they naturally talked about the international situation, and the three-level council of the United Provinces failed to grant the East Coast Republic the right of first refusal to New Netherland (in fact, it was not at all. In Mo San’s view, it is also an important part of the international situation—without him, if this matter is completed, it will be of great help to the East Bank’s future disruptive activities in North America.

"Speaker de Witt and gentlemen don't think it's appropriate or dignified enough, so they don't intend to ignore it. So, I'm sorry..." Van Beuningen heard the words, his eyes still fixed on the stage, his face showing the slightest He didn't mean "sorry", just heard him say again: "But don't worry, Minister Mo, our government has no intention of selling New Netherland to other countries. As for the land you are worried about being captured by the British, hehe, your lord Don't worry so much, because we have built enough forts there, and have enough well-trained troops-they just proved themselves by defeating the Swedish army-the English fortunately went to attack the French in Arcadia Now, if they dare to come to the New Netherlands, the directors of the West India Company will certainly impress them."

There's no limit to bragging!Mo San sighed secretly, how could he not understand the current situation of the West India Company?This huge colonial trading enterprise was in dire financial straits, and even with blood transfusions from the East Coasters (which handed over some of the goods to the company for monopoly sales within the Dutch American colonies), the company's financial situation was in line with that of the Portuguese After many years of entanglement with China, Sweden, the United Kingdom and even pirates, it has almost reached the end of the rope.

How can it be believed that the New Netherland can be held with full confidence even though the finances are so difficult!It's just that the matter has come to this point, and it's useless to say more. Anyway, the whole Netherlands now thinks that the last loss to the United Kingdom was just an "accident", which was caused by the Netherlands' lack of preparation for war.But now they are already investing huge sums of money in the construction of the navy-for this reason, the three-level parliament has passed a large budget-and since everyone pays attention to it, once they go to war with Britain next time, they will naturally be able to easily defeat the British navy-of course later The historical fact is that the Anglo-Dutch naval battle was basically a draw, and the British even had an advantage in the battle loss ratio, but how could the Dutch, who were a little conceited, believe such a thing at this moment?

"If the West India Company wants to be full of confidence in the face of the enemy, it is the most urgent thing to improve its own financial situation, but the reality is that your company's profitability has dropped sharply and its losses have risen sharply. As a loyal member of the United Provinces Friends, we are also deeply saddened by this." Mo Sanhao said leisurely, "The sugar production in your country's Recife colony has been intermittent due to the war with the Portuguese for many years. I remember that the annual sugar production in Brazil seven or eight years ago was There are close to 1 tons, but how much is it now? Just over [-] tons! Can this make up for your company's slightly huge expenditure elsewhere?"

The price of 170 tons of sucrose in Western Europe at this time is roughly equivalent to 200 million silver dollars on the east coast. The Dutch West India Company spent a year transporting [-] million silver dollars worth of sucrose to Amsterdam. The West India Company can only earn part of this money. Compared with the company's huge expenses, it is not at the same level at all.Of course, the bulk of the West India Company's sugar profits were never in Recife, but in the Caribbean (Suriname's sugar production was still limited at this time), and the Recife colony was just the company's attempt to control a piece of sugar production for itself It's just a district test.

In the Caribbean Sea before the first Anglo-Dutch War, it can be said that most of the sugar cane sales were controlled by the Dutch West India Company. Whether it was the Dutch islands or the British, French, and Spanish colonies, the local planters The sucrose was handed over to the Dutch to be shipped to Lisbon, Amsterdam, London, Hamburg and other places for sale, because the prices given by the Dutch were fairly fair, and the industrial products sold to them were relatively cheap and high-quality, so this lucrative business has always been It lasted until the outbreak of the Anglo-Dutch naval battle in 1654.

After the end of the Anglo-Dutch War, Britain captured one or two thousand Dutch transport ships during the war, which directly doubled its transport tonnage, and correspondingly more ships could be used in the colonies.According to the estimates of the National Intelligence Agency on the East Coast, the tonnage of British transport ships active in North America and the Caribbean colonies at this time was around [-] tons, which was almost half of the total transport tonnage of England before the war.

If the total tonnage of British transport increases, Dutch merchant ships are bound to face a strong challenge in the Caribbean Sea.Coupled with the promulgation of the "Navigation Act" and the backlash of the governments of various countries against the grievances of the previous Dutch monopoly business hegemony - before the British defeated the Netherlands, all countries dared not speak out - soon, France also introduced a similar "British "" The relevant regulations of the Navigation Act completely exclude the Netherlands' monopoly commercial hegemony in the Caribbean, and it is believed that Spain is also eager to try.

In this way, although the plantation owners in the Caribbean colonies of various countries were still more willing to trade with the Dutch, they could not hold back their thighs, and the Dutch commercial hegemony was inevitably completely defeated.Especially after the huge sugar-producing island of Jamaica was captured by the British, the British, who owned Barbados, Jamaica and parts of the Leeward Islands, were full of ambition. They had already controlled at least 2 to 3 tons of sucrose production per year under their name, and they planned to invest in Expansion of the sugarcane plantation with huge sums of money to further expand production (the strange thing is that a large part of the expansion funds are financed in the Amsterdam market), which constitutes the most direct challenge to the Dutch business interests.

Commercial interests have been eroded so much, the Dutch West India Company has spread so much, and wars have been so frequent, it is not surprising that the company has suffered huge losses year after year.Therefore, upon hearing Van Beuningen confidently express that they can hold on to the fertile land of New Netherland, Mo San was suddenly speechless.You know, the director of the West India Company, Cornelis Bickle, is not so optimistic. He is extremely worried about the company's financial collapse and the company's tens of thousands of kilometers of battle lines from North America to South America to West Africa. So much so that they are considering whether to withdraw capital from the company.

But everyone has said that, Mo San has no choice but to change the subject: "Well, I also hope that the flag of the United Provinces will always fly on the land of New Netherland. So let's talk about something else, your country is right What do you think of the aggressive attitude of the British in the Caribbean now? Are there any preventive measures? You know, Cromwell and his gang have always been arrogant. From time to time our navy has been invited to the port of San Juan, but we are still considering it and have not given a positive answer. Now I want to hear the opinion of our Dutch friend, Conrad, from your personal point of view, our country Is it necessary for the Navy to intervene? Also, is there a possibility for the United Provinces to intervene? I mean, your two countries join hands to maintain the security of the Caribbean Sea while reshaping the local commercial order, it will not follow the rules What do you think of driving away the Brits?"

"This question is really difficult to answer." Van Boyningen finally retracted his eyes from the stage completely. After thinking for a while, he frowned and said: "Only in my personal opinion, since your country If there is an invitation from the legitimate Spanish government, then you can properly intervene in the Caribbean Sea, but you must be prepared for a war, although this is unlikely. As for the United Provinces, sorry, I don’t think the three levels of parliament will agree to send warships into the Caribbean on a large scale Hai, because the United Provinces don't need war now, everyone has been deeply hurt by the last war, and they don't want to repeat the previous nightmare in a short time. Although the commercial interests of the West India Company have been seriously violated by the British, troublesome I am afraid that they have neither the financial resources nor the willingness to engage in high-intensity confrontation with the British in the Caribbean in a short period of time. So, I am sorry, if your country wants to enter the Caribbean, then you must be prepared to fight alone, of course I insist that even if your country faces such a difficult situation, you don't have to worry too much about falling into the quagmire of war, because the British Republican government, which is heavily indebted, is also afraid of war..."

This is the fear of beating wolves with hemp stalks. The two stern hooligans from the East Bank and the United Kingdom clamored to kill each other, but their subordinates did not move for a long time. They were carefully studying and judging the situation and testing each other. The bottom line, and at the same time try to avoid doing it when you are not ready.

"Thank you, my friend, you have always been so frank with your friends." Mo San said with a smile, "Your accurate analysis of the situation coincides with some professionals in our government, which is very helpful for us to accept Come down to make a decision, thank you."

(End of this chapter)