Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 1933 East India Company and Southeast Asia ([-])

Everywhere in every house, it is difficult to draw a hundred kinds of pictures;

Cities and cities are bustling with purple and red;

……

National security is like Jin'ou, and the prosperity of the land depends on Fengcheng.

The above is a passage from the "Ode to Spring in Fengcheng" written by the famous Vietnamese poet Nguyen Tan An.Ruan Jin An was active in the Le Dynasty. At that time, Vietnam's national power had begun to decline, and rebellions and rebellions were common, but the local economy was still decent, and the burden of the people was not too heavy, so there was still some prosperity.

Now more than 100 years have passed, and Vietnam has fallen into a state of melee between the Northern and Southern Dynasties.Zheng Zhu in the north and Ruan Zhu in the south fought seven wars in the past 50 years, resulting in sluggish business and difficult people's livelihood. Vietnam's economy declined at a speed visible to the naked eye, and has been hovering in the trough.

More than ten years ago, the North and the South finally couldn't fight anymore, and finally signed a peaceful armistice agreement, demarcated the border, and entered a state of recuperation.And this state is a good thing for foreign businessmen, because the days of doing business in the war zone are too frightening.Those red-eyed Vietnamese soldiers may point their guns at the businessmen who come to trade at any time, and they have no sense of security at all.Now that the north and the south have eliminated soldiers, Lord Zheng and Lord Ruan have issued policies to develop agriculture and mulberry and encourage business respectively, and implement them nationwide.And foreign businessmen, like sharks smelling blood, chased them from everywhere.

"More than 100 years ago, the monarch of Vietnam was still a literati who respected traditional Confucianism, advised farming and mulberry, and despised business. The export of Vietnamese porcelain, which was prosperous in the 14th century, began to decline sharply at the end of the 15th century. The main reason is that They are not very enthusiastic about participating in the flourishing international trade. Foreign merchants are often turned away, or are allowed to enter after strict inspections that border on personal humiliation. The goods on board are also coveted by many greedy officials, often It was confiscated under various excuses." In Hoi An Port, on the poop deck of a merchant ship, a middle-aged man with a loud voice was speaking.

"A British businessman once protested to the Vietnamese king because of unfair treatment. The Vietnamese king responded directly, 'Before you came, I was already the king of Tokyo; after you left, I was still the king of Tokyo; foreign goods, My country wants nothing'." The middle-aged man continued: "The Vietnamese king who said this is very confident, because he has a large population (especially in northern Vietnam) and self-sufficiency in agriculture, so although This country has a long coastline, but its foreign trade is not very developed, which is quite emotional.”

"But after the partition of the Northern and Southern Dynasties, people dare not do this, right?" Another younger voice asked.

"It's just a little bit better." The middle-aged man continued to complain: "And most of them are concentrated in the relatively weak south. Ruan Huang, the founder of the Southern Dynasties, set up a foreign trade center here in Hoi An, which was called "taste" by European businessmen at that time. Haipu'. At that time, Europeans, Chinese, and Japanese flocked here to trade goods and then sell them to other places. Hoi An's trade was once very prosperous and its reputation was great. It gave the Nguyen regime It brought huge financial income. But even so, Ruan Huang, who was deeply influenced by Confucianism, was still embarrassed about this. He once wrote to a Japanese friend, saying that his country is "a country of poetry and etiquette, not a city. It means that although I can’t do without the income brought by Hoi An’s trade and strongly support overseas trade, I despise this kind of behavior that deviates from the fundamentals of the saint in my heart, and it’s just a stopgap measure.”

"In the Confucian cultural circle, the contempt and suppression of businessmen has reached the peak. Such a stable and closed society cannot effectively increase productivity. Even if the buds of capitalism sprout, they will be suppressed by the deep and heavy social system. However, the profits obtained from the industry cannot be invested in the expansion of reproduction. They can only be built in the countryside to build mansions, buy land, or simply cast them into silver melons and bury them. In such a country, the speed of moving towards capitalism may be painfully slow, unless External forces broke it." The middle-aged man continued to say: "Vietnam's overseas trade has developed, isn't it also during the period of partition between the North and the South? Zheng Zhu and Ruan Zhu fought back and forth, and saw the benefits of muskets and cannons. Seeing the pros and cons of the new tactics, I understand that I can't rest on my laurels and become a frog in a well. Moreover, the huge financial burden caused by the war has also forced both sides to seek the development of overseas trade, otherwise I am afraid that they will not last long. The other party was crushed. This is the case in Vietnam, but why is it not the case in mainland China?"

Having said that, the middle-aged man didn't continue talking because it was unnecessary.Everyone has just left China, what do you not understand?Thinking back to when the Qing people pacified the north and swept the south, they were relatively ignorant.But in the next few decades, after the people from the east coast stoked the situation a little bit, causing them to bruise their heads, these people who started from Beishan Heishui also understood.They began to no longer reject foreign trade and foreigners, but were still very enthusiastic about it.Taking the Qing Dynasty as an example, because the Yangtze River Basin was within the deterrent range of the navy on the east coast, they also built a new trade center at the mouth of the Guanhe River, which shows their urgency for foreign exchanges.

And if the Qing Dynasty was not completely open because of its close integration with the gentry, then the mud-legged regime of Dashun, which was rooted in Huguang and Jiangxi, was much stronger in this regard.The top leaders of the Li Shun regime have never learned the subtle words and righteousness of the saints, and they are not very cold about the general principles.They promote what is beneficial, and abolish what hinders the development of productive forces. They do everything possible to improve the productive capacity of the whole society, and strive to invest every penny of wealth created in the military field, so that they can be compared with their size. Many Qing countries contend for hegemony.

Therefore, the Qing Dynasty and the Shun Kingdom were forced to do so.If mainland China had been unified quickly, Baobuqi would have been a closed country with only a few foreign windows for trade, just like Japan next door.Now the mainland is divided by all parties, and they attack and compete with each other. Whoever closes the country is tantamount to suicide. Therefore, the ideological activity, productivity development and commercial prosperity of the whole society have made great progress in Belgium during the same period, so that It has reached the point where people on the east bank are a little worried.

"Vietnam trade can actually do something, but I don't know why your Taiwanese bank didn't pay attention to it." After a short silence, another younger voice sounded again, and he asked: "Hoi An There are many Chinese, Japanese, English, Dutch, and Portuguese here, but we have very few people. So far we don’t even have a formal guild hall, and we still live in the local Cantonese businessmen’s guild hall. What’s the reason for this? "

"That's because the Vietnamese can't provide what we need, and we can't provide much of what the Vietnamese need. It’s all been neglected, and now it’s time to make up for it all.” It was Shao Shuguang, the former general manager of the Bank of Taiwan who spoke.

Shao Shuguang, who has been at the helm of this large syndicate since its inception, has just stepped down as the general manager this year and plans to return to China for development.After working in such a sensitive position for so many years, it is indeed time to step down, otherwise it may be a bit of an eyesore.You know, the three brothers of the Shao family now hold about 20% of the company's shares, and they are a huge force in the board of directors. If Shao Shuguang holds on to the CEO position for a long time, it will inevitably be disliked by other shareholders. Therefore, it is better to abdicate to Xian.

The ship he was on today belonged to the Immigration Department. It was a classic "Dash Champion" class immigration transport ship, carrying more than a thousand war refugees from Chaozhou Prefecture, Guangdong.The destination of these people is the Brazilian region in the northern part of the East Coast mainland, and it is expected to take more than a year to finally arrive.

And because of the design of the ship, the "Sprint Champion" class does not have a large-capacity cargo hold, and the only space is not much for storing goods except for the necessary food, fresh water, medicine, fruit, and livestock.However, the ship sailing from Macau still carried a considerable amount of copper purchased from Japan, sold to the Vietnamese, and returned a large amount of "Tokyo Raw Silk" (in fact, the origin may not be Tokyo, but other rural areas in Vietnam) and Vietnamese porcelain .

These Vietnamese specialty products can be sold at a good price in India, the Middle East, East Africa and other places, and then you can purchase some products locally and bring them back to the East Coast for sale. The profits obtained can somewhat subsidize the immigration costs.Although it may feel like a drop in the bucket, it's better than nothing, isn't it?

"The southward trade strategy that the Southern Exploration Team is planning and implementing now is to make up for such a link. And the commercial capital in the Ningshao area also has the urge to expand these maritime trades, so all of this unfolded naturally." Shao Shuguang also explained: "Now, because of our serious lack of strength, we need to bring in the Portuguese, the Spaniards, and the Zheng family from Fujian for trade, and this way of keeping warm is also the most effective way to deal with it. The practice of the Dutch East India Company."

In fact, the current trade route planned by the four companies is still quite insufficient.For example, the efficiency of the last section of their planned Dinghai-Xiamen-Macau-Hoi An-Manila trade route is quite low.According to the original idea, Hoi An will go to Malacca City for trade in order to buy some Indian specialties, and then go to the Philippine Islands along the coastline.

But Malacca is now controlled by the Dutch East India Company. After moving their commercial cheese, no one can guarantee that the Dutch will not close the market to them.Coupled with the hidden dangers of piracy that are rampant in the nearby waters, they still temporarily gave up this section, and we will talk about it later.

As one of the most important participants in the southbound trade, the Bank of Taiwan plans to set up a large-scale cargo distribution center in Hoi An Port in the future, and then open up routes to Siam, the East Indies (like the British, secretly buying spices), Myanmar and even feeder market in India.If these small short-distance routes are really managed well, the commercial profits should not be underestimated. This can be seen from the fact that the Portuguese are still running the Macau-Bay of Bengal route.

These so-called short-distance trade branches undoubtedly posed a serious competitive threat to the merchants of the Dutch East India Company.When those Dutchmen found out that their business had been robbed and their wallets had shrunk severely, they wondered if they would make any drastic moves.Perhaps, when some people can't restrain their anger, events similar to the massacre of English businessmen in Banten will also be staged on the people on the east coast. This is also an important factor that cannot be ignored.

Of course, there are many benefits to expanding the trade line, and the biggest one besides profit is undoubtedly the influence.If you look at the large number of Japanese and Chinese business halls in Hoi An, you can see how strong these two groups are in the local trade status (the influence of the Japanese has also declined rapidly with the seclusion of the shogunate in the past 20 years). People in Anhui now hope that Fujian, which has always had many mountains and little land, can use these trade lines to extend outwards, emigrate out of the country through commerce, and eventually change the local population composition.

These immigrants do not need to spend a penny on the East Bank itself, and once the future becomes a climate-almost inevitable, many of the initial immigrants in Nanyang are business immigrants, and then gradually bring relatives and friends from their hometowns, slowly A huge community scale has been formed—on the contrary, it is an excellent medium for people from the East Coast to expand their influence in Indochina, the Malay Peninsula and other places.With the strength of the East Coast Navy, as long as these overseas Chinese are not stupid, they will know which thigh to embrace.

This is a long-term grand strategy for decades to more than a hundred years, and it will not see any effect in the short term.And this obviously requires the support of a huge commercial and navigational capital. It depends on how much capital the local businessmen in Ningbo will be able to carry out this kind of overseas export after digesting the newly acquired Shaoxing Prefecture territory.But no matter what, the brave East Coast Navy will definitely do everything in its power to escort this kind of capital export, so as not to let outsiders take advantage of it.

On October 1685, 10, after the docking and replenishment at Hoi An Port, the "Dash Champion" immigrant transport ship carrying Shao Shuguang also set sail, left the coastal waters of Vietnam, and headed for Diu in northwest India at full speed. Island sails away.

Obviously, this is an immigrant ship traveling through the Strait of Malacca. It coordinated interests with Portugal on the east coast. An important stop on the journey, that's how the ship sails today.

(End of this chapter)