Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 954 The Outsider

January 1653, 1, Qingdao Port, sunny.

Several Dutch sailing ships from Recife docked quietly in the port, from where they brought a large amount of Brazilian sumac needed for naval shipbuilding on the east coast, as well as tropical specialties such as cotton, cocoa, and dried fruits. It is on the zero-tariff import catalog of the East Coast Republic, and it has always been a very good business for businessmen from Brazil.

As for the goods for the return trip, there are naturally a lot of them, including daily necessities such as wine, cloth, butter, flour, ham, and cheese, as well as production materials such as agricultural tools, knives, and mechanical parts.Now Britain and the Netherlands have fallen into an all-out war, and the Netherlands itself is still suffering from a shortage of supplies. Of course, there is no extra energy to transport supplies to the New World, so the safety of the Dutch overseas colonies depends entirely on themselves—of course the mainland also Not without any effort, they came forward to ask the east bank to transport supplies to overseas colonies such as Recife, Cape Town, and the Dutch West Indies (if possible, the supply task of New Holland can also be contracted) to maintain there The normal operation of this matter has been approved by the East Coast government, which relieves the Zeeland businessmen who have invested heavily in the West India Company.

These investors from Zeeland Province are really in extreme trouble now. The protracted war with the Portuguese has almost exhausted the company's financial resources, so that they had to accept 150 million dong from the East India Company a few years ago Otherwise, it is very likely that it will not be able to maintain the normal operation of the vast colonies including West Africa, Brazil, the West Indies and New Netherland.

But now it seems that the situation is still not very optimistic. Rampant British warships and armed merchant ships appear in the Caribbean Sea from time to time. Although there are not many of them, the Dutch merchant ships assembled to fight the single one are still accurate. Disgusting.In the end, some Spanish, French, and Portuguese privateers followed in troubled waters, waiting for an opportunity to attack the Dutch merchant ships loaded with high-value items such as tobacco and sugar, which caused the West India Company a lot of losses.

In order to cope with this harsh situation, the Dutch West India Company had to shrink its battle lines, organize a small number of warships, escort unprotected transport ships to Europe, and then join the large escort fleet organized by the local navy to return to Amsterdam. .But in this way, the ships transporting supplies between the colonial strongholds will not be escorted. This is obviously a big trouble, because the Portuguese fleet in Brazil will never let this opportunity go.

Fortunately, there are people from the east coast!

They even took the double risk of offending Portugal and England, withstood the pressure and promised to transport supplies to these Dutch colonies, and at the same time they would send naval warships to escort them-apparently the Dutch merchant ships who came to the east coast to buy supplies could hitch a ride together when they returned. , Never worry about being intercepted halfway.

This is the case with these Dutch ships in Qingdao Port. They are purchasing supplies in the port while waiting for the arrival of the escort ships from the east coast.Next to them, there are several ships of the South China Sea Transportation Company, including two refrigerated ships (full of meat and fish, nearly 12.5 tons), four flute-shaped transport ships (full of building materials, bean cakes, flour, etc.) , sorghum and other commodities), a large clipper cargo ship (full of various military supplies).The total value of the goods on these ships exceeded [-] yuan, and the destination was Recife and the Dutch West Indies.These materials, together with those purchased by the Dutch themselves, are believed to be enough to fill the Dutch Brazil, West Indies, and New Netherlands in a short period of time.

"The Anglo-Dutch war broke out, but the large and small domestic enterprises on the east coast of my country have increased their exports and their profits have skyrocketed!" Standing in a luxuriously decorated office on the third floor of the majestic expo hall, Xu, a member of the Executive Committee and Minister of the Ministry of Trade, Holding a cup of tea in his hand, Xin looked through the window at the many ships moored in the bay.

Zhou Shenwo, director of the State Administration of Precious Metals, who was sitting on a rattan chair and smoking a pipe, agreed upon hearing this: "Our competition with the British and Dutch ghosts and animals is, to put it bluntly, a competition of the economic system. As for the political and military The confrontation is actually for the sake of economic interests. In the final analysis, what we compete with them is actually the right to control resources. If our common people want to live a good life, they need to consume more resources, and we consume more This is where the fundamental contradiction lies. Luckily, Europeans are some idiots, brainwashed by early mercantilism, thinking that precious metals are the real wealth, but how do they know the right to control resources? It is the real wealth. You have accumulated a lot of precious metals in your hands, but the resources are controlled in our hands. If you can’t spend them, then the money can only implode in your country, raising the cost of your social operation. There is nothing wrong with it for us.”

"Hehe, this argument is also the unanimous opinion of the members of the Executive Committee. Everyone has said that this support for the Dutch has actually greatly offended the British and the Portuguese, so let's offend them to the end! The West India Company is not It's been hard to support in Recife, well, let's play a big one, give them guns, give them guns, strengthen their determination and let them fight the Portuguese to the end!" Xu Xin lightly sniffed the tea leaves The fragrance of the air, but the words of killing and cutting are said in the mouth of gold and iron.

It is said that the decline of the Dutch in Brazil in recent years is a bit obvious. After independence from Spain, the Portuguese were very vigorous. They fought a protracted war with the Dutch in the northeastern part of Brazil, almost draining the financial resources of the Dutch West India Company.However, this dilapidated company’s stall is too large, and it has territory in Africa, North America, the Caribbean, and South America. After retreating to the city, the vast hinterland was lost to the Portuguese.

Historically, a year later, the Dutch would sign a treaty ceding Dutch Brazil to Portugal.However, when the war with the British ended a few months later, the Dutch went back on their word. They sent troops from the mainland to Brazil, and then threatened Lisbon with a fleet. As a result, the Portuguese, who had already fallen into the war with Spain, were forced to surrender. The Dutch Brazil was spit out again and given to the Dutch. The whole process was quite dramatic.However, the Dutch still failed to completely occupy this territory after all, because a few years later their brain-dead leader, Speaker De Witt, decided to sell Dutch Brazil to Portugal and officially signed the "Hague Treaty".

Portugal's unification of Brazil is naturally not in the interests of the people on the east coast who are eating their bowls and looking at the pot. Therefore, the members of the Central Committee feel that it is necessary to add some congestion to Portugal and cheer up the Dutch. This time the ship is fully loaded. The large clipper cargo ship funded by the military is going to Recife.What's even more bizarre is that these military funds worth tens of thousands of yuan were "credited" to the Dutch West India Company in advance by the people on the east coast. The Dutch will have a certain amount of cane sugar, cocoa, ship materials, cotton and other special products in the next few years. Come pay the bill.

This credit business is operated through a newly established "New Continent Friendship and Mutual Aid Bank". The bank's president is concurrently held by Zhou Shenwo. Arms aid worth 3.7 yuan-to support them in fighting the war with the Portuguese.

"The Dutch are also reluctant to give up the Dutch Brazil. If they are not forced to, it will be difficult for them to give up their interests there. Among other things, Recife is a city. I heard that there are now more than 120 sugar workshops. , the Dutch have invested so much, will they be willing to give up to Portugal? Obviously impossible!" Zhou Shenwo took a puff of cigarette, shook his head and said: "Moreover, Dutch companies do not have much competition with Chinese companies, on the contrary But there is still quite a lot of cooperation. In the past, we didn’t know each other well and didn’t interact with each other, so naturally we didn’t cooperate enough. Now, isn’t the opportunity coming? I think there is a lot of room for everyone to cooperate!”

What Zhou Shenwo said was actually what Xu Xin wanted to say, that is, the companies in the East Coast Republic had a lot of competition with Britain and France, but the competition with the Netherlands, a country that mainly engaged in entrepot trade, was not that great.Not to mention the companies in their colonies, the West India Company, the East India Company, which one is a serious manufacturing company?Therefore, between the enterprises in the East Coast and the Netherlands, in fact, complementarity is greater than competition, and it is absolutely possible to seek common ground while reserving differences, and to develop and make progress together.

"By the way, the Dutch in Amsterdam sent a fast boat to Dongfang Port a few days ago. Along with the boat was an assistant of Mo San, who carried Mo San's secret letter, the content of which was roughly agreed by the Dutch. The Tulare Commercial Station and its affiliated land and property were sold to us at a price of 50 dong, and there was also a package purchase agreement with the Netherlands. Members of the executive committee expressed their appreciation for Mo San's efforts, Therefore, the secret agreement was readily approved. At the same time, everyone was also discussing how to allocate ship capacity to deliver various commodities to Amsterdam. The Navy Department was also asked by Chairman Liu. Chairman Liu was eager to know whether the Navy should send the main force. The ship escorted to the Netherlands, would the English dare to declare war on our country? Minister of the Navy Lu Ming assured Chairman Liu that the British would never dare to declare war..." Xu Xin took a sip of tea and said to Zhou Shenwo with a relaxed expression.

"Why did the British declare war on us? We are outsiders now. Could it be that they are so brain-dead that they want to drag us, an outsider, into the water? Then their East India Company won't burp right away? The main force of the first and second fleets If it goes out, the ships of the East India Company going to and from India can be said to never return! Moreover, if our fleet goes north to New Holland and uses New Amsterdam of the West India Company as a base to attack New England and Virginia, which are close at hand In the colonies, the British guys don’t want to jump if they have no skills, hehe, they dare not." Zhou Shenwo blew a smoke ring and said with a smile: "Maybe the British guys have to import supplies from us now, we The goods are high-quality and cheap, and there is no reason for the British not to buy them during the war, unless they are determined to develop their own industries, just like Tsarist Russia in later generations, they would rather lose 6000 million gold rubles a year and insist on using domestic industrial products... ..."

(End of this chapter)