Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 1232 Competition ([-])

Zheng Yong stayed in The Hague for a few more days, and on December 12, Speaker de Witt was finally "free" to receive him.The reception was held at Speaker DeWitt's private residence, which seemed to imply an informal meeting.

Zheng Yong once again vaguely mentioned the plight of the United Provinces' shipbuilding, metallurgy, and military industries, and implied that if this continues, if a conflict with the United Kingdom breaks out in the future, the United Provinces will once again be in a disadvantageous position.Frankly speaking, Chairman DeWitt did not pay much attention to this, which made Zheng Yong a little disappointed. Of course, it is more likely that Chairman DeWitt himself thinks that this problem cannot be solved, because he cannot prevent capital from pursuing higher profits. The development of industry in the United Provinces, after all, has too many disadvantages. It is inevitable that the country will gradually de-industrialize and transform into commercial capital. After all, they do not have as many cheap labor forces as the UK, let alone as many resources as the UK (although most of them have not yet been discovered, Still sleeping underground), many inconveniences—but Zheng Yong believes that the biggest obstacle is the lack of ambition of the Dutch to be content with the status quo.

After skipping this question, Zheng Yong had a pleasant discussion with Chairman De Witt on the trade in the Far East.Since the news of the large population in the Blackwater area has already been sent back to the mainland, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has issued instructions to Zheng Yong, asking him to negotiate a trade agreement with the Netherlands in the Far East as soon as possible—especially the crucial grain trade—through The higher-level institutions such as the three-level parliament and the headquarters of the East India Company put pressure on Batavia, requiring them to carry out comprehensive and in-depth trade cooperation with the east coast.

You must know that in recent years, the relationship between the 17-member East India Company Committee of Batavia and the Blackwater Pioneering Team has not been good. When the two sides are good, they can do any business, and when the relationship is bad, they can completely cut off trade.Especially when Shao Shude, the previous pioneer leader, was in office, because the Dutch insisted on trading raw silk, tea, porcelain, artillery and some Nanyang commodities with the Manchu Qing, Shao Shude strongly protested against the East India Company and threatened to capture Fore Mosha Island, this caused the relationship between the two parties to drop to a freezing point. Currently, except for a few agreed raw silk and tea trades, the trade volume between the two parties has shrunk pitifully, which is really not decent.

It is precisely because of this that the local Ministry of Foreign Affairs asked Zheng Yong to use the upper-level relationship to urge increased trade with Batavia.And considering the good relationship with the three-level council of the United Provinces and the headquarters of the East India Company, under their joint pressure, the lawless guys in Batavia should be able to sit down and talk honestly—although Batavia Over the past ten years, it has violated the will of the Amsterdam East India Company headquarters many times (for example, the shareholders of the headquarters demanded more dividends, but Batavia obediently violated it, and invested a large amount of profits in siege, trade competition and meddling in the internal affairs of other countries), But this time, the United Provinces and the headquarters exerted pressure at the same time. The governor of Batavia and his supporters who served in the 17-member committee should be clearer, right?

Prior to this, Zheng Yong had negotiated several times with the three levels of parliament and the headquarters of the East India Company. The right of free navigation of the port, and allows ships on the east coast to replenish and trade in the Dutch ports along the way (the amount of trade is regulated, but basically it is better than nothing); at the same time, the two parties have reached an agreement to exchange raw silk, tea, high-grade fur for rice, spices and Nanyang specialties agreement, and stipulated that the trading location is at the outer port of Zeelandia Castle on Formosa Island, and there is no upper limit on the number of trades and the amount of trade.

To this end, the people on the east bank will set up a commercial bank/bank integrating foreign trade, wholesale and financial services there, called Taiwan (the name of the east coast of Formosa Island) Bank, and have obtained permission from the Dutch.The shareholding structure of Taiwanese banks/commercial banks is that the local Ministry of Finance holds 51% of the shares, the Blackwater Pioneering Team government holds 19% of the shares, and the remaining 30% of the shares are publicly offered nationwide to raise funds. The estimated total registered capital is 10 yuan .

Of course, it is said that it is a start-up fund of 10 yuan, but very few of them are actually in place.The local Ministry of Finance gave a symbolic 2 yuan in cash, and the rest was offset by the price of the franchise trade right; the Ministry of Finance is so "stingy", and the Blackwater Pioneering Team followed suit, only taking 1 yuan in cash. , the rest is offset by policies such as allowing the Bank of Taiwan to open branches in the Heishui area; therefore, the funds that the Bank of Taiwan can really use for early business are actually at most 6 yuan. About 5000 yuan——Shao ​​Shude, the former Minister of Materials, the leader of the Blackwater Pioneering Team, and the executive member of the Central Committee, personally invested 5000 yuan to buy a 5% stake in the Bank of Taiwan, which is the only fund raised publicly so far.

The positioning of the Bank of Taiwan is still acting as the general agent for the trade between the Heishui area and the Netherlands. At the same time, it provides exchange and credit services for some private distributors from Ningbo, Dengzhou, and Heishui. The prospect of large-scale syndicate companies is actually good, provided that the relationship between the East Coast and the Netherlands does not have too many twists and turns.

The establishment of the Bank of Taiwan was almost a milestone event in the Far East trade cooperation between the East and the Netherlands, because it meant that fixed trade routes began to take shape, and the interests of the Blackwater Pioneering Team and the Dutch East India Company were bound more firmly.To put it a bit arrogantly, in the future, once the two East India companies of the Netherlands and the United Kingdom are at a stalemate in the Far East, the people on the east coast can definitely intervene through various channels to reap certain benefits.It is even conceivable that when the time is right, you can stand on the front desk and wrestle with people.

After talking about the relaxed topic of Far East trade, Zheng Yong and Speaker DeWitt talked about the current situation in Europe.

"Please forgive me, Mr. Speaker, your country's attitude towards Britain actually has a big problem. I heard that most of the members of the Orange faction support sending the Stuart family back to Britain to take power. As a republic country, I think it is very ill-considered to support the restoration of the monarchy. What's more, England is a strong rival of the United Provinces in trade. At this time, your country should not financially support the republican officer headed by Major General Lambert Is it a group? Because only the existence of this group of people can keep England in chaos, and this is beneficial to both your country and ours." Zheng Yong asked a little puzzled, because he heard that the three-level parliament had recently passed It seemed to him extremely absurd to support the decision of the Stuart family to return to England for restoration.

"The enemies of the United Provinces are not only England, but also France. Especially after the armistice of Western France, the French have pushed the border to a place very close to us. They are very greedy. The war will start someday. ” For Zheng Yong’s outspoken accusation, Speaker DeWitt’s face was also a little unhappy, but he still explained patiently: “The members of the Orange faction persuaded many people with this reason, because they convinced everyone that , once the Stuart family returns to London and restores successfully, then the United Provinces will usher in a powerful ally, because the Orange family and they are already very good relatives."

Zheng Yong was only astonished when he heard the words. In this world, there are few incidents of relatives stabbing each other?However, the Orange family was able to persuade many people to support them on the grounds of the threat of France. It seems that it is indeed because many people’s "Frenchphobia" broke out, and they urgently need to form an ally with the United Kingdom-the Stuart family should laugh at themselves Well, I didn't expect that it was the arrogant and proud French who helped them in the end!With the diplomatic and financial support from the United Provinces, the Stuart family should not be able to control London and even the whole country for too long. At that time, I hope that the members of the three-level parliament of the United Provinces will still be in the same mood as before.

"I still insist that there is absolutely no possibility of reconciliation between England and the United Provinces. Unless one party completely gives up its own interests, the conflict will eventually be resolved through war." Zheng Yong shook his head, and he was very sorry that he could not change the decision of the United Provinces. for pity.In his view, now is a good time to mess up the UK. The United Provinces have a lot of money, and they only need to spend more than 1000 million guilders a year, which is enough to support Major General Lambert to fight the civil war with the Congressmen and the royalists—now Time is extremely precious. Every day, a large number of soldiers defected to the side of the royalist party supported by wealthy members of Congress. People will easily end the chaotic situation and get on the right track. At that time, will there be any good fruit for the United Provinces?History has given the answer, but unfortunately this cannot be said with the Dutch.

Speaker DeWitt said there was nothing he could do about it, as it was a decision made by the three levels of parliament and it was legal and valid until a new vote.

"So, Speaker, what do you think of your country's proposal to increase investment in Recife and attack Brazil together with our country?" An important question is that it is unreliable to rely solely on the East Coast family to attack Brazil. It is best to bring the Dutch together, but it doesn't look very smooth now.

Before Zheng Yong met with Speaker DeWitt, he had actually visited the headquarters of the West India Company many times.The company is now in a huge debt crisis and would have been bankrupt for a long time if it hadn't found some investors and received capital injections.But in any case, at the end of 1659 today, the West India Company, whose financial situation deteriorated again, stood on the edge of the cliff again. This time, only the East India Company with very good profitability can save them-in fact, With the coordination of the three-level parliament, the East India Company had already planned to inject capital into the West India Company and obtain control of it, and the merchants in Zeeland Province who actually controlled the West India Company seemed to have already accepted their fate, that is to say, this company The colonial trading companies spanning the entire New World and West Africa are now decided by a group of merchants from the Dutch province.

The businessmen of the East India Company knew Zheng Yong's intentions well, but these profit-seeking businessmen were not sure whether to spend a few million dong to make the West India Company operate normally, and then invest at least 1000 million dong. They felt very hesitant about the war with the Portuguese. They were afraid of this risky investment, and they were also very wary of everyone who tried to take money out of their pockets.After all, the East India Company’s money was not brought by strong winds, so it must be used with caution. Once the war is protracted or foreign interference is attracted, the total liabilities of the West India Company may far exceed the current 300 million dong, which will increase sharply If it reaches 2000 million guilders, then the West India Company does not have to save it, and it would be easier to go bankrupt-of course, the bigger possibility is that the West India Company is simply unable to raise debt, because everyone knows how bad their financial situation is, and they can't afford it. If the East India Company guarantees, she probably won't be able to borrow a single Gulden (that is, a Dutch guilder).

Speaker De Witt is inclined to the opinions of the shareholders of the East India Company on this matter, that is, Recife cannot bring profits to the West India Company now-maybe the Amsterdam sugar mill that bought their sugar is profitable, but The West India Company may not be - it has already become a heavy burden. In the eyes of DeWitt and the wealthy MPs behind him, it is better to abandon some bad businesses and concentrate on developing profitable African trade (slaves, gold, ivory). What the West India Company should do.Of course, doing so is likely to cause the sugar industry in Amsterdam to shrink or even collapse, so we still have to think carefully. All in all, the Dutch seem to be having a hard time making up their minds.

Zheng Yong was very disappointed with the low efficiency of the Dutch. They always had meetings and meetings, and debates and debates.What's more, many members of the three-level parliament oppose it for the sake of opposition, which is simply playing with national affairs.When will the United Provinces, a former pioneering power, be able to make quick decisions on everything like the British?

"Anything about Recife must be decided by the investors of the East India Company, because this time the United Provincial Government and the three levels of parliament have decided not to inject capital into the West India Company, and the West India Company depends on it for survival The funds can only be obtained from the East India Company, so please wait patiently for the decision of the East India Company. This is the case for Recife, and the same is true for the pre-emption rights of New Netherland..." Speaker DeWitt finally gave out The unexpected answer made Zheng Yong almost have the idea of ​​leaving in a flash. Can the United Province be a little reliable?

After returning from The Hague disappointed, Zheng Yong felt more and more that it was a waste of time to stay in the Netherlands. Therefore, after inquiring about the navigation situation in the Baltic Sea this winter, he decided to take an old merchant ship full of cargo from the Amsterdam merchant station to Riga. Let's deal with the backlog of affairs.It's just that another old merchant ship (200-ton class) heading to the Mediterranean Sea at the merchant station seems to have not returned for a long time. Could something have happened?

(End of this chapter)