Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 2348 Rajput's Plan ([-])

The sky was gloomy, and petrels were flying low, as if a storm was coming.

The steamship "Merchant of Diu" was sailing on the rough sea, and from time to time it was hit by a big wave, splashing seawater all over the ship and deck.The bosun blew his brass whistle, and kicked and beat a few dawdling sailors to the water pump, telling them to pump water quickly.There are a lot of mechanical parts, weapons and military materials, canned food, spirits and medicines piled up in the cabin at this time. If they are soaked in sea water and the Diu Management Committee refuses to accept them, then they will be miserable.Although the company will lose a lot of money, their personal bonuses and benefits will also be reduced a lot. After all, this batch of goods is not insured...

The "Merchant of Diu" is a [-]-ton all-steam-powered ship with an iron-wood hybrid structure and no sails. It is the newcomer of state-owned shipping companies: steam ships.The ship belongs to the East African Shipping Company and was built by the Xinhua Shipyard. It has only been in service for one year, and it cannot be newer.

Xinhua Shipyard originally did not have the strength to build steam ships.However, after paying a considerable fee for patent authorization, Dayuhe Naval Shipyard sent them a lot of technical backbones, and at the same time helped them purchase corresponding core components (such as steam engines) locally. One was successfully built.

According to the agreement signed by the two parties, Dayuhe Naval Shipyard will also help Xinhua Shipyard to produce two ships of the same specification.The core components have already arrived at Xinhua Port, and Xinhua Shipyard only needs to build a hull in strict accordance with the drawings, and then install and debug these equipments one by one.In addition to these three ships, if Xinhua Shipyard wants to build more ships, it needs to pay patent licensing fees to Dayuhe Factory for each one built.Of course, they can also choose not to cooperate with Dayuhe Shipyard, but potential partners such as Zhenhai Shipyard and Hyundai Shipyard will also charge patent fees, and the prices are similar.No way, who told you that you are in a colonial enterprise, even if a local shipyard holds a part of the equity, you still have to give the money that should be paid.

The technology is backward, as it should be, so there is no way.

Compared with the Xinhua Shipyard, the "blood" of the East African Shipping Company is much nobler.After years of equity adjustments, the local Ministry of Communications, Ministry of Industry and Commerce, and the three major shipyards all hold shares in it, and the total has exceeded 45%.If some local private investors are included, the shares of the East African Transportation Company by local capital have exceeded 60%, which is an absolute holding.Therefore, although the registered place of this enterprise is in Xinhua Port, it is actually an out-and-out local enterprise.Otherwise, why do you think East African transport companies can dominate the Indian trade?And can it get the biggest share of the benefits in the entrepot trade?

According to the internal information of the Xinhua County Bureau of Industry and Commerce, the business scope of the East African Transportation Company is frighteningly large.In addition to the normal shipping business, the company can also trade special commodities such as machinery and equipment, daily necessities, food and medicine, hardware and electrical appliances, communication equipment, chemicals and even weapons and ammunition, and its qualifications are broader than that of ordinary trading companies. Much more, it's scary.

Other individuals or trading companies either specialize in one or several types of commodities, or do not have the right to trade specially controlled commodities. In short, their business scope is more or less restricted.Except for a few companies such as Southern Railway Company, Air Canada Company, and South Sea Transportation Company, there is really no one that can achieve the level of East African Transportation Company, let alone Indian trade is a chartered trade that requires a license issued by the Ministry of Trade.Private ship owners or trading companies, who want to get involved in this field, basically have no other way except to choose to become the first-level or second-level agent of the East African Shipping Company.

Almost a third of the cargo transported by the Merchant of Diu came from agents.Especially the relatively low-profit daily necessities, food and medicine, dyed leather, etc., and even some cotton cloth that Indians are good at, but it is a high-end printed cloth.The reason why this happens is actually very simple.The trade volume between the east coast and India is increasing day by day, and it is impossible for the East African company alone to conquer the world.And the development of agents, using the funds of agents to expand trade (agents need to pay "management fees" to the East African company), while obtaining greater profits, can also grasp huge cash flow (the sales revenue of many agents needs to be compared with East African Transportation Company Settlement), the benefits of this are huge - isn't the capital of a certain treasure in later generations relying on the huge amount of funds deposited by the deferred payment to the merchant?

The Management Council of Diu is also happy with this situation.They even formed a strategic alliance with an East African transportation company to help the company better conduct business locally, including but not limited to cracking down on foreign competitors, strictly investigating smuggling, and cooperating with banks (Qingdao Commercial Clearing Bank) to provide more convenient transportation services. service and more.For this reason, while they obtain huge tariff revenue, they also receive a large amount of sponsorship from East African transportation companies every year, which can be described as mutual benefit and win-win.

The biggest competitor of the East African Transport Company in Northwest India today is the Arab businessman.This is a group with a thousand-year tradition of maritime trade, familiar with everything in the Indian Ocean, and has very good connections in India, especially after the believers entered Delhi and gained the ruling power over half of India.However, the situation in India is now in chaos. The central government of Delhi has lost troops and generals on the Deccan Plateau.They built forts one after another along the coast of India, or through bribery, military conquest, or fraud, controlling and affecting more and more land and population, and some forces even established colonies openly.But none of these foreign colonists are as ruthless as the people on the east coast. They directly dispatched some ships of the Second Fleet of the Navy to patrol the coastline of northwest India in the Bay of Cambay, crack down on dissidents, and monopolize trade. Arab merchants seem to be their key targets .

In fact, as early as five to ten years ago, the East Coast Navy turned a blind eye to Arab merchants trading in Northwest India. At that time, many Arab merchant ships loaded with war horses and other goods arrived at the Rajput territory Trade is very profitable.But when the situation in India changed, the Marathas became more and more courageous, and Aurangzeb was helpless, the minds of the people on the east coast suddenly became active. They began to tighten their control over the coastal trade of northwest India, and at the same time cultivated themselves The onshore agents of China, Diu and Qiandao colonies also conducted a boundary expansion, and their ambitions were clearly revealed.

Now in Diu and Qiandao, there are more than 1 people living on the east coast all the year round, and more than half of them are military households eliminated by Denglai.The Denglai Pioneering Team has been displeased with those grassroots masters for many years, but they have worked so hard and contributed a lot in the early days when the people from the east coast entered the mainland, so it will be difficult to unload and kill donkeys for a while.But as the so-called gentleman's Ze Ze III was killed, it is impossible for the people on the east bank to watch them sit back and enjoy their success all the time.No, after the situation became more and more stable, they finally took action. It took more than ten years to clean up and eliminate those military households step by step, and incorporated their defense areas into the ruling system for integrated construction.

In fact, think about it, it has been peaceful for two generations, and the Jiaoyan Line Railway has been open to traffic for many years. Demilitarization of Denglai District is inevitable.In the future, there may not be any of these servants left. Those who can fight and obey the discipline in the military households will be drawn out and incorporated into the new army. , let them take root in the local area, multiply, and stabilize the ruling foundation of the people on the east coast.

Of course, there are also many immigrants from Ningshao in Diu and Qiandao.This place has fewer people and more people. After years of peace, the population has increased, but job opportunities have not increased at the same time. Therefore, many people have gone to sea to seek a living.In the early days, many people went to Manchuria and Mongolia, and later began to run to the Lianwu Management Committee, Brunei, Dili, Rabaul and Northwest India.These people are daring to fight and have strong business skills, and they quickly made a name for themselves in various places.In today's Diu, people from Ningbo run a lot of industries and are generally relatively wealthy, while people from Denglai mostly enter government agencies, engage in politics, and hold power. The status quo of the rule of the island and other places-of course, the top bureaucrats, technicians, religious figures and soldiers are mostly from the east coast, and they are the top of the colonial interest chain.

After the "Merchant of Diu" departed from Xinhua Port, it first went to the island of Baba, unloaded a batch of cargo at the local trade center, and then went all the way north, stopping at Mombasa Island and Mogadishu respectively. At the same time as the trade, a large amount of food was also purchased, which was shipped all the way to Djibouti as supplies for the local defenders.Then, they went to the port of Salalah to replenish them with a batch of weapons and ammunition.Those Rajputs have recently fought successive battles with the Omanis in the desert. Although they have won successive victories, they have lost a lot of military equipment and equipment, so they continue to replenish.And with the weapons sold cheaply by the people on the east coast, I believe they can organize troops and try to march towards Muscat.

The Muscat Sultanate, which used to challenge the people on the east coast, probably won't exist for long. Their seas are blocked and they cannot trade. The Arab "brothers" on the peninsula are not very friendly, and there is not enough support. , its destruction is only a matter of time.In this regard, the East Coast people should be happy to see the results.Introducing the Rajputs from northwestern India to the Arabian Peninsula was originally an important means for the people on the east bank to disrupt the local situation and seek influence. If a lighthouse country in later generations can stir up shit in the Middle East through Israel, the people on the east coast will naturally play This trick.

After leaving the port of Salalah, the "Merchant of Diu" went to Bahrain and Bandar Abbas in Persia respectively, and made two transactions before leaving in a hurry and heading to the port of Diu before the deadline.

The port of Diu was very enthusiastic about the visit of the steamer "Merchant of Diu", and couldn't put it down even more for the weapons, ammunition and mechanical equipment brought with it.After the successful expansion, the land in Diu and Qiandao counties has greatly increased, and the time is ripe for the establishment of some basic agricultural product processing plants.In particular, the batch of textile, printing and dyeing equipment is the most valued by the Diu Management Committee. They have already planned to buy cotton cloth and cotton yarn from the Indians, and then weave and print the cloth in Diu and Qiandao counties. The output is high-grade dyed cloth and printed cloth that are in great demand in the market, which is of great help to the local government's finances.

Although the Management Committee of Diu has not yet paid "tribute" to the mainland - in comparison, Denglai in the Far East pays 150 million yuan in taxes every year, Ningshao pays 300 million yuan in taxes every year, and Xinhua Island is almost the same However, with the current momentum of prosperity, a large amount of taxes will have to be paid in the future if it is not guaranteed. If we do not prepare in advance, how can we expand our financial resources and tax base?You know, the Diu Management Committee is backed by the huge Indian market. The production capacity of [-] million Indians is amazing, and the consumption power is also very strong. The navy has done so well and helped them stop a large number of competitors. The army also They are trying to control the commercial routes on land. If they can't do well, won't they be replaced when they are local?

Diu Management Committee, even if there is no need to pay millions of tribute every year in the future, 100 million yuan will not be a problem, right?Learn how Ningshao and Denglai developed in mainland China!

(End of this chapter)