Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 413 Luo Qia ([-])

The development of Rocha Port in recent years is obvious to all.

Firstly, in order to solve the excess domestic grain production capacity, but also to raise more immigration funds, the Executive Committee decided to set up a bulk cargo trading center in Luocha Port.At that time, the main export of this trading center was grain, and the merchants who traded were mainly Hanseatic League merchants from the Baltic Sea.At that time, the trading center, known for its low tax rate, had a huge turnover of 45 yuan in the first year, but the turnover in the second and third years dropped slightly (20 yuan and 28 yuan respectively). ), but this year, the transaction amount has once again climbed to a height of 37 yuan.It is believed that with the steady expansion of the agricultural area in the west of the lake, the east coast with higher and higher grain production is bound to export more grain, pushing the transaction value of Luocha Bulk Trade Center to a new peak again.

With the launch of the bulk grain trade in 41, in the middle of last year, the East Coast Trade Department announced that the delivery port of cotton and wool would be unified at Luocha Port.In this way, whether it is the fleet of large merchants or the merchant ships rented by small merchant groups, they must enter and sell at Luocha Port, and the remaining ports on the east coast will no longer undertake the task of importing cotton.After the delivery of all cotton, wool and other textile raw materials in Luocha Port, the people on the East Coast will transport them to Dongfang Port and Ping An Port by railway or offshore transport ship for unloading, and the textile factory will take them back to organize production.

George Hampton stood indifferently on the wharf of Rocha Harbor. Behind him, the three-masted Galen sailboat "Bird" slowly docked at a berth under the dispatch of the pilot boat.

"Really nice weather, it's always foggy in England, it's very uncomfortable. I don't even want to go back to England after staying in Massachusetts for a long time. There is only war in that place now, endless war! It's disgusting war!" John Hill boarded the pier while serving the servants, and said to George Hampton.

The British Civil War has now entered a critical moment. In many battles last year, the Royal Army won most of them. Now the situation is very favorable to them.Among them, the royal model army directly under the king played a huge role. This elite army, which has now expanded to more than [-] people, is a formidable force in the king's hands. The situation of the National Assembly Army is extremely grim.In order to fight against the king's elite troops, the famous military general Cromwell began to form a new model army. All the weapons and equipment were imported from the Netherlands and carefully trained in order to be able to fight against the king's royal model army.

The tragic civil war greatly damaged the economy of England. Many textile factories originally belonging to the Congressional faction were confiscated, the export of woolen fabrics dropped sharply, and raw materials such as wool were piled up in large quantities.John Hill and others were hardcore Congressionalists. Although the textile factory was in the control area of ​​the Congressional Army, the normal production of the factory was still greatly affected by the large number of workers who went to the front to participate in the battle.Therefore, although the price of woolen goods in the international market has risen to a certain extent, Hill still has no intention of vigorously operating industries with unknown risks at such an uncertain moment.So he instead invested large sums of money in the Massachusetts Bay Colony on his own land, growing some cash crops.However, the large pastures he owns in England still produce a large amount of wool every year. Except for a small amount of these wools for the textile factories in the region, he plans to sell most of them overseas.

In recent years, the textile industry on the European continent has been in slow decline. In addition to war factors, there is also the violent impact of cheap East Coast textiles in the New World.Under the impact of textiles (mainly cotton cloth) on the east coast, the originally prosperous Dutch cotton spinning industry was baptized by the cold current. At present, it can barely survive only by relying on trade protection; The Italian cotton spinning industry represented by the Venetians went bankrupt in large numbers, and technicians emigrated to the east coast one after another, and even the economy of the Italian region suffered a lot of depression.

However, in the second half of last year, Europeans finally began to wake up.First, the French imported a large number of the latest hydraulic textile machines from the Netherlands, determined to revive the French textile industry; then the Netherlands began to vigorously develop the wool spinning and cotton spinning industries by using the massive sales channels they had in their hands. They learned from the East Coast. The people's centralized factory system was invested by big businessmen, and several large textile factories were built.Only the Venetians were relatively sluggish, and their open and secret struggles with the Turks cost them a lot of financial resources. They only symbolically innovated the machinery and equipment of the factory, but the investment was very limited, and the signs of decline were quite obvious.

However, most of these emerging textile industries use cotton as the textile raw material, which is of little use to wool merchants such as Hill.Except that the Dutch imported some, the wool they had piled up in large quantities was in a state of slow sales.Although everyone knows that the market demand for woolen wool has not decreased, so the demand for wool will not decrease, and the traditional wool exporting countries Spain and the Ottoman Empire have not increased their production significantly, so their wool should not be sold. stay home.But the actual situation is far from that simple. Not to mention that some markets cannot be entered by the British, but it will take some time for the Netherlands and other countries to expand their wool spinning production capacity. Obvious stagnation.

At this time, Hill was very tired of the beacon fires that were being lit all over the Old World. Therefore, after careful consideration, he decided to sell all the remaining 8000 sacks of wool to the east coast of the New World.And his friend for many years—George Hampton, who is also a shareholder of the Merchant Adventurer Company, also had the same idea. He decided to sell all the more than 5000 sacks of wool he had in hand to the people on the east coast, and he got about [-] yuan. Pounds of funds were all invested in his property in Virginia.

He had recently decided to be bullish on the price of cotton on the international market, and decided to start a cotton plantation on his own land in Virginia to make a fortune.Hill also quite supported his idea, so the two met to come to Rocha Port to sell the wool on hand in exchange for enough funds to buy land in North America.

"Look, the latest price of wool!" George Hampton ignored Hill's thoughts, but pointed to a large blackboard hung in front of the exchange by people on the east coast, and said loudly.

Hill looked around and saw a few lines of large characters written with a plaster pen on the black-painted wooden board, among which was the latest purchase price of wool.

"8.5 yuan per East Coast bag, the price has risen slightly compared to before. I remember it was 7.4 yuan at the end of last year." Hill muttered.In fact, with the intensification of the Civil War in England, the price of wool in the international market has been rising slowly in the past two years. The price of a bag of wool has risen from 6 yuan a few years ago to 8.5 yuan today, an increase of more than 40. %, making a lot of wool producers earn a lot of money.

"This is a good price!" John Hill immediately said in a more cheerful tone after seeing it, "I can get [-] pounds of wool after I sell it, and I can put it into Massachusetts Shipbuilding and fishing. Go fishing with me, my dear George, it's a lot more money than those cotton plantations you've got down South."

"No, on the contrary, my dear friend." George Hampton shook his head, and then said: "In fact, since the beginning of this year, the value of cotton plantations in Virginia, Florida and the Caribbean has been rising. Several plantation transfers in the United States show that the price per acre of cotton has climbed by about 10%. This is reasonable, because it can be expected that the demand for cotton should remain in a relatively strong and tight state in the next few years. You can't lose money on a cotton plantation at this time. Believe me, Hill, it's a good business."

"Let me take a look at the latest purchase price of cotton from the East Coast." John Hill said while looking at the blackboard, "God, this year's new cotton is 145 yuan/ton! This price has climbed compared to the price at the end of last year about 20%! That's crazy, and maybe you're right, the rise in cotton prices is just getting started, and maybe there's going to be a longer run! Well, according to the East Coast folks, cotton will Ushering in a long-term bull market! The Dutch are engaged in cotton spinning, the French are engaged in cotton spinning, the Venetians are also engaged in cotton spinning, and even Sweden has this idea. Keen to grow cotton. They prefer to grow tobacco, sugar cane, cocoa, coffee, etc. crops, because it is obviously very profitable. Only those farmlands that are not suitable for growing these cash crops will be planted with cotton or wheat. Now it seems , the cotton acreage cannot grow rapidly in a short period of time..."

"But demand is growing rapidly!" George Hampton added the second half of Hill's sentence, "Obviously, demand will usher in an explosive growth this year. However, due to inertia, lack of Qualified cotton planting knowledge, insufficient number of slaves, insufficient tools, etc., will not be able to quickly expand the planting area in a short while. Therefore, the long-term rise in cotton prices will become inevitable, and we should prepare early. Hill, listen to me That's right, invest in cotton farming, it's much more reliable than fishing in Massachusetts! There are only a few people there, can they consume so much fish?"

"I will seriously consider this matter, George." John Hill nodded and said.

(End of this chapter)