Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 1424 Big Winner ([-])

"Special Envoy Li Qing, please look at—" On the widest and straightest street in Amsterdam, Christian of the De Haier family was introducing the city appearance to Li Qing, the new European Special Envoy of the East Coast Republic of China and Ambassador to the United Provinces, who only heard him pointing A large building with more than a dozen musketeers standing at the door said: "This is the headquarters of the East India Company, a top-quality enterprise with an average annual dividend of more than 18%. If Li Te envoys you to invest in the East India Company, then I will I can introduce you to a good place where many people buy and sell company stocks all the year round, although the stock price of the East India Company is already a bit too high."

"This is the Amsterdam Exchange Bank. More than half a century ago, it surpassed the Venetian Circulation Bank and St. George Bank as competitors, and has held the throne of the largest bank in Europe until now. Perhaps, it is also the largest in the world. As for the bank, Special Envoy Li Qing, its financial strength is very strong, and it can handle large-amount transactions of more than 100 million dong within an hour, which is unmatched by anyone."

"The industrial area in the distance is a certain timber processing factory area of ​​​​the Saldan shipyard. This shipyard is the largest shipyard in Europe and the largest shipyard in the world. I am absolutely sure of this. The British set up in London Shipyards in places such as , Portsmouth, Bristol, etc., are completely incomparable with us in terms of scale."

"There is a joint production base composed of 18 sugar companies..."

"In front is the largest grain trading market in Europe..."

"This is the largest salt and salted fish market in Europe..."

"The scale of the dairy and beef cattle trading market run by Mr. Temple is unmatched in all of Europe..."

With the continuous introduction of Christian De Heyer, Li Qing nodded politely, and tried to show a look of interest, and kept asking the host for various details.To be honest, the more than ten years that Speaker DeWitt has been in power is probably the period when the capitalists in the United Provinces developed the fastest. wonderful, but their determination to safeguard their own interests is unquestionable-Speaker de Witt, who is married to the Bickel family, already has complete control over the province of the Netherlands (the province pays 67% of the military expenditure of the United Provinces and 65% of the remaining expenditures. ), and received limited support from the provinces of Zeeland, Gelderland, and OberiJssel, the Drenthe region (including the Duchy of Southern Nederland Brabant ceded to the United Provinces by Spain in 1648 and part of it from The land seized by Germany) did not oppose De Witt, so the provinces of Friesland, Groningen, and Utrecht, where the landed nobles gathered together, had to submit to the rule of the republicans, although they strongly hoped that the Orange The family is ****, but I can think of it with my toes. It is absolutely impossible at present. The voices of the rich people in the parliament are too loud!

The carriage continued to move forward, and Li Qing also observed with great interest that Amsterdam, a big city with a total population of more than 15 and is marching towards the 20 mark, was interested in the buildings, pedestrians, and clothing of different styles on the streets. , commodities and other elements are of particular interest.He always feels that a city has a soul, and the soul is hidden among everyone in the city. Amsterdam's exuberant vitality, strong commercial and cultural atmosphere have made him feel all these very clearly.

Numerous religious sects, such as Calvinists, Arminians, Mengonists, Curriers, Lucians, Pietists, Unitarians and even Catholics, live in peace in Amsterdam; Germans, French, Scots, and Netherlanders in different costumes and languages ​​collide with each other here; arrogant nobles, philistine businessmen, serious priests, majestic officials, and commoners who are busy all day long , living together in the same city, everyone can find their place here, and they can live freely, no matter their lives are good or bad.

"Mr. De Haier, Mr. Li, have arrived at the printing factory!" The coachman and his attendants stepped forward to report, and then opened the car door. Li Qing adjusted her coat and hat, and went down to the ground with Christian.

This is a fairly large printing workshop, run by the famous businessman Jan Beforin (who has a close relationship with the Tripp family, the Bicker family, and the De Haer family), and translates and publishes some Latin books all the year round. Foreign books in Chinese, Greek, German, English, French, Italian, and Hebrew, the business and word of mouth are quite good.This time Li Qing and Christian came to Beverland's workshop together, mainly because Mr. Beverland bought the copyright of some Chinese books about simple industrial technology from the east bank, and wanted to print and publish them, so he invited the two of them to come and decorate facade.

"God will not arrange in advance to send the vast majority of people into the eternal hell..." There are Arminian priests spreading the teachings at the gate, and the swords of Li Qing and Christian The attendants chased them away, and then surrounded them into Jan Beverin's printing workshop.

There are a total of [-] books for which the copyright has been purchased. Except for one introduction to the East Coast culture and one basic Chinese textbook, the other [-] books are all targeted technical books. The General Intelligence Bureau, the Academy of Natural Sciences, and the Academy of Engineering Technology compiled it together, mainly for the maintenance and maintenance of hydraulic and wind machinery, the smelting and use of coke, and the new design of blast furnaces that have been transferred to the United Provinces over the years. Specially written, it can be regarded as an additional condition for a series of large orders signed by the Dutch and the East Bank.

In terms of technical level, none of the eighteen books surpassed the scope of Europe at this time, but because they are actually summarizing and inductive books, they are still helpful to the dissemination of technology in Europe.For example, some technologies are mastered by the Dutch, some by the Germans, some by the British, and some by the French. Judging from the normal speed of transmission, these technologies will be spread throughout Europe. It will probably take several years to decades, but if the summary is summarized in books, the speed of dissemination will be greatly accelerated, because once these technical books are published, it is obvious that not only the Dutch will come Buying, other countries will do the same, which is extremely helpful to improve the productivity level of Europe, and this is obviously one of the purposes of the people on the east coast.

After all, over the years, as the east coast industry produces more and more types of goods, the quantity of goods imported from Europe is also decreasing. This makes the trade between East and Europe more and more unbalanced, and many countries are considering restricting imports from the East. Goods on the shore, even from friendly countries like the United Provinces.Taking this factor into consideration, as well as the consideration of balancing the industrial strength of various countries, the people on the east coast have transferred some backward technologies to the Netherlands several times over the years to help it improve its productivity, so that more commodities can be exported to the east coast, and at the same time Better to fight against the English—for example, after the British invented and promoted coke ironmaking, the East Coast Republic immediately transferred this part of technology to the United Provinces. Of course, this is also a strong request of the Dutch—but it’s hard to say how effective it will be up.

And when it comes to technology transfer, in fact, in the planning of the government of the East Coast Republic of China, the first echelon is always the overseas colonies. In fact, it mainly refers to New China Island, because its labor resources are relatively abundant, and other places are second. , such as Australia, Blackwater and so on.As for big countries like Russia, Ottoman, India, and China, which are rich in human resources and have a vast territory, they resolutely implement a technological blockade, and absolutely do not transfer any technology unless necessary, so as not to damage the interests of the East China Republic.

Of course, the above-mentioned so-called technology transfers have never only involved those relatively low-end technologies, such as the hydraulic, animal or wind machines used by the people on the east coast in the early days, and the early designs of smelting furnaces and blowers. The East Coast Republic’s own industrial production is strictly prohibited from exporting. On this point, the Statistics and Investigation Bureau of Syphilis Patients has always been very strict. Once caught, they will be sentenced to death by hanging for espionage. There is no exception—although Their efforts are not without criticism.

And the people on the east coast have transferred so much technology to the United Provinces, hoping to borrow their industry to improve a little bit. After all, if only one of the east coast's technology progresses on this planet, and other countries have no improvement, it is obviously a waste of money. It can’t go on——If this is the case, in the end, the East Coast Republic’s own technology will be difficult to improve, and trade will stagnate. The benefits lost during the process are obviously much smaller than those of countries that are friendly to themselves.You know, eating alone can never last long!

"Ambassador Li, Mr. Beverland's printing workshop employs more than 300 workers. If the business is very busy, sometimes they will be hired temporarily. There are 400 publishers in Amsterdam (publishers generally have their own printing workshops at this time. and shops selling books), the scale is already considered to be the largest group, which is very remarkable." Christian De Heier led Li Qing to visit the workshop, and introduced: "By the way, there are more and more Publishers have begun to choose the high-grade paper produced by Jingjiang Paper Mill in your country, while in the past, these papers were mainly imported from England and Italy."

"Their paper is not as white as ours, and the production cost is also higher than ours. Naturally, they are not as competitive as ours. Who made them have no industrial machinery and chemicals such as chlorine gas and bleach?" Li Qing was silent in her heart. He thought, "If it weren't for Jan Beverland and the businessmen from the five major publishing centers of Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Leiden, Utrecht, and The Hague to sign a ten-year paper supply contract with our country, who would be full enough to support it?" Authorize them to publish a large number of books!"

After visiting Jan Beverin's printing workshop, Li Qing was invited to visit a velvet shop opposite.The goods in the shop are all shipped from the "textile city" Leiden (also a university town) in the United Provinces. The quality is high and the price is high. Together with the high-end Italian silk fabrics, it has always been a major import item on the east coast. one.After Li Qing came here, she also bought some symbolically, intending to give them to others.

Then he found that there were a lot of glazed porcelain in the store, which surprised him a bit, because the style of these porcelains was completely produced in Europe (in fact, the porcelain manufacturer in Delft, the Netherlands in 1650 was the first in the history of later generations. European-style porcelain was fired at one time, and such porcelain kilns in Germany have also increased since the 1650s), and it was indeed the case after inquiring, but because the quality and "competitive style" were not as good as similar products imported from China, they were always sold. No more price.This is just like the silk fabrics from France, Italy, Vietnam, Persia and other places, they are always not as expensive as similar products in China, which makes Li Qing feel quite regretful, because the East Coast people set up the second ceramics in Patagonia. The factory is making every effort to export porcelain to Europe, and he seems to have foreseen their Waterloo.

At four o'clock in the afternoon, the group finished their visit, and then, at the invitation of the host, they took a carriage to the suburban manor for dinner. It was said that some other famous businessmen, nobles or artists would come.On the way to the manor, the bored people chatted about the war that is currently taking place between England and the United Provinces. Li Qing found that the businessmen of these United Provinces were extremely disappointed with the past 1665, because the navy was in the British Columbia. Ergen's defeat greatly boosted the arrogance of the English. A large number of transport ships in the United Provinces were captured or destroyed at sea. There was a shortage of supplies (fortunately not serious), panic, and the commercial market was greatly affected. Everyone's wallet Deflated a lot.

What annoyed everyone even more, in order to win this war, Speaker DeWitt spent a huge sum of 1200 million guilders to rebuild the navy according to the opinion of his trusted Admiral Druiter. Blood was ordered, so it's normal to complain about it.Although Special Envoy Li Qing sat next to him and didn't say much, he listened very interestingly, because he knew that one-third or more of the 1200 million dong naval reconstruction funds had flowed into the Eastern China Republic through various channels. If you count other military or commercial contracts signed before the war or after the declaration of war, the Dutch have spent nearly 2000 million guilders on the east coast in less than a year since the war officially broke out. 600-700 million East Coast silver dollars)—this naval war initiated by the British aimed at competing for regional trade hegemony, who is the real big winner is really a very important thing to say. What's interesting about it...

(End of this chapter)