Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 1497 Huge Market ([-])

In mid-October 1667, it was the spring season on the east coast, but in the tropical areas of Central America, this season was extremely hot-of course, it may be hot all year round.Yu Xingguo and Sun Chengli both stood by the pier on the outskirts of Panama City, looked at each other and smiled, then found a tavern, sat down and chatted.

Panama City is one of the top ten ports opened by the Kingdom of Spain to the east coast, and one of the five ports opened on the Pacific coast (Maurin, Lima, Guayaquil, Panama, Acapulco).According to the agreement reached by the two large concern companies, Southern Railway and Air Canada, the port trade on the Pacific coast belongs to Southern Railway, and the port trade on the Atlantic coast belongs to Air Canada. The resource-rich super market has attracted the envy of many European countries and businessmen.

Of course, it may be inaccurate to say that the carve-up is not accurate, because even today, Southern Railway and Air Canada still cannot monopolize this huge market.The total tonnage of Spain's two batches of treasure fleets per year is 1.2-1.5 tons (including many ships from England and the United Provinces). Not to mention the larger number of smuggled merchant ships. Historically, the materials provided by the treasure fleet to the colonies were recorded as "less than one-tenth", and the huge material gap was almost all provided by smugglers.In the time and space of the east coast, even though the two companies have been deeply involved in the Spanish South American colonial market for many years, due to various reasons, they still cannot monopolize this coveted "big cow". , is far from a monopoly.

However, thanks to the war between Tosi and France, some French ships were kicked out of the Treasure Fleet. According to Spanish law, only Spanish businessmen can trade in the colonies, but foreign businessmen can find "Spanish relatives" As a cargo owner on the bright side, this kind of thing is normally ignored, but during the war with France, it is impossible to clean up these French ships.In the long run, the cleared share will eventually be filled by other ships, but in the past two years, the total tonnage of the treasure fleet has dropped a lot, which undoubtedly means that part of the market share has been emptied.

In addition, the increasing activity of pirates in the Caribbean also seriously hindered the local free trade.Just imagine, even the merchant ships of the famous Caribbean shipping company have to form a team, and only under the escort of two or three escort gunboats can they go to San Augustine, Cartagena, Havana, Bello and Veracruz for trade with peace of mind. This shows how rampant local pirate activities are—of course, many pirates themselves may also be smuggling merchants, but their actions have undoubtedly exacerbated the shortage of supplies in the two major markets of New Spain and Peru. Markets create opportunities, although this intensification of piracy is as temporary as solar activity.

Naturally, the people on the east bank couldn't help but be overjoyed at this opportunity that fell out of thin air, because it could just make up for the loss of the French market.At present, not to mention every month, at least every three months, there will be a group of ships from the east coast—some of which are owned by the trading company directly under the Southern Railway, and some are ships of the Southern Railway’s agent—full of various goods to go to the above-mentioned The port traded, exporting metalwork, commodities, food, weapons, luxury goods, and hundreds of other things to Peru and New Spain, and pulling back things like tobacco, sugar, tropical giant trees, dried fruits, ores, herbs, leather, cotton Trade in various consumer goods or primary raw materials such as China is booming, which can be seen from the busyness of the Southern Cone and Ocean Railways and the slow rise in freight revenue.

It is worth mentioning that this kind of trade between people on the east coast and Spanish America generally resulted in the outflow of precious metals from Spain.Because Peruvians really don’t have many commodities to exchange, and there are many channels for purchasing so-called tropical commodities, and the competition for Peruvian commodities is quite fierce, but they are very interested in all kinds of commodities from the east coast. crave.In the end, they could only export a large amount of silver bars to the east bank to balance trade, as evidenced by the continuous production of silver dollars by the melting, casting and stamping equipment of the local Shipu Mint on the east bank.

The silver that flowed in from Spanish America quickly circulated in the east coast market, and the surplus gained from trade with people on the east coast from other places-although the annual trade with Europe is generally balanced, there is only a slight surplus. However, a large amount of cash has also flowed into the domestic market through payment of workers' wages, bonuses, taxes, and profits—together, the stock of silver in the East Bank has exceeded 400 million East Bank silver dollars (State Administration of Precious Metals) The estimated number may actually be more), although it cannot add up to the hundreds of millions of taels of silver stock in the cellars of the landlords and riches of the Eastern Ming Dynasty, it is still very amazing.No wonder the wages of workers in state-owned enterprises on the east coast have remained at around [-] yuan under the impact of a large number of non-national laborers. It is really too much silver.

Perhaps because there are too many immigrants from the east, people on the east coast today also have a hobby of collecting silver.Although this hobby has been weakened a lot under the impact of the East Coast business investment boom, it is undeniable that it still exists. This is tantamount to cooling down the inflation in the East Coast in disguise. How can the wage level remain unchanged for so many years?Hehe, look at the frighteningly high wages and prices in the United Provinces. If you can't play the money game well, the chaotic financial situation in the United Provinces is the future of the East Coast.

But in any case, the trade between Peru and New Spain is already indispensable to the east coast. Their specialty products are needed by consumers on the east coast, and their gold and silver are also absorbed by the east coast market, which improves the living standards of the people on the east coast. , It also injects lubricant into the east coast economy, enabling it to develop faster, better and healthier.After all, it is unreliable to rely on national unified planning and investment for the advancement of industrial technology and systems. This only works in the early stages and some important industries, but in most civilian industries, technological progress depends more on the nourishment and support of profits. Stimulation, otherwise it can only slowly degenerate.

Yu Xingguo and Sun Chengli, who are currently sitting on the wharf of the Panama Port, are participants in this trade tide.Yu Xingguo is mainly engaged in transportation and trade, and Sun Chunyang Nanhuo Shop of the Sun Chengli family plans to open a branch in Panama City to be the first dealer to receive goods on the ground, which happens to be a great complement to Yu Xingguo's merchant fleet.

In fact, the two have had a stable trade cooperation in the port of Araucan for many years. Back then, Yu Xingguo was still transporting back and forth between Heishui, Rabaul, Australia, and Tahiti. The black pearls he obtained, A considerable part of sago, copra, high-grade furs, precious medicinal materials, raw silk, and tea were sold to the Araucan County branch of Sun Chunyang Nanhuo Shop, a large-scale syndicate, and the shopkeeper at that time was Sun Chengli.Even at that time, Yu Xingguo also undertook the business of helping the Sun family immigrate from Ningbo to the relatives of the Xiangdang.

Panama City has a long history of being occupied by the Spanish. In the 16th century, it became the core city of the Panama Procuratorate District. Therefore, there are a large number of Baroque buildings built in the city in the past 200 years. The largest building in the city is made of marble. The Catholic Church was built with high-quality materials, and it is still being expanded. For this reason, Panama City has to pay a considerable amount of construction costs every year.The underground mourning hall of the church is quite large, and the corpses of some dignitaries or believers who donated a large amount of property before their death are parked (it is hard to imagine that the corpses are still buried in such a hot place in Panama...).

Whether it is an underground mourning hall or an above-ground church, candles are lit everywhere, and there is holy water in a container at the entrance of the church. People dip their fingers in it when they enter and exit, and then draw the sign of the cross.A whole layer of carpet is laid on the floor of the church, so that people can kneel on the carpet and listen to the priest's sermon.

Candles, candlesticks, containers, carpets, tapestries, curtains and even tablecloths are almost not produced by the Spaniards. They are either imported from the Old World or bought from people on the east coast. Duandi is a huge market.

Most of the other buildings in Panama City are also built of stone, with a beautiful style. It seems that it is indeed a famous city, and it is also an important distribution center for the goods of the Spanish treasure fleet. The goods will be transported by land to Panama City, and then further distributed by distributors who flock here, either by mules or horses, or by offshore boats for sale.

The climate here is hot all year round, and the light is very strong, so people's skin is mostly yellowish brown (perhaps because of mixed Indian blood), eyes and ears are large, brows and hair are generally black.When the locals speak, they are always accompanied by exaggerated movements of their arms, heads and shoulders, which are very expressive. The merchants, officials, and soldiers on the pier have long turned a blind eye to the arrival of the people from the east coast, and they have no resistance at present. , perhaps because the prosperity of trade also brought them some benefits.

The sailors and dock workers are always swearing at each other, which seems to be their unique way of greeting each other, but without exception, they are very polite to the foreign east coast businessmen, not only because of the east coast businessmen They spend a lot of money, and they often give some tea fees to the people they hire. At the same time, it is also because the ships of the Third Fleet on the East Coast hang around in the nearby waters from time to time. This is the best endorsement for the safety of the merchants on the East Coast. .

In terms of overall clothing, the residents of Panama City are still acceptable, perhaps because they are relatively wealthy here.The common man's head is generally wrapped in a cheap linen turban, and on top of it is a hat with a brim, a ribbon with a small buckle around the edge, and the other end is fastened under the chin, Lest the sea breeze blow the hat away-by the way, hats and hoods are generally imported from the East Coast at least one-third.

Over these, they also put on a long overcoat - although it is hot in Panama City - usually black, brown or blue, generally made by tailors, but cloth, dyes and even some tailors Raw materials and machinery are imported from the east coast.Spaniards wear linen or cotton stockings on their feet (cotton socks are imported from the East Coast), and the upper and heel are not low, probably because the streets are relatively dirty.Yu Xingguo learned very early on that at least 20% of these shoes are produced in Jiaohe and Dingjun counties on the east coast. There is a complete set of shoe-making industry chains, which emerged during the East-Portuguese War and are very famous.

Almost all of them carried handkerchiefs (seems to be a Spanish tradition), mainly for wiping sweat, and these handkerchiefs were undoubtedly imported from the East Coast.Girls have their hair combed into long, thick braids and coiled on top of their heads, and they usually wear a hood when they go out (which they take off when they get home), and they have two palms Wide straps would hang from the hood to the feet, and girls would wear rosary beads or fans if they were going to church—now, more and more East Coasters are eyeing the above The Spaniards paid little heed to their attempts to increase shipments to Peru and New Spain, although the workers who made these religious items were likely East Coast pagans.

Part of the daily life of the men and women in Panama City shows how deeply East Coast goods permeate every aspect of everyone's life today, and once the industrial and commercial power of the East Coast finally drives out merchants from other countries, Just as in the 19th century, when British goods flooded the markets of independent South American countries, what a huge profit this should be, and how crucial it is to the development of domestic industry and commerce.It is no wonder that later generations of Americans want to propose the Monroe Doctrine, shouting "America is the Americas of Americans", which is indeed of great benefit!

And this statement that "America is America for Americans" actually reflects the inner desire of business people on the east coast today.Especially under the circumstances that the trade between Peru and New Spain has created a lot of wealth myths for many years—the Southern Railway Company is the founder and the biggest beneficiary of this wealth myth—more and more people are eager to expand the above two The market share of the Viceroyalty of Spain completely drives out the products of other countries, and then they are monopolized by the people on the east coast.

Although this idea does not seem very realistic, it does reflect a certain development trend, that is, when the old continent is full of wars and the governments of various countries have no time to take care of them, with the backing of the country, the businessmen on the east coast who are in a good location, the future The market share it occupies should be getting bigger and bigger, and the ongoing Western French heritage war has already shown signs of it.

(End of this chapter)