Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 1939 Chaco (V)

"These are the lazy people you told me about?" Jose Rodriguez looked at the hard-working workers in the workshop with some surprise, and said in an unbelievable tone.

In front of me are about 60 men with typical Latin faces, busy in the workshop, processing wool.Looking at their skillful movements and tight working rhythm, it is indeed difficult to connect them with any words like "lazy", but the captain of Castile who sent them here categorically insulted these people as "lazy". slacker".

"How should I put it, Jose..." José Rodriguez was accompanied by a young man in a hunting suit. At this moment, he organized his words in distress, and then he said briefly The story: "Oh, they were all artisans from the former Duchy of Milan under King Carlos, who were found guilty of not obeying orders from above that they should open their businesses. They were, in fact, lazy, and I heard they It’s horrible to be idle all day rather than open.”

In fact, things are not as bad as this young nobleman said!The Duchy of Milan, a country located in northern Italy, has fallen into a very difficult situation since it fell into the hands of the Habsburg family, just like other Italian territories under the Habsburg family.

The originally prosperous and wealthy Lombards were heavily taxed on their heads, and the wealth flowed from Milan to Madrid. The locals once said angrily: "They (referring to the Spaniards) eat in small bites in Sicily, and eat in small bites in Sicily. Naples eats normally, Milan eats like a wolf."

No amount of wealth can withstand the huge consumption of successive years of wars. The originally prosperous economic centers under the Spanish rule have declined one by one: Bruges, Antwerp, and Milan have all been economic or financial centers, but because the Kingdom of Spain could not move from They were supported at the national level, so they all failed without exception.

The decline of Milan's industrial system was later than this.The Milanese handicraft industry system, which was originally civilized due to the manufacture of weapons, gold and silver utensils, glass, cloth, and silk weaving, was unable to survive in just a few decades under the continuous heavy taxation of the Kingdom of Spain and the competition from foreign industrial products. redeemed.The first is the strong competition of the British in the arms manufacturing, glass, cloth and other industries, followed by the surprise attack of the French silk and textile industry. The people on the east coast who gave them a fatal blow were flooded with a large number of cheap industrial products into the Italian peninsula. In many places, the artisans of Milan are unable to compete, so they can only close their doors and go out of business.

But the Spanish court was dissatisfied with the artisans doing this, because they could not collect taxes and could not provide for their huge expenditures on court consumption and wars, so they forced these artisans to open their businesses so that they could collect taxes by shop.But this kind of violation of economic laws is destined not to last. After a large number of craftsmen were lost to other countries, the Habsburg royal family finally sobered up and accepted the reality, and finally stopped persecuting these poor craftsmen .Then, due to some strategic considerations (such as not letting the French get these craftsmen), the Spanish court finally encouraged them to immigrate to the New World, most of them went to New Spain, but there were also many people who came to Peru, even the more remote ones. of Buenos Aires has hundreds of them.

Together with these people, there are also a large number of Neapolitan farmers.The Kingdom of Naples is also very rich in history. Since the 15th century, few areas in Italy have been as fertile and intensively cultivated as the surrounding area of ​​Naples. This can be seen from the fact that the urban population of Naples once reached more than 30. The agricultural conditions in this area are very good. How wonderful.

Without enough food, it is impossible to feed such a large population!

In addition to food, there are many mountain pastures in the Kingdom of Naples, which provide very good conditions for raising sheep.The scale of this sheep farming is so large that the annual tolls imposed on the shepherds who change pastures reach as much as 20 ducats (about 50 East Coast silver dollars).And after the wool is sold to other city-states in the Italian peninsula, it can increase a lot of taxes for the government. It can be seen that the Kingdom of Naples is indeed a treasure house of wealth.

But once such a wealthy kingdom falls into the hands of the poorly managed Habsburg family, sooner or later it will end up in the same fate as the Duchy of Milan.Years of war burdens and huge court expenditures have drained the Kingdom of Naples of their last blood and sweat.The once-developed agricultural and densely populated Kingdom of Naples fell into a long-term Great Depression. Residents continued to emigrate, and once became the first choice for businessmen from Genoa and Tuscany to be employed—now the East Coast Republic. In the New China colony, the main people employed by the Genoa Africa Company, the Delta Company, and the Marco Polo Company were Neapolitans and Sicilians, and even local forest development companies on the east coast and other companies with Italian backgrounds recruited a large number of people. Neapolitan.

The northern Italians and the southern Italians made the Habsburg family, who were not good at management, so ecstatic that they had to travel across the ocean to the New World, and continue to live in this strange land—well, continue Pay taxes for King Carlos.And the people on the east coast are also carefully observing the actions of their neighbors who continue to immigrate to the colony, and analyze their inner motives.

"Well, Diego, maybe they are lazy as you say, but at least for now, under our effective management, they are still very competent workers." Jose Rodriguez said.

The textile factory in front of us was jointly funded and built by many famous families in the Buenos Aires area. It used a complete set of hydraulic equipment imported from the east bank and was located in the suburb of Santa Fe, a famous city on the banks of the Paraná River.The significance of its existence is mainly to use the relatively abundant local wool resources for spinning, and then export this semi-finished product to the private textile workshops on the east coast that have gradually grown over the years to obtain profits.

The source of their wool is mainly from the west and northwest, which naturally includes the Chaco Plain.In fact, the climate in the western half of the Chaco Plain is relatively dry, the plains are endless, and the grass grows and warblers fly. It is indeed a good place to herd sheep.Over the past ten years, more and more Spanish immigrants and gauchos have chosen to move their flocks from the south to this place in winter, so this can be said to be a more important pasture area for the Spaniards.But now this place is taken by people from the east coast!There is no more sad story than this.

The father of the teenager Diego is Trinidad, the newly appointed ambassador to the East Coast of the Madrid court.Of course, this new ambassador, who symbolizes the Holy Trinity, came to the east bank not to solve the so-called fall of Chaco. In fact, he shouldered a more important mission. For this reason, he could even sacrifice the interests of the Kingdom of Spain in Chaco!

The cause of the incident was the French King Louis XIV who caused headaches throughout Europe!Proud by nature, he heard that after Polish King Jan Sobieski completed the task of rescuing Vienna, all the churches in the city sang hymns for him, and he also gave the title of the sermon: "He is a man sent by God, whose name is john.

Sobieski's enormous popularity made Louis XIV jealous, and the Ottomans accused him of treachery and made him morally condemned.Therefore, he immediately ordered more troops to the border of the Spanish Netherlands, and at the same time began to hoard ammunition supplies, and seemed to want to launch a new round of offensive.

This move by the French terrified the Madrid court.They have not yet recovered from the trauma of previous wars, and seeing the possibility of falling into a new crisis, how can this not make them panic?In desperation, King Carlos had no choice but to send envoys to seek help, some of them went to the United Provinces, some went to Vienna, and of course some traveled across the ocean to the east coast.

This Mr. Trinidad is the special envoy appointed by King Carlos and the new ambassador to the East Coast. He is responsible for conveying the changes in the current situation in Europe to the East Coast people and asking them if they have any countermeasures. After all, the French changes will bring Changes in the situation are likely to affect the commercial interests of people on the east coast.

Coincidentally, the French sent envoys to the east bank, and the envoys from the Kingdom of Genoa just arrived in Dongfang County, the capital, two days ago and met with senior officials of the East Bank Ministry of Foreign Affairs.The reason is that the French have just sent people to Genoa * to ask them to stop providing loans to the Spaniards, otherwise they will take actions against them.

The Genoese didn't take it seriously at first, and declined the French, and continued to provide financial support to the Kingdom of Spain. At the same time, they resold goods in Cadiz, Seville and other places, making huge profits.However, when the main force of the French Eastern Fleet set off from the Port of Toulon and began blatantly cruising off the coast of Genoa, the Genoese could no longer calm down. They sent envoys out to ask for help, and one of them came to the east bank along the way.

In fact, the Genoese didn't know that the French were much "gentle" to them this time than in history.Historically, the main force of the French Eastern Fleet directly blocked the port of Genoa*, and then tilted more than 14000 shells towards the port, making Genoa*a frightened.They dealt with the French for more than a year, and finally surrendered helplessly. Even the consul came to the Palace of Versailles and begged Louis XIV for forgiveness.

The consul groveled to the fullest, took off his hat in salute when he spoke to Louis XIV, had a submissive attitude, and promised again and again that he would no longer build ships for Spain and provide them with financing services, which allowed him to pass.

This time and space French seems to have some calculations, did not directly bombard the port of Genoa*, but simply sent warships cruising in the open sea to block its overseas trade, but this is very important for this country that relies heavily on overseas trade—— Especially the grain trade in Sicily and the Black Sea - equally deadly.Therefore, they urgently need a solution now, otherwise they can only choose to give in to the French.

Judging from the common experience of the Spaniards and the Genoese, the action of the French is definitely not a whim, but has been planned for a long time.Therefore, the Spaniards hastily sent envoys to the east bank.Compared with this kind of major event that concerns the survival of the core of the country, some bad things on the Chaco Plain are dispensable and small interests for King Carlos, and they can be discarded for greater benefits at any time ——Including the land and the poor Italian immigrants who had just been driven to the New World by him, anyway, they have gradually integrated into the economic circle of the east coast.

Of course, it is impossible for such a big event to be known by too many people. Mr. Trinidad didn't even tell his own son, but only asked him to go to Buenos Aires to meet some local elite families, so as to prepare for the future of the family. ready for investment.Therefore, when these two young people were secretly worried about the possible future fate of the Chaco Plain, they did not know that its fate had already been doomed, and it had long been a bargaining chip between the Madrid court and the people on the east coast. The Ambassador of Linida has long understood this.

And if you look at it from a longer historical period, you will find that the relationship between the East Coast and Spain is basically promoted by the French.In order to keep its European territory, Spain can only turn to the east bank again and again, and then be slaughtered willingly. This time is no exception-of course, it cannot be said that it is completely accurate, because after years of rapid development After accumulating and accumulating, today's Eastern China Republic already has stronger capital to intervene in foreign situations, especially when they now have such a will.

(End of this chapter)