Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 1312 No big waves in the small pond ([-])

The situation in the Far East can be described in one sentence, that is, "There are no big waves in a small pond"!Major Junior, who is based in Macau City, also used this as the title of his semi-annual report, which seems to show that he is getting more and more profound in "advanced learning" (that is, Sinology).

After half a year of construction work on the commercial station located on Haizhu Island outside Guangzhou, a large part of it has been completed.This fortress-style business station covers a large area, with more than a hundred rooms of various sizes, seven or eight warehouses, and can accommodate more than a thousand soldiers at most. It didn't seem like a big problem to stand here for a year and a half under the siege of the army, because there were no forces nearby that could cause harm to them.What?Nanming Huiguo Gong Li Chengdong's department?Brother, don't be ridiculous, okay?As for the rotten army under his command, he still wants to be an enemy of my Dadong'an?The joke is not funny at all.

It's not that Li Chengdong's people didn't find the "specificity" of the commercial station built by the people from the east coast on Haizhu Island, because as long as anyone with a little military literacy can discover this problem, it is that the Haizhu Commercial Station is not so much a commercial station. It is better to say that it is a fortress. The people on the east bank only need to transport cannons, and they can turn them into a weapon of war full of minions overnight. Anyway, Li Chengdong's subordinates can't do anything about it.

When Haizhu Island Commercial Station was built, Li Chengdong naturally sent people to negotiate. Later, the people on the east coast bribed a sum of military funds and made it clear that they would not install cannons. In fact, there are more than ten artillery pieces hidden in the commercial station. Take it out and use it, but this is not enough for outsiders-after that, Li Chengdong reluctantly agreed to continue the construction of the Haizhu Island Commercial Station.

Of course, although the Haizhu Island Commercial Station has not been fully built, the related trade can already be carried out.At present, Shao Shuguang’s representative, Han Ku (brothers of Han Jin and Han Yin, son of Han Keda) has rented a large residential house on Haizhu Island with some business personnel and guards, and officially opened the bank on behalf of the Bank of Taiwan. One should deal with trade matters.

A few days ago, after the discussion and decision of the Standing Committee of the Blackwater Pioneering Team, the Bank of Taiwan/commercial firms were officially awarded the rights to raw silk and its products, tea, porcelain, sugar, sandalwood, camphor, whale products, high-grade fur, Nanyang 16-year monopoly import and export rights for a total of 30 commodities including rice.For this reason, the Bank of Taiwan has undergone a major reorganization of the Blackwater Pioneering Team. The government’s shareholding in the Blackwater Pioneering Team has increased from 19% to 39%. The local Ministry of Finance’s share remains unchanged at 51%. The shares of natural person shareholders have been greatly reduced (even if the Shaw Brothers subscribed for a part of the capital, its shareholding ratio has dropped to about 7.5%), but no one expressed dissatisfaction, because what does the monopoly of import and export of various commodities in China mean? Astonishing wealth, people who know how to do it will naturally understand.Otherwise, why do you think the government grants the Bank of Taiwan such commercial privileges and prevents it from adjusting the shareholding ratio? Do you think you will get such privileges?The government is not stupid!

Thanks to the battle that took place in Macao City at the end of 1660 and the beginning of 1661, businessmen in wealthy areas such as Guangzhou and Huizhou now fully understand the extraordinary power of the "thief in yellow clothes" - they even dragged it with them. The twenty-five to eighty thousand Francines have all been cleaned up, can this not be strong-so there are more and more businessmen who are willing to trade with the people on the east coast.In particular, the merchants of Guangfu, who had been entangled with the Huiguo government on weekdays, even sent their confidants to explore the way at the first time, expressing their willingness to start trade, etc., which surprised Han Ku. I sighed straight away: This commercial interest really needs to be developed and maintained by force, otherwise these people would rush to the door to discuss business, and even themselves have gained a lot of glory, and received a lot of red envelopes.

Most of the businessmen from Cantonese came to talk about tea and raw silk. Of course, there was also some porcelain trade, but they were not self-produced, but sold from other places. Anyway, people on the east coast accepted it.However, the people on the east bank only purchased a few hundred tans of sucrose produced in a large amount in Guangdong Province. Due to the agreement with the Dutch, most of the cane sugar purchase quotas of the people on the east coast were reserved for Taiwan sucrose (for this reason, the Dutch East Indian companies are already recovering the area of ​​sugarcane fields in Taiwan), so they can only say nothing about sugar in Guangdong and Fujian.

Merchants in Guangfu are still more interested in the Nanyang specialties (such as ambergris, sandalwood, spices, etc.) resold by the Bank of Taiwan. Whale oil candle soap (Heishui county is in trial production), black pearls from the South Pacific, some high-grade dyed cloths from the local area, clocks and other strange things are also very interesting, but in general, people on the east coast are not interested in these trades. A large number of silver dollars entered the supermarket, and the various silver dollars minted by the Dabo Mint day and night flowed into the pockets of merchants in Guangzhou, Huizhou and other places.

At present, the Bank of Taiwan is also trying to find a way to see if the mainland can adjust the shipping space of the ships, and transport some advantageous commodities that seem to be able to sell at a high price in the Ming Dynasty in the Far East, so as to balance the trade between the two sides deficit.Otherwise, wouldn’t the people on the east coast be working as industrious transporters, sending precious metals from Europe, Africa, America and other places back to the land of the Ming Dynasty? Commander Chang and Deputy Commander Liao must have tears in their eyes. Why did Nima come to our Dadong'an, and still can't get rid of the strange circle of silver and black holes?Is it true that importing opium into China can reverse this process?Well, the above is purely a joke...

A large number of materials obtained from trade are temporarily stored in the Haizhu Island Commercial Station. At present, the people on the east coast have collected some homeless bachelors in Guangzhou, and then hired them to work in the Haizhu Commercial Station as coolies for loading and unloading goods.However, the core armed force of the commercial station is still a group of regular North Korean soldiers transferred from Shandong. In a fancy world like Guangzhou, Korean soldiers who do not speak the language and have certain combat skills are more trusted by Shao Shuguang and others.

After the inspection, the materials will be shipped to the nearest island, and then transported to the warehouse of the Bank of Taiwan branch in Dinghai County, Ningbo Prefecture for unified deployment, waiting for the annual ship to be transported back to the east coast via the Indian Ocean route (through the Strait of Malacca).As for where the Bank of Taiwan got the ships to transport the goods, well, the three armed transport ships of the Okhotsk Sea Squadron of the Third Fleet (the "Yaksa", the "Nerchinsk" and the newly built and commissioned ships) The "Baikal", all of which are steam engine sailing ships), has basically been temporarily allocated to the Bank of Taiwan for use, provided that they pay a symbolic lease fee every year.

Speaking of which, I have to mention the Portuguese in Macau.In fact, most of the trade between Guangdong and Guangxi was originally monopolized by them. Except for a small number of foreign trade products that were traded on Haizhu Island to merchants from other countries such as England every year, the rest were done by Portuguese merchants in Macau.The scale of this business is so large that it feeds tens of thousands of white people and their descendants in Macau, which is also terrible!But with the fall of Macau City and the blockade of the nearby waters by ships from the east coast, the business of the Portuguese will naturally be lost—isn’t it? What kind of business to talk about——so many people finally came to Haizhu Island to trade with people on the east coast under the efforts of some officials of the Huiguo government (often receiving a large amount of benefits from the Bank of Taiwan).

The trade dominance along the coast of Guangdong, China has officially been transferred to another force.As for how the Zheng family in Fujian will view this sea power that has a strong competitive relationship with them, that is another matter. At least for now, the people on the east coast don't have to worry too much.

People on the east coast of Fujian can not care about Zheng Damu's views, so can they also ignore the views of the British East India Company?Hehe, judging from the approach of the Far East Blackwater Pioneering Team, they also didn't take it seriously. In the middle of 1661, two British merchant ships sailed from India along the southerly wind, and then suddenly appeared near the shore of Haizhu Island to ask for a deal. The interception of the shore fleet!But their good luck didn't stop there. The powerful battleship "Cadiz Rock" entered the far sea with two British merchant ships, and then sank it in one fell swoop, which shows that the people on the east coast monopolize trade. Determination.As for the consequences of this incident, how it will develop in the future, whether the British will find out, that's none of my business, let's talk about it later!

In addition to business contacts, the Bank of Taiwan, as a large state-controlled syndicate, naturally has to undertake a series of policy tasks, such as collecting immigrants from the offshore area of ​​Guangdong—to be precise, Guangzhou.According to the old rules, the search for immigrants starts with the Dan people who are the easiest to get at. As of August this year (1661), the people from the East Coast have collected more than [-] Dan people (in addition to more than [-] people) from the coast of Guangzhou. An ordinary Guangzhou immigrant who can't get along with the name), the results are remarkable. Commander Chang and Deputy Commander Liao have already written letters to praise Shao Shuguang, Tian Xing and others for their great contribution.

The Bank of Taiwan has received such praise from its superiors, so it is naturally extremely energetic.At present, Shao Shuguang, Tian Xing and others are still increasing their efforts to recruit Danmin, and they believe that as the impoverished group of Danmin know more about the East Bank, the speed at which people from the East Bank will recruit them will become faster and more costly. will also decrease.After the Dan people near Guangzhou are recruited, there are other places, and when Guangdong is gone, there are still Fujian. In short, the potential here is still huge, and it is worth making great efforts to develop.

In addition, Shao Shuguang also sent Han Ku to imply to the people of Huiguo government in an extremely cryptic manner that the purchase of "pigboys" in Chaozhou and Huizhou in the past may continue, and the people on the east coast can even slightly increase the purchase price. In the past, some military funds that were sold in limited quantities to Li Chengdong's subordinates could also increase the quota by a lot, it all depends on what Hui Guogong himself thinks.Anyway, there is no problem with the people on the east coast. As long as Hui Guogong himself nods, then this kind of piglet trade can continue.As for what some "pedantic civil servants" who were "faint" and "ignorant of affairs" in the Southern Ming court would think, let him go!In this world, father and mother are still not as good as Yin Ziqin—it is said that Li Chengdong has been shaken a little by the people from the east coast, will he restart the piggy that he has been doing for several years in the future? Trade depends on how the situation changes.

Danmin from Guangzhou Prefecture and piglets from Chaozhou Prefecture; immigrant populations in the counties of Ningbo and Dengzhou Prefectures in the north; immigrants and wanderers recruited from North Korea and Japan; and Huaian Prefecture, which accounted for the largest share Stock immigrants, these will constitute the main body of the Far East immigrants sent by the Blackwater Pioneering Team to the mainland in the next few years-especially those immigrants from Guangzhou Prefecture who are relatively adapted to life in tropical areas, and the Executive Committee will name them (At present, the fast liaison ship ordered has not yet arrived in Yantai.) Send more, and plan to send them to Xinhua Island and the newly established Yicheng area for reclamation and settlement. This is related to future strategic development and cannot be ignored.

(End of this chapter)