Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 1981 West Indian Ocean (24)

On March 1687, 3, Captain Jan Isaac Reus from Enkhuizen was writing a letter to his superiors in the harbor of Willem II on the island of Mauritius.

"...The ship set out from Cape Town on January 1th. In order to sail to Batavia more safely, we sold most of the European cargo and purchased a whole ship of weapons and ammunition. God bless , we crossed the southeast corner of Xinhuaxia Island on February 15 and headed for Port Wilhelm II. On the way we met the three-masted schooner 'Good Weather' and learned with great sorrow that with them The sailing ship "Samsun" was attacked by pirates one night and was finally buried at sea. After arriving in Port Wilhelm II, I learned that Mr. It is said that because they did not truthfully declare all the purchased goods, they were suspected of smuggling, so they will be sentenced, but I highly doubt that this is a fishing law enforcement by people from the east coast, because I have never heard of such incidents before.”

"...The shortage of medicines could not be purchased. The sailors and residents of Port Wilhelm II complained to the authorities that there were too many patients and the burden was too heavy. Even the sailors of a sailing ship complained that their captain had just died of malaria. And there are not enough healthy sailors on board to afford the voyage. So they will auction off the ship in Port Wilhelm II, and then everyone will settle there and look for work."

"...three ships came from the port of Beira controlled by the English (in Portuguese Mozambique, but this port belongs to the British, which is a historical relic) and sold us a large amount of food at a fair price. [-] apples, [-] oranges, [-] melons, [-] sheep, [-] cows, and a large amount of flour, salted fish, coconut and palm oil. These are basically the Portuguese from Mozambique Procured there, God forbid, in our difficult time, the Englishmen of Bella can come here by boat and come to our aid and keep us from being defenseless for lack of food and costing the company. Of course they When I left, I also took a lot of spices, gems, leather and gold, and there were also huge profits."

"... the garrison officer of Port Willem II fell ill, and the interim council has now taken over all powers. The gentlemen of the council think that all the misfortunes that have recently befell the island of Mauritius seem to have a source, which is the east coast. People! It may be too early to judge them as the mastermind, but the arrest of Mr. Christian and Mr. Reinzer seems to herald a change in their attitude towards us, that is, they have stopped hiding their hostility towards us, and everything started Become naked. Mr. Francis Peters Cornelis, who runs a large farm on the island of Mauritius, even guessed that the two ships that disappeared one after another were probably attacked by people from the east coast. They destroyed the bodies and burned the ships Or scuttled, leaving the company unable to investigate, and the sailors were presumably all chained up on some remote, damp plantation, toiling and working to death."

"...there are islanders who are willing to join the ranks of sailors, including many Malays who have been sentenced to exile by the Batavia High Court, but they all demand a considerable increase in salary, because at this stage In other words, the risk of going to sea has been greatly enlarged. In addition, they also demanded better food supplies, a quota of two suitcases for each person to store personal goods, and the captain is not allowed to torture sailors without trial. Considering the current severe situation, The Council and the captains had to comply with this request, to the satisfaction of all sailors employed in Port Wilhelm II."

After writing such a long paragraph, on the pier not far from the window, the coastal defense artillerymen were conducting artillery calibration again.Recently, the company has brought many cannons from Batavia, and they have placed them one by one in dangerous places around the port.For this reason, the Port of Wilhelm II also obtained the consent of the Governor of Batavia and allocated funds to build the above-mentioned facilities.The famous Dutch East India Company never invested so much resources in a small island colony. It was the first time that the island of Mauritius was unprecedented, and this was all caused by the coercion of the group of pagans on the east coast. Regarding this Captain Reus understood very well.

Having been to the Far East several times (he was not the captain at the time), his impression of the people on the East Coast was actually very complicated.On the one hand, he is very excited that the people on the east coast can make a big splash on the Far East continent, because they have shown all overseas colonists how to pry open the closed market of this country, that is to keep it in the During the war, if all parties have plans and demands for the outside world, they will naturally trade with foreign businessmen to improve the competitiveness of their own regime.On the other hand, Captain Reus was dissatisfied with the fact that the people on the east coast controlled a considerable part of the export trade of Chinese specialty products, although they also provided a lot of valuable furs, whale products, high-grade flour, wine and hardware tools (Made in the East) ) and other commodities to appease the company, and signed a long-term and large-scale grain import agreement, but this is still not enough to calm the sullenness in the hearts of Batavia's top management and change their views on people on the east coast.

Captain Reus reckoned that the reason for the deterioration of the relationship between the two sides was that the people on the east coast intervened in the battle between the Portuguese and the company in India without authorization, and entered the island of Diu with a strong force, officially starting their own colonial trade on the Indian subcontinent.This is especially intolerable for the Batavian side, because they know that the Portuguese are easy to deal with, as long as it takes time, but the people on the east coast, which are huge in the western Indian Ocean, are definitely not easy to deal with, and they have too many colonies and manpower.Once in India, it is almost impossible to drive away, so this seriously violated the interests of the Dutch East India Company, and they had to respond.

Increasing tariffs on necessities exported to the east coast (such as food they desperately need) is just a small test and see how it reacts.But who would have imagined that the people on the east coast would react so strongly that they launched a strong counterattack everywhere, which caused heavy losses to some companies that were not prepared enough.For example, it is already difficult for them to get goods along the coast near Guangzhou. High tariffs have been imposed on the goods exported to them by the Bank of Taiwan, and some of them have even been canceled directly and no longer exported. The trade commissioners of Hermosa Island were furious, but there was nothing they could do.

By the way, Formosa Island has been a little unstable recently.Fujian Wang Zhengjing, who carried out colonial activities in the northern half of the island, didn't know what to think about. He would rather destroy the friendship accumulated over the years between the company and them, but also create friction on the boundary line in the middle of the island and encourage the people under his rule. The phenomenon of migration to the south and cross-border reclamation is very serious.

Governor Hugo Rolle of Zeelandia sent people to negotiate several times, but failed to achieve any desired results.In desperation, Governor Rolle sent soldiers to expel the Fujianese who crossed the border, demolished their huts and huts, and recaptured the lost land.But King Fujian's troops soon returned, and this time they were accompanied by soldiers. Several small-scale conflicts occurred between the two sides in the border area, and things suddenly became uncontrollable.

Another disgusting thing for the people on the east coast is the establishment of a joint fleet of the East, Portugal, and the West in Macau, under the unified command of the east coast naval officers.Although the size of this fleet is small, it operates offshore from time to time. It is said to be anti-smuggling, but it is often engaged in piracy activities, and it focuses on overseas businessmen like the Dutch East India Company, so that some company merchant ships have to hang up. There is no one who raised the flag of another country to avoid risks.

All in all, the people from the east coast have been tossing around in the Far East, and the Dutch trade volume has been greatly reduced. The Formosa trading station, which originally contributed one-third of the company's profits, seems to have been stolen overnight, which is ugly on the books. Too bad, all kinds of old customers in Guangdong and Fujian Offshore have refused to supply goods for various reasons, and some even tricked the company's businessmen to the port, and then brutally killed them and confiscated their wealth, which made people very angry.

As a last resort, the businessmen of the company had to take the risk of sailing a longer distance to arrive at Xiangshui Port, an important trading port of the Qing Dynasty, to purchase tea, raw silk, brocade, porcelain and other commodities provided by the Qing Dynasty. With fierce competition from businessmen from Portugal and other countries, they may not be able to gain any upper hand, so the overall harvest is limited, which cannot make up for the loss of the southern market.

Captain Reus was not very aware of all that was going on in the Far East.But with some friends over there, he has more or less known the general situation over the past few years, and was shocked by the unparalleled influence of the East Coast people in mainland China, and at the same time envied him even more.This ability to mobilize various resources at will is the so-called influence that the Dutch East India Company has been pursuing. It is a pity that they have never achieved this, which is quite regrettable.

Captain Reus felt that the head of Governor Batavia must have been caught by the door, and the trade sanctions would not cause much harm to the people on the east coast. They can import food from North Korea instead. Although there are fewer channels for Nanyang specialty products, they can It can't be said that there is no, so their life is not uncomfortable. What is really uncomfortable is the Dutch East India Company, the initiator of this trade war.

And this is the case in the Far East. How could the people on the east coast with such a huge influence in the West Indian Ocean not take advantage of their own advantages to squeeze the Dutch East India Company more deeply?So you can see that the East-Portuguese joint fleet was formed again. Although the scale is also very small, it gave the Portuguese in Goa courage and made them dare to fight desperately in the competition with the Dutch East India Company.No, after losing their presence on Ceylon and the Coromandel coast, the Portuguese launched a strong resistance along the Malabar coast, trying their best to deal with the East India Company.

Batavia is also quite depressed about this, because the Portuguese obviously have the aid of funds and weapons from the east coast, so they can survive the battle with the rich and powerful East India Company, and they have gradually gradually fought in Vietnam recently. Yue Yong surprised the East India Company.Their most arrogant one was to work with the fleet of the East Coasters to defeat the East India Company's plan to go north to Goa for blockade.At that time, the two sides almost fought, but fortunately, they were still restrained. The East India Company saw that the people on the east coast were standing behind the Portuguese, and the blockade plan could not be completed, so they finally withdrew decisively.

The failed blockade frustrated many within the East India Company.Some people even proposed to close the port of Malacca and not allow the ships of the East Coasters to berth - about 8-10 migrant transport ships take this route every year - and let them repair the ships and resettle the sick by themselves during the storm Bar.Fortunately, the governor and a group of high-level officials are not so stupid. After learning from the painful experience, they finally did not close the port of Malacca to people on the east coast, but still allowed it to berth and sail freely, so as to avoid the deep deterioration of the relationship between the two parties.

It can be seen from this that even though the two parties have already reached this point, the Dutch East India Company still did not think about completely tearing apart the face with the people on the East Bank, just as the people on the East Coast did not intend to completely quarrel with the East India Company. The tacit understanding is quite interesting.The two sides played this confrontational game very measuredly. The situation did not escalate, but it was not over yet. Now it depends on which of the two sides is more patient.

Captain Reus was not very optimistic about the patience of the East India Company executives.With heavy performance pressure, they were naturally at a disadvantage when they competed with opponents like the East Coast Republic. It's just a big chess game in India.But now that the facts have been created, the people on the east coast have been operating in Diu Island for a long time, and they can no longer be easily driven away. So, does the East India Company need to change its policy and stop confronting them about everything, but try to use dialogue, Use communication to solve problems and distribute benefits.

Especially now that people on the east coast are suspected of dispatching the Second Fleet of the Navy, the island of Mauritius and Port William II feel unprecedented pressure. If it continues for a long time, the harm will definitely be great.As a senior employee of the company, Captain Reus naturally has the responsibility to reflect and express his opinions upwards, so as to facilitate negotiations between the two parties as soon as possible and end the tense situation as soon as possible.After all, today is different. People on the east coast have strong capital. If the Dutch East India Company, which is controlled by others, does not want to greatly affect its business, then it probably has to accept some conditions from the people on the east coast.

Maintaining a stable and prosperous trade route has always been the main pursuit of the Dutch East India Company, and this is obviously inseparable from the people on the east coast.Captain Reus has already responded to his superiors in the letter. It is best to establish a long-term dialogue mechanism with the people on the east coast. If there is any problem, communicate in advance and make a memorandum, so that everyone can understand their respective demands. This is beneficial to both parties.

(End of this chapter)