I'm sure of the prosperous age of Kangxi and Qianlong!

Chapter 586 The Hospitable Spaniards

The Baxu (San Francisco) colony was established. There was no governor or official for the time being, and it relied entirely on its own reproduction and establishment.

The land here is very fertile, and it is right along the river. The river directly connects to the bay, so water transportation is not a problem. In the future, if we continue to colonize and develop the land here, we will no longer have to go to the Spanish port to replenish food, fruits and vegetables. We can replenish it directly here.

As for the relationship with the Yelamu tribe, the status quo should be maintained for the time being. The population here is still too small, and good relations with the indigenous tribes must be maintained. Moreover, the indigenous people here are also divided into different clans and tribes, so it is necessary to unite some of the indigenous people to fight against the other part of the indigenous people. This will also facilitate the later colonial expansion.

However, as the population of the colony continues to increase in the future, there will sooner or later be a war with the indigenous tribes.

Kang Zifei put down these colonial prisoners and left them with sufficient food and agricultural tools, and then led the fleet south from Boxu Bay (San Francisco Bay).

Along the road, we passed through the territory of the Chumash and Cocopa peoples. The indigenous tribes here, like the Ohlon people on the other side of Baxu Bay, were in a relatively primitive Stone Age. Not only did they have no iron tools, but there were no horses.

The Spanish colonized the Americas for nearly two hundred years and annexed almost all of South America, but they have been slow to expand further northward in their North American colonies. In addition to the constraints of Britain and France, the indigenous people in the north were too poor and only had stone tools and dried fish. For the Spaniards who were hungry for gold and silver minerals, the north was simply poor.

A few decades later, the Spanish suddenly moved north and captured San Francisco Bay. A large part of the reason was that Tsarist Russia joined the North American colonial cake and established a colony on the north shore of San Francisco.

After traveling more than 1000 kilometers south from Boxu Port, the voyage fleet led by Kang Zifei finally arrived at the Spanish colonial port.

This port was newly built forty years ago and falls under the jurisdiction of the Western Governorate of the Viceroyalty of New Spain.

Thirty years ago, the Spanish established the San Xavier Castle here and suppressed the Indian uprising.

When the Ming Dynasty's voyage fleet approached the port, it immediately alerted the Spanish coastal defense batteries and several cruise warships.

However, soon the Spanish officer on one of the battleships recognized the Ming flag that the fleet was flying collectively.

"Is it a Chinese ship? They are back again!"

The original tense situation disappeared and was replaced by a commotion throughout the port in a short period of time.

The colonial administrator Torres, who came after hearing the news, first guided these Chinese ships to the shore. Seeing Kang Zifei disembarking from the flagship, he was stunned for a moment, and then immediately came back to his senses: "Oh, Kang! My friend, a year has passed, and you finally came back with the fleet. If you don't come back, His Majesty the Governor will write a letter blaming me for deceiving him."

Kang Zifei smiled and responded in Spanish: "Torres, I have been away from my country for many years, and my relatives in Nanjing are very concerned about me. But don't worry, I came to America (Spanish) this time and brought a piece of news. I am Ming China His Majesty the Emperor has officially issued a decree to open a new waterway between China and the Americas. Some of these accompanying ships were funded by His Majesty the Emperor, and others were Chinese merchants who followed His Majesty to develop new waterways here in the Americas. As long as they can make money here in the Americas, that will drive more fleets to come here for trade in the coming year.”

Torres immediately understood what Kang Zifei meant and nodded with a smile: "Kang, don't worry, as long as more Chinese merchant ships come to the port here to trade, the fleet of the Kingdom of Spain will definitely not stop you, and you The tariffs can also be lowered as the fleet increases."

Tariffs are actually just bribes given to governors and colonial officials.

These colonial officials had already deeply understood that China had banned the trade of large sailing ships before, so they, who had already gone crazy from poverty, could use all means to attract Chinese merchant ships to Mexico, even lowering some "tariffs" appropriately.

But it is only appropriate, for example, 10% dropped to 9.8%. It may seem like only 0.2%, but this is a massive amount of real money.

However, this situation will only last for more than ten years at most. As Chinese merchant ships continue to pour into the Americas, it will definitely have a huge impact on the local market.

As long as the Spaniards find that there are too many Chinese goods on the market and Spanish merchants cannot make money, the Spaniards will start to go crazy and use military means to squeeze out Chinese merchants or even directly massacre them.

Repeating this over and over again without considering any consequences, you don't know what the hell these Spaniards are thinking?

Kang Zifei brought the fleet to the Spanish colony. The accompanying merchants could finally stay and trade to make money, and they really saw how rich the Europeans here were.

These Chinese maritime traders and colonial Spaniards, including officials, displayed the goods they had brought.

The two sides bargained repeatedly, and most of the goods brought by the Chinese merchant ships were eaten by the local Spaniards. The small part that was not eaten was because the storage was not done well, resulting in darkness, moisture, mold, and deterioration.

Moreover, even if the transaction price is negotiated, it is at least 20 times the original cost price of the goods. Huge profits!

All the maritime merchants got rid of the unsellable junk goods that were damp and moldy and still made a lot of money from the rest.

At this time, many people's thoughts became vivid, even the maritime merchants who originally planned to take a risk only once, and after earning the principal, would no longer participate and return to China to develop other businesses. At this moment, they all felt that although the Yinzhou sailing ship trade took a long time, the profits were indeed very considerable.

The voyage to Yinzhou only took more than half a year since the beginning of spring. After unloading the cargo, the return trip will only be faster.

At best, you can make 20 times the profit in a year and a half.

And next time they have experience, they can do better warehousing and bring more goods, and the profits they make will only be more.

Chinese maritime merchants felt that the Spaniards were too rich, and the Spaniards were also grateful to these Chinese who came from afar.

For a long time, the smuggling trade of these large sailing ships was almost non-existent among the Spaniards on the west coast of Beiyin, especially in this western colonial area established only forty years ago.

Even smuggling on the east coast has become increasingly difficult due to factors such as European wars and Chinese (Qing Dynasty) maritime restrictions.

Now there are so many Chinese galleons coming to smuggle trade with them. Not only the Spanish colonial officials in the Western Governor's Palace, but also the plantation slave owners and urban residents are bringing their belongings one after another. After hearing the news, they rush to buy the goods brought by the Chinese merchants. incoming goods.

From silk brocade to porcelain and tobacco, everything was sold out, and the price increased from more than ten times the initial price to higher and higher. There were even fights almost caused by the rush to buy the few goods.

Kang Zifei stayed in the colony for several days, not only to replenish supplies, but also to make money by trafficking goods in his official capacity.

After all, the development of the Yinzhou colony this time was funded by internal funds. It can be regarded as the emperor taking the risk of the voyage to encourage foreign exploration. If he does not earn more money for His Majesty, even if His Majesty does not say it, I am afraid he will be very disappointed in his heart.

Kang Zifei, who has been in the shopping mall for more than 20 years, still has some political sense.

The Spanish colonial port has the largest flow of people these days, and it is crowded everywhere.

Chinese and Spanish are chattering, and many businessmen have hired Spanish translators on the spot in Luzon, so they are not worried about the language barrier.

Torres held Kang Zifei's hand: "Kang, my friend! It's great that you can come here. You have brought prosperity and a large amount of daily necessities to this town (port). I hope that on this day next year, we can still I’ll see your merchant ships as scheduled, as well as the goods and merchandise you brought, so don’t worry that we won’t be able to eat them.”

Kang Zifei said: "For my Spanish friends, I will come back next year and bring more merchant ships. I am afraid that the trade smuggling will be even greater by then, and it is likely to attract the attention of your governor..."

Torres smiled and said: "Don't worry, Kang. I will personally write a letter to the governor to explain the situation here, and such a high 'tariff' itself is a bribe to the governor and Mexican officials."

Kang Zifei also smiled and said, "That makes me feel relieved."

The two were walking and chatting when suddenly a soldier came over and reported: "Marquis Donghai, there are three Chinese businessmen asking to see you!"

Kang Zifei was not displeased, but just asked: "Did they encounter any trouble? Didn't they say that they were the Ming Dynasty's fleet and came to Yinzhou for trade?"

Although the smuggling of large sailing ships on the west coast of Beiyin has almost been eliminated, if Kang Zifei hadn't brought the Ming Dynasty fleet here, I'm afraid there would have been "poor days" here for a long time. But "poor" is "poor", and there is still a small chance that Chinese merchants with no background will be ripped off by local colonial officials when they ship goods here.

The Spaniards have always been like this, forgetting their fate when they see small profits and being short-sighted.

But the soldier who reported the news shook his head: "They are not the businessmen who came with us, but the local Chinese businessmen here. They said they were from Fujian and Guangdong, and they also spoke Hokkien and Chaozhou dialect."

Kang Zifei was very surprised and didn't expect it at all: "There are actually Fujian and Guangdong businessmen here?"

(End of this chapter)