Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 568 Army and Finance ([-])

Captain Couette stood contentedly by the dock warehouse, watching the Chaluya workers pull the bales of wheat to the dock by horse-drawn rail train, and then use the pulley boom (there is no steam crane in the port of Rocha). Precious food was carried on the deck of the ship.The purchase price of these grains is only 40 yuan/ton, which is really a big profit!It's a pity that the West India Company asked him to transport the grain to Amsterdam for delivery, and his employer also asked him to transport the grain to Amsterdam first, and then the employer's employer—maybe one of the twelve largest grain wholesalers in Amsterdam—unified deployment , Concentrated transportation to the port of Nantes, France for delivery.

For such a method, Captain Couette was actually very puzzled.Why don't we ship this precious wheat to the West Indies where the price is twice what it is in Europe?You must know that many small islands there either grow sugar cane, tobacco, or coffee and cocoa. In short, they are all cash crops. The grains for daily consumption are all imported, so the price is extremely high.The profit from selling there is at least twice that of France, and the distance is still close, but the employer and the West India Company unanimously demand that the wheat be transported to France for sale, which is really incomprehensible.

Maybe the higher-ups didn't start from an economic point of view when considering the problem, maybe there are political factors?Amsterdam controls more than 70% of the grain trade in Europe, and often has to do things that seem incomprehensible to outsiders in order to maintain its status. Captain Couette can only comfort himself in this way.

In fact, he was right.During the 16-year period from the second half of the 17th century to the first half of the 100th century, the price of grains in Europe experienced severe fluctuations. To put it simply, it was skyrocketing and plummeting. Sometimes the price could vary several times in just one or two years.From an economic point of view, a 10% shortage of materials can cause a 30% increase in prices (and vice versa). River), panic (Genoa crowds of people begging for grain from all over the world to drive up prices), then grain prices will be on a rocket for the rest of the next year or even the current year.And when one or all of the factors that pushed up the price do not exist, the price will fall back quickly or even fall to an unreasonable low level.

The Dutch control 70% of Europe's grain trade, 75% of salt trade, 60% of fishery product trade, and 90% of offshore shipping business. Amsterdam is also a financial center, a commodity distribution center, and the world's largest old ship market and beef cattle trading market. , Dairy trading market, this status has brought great benefits to the Dutch.But in many cases, in order to maintain this status, the Dutch also had to pay some price.

For example, in order to control the grain trade, which is a very useful weapon, the Dutch must import a large amount of grain from the Baltic Sea every year.In many cases, due to unexpected factors (such as wars between Poland, Denmark, Sweden, Moscow, etc.), this kind of grain trade does not make money, but in order to maintain its status as a distribution center, the Netherlands still has to import a large amount of high-priced food. Food, at this time, can only be subsidized by earning money on the way out (loaded with pickled herring and salt, which are bulk consumer goods in the Baltic countries), because the grain loaded in the cabin on the return journey is destined to have no income.

The reverse is also true. When the herring trade is unprofitable in a certain year and the income on the outbound journey is very small, it can only rely on the grain purchased on the return journey to make money.Of course, these situations are not very common. Most of the time, these two trades are very profitable. More than 50% of Holland’s profits come from Baltic trade, so you know how rich this route is.Moreover, the Dutch sometimes attack decisively to control the situation. For example, a few years ago, they dispatched a fleet to intervene in the armed conflict between Denmark and Sweden in time, and forcibly terminated a war that was about to break out, lest their trade be affected. Influence.

Only by understanding the Dutch's desire to control commodities such as wheat can you understand their thirst for east coast wheat.Of course, the amount of wheat exported from the east coast is limited every year, but it is only a few thousand tons. Compared with Poland, which exports 10,000+ tons a year, it is simply not at the same level, but the advantage is that there is an additional source of grain. It is indeed a good thing for Europe, where food is in short supply.

Behind the warehouse at the port of Luocha is a large drying yard. The ground of the drying yard is extremely flat, paved with bricks and poured with cement.Some black laborers are turning over the wheat on the ground with a large shovel. The wheat must be dried regularly to prevent it from germinating or spontaneously combusting.This year's summer grain has just been harvested, and nearly 2000 tons of wheat ready for export (including more than [-] tons of La Plata wheat) has been stored in the dock warehouse, and it must be properly preserved at this time.

"If the price of 20 tons of wheat doesn't fall, we can get back more than [-] yuan in cash this year." Han Gang walked along the edge of the drying yard, then pointed to the front and said suddenly: "Hey, look, that Dutch captain actually used gold Paying for the purchase of goods, isn’t that why we’ve had a massive outflow of silver lately and an increase in gold reserves?”

The person he was talking about was Captain Couette, and this guy was using some gold coins like florins and ducats to pay the bill, which is not common in ocean trade.Because no matter which currency is above, it is basically only popular in the Mediterranean region at this time. For example, Ducat is popular in the Eastern Mediterranean (in fact, its minters are not commonly used in this currency, and silver Ducat is more common) At this time, the florin is more of an accounting currency in a sense, similar to the pound sterling, bank lira, imperial lira, Venetian lira, Dutch guilder (also a currency in circulation), etc., and there are not many circulation links.

"There is a little factor in this aspect." Qiang Quansheng said affirmatively, "Our current gold-silver ratio is 1:15, while in Amsterdam it is between 1:14 and 1:14.5, the difference is not small .For European merchants, it is of course more cost-effective to use gold on the east coast. However, silver is depreciating all the time. The standard system, but sooner or later it will be reformed into a gold standard, so it’s okay to charge a little more gold now.”

In this era, as the output of American silver mines increased year by year, silver as a world currency experienced a long-term and huge depreciation.Leaving aside, at the beginning of this century, the King of Spain just ordered the gold-silver ratio to be adjusted from 1:10.01 to 1:10.60, and then only 40 years later, the gold-silver ratio listed in Amsterdam has climbed to 1: Around 14, the depreciation speed of silver is not surprising.In fact, silver in this era is equivalent to the US dollar in later generations. Spain produces a huge amount of silver currency in the Americas every year that exceeds the global economic growth. Hyperinflation was eliminated and gradually spread to the whole world with the prevalence of ocean trade.Compared with silver, the output of gold has always been very limited, and it basically keeps pace with economic growth, making it an ideal local currency.Therefore, it will be a matter of time before the east bank implements currency reform and implements the gold standard, but of course it is not now.

"According to the plan, the fleet escorted by the navy to Europe will return before the end of June. At that time, let them send some ships to escort the silver ship to the Port of Suez, and deliver the purchase fee of 6 yuan for next year's female slaves to the Ottomans." Qiang Quansheng grabbed a handful of wheat from the ground, looked carefully at the grains that were not very full, and said: "The money we have worked so hard to get is just like this. Our country has been more than ten years old. Even the budget can’t be done, and the finances are a piece of shit. Next year, military spending will continue to rise sharply, while the trade volume will decline. If no strong measures are introduced, then financial bankruptcy is certain.”

Han Gang was speechless.The so-called strong measures are nothing more than the following: [-]. Seriously implement the collection of property tax, income tax, business tax and other taxes; , housing mortgages, etc.; third, outward plundering, that is, the army raised at a high price on the east bank should overcome difficulties and attack the rich Paraguay region, and then tear off the mask of civilization and plunder everything that can be plundered.And the navy that has been raised at a greater cost cannot be left behind. In addition to sending some capital ships to escort the fleet to Europe for trade, the rest of the warships can go to the coasts of Chile and Peru in batches to attack Spanish villages and towns with weak defenses and cut off the Spanish sea. Lines of communication, and then plunder resources and support wars with wars.

As for these measures, they have been discussed within the Executive Committee for a long time, and everyone is basically inclined to implement them as soon as possible.It is believed that the army will receive combat orders from the military department soon. They have set up two large military depots in Santa Fe and Corrientes, hoarding a large amount of combat materials and personnel. The next step is to go north or west. The conditions have been compared. matured.Even if the Spaniards dispatched part of the army from Lima to help here, the regular colonial army will not exceed 1000 soldiers. Facing the well-trained, well-equipped and experienced Changkaisheng detachment of more than 4000 people (including Poland Mercenaries), basically there is no chance of winning.

After the main force of the Navy's First Fleet returns to the mainland at the end of June, it is likely that together with the newly commissioned battleship "East Coast Doctrine" and other ships, they will perform tasks such as escorting, breaking diplomatic relations, and attacking ports in batches.Although the total number of Spanish ships far exceeds that of the east coast, they are scattered all over the world. The sea power of one place is far inferior to that of the east coast in terms of quantity and quality. Therefore, the advantages of the east coast must be fully utilized. Vigorously attack the Spanish sea lines of communication and coastal ports to force them to negotiate peace.

Even the Second Fleet, which is far away in Xinhua Port, has been notified to wait for an opportunity to intercept Spanish ships passing the coast of East Africa (Spain also has a small number of ships taking the Indian Ocean route).It's a pity that Xinhua Island is too important to the mainland, and the Second Fleet dare not leave without authorization, otherwise it can go to the Philippine waters in the Far East to attack the local Spanish ships and plunder their property.

(End of this chapter)