Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 1059 Chaos and Business ([-])

On February 1655, 2, after several days of bored waiting in The Hague, Zheng Yong finally had the opportunity to meet with the ever-changing Speaker de Witt.

The meeting place was chosen in DeWitt's private house. In addition to DeWitt himself, Zheng Yong, and Van Beuningen who accompanied him, the main participants included the four brothers Andris, Jacob, Jan and Gang from the Bickel family. Cornelis, who came back from Recife a few days ago--the color of the West India Company is very strong, which made Zheng Yong very interested in this informal meeting.

Of course, the participants are not limited to them.After Zheng Yong and his two confidantes arrived, Cornelis, who had been getting more and more contacts with people from the East Coast in the past two years, stood up and introduced the other industrialists who were working for the people from the East Coast.These industrialists are basically hardcore republicans, such as Jacob van Emden who runs a tobacco business in Amsterdam, Abraham Levy who runs a lumber yard, and Jacob Franco Deutsch who runs a variety of small businesses. Lago—Of course, we can tell from the names of the latter two that they are actually Jews, to be precise, Portuguese Jews who immigrated to the United Provinces.

"Mr. Van Emden and Mr. Drago both have their own tobacco processing enterprises, and they also have small plantations in Friesland and Groningen, but this is undoubtedly extremely insufficient." Cornelis told Zheng Yong He introduced softly, "Now that the "Navigation Regulations" are strictly enforced, even if the colonists in Virginia are willing to trade with us, it is no longer possible. Most of the commodities in the New World of North America have almost been monopolized by the British. Now we have to find new sources of raw materials for production, otherwise the 4000 tobacco industry workers in Amsterdam will lose their jobs."

Following Cornelis' introduction in a low voice, Zheng Yong finally got to know some unfamiliar businessmen present, and at this moment, the three people introduced by Cornelis also took the initiative to come over. Holding a wine glass, Zheng Yong greeted him friendly.On the other side, a group of people surrounded by Chairman DeWitt were also talking in low voices—today’s meeting seemed to be a very casual but also very personal gathering, and I, Zheng Yong, was introduced into the In the rich Dutchman's club?

"The Englishmen of the New World are more than happy to do business with us, because our prices are much higher than those of treacherous London merchants, and we can also sell them a lot of cheap Old World goods, and everyone can get what they want. This is what many people used to do. The trade status quo that has existed for years. But now this status quo has been broken, the British monopolized most of the trade in North America, and then drove out all foreign merchants, we can no longer import local cotton, dyes, tobacco It's fur, damn it!" Mr. van Emden seemed to have a deep prejudice against the British, only to hear him say angrily: "A New England merchant once complained to me that he got a lot from the French in Arcadia. Import some hemp rope, but these ropes have to be shipped to London first, pay customs and then be shipped to Plymouth by British ships. It is ridiculous, in fact, they are only a few dozen leagues away from Arcadia! The English are indeed It's getting too much!"

"Last year that bastard English bastard named Sedgwick gathered 500 soldiers to attack the safe land of New Netherland, but in the end they changed their target and went to attack the French in Arcadia. The Jewish businessman Abraham Levy also interjected at the right time, "Otherwise the lumber mill I set up there will suffer. You know, I have stored a whole hundred huge masts on the pier over there. The English did not It was a very good fortune to come over, but it was no cause for joy for us, as the threat of the English was always at hand, and my lumberyard and poor workmen had to fight day after day. Sun and Earth are threatened by the British."

"Yes, the English are really annoying." Zheng Yong immediately echoed, "But when it comes to the English prohibiting Virginia from exporting tobacco, this problem is actually not difficult to solve. I think it can be imported from the Caribbean islands first, and secondly If this is not enough, please allow me to introduce to you the tobacco produced in New Courland. This tobacco is widely grown in the Congo River Valley and is popular on the east bank because of its unique aroma. If you want If you buy a large amount of tobacco for reprocessing, New Courland tobacco should be a good choice. Perhaps, this special tobacco will make the gentlemen of the United Provinces completely forget about Virginia."

If Grand Duke Jacob was present at this time, he would probably be grateful to Zheng Yong, because he is obviously promoting her special products for New Courland, which is undoubtedly extremely important for the development of New Courland.And not only that, Zheng Yong quickly encouraged the Dutch to organize some empty ships to go to Wendau Port to accept the employment of the Courlands, because they have a lot of immigrants and supplies to transport, this matter will undoubtedly be resolved by Grand Duke Jacob It caused a lot of trouble—since the end of the war with the United Kingdom, many merchant ships in the Netherlands have suddenly been idle because of the time required to repair the commercial network and the sudden shrinking of overseas market shares. At this time, the price of hiring them to transport immigrants should be It will be very cheap, which undoubtedly means that the cost will be reduced. After all, Archduke Jacob's funds are not very sufficient.

After getting acquainted with this group of businessmen dealing in specialties in the New World, Zheng Yong quickly integrated into it, and then chatted with them for a long time.The merchants headed by Van Emden expressed a certain interest in the trade with the people on the east coast of the southern New World, and agreed to find time to discuss the possibility of business cooperation in detail later.In this way until about ten o'clock in the morning, Chairman DeWitt took Zheng Yong to avoid the crowd, and then went to the reception room next to him to "chat" alone.

"Is Special Envoy Mo San okay?" Speaker DeWitt was actually very young. At this time, he was wearing a silk-linen blended robe that Dutch businessmen like to wear, with a warm smile on his face, and asked Zheng Yong.

"Special Envoy Mo is very good. He has returned to his native land now. If there are no accidents, he should have assumed the post of Minister of Foreign Affairs." Zheng Yong replied, "Special Envoy Mo also misses the good past with the great Inter-Provincial Republic. He once Write a letter asking me to continue to work hard, not to relax, and must continue to maintain the friendly relationship with the Federal Republic."

"Hehe, you will have a chance." Chairman De Witt seemed to have heard the meaning of Zheng Yong's words, and only heard him say: "I just saw that you had a very happy conversation with Mr. Van Emden and Mr. Drago. Then you should have gained something. In fact, what I want to say is that there are still many opportunities for cooperation between your country and the United Provinces. For example, in Recife, New Netherland, the Leeward Islands, and Guinea, if you have your With the help of China, I think the United Provinces will be more comfortable. Of course, we will not treat you badly, and we will continue to maintain the necessary business cooperation. In short, this is something that is beneficial to everyone—for example, businessmen in our country are right now. Cotton cloth from the Manchester area is disgusting and they have told me that they cannot accept the fact that they continue to import British cotton cloth and then distribute it, so I think your country should be more than happy to fill in some of the British left vacancy."

"This is really the best news I got today." Zheng Yong said happily when he heard it, "To be honest, British cotton cloth has made great progress in recent years. Before the war broke out, they spent a lot of money to import a lot from you. and then went back to conduct research, so their current textile technology is really not the same. But what I want to say is that even though the British have made great efforts, the cotton and hemp spinning centered on the large rural area of ​​Manchester There is a certain gap between the various textiles produced in the region and our country's products, both in terms of quality and price. If businessmen from your country are willing to act as agents for Chinese textiles and distribute them, it will definitely be a good business Yes, it’s good for you and good for us.”

After talking about the textile business, Speaker De Witt casually mentioned some food (such as spirits, cheese, refined flour, butter, ham, soybean oil, etc.), mechanical parts (the Dutch craftsmen unanimously reported that the East Coast parts are durable and The accuracy is quite high, and you don’t need to polish it after you buy it) and other commodities, Zheng Yong promised them one by one—this means that even if many contracts that originally ended at the end of 1655 were not renewed, people on the east coast don’t have to worry too much now Yes, because many new contracts will be signed soon. This may be the Dutch "reward for meritorious service" after the war.Because of their firm attitude and positive actions during the war, the people on the east bank won the favor of the Dutch capitalists in power. Therefore, it is self-evident that the cooperative relationship between the two parties will be deeper in the future.

Perhaps, we should thank the Anglo-Dutch war?Zheng Yong is really emotional now, because he feels more and more now that without this sudden two-year war, it might be difficult for people from the east coast to have a chance to squeeze into the Dutch market?Now many people are talking about the rise of Britain through this war is becoming more and more obvious, but how do you know that the people on the east coast of the New World far in the south did not rise rapidly through this war?

Although Speaker DeWitt is a big businessman and the spokesperson of the big bourgeoisie, he is not a business broker after all. Therefore, after briefly mentioning some business cooperation with Zheng Yonglue, he turned the topic to the diplomatic field.The two sides talked for a full two hours, and finally agreed that the United Provinces and the East Coast will send ambassadors to each other to establish a formal, stable and friendly diplomatic relationship. At the same time, they will closely strengthen commercial cooperation. Will also be open to each other, and so on.

As for Zheng Yong's prudent proposal to allow ships from the east coast to pass through the Strait of Malacca, Speaker DeWitt had a well-thought-out plan. He agreed in principle to the request of the people on the east coast, but he implicitly warned the people on the east coast not to travel in India and the East Indies. trade or colonize its surrounding areas (except Persia).In the end, he also made it clear that at this time, the people on the east coast still need to have a separate discussion with the East India Company, because they are the direct parties, and they still need to obtain the "understanding" of the company.

(End of this chapter)