Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 1607 The Knocking Weapon

The carriage that Konrad van Boyningen was riding was driving slowly in Hai'an County.

Because of the potholes on the road, he seemed a little tired, but he didn't complain, because even this so-called second-class national road (which is relatively not so easy to walk) In fact, it has been downgraded to a third-class national road), and compared with the roads between most European cities at this time, it has exceeded the average level.At least, it's much better than the undiscussed roads in the countryside of Germany, Italy, and France, isn't it?

The police officers from the East Coast Ministry of Internal Affairs who were guarding the carriage seemed calm and relaxed, looking around from time to time.For them, it is not often possible to get this kind of outing mission, and this is the first time they have come to Patagonia, so everything looks very fresh.

The group of people has already slowly driven into the territory of Hai'an Town. Because of the proximity of the Chubut River, a series of reclamation villages along the river have begun to appear.Perhaps because this is the outskirts, the villages don't look very good. Most of them are huts, which indicates that the economic situation of this place is not very good.

Van Beuningen looked out from the carriage, and saw the lush river bank, among the large flat fields, and neatly planned farmhouses towering above the ground.It can be seen that the place where the farmhouse is built is not a good place. This can be seen from the gravel and rocks all over the ground. On the Gobi Desert like the Patagonian platform, the land suitable for developing farmland is It is limited and must be used sparingly.Therefore, it is extremely inappropriate to build houses on land suitable for reclamation into farmland, so villages are mostly located on saline-alkali land, gravel land or other bad land.

The construction of these farmhouses can be seen to be spontaneous, rather than the handiwork of some engineering team skilled in construction, so it looks very rough.Van Beuningen found that these houses were mostly mud-walled (a mix of mud, branches and thatch) rather than brick and stone.This kind of house is generally very simple, often without window frames or window shafts, but only some old windows and doors embedded in the earthen walls that look very dilapidated.If you have time to go in and take a look, you will find that the room is mostly just a few scattered chairs and stools, broken boards nailed up to serve as tables and chairs, and a gravel floor (or nothing at all. Paved floor), in addition, there are some very simple-looking beds, and the same very simple and shabby clothes for people's daily wear.All in all, in the Patagonia area, which has never been very rich, the life of the new residents is always very difficult.

Van Boyningen has lived on the east coast prairie for a long time, and he is used to the kind of red brick and blue tile east coast dwellings - usually a living room, a bedroom and a storage room, with glass windows, many The walls of local dwellings are covered with creepers—at first sight of this kind of building that represents poverty, I was a little lost for a while, and at the same time, I secretly breathed a sigh of relief: it turns out that there are such poor and simple houses on the east bank. , Just as the United Provinces have a contrast between the rich Netherlands and Zeeland provinces and the poor Friesland, Drenthe, Oberijssel, etc., there are always many ugly unknowns under the glamorous appearance. corner.

"The Patagonian plateau is mostly a pastoral area, but along the banks of the river—the source of the river is generally ice and snow melted in the Andes—it is a good river oasis. The temperature is suitable and the water source is Sufficient, the number of sunny days in a year is far more than other places, the sunshine is unparalleled, and it is rich in melons, fruits, grains and pastures. It is not worse than the commendable agricultural areas in the Old World, but the area is too small. Of course, this is also relative. The carriage continued to stagger forward, and Van Beuningen was slowly recalling the impressions of the past week: "Of course, although the environment in the pastoral area far away from the river does not look so comfortable, it is different from the pastoral environment. The Old World is very different, but it has to be admitted that this is a good place to graze sheep. Like the dry interior of Spain, it is no wonder that the best quality, largest quantity and variety of wool is produced in this place In recent years, the woolen industry of people on the east coast has gradually emerged.”

In fact, what Van Beuningen said has its own reasons.In the early days when people on the east coast hadn’t received the Patagonian platform or used it as a key support for sheep herding areas, they just raised some sheep on a small scale in the country and produced some woolen cloth—the output was very limited, Da Yuhe Machine It usually only takes half a month for a textile factory to digest the entire annual wool production. It is conceivable how much it can produce each year—most of it is self-produced and sold, and a small part is sold to overseas colonies or the old continent. It is far inferior to all kinds of cotton textiles and silk products produced by people on the east coast.

However, after taking Patagonia and developing it for so many years, even if the Executive Committee and the Government Council no longer pay attention to it, relying on their own accumulation for many years and a little money and policy support, the wool textile industry in the entire Taiwan region is still growing rapidly. In the past few years, it has finally developed slowly and steadily, and it is marked by the establishment of a large wool textile factory in Huangyanggang.

This textile company with complex ownership and many stakeholders can now produce more than 2 pieces of rough cloth every year, and there are also two to three thousand pieces of other fabrics with relatively fine workmanship. The raw materials may not necessarily use wool, but it is not counted. mainstream.More than 10 pieces of coarse woolen cloth per year are not too much compared to the consumption in the international market, but they must not be underestimated. After all, the output value is several [-] yuan. If it is used well, say It looks like a powerful weapon, and this is actually the reason why Van Boyningen came to Patagonia to investigate this time.

Once upon a time, the wool textile industry of the United Provinces (in fact, not only the United Provinces, but also the neighboring Spanish Netherlands) was also quite powerful. Every year, a large amount of high-quality wool was imported from Spain and Ottomans, and a large amount of semi-finished cloth was imported from England, and then processed into Various colors of woolens that meet market demands are sold throughout the North Sea and Baltic regions.

Those who could compete with the Dutch at that time, except for the woolen mill owners of the South Netherland, which also belonged to the lowlands (later, as the United Provinces forced Spain to close the trade of the Scheldt River, the woolen textile industry in the South Netherland suddenly plummeted, and then cannot be called an opponent), only colleagues from the Apennine Peninsula.What needs to be admitted is that the Italians have also done very well in the textile industry, and the Dutch have never been able to completely defeat them, basically ending up with an equal share of the market.

In the golden age of the woolen textile industry in the United Provinces, even England, which had an advantage in raw materials and good textile technology, could not compete with the Dutch, so that it had to export a large amount of semi-finished cloth and wool to the Dutch every year. Achieved the last glory of the Dutch wool textile industry.

But the good times didn't last long. After the daily growth of the power of the British bourgeoisie, the Dutch wool textile industry faced a strong challenge.Especially after the first Anglo-Dutch war, the British took advantage of the victorious east wind to seize the market, and once pushed the sales of woolen cloth to the highest peak of 15 horses per year, worth more than 100 million pounds, almost becoming England's most expensive cloth. The main single export commodity.Later, even though the sales volume declined, it still remained at a high level of 10-12 horses per year, which was very stable, and many Dutch wool textile factories were squeezed to death.

It is not that the Dutch have not resisted. They have imported some textile machinery (with hydraulic power and wind power) from the east coast, and strictly controlled the sales channels. They tried every means to contain the smuggling of British woolen products to their traditional market, but the effect was still ineffective. Good, their market continued to disappear little by little, and the woolen cloth produced by the British began to seize the market strongly, continuously providing England with countless profits and supporting the country's great ambitions in Europe and the world.

Originally, if the matter only stopped here, then it would be nothing.Over the years, the Dutch have lost a lot of commodity markets. Although wool is a commodity that people consume daily, over the years, many Dutch businessmen have already recognized the reality, and many of them have even become British woolen goods. The agent, grandly helped the British sell textiles.However, the Anglo-Dutch war a few years ago made the Dutch a little vigilant, and planned to limit the strength of the British, lest they keep making trouble for themselves. This woolen cloth seems to be a good breakthrough.

What further prompted the Dutch to make up their minds was the serious incident of Louis XIV's military parade in the Southern Netherlands last year (1670): After a short period of peace, King Louis of France sent envoys to various countries to try to isolate the United Provinces. On the one hand, he started his patrol on the land of the southern Netherlands that he had newly conquered—of course, he led the soldiers to "perform", and some people even said that this was a preview of a simulated invasion of the United Provinces.

Louis's tour was also a grand festival, with a large number of troops and logistics service personnel deployed from Saint-Germain, a suburb of Paris, to Lille, near the southern Netherlands.According to a French official who personally participated in this operation, he proudly stated that when the ancient Asian kings traveled, their luxury, majesty and grandeur were far behind Louis’s this time: the advance team responsible for opening roads and building fortifications, The garrison troops who strengthened the security and defense of the conquered areas, the entourage serving the royal family, and many other officials and miscellaneous servants, the total number of people mobilized before and after was between 20 and 30, which is indeed comparable to that of ancient Asian kings. The appearance of manpower is unique in Europe.

The Dutch felt a great threat to this, because the French's goal had been obvious so far, and that was to conquer the United Provinces.Although the Dutch do everything possible to avoid getting involved in the war with the French and are making difficult efforts for peace, this does not mean that they are not prepared to face the worst possible plan, such as the plan for England.

In the plan of the Dutch, England, which is now entangled with the French, is indeed an object worthy of serious attention, because their naval fleet is not small in size and their combat effectiveness is not weak. If the financial allocation is in place, it will be The powerful enemy of the United Provinces' navy, so it has always been an important direction for the United Provinces government to win over the English and make them stand on their side.Of course, it is impossible to pull the British over without any means. The Dutch thought about it carefully and decided to cut in from an economic point of view, put pressure on England, make it recognize the situation, and stand on the side of the United Provinces. And this is the most direct reason why Van Beuningen took the pains to investigate the woolen production on the east coast—to put it bluntly, the Dutch intend to temporarily reduce the import of woolen fabrics from England and replace them with goods from the east coast, which will make the English feel heartbroken, otherwise they may Don't really listen to what the Dutch say.

Of course, what the Dutch didn't know was that hitting the English with wool at this time didn't seem to be very effective, because the collusion between Britain and France at this time was deeper than anyone imagined.For example, when Louis led the army to inspect the Southern Netherlands last year, the 26-year-old Princess Henriette, as the plenipotentiary representative of King Louis XIV of France, secretly went to Canterbury in Calais to meet her brother Charles II , focusing on discussing the alliance between Britain and France.Under the persuasion of Princess Henriette and the sponsorship of a large sum of money promised by Louis, King Charles II of England almost agreed to all of Louis's requests--after knowing the reply, Louis XIV proudly said to his courtiers in private, It is to put the last ropes on the United Provinces already on the gallows.

Therefore, the Dutch plan to beat England and try to pull it into their camp is probably going to fail.But no matter what, for the people on the east coast, this matter is a beautiful thing that falls from the sky. The east coast woolen cloth that could only be sold in the country and a few overseas markets can now be sold to Germany through the Dutch channel. And the Baltic Sea, how can this not be exciting?Although the Dutch may have withdrawn their cooperation with the East Coast people in wool for various reasons in two years, at least before they terminate the cooperation, the East Coast people can successfully sell tens of thousands of woolen wool, right?You know, this is a big business worth more than 100 million yuan, and the profits are huge!As for what will happen in the future, let's talk about it. Maybe the Dutch will not terminate the cooperation. This is hard to say.

Van Boyningen's carriage arrived at the Hai'an Port pier that afternoon.After staying in the county guest house for one night, on the second day (August 1671, 8), he took a returning east coast merchant ship to the embassy in the Eastern Port, intending to formally report the results of the trip to The Hague. At the same time, he further called on the three-level parliament to seriously consider the overall employment of the East Coast Army to defend key cities such as Amsterdam, The Hague, Vlissingen, Rotterdam, Utrecht, etc., because as far as he observed, the degree of specialization of the East Coast Army The strength, morale, and combat effectiveness are all top-notch. Although there is no outstanding record yet, it is definitely worthy of trust.

(End of this chapter)