Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 1504

With the voice of the boatswain, the 650-ton "Fanghu" whistle-shaped transport ship approached the No. 50 trestle of Haji Port at a very slow speed, and with the assistance of the dock workers on the shore, it docked steadily down.This bay port has wide water, deep water, and calm seas. It is very suitable for ships to berth for supplies and load and unload cargo. Otherwise, future generations will not become the home port of the Soviet Black Sea Fleet.That is to say, it is in the rough hands of the Crimean Tatars. Otherwise, how could this natural good port be dusted as a pearl, and then let the people on the east coast take advantage of it and obtain the right to operate the port and wharf for [-] years.

The supplies carried by the "Pot" have already been unloaded once in the port of Smyrna. At that time, a large number of sabers, armor, hemostatic bandages, medicines, gun barrels, tents, military boots, ammunition bags, and military water bottles were unloaded. , Spearheads, saddles and other military resources, with a total amount of more than 5000 yuan, which were mainly used for the Ottoman Empire's war to conquer Crete.

The Crete War caused by a bloody incident has almost become an overwhelmed fight between the Republic of Venice and the Ottoman Empire. In the past 20 years, the money, materials, ships, and arms spent by both sides may have exceeded 5000 million East Coast silver dollars, or even 1 million yuan, which almost wiped out the old foundations of the two countries-only 200 million dollars. Venice, which has a population of more than [-] people, is particularly overwhelmed. Although Christian countries donate money and materials from time to time, although there are also many volunteers or reinforcements from other countries (for example, France sent thousands of army soldiers to fight on the island this time, and the previous Italian states also Often send troops, the Ottomans also sent), although during the period of stop and go, but overall the consumption of this war is really too large, the Ottoman Empire can fight in both directions of Hungary and Crete at the same time, but Venice no!

Therefore, in the eyes of many people, this war may end in a few years, because the total public debt of the Republic of Venice is already frighteningly high, and the economy and trade are also extremely depressed. It is urgent to cut off this huge pus on the body. Sores, in order to be able to preserve their own little vitality.Especially when the Ottomans signed a peace agreement with the Kingdom of Austria and achieved 20 years of peace on the western border, they intensified their attacks on Crete, and the Venetians felt a little overwhelmed. Spend a lot, but see no results.No one can persist in such a frustrating situation for a long time, and now perhaps it is time to wait for an opportunity.

Of course, the Ottoman Empire also suffered huge losses in this war, not to mention material and monetary losses, which would not be much less than the Venetians, and may even be more, because they were the offensive side.The loss of personnel is probably more shocking than money. If the losses caused by the burning, killing and looting of the Venetians in the coastal areas are counted, the casualties of the Ottomans in this war have exceeded 20, even Maybe after all, 30 is simply unbelievable.The degree of "persistence" of the warring parties to this war has indeed amazed many outsiders. Many foreign monarchs or businessmen have gained a lot of commercial benefits through this war, and the East Coast Republic of China is one of them.

Needless to say, orders from the Ottoman Empire have greatly nourished the development of the military industry on the east coast in the past 20 years.Located in PA County, the Northern Arsenal sends several ships of weapons and military supplies to Ottoman ports such as Smyrna, Thessaloniki, and Athens almost every six months.Although the profit rate of this kind of trade is not very high (people will buy from other countries if the price is too high), but it is large in quantity and is a long-term trade, so the total profit is very high. Residents of PA County know that recently In the past 20 years, the benefit of the Northern Arsenal has been very good. The wages and bonus income of the workers in the factory are also very high. Some young workers in the factory said in the county that their daughter-in-law succeeded almost immediately, which can be seen from this.

And the Ottomans spent so much, they naturally wanted to find ways to make money, otherwise how could this economy last?Although they have continuously carried out rectification, strife and purges over the years, and the confiscated officials and nobles have quite a lot of floating wealth, which effectively supplemented the empire's finances, but in the final analysis, it is still too little to support the long-term battle of more than [-] troops. .

Therefore, in recent years, they have always given the people on the east coast an advantageous trading position, which has made people in other European countries quite jealous. The slaves of the world, which saved a lot of money for the Ottoman Empire, and at the same time exchanged for countless urgently needed war supplies.It can be said that this kind of relationship based on solid interests is the biggest mystery of the East China Republic's standing in Ottoman for so many years, so that the operation has reached the present, and the ambassador of the East Bank to Ottoman has been able to use his own contacts. The relationship, playing tricks, let the French suffer a small loss in the Ottoman Empire.

However, the members of the local executive committee also understand that this kind of trade between the country and Ottomans is actually not healthy, and it is destined to be unsustainable.Therefore, helping the Ottoman Empire to open up new sources of income and enrich their government's fiscal revenue has also become a difficult problem for the officials of the trade port of the East Bank Republic. It is estimated that in the 17th century, the people of the East Bank can do business like this. It is also the only one on the earth.

In order to improve the financial situation of the Ottomans, in addition to continuing the slave trade with them (which must be controlled within a certain scale), it is also a top priority to deepen the Danube trade with them that has been in operation for many years.This kind of trade was proposed by East Coast trade officials many years ago as one of the three pillars of Black Sea trade (ie, Dnieper trade, Don trade, and Danube trade). Ottoman officials did not pay much attention to it at first. Under the continuous activities of the people on the east bank, some progress was made. Many Jewish merchants who exported goods to the upper reaches of the Danube made good profits. What has been paid attention to.

They began to coordinate the many Christian lords in the area where the Danube River flows through, and sent officials to monitor and collect taxes—this does not mean anything bad. The lords of Asia also lost their allegiance to the Ottoman Sultan due to their great loss of power, so the resistance on the left bank of the Danube disappeared, which further broadened the trade potential of this international river, making more textiles on the east bank (mainly Cotton cloth, silk cloth, silk cloth), medicines, military supplies, metal utensils, books (customized books), soap, soda ash and even mechanical processing equipment (the quantity is relatively small) and other commodities were transported to more upstream areas, making The Nanhai Transportation Company has made enough profits, which can be seen from the financial statements of the Haji Port Trading Station.

And so many commodities - not only including commodities on the east bank, in fact, with the in-depth development of the Danube trade, some commodities from the Crimean Khanate have gradually been sold upstream. As for the Ottoman Empire, they already traded on the Danube, It’s just not as prosperous as it is now—exported to the upstream area, in exchange, a large number of commodities in the middle and upper reaches must also be transported to the downstream, and some of them are needed by the east coast, such as lead and tin ore, such as honey , Dried fruits, such as wines with special flavors, such as some livestock needed for breeding (rich gene pool), etc., which undoubtedly further stimulated the economic development of the middle and upper reaches of the region, making the Danube trade more prosperous.

Of course, although the Danube trade has developed to a certain extent, in terms of scale, it is still far from meeting the expectations of people on the east bank, and its potential for development is also quite huge.Therefore, in the future, the business representatives stationed in Ottoman and Crimea on the east bank will continue to work hard to expand the Danube trade to a satisfactory level.

Compared with the Danube trade, which is not developing very fast, the Dnieper trade is probably the most rapid development among the three pillars of the Black Sea trade on the east coast.This international river, which is also divided by Crimea, Poland, and Russia, currently has a very high trade volume. Timber, fish, grain, honey, and wine in Russia, ores, livestock, and grain in Poland, pass The Dnieper River flows down the river, enters the territory of the Crimean Khanate, and then passes through the Bald Timur Port (that is, the port of Kherson in Ukraine in later generations, located at the mouth of the Dnieper River. Currently, people on the east bank are helping the Khanate guiding the expansion of its port) to other places—in fact, mainly to Italy (of course, the Ottoman Empire will also purchase some of the goods it needs). Merchants from *Na*ia, Tuscany, Lucca, Parma, Milan, and Naples flocked, waving check books to purchase these goods and ship them back to the country, so this kind of trade quickly developed, and the Black Sea Commodities such as wheat, sunflowers, hops, flax, and fruits in the plantations on the north bank were transported to the ports of Anatolia or Greece through the transport ships of the Ottoman Empire (the Ottoman Empire currently does not allow The ships of merchants from other countries enter the back garden of the Black Sea), and then transfer them back to Italy, Spain, Portugal and other places for sale and return the funds.

Still, the thriving Dnieper trade was not without risks.Virtually every diplomatic friction or border skirmish between Crimea, Poland, and Russia (especially the uneasy Russians) has the potential to disrupt Dnieper trade.Regarding this situation, in fact, the people on the east bank can do nothing, because they have not been able to effectively exert influence on Russia and Poland. This can only be done by the agents of these goods on the east bank. I hope they have accumulated through the trade of the Dnieper River. After the capital, you can further expand your influence.

And if the Danube trade is "average" and the Dnieper trade is "good", then the Don River trade, the last of the three pillars, can be said to be "disabled".This is firstly due to the poor transportation conditions of the Don River, which is not as good as the above two rivers; secondly, near the mouth of the lower reaches of the Don River is the Ottoman enclave territory, where the Ottoman Empire troops are stationed, and if it is further up, it is also the Crimean Tartar The forces of the Tartars and the Russians are intertwined, and there are many horse bandits on the grassland (many times the descendants of the Mongols are guest horse bandits), and the security situation is extremely complicated. Therefore, the trade on this river has always been intermittent, and it cannot be done. Gao Wengang and Malati, who tried hard to get through, were in vain.

Especially in the past year, the Don River trade has been almost non-existent, almost completely cut off.The reason for this situation, according to the people on the east coast, may be related to the chaotic situation in the upper reaches.To put it simply, a Cossack uprising broke out locally, and then these uprising Cossacks engulfed a large number of serfs, swept across a large area, and finally led to a massive peasant uprising.

The leader of the uprising was Stepan Timofeyevich Racin, who was born in a "Cossack family good at housekeeping". The subordinates who followed him in the uprising at first were also "Don River Poor Cossacks", with a number of about 2000 people.During nearly a year of fighting, they defeated the local troops of Tsarist Russia many times, obtained a lot of key supplies and ammunition, and at the same time greatly expanded the number of troops.

Gao Wengang and others vaguely heard that the rebel army led by Racine is currently fighting in the Caspian Sea area, and the "killing the rich and helping the poor" operation has become popular. The serfs and herdsmen who went down were attracted to his team, which made his momentum look even more prosperous.However, due to the relatively tense relationship with the Poles, the Tsar had to accumulate a large number of regular troops capable of fighting in the border area, leaving the interior relatively empty and unable to quickly wipe out the Racine army.

Fortunately, Racine's troops did not go to relatively affluent places, nor did they try to attack the big city (maybe they knew that their strength was still weak), so the Tsar could tolerate its existence for the time being, and kept trying to recruit security.Of course, the Tsar did not forget to mobilize troops to march into the Volga River and the Don River Basin. Everyone understands the principle of making two-handed preparations, and once the troops are almost mobilized, the Tsar probably will not have the patience to recruit An Razin and others. .

The presence of Racine's troops plunged the situation around the Don, Volga, and Caspian into great chaos, and it is not surprising that local trade was cut off.Now the people on the east coast are concerned about how long Racine will continue to toss in that area, when the tsarist counter-insurgency troops will arrive, and whether they can get something from Racine, such as population—of course Gao Wengang and others I also know that it is unlikely now, and Racine will not do such stupid things that may shake his foundation when he is not at the end of the road. Now he can only wait and see the changes in the situation. I believe the same is true for the Ottomans and the Crimeans .

(End of this chapter)