Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 1230 Competition ([-])

In Britain in the 17s and 60s of the [-]th century, naturally no industry had survived a full-scale technological revolution. All the ancient industrial organizations and various transitional forms filled the country, such as those that gradually transitioned from the rural farmhouse economy to Centralized factory production, this form of production originally only existed in machinery processing, shipbuilding, glass and other industries, but recently began to spread to the largest industrial textile processing industry in the UK.

The woolen industry in Siredin and the emerging cotton and linen industry in Manchester and other places have made remarkable progress in recent years.Especially after the end of the first Anglo-Dutch war, the market for British textiles was unprecedentedly broad, a large amount of capital flowed into it, and the enclosure movement accelerated, resulting in the rise of one textile factory after another in various places, and a large amount of cotton, linen and wool textiles ( Mainly all kinds of woolen fabrics) were sold to other places and made a lot of profit.

In addition to the people from the East Coast, the people who competed fiercely with them were more from the United Provinces.The textile city of Leiden is also constantly importing wool from Spain and Ottomans, and then weaving it into various types of cloth and exporting it to its traditional Baltic market. At the same time, it also has a fierce confrontation with the British in the Mediterranean market. ——However, judging from various signs, the Dutch are becoming more and more unable to compete in the textile industry, especially after the British are determined to innovate machinery and technology, the Netherlands, which lacks a deep industrial chain, is gradually falling behind. It can be seen from the large-scale entry into Germany and the Baltic Sea that the United Provinces, a country that focuses on commercial channels, are indeed somewhat weak in competitiveness. Although the process of defeat will be long, it is an irreversible long-term trend.

"St. Vedust Parish is really different from before." Looking at the newly built houses on both sides of the road, Mr. Morris Thompson said with satisfaction.Due to its proximity to the wharf, the parish of St. Vedust has developed rapidly in recent years, and many buildings are newly built, especially after a fire in St. Porterph parish caused an entire street to burn down more than a year ago. Officials in London have strengthened the inspection and evaluation of the fire performance of buildings in key urban areas.The result of the evaluation is naturally very bad, so London officials asked residents to pay for renovation or reconstruction of old buildings, but it seems that the implementation is not very smooth, especially at this time when the situation is so tense, even the officials There was no mind to work, let alone those London residents who were not willing to spend money, so the matter was delayed.

However, not all blocks in London are like this. In the rapid development of St. Vedust Parish in the past two years, factories and workshops are everywhere. Due to the demonstration and promotion of Thompson and others, many investors have built more houses. It is mainly composed of bricks, stones and wood, and it is not as disorganized as the old city. This is greatly appreciated, because when the fire broke out in the Diocese of St. Porterph, His Majesty the Protector was the first to see the crisis and ordered to improve it. However, now that His Majesty the Protector has passed away, the situation in London is also somewhat chaotic. Of course, no one is willing to implement such a thankless policy anymore, but fortunately, the San Vedas diocese, which has concentrated many upstream and downstream shipbuilding industry chains, has improved a lot, and this is a good start.

Many new shops have been opened on the wharf, mostly dealing in overseas commodities, such as East Indian spices, Indian gems, calico, blankets, silk, green tea, porcelain, and even the East Coast raincoats that have emerged in recent years-this is a favorite of the middle class in London. New favourite, a light raincoat said to be coated with rubber latex - soda ash, steel rods, whale oil candles, dyed leather goods, refined flour, wagon tires (again a popular new thing, solid rubber hooped to wagon wheels) Wait, business is booming.It can also be seen that after decades of wealth accumulation, the wealth of the people in London has reached an astonishing level, and the purchasing power of the people is quite strong.

It is not that no one is displeased with these shops that have sprung up after the first Anglo-Dutch war. In fact, in the eyes of many mercantilists, these trades that cause a large outflow of precious metals from England should be strictly prohibited. The—well, well, maybe a lot of goods imported from East India are an exception, because merchants can re-export them to earn more precious metals, but many goods imported from the East Coast are undoubtedly "losing", because most of them It was digested in England and not re-exported, that is to say, there was a net outflow of precious metals, which undoubtedly made many people extremely dissatisfied.

After all, Britain's current precious metal currency is not very abundant!This is not to say that Britain has had such a large trade deficit in recent years that too much precious metals have flowed out. On the contrary, England's trade has been quite successful over the years and has earned a lot of profits.But no matter how much profit there is, it can’t hold up to frequent wars (especially in the 30-year war, which spent a lot of money to support the fighting of various forces in Europe), the increase of commodities, and the prosperity of the economy. That is to say, England’s money supply has fallen behind. The growth of the global economy has led to the fact that most of the coins in circulation today are old, severely worn, missing edges and corners-the British pretend not to see the defects of these silver coins and still recognize their value, making the shilling a Credit currency in a certain sense-it can be seen that England is somewhat thirsty for precious metals!

Of course, the mercantilists don’t have much opinion on foreign goods that are obtained for free (such as black goods from private plundering). No capital business, huge profits, no one would dislike it, so you see the merchants buying "dirty goods" everywhere on the Bristol docks.

"Recently, the De Haer family in the United Provinces encouraged Swedish officials to impose heavy taxes on hardware products imported from England in order to maintain their operations in many iron smelting workshops and copper mines in Sweden. Birmingham's black country iron industry area has already Many people are complaining. Walker also complained to me two days ago, saying that the number of knives exported to Sweden has dropped sharply. He is considering whether to reduce the production of knives, nails, and tools, and instead devote more energy to The research on textile machinery. Now the domestic textile industry is ushering in great development, and this industry should be prosperous for a long time..." Harrison, the loyal servant, is still reporting to Thompson the operating conditions of his industries, but this is very important to Mo To Rhys Thompson, these were trivial matters, and neither the machining workshop in St. Vedust's parish nor the building materials workshop outside the city were Mr. Thompson's main property. , After all, it is still on the famous Morris Stone Tucker company.

"What is the progress of the construction of the ships ordered by the shipyard?" Mr. Thompson asked what he was most concerned about.

"It's not very good, it may take a few months." Harrison replied truthfully, "Because the large-scale building renovation of the entire St. Vedas Parish was involved a while ago, many shipyards were affected. But They also assured me that now it’s all over and the progress of the ship’s construction will not be affected in any way, unless the channel of importing wood from Sweden is cut off.”

"Sweden's channel is cut off and New England." Mr. Thompson said with some dissatisfaction, "tell me about George, my patience is limited, before Easter next year, I need to see the four ships I ordered The ship can go as far as Virginia, or I'll make him look good."

"I see." Harrison replied, and after a moment of silence, he seemed to remember something again, so he said immediately: "Recently, some ships from Africa have been loaded with tobacco into the Mediterranean Sea for sale, **** Some wholesalers in China ate a lot, and then sold them in Tuscany, Milan, Naples, Sicily and other places. Although they have not yet threatened our traditional market, I think this is worthy of vigilance, because it seems to be A whole new competitor."

"A tobacco wholesaler from Africa?" Mr. Thompson immediately became alert. "Where is Africa from?"

"I heard that it is a place called New Courland, and its owner should be Jacob, the Duke of Courland who is now in exile in Germany. This is a lucky guy. Before the war broke out, many domestic paper and glass , The shipbuilding workshop was transferred overseas, and the money was transferred to Germany through Lübeck merchants. Although the Swedes occupied the country, they miraculously reorganized the government in Africa. It is amazing. Many people said that he must have It's God's mercy," Harrison said.

"God will never have mercy on a fool who is not prepared at all." Maurice Thompson has been in the business world for many years and never believed in the so-called good luck.In his view, the reason why Grand Duke Jacob was able to escape the bad luck was mostly related to his shrewd preparations in advance, and this undoubtedly meant that Morris Stone Tucker Company was facing a potential competitor, after all It was the company's stated policy to squeeze out the Dutch tobacco merchants who dominated the Mediterranean market, and any new competitor was worth the effort to understand.

"Look up the details of New Courland. The Principality of Courland seems to have a close relationship with the east coast in the past. Now they grow tobacco in Africa. I don't believe that this has nothing to do with the pagans on the east coast. I need to know the exact details of this overseas colony. Information." Mr. Thompson ordered Harrison, but in fact he also planned to visit his acquaintances in the East India Company in two days and ask them about the situation in New Courland.

"The competition in this world is really getting more and more intense, and the future changes must be changing with each passing day. England cannot miss this great era." Mr. Morris Thompson murmured.

(End of this chapter)