Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 1758 Indian Coast ([-])

In early September 1677, the sea off India was sunny and sunny, but the waves were calm. The "Fubo Wanli" double-deck battleship seized the tail of the southwest monsoon and sailed into the port of Colombo again after a year, intending to renew the contract with the Dutch East India Company.

The treaty that the two parties need to exchange is called the "Colombo Treaty of Friendship, Commerce and Navigation". , supplies, repairs, and the right to do business.Namely: No more than ten ships from the east coast can enter the above two ports every year, but they can only carry out activities at designated places, including rest, business and religious activities, and the maximum stay time should not exceed half a year; each ship can only Can purchase local goods not exceeding [-] guilders, and can only purchase from designated merchants; recognize that the Dutch East India Company enjoys special interests in Ceylon, and the people on the east coast shall not make any agreements with England and Portugal that endanger the Dutch East India Company's Agreement on the interests of Ceylon Island; finally, the Cape Town Port and Henghai Island under the East Coast were opened to the Dutch East India Company, and the rights of the Dutch were the same as the rights they had given to the East Coasters in Ceylon and Malacca.

The general meaning is these few items, which are basically the content confirmed by both parties before. After the writing has been polished and the details have been improved, it has been bound into a book and signed by their respective superiors. Now the contract renewal will take effect after completion.It is worth noting that, for unknown reasons, the treaty signed by the two parties this time is not without loopholes. For example, the treaty does not stipulate the size and tonnage of ships entering the port on the east coast, but only stipulates that people on the east coast can purchase The amount of local goods.This is very beneficial to the people on the east coast who want to maintain supplies, avoid bad weather, accommodate the wounded and sick instead of doing business, because they don't particularly care about the business of Ceylon's gems, cinnamon, pepper and other specialty commodities. , Of course, this also illustrates the huge difference in thinking between a profit-making organization such as the Dutch East India Company and a government organization such as the East Coast Republic of China.

The "Colombo Treaty of Friendship, Commerce and Navigation" was written in three languages, Chinese, Dutch and French, in duplicate, each kept by the other party without intermediaries or witnesses.The copy in Morie Eel's hand has been signed by Huang Yi, the captain of the New China Pioneering Team, and the copy in Balthazar Burt's hand has been signed by the Governor-General Van Goins. This will be completed only by bringing back the version in hand of the other party. Change contract.

Morley Eel has no doubts about whether he can complete this mission, because during the year when the agreement was reached and waiting for the contract renewal, the Dutch East India Company actually gave the people on the east coast a "temporary permission", but there was no news. It was passed to Ningbo and Denglai in time, but it was not used.

At nine o'clock in the morning on September 9, representatives of the East and the Netherlands formally exchanged the text of the treaty in Colombo. Fortunately, everything was correct.After that, Morieel only attended the banquet held in the city the next day, and then declined all visits, and spent several days negotiating with the Dutch to buy a piece of land for the construction of a temporary residence.

On September 9, after leaving seven or eight professionals to deal with this matter, the battleship "Fubo Wanli" of Morley Eel slowly left the port of Colombo, and then arrived in the port of Goa thirteen days later. At the heart of Eastern domination.

In fact, Morley Eel's visit to Goa was not a temporary idea. You must know that he had already stopped in Goa once on the way to Colombo.The main reason why he led the ship here was to deepen ties with the Portuguese and prepare for the future.After all, the Dutch East India Company has now signed the "Colombo Treaty of Friendship, Commerce and Navigation" with you, but do you know that they will never turn against you in the future?If you really think so, you can only say that it is too naive, because the world is constantly changing, friends can become enemies, and enemies can also become allies, and it is often done in a short period of time. One set is particularly familiar. Didn’t you see that on the eve of Napoleon’s war of aggression against Russia in later generations, some Russian officers mocked the Prussians for “only betraying us four times in three years”, which is evident from this.

Therefore, although the people on the east coast have temporarily reached an agreement and signed a treaty with the Dutch East India Company, this does not mean that they will not make two-handed preparations.Anyway, they only promised not to collude with the English and Portuguese to harm the interests of the Dutch East India Company in Ceylon, so you can't blame the development of normal relations with Goa, right?Therefore, this time Morley Eel deliberately went to Goa for the second time on his return trip to meet the Portuguese.

Now the speaker in Goa has become Pedro de Almeida Portugal, a lucky man who just became the governor of India this year.Like his predecessor, Luis de Mendoza Furtado y Albuquerque, he is an appointed governor and is also honored as the governor of India, which is not the title of every governor. Obtained, its power is not exactly the same.

The Governor of Portugal — whose real name is Portugal, Pedro de Almeida Portugal — was a little surprised by the second visit from the East Coast.When Morel's ship first visited Goa a few months ago, it was the governor of Albuquerque who received him. At that time, Portugal was only a second official, and he personally participated in several meetings with Morel and others. I still remember some of the things discussed at that time, such as the in-depth trade cooperation between the two countries.

The so-called in-depth trade cooperation is actually that the Xinhua Island colony of the people on the east coast exported a package of commodities such as medicines, hardware products, and boats to Portuguese India in large quantities, and then imported various Indian specialties from the Portuguese.To be honest, this trade model is beneficial to both parties. People on the east coast wanted to do this a long time ago. However, considering the complicated interests of Portuguese India and Portugal, as well as the fact that the war broke out between the two countries because of Brazil, Unhappy past, it was not until the past two years that the two sides had substantive contact and reached some preliminary agreements on trade cooperation—this is actually not easy, because the commercial route of importing industrial products from Lisbon to Portuguese India , there are already regular people doing it, and the people from the east coast are now intervening, crowding out others to grab business, this resistance is naturally great, no wonder there has been no progress for many years, this is directly broken It's a source of wealth for others!

Goa was occupied and colonized by the Portuguese in the last century, and it has been almost 70 years.Today the city of Goa is prosperous and wealthy, the center of the Portuguese in India, described by them as: "... with tall houses and beautiful churches. In the eyes of strict moralists, the city is a Another Babylon, one of India's greatest great cities."

There is no doubt that the rulers of Goa are the Portuguese and their Indian-Portuguese mixed race, and there is a strict hierarchy, that is, the first class is born in Portugal; the second class is born in Asia and Persons of both Portuguese parents; the third category is persons born in Asia to one Portuguese and Indian parent, or to one Portuguese and African parent.

Above is the ruling class.And below the ruling class, there are Catholic Indians or blacks (usually soldiers), who are the middlemen and thugs of the Portuguese rule, and cruelly squeeze the Hindus or prostitutes under them to please Portuguese colonists.

As soon as Morie Eel entered the port, he was greeted by the Governor of Portugal and a large group of officials around him.Mo Lieel shook hands with them one by one, not even the officials of Indo-Portuguese origin (lower status), which made them a little flattered and moved at the same time.

The Governor of Portugal held a grand banquet for Moller in his castle, and almost all the famous people in the city came, including military officers, priests, officials, big businessmen, navigators, artists, socialites, etc., making people dazzled .Mo Lieel actually didn't like this kind of overly complicated occasion, and it was still in such a hot weather, which made him very mentally exhausted, but in the end he still managed to complete this social activity.

According to the deep-rooted blood hierarchy of the Portuguese, Asians—whether they are Indians, Malays, or Chinese—are actually very statusless, and [-]% Asians like Moriel are here In the city of Goa in the [-]s, even if it was killed by the Portuguese, and the other party happened to have a bit of noble title, then just apologize and nothing will happen.But at this banquet hosted by the Portuguese Governor, everyone flocked to him, whether it was Portuguese or Indo-Portuguese, and there was a bit of flattery in his words, and it was said that he was in the glory of the East Coast Republic of China. up.

Yes, that's right, it's the glory of the country!They would not have been possible without the heart-wrenching military operations launched by the East Coast Army against these arrogant guys in Macau, India, East Africa, West Africa, Brazil, the Caribbean, and Portugal during the East-Portuguese War Such a good attitude!That is to say, the respect and glory that Morel Eel currently enjoys are all earned by the East Coast navy and army. Lieutenant Colonel Morel Eel, who personally participated in the attack on the Portuguese fleet, has the right to enjoy all of this now.

Of course, the Portuguese have such a good attitude. Apart from being scared and convinced by the beating back then, it is also related to the current situation in India.More precisely, it has something to do with the tremendous pressure faced by the Portuguese colonial forces!The battle with the Dutch East India Company in Ceylon that lasted for many years has greatly consumed the strength of the Portuguese, especially many precious Portuguese soldiers were also killed and injured in the battle, which made Goa somewhat unbearable.

You know, in this era, only about 600 Portuguese came to India from Lisbon every year-in fact, the official statistics are far more than that, but apart from the disappearance of ships at sea, many people actually wanted to They fled as much as they could, and were unwilling to serve in the East—the number of them who could serve as soldiers was even more limited.In the latest bloody battle on the island of Ceylon, more than 600 Portuguese and Indo-Portuguese troops died on the spot, which almost caused turmoil in the upper class of Goa. The then Governor Joao Nunes Da Cunha could hardly hold back the situation. Finally, when he was dismissed and retired and returned home, he didn’t even get the honorary title of "Respected Governor of India". This shows the poor perception of him by the upper echelons of Lisbon, which can even explain the loss of [-] people. What an unforgivable thing to have a soldier of Portuguese blood.

Today, the Dutch East India Company is still aggressively expanding in Ceylon, Malabar coast and other places, constantly squeezing the Portuguese's strategic space, snatching their sphere of influence, and cutting off their trade. The Goa side is exhausted. I don't know how to deal with it.

Come on, they are really scared, and the price they paid before is a bit heavy. If there are a few more large-scale wars with the East India Company and serious casualties, God knows what will happen. You must know that India People are not dead people. Once the Portuguese can't control the situation, won't the Indians overthrow their rule and drive them out of Goa completely?And if you don't confront the Dutch East India Company head-on and seek a compromise instead, those heretics who believe in Calvinism won't give you a little face, ignore them at all, and continue to yell at the Portuguese, which will be a headache. .

Therefore, now the Portuguese very, very hope that a strong foreign force can intervene and give them a certain degree of help to better counter the Dutch offensive.This foreign force, they originally counted on the English, but after so many years, the development of the British East India Company in India is also very good, but in the end, they dare not confront the Dutch head-on, and they are also bullied miserably!What's more, they now devote a lot of energy to the Qing Dynasty in the Far East, because the profits there seem to be equally high, which leads to them not having enough strength to compete with the Dutch in India, and the Portuguese and the English. It goes without saying that Tuan Lai is still in a comprehensive passive state. There is indeed a huge gap in strength.

But now they seem to see an additional option, and that is the people from the East Coast!This group of pagans who have risen in the southern New World for nearly 50 years still have not seen the slightest sign of weakening. Their warships are rampant throughout the western Indian Ocean, and no one can challenge their hegemony.Even the Dutch East India Company, which is powerful in India and the East Indies, dared not fart even after being robbed of the Cape Town colony. It can be seen that introducing forces on the east coast is indeed a good choice.

Even if people from the east coast may take this opportunity to stay in India in the future, what does it matter?India is so big that the Portuguese don't have the appetite to eat it all. We all need to work together to make a fortune. The premise is to restrain the ambitions of the Dutch who have swelled to the extreme.

(End of this chapter)