New Shun 1730
Chapter 158: Unsolvable Trade Deficit
When Liu Yu's wife Ben arrived in Weihaiwei, it was already May, and he was already organizing his second trade trip to Japan.
This time he didn't have to go in person. He let Lin Yunwen be the bow of the boat and assigned a few confidants to follow him.
Today's military camp and naval school have been moved to Liugong Island, which is beginning to take shape. Originally there was only one Western soft sailing ship named Shuguang, but now there is an additional sister ship built.
The tonnage is not large, and the main purpose is to familiarize students with the operation of soft sailing boats and understand the tedious cable and sail control skills.
Bering and others were members of the expedition team, captains of the Russian Navy, and participated in the Russo-Turkish War. The students have received practical education since childhood, so it is much easier for them to learn.
The first batch of 1,000 recruits for the new army has also been completed. This was the homework assigned to the 20-person staff squad before he left.
They will arrange a series of trivial matters such as training, meals, and recruiting soldiers during his absence, and formulate a plan. After reviewing and approving it before he leaves, they will make a decision and let them execute it.
This new army does not belong to him, and does not need to have souls, so there is no storyteller or storyteller similar to the instructor's configuration to tell why they are fighting. Besides, there is nothing to say. The logic makes no sense at all. As long as you have a few acres of land, you can't become a soldier.
These new recruits are trained mechanically every day.
Being able to have enough to eat every day, being paid on time, and being able to execute orders mechanically is a strong army in this era.
There are no guns yet. After most of the people are recruited, they just hold sticks and practice formation, dividing them into left and right.
On July 23, Liu Yu was checking the grain storage status of a newly built granary. A buzzing bell sounded from the watchtower in the distance, which was a signal that an unknown ship was approaching.
"Sir, a large Western ship appeared on the sea."
Soon, Wu Fangrui, who was on duty as the adjutant in the staff team today, asked clearly about the reason for the alarm.
Liu Yu was relieved when he heard that it was a Western ship.
In these days, those who have the ability to attack China are still fighting for India. If you can't win over India, you come to China just to see the excitement. Now the limit for Western Europe to transport troops here is 1,000.
The remaining few who are not competing for India are all rookies. Without India as a transit point and local soldiers, it would be impossible to pose a substantial threat to China.
Western ships are common in the south, especially in places like Zhangzhou, Guangdong, and are nothing new.
Here, there are two training ships in the harbor, which is nothing new, but this is the first time for many people to see such a large Western ship.
Wu Fangrui consciously stood in front of Liu Yu, lowering his body slightly and using his shoulders as a stand for the telescope. Liu Yu glanced for a long time, watching the ship getting closer and closer, and finally he could clearly identify the flag on it.
A flag in the shape of three stripes, red on both sides and white in the middle, with a crown clasped on three fleur-de-lis.
"French East India Company ship. My cargo has arrived."
He murmured in his heart and asked Wu Fangrui to convey the message. The two training ships, which looked like "little birds" compared to this large armed merchant ship, approached and asked each other about their intentions.
If they are coming to trade, if they report their name, they can be led directly into the port.
In recent years, the French, British and Dutch have been as free as returning home in various ports in the south. There is nothing to hide from these people about their family background.
…………
On the deck of the Argonaut, Dupleix looked at the two converted training ships approaching from the distance.
The large armed merchant ship of about 600 tons is much larger than the two expedition ships, and it has a condescending aura.
"Mr. Dupleix, what do you think of this China trade?"
The captain of the Argonaut did not pay attention to the two sailing ships that were gradually approaching, but asked Dupleix about his outlook for the future.
Dupleix looked calm and shook his head.
"That group of people in the Paris salon, sitting there dreaming. Have you ever heard of such fantasy poetry?"
Clearing his throat, Dupleix read out a long poem that had become popular in Paris recently. A long, romantic, fantasy poem.
"If we wear brocades, silks, and Songjiang cloth from this rich empire, then its people will also wear our woolens and velvets; if our mansions are equipped with various furniture from China, China's The house will be decorated with our mirrors and wall clocks.”
"We taste their tea, they drink our coffee, and add our sugar cubes. They give us raw silk, and we return woolen and furs. They give us rhubarb, and we give them ginseng."
"Chinese oranges grow happily in Europe, and European fig trees can also survive in China. One day, our flower beds will be filled with Chinese flowers, and China's flower beds will be filled with tulips, daffodils, and tuberoses. and apples. From them we learned to weave all kinds of fabrics, and from us they learned to build all kinds of ingenious machinery..."
After reading the long fantasy poem, Dupleix spat at the deck and said in a mocking tone: "Those who drink coffee in the salon only have fantasy. They don't know that throughout the last year, we Only 400,000 livres of goods were shipped to China; when we left China, we took away 3.2 million livres of goods.”
"The biggest commodity we can trade with China is silver, only silver. Not the woolen fabrics, velvets, wall clocks and mirrors they imagined!"
"Captain, you should know that exchanging goods only with gold and silver would be a heavy burden for a country that consumes gold and silver. If there is no trade with China, the workers in the porcelain factory in Saint-Cloud will have more work to do, and there will always be stems and leaves of other aromatic plants to replace the fragrance of tea."
At this point, Dupleix shrugged self-deprecatingly, spread his hands and smiled: "But you and I are both from the East India Company. For our profits, we can only increase the import of Chinese goods. As for the silk weaving factory in Lyon and the ceramic factory in Saint-Cloud, if they all go bankrupt one day, our East India Company will make more money."
The captain also laughed and responded: "Yes, that is something for your majesty and the prime ministers to consider. And we have to consider only profits and profits. As a Frenchman, I hope that the porcelain factory in Saint-Cloud will get better and better; as an employee of the East India Company, I hope that the porcelain factory in Saint-Cloud will go bankrupt sooner."
"Of course, I am an employee of the East India Company first, and then a Frenchman."
Dupleix smiled and nodded, thinking who is not?
This is not the first time Dupleix has come to China. Dupleix's father is a director of the East India Company, which gives Dupleix, who is only 33 years old this year, a higher starting point and a broader stage since birth.
The French are not good at trade.
France is the only one who authorized a monopoly on Chinese trade and then went bankrupt.
The first French ship to come to China was the Amphitrite, about 30 years ago. Bai Mingyuan, a missionary in the court, overstepped his authority. It was obviously a merchant ship, but he boasted that it was a royal ship sent by Louis XIV to protect the "missionaries" to highlight the noble status of the missionaries.
By the way, in order to preach, Bai Mingyuan also said that trade was "tribute". Since it was tribute, it was treated as tribute, and the result was a mess.
The French and the British were mortal enemies. They were parked in the port of Guangzhou. They were obviously merchant ships, but they really regarded themselves as royal ships. Because the British merchant ship passed by without saluting them, this group of French jumped off the ship and beat the British.
It was a mess, with tribute and merchant ships mixed up. The manager wanted to make money, missionaries like Bai Mingyuan wanted to take the opportunity to preach, and the knights on the ship wanted to take the opportunity to beat up the British...
It was a mess, and the result was predictable. In 1712, the first French company authorized to trade with China was insolvent and forced to dissolve.
10 years later, a new company took over the monopoly on trade with China.
Shortly after the establishment of the new company, 28-year-old Dupleix emerged. Because his father was a director, the 28-year-old was fully responsible for the East India Company's trade with Guangdong that year, making the East India Company's profit margin in Guangdong trade that year reach an astonishing 140%.
Many people know that in time, Mr. Dupleix will be a strong candidate for the Governor of the East India Company.
This time, sending Dupleix to China shows that the company attaches great importance to this matter.
As Dupleix said, the last time the Argonaut came to China, it only brought 800,000 livres of silver coins, because after searching for a long time, it really didn't know what to sell to China, and it seemed that any goods were not selling well.
When it went back, the Argonaut used all the silver coins to buy Chinese tea, raw silk, Songjiang cloth, wallpaper, rhubarb, lacquerware, porcelain, and a lot of blood-activating and blood-stasis-removing drugs such as diamond vine and white rattan.
It came empty, but there was still a 140% profit, which looked good, but in fact the East India Company had many places to spend money, and it was difficult for the company to take out so much cash for trade with China.
And trade with China cannot be carried out without gold and silver.
This time the company sent Dupleix, hoping to reverse this completely passive situation, at least to find a new trade that could be closer to a surplus or deficit.
This time, the cabin was loaded with muskets, cannons, gun carriages, gun carts and other goods.
Dupleix was sure that the goods on this ship could be exchanged for enough gold and silver.
However, he was not optimistic about the long-term prospects of Sino-French trade.
Through the letter and some information he had inquired about, Dupleix knew that the Chinese general who was trading with him was only in his early twenties, but he had defeated the Russians on the Lena River and captured the Russian black man he had met in Paris, Peter's godson.
From the content of the letter, it can be seen that the general surnamed Liu knew the situation in Europe very well. No matter what means he used to collect these information, it was undoubtedly correct and to the point.
This person knew very well where China's advantages in trade were, and also knew very well where France's disadvantages were. As for the arms trade, Dupleix was sure that an organized and undisintegrated great power would inevitably hold the military industry firmly in its hands.
China now seems to be trying such a change. The arms trade can be sold once or twice, but what about after that?
After that, what will France rely on to trade with China?
In Dupleix's view, China is like a monster, a dragon that likes to collect gold coins. Guangdong is the mouth of this giant dragon, with gold coins constantly falling in but never flowing out.
Dupleix was not optimistic about trade, but he was full of expectations for the conclusion of the Sino-French alliance. At least in Southeast Asia, France now has no ability to compete with the Netherlands and Britain. If a force can be introduced to contain the British and the Dutch, it will undoubtedly be beneficial to his "French India" plan.
Thinking about the content of the deal all the way, when the ship finally guided the Argonaut into the port and saw Liu Yu welcoming him, Dupleix was still shocked by Liu Yu's youth.
Liu Yu was the same. He didn't expect the French East India Company to send such a person, nor did he expect that this great colonial leader was so young at this time?
This person's name is also well-known, but it is usually used as a foil and background board...
As a foil, the highlight is his enemy, the British robber adventurer Clive, who was fearless, defeated 70,000 with 900 men, and became the Governor of Bengal at the age of 33.
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