Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 1273 Another Battlefield ([-])

In 1660, the midsummer in Dinghai County, Ningbo Prefecture did not appear to be very hot.

The climate of the Little Ice River has reached its peak in the past two years, and the temperature in winter has also reached its lowest point, which is quite uncomfortable-but as the saying goes, the turning point of the temperature and the end of the Little Ice Age are probably in the past two years. At that time, the temperature will start to rise slowly and stabilize for more than 100 years, until the arrival of another more serious Little Ice Age in the 19th century.

On the edge of the Cixi River, which is relatively remote in Dinghai County, a very grand building is undergoing a major renovation. The Bank of Taiwan has recruited skilled craftsmen from several nearby counties, intending to add some Chinese elements to the original Gothic building.By the way, this building originally belonged to an Italian businessman who had a close relationship with the former foreign minister Xu Xin. This gentleman made a fortune in tea and raw silk trade in Ningbo, and then spent a lot of money to build a church in Dinghai as his own. A place of prayer for the family and some of the servants.

Unexpectedly, something unexpected happened. After the church was almost built, Liao Xiaoyao, who had returned from the war, heard about it and felt that he seemed to be suspected of violating the laws of the country and secretly believing in a cult.Therefore, after sending people to persuade the businessman, he bought it back and then resold it to the Bank of Taiwan as its latest office, provided that the Bank of Taiwan organizes personnel to make major changes to make it less " garish".

Now that the major renovation work has just been carried out for more than a month, hundreds of bright craftsmen gathered together used blue bricks, red bricks, and Sakhalin wood as materials, and under the guidance of several local Feng Shui masters and architects, they worked hard Construction work in progress.However, the renovation is a renovation, and the original features of the building have been greatly preserved, such as the large circular terraces on the second and third floors, such as the vertical reliefs on the walls of the ground floor (mostly religious-style sculptures), and the large spire type roof etc.In short, this will definitely be a four-story large building with a combination of Chinese and Western styles in the future. It will definitely be a unique landmark building in the slightly desolate Cixi River estuary.

Different from the Bank of Taiwan, which is a combination of Chinese and Western architecture, a traditional Chinese-style building is rising on the other side of the river. It is the Dinghai Port Customs, commonly known as "Customs Yamen" by the locals.Dinghai Customs occupies a large area. It has all the unique elements of Chinese architecture, such as thick red gates, hollow carved windows, sloping roofs, and cornices with auspicious clouds. In addition, the walls are painted white and covered with indigo-colored tiles. There are two stone lions at the door, which are so Chinese that they can’t be more Chinese - its designer is a cadre from the local Bingtuanbao, Italian, who came to the East Bank to study when he was seven years old. Do you feel that the three views are broken? Very messy?

In addition to these two large buildings, there are more and more buildings of various types in the area around the estuary of the Cixi River, which was extremely remote in the past, because of the convenient transportation and the advantages of going to sea for business; the land is cheap and the area is large. , whether it is to build a warehouse, a house or a government office, there is no need to be as cramped and narrow as in the county town, so many people choose to buy properties here. Over the past year, the development has been extremely rapid, and various people, cultures, and ideas collide here—— European businessmen who are interested in the mysterious East, speculators who want to get rich, Catholics exiled here, arrogant and heroic soldiers on the east coast, bumpkins from bitter cold places, and of course local Han businessmen or gentry , everyone is not used to each other (or discriminated against) but has to get along with each other. After a long time, people's thoughts, customs, concepts and ways of thinking have undergone subtle but profound changes unconsciously.

If the economic and commercial exchanges between the east coast and Europe have made Europeans more aware of their own shortcomings, then the daily cultural collisions in Dinghaigang, a commercial city, probably indirectly promoted the development of the county and even Ningbo Prefecture. Part of the enlightened gentry and businessmen of the Han nationality "open their eyes to see the world".Inadvertently, the people on the east coast have passively acted as the task of spreading civilization between the two worlds of the East and the West. There is probably nothing more bizarre than this-Europeans are trying to study the machinery and power technology flowing out of the east coast, while Ningbo Some wealthy and leisure gentry children from the government (mostly the gentry children of the Stability Maintenance Society on the East Bank) also began to spend a lot of money to buy some local publications on the East Bank, such as newspapers, foreign materials, and even elementary school textbooks.

Some people may say that they want to study "East Learning" to better serve the masters of the East Bank, but in any case, these people have come into contact with more advanced knowledge and ideas objectively. Over time, the power of this subtle civilization spread It should not be underestimated, especially when there is no government above them that imprisons their thoughts—even if the foreign regime on the east coast has all kinds of problems, there is one thing: it acts fairly, rewards and punishments are clearly defined, and it treats people generously. Weird ideas, not to discriminate against merchants and craftsmen (on the contrary, encourage them), as long as you don't touch their bottom line, you can do whatever you want.After all, the greatest significance of the existence of their regime is to recruit immigrants, and the second is to engage in business, and the rest is not too lazy for the time being.

Well, without further ado.It is said that the Bank of Taiwan has made several big deals with the Dutch red hair in the past half a year, especially when the Dutch local training arrived in Batavia, and when the southeast wind blows on the ocean, as many as eight Dutch merchant ships A full load of rice from Southeast Asia arrived at Dinghai Port, and the trade of raw silk and tea for grain was launched with the Bank of Taiwan. The cooperation was very pleasant; Ren Temporary Ling - also purchased a considerable amount of Taiwanese sucrose, camphor, sandalwood, shellac and other commodities, and shipped them back to Ningbo and other places for sale.

The completion of these businesses made the Bank of Taiwan gain a total of about 1659 to 1 yuan in profits. Compared with the end of last year ([-]), the financial situation has improved greatly, so they spent more than [-] yuan to buy Jiangbian. This Catholic church and its transformation into the new headquarters of the Dinghai branch of the Bank of Taiwan is really rich and confident!

Moreover, with the growing scale of the business, a group of customers from Ningbo Prefecture and even Dengzhou Prefecture who followed suit also began to open special accounts in the Bank of Taiwan and deposit a certain amount of cash, which greatly strengthened the bank's reputation. financial strength.Don’t you see, Qian, a big businessman in Dinghai County, has just invested in two large sand pits, and the required funds are borrowed from the Bank of Taiwan; also, Major Junior’s nephew (Portuguese, who immigrated to the east coast for more than ten years) is in Yin County A large brick and tile kiln was opened, and the required funds were also borrowed from the Bank of Taiwan; in addition, the Bank of Taiwan was also invited by the Southern Theater Command to invest in the newly established Zhoushan Fishery Company and obtained 30% of its shares. This shows from the side that the strength of the bank is not what it used to be—people who were unwilling to buy a share of [-] yuan at the beginning, now want to invest in the Bank of Taiwan at a price of [-] yuan or [-] yuan per share. It's already impossible. There are some opportunities. If you miss it, you will be wrong. There is no way.

Today, Shao Shuguang, the executive vice president of the Bank of Taiwan and one of the shareholders, received several special guests by the riverside. Among them were Dutch businessmen with high noses and dark eyes, and Qing Dynasty officials and businessmen with money rattails.And the reason why these irrelevant people were gathered in this small remote place was mainly because the things everyone was discussing were too sensitive.Without him, Dadong'an will also negotiate peace with the Qing Dynasty, and at the same time, a certain degree of trade will also be carried out!

To be honest, as far as the current situation in the East Coast and the Blackwater region of the Far East is concerned, peace talks with the Qing Dynasty would take a lot of political risk, so no one dares to mention this kind of thing openly.But the situation has developed so far, and all forces on the land of China have been inactive. Maintaining peace for a period of time has become the mainstream consensus.Therefore, under the secret instructions of Chang Kaisheng, Liao Xiaoyao and others, the Bank of Taiwan, a "non-governmental institution" instead of the government, conducted substantive peace talks with the Qing Dynasty in secret. It's just that in fact, each of them is firmly guarding the actual control area, neither making peace nor fighting-at the same time, it becomes a very natural thing to discuss trade cooperation.

The military negotiations were concluded more than two months ago, and what is currently going on is actually a follow-up commercial negotiation.And this business negotiation hosted by the people from the east coast, the reason why the Dutch were also called in was mainly because the people from the east coast discovered that the secret trade between the Manchus and the Netherlands was very frequent, and all kinds of guns and cannons continued to flow into the hands of the Qing court. People on the east coast felt a certain crisis, so they simply called everyone together and explained the matter face to face.That is to say, what business can be done and what can't be done must be clearly stated and an agreement should be formed to bind it. Otherwise, the degree of mistrust between the two parties will only deepen, and eventually it will get out of hand sooner or later.

People on the east coast are especially concerned about the arms trade. Last year, they learned through various channels that the Manchu Qing had quietly imported "at least two ships" of arquebus guns and British iron guns eliminated from Europe. Bottom line, a stern warning was therefore issued to the Dutch East India Company.At the same time, the representative sent by the other party was pulled to Dinghai County, and he was asked to sign an agreement to ensure that he would no longer conduct such private trade with the Man Qing, that is, any trade must be open and transparent, and it would be changed by the people from the East Coast. Otherwise, the East Coast Navy will have the right to intercept and attack the cargo ships of the Dutch East India Company.

Naturally, the Dutch East India Company was unwilling to sign this kind of agreement that greatly restricted their trade behavior, but the people on the east coast had a very tough attitude and insisted that the Dutch sign the agreement.At the same time, they also sent the battleship "Cadiz Rock" to "accidentally hit" a Dutch merchant ship near Dayuan Port, which caused great pressure on the Dutch. Under so many pressures, this Only then did the Dutch succumb, pinching their noses and agreeing to sign the agreement.As the price for the Dutch concessions, the East Bank will substantially increase the quotas for raw silk and tea exported to Batavia through the Bank of Taiwan headquarters in Dayuan Port, and greatly increase the import quotas for Taiwan sugar and Nanyang specialties. The 20-year monopoly right to sell high-end fur and whale products in the Blackwater area was given to the Dutch East India Company-this is tantamount to a compromise between the two parties, each taking what they need, and everyone is happy.

As one of the protagonists of the tripartite talks, the Qing court seemed to have been intentionally or unintentionally ignored by both the East Bank and the Netherlands.From now on, they will not be able to conduct direct trade with the Dutch East India Company, that is, their export commodities (mainly raw silk, tea, silk, etc.) will first be purchased by the Bank of Taiwan, and then transferred to the Dutch; Interested in foreign muskets and cannons, sorry, it's impossible!People on the east bank refused to help them place such orders with the Dutch East India Company, and they would not sell such sensitive weapons to the Qing court. If "My Qing Dynasty" wants to arm a large-scale firearms force, it still has to think about it. Way, no one will help you.After all, the Dutch East India Company has always had a very good reputation in terms of abiding by treaties. This can be seen from the many agreements they signed with Britain and Spain in recent decades. will abide by the agreement.

Some people may say, since the Qing court can't get what they want (arms), is it necessary for them to trade with the East Coast and even the Netherlands?The answer is that it has to be so!This is because this is one of the prerequisites for the peace talks between the East Bank and it. After all, after the quotas for raw silk and tea exported to Batavia have been greatly increased, it may be difficult to rely solely on Ningbo Prefecture. Under the rule of the Qing court, a large number of these popular export commodities were purchased to make up the share for the Dutch. Therefore, the Qing court was also involved in this complicated triangular trade, and it was also depressing-but they were not at a loss. After all, raw silk, How can tea and brocades be exchanged for money if they are not exported?And without money, how can we support the huge bureaucracy, the army and even the Eight Banners?You know, now thanks to the people on the east bank, the water transportation is basically cut off, and the south of the Yangtze River is full of wars and smoke. The cash income of the Qing court is really insufficient (the salaries of officials and the army can’t be all in kind...), so they rely on exports for exchange. It is inevitable that some gold and silver will come back, and this is why the Qing court sent some officials and businessmen (many of whom were from Shanxi merchant families) with background connections to negotiate trade with the people on the east coast.

Today is almost the last time for the two sides to negotiate, and all the details have been discussed in sevens and eighties. Whether all parties are satisfied or not, that is the only way to go. The signing of the agreement is almost a matter of two days.Of course, this agreement does not appear to have any official background on the surface. The Bank of Taiwan, Shanxi Merchants, the Dutch East India Company, and private institutions in one water, but everyone who signed the agreement knows in their hearts that this is definitely the common will of the high-level leaders of both parties.

(End of this chapter)