Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 2433 Control of Resources

"Money itself is ordinary, but it is just some metals. If you really want to say its actual value, it may be used to make jewelry, or have a little industrial use. The real power of money lies in its ability to control resources. Therefore, don’t put the cart before the horse, the pursuit of money is the means, and the control and domination of resources is the ultimate goal.” On a steam engine sailboat belonging to the East African Transportation Company, an old captain is giving a young assistant They impart knowledge.

"Xiao Sun, I'll give you a bunch of gold or a mine that most people want, which one do you choose?" The captain sat firmly on the bridge, drinking green tea while admiring the drizzle on the sea.The monsoon in the Indian Ocean has risen. This season is the golden season for sailing from the southeast coast of Africa to India for business, and it is also the busiest time for East African transportation companies.

"I want them all." Xiao Sun replied honestly.

"Pfft!" The old captain sprayed a sip of tea on the deck, and he looked at his subordinate with angry and funny eyes, and said, "A very insightful answer."

Xiao Sun also smiled at this time, and said: "Captain, I understand. Isn't this what we are doing now? It is really too low-level to only pursue money, because many resources cannot be bought by money, or Even if you can buy it, it will be much more expensive than others. In this era, the most important things are coal, metal resources and trade routes. We have been working hard to develop coal, and we are still trying to control more. Metal resources in a certain Probably more important than coal to some extent. Iron, tin, copper, lead, nickel, chromium, manganese, etc., I think the value is higher, higher than gold and silver."

"Xiao Sun, you have finally grown up a bit." The old captain wiped his pants with a towel, and then said, "A lot of metal resources will never appear on the market at all. The manganese and lead mined in our country, from The tin imported from Peru and the copper purchased from the Far East are supplied under long-term agreements and have never appeared on the market. Look at how many copper pieces the British bought in Japan with checks? Few! Most of them are It was divided between us and the Dutch. The British can only buy the high-priced copper from the Swedes, especially when the war is about to break out. How much of the cinchona cream used to treat malaria has flowed out to the market? No How much! Most of them have been divided up by us and the Spaniards! It’s not enough for our own use, how can we have enough to sell on a large scale in the market? This is the original intention of controlling resources, and it’s what we’ve been pursuing all along.”

"The value of resources varies from big to small, more or less. Bulk consumer goods such as coal, timber, and grain are everywhere in the world. At present, no one can monopolize them. Therefore, an open trading market can be established, and indeed they can be bought with money. Arrive. What about the tropical goods that appease the people? Indeed, they can also be bought. But some people buy them at low prices, while others buy them at high prices. Money is not absolutely invincible here. Moreover, once the important maritime trade is manipulated Shipping routes, especially the routes leading to these major tropical commodity-producing areas, then things are more complicated. Therefore, trade routes are also a kind of resource, and to some extent they are very important." The old captain continued.

Indeed, trade routes are also a resource, and this understanding has now been accepted by more and more business people.You see, by controlling certain important shipping lines, you can easily influence the price of many commodities entering the country.For example, when people on the east coast cut off the grain transportation routes from the Black Sea to various ports in Italy, even if the Italians immediately find new sellers, their domestic grain supply will be affected for a long time-of course, people on the east coast will not do this Do.

As another example, cutting off the shipping routes of English textiles to Germany, Poland and Sweden - you can do this by deploying a fleet in the Sond Strait - can immediately stop the textile factories in West Leding, Manchester, etc. , Enterprises suffered massive losses, and workers became unemployed in large numbers.

Controlling sea trade routes is so magical!Therefore, it is a very important resource, even more important than many commodities themselves, including gold and silver!

As one of the few franchised monopoly enterprises in the East Coast Republic, the East African Transportation Company has a lot of exclusive route resources in its hands, such as from Southeast Africa to the Middle East, from Southeast Africa to India, and from Southeast Africa to Southeast Asia (partial areas). trade routes.In short, they are well-deserved number one traders in the Indian Ocean, and their rising momentum is so violent that even the giant Dutch East India Company was surprised.

Today, the motor sailing ship named "Antelope" set sail from the important trading city of Xinhua Port, loaded with local specialty wood, honey, dried fruit, leather and other commodities transshipped from the local area, and headed for Diu, which is under the jurisdiction of the Diu Management Committee. island.According to regulations, they will stop once in Djibouti, Salalah and Bahrain, and they can sell or buy goods.

You see, the routes are all stipulated.As a secondary agent under the name of an East African transportation company, "Antelope" must follow the prescribed route, and must not leak it, and must not stop at other ports, otherwise, once reported, it will explain to the higher management department , the East African transportation company will punish it according to the actual situation, and in the worst case, it may cancel the agent qualification it has spent a lot of money on.

From this, we can also see that in order to manage its numerous agents, the East African Transportation Company has adopted a route system commonly adopted by airlines in later generations, that is, the route is determined in advance, and the port of departure, port of destination, and port of stop are strictly regulated. The number of shifts is also subject to institutional constraints.From time to time, the company will send route inspectors to board the agent's ship and set off with the ship to check whether they have deviated from the route in violation of regulations.

Everyone knows that good route resources mean more profits.To be honest, few people want to go to places like Djibouti that don't shit.They would rather dock at Mogadishu, and then turn directly across the bay to Bandar Abbas in Persia, rather than waste time there.But there is no way, people must go to this place. The East Coast Republic has also set up a Djibouti management committee there, and thousands of people have settled there. They are in urgent need of external goods, and there are also tourists (usually military or technical personnel family members) who need to enter and leave. Not without ships passing by.

As a state-owned enterprise, the East African Transportation Company has to talk about politics on this point, so this point must be considered when formulating routes.They included the relatively lucrative Ports of Salalah and Bahrain to increase the enthusiasm for ships to stop.In addition, other routes such as Yicheng Port - Tiwa Island - Djibouti - Bandar Abbas - Diu Island, Mianhe Port - Mombasa - Djibouti - Basra - Shallow Island have been designed to increase the frequency of ships stopping at the port of Djibouti. It has brought great convenience to the locals.

Route resources are replaced every three years.At that time, the East African Transportation Company will conduct evaluations based on the task completion of each agent in the past three years.Those with good evaluations can get high-quality routes, and those with poor evaluations can only get bad routes, or even cut routes.In short, the East African transportation company still takes great pains in safeguarding national interests, even at the expense of infamy.

"Have we already controlled the flow of most resources in the Indian Ocean? In fact, population is also a resource. Indians have a population of more than 1 million and produce so many cheap commodities, such as pepper, coconut, fennel, silk, grain, etc., really It is very cheap. It is really a very happy thing to be able to drive so many labor resources to serve us. This kind of resources must be firmly in our own hands." Xiao Sun responded with a smile: " Controlling the route to India gives you the ability to control this resource, which is indeed more important than money. It's a pity that we can't monopolize these resources in India yet. The English, Dutch, French, Portuguese and even It is a pity that Danes and Italians can come here to trade, and they can also enjoy these resources."

"Don't worry, the country will definitely give a final solution. Now the Second Fleet has basically controlled the trade in the Persian Gulf, and the Dutch East India Company has almost completely lost from Persia, the Arabian Peninsula and the Red Sea. Northwest India is also basically in control In our hands, the Second Fleet is patrolling the local area in the name of fighting pirates, and the Dutch and the English have nothing to do except the Portuguese.” The old captain picked up his teacup again, mouth still He kept saying: "From this point of view, it can be seen that the Port of Salalah and the Baji armed group in the Rajput area deployed by the Diu Management Committee many years ago are a stroke of genius. The former has already defeated Muscat The special people lost their helmets and armor and had to go to other places to ask for reinforcements, and launched a holy war together to regain the lost land. The latter has already made such a name in northwest India that the governor will send someone to recruit. Wait until we support If these influences are completely enlarged, then even those foreign businessmen who sneak in to do business will have no profit."

"Djibouti is to the Red Sea, Muscat—if the Rajputs can take it—and Bahrain is to the Persian Gulf, and Malacca is to the East Indies. Like the grand passes on land, if these are controlled, the route will basically not run. With the route in hand, the various resources in the area radiated by the route, including labor, are basically in our hands. They have no control over their own The bargaining power of the goods will be compressed to the extreme, hehe, isn’t that how profits come from? Maritime trading empires have to do these things.” The old captain finally said: “Look, when the Spanish succession war starts, There will be more significant changes in the situation in the Indian Ocean. I have lived for 60 years and I have seen too many things. With the temper of our country’s navy, the Indian Ocean will basically be our inner lake. You are still young and you will have a chance to meet to this day."

(End of this chapter)