The Imperial Age with the Resurgence of Han Style

Chapter 64 New Situation in Trade

On May 1724, 5, heavy rain occurred in Suiling (now Malacca City, Malaysia).

A storm that had been raging for two days has gradually subsided, and the wind has begun to slow down. However, the rain brought by the storm has shown no sign of weakening, and it is falling fast and heavy.Harder Semmel held an oilcloth umbrella and walked on the sewage-filled streets towards the Merchant's Club in the distance.

The three-story club was built 50 years ago in Malacca City - oh, this city has been renamed Suiling after it was taken over by the Qi people - a grand building second only to the Governor's Palace.After countless merchant ships passing through the Strait of Malacca dock here, merchants and sailors like to gather in this club to talk about their adventures at sea, exchange business information from various places, or complete a transaction with the help of brokers. Goods trading.

The city of Malacca is located on the north shore of the Strait. Its transportation location is extremely important. It has been a trading port on the east-west thoroughfare for hundreds of years, and has attracted many forces to compete for it. In 1642, the Dutch East India Company and the Johor Sultan Kingdom seized it from the Portuguese (the original historical date was 1641) and maintained their rule until October last year, when it was handed over to Qi. In more than 100 years, this land has changed hands four times, and it is evident that the competition for it is intense.

However, the prosperity of Malacca City ceased more than 20 years ago.The Qi people first occupied Temasek Island (today's Singapore Island) and Longmen Island (today's Batam Island, Indonesia) at the eastern end of the Strait and established the Straits Governor-General.Efforts were made to carry out vigorous immigration and infrastructure construction on these two islands, and they gradually became an important commercial and trade hub in the East Indies.With the increasing scale of Qi's trade with India, Persia, and Arabia, the number of merchant ships coming and going has gradually increased, and Temasek Island has also achieved unprecedented prosperity, completely overshadowing the aura of Malacca City.

In addition, at the western end of the Strait of Malacca, the colonial stronghold of Penang Island (now Binzhou City, Malaysia) occupied by the Qi State was backed by several Malay kingdoms such as Kedah, Perak, and Pattani, and its development momentum was also extremely strong. It also took away a lot of the scenery of Malacca City.

Malacca City, which is located in the middle, seems to have an awkward position. On weekdays, except for the merchant ships of the Dutch East India Company that dock at the port when entering and exiting the strait, more foreign ships will choose the port where there are more trade opportunities and better port conditions. The Temasek Island is a good place with more complete service functions.

However, a storm suddenly hit two days ago. Merchant ships passing through Malacca had to dock for safety, causing a sudden increase in the number of ships berthed at the port. Those merchants and sailors who had taken shelter from the storm rushed into the city, turning the quiet port into a noisy one.

Harder Semmel was previously a port administrator for the Dutch East India Company. His job was to inspect merchant ships passing through the port of Malacca to confirm whether the goods they carried were in compliance with the regulations, whether the quantities were consistent, and whether they were going to prohibited areas. The port conducts trade and seems to have a lot of power. Many captains also try their best to please him, and the various benefits that fall into his hands are definitely indispensable.

But after the Qi people took over the port, he was naturally replaced by those "Baba" employees with oriental faces, because in the eyes of the Qi people, these descendants of Peranakans may be more worthy of their trust.

After leaving his post in the East India Company, Harder Semer was not depressed, nor did he return to Europe angrily.Instead, he found a new career as a commodity agent at the Port of Malacca.To use the traditional name of the Orientals, they are toothmen and brokers, that is, they recommend Chinese goods and Malay specialties to agents at all levels under the Dutch East India Company and other foreign merchants, such as whose goods are better and whose prices are higher. It's cheap, who can deliver it faster?

This new job was naturally less dignified than his previous position in the East India Company.But because he was eloquent and had made friends with many Qi businessmen in his previous work, he also had a very good relationship with the local Malay businessmen in Malacca. He could always get the goods that met the specifications, quantity, and price in a timely manner. Various commodities, coupled with the connections he accumulated within the East India Company, within a few months, he made several large orders, with commissions from both sides, and his income was much higher than before.

Thanks to the storm in the past two days, many merchant ships were stationed in Malacca City to seek refuge. The club that had been relatively deserted in the past suddenly became bustling with people. The upstairs and downstairs were filled with people drinking and chatting.

Well, in this case, there should be many business opportunities.

"Oh, why are there so many Qi officers in the club today?" Harder Semel drank a glass of mead (sugar cane wine, rum) and looked at the many people in military uniforms gathered near the window. An officer of Qi State.

"On a rainy day, these officers will not stay in the barracks sleeping in a daze." Carmelo Garde, a trader from Portugal, said with a smile: "After all, there are all kinds of delicious drinks in the club, as well as food to satisfy your cravings. Drinks and snacks. Oh, of course, there is also a beautiful lady, maybe there will be a wonderful affair."

"Qi soldiers have very strict discipline and will not mess around in the club." Harder Semel has been dealing with Qi people for many years and has a certain understanding of their soldiers.Unless they are on a long vacation, under normal circumstances, Qi soldiers will not get themselves drunk, let alone seduce girls from good families.

Well, I have to say that there is a reason why Qi's army is so powerful.

"By the way, Mr. Semel, as a well-informed commodity agent, do you have any tea, coffee, or steel bars that are in high demand at reasonable prices? Can you recommend them to me?" Carmelo Garde asked the waiter at the counter. He asked with a smile as he filled Harder Semmel's glass.

"Do you want Qin Guo tea or Qi Guo tea?" Harder Semel raised his eyebrows, his face full of eager expression.

"It's Qin Guo Tea Bar, equipped with a small amount of Qi Guo Tea."

European merchants who often trade with the East know that although tea has been transplanted in Hanzhou of Qi for more than 50 years, due to water, soil and climate factors, the tea harvested is generally not as good as that of mainland Qin in terms of taste and appearance. Therefore, most of the tea produced in the country has been reduced to low-grade tea, generally used as a consumer product for the lower class people.

Tea in the Qin Dynasty has been associated with Chinese culture for thousands of years. Since the discovery of wild tea trees, tea has been made from raw soup to cake tea and loose tea, from green tea to multiple teas, from manual operation to machine-assisted tea making. , has experienced complex changes during this period, all of which are far beyond what Qiguo Tea, which has only decades of tea cultivation experience, can compare with.

The price of tea leaves between the two generally differs by three to five times, and for top-quality tea leaves that have been roasted for many times, there is even a difference of more than ten times, and the price is comparable to the same weight of silver.

Of course, whether it is low-end Qi tea or mid-to-high-end Qin tea, the sales channels are generally controlled by Qi people, who can capture a large amount of trade balance income.

“Do you need chintz?”

After a heated discussion, Harder Semel quickly finalized Carmelo Garde's cargo demand intention.Although, if he had sailed directly to Quang Ninh (today's Cilegon, Indonesia) or Batavia, the price of the goods he needed might have been much cheaper, but being able to pick up the goods directly from Malacca would have saved a lot. Isn’t it distance and time?After drinking down the glass of wine comfortably, he asked casually, hoping to facilitate another cotton transaction and obtain more commissions.

"Oh, it's not necessary for the time being." Carmelo Garde shook his head and said: "Many European countries have become more and more strict on restrictions on printed cotton. Many countries have implemented various bans to reduce or prohibit the import of cotton. In order to promote the country's cotton textile industry, England stipulated that the tax on all printed cotton fabrics and Indian linen products would be increased from the previous 20% to 25%. When I left Europe, their parliament was preparing to introduce a bill The new law made it illegal to import printed cotton cloth, and only white cotton cloth could be imported to Britain for further processing. In order to protect the silk and woolen textile industries, the French also issued a number of royal edicts and Privy Council rulings in an attempt to suppress the import of cotton textiles. and production. Countries and regions such as Venice, Flanders, and Spain are all imposing varying degrees of import restrictions on printed cotton."

"Oh?" Harder Semer was greatly surprised when he heard this. "According to what you said, wouldn't it mean that the entire European region has implemented strict trade bans on all kinds of printed cotton? There are so many countries in Europe, so many People, are they able to meet the market demand solely by relying on the cotton production of their respective countries?”

"European countries are jealous of Qi's cotton business, and it's not just a day or two." Carmelo Garde said: "European countries originally thought that as long as they continued to increase import tariffs on cotton from Qi and India, they would be able to The products of Qi people were blocked from the outside and they took the opportunity to develop their own cotton industry. But who would have thought that after imposing an import tariff of more than [-]%, Qi people's cotton would still have a huge price advantage over the cotton industries of European countries. It caused a huge impact. Therefore, many European countries have directly issued bans on the import of cotton fabrics, or set up various restrictive measures to protect their own cotton fabric industries."

Decades ago, European countries successively enacted various trade restrictions on cotton. These policies were originally intended to protect domestic producers of wool, linen, silk and other fabrics.Now, it has evolved into a clear development plan to encourage domestic cotton textile production.Through these trade protection policies, domestic manufacturers who are unable to compete freely with Qi's cotton fabrics will realize that the cotton market is promising and reduce the outflow of precious metals.

The earliest Indian cotton cloth, as well as various cotton fabrics that were dumped by the Qi Dynasty later, not only had the same quality as the linen produced in France, the Netherlands, and Flanders, but the price of linen was at least three to five times that of cotton. .The quality is almost the same as linen, but the price is only one-third or one-fifth of it. This is the advantage of cotton fabrics.

Since the UK has long focused on the production of woolen fabrics, non-wool fabrics, such as linen and other linen textiles, all rely on imports. Therefore, people at that time did not have much resistance to the import of cotton fabrics to replace linen. In a short period of time, , has become one of the largest sales markets for Qi's cotton fabrics in Europe.

Some British businessmen once said with gloating that the import of domestic cotton fabrics and muslins had brought a heavier burden to the linen industry, the main manufacturing industry in France, the Netherlands, and Germany, than the woolen textile industry. of blow.

Qi cotton fabrics, which came in as a substitute for linen, became popular in Britain in a short period of time due to their attractive prices - a laborer with a daily salary of 8 pence could buy 2 feet after working for two weeks.

The British East India Company, which had obtained the monopoly on eastern trade, imported the largest volume of goods every year, in addition to tea, steel bars, hardware products, and pepper, cotton fabrics were the largest.From high-end Qiguo fine-grain printed cotton to low-end Indian homespun fabrics, there is huge market demand in the UK.

However, Qi's mid- to high-grade cotton and Indian homespun cloths, which flooded into the European market, had a huge impact on traditional European linen and woolen products. Moreover, seeing the massive amounts of gold and silver flowing to Qi and the East every year, it has been European countries, seduced by mercantilism, began to gradually restrict cotton fabrics from Qi and India, and tried to support their own cotton spinning industries.

However, facing Qi's advantages in production costs and technology, European countries seemed to be somewhat unable to do so from the beginning.Although we can rely on continuously increasing import tariffs to gradually reduce the import scale of Qi's cotton fabrics.However, the cotton fabrics produced with the country's inefficient and backward production technology are not only of poor quality, with blurred printing and text, but also high prices. Doesn't this make ordinary people take advantage of?

European cotton fabrics counterparts are feeling increasing pressure in the face of Qi's crushing product advantages.In this case, only by obtaining the corresponding production technology for cotton fabrics can we compete with Qi's products in terms of price and quality.

In fact, Europe began manufacturing cotton products decades ago, predicated on what is arguably the most high-profile act of industrial espionage in history.Qi fabrics are very popular among consumers in Europe and other regions because of their exquisite patterns, bright colors and affordable prices.In order to compete with the excellent quality Qi cotton, European manufacturers, with the support of their respective governments, tried to plagiarize Qi's various production technologies and knowledge.

However, due to Qi's strict technological blockade and entry-exit control, the technologies and methods acquired over the years are really limited.But the clever British took a unique approach and set their sights on India.

More than 40 years ago, the Qi people completely established their dominant trade position in India through a war. A large number of cotton fabrics flooded into the Indian market, which destroyed the Indian cotton fabric industry in a short period of time, causing countless weavers to lose their jobs. A job for a living.

Under this situation, the British searched and recruited a large number of skilled Indian weavers from the Bengal region to acquire and imitate various Indian textile technologies.

It is true that India's cotton textile technology cannot be compared with Qi's, but it is still at a higher level than its European counterparts, which will definitely greatly promote the development of the European cotton textile industry.Over the past several decades, British cotton printers had been collecting and replicating Indian patterns using their expertise in Indian cotton printing.For example, records of Bangladeshi textile processing and local silk and cotton dyeing processes, or similar real oriental processes of quickly dyeing cotton yarn or cloth with a strong Turkish red, also known as Adrianople red, fully bear witness to the British understanding of the process. This kind of technology transfer has been diligently pursued and "introduced".

Other European manufacturers have followed suit, and so far, through their efforts, French cotton product manufacturers can imitate almost all cotton textiles, except for the highest quality Qi national high-end printed cotton.Oh, of course, the cost cannot be compared with the mid- to high-grade cotton and Indian homespun cloth from Qi that arrived in Europe across the ocean.

Although Europeans quickly copied Indian technology, which promoted the rapid development and progress of the European cotton industry, until now, the scale of cotton cloth from Qi is still second to none.However, as European countries begin to continue to support and protect their own cotton textile industry, it will inevitably have a serious impact on the import of cotton fabrics from China.Over time, they will embrace more and more domestic industries and challenge Qi's manufacturing.

"Since the demand for cotton cloth is weak, then I have a new product from Qi that I can recommend to you." Harder Semel put aside the worries about Qi's cotton cloth, and then asked Carmelo Gal Germany recommends additional products.

"Oh, what product?"

"That is a very magical product. People in Qi call it rubber."

"Rubber?...What is that?" Carmelo Garde asked curiously.

"A brand new material product." Harder Semel said, lifting up the rubber rain boots on his feet. "See? It's this kind of material product. I think this is a subversive product. , it will definitely cover every aspect of our lives in the future.”

(End of this chapter)