Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 1024 Return ([-])

The mist that had hung over Dunkirk all night had lifted.Surrounded by his entourage, Mo San left the cabin, and then boarded a small boat. After a while, he rowed to the pier, where some "distinguished guests" wearing high-end Italian silk costumes were already waiting for him.

"Envoy Mo, did you sleep well last night?" Clerk Balboa, who hadn't seen him for a long time, stepped forward to greet him.

Seeing the old acquaintance Balboa who signed the "Valladolid Peace Treaty" take off his hat to pay tribute to him, Mo San was a little flattered, and saw that he immediately took two steps, stepped forward to hold Balboa's right hand in the way of the East Bank, He smiled and said, "It's not bad. It's just that there was a fleet entering and leaving the harbor under the mist last night. This disturbed me a little, but of course it's not a big problem."

Balboa smiled when he heard the words, and didn't explain anything in particular, and in fact there was no need to explain.In fact, Dunkirk, as the home port of the Spanish Netherlands Fleet, has always been the bridgehead for the Spaniards to attack hostile forces.In its heyday, the Spanish warships and privateers of the Southern Netherland from here could capture dozens of Dutch ships every month. However, since William II organized a fleet to blockade Dunkirk and deal a heavy blow to the Spaniards, , Dunkirk once stopped for a long time, but now, it is clear that they have "resurrected" again.

But their current enemy is obviously not the Dutch.You know, the third-level parliament in The Hague ordered 1653 large warships in one go in February 2, when the war was fierce; in December, another batch was ordered, and a resolution was passed that unless the third-level parliament approved Approval, otherwise no one is allowed to sell warships to foreign countries.These measures have greatly strengthened the strength of the Dutch professional naval warships. According to public information, Mo San and others know that the Dutch will probably have fifty or sixty battleships in 30—the real data is that the Dutch will have 12 or 1654 battleships by the middle of 1654. There will be 64 quasi-battleships equipped with 40-60 guns, and 80-90 escort warships transformed from armed sailing ships. However, the tonnage is small and the artillery is mostly small-caliber, but it is enough for escort.

This kind of naval strength is naturally not comparable to the Spaniards. The Southern Netherlanders in Dunkirk are very aware of the strength of their neighbors, so they are not stupid enough to provoke them.Since the enemy is not Dutch, it is actually easy to guess.That's right, that's the French and the Portuguese - of course, if they meet the British who are alone, they don't mind voting - France and Portugal are the current enemies of the Spaniards, and both countries have ships to go to Fishing and trade in the North Sea or further afield naturally gave opportunities to the Spaniards in Dunkirk, so that there were ships entering and leaving this small port almost all the time.

After exchanging pleasantries, Mo San and Balboa got into a carriage and headed towards a villa not far from the pier.The villa is not big, and it seems that it was built by ordinary wealthy businessmen in the city. It is really suitable to hold a secret diplomatic meeting here.

"Envoy Mo, how are you thinking about the mortgage of the land south of 45 degrees south latitude that I proposed to you last time in exchange for a loan? In fact, we have already contacted your country through the Viceroyalty of Peru. There should already be a discussion, so please relax, this is not a formal discussion, just treat it as a simple chat. Do you want a drink? The coffee from New Granada, Peru tastes very good." As soon as Balboa entered the living room, he smiled and said to Mo San.

"The coffee is very good, thank you." Mo San handed over his coat to the secretary following him, then turned to Balboa and said, "I have heard about the prosperity of New Granada, and the coffee there should be very good. But There is no such a rich area south of 45 degrees south latitude? As far as I know, there are many barren grasslands, barren sandy land, wet and cold forests, annoying rolling mountains, constantly moving glaciers, cold The tundra and the broken and twisted islands, even the despicable savages are unwilling to live there. Are there 2000 Patagonians, Ona people, Thuelche people, and Araucan people? Such a piece Even exiled criminals are trying their best to escape, your country wants to mortgage a huge loan of [-] million yuan, is this possible?"

Of course, Mo San would not think that the Spaniard just wanted to "chat" with him, what is Balboa's identity, and what is Mo San's identity (Mo San will probably preside over the mortgage negotiation with the Spaniard after returning to China), these two A man with so many things to do every day would chat in such a remote place as Dunkirk, would anyone believe him?

Mo San also knew how bad the situation of the Spaniards was now.First of all, although the successive uprisings and rebellions in various places have been suppressed, they have greatly involved the energy of the Spaniards, making them unable to concentrate on fighting the French; secondly, these rebellions have brought about a sharp deterioration in the local security situation [-]. Bad harvests and increasing local centrifugation, which are often fatal; thirdly, the heavy debt burden weighs heavily on the Spaniards. They get so much gold and silver from America every year, half to a third of it. Both have to be used to repay the principal and interest. In addition, due to the poor business ability of the Spaniards, they are completely unable to take advantage of the large number of specialty products in the New World.All of these things put together have led to Spain's current predicament. Industry and agriculture are on the verge of collapse, the military has continued to lose, local centrifugation has strengthened, and the financial burden is extremely heavy. If there is no way, Spain may collapse.

However, since the Spanish government has been overwhelmed and bankrupt several times, now they have to think carefully about "finding a way" to reduce the burden. In the 16th century, the German Fugger family with whom they had a good relationship was pitted, and in 1627, the Genoese were pitted. These shameless acts of dishonesty greatly increased the difficulty of financing for the Spaniards. Now they are asking Portuguese Jews ( Another group of people who are not afraid of being pitted), the annual interest rate of the loans borrowed by the Dutch bankers exceeds 20%, and this is obviously one of the important reasons why they are in the debt quagmire.

Now perhaps the Spaniards realized that they could no longer borrow from those Jewish vampires, so they seriously considered the East Coasters who were close to them in the New World.The Spaniards are not fools. Of course they know that the people on the east coast have territorial ambitions for La Plata, but they can still tell the difference between colonial territory and European territory.In their eyes, I am afraid that the millions of square kilometers of La Plata are not as important as the "small places" such as Franche-Comté, the Southern Netherlands, Naples, Sicily, Parma, and Alsace-Lorraine.

According to the "Valladolid Peace Treaty" signed by Spain and the East Coast in 1648, La Plata except for the Port of Blanca and the area east of the Uruguay River, the rest of the land is the legal territory of the Kingdom of Spain.But the problem is that the Spaniards have neither the ability nor the desire to develop most of La Plata, so there are these Spaniards' land-backed loans.

It was natural for the Spaniards to give up some barren land in order to keep the above-mentioned European territories.After all, La Plata did not generate any income for the king, nor did it have a large population, but the above-mentioned things are different. Not only is it densely populated, but the tax base is also very wide, and most of the local people are Catholics. Loyalty is pretty good too, well ahead of La Plata in terms of value without a doubt.

Now Mo San has brought the topic to La Plata—not to mention that it is only La Plata south of 45 degrees south latitude—whether it is worth 2000 million yuan. Easy to answer.He's not that shameless yet, he can't tell nonsense with his eyes open, not to mention he hasn't been to those places, his impression of them is limited to others' dictation of him (there are even geography books published by the east coast), so it's natural in his heart I think it is extremely barren there, and my asking price of 2000 million is indeed an exaggeration.

"Mr. Balboa, to tell the truth, you may not like to hear it, but don't mind, because we are just chatting in private." Mo San took a sip of the coffee brought by the servant, smelling the rich aroma, Said: "I think the land south of 45 degrees south latitude is of little value. The land there cannot even grow enough food without improvement. It is cold and dry, the barbarians are extremely fierce, and there is no fishery near the coast. resources, which is enough to discourage any investor. Therefore, in my opinion, a wild land with no commercial value south of 45 degrees south latitude can only be mortgaged for 200-300 million yuan at most. For the value of the land itself..."

Balboa almost jumped out of his chair when he heard the words. From 2000 million to 200 million, the gap is too big!Fortunately, his self-cultivation is not bad, he resisted the urge to scold Mo San, and his brain started to spin rapidly, preparing to refute Mo San's words.Before he could say anything, Mo San signaled his followers to take out a hand-painted map of the southern cone (of course an extremely simple one) from their briefcases, and drew a dotted line on it with a pencil: 45 degree line.

"The 45th parallel of south latitude is here." Mo San put down his pencil and said blankly, "It's a barren land. It's more than 300 million people. Who would want such a place?"

The 45th south latitude is roughly north of Santa Cruz Province in Argentina and south of Chubut Province in later generations. Not only Chiloe Island in Chile is not included, but even half of the Salmon Islands developed by people on the east coast are out of range How could such land be worth 2000 million yuan?Even if the East Coast government wants to improve relations with the Kingdom of Spain and take care of the Spaniards (so that they can fight against others in Europe), it is impossible for the Spaniards to mortgage such a barren land to the East Coasters, and then be happy Take away a huge sum of 2000 million.How much money do we have when we are stupid?

(End of this chapter)