Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 1836 Return to Diu

On May 1681, 5, the battleship "Fubo Wanli", which had gone through a long and difficult journey, slowly arrived at the island of Diu, anchored in the offshore sea with the permission of the Portuguese, and then came to the shore in a small boat.

Governor Francisco de Tavola got the report immediately, because he just came to Diu Port to deal with a riot caused by wage arrears.Because of the seriousness of the matter, the dock officials at Diu Port did not dare to neglect, and directly sent someone over to make a report, and then asked for instructions on the next step.

What's next?Governor Tavola laughed, no action, don't do anything, let the people from the east coast come over and have a good talk together!As the new governor of Goa who has just succeeded Pedro de Almeida Portugal, Mr. Tavola comes from a well-known family and his family has been doing business for generations, so he is very sensitive to anything related to trade, especially people on the east coast. When the products that have been improved are extremely abundant.

Because of this, although it was determined by the previous governor, Tavola is not prepared to change it at all, because it does have a very positive impact on the central finance of the Goa colony, and it will allow the governor to get rid of the financial quagmire. Strengthening the authority of the government, of course, can better resist the threat of the Dutch.

Governor Tavola has long been dissatisfied with the nobles who control a small town, a commercial street, or several manors and have a large number of followers.In his opinion, these guys are moths. With them, most of the property rights in the Goa colony have nothing to do with the government. In order to make up for the shortfall, the successive governors had to ask them or the church for alms. This is simply unbearable.

And, even more disconcertingly, these people are often a hindrance to business.In a monopoly position, they impose heavy taxes on merchants who do not cooperate with them and even confiscate their goods. At the same time, some people are still stubborn. do business.So, if they don't interfere with business, who else will?

Of course, these stubborn nobles do not represent the entire upper class of Goa. In fact, there are still some more enlightened nobles who support the decision of the central government, because they mainly seek money, rather than being an official in Goa. Earth emperor.But the proportion of these people, to be honest, does not account for the majority.But in any case, at least in the area of ​​Diu Island, there are still many nobles and businessmen who support His Excellency the Governor, and this seems to be one of the main reasons why the Portuguese Governor and the people on the east coast set up the trading site here.

Morie was a little surprised that the Portuguese governor was also here. He came here temporarily, mainly to visit the personnel who had stayed here for several years, and told them to start taking action.In the past few years, they have not been idle here. Although the two countries have not formally negotiated an agreement, the Portuguese have allowed the people on the east coast to trade here in order to show their friendship, provided that they pay various taxes according to their rules.In the past few years, this small office-like department has also purchased some materials through various channels, hired Indian merchant ships, and sent a lot of things to Djibouti. I was very happy—he was originally the garrison commander in Tiuba Island, but later he swapped with Nanjiro from Djibouti, which can be regarded as an exchange of posts—because they can now supply materials "all-weather", that is, Xinhua Island will send them in summer and autumn. The supplies are coming, and the Indian side will be responsible for the supplies in winter and spring, so life should not be too easy.

And since the governor of the Portuguese is here, Moliel doesn't mind talking to him now. If Diu Island can clarify many things, then it would be great.So, accompanied by four or five entourages, he walked easily into the city of Goa, and then met with Governor Tavola.The governor seemed to be dealing with some important matter, surrounded by many military officers, priests, nobles and civilian officials, they watched with complicated eyes the pagans from the east bank who walked in with their heads held high, all of them silent, as if they were holding a ceremony It was like a religious ceremony for the victims.

"You are very welcome, Mr. Mo." As if to send a signal, Governor Francisco de Tavola got up and walked forward, shook hands with Morley Eel, and then guided him and his entourage to sit in the living room side.And after he finished saying this, the people around who could almost serve as scenery immediately came to life. I saw that some of them directly cast their eager eyes over, some whispered to each other, seeming to have doubts, some Others are indifferent, which fully demonstrates the differences within the Portuguese Goa colony on the matter of cooperating with the east coast to develop the Indian commercial market.

"Honestly, I was very surprised to hear the news of your arrival, and it was very detailed." Governor Tavola didn't care what the people below thought, and sat directly opposite Morie and the others, and said with a smile: "The Governor of Portugal is waiting for you!" Long time y'all but unfortunately there is no news until he returns to Lisbon at the end of his term. Everyone thinks this may be the end of the matter but I'd like to wait a little longer because I think any one is sane No decision-maker in China will easily give up such a win-win deal, and Diu Trade is one of them."

"I'm sorry for being late, but in fact we never gave up. Now I can confirm, is the agreement we reached before still valid?" Mo Lie eel signaled his entourage to take out a stack of documents from the briefcase and put them in front of him On the table, asked: "Although some time has passed, our East Coast Republic of China does not intend to modify any of the terms. This agreement has been signed and sealed by the central government of our country. If your Excellency the Governor If you have any doubts, you can sign and take effect immediately. Of course, before that, I need to look at the letter of appointment of the governor issued by the king of your country. Ah, I don’t mean anything else, and I don’t mean to offend you. I just want to confirm that you have enough authority to complete this agreement."

"It's a legitimate reason." Governor Tavola smiled and responded: "Of course this is no problem, but maybe we can wait for our arrival in Goa before checking. Now, let's talk about business matters , After all, this is something that everyone has always been very concerned about, isn't it?"

Next, Morley Eel consulted with Governor Tavola on specific trade matters.Of course, at this time, he doesn't need to do everything himself, the entourage basically takes care of the details, and he only needs to grasp the big picture.During the hours-long conversation between the two sides, it was basically determined that the people on the east coast could build a brick and stone fortress on Diu Island, but no forts were allowed.The land and building materials of the fortress were purchased from the Portuguese, and the labor could be hired from local Indians. The shape of the fortress was not limited, but the size was limited. All in all, everything was done according to the general rules at this time.

As for the highlight of the two sides - trade details - the discussion, the content can be much richer.The people on the east coast talked about several requirements, that is, first of all, they asked Goa to focus on supplying horses. This kind of draft animals is extremely scarce in both Xinhua Island and the Far East. It needs to continuously improve the input of high-quality stallions. If you consider the degeneration of some horse breeds, all in all, the demand for horses on the east coast is still relatively large, but the long-distance transportation is very expensive. If you can purchase them in Diu, then It couldn't be better.

The Portuguese directly patted their chests on the trade of horses and said that there was no problem.In fact, Sulai in Rajput area is a major trade center for horses. The Indian mainland in the east has a huge demand for horses. However, the local climate is humid and hot, which has caused the problem of too fast death of horses. The difficulties faced by Huaxia Island are actually exactly the same.I have no choice but to step up the purchase, and strive to replenish one dead horse for another!

In addition to the horse trade, the people on the east bank also emphasized their desire for bulk trade products such as Punjabi raw silk, saltpeter, spices (ginger, fennel, benzoin, etc.), and required the Portuguese to prepare enough according to the purchase list submitted by the people on the east bank every year. For this reason, people from the East Coast can even pay a 20% deposit in advance.The Portuguese naturally had no doubts about this kind of trade. In fact, they wished that there would be more people on the east coast to buy something, so that they could earn more money.

Then there were some other fragmentary commodities, but because of the variety of types and the quantity of each category was different, the two sides only talked about it roughly, set an approximate tariff level, and then resolutely moved on to the next topic .

Next is about the goods that the Portuguese want to import.In fact, it is also very simple. The first is weapons, ammunition, equipment and supplies. The Portuguese have been unable to raise all these military supplies for many years, or they have to pay expensive fees to buy some. Now there is a big merchant on the east coast who directly supplies them. Improving their gear levels is a good thing.

In addition, there are a series of industrial products such as hardware products, chemically synthesized dyes, heavy carriages, and navigation equipment. Some of these are needed by the Portuguese, but most of them are needed by the Indians on the other side of Rajput and even Cambay Bay. .The people on the east coast gave the Portuguese a large quota, almost as much as they wanted to sell, as long as there was still stock in the trading station set up by the people on the east coast in Diu Port.

It can be seen that the trade between East and Portugal is basically mutually beneficial, that is, both sides get what they need.However, if you have a forward-looking vision, you will easily find that with the gradual opening of the Indian market in the future, the Diu trading station set up by the people on the east coast will definitely have a large surplus, and the Portuguese will have to flow out a large amount of precious metals to balance the trade. .Of course, this does not mean that they are about to suffer losses. In fact, they are also making money, and they have not lost at all, because it is Indians, not them, who ultimately pay for these industrial products. On the contrary, they can collect a lot of money from these trades. Import and export duties of goods, and other miscellaneous taxes can be collected when selling to the Indian inland, which is of great benefit to improving the financial situation of the Governor's Office.

In the end, Moreel and Governor Tavola also talked about a very sensitive issue, that is, the formation of a joint force in Diu Port, including the navy and army, to ensure the safety of Diu and the surrounding waters.Please note that this formulation of the Portuguese also involves the surrounding waters, that is, they hope to cooperate with the people on the east coast to ensure the safety of their trade hotspots and not be attacked by the fleet of the Dutch East India Company and the Moors—— You must know that many Portuguese ships are sunk or captured by the enemy every year, and the losses are not small. If the ships of the people from the east coast can be pulled over, then it would be a great thing at that time.

To be honest, Morley Eel is more concerned about extending his military tentacles deep into the Indian subcontinent.However, they mentioned the matter of forming a joint fleet, which is more sensitive. It needs to be carefully reported to the mainland to make a decision. What's more, the current strength of the Second Fleet is still relatively limited. At the time, he finally chose to shelve the report.

Compared with the navy, the army's joint force seems to be much simpler, because Xinhua Island can send personnel in various names through various means, isn't it just a 200-man force, in fact, it is very simple, just change the roster change things.Therefore, on this point, Morie asked a lieutenant staff to focus on talking with the Portuguese, and finally decided to use the 200 east bank guards at the Diu Merchant Station as part of this joint force. The city's additional deployment has been about [-] troops as another part of the joint force.

This 400-strong force can conduct training together on weekdays, but the command is in the hands of their respective force commanders. Only when the property and personnel on the east coast or the Portuguese side on Diu Island receive a security threat, the two sides will join forces. Combat, but also limited to the island of Diu.

The Portuguese are satisfied with such an agreement.Although some traditional aristocrats questioned whether this would be suspected of "leading wolves into the house" and "selling oneself for refuge", the Governor-General ignored it blindly.You know, how weak the Portuguese are in India now and how difficult it is to maintain, this is something that many people see.Don’t think there is nothing wrong now, if one day people don’t like you and expel you, it’s just a matter of one sentence. Take Diu as an example. The local natives drove the Portuguese away, and now that the authority of the Indian central government is being challenged, and local forces are about to move, it is hard to guarantee that the Rajputs will not make a comeback. This is hard to say.

Of course, the threat that cannot be forgotten the most is the threat of the Dutch!Can they send their navy to blockade Cambay Inlet, but they can't land and take your lands?Governor Tavola did not forget how Ceylon was lost.Therefore, whether it is to lure wolves into the house, or sell yourself to seek refuge, it is definitely a good deal to take advantage of the conclusion of this trade agreement to tie the people from the east coast, who are known for being good at fighting, to their chariots!Governor Tavola is convinced of this.

(End of this chapter)