Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 2279 Rajput's Plan ([-])

"The import of cotton cloth has decreased by another [-] pieces this month. Xinhua Port will complain again?" In a brick building near the Qiandao Port wharf, two customs officials were processing a pile of documents.Most of the documents are related to import and export trade, which clearly record the quantity, time, amount and tax paid of various commodities, and have always been the focus of attention of the customs system and even businessmen from all walks of life.

The import of cotton cloth they mentioned just now refers to cotton products such as dyed cloth and printed cloth sold to nearby Indian towns through Asashima Port.Because of the profound technological accumulation of the people on the east coast in chemical processes such as dyes and bleaching, the sales of such products through the entrepot trade of Xinhua Island in recent years in India are still good.However, since the second half of last year, the sales of such textiles have begun to decline. Although there have been occasional repetitions in the middle, the overall market share has indeed been shrinking, so that last month (May 1695) it was sold to East India through the shallow island customs. There are only a mere 5 bolts of textiles in the shore, which annoyed a group of businessmen, and they complained to the government one after another, accusing the Indians of unfair competition.

The government naturally sees the ugliness of the businessmen, but they have to react. After all, there are so many state-owned or private textile factories and chemical factories in the country. The government is also planning a large area of ​​cotton production areas and textile industry cities. , Xinhua Island also has a bunch of people who rely on entrepot trade for a living. Their interests must be taken care of to some extent. Therefore, in the future, we must find a way to reverse the decline in sales.

"Our cloth is basically only used by rich people or monks, and ordinary people can't afford it. Now that the civil war in India is raging, heavy taxes have been imposed in many places, and private funds have been greatly reduced. Many people who might have gritted their teeth Indians who can afford our dyed cloth and printed cloth will now turn to local traditional dyed cloth, although the color looks bad and fades easily, but it is cheaper.” Another The customs official hurriedly sorted out the documents related to the gemstone and raw silk trade, and replied: "The complaints from Xinhua Port are understandable, but I think they should think about how to sell more white cotton instead of sighing. That's the real challenge."

To be honest, it is basically impossible for calico to be sold in large quantities in India.Unless you build a factory in India and hire a lot of Indian workers, it will be very difficult to compete with Indian homespun.Their cost is even lower than that of Chinese homecloth, and the cotton cloth on the east coast can't even deal with Chinese homecloth, let alone the cheaper and better-quality Indian homecloth.The only advantage that people from the east coast have is that they sell high-quality dyed cloths that are bright in color and not easy to fade by virtue of their technical advantages in dye chemical industry. Apart from that, they don't want to get involved in the Indian textile market.

"The textiles have made them give up. Instead of tossing about this, it is better to find a way to grab more goods from the Dayuhe Factory and the North Factory. Whether it is muskets, cannons, bayonets or armor, you can get anything you want. Selling at a good price. The troops of Delhi Sultan Aurangzeb, the Maratha guerrillas on the Deccan Plateau, or the local warlord governors with evil intentions, their demand for weapons and equipment is endless, because everyone The sense of security is very low," the official continued.

Indeed, as he said, although Aurangzeb of the current Mughal dynasty has wiped out Bijapur and Golconda on the Deccan Plateau, the local resistance has never ceased and has held back many Mughals. The armed forces of the Vulgar Empire.Plus, the all-important Marathas never gave in.

With the support of generals Danaji and Santaji, Rajaram, the successor of the Maratha forces, used Jinji City as the final resistance base, attracting a large number of the main force of the Mughal Empire.Aurangzeb's men attacked the city with weapons procured from the island of Diu and St. George's Castle (belonging to the English East India Company), but ultimately failed.Jinji City is really too strong. The Mughals continued to besiege it for six months without any results. On the contrary, they killed and injured a lot of people because of the disease brought by the rainy season. It will be very difficult to capture (historically, it took the Mughals siege for nine years before finally succeeding).

After attracting a large number of the enemy's main force, the Marathas launched a series of offensives on the periphery.Their light cavalry moved quickly and had a determined fighting spirit, constantly attacking the grain transport team of the Mughal army, which made the frontline army always face the dilemma of insufficient ammunition, food, and medicine supplies, and their morale was greatly affected.Rumors of Aurangzeb's death continued in the army, so that the commanders of the Mughal army slowed down the offensive and even began to negotiate peace with Rajaram.

According to the news revealed by the French colonists who had close contacts with both sides of the war, the commander of the Mughal army under Jinji City was waiting for the exact news of Aurangzeb's death. He no longer wanted to consume the lives of soldiers in the siege battle.

At the same time, the Maratha army under the command of Ramchandra Nilkanth was active in Maharashtra.He gathered a lot of Maratha stragglers, and at the same time attracted some other ethnic groups to jointly oppose the rule of the Mughal dynasty.In 1692, he was assisted by the armies of Santaji and Danaji, who launched a counterattack and recovered many lands previously occupied by the Mughal Empire.Many food requisition teams and transportation teams sent by the empire were attacked, and appointed officials were killed or expelled, which caused a great impact locally.

The opening of the second battlefield made it impossible for Aurangzeb to besiege Jinji with all his strength.And when he mobilized troops to hunt down Santaji and the others, they retreated quickly relying on their familiarity with the geographical environment, exhausting the bulky main force of the empire.By 1693, these Maratha guerrilla forces were even able to defeat the regular imperial army that came to pursue them, and their success even greatly encouraged many Maratha people, Dangar people, etc. who had surrendered to the empire. They began to sharpen their swords, planning to wait for an appropriate time to betray Aurangzeb's rule again.

So, in such a chaotic situation, you can imagine how easy the arms trade is.The East Coasters, the French, the British, the Portuguese, the Dutch tried their best to mobilize their connections, find agents to sell weapons, and everyone reaped the huge profits of the war.The local arsenal on the east coast has now implemented a shift system, doing its best to produce all kinds of weapons and ammunition, and even restarted the armor production line that has been closed for most of the time, processing all kinds of furniture at full capacity and sending them to India for sale.In addition, private enterprises supporting the production of various military supplies have also received a large number of orders. The demand for these orders has exceeded their production capacity. Workers, buy new machines to expand production capacity?But in any case, the local military manufacturing industry on the east coast has ushered in a boom cycle, and the income of workers has soared. Everyone is grateful for the cannibalism of the Indians.

"It is true that only weapons are easy to sell. Alas, even the sales of metal farm tools have dropped. The situation in India is really chaotic. If this continues, our country will be in a state of trade deficit with India for a long time, and it will be lost every year. Silver, can the Ministry of Industry and Commerce and the Ministry of Finance be able to sit still? The surplus obtained from the New World and European trade has been filled into the deficit pit of India and the Far East. This is really..." The official who spoke shook his head, Putting a stack of documents aside, said with a sigh.

"Maybe this is trade." The other person was also speechless, and said after a long time: "But now silver has been transported from Ningshao to the mainland. Ningbo is too rich. It can feed back the national finances, which is a good sign.”

"Send a fart! Last time, the silver ship sailed to Diu Island and stopped directly. They received the latest order from the mainland, and the funds were used to pay for the purchase of Bahrain Island and Diu Island. Expenses. Well, if there is a little left over, it will be used to pay for the next stage of military operations, and the money will not go back to the mainland.” The speaking officer poured a cup of tea for himself and his colleagues, and then said : "A lot of money has been spent on military operations. So far it has exceeded 20 yuan. No one can guarantee how much it will cost in the future."

It is said that since the Portuguese increased their troops in India, the people on the east coast have used the excuse of affecting commerce, dispatched more than 2000 East-Portuguese allied forces, marched from Diu Island to the inland area many times, and defeated several local Rajput armies.Local officials had no choice but to report to the Delhi court, which they once looked down upon—until 1678, the Rajputs were still trying to resist the rule of the Delhi Sultan—and let Aurangzeb decide for them.But how could Aurangzeb care about such trivial matters?He didn't devote much energy at all, but ordered the local governor to deal with it himself.But the governor's decree didn't work very well. The local generals, landlords, and religious leaders had their own ghosts, and no one was willing to stand up for the benefit of others.Therefore, in the end, the governor could only make a compromise after negotiating with the people on the east coast, that is, agreeing to expand the boundaries of Diu County under the rule of the people on the east coast, and the scope is to extend [-] kilometers outward from Diu Island. The people on the east bank additionally controlled about [-] square kilometers of land—the land guarded by the army on the east bank and where the system of the east bank passed.

Not to mention, the people on the east coast have also obtained considerable commercial privileges, such as lower customs duty rates and so on.This alone gave the merchants on the east bank a greater advantage in the competition with local Indian merchants.Because there are many tax cards in various parts of India, and there are many kinds of exorbitant and miscellaneous taxes, the east coast businessmen who go to the mainland to do business can not only avoid some unreasonable taxes, but also enjoy preferential tax rates for some major taxes that everyone needs to pay. It's really wonderful for businessmen. Although these tax privileges are limited to a few counties in the south, the benefits they bring are not small.

But the ambitions of the people on the east coast obviously don't stop there.Recently, they plan to forcibly lease one or two port cities in the Rajput area to further expand their commercial interests.Even the exhibition area in Qiandao County has been put on the agenda. People on the east coast feel that this small fishing village has great potential, and plan to set up a base and open a business hall on the land across the river.Given Aurangzeb's dire financial situation -- he just recently allowed the French to build two new mansions on the Indian coast at a cost of 135 million rupees, while granting them tax-free arms trade -- it's likely that In the end, the goal can be achieved by spending a little money. People on the east coast are looking forward to this very much, and plan to start implementing this plan in the near future.

(End of this chapter)