Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 2008 Hue ([-])

"Commissioner He, I'm late. Forgive me! Forgive me!" On January 1688, 1, in the office of the Commissioner of the Hue Regional Administration, the young Xu Zhilong said to He Yuan with an apologetic face: "It was originally the work of our Ministry of Foreign Affairs. I didn't expect Commissioner He to help us a lot, I'm really ashamed."

Xu Zhilong's grandson of Xu Xin, a veteran of East Coast diplomacy, has been working in the diplomatic system (including the foreign trade department) since the beginning, but to be honest, his career has not been very smooth.With the development of the east coast to today, various bureaucratic organizations have expanded rapidly, with more and more personnel, and a large number of them are civil servants with ordinary backgrounds who graduated from schools.For the three generations with a golden spoon in their mouth like Xu Zhilong, many of them did well, but there were also a lot of people who did not do well.Because of their special identities, they are often resisted by the civil service system when they are evaluated and promoted. At this time, if you do not understand the tactics of officialdom, you will not be able to manage interpersonal relationships, and there is nothing to say If you have a solid political record, then it is not so easy to climb up.

Take Xu Zhilong as an example. He is 36 years old this year, but he has worked hard for seven or eight years at the official level, and he has never been able to take the crucial step to enter the ranks of department-level cadres.Sometimes he thought sadly that maybe he still had three more years of qualifications, and then he could barely be promoted to a deputy director-level cadre under the shadow of his grandfather who had passed away for several years.This may already be a very good position for ordinary people, but for Xu Zhilong who has an extraordinary background, it is a bit unsatisfactory, and may even be unacceptable.

Today Xu Zhilong came to Hue Port as a special commissioner of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The big businessmen in the province established close ties—in the past, the two parties only had business ties, not to mention how deep—and then allowed them to merge with the political forces of Van Boiningen and others, laying a solid foundation for future joint grand events.

Some people may say that East Coasters are nosy.Van Beuningen and his gang are originally the spokespersons of the bourgeoisie, and they must have a lot of contact with businessmen from various provinces on weekdays. As for you, people from the east coast, should you come out to help matchmaking?This statement can be right or wrong. The reason for being right is that the republicans are rooted in the businessmen and the public class, and they are mainly supported by these people on weekdays.It's not true, because the support of these people is not static, they will fluctuate with the situation, waver, and even betray.

Just like during the Franco-Dutch war, when the DeWitt brothers were in distress and the entire Republican faction was suppressed, where did the wholesalers in Amsterdam go?It's ridiculous to say that he actually ran back and forth with the Prince of Orange, begging for mercy. How could he instigate republican members in the three-level parliament to embarrass their family?

Therefore, the United Provinces are not the United Kingdom. Although their bourgeoisie has money, they have no soldiers and no power, and their control over the country is really not high enough.The army of the United Provinces, as a whole, was firmly in the hands of the Orange family for most of the time. After William II failed in the mutiny plot and died of smallpox, he was severely suppressed by the DeWitt brothers for a period of time. It has also been pulled away a lot, and it seems that it will inevitably decline.

But the Orange family was lucky. The outbreak of the Franco-Dutch War saved them from crumbling. William III was ordered to reorganize the army when the country was in a gloomy situation, and finally expelled the French army and recovered all the land.Such great achievements not only allowed their family to control the army again, but also greatly infiltrated the government. Many important official positions were taken by people attached to their family. Complete control over the government, let alone the military.

Therefore, the capitalists in the Netherlands are far from being comparable to those in the United Kingdom. They are economically rich, but politically and militarily they are completely dwarfs. Therefore, the support they can give to the republicans is very limited. There are some chances of winning in the parliamentary struggle, but once the Prince of Orange doesn't save face and directly uses violence, those guys who only talk about it in the parliament will be powerless.

Not to mention, there are still quite a few capitalists who have been won over by the Orange family and tied their interests with them. The republicans try to win the support of some capitalists, and then try to weaken the strength of the Orange family step by step—don’t think it’s impossible, it’s nothing more than William III’s dominance in the Netherlands, but once you want to be the king of England , will inevitably lead to criticism from many people, and even a large number of officials and troops who were originally loyal to him will be shaken. This is an opportunity.

According to the plan of the East Coast Ministry of Foreign Affairs, they now need to ease the relationship with the East India Company—it just so happens that they also have an urgent need for this, so it is not a big problem—at the same time, they also need to win over as many Dutch capitalists as possible through the West India Company, Let them all support the Republicans with all their might.When the situation changes drastically in the future, they can cooperate with the republicans to seize power in an all-round way and win over a part of the army to weaken William III's control over the Netherlands.

At this time, the people on the east coast can also work harder to help the Republicans recruit some mercenaries to strengthen their strength, so that they can more courageously contend with the Prince of Orange, defend the interests of the United Provinces, and finally force William III to abandon the United Provinces governing duties.That is, if you want to become the king of England, no one can stop you. The British have already lined up to welcome you, and we can't stop you, but it is obviously impossible for you to hold two prominent positions as the king of England and the governor of the United Provinces. It is also doomed not to get the support of the majority of the Dutch people, we will fight you for this, you can decide for yourself.

In order to achieve such a goal, the people on the east coast had actually had secret contact with the West India Company before, and the East India Company was also in stable contact with Van Boyningen's matchmaking. The situation is generally good.This time when Xu Zhilong came to Hue to meet with Dirk Cornelis, in fact, there were only a few details left to discuss, and neither of the two had any objections to the general framework.After all, the merchants in the Netherlands were also afraid that after William III became the king of England, the interests of the Dutch merchants would be greatly damaged, just as Portugal's overseas trade suddenly fell into a terrible recession during the merger of Spain and Portugal.

Just yesterday, Xu Zhilong had a frank conversation with Dirk Cornelis, and finally learned that He Yuan, the Commissioner of the Hue Regional Administration, had strengthened his relationship with the West India Company by increasing investment. The joke about helping them with the work of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs just now.

"Where, Commissioner Xu is serious." He Yuan laughed when he heard the words, and said, "Actually, I didn't bother. The Dutchman himself has an urgent desire to invest. This may be to expand the scale of the industry. Make more money, but I think it also has the meaning of strengthening ties with China and showing goodwill. I am not a professional diplomat, so I am not sure about many things in it, and I may not understand some of the signals they send out. What I want to say There is only one sentence: the Dutch West India Company has no malice towards us, and its attitude is more positive and sincere. You professional diplomats should see it more. Hurry up, Commissioner Xu, I think the situation in the Netherlands is also collapsing. It's tight, the earlier the negotiation is done, the earlier the layout is, this time is still very important."

Xu Zhilong nodded after hearing this.Of course, he did not explain to He Yuan that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had previously conducted two secret consultations through the business representative of the Dutch West India Company in the capital. This time, he came to Hue Port to meet Dirk Cornelis for the purpose of unifying the West India. The opinion of the two representatives of the company is nothing more than that.Next, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will conduct a comprehensive assessment of the current situation, and then issue a diplomatic guideline, which will be sent to Europe by a fast liaison ship, and will be operated by Gao Wengang, the special envoy to Europe.

"The Ministry is still very concerned about strengthening ties with the Dutch bourgeoisie. In the past, we mostly had business ties, and they were interrupted for a while. Now we not only want to restore business ties (provided that the other party is also willing), but also It is a crucial step to extend these to politics, and we will proceed with caution." Xu Zhilong brushed off He Yuan a few words, and then changed the subject: "Commercial He, the West India Company's investment in the Hue area How is it? On the scale?"

"It's not bad. The scale is not small. I estimate that the total amount will be more than 500 million dong. It is already a huge investment for our region. I am very satisfied." He Yuan said with a smile: "Of course this It is also related to the unique natural conditions in the Hue area. Without the sycamore branches, how could it attract the golden phoenix? The Dutch are very smart in business, and they are indeed very interested in our Hue area. At present, it can provide them with a stable profit of more than 50 dong a year, and even a fool knows how to expand the investment scale."

"But they didn't do this before." Xu Zhilong slandered in his heart, but there was indeed a smile on his face, and he nodded repeatedly to echo He Yuan's words.Of course, he did admit that the Hue area has good conditions and has the potential to develop into a tropical agricultural center. Their only shortcoming now is probably the population. Most of the immigration quotas in the center are on the Pampa Plain, and they will be replenished in the north. The population is pitifully small and often the lowest base, so the labor force is indeed a problem.

Fortunately, the Dutch are now willing to help the Hue region solve this problem.As long as the plantation can ensure profitability and security can be guaranteed (this is very important, it can be said that most islands in the Caribbean cannot guarantee security), then they don't mind spending a little more money, from a population that has recovered terribly The German region recruited bitter country people and transported them to the east bank to work and work.There is no doubt that the people on the east coast prefer this model, because it means that the Dutch pay and the Germans help the east coast to open up wasteland. Like the Italians on Xinhua Island, it is the favorite investment on the east coast. model.

"Okay, Xiao Xu, you can spend more time with Mr. Cornelis in the next few days. I won't accompany you. I have to go out to coordinate the irrigation canal project jointly with the Beining area. Sigh, There are a lot of things to do, busy." He Yuan finally said.

(End of this chapter)