Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 2355 Far East Market

"Sir, the prices in Haizhou seem to be much higher than last time." On October 1698, 10, two well-dressed gentlemen were strolling on the wharf of Haizhou Port.

"While I find many people are frowning about rising prices, I think that because people have a lot of goods to sell, they are also raising the price of everything they sell. As merchants, they buy at a premium , can still be sold at a high price. All those artisans, tailors, shoemakers, blacksmiths, coopers, etc., when they sell their wares, take great care to buy the materials they buy and what they need to sustain themselves. Wholesale and retail prices of food, they will make sure their standard of living does not drop while maintaining a certain level of profit, no one can make a mistake in this regard," said Pete Spencer.

He was the special envoy of King William III of England—not the ambassador to the Qing Dynasty—who came to discuss the trade between the two countries with the Qing emperor.Over the years, England has imported a large amount of tea, silk, porcelain and other commodities from the Qing Dynasty, and exported weapons, machinery and equipment, and a large number of Indian commodities in Nebuji. The trade volume between the two sides has grown rapidly. In the past five years, the annual average The increase has reached more than 10%, which is amazing.

Therefore, even though the distance is far away, the Qing Dynasty now occupies an increasingly important position in England's trade map.The latest big deal was that the Qing government ordered five paddle steamers and opened several sea transportation lines, namely Dagukou-Yingkou, Dagukou-Lushunkou, Dagukou-Wusongkou, Dagukou —Nanjing Xiaguan.The first two routes are related to the transportation of military materials and immigrants from Manchuria. At the same time, the local food in Manchuria can also be transported to Tianjin, Beijing and other places for consumption at a very low cost; the latter two routes are more related to commercial operations, that is, in addition to Except for some Jiangnan grains, most of them are all kinds of goods and even taxes paid by merchants, and the value is also very large.

Five ships, operating four routes, is a little tight, if there are six ships, it is almost enough.But the Qing court has no money for the time being. Although I really want to order it, I really can't afford it recently, so I can only give up.However, the Qing court temporarily shelved the idea of ​​purchasing more new ships, but the British were unwilling to give up.It is said that the Portsmouth Shipyard in England is willing to start construction with a 30% deposit, and the English East India Company is also willing to provide guarantees for the Qing government, which suddenly made the Qing government's heart warm again.

The convenience of a steamship goes without saying.Each of the four shipping routes with Tianjin as the home port that has been opened now is operating very well, and the ruling and opposition parties are very satisfied.Especially the routes to Songjiang and Jiangning in the south not only gained great economic benefits, but also helped the Qing government to strengthen its influence.You know, the gang of Zihao merchants and gentry in Jiangnan have been doing business with Ningbo for many years, so they will inevitably be infiltrated.What's more, it is far away from Beijing, the political center, and it is inevitable that there will be no response in case of an accident. Therefore, modern transportation is urgently needed to shorten the distance in time and space.Therefore, steam paddle steamers are very suitable for use here, and the role they can play is also very huge. It is no wonder that the Qing government wanted to continue to buy some, except that it was really a problem that the money was not very close.

The British proposed that they could help the Qing government to start building four steam ships immediately after paying a 30% deposit.But they also have an additional requirement, that is, one of the four ships must be a ship equipped with a propeller propulsion system produced by Portsmouth Shipyard.The Qing government actually didn't understand the twists and turns. They were very happy when they heard that foreigners were willing to "pay on credit".As the "salesman" of the English Parliament, Sir Spencer was very satisfied after hearing the news. He paid a total of more than [-] pounds in "lobbying fees" to some Qing officials who had made great efforts in private, and then left with the team Beijing, go to Haizhou Port to buy some goods.

He didn't care at all what the Qing people would look like after they bought the propeller steamship, because it had nothing to do with him, and he had successfully completed the task.But as far as he is concerned, he is not optimistic about this ship, which is said to have a standard displacement of more than 1200 tons, because it is still an immature technology in England, and both the navy and the owner of the civilian ship refuse to use this experimental nature. A ship that is too thick, unless it makes another breakthrough in technology, at least reaches the level of [-] to [-]% of the propeller ships on the east coast.

He now even doubts whether this merchant ship using the propeller propulsion system can sail to the port of Qing Dynasty normally.I hope that the people at the Portsmouth Shipyard are smart enough to use sail power as much as possible on the way here, and use the propeller as much as possible, so as to avoid problems with its poor machining accuracy and sealing and waterproof technology, which will cause the ship to be completely undeliverable.

As for the fault found by the Qing people during use after delivery, so what?Do you still want to do business in the future?Can you find other producers besides buying from East Coasters?The technology of the French is not as good as that of the British. Their steam paddle steamers have only sailed on the Seine so far, not to mention that they have not expanded their business to the Qing Dynasty.Therefore, the British actually ate up "My Qing Dynasty" to death. Who made you backward in technology and helpless?He deserves to be dumb.

"The rise in prices in Haizhou Port just proves that the city's trade is booming, that is, they still get a lot of precious metals inflow while purchasing a lot of goods from us. It is these lovely gold and silver that push up the city's Prices, we have seen many times in Europe on this day." Sir Spencer continued: "Actually, we are not bad. The Dutch, French, Danes, Portuguese, etc., traded in the Qing Dynasty, exported The biggest commodities in China are gold and silver. If they could not sell large quantities of purchased commodities to the New World and Europe to earn greater profits, this kind of trade would have been impossible.”

"As you say, sir, our trade is healthy," said the young attendant.

The two continued on along a stone embankment.It can be seen that the Qing Dynasty still attached great importance to Haizhou Port. They mobilized a lot of manpower and spent a huge amount of money to repair it.And the conditions of this port are really good. There are islands outside to shelter from the wind and waves. The water depth near the shore is sufficient, and it is not easy to deposit sediment. The content is very large, and it is easy to silt up the port. The Qing court has to conscript many fishermen and boatmen to clean up the waterway every year, which is very troublesome.

Haizhou, Xiangshui, and Rizhao, these three ports that are very close to each other, are the main windows of the Qing Dynasty's foreign trade.Every year, a large amount of goods are collected and distributed here, and a large amount of gold and silver flow in here.In addition to the necessary external purchases, most of these inflows of gold and silver slowly penetrated into the inland hinterland of the Qing Dynasty, injecting a little vitality into the local economy.

An increase in the money supply is often a prerequisite for the great development of a country's industry and commerce.Without the huge amount of precious metals brought back from the Americas by Spain, there would be no price revolution in Europe, and at the same time, it would not stimulate the development of industry and commerce. The whole society may continue to be content with the status quo, at least the development process will be greatly delayed.

Now the Qing Dynasty has also caught up with such a good time.A large amount of silver flowed into the country through trade, and the money supply on the market gradually increased.In addition, they are in a period of war and have a great demand for various materials. Therefore, under the government's intentional or unconscious guidance, a considerable part of these gold and silver has been invested in industry, which is of great benefit to the development of the entire country. .Sir Spencer, who has carefully studied the price revolutions in England's history, knows this all too well.But at the same time, he also knew that the size of the Qing Dynasty was too large, and at the same time, there were too many places to spend money abroad. If this money flowed in, the effect might not be as significant as that of European countries.

Compared with the Qing Dynasty, the situation in the Shun Kingdom is much better.This country has been doing business with the east coast all year round, and the trade volume is very large. Although most of the money earned is invested in armaments, this country has been working hard to increase the proportion of self-produced military materials for many years. If it is richer, coupled with the support of the military and education at the national policy level, the development should be faster than that of the Qing Dynasty.

Oh, by the way, I forgot about North Korea and Japan.These two countries, in Sir Spencer's view, are simply two extremes.The population of the Kingdom of Korea is less than 800 million, but the speed of industrial and commercial development is extremely rapid, and the country's reform efforts are also very strong. They even broke the traditional six-ministerial system of the central government and fully introduced a modern management system. For example, the Ministry of Agriculture, Industry and Commerce and the Ministry of National Defense are very interesting.Moreover, their entire country is linked to the east coast, and the degree of economic integration is very deep, which is enough for them to comfortably eat a large part of the market, which is very important for the initial industrial system.Therefore, naturally, North Korea's national strength has become stronger and stronger in recent years, the government's fiscal revenue has increased year after year, and the entire country has shown a violent upward trend.

Compared with North Korea, Japan is quite strange, because this country is still pursuing a closed-door policy, so that it has a population of more than [-] million and a large amount of precious metal reserves, but it is still an industrial country with little improvement in industry and commerce. Let outsiders make a lot of money.

However, it is said that Japan is also cheering up recently and plans to start reforms.The direct cause was that they suffered a tragic defeat in the battle for Tsushima Island in the Kingdom of Korea. Not only did the Japanese Navy suffer heavy blows, but they also lost the lives of thousands of soldiers.Faced with such a difficult challenge, the Tokugawa family also felt a little confused. They had to summon foreign businessmen gathered in Nagasaki to discuss the purchase of new warships and cannons.In addition, people of insight in Japan are also desperately collecting all kinds of new learning books, and eagerly absorbing knowledge. In the past year, the number of Japanese who crossed the sea to Ningbo and Denglai has increased by more than ten times.

The Japanese are already learning from the pain!

Sir Spencer was pleased with this.Such a large market in Japan is actually dominated by the Dutch, East Coasters and Fujian businessmen. This is unbearable for England, which has ambitions all over the world.For this reason, after leaving Haizhou, Sir Spencer also plans to go to Japan to contact the Japanese local vassals and even the shogunate to see if there are any opportunities for trade.

The Japanese market with a population of more than 2000 million needs a new entrant.The closed state cannot last for long, and England must prepare as soon as possible-people on the east coast can make huge profits in the Far East every year, why can't we?

(End of this chapter)