Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 374 East India Company ([-])

April 1643, 12, sunny.

This day is Christmas in the West, but in River Fort in South Africa, where Ming immigrants are mostly, there is no festive atmosphere at all.Beside a small hill about a hundred kilometers south of the Fort in the River, a few east bank cavalrymen in khaki military uniforms, large caps, and riding boots proudly rode their horses from a group of German hired soldiers in various clothes. The German country bumpkins cursed at the dust splashed by the soldiers.

This is the land border between the people on the east coast and the Dutch East India Company. Since the number of military horses in South Africa has expanded a lot, the current establishment of the South African cavalry company has been expanded from 110 to more than 230 with the approval of the military department. Gradually took over the patrol duties in border areas.

The defense of the Dutch is still taken over by the German mercenary employees of the East India Company, and their number has not expanded much over the years, and has remained at a scale of more than 300.Compared with the continuous military expansion of the people on the east coast, their development obviously lags behind a lot, but what can be done about it?The East India Company was more willing to spend money on wars with the Portuguese and Spaniards, but was stingy with spending a little money to hire more soldiers from the German countryside to protect their land and business.

"It only costs 9 guilders a month to hire a bankrupt farmer from the Hesse countryside, and it only costs 1000 guilders to hire [-] people. I don't know why the members of the Indian Islands Committee are so stingy." Little Hagel looked at A few east bank cavalry who had gone away said dissatisfiedly.

"9 guilders is an outdated price in the past. Now the price for recruiting a soldier is 11 guilders. Without this price, others will not follow you, because they are taking big risks." Little Hagel's brother , said the mercenary leader Big Hagel.

Little Hagel naturally understood what his brother meant by "taking risks". In fact, the death rate of employees hired by the Dutch East India Company to Asia during this period was very high.Even in a fully developed city like Batavia, the death rate of local residents is still high.Someone once described Batavia like this: coffins are always prepared here, you were chatting with someone the night before, he passed away today, you will attend his funeral tomorrow, and he will be forgotten the day after tomorrow.

In this era, the annual death rate of employees of the Dutch East India Company in Asia was about 20%. Most of the causes of death were diseases, and a small part were wars.Among the diseases, malaria accounts for the vast majority.According to records, the residents of Batavia like to build fish ponds near the city, and these fish ponds are transformed from rivers and lagoons in the area, and they are basically stagnant water, thus causing mosquitoes to breed and malaria to prevail. Residents of the city don't seem to realize this, they simply think the air here is "toxic".

Very mediocre salary, poor working conditions, high death rate, such a bleak working situation, if there is no opportunity for people to make a fortune in the local area, Shabi would go there.In fact, the number of sailors employed by the Dutch East India Company in Dutch ports each year only accounts for 9% of the total number of locals. Many people are not willing to try their luck in the East Indies where "only one of three people can return".Only those who are single, extremely poor, and cannot find other jobs will sign up as soldiers or sailors of the Dutch East India Company as a "last desperate" hope; "All kinds of grassroots chewing hillbillies" took a fancy to the poor salary, and expected to get a promotion and salary increase, and joined the Dutch East India Company to serve in Asia.

As mid-level officers of the East India Company, the Hagel brothers enjoy the same treatment as the captain. The eldest can receive a monthly salary of 80 Dutch guilders, while the younger Hagel's monthly salary is 60 guilders.As for Governor Dejan in the Fort of Good Hope, his salary is an astonishing 350 guilders-of course, people don't expect to live on salary alone.

The monthly salary expenditure of tens of thousands of employees of the Dutch East India Company reached more than 15 guilders, which is nearly 200 million dongs a year.This figure is not small. We must know that in the past ten years, due to frequent wars with the Portuguese and the Spaniards, the average annual profit of the Dutch East India Company was less than 450 million guilders (about 150 million yuan).This amount of money is even equivalent to the profit that people on the East Coast get from selling textiles. If dividends are excluded, the Dutch East India Company actually has much less money at its disposal each year than imagined.

There is an embarrassing fact that although the Dutch East India Company won the competition with the British East India Company and drove away their opponents, in fact their profit margins were not as good as those of the British.Because they have big expenses like building ships, recruiting people, and strengthening their strongholds, this is essential unless they give up the war with the Portuguese to reduce this expense, but then their losses seem to be greater.

So, when you know that the Dutch East India Company's financial situation is not as beautiful as it seems on the surface, you will deeply understand why they refute every action that may lead to an increase in expenditure-this is all money. yes.Only at this time, you will understand why they have been tolerant of the various behaviors of the people on the east coast. This is still because of their business style - to control all unnecessary expenditures.In addition, the fleet strength of the people on the east coast is also good, and they are located in the place where the trade line of the Dutch East India Company must pass.

Of course, although there are various scruples, it does not mean that the Dutch East India Company has no bottom line.Their bottom line is that once the fleet of the East Coasters enters the waters near the Spice Islands and Ceylon Island, no matter what the consequences are, the East India Company will do its best to drive away this malicious opponent who tried to meddle in their business, just as they It was the same as driving out the British by force.

"It is very difficult to persuade the upper management of the company to increase the number of garrisons in Cape Town, add some necessary flintlock guns, artillery, and build some reasonable fortifications." Big Hagel said, "Unless we learn from the people on the East Coast To enslave those black people like that, but unfortunately, we are currently in a friendly relationship with the only black kingdom Karma people we have come into contact with, so we can only hire them, but let’s not talk about how much money it will cost, their own manpower alone does not seem to be very adequate."

Since the Battle of Blood River that year was severely damaged by the people on the east coast, the Kama tribe has kept a low profile in the past two years.While maintaining a good relationship with the Dutch, they shrunk the front line, ended the continuous fighting in the east, and turned all their energy to the west, fully resisting the armed infiltration of the eight-banner tribe, the lackeys of the east coast people.For this reason, a series of small-scale but quite bloody and brutal armed conflicts broke out between the two sides in the mountains, and they did not subside until the past year.

"But the power of the people on the east coast has been increasing. According to the information provided by the insider we bought, it seems that they transported more than 1000 immigrants from the east a few days ago. Most of these more than 1000 people are men. God , They are all lunatics, terrible lunatics who have to receive military training for every man, they must be thinking about how to expand the army to deal with us." Little Hagel said with some worry, "Now they are so arrogant, this is from those few You can see it in the arrogant cavalry patrolling the frontier, if their numbers increase, it will be easy to defeat us and take Fort Good Hope, and they will do it!"

"You are too allergic, my dear brother." Big Hagel said in relief, "As far as I know, these people will only stay in the Fort in the River for a short time, and their final destination will be the native land of the East Coast people in the New World But to be honest, the people on the east coast seem to want to do something big this time. A week ago they drove a huge fleet of nine ships from the mainland. How can I say these ships are all It is a great ship, but it is said that the ship type is a fast ship that has only emerged in the past two years, and it is not suitable for combat. Therefore, I guess the fleet invested by the people on the east coast should go to the east to pull immigrants, but I really I am very interested in how they break through the blockade of the Strait of Malacca. The company has professional warships equipped with a lot of weapons stationed in Galle and Malacca, and these ships of the East Coasters cannot pass there easily."

"No matter how they go, it won't increase our income by one silver coin." Little Hagel shrugged indifferently, and said, "It's better for them to fight in the Strait of Malacca, so that the company will pay attention to Cape Town." Only when the colony of Cape Town is determined to cut off the route of people from the east coast from the source. If Cape Town continues to live like this, there will be no future. Damn, there are not even many girls here. For the big immigrants, I even thought of going to Batavia to try my luck. Although the disease is rampant there, at least there are some beautiful and enthusiastic girls.”

"I don't think so." Hearing his younger brother say this, Big Haggleton laughed, "It's not a wise choice to go to Batavia now, because you will probably be sent to fight with the Portuguese and Spaniards." Even people from the East Coast and Chinese are fighting. This is a very dangerous thing. You have a high possibility of dying from disease or war. On the contrary, here in Cape Town, I think there will be a short period of peace-because the East The center of gravity of the shore people has shifted to the east. Although the oil and water here may not be as rich as Batavia, it will not let you die in a daze, so enjoy this rare peaceful time, my dear brother."

(End of this chapter)