Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 1932 East India Company and Southeast Asia ([-])

Lieutenant Si Wen straightened his clothes and quietly walked into the living room of the villa.

This is the city of Macau, a small colonial port with a small area and completely protected by the people on the east coast, so that the Portuguese were able to preserve it.The building area in the port is not large, so Major Ston, who is used to tall houses and large houses, feels quite cramped and cramped, which makes him uncomfortable.

"I don't know how the Portuguese get used to it." He thought resentfully.However, he also admitted that the Portuguese seem to be particularly good at living on narrow coastal or river islands and building a large number of buildings on them.Mozambique Island off the coast of East Africa, Mombasa Island in Northeast Fei, and Macau in Guangdong are all small but densely populated places. The Portuguese are indeed very good at this.

The Portuguese in Macao have been greatly reduced with the decline of trade, and many people have gone to Timor Island or the Bay of Bengal to engage in various coastal trades.For them, Macau City is now just a place to rest after a long-distance voyage, where they can eat a little home-style food and feel the majesty and love of the Lord.

Those who still stay in the city of Macau in this year are indeed "true love".Among these true love groups, the largest number are mercenaries who work for the people on the east coast.Most of them are descendants of Portuguese mixed blood, and they were quite discriminated against in India, just like those Indo-Portuguese, not to mention in Portugal, where the Catholic atmosphere is strong, their status is not much higher than that of blacks.Therefore, few people are willing to leave Macau to seek life elsewhere.

If you don't go to other places to seek a living, then if you stay in the local area, you can only rely on mainland China to survive.As a result, some of them, especially those technicians who can repair ships and guns, were hired by local forces in Guangdong and Fujian, and their lives were pretty good.You must know that in the current mainland China, anyone who has a little knowledge knows the importance of muskets and cannons. These Franji people used to cast cannons at the imperial court in the late Ming Dynasty. The technology is still good, although there may not be those people. The level is high, but it is also a rare talent, so a lot of money is invited to improve my technical strength.

Of course, the people on the east coast looked down on the Portuguese's technology, but they still recruited some people to settle in Denglei and Heishui, mainly because of their relatively proficient skills.After all, training a qualified industrial worker also requires a lot of financial resources and energy, so why not use the ready-made ones!

Apart from these, there is only one thing left in the city of Macau before, and that is a huge number of sailors and mercenaries.Of course, the sailors on the east coast need them, they are all ready-to-use familiar hands, which is naturally better than training novices from scratch.As for mercenaries, the value is even higher. For example, the East Bank has recruited many Portuguese mercenaries for its intervention in the situation in Guangdong.They have long been indoctrinated and trained in the Portuguese military tactics, and they are familiar with the tactics of the firearms era, so they are ideal cannon fodder mercenaries for the people on the east coast.

Of course, it wasn't just this time that the people on the east coast thought of recruiting these Portuguese as mercenaries.In fact, they had already recruited hundreds of Macau-born Portuguese-Chinese (corresponding to the Indo-Portuguese) in the battle against the natives in the Outer Northeast.Although it may not be so brave, it is definitely worth the money.In addition, Portuguese mercenaries can be seen everywhere in the battles against the Ainu on Ezoji Island, and in the battles with the Qing army in Liaodong, which shows that it is widely used.

Therefore, this is basically the situation in Macau now.The era of commercial prosperity is long gone, and wealth no longer favors this narrow coastal city. Macau has begun a painful transformation. At present, it seems that they have found a new development path, which is mainly based on "labor export". Auxiliary (people on the east coast allow them to trade with local forces in Guangdong, but the quantity is strictly limited, although this thing is not easy to supervise), and develop together.

Lieutenant Si Wen is the son of the late Lieutenant Colonel of the East Coast Navy (advanced one rank before retirement), the former captain of the heavy cruiser "Cadiz Rock" Ston, graduated from the Nautical School, and has served in the Navy for more than five years. At the beginning of the year, he is currently serving as the acting captain of a "Star" class light cruiser.

This time he came to Macau City, mainly to meet with a person and discuss some practical cooperation matters.This person is the special envoy of the President of the Manila Prosecutor's Court of New Spain Governorate of the Kingdom of Spain. His name is Martinez. He came from Manila.

Ambassador Martinez came to Macau at the invitation of people from the East Coast.At that time, Ma Wenqiang, the captain of the Southern Pioneering Team, who had not left his job and returned to China, planned to implement the Nanyang trade strategy, but suffered from insufficient strength and helpers, and knew that he could not eat alone, so he began to recruit others to do it together.

After many careful considerations and comparisons, Ma Wenqiang finally settled on the Zheng family from Fujian, the Portuguese from Macau, and the Spanish from Manila, and planned to cooperate with the three parties to establish a stable trade route covering China, the Philippines, and the countries of the Indochina Peninsula.In this route, people on the east coast can purchase raw silk from Vietnam, grain from Siam, and tropical specialties from the Philippines. At this time, there was a shortage of money, because the copper was used many times to make cannons and fight) and exported to the above-mentioned areas to obtain huge profits.

Several other partners have also expressed their approval for this business route model, believing that there is indeed a lot of room for profit in it, and it is something that many people want to do but have not made it.Either they have limited influence in the countries of the Indochina Peninsula, or they cannot get enough goods, or they have insufficient funds. In short, there are various reasons, so that only the Dutch East India Company has been able to effectively use the various traditions of East Asia for many years. trade routes, and make a profit.

For example, the Dutch transported Nanyang specialty products to mainland China for sale in exchange for silk, tea, porcelain and other commodities, and then sold them to Japan for gold, silver and copper pieces.Copper can be sold to the Chinese, it can be sold to the Vietnamese, and of course it can be brought back home as ballast to sell as much profit as possible.Then they can buy leather and raw silk in Vietnam. The leather can be sold to the Japanese to make armor. Of course, the raw silk can also be sold to the Japanese, but at the same time they can also be brought back to Europe for sale. In short, various short-distance trades are booming. More professional than anyone in this sea area.From this point of view, you can better understand why the Dutch are not satisfied after controlling the origin and sales network of spices, and want to continue to expand more spheres of influence. Let go.

Now the East Coast people are also eyeing this market, so after a good preparation, they finally decided to bring the Portuguese, Spaniards and Zheng Jing together to spread the risk.In the more than one year of negotiations and consultations since last year, Portugal and Spain have basically had no serious problems, and the only obstacle is Zheng Jing from Fujian.If he nods now, then this southbound trade plan can be implemented soon, and if he doesn't, then the people on the east coast may encounter some unexpected troubles when operating these routes.

Some people might say that the Zheng family's overseas influence is getting worse day by day, so there is no need to bring them to play together.This is right or wrong, and it is true. The Zheng family has not had any ships to do business in Nanyang for many years, and its influence is not as good as it used to be. What is wrong, people on the east coast actually need the Zheng family if they want to trade with Nanyang. The source of goods, otherwise I am afraid that the quantity will be seriously insufficient, and I will make a lot of less money.

Of course, these are not all reasons!What people on the east coast want most now is to leave Zheng Jing with a way out, a way out that is much safer than Taiwan, and that is the Philippines.They learned that the Spaniards' rule over the Philippine Islands was far from being stable, and various rebel forces could be seen everywhere. They didn't even know how many islands there were in the Philippine Islands, and the living conditions of the indigenous people in most places were also different. I don't know.This situation is actually very suitable for immigrants to secretly cultivate, and the Spaniards may not be able to stop it.Although it seems a little sorry for Spain, a quasi-ally on the east coast, who made you hit the gunpoint of the global planning of the people on the east coast? You can only suffer a small loss.

After Lieutenant Siwen entered the living room, the host (Portuguese) soon appeared in front of him together with Martinez, the special envoy of the President of the Manila Procuratorate.The two sides exchanged pleasantries for a while, and then they sat down one by one and started talking.

Lieutenant Si Wen was born in the military, so he is not very familiar with these things, especially some details.Therefore, the main job of his trip was to determine specific sea routes with the Spaniards and Portuguese, which was his specialty.As for other business details, he carried with him a detailed plan written by Ningbo in Spanish, Portuguese and Latin, which was to be handed over to the representatives of Spain and Portugal, who would take it home for careful review.

In general, the Spaniards and Portuguese are more interested in joining the trade line dominated by the East Coasters.Especially the Portuguese in Macau are even more excited and see this as another great opportunity for Macau's commercial revival, so they are very active when discussing specific routes.

After seeing that everyone's atmosphere was mobilized, Lieutenant Si Wen proposed that everyone should send people and ships in proportion to form a joint fleet according to the plan in advance.This is actually a truth, and it is not surprising to everyone who heard it. If you want to touch the cheese of the Dutch and grab business from them, you must pay attention to safety, and staying together is the most suitable way.

The only question now is probably who should take command of this so-called joint trade fleet.Lieutenant Si Wen unflinchingly believed that this trade fleet was led by people from the east coast, and naturally it should be commanded by people from the east coast to maximize its effectiveness.

There is no doubt that this argument of the people on the east coast does not please the Portuguese and the Spaniards, but they also lack confidence, and they are also a little afraid of the past image of the people on the east coast. Go back and discuss it with your superiors.

Lieutenant Si Wen certainly noticed their behavior.He knew in his heart that this was probably indistinguishable.At this time, it is actually quite exciting to think about it. The East Coast Republic has now formed a joint fleet with the Portuguese in the Indian Ocean, and formed a de facto alliance with the Spanish Windward Fleet in the Caribbean Sea.Now in the Far East Ocean, a joint fleet is formed in the name of Nanyang trade, and the intention to control the South China Sea is quite obvious.

This kind of grand strategic layout, he is already quite excited just to participate in a corner of it.

I coded 2 chapters tonight, and I was so sleepy that I couldn’t open my eyes. I finally completed the task of 10 words for this month. I’m ashamed.

(End of this chapter)