Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 1512 Trade Lifeline

After getting a fairly satisfactory answer from Bai Yutang, Baron Krivitz didn't delay here any longer.After the supply and maintenance of the ship was completed, and their men handed over the various supplies and slaves brought along with the ship to the people on the east coast, they took back a stack of checks from the Northwest Reclamation Bank, and then took over an order from the east coast The merchant's business of transporting timber to Dongfang County hastily went downstream.

On February 2, after handing over the timber at Dongfang Port, they transported a batch of military equipment, canned food, production tools and other items, and went south to Yancheng Port. These goods were ordered by merchants at Yancheng Port. , and the medicines, labor tools, mechanical parts, weapons and ammunition needed by the Kurlanders will also be purchased in the state-run department store here according to the agreement reached by the two parties, and the price will also be lower than the market. About half of it. After all, they are regular customers and big customers. It is normal to give some discounts, not to mention that New Courland has actually been serving the interests of the East Coast Republic of China for so many years.

Baron Krivitz purchased a variety of commodities for New Courland, involving almost every aspect of life, ranging from a small iron nail to a hydraulic machine tool and a large-caliber artillery.In addition to these daily necessities and means of production, as the trade in the New Courland colony has become more and more prosperous, the local colonists have become more and more wealthy. Now these people have a demand for many specialty commodities produced on the east coast. It is also increasing day by day, such as all kinds of clocks produced by Haidiao Watch Factory, such as perfumes from Xinhua Island, such as some famous wines, such as some beautiful brocades and silks.

Especially for this last item, the Courlandians even informed some businessmen on the east coast last year, and through them placed a deposit to order a batch of special silk products, with a total amount of more than 2 yuan. This shows that these The incredible purchasing power of the Courlandians.And this year, when Baron Krivitz led his people to Yancheng Port, they not only brought back the silk products ordered in previous years, but also placed an order for a new batch, and told the contractor in detail about the order requirements. For example, some businessmen in their business asked to embroider the image of the Virgin Mary, while others asked to embroider a certain scene in their hometown and so on.

In addition, they also spent a lot of money to purchase some ordinary silk cloth, silk cloth, silk-linen blended cloth, silk-cotton blended cloth, etc., which were to be brought back to New Courland for sale.Because with the addition of a large number of "Protestant" craftsmen from Brazil, the number of tailors in New Courland has been greatly supplemented, so now many local middle classes-such as military officers, foremen, small businessmen, and small civil officials , high-level technicians, servants of nobles, etc.—even ordinary wealthy white homeowners can customize clothes through tailors, and the materials they choose are undoubtedly all kinds of silk produced on the east coast, which directly reflects their wealth.

The economic prosperity of New Courland based on tropical commodity trade is still very attractive to many poor and helpless people in the Old World or those who have suffered from wars.At least, many Livonians who lived increasingly difficult lives under the oppression of Sweden and Poles went to New Courland. After all, many people there were of the same clan as them, and their language, wind speed, and habits were very similar. Going there Can quickly integrate into the environment.In addition, in recent years, Italian regions that have increasingly traded with New Courland—especially Naples and Sicily, where overpopulation is relatively serious—also have a small number of people immigrating to New Courland, and in recent years there has been more and more Last year (1667), six or seven hundred South Italians immigrated to New Courland through various channels, but they lacked professional skills and no money in their pockets, so most of them acted as Farmers or ordinary laborers, and even indentured slaves, are at the bottom of society, and of course their status is much higher than that of blacks or mixed-race blacks.

Some people may ask, the silk industry in Italy is also very famous, and it is still exported to Spain, the United Provinces, France and England in large quantities, so why don't the Courlandians buy from them?You must know that Italian businessmen grow mulberry and silkworms in their native land and in southern France, and their textile factories are also located there. Hanoi raw silk, Indian raw silk), so why do these people buy such textiles from the east coast?

This is actually incomprehensible, mainly for two reasons.One is political reasons. The existence of the New Courland Colony is entirely supported by trade with the east bank. Although they have now expanded their market and are no longer just hanging on a tree on the east bank, they still cannot get rid of the trade with the east bank. People on the east coast are dependent, so if you can buy something from the east coast, you can buy it on the east coast. This is also a disguised form of sincerity, and smart people understand it.

Another reason is of course economical. Do you really think that silk products from the East Coast are more expensive than Italians?You must know that the cost of transporting silk fabrics from the Mediterranean Sea for thousands of miles is also a factor that cannot be ignored. Unless the merchant ships of the Courlands sail from the local Balos Sea and turn to the Western Mediterranean Sea halfway, the freight alone will be enough to underestimate the Italians. a large cost advantage.

Secondly, over the past few years, people from the East Coast have made great progress in silk weaving technology.Take Luoqia Textile Factory, the largest silk weaving enterprise in China, as an example. In recent years, the factory has undergone various technical transformation projects (invested 6 to [-] yuan in funds), and has improved silk reeling equipment (equipment for unraveling silkworm cocoons, sometimes east coast It will also import silkworm cocoons) has been improved, using the latest steam reeling technology and the latest wire guide technology, so that the raw silk processed on the East Bank is of high quality, and it is also very good-looking if it is used for weaving; people from the East Bank Of course, the twisting equipment has also been improved. Of course, this change is mainly in the material. For example, the original wooden wheel is changed to cast iron parts, the rough wrought iron spindle is changed to car-made steel ingot, and the bearing is also used. Advanced manganese ferromanganese bearings, under the joint action of these improved technologies, the efficiency of the east coast twisting machine has been greatly improved. After years of improvement, the spindle speed has been increased from the initial [-] revolutions per minute to [-] Turns out, this production efficiency alone is not known to be much better than the Italians and Frenchmen.

And one cannot speak of technical progress in textiles without mentioning the invention of a certain improved Jacquard loom.The reason why the jacquard machine was improved and invented was mainly for its large-scale application in the silk weaving industry.Compared with the existing equipment in Europe and the East, this kind of jacquard machine has more designs such as thimbles, pull hooks, combs (a series of combs connected with each other), porous drums, etc. It has many more functions and improved a lot of efficiency. Rocha Textile Mills gets massive due.

It is said that the Engineering Technology Research Institute is still conducting further research on this kind of jacquard machine, because they feel that this kind of equipment seems to have a lot of room for improvement, so that all the work can be done by the machine - the current jacquard machine Although it is much more advanced than that of the old continent, jacquard workers are still required to operate the harness, which undoubtedly greatly affects the efficiency.It is also because of this that they want to carry out technical transformation on the existing Jacquard machine named "Rocha-1667", hoping to come up with a more advanced equipment in the future.

Therefore, with the above-mentioned technology in the east coast textile industry, even if the wages of domestic workers are two to three times that of Europe, the distance to Europe is still very long, and the freight, insurance, and loss costs are quite a lot, but compared with European textiles—especially Silk fabrics with higher added value - still have some advantages in terms of cost.It can be said that in the current international textile market, if there are no trade barriers brought about by religious sentiments, mercantilism, and local protection (in the form of prohibiting the entry of goods or high tariffs), then European The textiles of all countries cannot compete with the goods of the East Coast people. Their textile workers will go bankrupt on a large scale, and the national industry will collapse as a result, and eventually become an economic colony of the East Coast Republic of China.

Of course, this is just the best fantasy of the East Coast business community, and it is impossible to do it in fact.At present, they only have some advantages in the Mediterranean area. For example, people on the east coast have sold a large number of goods into the Ottoman Empire, the Kingdom of Spain and some Italian states through agents.

In addition, the goods of the people on the east coast were also allowed to enter the Brandenburg-Prussian market that the Dutch "gracefully" allowed to enter. In addition, the Livonian and Russian markets that the people on the east coast opened up by themselves are still reserved.As for the others, either find a Dutch agent (the Dutch agent is much more greedy than any country's agent, they will take most of the profits and make you a pure worker), otherwise, besides smuggling , it is difficult to get in.

But while East Coasters face many trade barriers in Europe and no market elsewhere, including India and China, there are ways to do it right on your doorstep.Especially when your colony of New Courland still relies heavily on the east coast, and our own products are indeed cheap and high-quality. More than [-]% of human textiles were purchased on the east coast, including linen or linen-cotton blended clothes for slaves.

Baron Krivitz also purchased a large amount of salt here, because the environment in New Courland is hot and humid, which is not conducive to salt production, and it is not economical—isn’t this nonsense, the limited manpower will naturally be used for commercial crops , Take it to dry the salt, is there a problem with your head?It's better to buy it from people on the east coast, where there is an endless salt lake, the quantity is large and cheap.

Baron Krivitz finally spent three days preparing all the goods on the purchase list. At the same time, he also followed Prince Frederick's instructions and purchased some donkeys, mules, cattle and sheep in Yancheng County, and planned to send them back to try. farming.Despite the daunting climate of the Congo River Basin, the Courlands had failed several times to keep their livestock in captivity—due to both disease and parasites—but they never gave up and wanted to try again one time.

But Baron Krivitz had little confidence in that either.He reckoned that after the animals were taken back, the donkeys and mules would be more tenacious, but those cows would not live for too long anyway, and the parasites would penetrate into their skin immediately, and then destroy their health—— Even after this kind of cattle died, the beef would be unpalatable, because there was always a dry smell—this time, the operation would probably end in failure again.Before the environment of New Courland is completely remodeled, the beef, mutton, and draft animals that everyone needs to produce and live should be imported from the South African region of the people on the east coast. Anyway, their supply has always been sufficient, just like what they fished and processed. The salted fish was served in the same amount.

Necessities of life need to be imported from the east coast, production tools need to be imported from the east coast, livestock need to be imported from the east coast, food (meat, fish and grain) need to be imported from the east coast, medicines need to be imported from the east coast, weapons and ammunition need to be imported from the east coast … Baron Krivitz didn’t realize it before, but now that he’s gone out like this twice, he’s increasingly finding that the lifeblood of New Courland’s trade is almost completely in the hands of the people on the east coast. It is impossible to say that the young noble children went to the east bank to learn various management knowledge.The Baron privately felt that it was better for Courland never to fall out with the people on the east coast, otherwise, not only would the market be gone and the goods would be backlogged, but the cut off of the supply of food and medicine alone would be enough to make New Courland 2 More than [-] residents have fallen into catastrophe. This is not a joke, but an extremely harsh fact!

However, this is something that the Grand Duke, Prince Frederick, Governor Beveren and others are worried about. Anyway, Baron Krivitz himself has no intention of turning against the East Bank, and he holds the same opinion as him There are still many people, although those people on the other side of the Atlantic are yellow-skinned pagans.

On March 1668, 3, after all the ships were repaired and maintained, and the supplies needed for the voyage were purchased, Baron Krivitz gave an order to set sail for several Courland merchant ships built in Port Wendau. Slowly left Yancheng Port.

After leaving the port, the fleet first sailed south for a while, successfully caught the westerly wind near the mouth of the Chubut River, and then began the journey across the Atlantic to return to the west coast of Africa.Needless to say, the difficulty and danger of this journey is difficult and dangerous. Every man who has been on the sea for several years knows that sailing is a job with his head and a game for the brave.

On April 4, the Courland fleet, which took more than 15 days to cross the Atlantic Ocean, arrived at the South African river port with heavy steps.After negotiating with the port authorities on the east coast, they sailed into the pier one by one and anchored. It was time for the ships to be repaired and maintained, otherwise the rest of the sea route back to Jacobs Harbor would be difficult.

(End of this chapter)