Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 1058 Chaos and Business ([-])

"Britain's Navigation Acts are extremely exclusive, and will undoubtedly strengthen the country's trade, ocean shipping, shipbuilding and naval power. In the long run, England will become stronger and stronger, while Holland will continue to weaken. Conrad, you should be very clear that the cost of buying a merchant ship for the British is not much higher than yours now, and the Swedes have begun to sell ships and timber to the UK. The only difference they have now is that the loan interest rate is higher than yours. What is even more frightening is that the cost of building and repairing professional warships for the British seems to be lower than yours, and the speed is also faster. After all, their artillery, canvas, anchor chains, cables, barrels, etc. You need to purchase from other countries, this cycle is far behind. Especially when the war breaks out and the trade is not smooth, the continuous combat capability of your country’s navy is definitely far inferior to that of the British.” In a certain house in Hollen City, Zheng Yong He frothed and stated the facts to Konrad van Beuyning who had returned from Sweden without success.

"Damn the Swedes!" Van Boyningen muttered in a low voice, then walked to the wine cabinet, poured himself a small half glass of imported Languedoc wine, and said, "It's the first time after the war that I tasted this wine from France. It's delicious, don't you want some, Zheng?"

"No, thank you, I don't need it for now." Zheng Yong politely declined.

"I went to Sweden for two years, but I didn't achieve anything." Perhaps because of drinking some wine, Van Beuningen's face turned red at this time, and he only heard him say: "The Swedes are obviously speculating. They speculated in one day. They seemed to be disgusted with the economic system dominated by Chinese businessmen. Since the second half of 1654, they have introduced a lot of capital and technical personnel from Lübeck, Hamburg and other places, and even a large number of German capitals. Trying to compete with the businessmen of our country. No matter what the result is, the Swedes’ minds are indeed obvious—no, they are not hiding it at all now, and they even put the market to the UK in spite of the strong protests of our businessmen People have opened up the market, they are already trying to get rid of money and technology from the Netherlands..."

"Besides, the Danes are not a good thing either!" Van Boyningen slammed his wine glass on the table and said angrily: "I heard that the British are negotiating with them and want to reduce the toll of the Sond Strait to the same level. The same low level as the United Provinces, which will undoubtedly help reduce the cost of British merchant ships. These traitors, fortunately, Sweden attacked them back then, and our government sent warships to intervene armedly, but these despicable Danes don’t know how to be grateful. At this moment It's such a disappointment to have hooked up with England."

Van Beuningen complained about the two Baltic countries, Sweden and Denmark, and then he calmed down a little bit. It can be seen that the two years he went to Sweden were not going well, so much so that he came back for a week and still treated them. There is a lot of resentment-in Van Boyningen's view, the reason why the Swedes have the capital to fight the 30-year war is inseparable from the capital and technology of the Netherlands, but their behavior of colluding with the British now is simply a betrayal!

You know, Van Beuningen is a typical republican, and this political faction mainly represents the interests of capitalists.As a Dutch capitalist, his main enemy is undoubtedly the British merchants, because they are fiercely competitive. On the contrary, the conflict with the French is not impossible to coordinate. If necessary, they can form an alliance with the French to deal with it Britain; but the Orange faction, which is dominated by landed nobles, is different. Although they are also not interested in the British, they have not reached the point of hatred. On the contrary, they are extremely disgusted with the French Bourbon family. The contradiction between the two is irreconcilable (the dispute is in the southern Netherlands), and if necessary, it can compromise with Britain at the expense of commercial interests, and turn to deal with France with all its strength.

These two factions can be said to have their own supporters in the Netherlands today, and they almost take turns controlling the government of the United Provinces. The Orange family was in power for a period of time before 1650, and the republicans have been in power until now.Zheng Yong, as the full-fledged diplomatic envoy on the east coast (he will be stationed in Amsterdam in the future), naturally hopes that the resolutely anti-British republicans will stay in power (although it is not realistic), because this is obviously in line with the "United Netherlands to control Britain" formulated by the country. basic national policy.After all, if the nobles sent by the Orange came to power, they might sacrifice the interests of the merchants to please the British, and then ease relations with the United Kingdom or even form an alliance to deal with Bourbon, who is close at hand and is eyeing the Southern Netherlands. The family, this is undoubtedly at odds with the interests of the East Bank, we must do our best to prevent it.

"Don't think about those spoilers, Conrad, what you should deal with now is the British. As for Sweden, just restrict them. If necessary, you can arm Denmark, Brandenburg, Poland and Russia to jointly resist Sweden. There are only 300 million people in Sweden (of which there are only 120 million Swedes), and the economy is mostly controlled by Dutch capital, and technology is also heavily dependent on the Netherlands, so they cannot support it for a long time.” Zheng Yong felt that he should bring the topic to the right path The above came, so he said: "Now the threat of the British is actually fatal. Now that the "Navigation Plan" has been promulgated and implemented, the British intention to replace the United Provinces as a trade intermediary is becoming more and more obvious. They want to establish A trade system centered on them and controlled by them - don't think it's impossible, in fact, you also know very well that Britain has a strong industrial production capacity, a large population, a strong navy, and enough talents of all kinds , They have these advantages, once they walk on the right path, they will develop much faster than you."

Zheng Yong’s statement is not unfounded. After signing the "Westminster Peace Treaty" and compensating for the losses caused to the merchants of the British East India Company since 1611, the British foreign trade doubled within a few months. The shipping business has also been greatly developed, and the rent of ships, the number of seamen, and the tonnage of transportation have almost doubled (the capture of 2000 Dutch transport ships during the war gave the British shipping industry a shot in the arm).Although the Dutch don't know the exact data here, they can clearly feel the rapid increase in Britain's trade volume and shipping market share in Europe and the New World. After all, the fat fell from the mouth of the Netherlands.

In addition, after seeing the defeat of the Netherlands and seeking peace, not only Sweden and Denmark winked at the United Kingdom, but Portugal, a country in deep war (even just recently intimidated by the Dutch) took the initiative to embrace the thigh .They not only gave British merchants various trade preferences, but also opened all overseas colonies to British merchants, which undoubtedly meant that the Portuguese began to abandon religious ideology (they used to use the Inquisition to try British heresy, let alone do business ), began to think about the future of their own country with a pragmatic attitude-of course, this does not seem to be good news for the East Coast Republic.

"Why do you pay so much attention to the British? You don't even hide your hostility towards them. Why?" Van Boyningen took a sip of his red wine and suddenly asked a seemingly irrelevant question.

"Do you still need to ask?" Zheng Yong spread his hands and said clearly: "Because the British compete with us in business, they compete with us all over the world for cotton and textile sales markets, not to mention their The attitude towards us has never been so friendly..."

"This reason doesn't convince me. In fact, the United Provinces and even the Genoese have commercial competition with you, but you tolerate it. Why can't you tolerate the English? There must be a special reason." Van Boyningen shook his head. Said: "Even, assuming that the British can successfully establish a London-centered trade system, you will have more choices, because you don't have to be limited to Amsterdam, which is more beneficial to you, isn't it?"

"Believe me, Conrad, our country is not hostile to the United Provinces, and we can cooperate more deeply. Your core interest lies in maintaining the trading system centered on Amsterdam, and our core interest lies in bringing commodities into this trading system , Our two countries are completely complementary." Zheng Yong racked his brains to talk about him.

"Is it because the British have strong industrial production capacity, so they compete fiercely with you in the production link? Perhaps you think that the United Kingdom is the only country that can challenge you. It's really sad that the United Provinces are not considered by you. " Van Boyningen took another sip of wine, then smiled and said: "So, now you want to be the 'production workshop' of the United Provinces? Put your products into this market? It seems a bit difficult, after all, the war It's over, many people are not willing to import goods from the distant New World, especially those cities with strong guilds."

"Take it easy, I don't expect all the gentlemen in the United Provinces to accept goods from the East Coast all at once." Zheng Yong said with a wry smile, "But we are willing to try and recommend our products to everyone. Squeeze it out, and that's in your country's interest."

"Perhaps." Van Beuningen drank the last bit of residual wine in the glass, and then said: "If it is convenient for you, come with me to The Hague tomorrow, and I will take you to see Speaker DeWitt to see what he thinks How do you feel about the relationship between our two countries?"

"Of course I can! Of course it's convenient for me!" Zheng Yong said immediately after hearing the words, "I also wanted to have a face-to-face discussion with Chairman DeWitt, but I haven't found the time. This time it seems that I finally got my wish."

(End of this chapter)