Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 2092 West Indian Ocean (28)

On February 1690, 2, in the port of Beira, Mozambique, Edward Hampton was talking with his friends.The friend was George Clifford of London, a famous merchant and cousin of the famous navigator Hawkes Clifford.

The Clifford family is also well-known in London.The large amount of oriental products brought back through trade with the Qing Dynasty not only provided their family with huge sales profits, but also took the opportunity to meet many important people and climbed up some relationships that they thought were difficult to establish in the past. The benefits of development are self-evident.

Now, quite a few big shots have invested in the Clifford family's fleet.Eastern trade has been proven to be a shortcut to wealth. Although England is still implementing a strict mercantilist policy to limit the outflow of precious metals, such a trade that can bring back a large amount of precious metals for the second time (by selling oriental goods at a higher price to benefit of other countries), and can still get immunity from the royal family and Congress.In particular, the current kings are William III and his wife who have lived in the United Provinces for half their lives. They are deeply influenced by commercial culture and they encourage and approve of this kind of trade. Therefore, Eastern trade has flourished in England—after London, Ports such as Bristol, Liverpool, and Portsmouth emerged one after another, gathering a large number of ships engaged in ocean-going trade, and business gradually prospered.

The headquarters of the Clifford family is in London, a large city with a population of more than 40.With the huge sums of money they accumulated through maritime trade, they began to build their own warehouses in London (which were previously rented), opened specialized stores, and made friends with various people at the same time.In addition, they also have a branch in Portsmouth, an important shipbuilding town, where several family members are responsible for supervising the construction and repair of ships, purchasing all kinds of boats by the way, and selling them to the opposite European continent.

They were of course also involved in the American trade.In fact, the Clifford family established a stable cooperative relationship with the Morrison family, and began to invest heavily in the colonial trade of Virginia and Carolina, collecting local specialty crops, and then transporting them back to London for sale for profit.

In other words, this family is now conducting ocean trade business in British North America, Europe, and the Far East at the same time, and the weather is indeed unusual.However, everyone knows that the family's main business is Eastern trade, and more than two-thirds of the ships are invested in this area.The reason why they additionally operate ocean-going business to France and British North America is to put it bluntly just in case, not to put all eggs in one basket.

And because of the huge risks of Eastern trade, the Clifford family has now obtained a foothold in the port of Beira in Portuguese East Africa through various operations, and built a trading station with several familiar businessmen as a basis for their Eastern trade. The transfer station is also a place to repair ships and avoid bad weather.

Edward Clifford is in charge of the station, and has lived here for nearly three years.There are now more than 800 English expatriates like Edward in the Port of Beira, including merchants, adventurers, soldiers, craftsmen, and many agricultural operators.The latter, in particular, accounted for more than a quarter of them. Most of them were old sailors. They used half their life savings to buy some high-quality land in the local area. They made a living by planting corn, rice, bananas and other crops. He can also fish, and he has a good life.

It is said that recently the English East India Company will lead many local British expatriates to formally negotiate with the Portuguese colonial authorities to completely buy Beira, a natural port.At the worst, it is necessary to obtain the complete independent management rights of the port and the autonomy of the city.

Their reasons are very good. Beira Port was originally a deserted small fishing village with nothing.The reason why it can develop is mainly due to the docking of a large number of English merchant ships here. It is they who have brought popularity and wealth to this port city, and it is also thanks to their investment that this port city has slowly Built to perfection.They insisted that the penny-pinching Portuguese had no right to levy heavy taxes in the port of Beira, which was not conducive to the development of commerce and the city.

Of course, the English—and the English East India Company in particular—had a secret unspoken worry.That is, the Dutch have acquired a colony nearby, that is, Mauritius Island (Port William II) in the Mascarene Islands. The French also colonized another island, Bourbon Island (Reunion Island), but the British nothing.How can this be!

Based on the safety of navigation, the English East India Company urgently needed a place to rest halfway, because they were not sure whether the famous free port Cape Town would be permanently open to them.They worried that once the relationship with the people on the east coast deteriorated, they might lose the right to dock at the Freeport of Cape Town. ownership.

Although the relationship between the Kingdom of Portugal and England has become somewhat estranged in recent years, in the final analysis they still need England's help in Europe, not to mention that they need to join forces with the English in India-although the people on the east coast can also provide assistance in India. The Portuguese promised safety, but who would hang on only one tree-so the Kingdom of Portugal was doomed to be unable to refuse the request of the rich and powerful English East India Company.Ever since, in the middle of last year, Lisbon officially agreed to the request of the English, gave the English autonomy to the Port of Beira, and entrusted the English East India Company to manage it. In fact, it lost the status of this natural port. Control.

The English East India Company, which obtained the control of Beira Port, immediately issued "Beira Port Stock" in London, raised more than [-] pounds of funds to expand it, and recruited professional and technical personnel to work in Beira. The development of the city thus entered the fast lane.

The Cliffords bought about £[-] of shares in the port of Beira, and were granted a seat on the board, with Edward Clifford acting as their proxy.This potbellied businessman brought his family here, built a warehouse here, opened a specialty store, and also invested in a small factory in the suburbs, specializing in processing coconuts and making various products for export to South Africa. There, business is pretty good.

It has become an industry in Mozambique to use cheap black labor to run workshops and then export products to people on the east coast.In this industry, the Portuguese did a lot, and the British later did even more!Especially in the port of Beira, it is estimated that there are more than [-] such enterprises, exporting a series of commodities including grain, dried fruit, wine, wood, leather, and boats, which effectively prospered the local economy and made every bold investor All benefit greatly.

"At least half of Beira Port's commercial success is linked to the people on the east coast. If this situation continues for a long time, our people's will to resist will become weaker and weaker when facing the east coast." Edward Hampton, with a nice mustache, said with concern: "No one wants to lose business, it's really..."

"Relax, my friend." George Clifford comforted: "Isn't this bad? Isn't our ultimate goal just to make a profit? People from the East Coast are trustworthy business partners, and very fair .I once sued in their courts an east coast businessman who owed me money, and guess what? After I gave solid evidence, their court ruled me in the win and ordered that guy whose name I never want to mention again Compensated me. I have great confidence in them, they are worth working with, and everyone wants to work with them now, including the East India Company."

In fact, George Clifford had long learned through his cousin that the English East India Company had officially established the direction of future expansion in India, and that was the Bay of Bengal!They wanted to avoid the east coast and the northwestern part of India, where Portuguese forces were frequently active, so as to avoid unnecessary conflicts with them, wasting their power in vain, but let the Dutch take advantage of it.At present, all merchants in Surat and Mumbai have been warned by the East India Company not to try to challenge the local interests of the people on the east coast for no reason, otherwise the East India Company may refuse their asylum as a secondary agent.

After all, judging from the ambitions currently shown by the people on the east coast, their main direction of attack is still the Rajput region in northwestern India, and there is no obvious conflict of interest with the English East India Company.It was also very unwise for the English East India Company to choose such a powerful opponent.India is big enough, the Dutch run the Malabar and Coromandel coasts, the Portuguese run small isolated ports like Goa and Daman, the East Coasters control the island of Diu, and the English focus instead on The Bay of Bengal is indeed a very wise thing, because in this way they only need to pay attention to the movements of the annoying French merchants.

The decline of the Mughal Dynasty, which ruled most of India, has been quite obvious, and the empire's finances have fallen into a terrible disaster, so that they have to borrow from foreign businessmen to make up for the shortfall.The English, Dutch, and French all participated in it, gained a considerable foothold, and began to penetrate into the trading system of the Indian subcontinent.India, which was forcibly held together by the Mughal dynasty, is now once again in danger of being divided.

"The people on the east coast control Xinhua Island and built forts, ports and other facilities there. The total number of colonists under their management is already huge, maybe 20, maybe 25, maybe more, In short, it is not something we can handle." George Clifford explained: "They are now launching a new war of conquest on the island, which can be seen from the surge in their orders for various commodities. And once they completely conquer If you conquer this astonishingly large island, its position will be even more stable. After all, you can’t expect the Dutch or the French who only have one or two small islands to send troops to interfere with the direction of New China’s war of conquest.”

"Besides, as an island country, an outlying island country known for its seafaring, England and the east coast actually have a natural basis for cooperation, and the people on the east coast are even willing to provide us with some help. You know, they have already It is a big change and a positive sign that our ships are not banned from going to the Qing Dynasty for trade. Poor French, poor Austrians, poor Swedes, land civilization is doomed to be defeated by our sea civilization , we don't have any reason to fight against the people on the east coast, on the contrary, there are a lot of cooperation. This is actually the current mainstream opinion in Congress. Although the king and his wife seem to be a little dissatisfied with this, so what? Business is Business!" George Clifford finally said: "What we really should do is to gain strategic mutual trust with the people on the east coast, and then find a way to recruit immigrants to settle in Beira Port and completely build this port into a stable A midway base to provide convenience for our merchant ships. India still has great potential to be tapped, there is no need to fight to the death now, is there?"

The child's affairs have come to an end for the time being, and I am so tired that I have slept less than ten hours in two days.Let me take it easy @[email protected]

(End of this chapter)