Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 2105 Europa Universalis ([-])

On September 1690, 9, the waters near Varge Hoala were slightly rough. The three-deck battleship "Liberator" lowered its anchor, and then quietly waited for the two merchant ships behind it to come forward to deliver goods with others.

Wolf Island is a small island off the coast of Gothenburg, about 1.5 Swedish miles (nearly 9 miles) from the harbor, and is the preferred berthing place for ships not planning to go to Gothenburg for resupply.And if it enters late October, there will be more ships berthed here, because there will be a lot of ice floes floating in the Jota River, and the port authorities often send ships to de-ice, which greatly affects the efficiency of entering and leaving the port, causing many businessmen to prefer Make a delivery here.

This time, the "Liberator" escorted two east coast merchant ships to berth here, and traded with members of the De Haier family here, bringing a large number of primary steel products (steel ingots, steel bars, etc.) Sell ​​it in exchange for a batch of copper blocks from Sweden, and then transport it back to the east coast for processing.

The east coast ships trading with the De Hare family near Wolf Island is the second batch this year. The last batch of ships was in March, when they also purchased copper.Prior to this, there was a long gap between ships on the east coast going to Gothenburg or Malmö for trade. The agent sells some goods, and the market share is very small.

After helping the republican government to come to power, the relationship between the United Provinces and the East Coast has fully recovered, and business agreements have been signed one after another. Many markets that were originally banned have gradually opened their doors to them. For example, they have almost become economic vassals of the United Provinces. Kingdom of Sweden.The royal family of this country owed a huge amount of loans to the Dutch, and the economy was heavily infiltrated. Dutch merchants were very powerful here. Therefore, after the relationship between the two countries warmed up, goods from the east coast gradually entered this market.

The De Haier family, which had cooperated before, is now the largest agent of East Coast commodities in Sweden.The family has a number of weapon manufacturing workshops in Gothenburg, Stockholm and other places. They used to use the copper and iron they mined and smelted in Sweden to make weapons and equipment.Now that there is a supply of high-quality steel from the east coast, the De Haier family is naturally open to purchase (in fact, it was purchased privately before, but the amount was limited), so that it can start building a large number of high-quality weapons and supply them to the Swedish army.You know, the Swedes now have more than 2 troops, but they are fighting for the interests of the United Provinces in the German region. The manufacture of weapons and equipment cannot be sloppy.

Unsurprisingly, the arrival of the three-deck battleship "Liberator" attracted the attention of everyone nearby.Such a powerful warship was obviously only available in the Kingdom of France in Europe at this time.And the Kingdom of France is relying on these few super warships, so that their naval strength ratings are rolling, and they have faintly become the second largest naval power in Europe, which seems to be stronger than the British who have reduced and sealed up a large number of warships over the years. So how much.

The Kingdom of Sweden used to have a decent fleet many years ago, but it was completely wiped out in the war with the Danes.Later, they realized their own shortcomings, and no longer insisted on developing the navy, but invested as much limited financial resources and population as possible in the army.They are not France, and they don't have the strength to build a naval power and an army power at the same time.

However, although there is no decent navy, the ocean trade of the Kingdom of Sweden is fairly developed.Take Gothenburg as an example. In the second half of the year, this famous commercial port has ships leaving the port almost every month to trade in the Mediterranean Sea and other places.Even, in these years, the number of merchant ships leaving Hong Kong for India, Siam, China and other places has gradually increased, so that some people in Gothenburg proposed to follow the example of England, the United Provinces and other countries, and establish the Swedes' own East India Company. Carry out Eastern trade.

After the trade with the De Haier family was over, four people stayed behind, and then entered the Jota River in a small boat carrying goods.Their trip was to establish a trading station in Gothenburg, and they had agreed with the De Haier family before they came that they would not obstruct this matter, but would provide some assistance on the condition that they would be entrusted with a long-term preferential supply contract.Cai Zhenguo readily agreed to this condition, and then sent four more capable business talents to Gothenburg to establish a business station, and slowly develop the East Coast's own commercial sales network—it is also an amateur intelligence agency.

In the afternoon, the battleship "Liberator" exchanged greetings with a Swedish patrol ship (less than 100 tons) cruising here, and after exchanging gifts, brought two ammunition supply ships and two "Star" class light cruisers With two merchant ships, they pulled anchor and set sail, left Wolf Island, and went south to the Sond Strait. Their next destination was the Polish port city of Gdansk (Danzig).

It is said that after Poland broke off diplomatic relations with the East Bank, the Port of Gdansk was closed to people from the East Bank for decades, and businessmen from the East Bank also stayed away from Poland.Since then, the trade between the two countries can only be transferred through third-party merchants such as Courland, Prussia, and the United Provinces. The efficiency is very low and the total amount is also very low.

In recent years, the purchase of Polish slaves has gradually faded, and the relationship between East and Poland has loosened a bit.In particular, the people on the east bank did everything possible to contain Russia's actions, which made Poland very satisfied.Although the people on the east bank also have a close relationship with the Ottoman Empire, the southern enemy is now beaten by the Austrians and has suffered heavy losses. It is simply unable to fight against the Poles. Therefore, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth resumed relations with the East Bank Republic the year before last. The direct trade between the two countries has started again, and the Gdansk Commercial Station has also been rebuilt under this background. The bilateral trade volume has gradually increased, which is very gratifying.

The annual trade volume of the Gdansk Commercial Station is about 60 yuan, mainly military equipment, high-grade textiles, medicines, hardware appliances, etc., and there is still a lot of room for improvement.In addition, this business station is also a recruiting point for immigrants, listing and recruiting free Polish citizens who are willing to go to the New World to reclaim wasteland all the year round.However, due to various factors such as religious beliefs and treatment, there were very few applicants, and not many Poles were willing to sign up.In their view, instead of signing up to go to the east coast, it is better to go to New Courland in West Africa. At least their land policy is very favorable, and they don't force you to change your beliefs, so that the soul after death cannot be redeemed.

After the fleet from the east coast sailed into the port of Gdansk, a merchant ship sold out all the goods it brought in, and then loaded some Polish goods hoarded in the merchant station on board, and stuffed about seventy or eighty Polish immigrants. Sailing left.The remaining ships stayed for a few days under the leadership of the "Liberator". During this period, Lieutenant Colonel Ding Zhen also invited local Polish government officials and nobles to have a dinner on board. Showed off his strength in a trace.Speaking of which, these are also a kind of propaganda, which will be of great help to the future work of the business station.

During the banquet, the two sides also talked about the Polish King Jan Sobieski.Judging from the results of the chat, the nobles generally didn't like him very much. This was partly out of jealousy, and more seemed to be related to his militarism and continuous consumption of Poland's national power.

This guy doesn't know what happened. He has always disliked the Ottoman Empire. He took the opportunity to beat him to death. He is still trying to attack the northern border of the Ottoman Empire and try to seize more land.But the problem is that these military operations have not achieved any results. The Ottoman army that has recovered its strength and its repeated battles have paid a heavy price for casualties, but the battle line has not changed much. The nobles complained a lot.Especially the nobles from the former Principality of Lithuania, they were more wary of the Russian Empire, but Sobieski made peace with Russia repeatedly, and even sold some interests, which made them very angry.I believe that if Sobieski had not made great achievements in the battle to save Vienna and had a relatively high international prestige, the local nobles would have united long ago to drive him out of power.

Lieutenant Colonel Ding Zhen and the person in charge of the commercial station listened to the complaints of the Polish nobles who had deep entanglements with the interests of the East Bank with a smile, and echoed a few words from time to time, which aroused the sympathy of the other party.Ding Zhen had heard a while ago that King Louis XIV of France intended to let James II compete for the King of Poland because Sobieski was in poor health and often led troops to fight, so his health was severely depleted.James II has lost the throne, why not try your luck in Poland, maybe you can get a king.But now he intends to send James II back to Ireland to cause trouble, so this matter should be let go, not to mention that James II himself does not want to go to Poland, everyone knows that it is a fire pit, and the king should keep you vomiting three liters of blood.

People on the east bank are of course not very interested in these shitty things in Poland.They are more focused on how to better seek commercial interests in this vast and populous country.The life and death of the Polish king and even the common people, what do the people on the east bank do?Therefore, after talking about the political topic, the two sides had some superficial talks on the agency rights and sales share of the goods, and reiterated the consensus reached before, which is basically a happy cooperation.

The fleet of the East Coasters also did not stay long in Gdansk.Three days later, they set sail again, left Poland, turned north-east, and sailed in the direction of the Principality of Courland.Because of the plague in Wendao Port, they temporarily changed their plan. Instead of going to the largest port in the Principality of Courland, they drove directly to Riga Port and anchored there.

The Riga Commercial Station has been in operation for a long time by people from the east coast. Over the years, it has been the only remaining trade center in the Baltic Sea. It is also the seat of the embassy of the east coast in Sweden, and its status is very important.In this de facto largest city in Sweden, the goods of the people from the east coast were collected here, and then distributed to the merchants in the Principality of Courland, who sold them everywhere as agents, earning a lot of profit.At the same time, it is also the immigration recruitment center of the East Bank in neighboring areas. Every year, a large number of Livonians come to Riga to sign up and board the ship to the East Bank.These people generally have relatives or friends living on the east coast, relying on remittances flowing in from the New World to prepare various things, and then the whole family embarks on a ship to the east coast.The scale of this kind of immigration is about 1000-2000 people per year, no more and no less, which is related to the population base of Livonia. Generally speaking, it has contributed a lot to the construction of the east bank.

The East Coasters secretly met with envoys from the Principality of Courland in Riga.Unsurprisingly, the envoy made a request to East Coasters for a "appropriately sized" naval force to strengthen the country's voice in the Baltic.Their country is getting richer and richer, attracting a large number of Livonians, Poles and Germans to settle, and it has reached more than 35, which is amazing.Therefore, the reigning Grand Duke Frederick wants to transform the old fleet to better suit the identity of the Principality of Courland and safeguard their interests.

Naturally, the people on the east bank will agree to their initiative to expand their military power!The Principality of Courland has always been an important fulcrum and ally of the East Coast in Europe. They are willing to strengthen the naval construction, and naturally they can share the pressure of the people on the East Coast. Therefore, as long as they can have no financial obstacles, then there is no reason to stop them. ?You must know that the people on the east coast are now strongly returning to the Baltic Sea, which is the time when allies are required to cooperate.

Based on this consideration, East and Kuwait negotiated amicably, and finally signed a purchase contract for two "Jiqi"-class sail escort gunboats and six "Star"-class light cruisers.Next, let's see how the local shipyards work overtime to produce these 2 ships as soon as possible!

(End of this chapter)