Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 867 What I Know (Part [-])

"Rumours exist in every corner of the streets and alleys..." In the Florence trading station, Kang Ding, who had been transferred to the station manager, was holding his forehead with his hand, and said bitterly to Gao Wengang who had just arrived here with the boat.The flute-shaped transport ship that Gao Wen just took is currently moored in the port of Livorno, while he came to Florence in a horse-drawn carriage, and delivered the tobacco that they brought with the ship to Contin, the head of the local east coast trading station.

Kang Ding is also an old man sent by the East Coast to the European operator station. He is the current Central Executive Committee member, the former Ministry of Trade, and the confidant of Xu Xin, the leader of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.He was originally the head of the Bordeaux Commercial Station. After the Bordeaux Commercial Station was forced to close due to the French Civil War—even the commercial station is currently occupied by a rebellious army—Kang Ding took the commercial station The original team withdrew to Florence.After that, part of the manpower was diverted to four new commercial stations including Tirana, which will be opened soon (the shortage of manpower was selected by the local people, and some were recruited locally), and some of the manpower stayed in the Port of Livorno. Assisted, presided over the smuggling of goods against France.

As for Kang Ding himself, he is currently serving as the stationmaster of the Florence trading station, and is fully responsible for the affairs of the trading station.The original station master and several management personnel of this trading station have been dismissed by Mo San because of poor sales performance. They all boarded a merchant ship on the east coast and returned to China, ready to accept new assignments from the Ministry of Trade.

However, since Florence was transferred to the hands of Contin and others, the performance of the trading station has indeed improved a lot. The mystery is that the goods smuggled from the east coast in southern France are basically sold by the Florence trading station. (Livorno is the port of departure).And the development of this new business has naturally improved the performance of the Florence business station a lot. As for the original sales performance of the business station, it is still terrible. It is pitifully small.This amount of money is enough to recruit a few local craftsmen or some scientists suppressed by the church to go to the east coast. As for other activities such as buying local officials and training spies to spy on intelligence, I'm sorry, if there is no additional investment from the superior cannot be effectively expanded.

"French ships sailing from La Rochelle, Nantes, and Bordeaux have a high accident rate in the open sea, especially the merchant ships heading to the Caribbean. One-third of them failed to return. The merchants suffered heavy losses and complained. They complained about the nobles in the country They only knew about the civil war, and they didn't care about the fate of French merchants overseas. They called on both sides of the civil war to unanimously cease fighting and focus on foreign affairs, that is, to expel the Spanish troops that re-entered France first, and then send warships to the Caribbean Sea to defend the interests of French merchant ships. But fortunately, neither the royalist party headed by Mazarin nor the rebel party headed by the brothers of Prince Condé, the Duke of Langeville, the Duke of Nemours, and the Duke of La Rochefoucauld are currently unable to draw Concentrate energy to deal with these shitty things. Their current priority is to fight for the rule of France." Contin drank a cup of tea, and the bitter smile on his face did not diminish. He continued: "But there have been some The rumors that are not conducive to us are that some Spanish and British businessmen insist that they have seen ships on the east coast wandering around the Caribbean Sea for a long time, acting suspiciously, and it seems that they are engaged in private plundering activities. Merchant ships (of which French merchant ships account for the vast majority) have frequent accidents, and it is likely that these east coast ships are responsible..."

As soon as Gao Wen heard this, he immediately felt that this matter was troublesome.Because in today's Europe, the terms piracy and privateering are quite sensitive. In the not-too-distant past, ships from various countries in Europe competed to carry out privateering activities, which severely hit international trade and caused a sharp drop in tariff revenue. Prices are soaring, the monarchs and big businessmen of various countries are gradually unable to sit still.For this reason, after years of repeated consultations among Western countries, they finally restrained each other's behavior, making the almost semi-public naval privateers disappear.

At the same time, they also began to vigorously attack and arrest pirates, and they were not merciless in punishing them. For example, in history, there were British pirates who attacked Spanish ships, and they were later sued by the bitter master to London. After verification, the London court publicly hanged the accused pirates. It can be seen that at this time, the punishment of pirates by various countries is not just for show.

However, it is precisely this iron-blooded method that has curbed the arrogance of the pirates and created a good environment for the maritime trade of various countries.Because of this, as soon as the rumors that the East Coast Navy pretends to be pirates to carry out private plundering activities spread in Europe, the blow to the image of the East Coast will be devastating, because after reaching an unwritten tacit understanding, no country has dared to Openly communicate with countries called pirates.What's more, this country is still a yellow-skinned pagan country, which itself has original sin. Now that such a incident has happened, it will naturally cause a lot of trouble.

"Special Envoy Mo instructed the business stations to immediately set aside a portion of the profits to 'wash the ground'—well, this is his original words, maybe it's the meaning of public relations?" Kang Ding looked a little dignified, obviously he also knew this The lethality of rumors is still very strong. If they are ignored and allowed to ferment and spread, they will cause big troubles to the people on the east coast sooner or later.

"Land cleaning is a must." Gao Wengang agreed, "Our local agents have also done some blood for this matter. They usually rely on us to earn a lot of money, so it's time for them to act. Besides, they have nothing to do with us. We have a close relationship and have cooperated for many years. Our appearance has long been labeled with us. Now they can’t shake it off even if they want to. They can't bear it. Therefore, we should discuss with these people more rationally and emotionally. At present, everyone is a grasshopper on a rope."

"Well, the Baron of Toulouse, the Pasquale family, the Loris family, and the Adrian family in Paris are all partners we have cooperated with for many years. In addition, among the families that dominate the Republic of Genoa, there are not a few who have a good impression of us , especially the Doria family, are now selling cheap and high-quality goods from the east coast in the entire Great Spanish market. These people have been operating in France, Italy and the Great Spanish region for at least a hundred years, and their power is deeply rooted. They should know There are many ways to eliminate rumors that are not good for us. However, this is often only a temporary emergency..." Kang Ding said.

Kang Ding didn't finish his sentence, but Gao Wengang was a smart young man. After a little thought, he understood his subconscious meaning, that is, these local agents do have certain contacts and energy, and they can indeed help the people on the east coast. Solve some troubles, but their this ability is not unlimited.In particular, this kind of rumor that has been spread with nose and eyes is bound to get great attention from the French businessmen and nobles who have suffered great losses in the previous private plundering operations. If that is the case, then things may be complicated—after all, the ships of the people from the east coast have indeed stayed there for a long time, and there are still ships operating there, which cannot be erased.What?You said they couldn't catch tangible evidence?Don't be funny, okay, when did they need evidence?Do you need evidence for your yellow-skinned pagan country with original sin?

The key now is that naval ships should withdraw from the Caribbean Sea, which has become a place of right and wrong, in time, and then go to other places to make troubles.Gao Wengang was a little worried about this. Although the navy currently only had one battleship and two or three auxiliary ships in the Caribbean Sea—the ship he was on even sent some supplies to them in Tobago—but there was nothing wrong with it. .Although their existence has greatly affected the smuggling trade in the Caribbean Sea, and made the Peruvian smuggling trade led by the Southern Railway Company more prosperous, but at this time, it is time to let it go, otherwise it is likely that these European countries will Grab the handle and make a sudden attack-even if they can't get away from dealing with the people on the east coast for a short time due to various reasons, but as long as they write down this account, they will get revenge on themselves sooner or later, which is inevitable Defend.

"Forget it, I won't complain to you when you just came here." Seeing the silence in the atmosphere, the senior Kang Ding laughed, stood up and opened the curtains, turned around and said, "Don't delay here any longer Let’s go to the Ottoman Empire earlier. Envoy Mo San should be in Smyrna now, you go and have a good chat with him, he is very kind, and he also likes to promote young people who are underachievers—well, your father is a veteran of the diplomatic circle Well, he should have told you about this, but I said too much, hehe. But seriously, the Virginia tobacco you pulled to the port of Livorno this time is really good. Now that the French civil war is gradually escalating, Maza Although they were forced to release Prince Condé and others from prison, these nobles did not buy it at all, and openly colluded with the Spanish army to invade France. As soon as this battle broke out, there was a shortage of supplies, and the naval ships in the Caribbean Sea Toss, the current trade situation in France is very serious. These Virginia shredded tobacco can be sold for 8 to [-] yuan, which is enough for our business station to recruit more craftsmen or scholars to send to the mainland this year."

"Since you said so, I won't delay here." Gao Wengang nodded, and said, "I still have some policy guidance documents from the local government affairs council that I need to hand over to Special Envoy Mo San. This matter has to be done quickly. By the way, How is the situation in the Ottoman Empire now, is it chaotic?"

"Well, it's more than a chaos can be described?" Kang Ding shook his head and said, "You'll know when you go. This country is in trouble at home and abroad, and it's going to collapse. I think the government should make emergency plans. After all The Ottoman Empire is our country's largest market in Europe. If this market collapses, the consequences will be catastrophic..."

(End of this chapter)