Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 1084 New thinking about the West ([-])

"Now some people in the government are calling for a new way of thinking on the policy toward the West, that is, to adopt some appropriate support policies for Spain so that it will not decline rapidly and have more power to contain colonial countries such as France, Britain, and Portugal. And it can also reduce the pressure on our government’s overseas colonial activities, and it can kill multiple things in one fell swoop..." In the administrative building of the Executive Committee of Chengguan Town, Dongfang County, Shi Qin, the Central Executive Committee in charge of agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry and fishery, water conservancy construction, food and deep processing of agricultural products, etc. Jie lit a pipe for the chairman of the Executive Committee, Qiang Quansheng, and said: "Actually, I support this statement. It is true. The backward system of the Spaniards is dying. Even if we wholeheartedly help them carry out a certain degree of reform, It is also impossible to support this big country. At most, it can cheer them up a little bit, make them stronger, and have more power to block other European white skins. Of course, some people may worry that Spain will increase its strength. Our country's future raids on La Plata, Chile and other regions will have adverse effects, but I don't think it's a big problem, because Spain's most important enemy is always its European neighbors, and the colonies have little industry and insufficient projection power, so there is really no need to worry If we really want to fight, we can easily mobilize tens of thousands of troops into La Plata, and the Spaniards will lose their minds..."

In fact, Shi Qinjie himself who is speaking at this time is an important figure among those who "call for a new thinking on the policy towards the West" in his mouth. He is here today to find Qiangquansheng. Adopting an appropriate support policy for Spain also involves economic interests.

The reason why economic interests are involved in this is nothing more than the nonsense that Secretary Balboa and the Ministry of Agriculture broker, retired army officer, and grain merchant Li Wenchang said a few days ago: Spain’s main grain-producing areas such as Andalusia, Canada Catalonia and other places have suffered year after year of poor harvests due to various reasons, and urgently need to import food from the outside world to maintain national use. The east coast with a surplus of food is naturally one of the sources of consideration-especially now that Spain and the United Kingdom have actually gone to war (Jamaica The island has been conquered by the British), and it is quite inconvenient to import grain from Russia, Italy and other places (it is easy to be attacked by the British navy), so let the east coast merchants who have always been less fond of the British transport the grain from the New World to the port of Spain, It is indeed a very good business. The Spaniards can obtain enough food, and the people on the east coast can partially relieve the pressure of the domestic food surplus. It is indeed a win-win thing both economically and politically.

Of course, in order to make the so-called "new thinking towards the West" policy easier to implement, it is natural to have some allies (mainly people from the business circles), after all, with the help of these people who invest in business and industry to make noise, It is also easier to have some influence on the members of the executive committee, isn't it?Moreover, the industrial and commercial circles are indeed salivating for the Spanish market. This market with a total population of more than 800 million is large enough, and its purchasing power is not bad in this era.In the past, the Genoese helped to represent the sales of goods from the east coast in some areas of Spain. Although some achievements were made, most of the goods imported from Spain were still divided up by France, the United Kingdom, Germany, the Netherlands and some Italian states. The market share is not high, and now there is an opportunity to strongly wedge into this market that was once partially closed to people from the east coast, and at the same time suppress the industrial and commercial development of other countries, why not do it?Therefore, this opportunity must be seized, otherwise it will be a pity!That is the view of most people in agriculture and business.

"At present, only a very small part of the goods that Spain exports to the New World is produced by itself. The rest are either simply 'Spanish relatives' found by businessmen from other countries, or they are simply foreign goods smuggled in the past. The Spaniards can really satisfy themselves. It only accounts for one-tenth of it." Shi Qinjie acted as a lobbyist in the business circle at this time, only to hear him say: "I heard from the businessmen in Peru that since 1545, Spanish textiles have been Unable to meet the needs of the colonies, the colonies even needed to order goods six years in advance, which led to the prevalence of smuggling. For example, the British and the Dutch used the Caribbean islands as bases to conduct smuggling trade with Spain. The prevalence of smuggling trade further declined the Spanish industry. , Seville, which once had a population of 30, had 13 workers at the time, but most of them have disappeared now, and even the Spanish industries that have not disappeared are already the industries of businessmen from other countries. For example, the Genoese bought Granada The soap factories and silk weaving factories in the country were mainly Italians, and the stonemasons, shoemakers, and blanket weavers were basically dominated by Italians, while the small traders, metalworkers, bricklayers, and water transporters were all in charge of the French. At the end of the 16th century, the original textile industry was not small. There are no looms in Cuenca, and there are only 400 looms in Seville, which was quickly reduced to 60. At the same time, the wool processed by Spain’s own textiles has gradually shrunk to 20% of the previous one, which is the same as the previous [-]%. Correspondingly, Spanish wool was exported in large quantities, and the lowland areas were its important buyers, but this stage was the golden development period of the wool spinning industry in Leiden, the Netherlands..."

"Spain is such a big market, we on the east coast must take the opportunity to squeeze in. This time the British raided and occupied Jamaica Island, and its North American colonies also sent people into the Gualai mission area established by Spain. The two sides are short of a formal declaration of war. Yes, and the opening of the war between Britain and Spain will definitely make the Spaniards overwhelmed and confused. Especially the British have just defeated the mighty Netherlands at sea. Their powerful naval strength is not comparable to that of Portugal or France. The ability to threaten Spain's connection with the American colonies and cut off their access to imported goods is undoubtedly fatal to Spain." Schinger finally said: "The Spaniards are already afraid, and now it is best for them to make concessions opportunity, we must seize it.”

"It makes sense, but what does it have to do with the new thinking about the West that you advocate? What exactly does this new thinking include?" Qiang Quansheng took a puff of cigarette, frowned and said, "Don't mess around, Spaniards. I believe it when I can’t get up. They have a lot of problems, and it’s useless to rely on taking supplement pills. Don’t look at the 630 million cash and supplies we gave them, but I doubt whether the money and goods can be used to their full potential. One-fifth of the power, the worst case scenario is that the Spaniards took the money to calm the domestic situation, expand their armies and prepare for war, and then lost a lot of money in World War I and squandered it! Hmph, the Spaniards led the military revolution before The trend of Spain's large-scale formation refers to where to fight and is invincible, but now the military technology of European countries has caught up, and even surpassed it-you can see that the proportion of firearms in the Spanish army is not as high as that of the French. The cavalry is not as good as the French—Spanish veterans have also lost in previous wars. Why do they fight three countries at the same time? Well, it’s not too far away. What do you want to do? Let me state first, do you want money? , The recently implemented "Science Spring" plan and the construction of large-scale flood control facilities in the Wujiang River area require a lot of funds, and I don't have the money to build them for you."

"Of course there is no need to spend money. I wonder if we can provide some economic guidance to the Kingdom of Spain through government cooperation, so that the country's productivity level can be restored, at least to the last large-scale production in 1609. What was the economic level when the Moors and Jews were expelled? When the last group of pagans in Granada were expelled, the Spaniards immigrated more than 2 Christian households from other areas, with a piece of land, two livestock, and a vineyard (or olive grove) ), but now the level of desertion in Granada is even worse, and the business is also extremely depressed. The level of the Spaniards in these things is completely inferior to that of the pagans they expelled. I think that our country can help through economic cooperation. Spain prospers their domestic commercial system. For example, we can let the Spanish king understand that excessive tax burdens and numerous tax cards are not the only means to increase fiscal revenue, and the prosperity of business will naturally release the accumulated consumption power in Spain, making our country There will be more opportunities for our products. Of course, we can charge for this process. The Hidalgos in Spain are not all idiots, there should be people who understand the reason, and this is our opportunity.”

Qiang Quansheng heard what Shi Qinjie said, and thought it was a bit interesting, but people in the business circles like Shi Qinjie were blinded by profits, and they were more or less wishful thinking.Hmph, the business of Spain has prospered, but how can it not be cheaper for the French, British and Dutch?It's so insane!

However, the current situation of the declining agricultural level in Granada mentioned by Xiao Zheng is worthy of our efforts.It is said that there are hundreds of thousands of nobles in Spain, and most of the land is in their hands. The nobles and their eldest sons live a life of doing nothing all day long, and other children would rather live a noble life of poverty than work.Most Hidalgos don't care about intensive farming, since even the worst harvests are enough to support them decently (if not, government grants are returned), and they lack sufficient incentive to improve farming techniques.The Catholic Church, which owns 1/6 of the country's land (its property is twice that of the nobles, and many rich people donated their property to the church before their death), is also similar. They also have no interest in scientific farming. Coupled with the turbulent situation, It is not surprising that Spanish food production has been declining year after year.

Let the Spaniards restore the level of agricultural production when the Moors were still in the 16th century. The British are tearing up, which is also good for the East Coast.As for the fact that this may hinder grain exports from the east coast, hehe, it is completely groundless to worry about, because increasing grain production is not something that happens overnight, grain exports from the east coast will not be affected in any way for at least five years, and will not be greatly affected within ten years , and, compared with political interests, what is a little grain trade?

The only thing worth worrying about is that the Hidalgos in Spain are too stubborn and conservative, and the church is also unprecedentedly powerful. The power of the Spanish king is widely used to serve the Catholic Church. He once said, "I would rather rule a desert than Ruled a country full of pagans; the Spanish king also announced that those who accepted religious reforms would be executed, and set up checkpoints at the border to review all books, which indirectly isolated Spain from cultural exchanges with other countries, leading to Spanish economic, cultural, military, political Therefore, even the measures to boost the level of agriculture are likely to fail, but this is beyond the control of the people on the east coast. They can only do their best to let the Spaniards enrich their national strength. It doesn't look like much hope, though.

"Do your best. Although Spain is destined to be the enemy of the East Coast from a geopolitical point of view, it is really not a big deal to help them recover some strength in the short term, but it is not necessary to prosper their business. New thinking on the West , and this is the only way to go. In recent years, the Spanish economy has become more and more depressed, which has caused more and more people from the peninsula to choose to immigrate to the New World. This is not a good thing, and this tendency must be stopped! Fortunately, Spain In this long-established old country, the national ethos has been corrupted by the nobles, lazy and vain, arrogant and conservative, it seems very difficult to rise up, so we can do it with confidence." Qiang Quansheng looked at it and was still talking. Shi Qinjie, who was absolutely desperate, had already made a decision in his heart.

(End of this chapter)