Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 1231 Competition ([-])

The split in the Netherlands is getting worse!

Zheng Yong has lived in Amsterdam and The Hague for several years, and he is very worried about the dispute between the republicans and the Orange faction that has now spread to the whole country.Regardless of whether it is the three-level parliament, the provincial council, or the city council, except for Zeeland, where the republicans are overwhelmingly dominant, Friesland and Groningen, where the Orange faction is overwhelmingly dominant, the rest of the provinces such as the Netherlands, Utrecht, etc. In the provinces, Oberijssel, Gelderland, and Drenthe, there were debates between the Orangemen and the republicans everywhere, and the debate was so violent that it spread to society. For example, the theological sect dispute concerning the dominance of the Frederick family more than 100 years ago, the society of the United Provinces was deeply divided!

The core of the debate lies in the foreign policy of the United Provinces, that is, whether it is pro-French or pro-British. The Oranges advocate a comprehensive reconciliation and alliance with Britain to deal with France, which is increasingly ambitious for expansion; It is England that is the most powerful competitor of the United Provinces, a commercial kingdom, and must be suppressed as the primary opponent, even if it sacrifices some interests to form an alliance with France.

Naturally, neither of the two sides can convince anyone. This has led to countless small meetings of the three-level parliamentary assembly, but no substantial agreement has been reached. The foreign policy of the United Provinces is still vague. The feeling of crossing the river by feeling the stones is undoubtedly very disadvantageous, because neither England nor France will do nothing because of the mediocrity of the United Provinces. France will still be full of interest in the lowlands, and England will still be firm Unwavering attempt to break the commercial hegemony of the United Provinces.Even when Britain and France join forces to deal with the United Provinces, this commercial republic will face the most embarrassing and dangerous situation.

Many times, Zheng Yong has to lament the spirit of the Dutch people's constant internal fighting, constant division, and constant death. No matter how rich the family property is, it can't stand such repeated tossing!Fortunately, the third-level parliament in The Hague is now increasingly aware of the importance of the East Coast Republic of China in the New World. This country exports a large amount of goods to Amsterdam, which has brought a lot of money to the Dutch wholesalers who have the advantages of channels. This has won the favor of many republican congressmen; and recently, they have opened up some tobacco trade in the Peru and New Spain markets to the Dutch, which has revived the Dutch tobacco industry that had just fallen into despair. Some tobacco processing workshops in Lan and other places have been brought back to life, which undoubtedly pleased some Orange businessmen. Therefore, improving the relationship between the two countries—such as opening the Strait of Malacca to migrant ships on the east coast and deepening trade cooperation in the Far East—is also a good idea. It is really not easy to barely get the consent of the majority of the members of the two factions!

"Mr. Mathias, it is really not easy to meet you in The Hague once. How is the business?" Zheng Yong has been active in The Hague for the past two days. He wants to meet Speaker DeWitt, but the Speaker seems very busy, especially It was after he married Elizabeth of the Bickle family that he got more deeply involved in the front line of the struggle between the two factions in Congress. He was busy with political struggles all day long, and he had forgotten what he should do as the governing body of the United Provinces—running the country well — but wallow in one parliamentary spat after another.No, Zheng Yong wanted to discuss the peace talks with the speaker, but was repeatedly rejected by the speaker. This made Zheng Yong very depressed, and secretly guessed whether the reason why De Witt avoided seeing him was because of the United Provinces themselves. What is the reason for the opinion?

However, Zheng Yong did not meet Speaker De Witt, but unexpectedly ran into Matthias De Heyer, the in-law of the Tripp family, and the speaker of the De Heyer family, which operates iron and copper mining and processing in the Netherlands.

"The competition from the English is too fierce, and there is also competition from some Hamburg merchants, and the Swedish royal family also hopes to see iron and copper ware produced by more countries or individuals, rather than being monopolized by the Tripp or De Haer families. "Matthias did not hide this at all. The Dutch have suffered too much setbacks in the Baltic Sea recently. Many traditionally advantageous industries - not only the metallurgy industry - have been aggressively grabbed by English businessmen, and the total profit has begun to decline. This appears to be a long-term trend that cannot be reversed.

"I have to admit that our neglect of the metallurgical industry for many years has finally produced bad results. We don't pay as much attention to technological progress as the English, and they don't invest a lot of money in improving it, which leads to our production efficiency not being as good as others. , and the manpower of both the United Provinces and Sweden is far more expensive than that of England, so our disadvantage in the competition is too obvious." Speaking of this, Mathias couldn't help but smiled bitterly: "To tell you the truth, my dear Zheng Last year, the combined profits of all our iron mines, copper mines, and iron smelting workshops in Sweden did not exceed 100 million guilders. The income obtained from issuing rifles has already exceeded 40 guilders, and this figure is still growing steadily. It is only a matter of time before our family’s self-operated business income exceeds. Under the impact of England’s commodities, it is still produced in Goods on the east coast are more competitive..."

It is true that the De Hare family has come to this point because of the gradual rise of England's industry, but it is more due to their own factors.Back then, when the United Provinces monopolized most of the commodity trade in the Baltic Sea, the Tripp family and the De Haer family marched into Sweden, and then controlled a considerable amount of high-quality iron ore and copper mines in the country. At the same time, they also set up iron smelting workshops to produce iron And all kinds of iron products.

Undoubtedly, under monopoly conditions, the profits of the De Haier family are huge, because regardless of the quality and price of their products, the De Haier family, which has mastered the channel advantage, can always sell them.Coupled with the fact that these wealthy families are obsessed with earning excess profits through credit—such as loans to the Swedish royal family—then they have no intention of investing in technology.Therefore, today, when the Baltic countries opened their doors to the United Kingdom after the failure of the Anglo-Dutch naval battle, the weakness of the De Haer family's competitiveness suddenly became apparent.Although they still have a well-connected channel network, a stable customer base, an upper-level relationship network that has been operating for decades or even hundreds of years, and a very convenient and low-cost financing advantage, but under the impact of British products, the market still started Losing it bit by bit, although this process seems slow, it is almost irreversible, which made Mathias feel a little panic.

In order to maintain the total profit of the family business, almost under the unanimous opinion of the family members, the De Haier family began to gradually reduce the scale of their production capacity, and at the same time increase the shipment of steel products on the east coast to compete with industrial capital from England and Germany. Competition in the East Coast—after calculating shipping costs, insurance premiums, import and export duties, and necessary sales costs (the De Haier family has to reserve a part of their own profits), East Coast products are not very competitive in terms of price alone. But the advantage lies in the high quality and durability of the products, which have established a certain reputation in the Baltic Sea, so there is still a considerable market, and this is undoubtedly the reason why the De Haier family has continuously increased the supply of goods on the east coast, and it is not all for the sake of Profits!

"Matthias, the United Provinces are friends on the east coast, as are the De Haier family and the Tripp family. Don't worry, we will openly supply all kinds of goods to your family, not just steel products. If your family is interested Please rest assured that we will fully support the development of other industries.” Zheng Yong was also very happy to hear Matthias’s words, because it means that the De Haier family, a former industrial capital, inevitably began to turn to business. Capital and usury capital shift, which is good for the east coast!

However, Zheng Yong has recently collected a lot of information and studied the industrial production of the United Provinces throughout the 17th century.Although there are no precise figures, there is no doubt that the entire United Province has seen a significant trend in the deindustrialization of most industries in the past 60 years.Especially after the failure of the first Anglo-Dutch naval battle, with the loss of some overseas markets and raw material origins, the trend of deindustrialization in the United Provinces was greatly accelerated. processing enterprises, employing more than 3500 workers), tanning, sugar and other industries.

And if these industries are not too important, then the trend of de-industrialization of shipbuilding and military industries, which are related to the national economy and people's livelihood of the Netherlands, is also very disturbing.Not to mention the military industry, the Tripp family, which once provided a fleet for the Netherlands, turned into an arms dealer many years ago. All the arms needed by the United Provinces are imported from England, France, and Germany, such as On the eve of the first Anglo-Dutch naval battle, they were still importing guns and cannons from Birmingham, England. In the entire United Provinces, there was almost no military industry.

This is true of the arms industry, and so is shipbuilding.Regardless of the prosperous shipbuilding industry in the Netherlands today, the famous Saldan Shipyard ranks first in Europe, but the upstream and downstream industrial chains related to shipbuilding have been increasingly occupied by foreign suppliers. For example, the United Provinces Importing a large number of rigs from England, a major rig producer, they can at best build a hull by themselves, and the rest of the supporting facilities have to be imported, which has many constraints and great hidden dangers.

Can such a gradually sinking United Province really compete with England, whose industrial foundation is becoming more and more solid?Zheng Yong is a little skeptical and a little uneasy. The United Provinces are the most important quasi-ally of the East Coast on the European continent.Once they broke out in a naval battle with Britain, the British can quickly repair damaged ships with their superior industrial production capacity, but can the United Province do it?Zheng Yong shook his head. The answer was naturally no, which made him feel a little uneasy because it was not in line with the interests of the East Bank.

"Mr. Matthias, how many cannons did your iron smelting workshop in Sweden produce last year? I have no other intentions, but simply want to know." Zheng Yong said.As an extremely important arms supplier to the United Provinces—the Tripp family often purchased weapons from their in-laws, the De Hare family—the De Hale family's military production capacity is a figure worthy of attention, because it can be intuitively understood The current weapons production capacity of the United Provinces.

"Less than fifty, and most of them were exported to the Swedish army." Up to now, there is actually nothing to hide. Relying on Sweden's relatively rich copper and iron resources, the iron smelting workshop of the De Haier family not only smelts iron, but also Casting artillery and various ironware, that is to say, most of the products it produces are for military and civilian purposes.With an output of less than [-] pieces of artillery a year, and with the stimulation of war factors, such a report card handed over by the De Haier family is indeed unqualified for a military enterprise that was once quite large. It's not as good as the booming military industry in Birmingham, it's far behind!

"Mr. Mathias, please forgive me. If the United Provinces don't want to increase their artillery production, they will suffer a lot if they turn against the enemy in the future. In fact, I don't need to say much about it. A few years ago During the last fierce naval battle with the British, your country has already suffered from the serious shortage of artillery, right? In the war, it is not enough to rely on temporary purchases! This is equivalent to handing over the noose to others, life and death It was all controlled by others. At that time, the prices of various types of artillery cast by the French, Germans, and Portuguese soared, and some even tripled. In this way, your country may not be able to buy them, resulting in various types of warships being unable to repair in time in Hong Kong. Going to war, such a lesson is rare and not worthy of vigilance?" Zheng Yong said bluntly, "As a sincere friend of the United Provinces, we absolutely don't want you to be disadvantaged in a contest with any enemy, because this is not in line with The interests of our East Coast Republic of China."

"Sheffield's sword manufacturing industry, Birmingham's hardware and weapons manufacturing industry have indeed developed rapidly over the years. As an insider, I am aware of this fact. But what can I do? Leaving Sweden Are the ironworks going to the United Provinces? That's even more impossible, because there are no deposits underground in the United Provinces, and we can't do anything. So, what else can we do? We can't leave Sweden, because once abandoned here, the British will quickly To fill in the gaps, you know, they have always been very coveted about Sweden's high-quality iron ore—although Britain did not lack iron in this era, but it would also import a large amount of high-quality iron ore from Sweden and Germany—copper ore. Our iron smelting workshop produces The artillery technology is backward, the cost is high, and the quality is also very dubious. Even the Tripp family is reluctant to import our weapons, but what can we do?" Mathias De Heier asked with a wry smile road.

Zheng Yong was also silent when he heard the words.Yeah, what can the De Hare family do?Invest heavily in researching new technologies?Move the ironworks to a country with lower labor costs?Convincing the Tripp family to import low-quality artillery at a high price?Neither one is difficult to achieve!Moreover, the De Haier family is not allowed to do this, because it will obviously affect the family's income-when they can rely on selling iron products on the east coast to make profits, when they can maintain a certain profit through monopoly, when When they can earn excess profits through lending, who would want to do anything else?

Zheng Yong seems to have seen the speechless future of Dutch industry.

(End of this chapter)