Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 1965

Northern France has had extra rain this autumn.From La Rochelle to Nantes, from Brest to Le Havre, from Paris to Dunkirk, there is no place that does not suffer from muddy weather and the resulting failure of agricultural producers.

The failure of the agricultural harvest means that the French have to spend extra cash to purchase food from foreign countries. This is somewhat difficult when the persecution of the Huguenots in France is intensifying and a large amount of money is flowing out of France through legal or illegal channels.After all, the funds controlled by the Huguenots are still very considerable. Most of them are businessmen, bankers, navigators, skilled craftsmen, artists and other middle- and upper-class people in society. They are relatively rich themselves, so even if they are persecuted, even if the French government It was ordered not to assist any Huguenots to leave the country, nor to assist them in transferring property, but at the specific implementation level, there were still too many loopholes, so that most of the wealthy and powerful Huguenots left safely.Those who continue to suffer in France are just those low-level Huguenots who work as farmers, sailors, and general craftsmen. They actually don’t have much money.

And so much money has flowed to England and the United Provinces through various channels, the currency in the French market is somewhat insufficient, and the tax revenue that the government can receive has also begun to decrease, so neither public nor private can raise enough funds from the Procurement of food from the outside world - of course, this is an exaggeration, because France has a population of more than 2000 million, and the wealth created is not a small amount, and it will not reach the point where it cannot afford to import food.But if more money is spent on this aspect, less will be spent on other aspects, such as military expenditures.

However, Lin Dingzhi, the ambassador of the East Coast to Paris, helped the French solve this rather small trouble: he creatively helped the French introduce grain business worth more than 100 million livres from the northern shore of the Black Sea, and at the same time suggested that the French continue to trade in the famous Syria and Egypt, the food producing areas, have made great purchases.The Ottoman Empire had a bumper harvest of grain this year, so although they were a little bit embarrassed on the battlefield, after all, they had a large land and abundant resources, and the order in the regions that were not involved in the war was still stable, and the grain production was not affected in the slightest. Hence the bountiful harvest.

Lin Dingzhi got the news through Gao Wengang, and then directly contacted the French, saying that he could help them solve part of the food shortage through the relationship with the Crimean Khanate.The French are also more interested in this route. Gein has paid more attention to the Black Sea for many years in the Ottoman Empire, treating it as its own back garden, and it is easy to prevent outsiders from entering unless you get their special approval.Therefore, the number of French merchants who can enter the Black Sea and even the Sea of ​​Azov is actually very limited, which makes it unclear what happened in the Crimean Khanate.They only vaguely know that the Genoese and Venetians have set up business stations there one after another to purchase food and livestock, but they don't know the scale, or they are too lazy to know.

But this time they discovered that the Crimean Khanate, a nomadic country with strong cavalry in the impression, can actually throw out so much food to supply them in one go (it is said that it is still preparing for war and prohibiting too much food export) , this is simply unbelievable!Isn't it true that grassland peoples have always been incapable of production and are relatively short of food?Crimean Khanate, what kind of road is this?Is this country completely transformed?Was it done under the influence of the East Coasters?

But in any case, the food business introduced by the East Bank helped the French a lot, and at the same time brought valuable funds to the Crimean Khanate.Especially at such a tense moment, it is very important for them to receive every amount of money or material assistance, because it means that their hope of winning the war is one point higher.

The grain transported from the Black Sea and the White Sea was transported back to various ports in northern France by merchants, and then distributed to various towns through canals or roads, and sold to the hungry people.The French once asked the East Bank to transfer steam train technology to them to help France build a railway from Paris to Strasbourg, but this was rejected by Lin Dingzhi without hesitation, even though the French were willing to give the East Bank The privilege of low tariff rates for commodities is also not acceptable, because things like trains are not included in the list of local commodity exports at all.

However, maybe it was to appease the French, or maybe it was really interested in the French market. In short, the people on the east coast promised to provide France with a certain degree of technical support, such as steam engine technology.As we all know, the steam engine has been widely used in the UK now, and it has already left the mines, docks and other places, and began to develop into machining, grinding, forging hammer and other industries, and made great progress.Compared with the British, the progress on the French side is much slower. At present, it is still only able to spin on the low-level applications of mine pumping and wharf hanging. The only deep-level applications are only used by large mills. That's all, it's not as smooth as the British, so this has caused the gap in production efficiency between Britain and France.

Perhaps the current gap is not very large, and France has a relatively large population, so it is not obvious enough to reflect the gap in national strength between the two countries.However, with the development of the British economy and the injection of foreign capital, technology, and population, the growth rate of the British population, which has been in a state of peace, will exceed that of the Kingdom of France, which is constantly at war. There is no doubt that the national power comparison between the two countries will gradually become more inclined to the British side.

Therefore, the people on the east coast intend to give the French a little gift, which is to export to them the old steam engine production line design that has long been eliminated in the country, and help them re-order a brand new production line according to this. The technology is better than that of the British. Those who come out are just a little bit more advanced, or simply at the same level.

For example, a machine-made flour production line planned to be exported to Orléans, a suburb of Paris, is designed using a relatively primitive and old steam engine, which is brand new, and then sold to France in a complete package together with the production line.This not only allows the French to significantly open up the market and allow goods from the east coast to enter, but also strengthens the national power of France in a disguised form, giving them more energy to fight against the air and hold back Austria, Prussia, Sweden, England, the United The energy of major powers such as the province made them not bothered to make troubles outside, and at the same time let Spain see the power of it, and the people on the east coast got closer.

So this is a business that kills birds with one stone. At present, it has been approved by Gao Wengang, and it has been transported back to the country by a special ship for review by the superiors. I believe that the obstacles to passing it will not be too great, because they are really eager for the market that the Frenchman gave up. , which is critical to nourishing indigenous industries in South America.

While Lin Dingzhi, the ambassador of the East Bank, was frequently "floating" among the noble residences of the French upper class, in the London Iron Mansion across the strait, Ambassador Cai Zhenguo of the East Bank was receiving some business people who had just withdrawn from Moscow.

Most of these people are east bank businessmen who are active in Arkhangelsk and Moscow. There are not only the staff of the state-run business station, but also some brave and fearless private wholesalers.They have been doing trade between the east bank and Russia for many years. Simply put, they bring machinery and their parts, military supplies, books and other commodities that are allowed to be exported to Russia and sell them to poor people. Haha the Russians, and then buy from them goods such as fur, grain, timber, whale products, wax, honey, hemp, etc., and resell them to England, France or Italy for profit.

It can be seen that Russia has a relatively large demand for goods from the east coast, but people on the east coast have little demand for Russian goods, or even if they have, they buy them for entrepot trade, not for their own use.Considering that people from the east coast do not have a strong shipping and sales network in Europe—there is no way to do business without a ship these days, and the captain is also synonymous with merchants, and there are very few pure transport merchants—so they really can’t export from Russia. A large number of the above-mentioned commodities are purchased, so the trade with the Russians is actually unequal. It is easy to get the cash out of the Russians, so the scale can never increase. The Russians also get nervous from time to time and blackmail the east coast businessmen. , so the business has been stumbling.

This time, a series of crises were caused by the disastrous defeat in the Battle of Vienna. Russia concluded an alliance under the persuasion of the Poles. The possibility of doing something against the Ottoman Empire and the Crimean Khanate is increasing. People on the east coast weigh the pros and cons After that, it was finally decided to gradually reduce the scale of business in Russia, slowly withdraw funds, and gradually divert personnel to London, Amsterdam and Riga, so as to prevent the Russians from angering them in the future, resulting in undue economic and personnel losses.

What Cai Zhenguo met today was already the second batch of evacuated personnel, and some of them were even east bank engineers working in the Arkhangelsk Gun Repair Plant and the Little Star Shipyard.The departure of these people has already made Moscow a little uneasy, but they are currently fighting fiercely, and the palace conspiracy is one after another. Princess Sophia, who is in power, has no time to deal with the East Bank, so the withdrawal of these people has not caused anything. monstrous waves.

Of course, then again, even if the Russians are not happy, this time the East Bank is determined to evacuate.Their determination to protect Crimea is very strong. For this reason, they did not hesitate to abandon the relationship they have operated in Russia for many years (in fact, they have not managed much), and fully supported the political, military and economic reforms of the Crimean Khanate. Strengthen its national strength to counter Russian aggression.

"Russia may go south at any time." Cai Zhenguo held a tea party in the conference room and chatted with the retreated personnel, only to hear him say: "We expect that the Russians will dispatch 15 troops, and Eastern Ukraine can also gather [-] Cossacks. That's [-] people. We can't say that we have rich experience in war, and we are not an opponent that can be underestimated. Therefore, in order to support the Crimean Khanate, we will definitely take some more radical measures, which will definitely cause dissatisfaction among the Russians. Hi, I am afraid that you will not be able to return to Russia in a short period of time. At this time, I sincerely suggest that you temporarily go to the Kingdom of France on the other side of the strait and use your ingenuity to help Ambassador Lin Dingzhi and develop the French market. , laying a solid foundation for the mass sales of Grand East Coast products in France."

"There are more than 2000 million people in France, and they are always rich. Even though they will become a little poor because of the war, the overall market is still not small, and it is worthy of our focus." Cai Zhenguo continued: "It is not easy to enter the French market. We have worked hard for several years to get the opportunity, so we must know how to cherish it. Of course, if any of you are willing to stay in the UK and work hard, I have no objection, because this is actually a vibrant emerging market with opportunities There are a lot of them, so it’s okay to stay. In short, what I want to say is that Russia will not be able to go back in a short time. Special Envoy Gao Wengang and Commander Mao Jun have made up their minds. Thousands of people have already traveled eastward in batches to Kazakhstan on the shore of the Black Sea. It is not impossible to be stationed in Jixian County to participate in the war. In short, we have offended the Russians this time, and the relationship between the two countries is destined to enter a low ebb. It is better to be careful."

"Of course, if you want to go back to China, it's not impossible. After all, many domestic industries are continuing to develop, and some new technologies are widely used, so there are still more business opportunities." Cai Zhenguo finally said.

I've been so busy recently, running around the construction site during the day, and having dinner at night, that even my sleeping time has been severely compressed.I was so sleepy when I was typing today, I managed to get over it by drinking coffee and smoking.

So the update is long overdue, sorry.

(End of this chapter)