Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 2442 Waves ([-])

On September 1701, 9, Amsterdam was overcast, as is the situation in continental Europe today.

Zheng Dexiang has been here from London for almost half a month.During these days, he met with countless Dutch political and business figures in public or privately, some of them are old friends who have been with him for many years, and most of the products sold to the Netherlands are represented by them; Upstarts want to build relationships with people from the east coast so that they can advance their careers to a higher level in the future—as the influence of the east coast grows, such things will only increase.

Zheng Dexiang is the Deputy Plenipotentiary Envoy of the East Coast Republic of China to Europe. He is mainly in charge of the North Sea and the Baltic Sea. Whether it is business, diplomacy or politics, he has a high degree of autonomy.He was previously resident at the Iron Mansion in London, and he came to Amsterdam half a month ago at the invitation of the United Provincial Government to meet with the speaker of the third-level parliament, Van Beveninghe Hieronymus.

The meeting had ended three days ago.Gray-haired and haggard, van Beverninghe asked the East Coast government for "strong support" to "check the ambitions of the French" and "better join them from the start".To that end, the United Provinces will offer something of interest to people on the East Coast, such as lands in India, Southeast Asia, and East Asia.

The Dutch said several strongholds in India could be put up for sale.If people on the east coast are interested, as long as they pay enough reasonable quotations, they can negotiate with the Dutch East India Company.It sounds like the Dutch opened a department store in order to raise funds and win foreign aid, but Zheng Dexiang thought a little deeper, maybe the Dutch realized that if they went through another tragic war, the Dutch East India Company’s operations in the East would be difficult. Greatly affected, the strength has been severely weakened-this is for sure, not to mention that the company's merchant ships will be captured by the enemy's privateer fleet, and the huge donations during the war alone are very uncomfortable-and thus cannot maintain a large territory.Insufficient strength but there are stalls everywhere. It's okay if there is no accident, but if there is an accident, the whole thing will fall into crisis.That being the case, it is better to shrink and focus on defending your core interests.

The Dutch East India Company's stronghold in India is actually only one place that can be called a colony, and that is Cochin, a city where the Portuguese once created military miracles.The Dutch East India Company has been operating Cochin for more than 40 years. The land area it controls is about 150 square kilometers, and there are many water areas inside, which are much stronger than the Portuguese Diu Island (similar to it is also Macau and Mozambique Island), people on the east coast are actually quite interested.

Moreover, Cochin is a natural good port, with a flat inland hinterland, rich products and a large population.There are also large rivers that can communicate with inland towns, and the trade potential is huge.Even in later generations, this is also a very important city in India. The largest shipyard in the country is located here, and it even builds domestically-made aircraft carriers for India.At this time, the Dutch East India Company controlled the city of Cochin and a little bit of surrounding countryside, and the annual tax collection alone was not less than one million dong, not to mention that they could also ship these goods back to Europe for sale and make huge profits.In short, the benefits are huge, and the fulcrum of the city is quite obvious. The Dutch East India is willing to sell this asset, and I don’t know how much pressure it has endured from the three-level parliament.

Of course, the Port of Cochin is not the largest asset of the Dutch East India Company in India. In fact, the island of Ceylon (here classified as India) is.However, the company has poured a lot of effort into the construction of this island, and it is afraid that it is reluctant to take it out.And even if it is sold, the price may be very expensive, and it can’t be bought for more than 200 million yuan (or even higher). After all, this is an island rich in spices, gems and tropical fruits. It has a large population and a huge area (6.56 square kilometers). I heard that the Dutch have been experimenting with planting tea trees in Ceylon in recent years, which is even more valuable.

In addition to the port of Cochin and Ceylon, the Dutch also had small strongholds on the Coromandel coast, the Malabar coast and the Bay of Bengal.However, the area of ​​these strongholds is generally only a few square kilometers, which are commercial stations. In principle, they must be under the jurisdiction of the local government of India (in fact, they are basically self-governing). They have to pay taxes and distribute donations. Often, several countries may be crowded in a city. The trading stations in the country - such as Surat now has three trading stations from Portugal, England and the United Provinces - compete with each other, and the people on the east coast are not very interested in it.

People on the east coast have plenty of Indian goods!The import and export of two-thirds of commodities in the Rajput region of northwest India cannot be separated from the hands of people on the east coast.The East African transportation company is enough to make a lot of money just by relying on the monopoly trade here, so how can it value the few trading stations that are controlled by others in the hands of the Dutch?Of course, if the price is cheap, the people on the east coast don't mind taking over. The East African transportation company is nothing more than re-planning the route.

There is another thing that makes people on the east coast feel ironic.That is, because the Dutch East India Company faced aggressive pressure from Fujian Zheng on Formosa Island, it also intends to seek buyers for the southern part of Taiwan Island they occupy.In recent years, after Zheng Kezang stabilized his position, perhaps because he had accumulated a lot of money and supplies on hand, and the army had also been trained a lot, the Taipei government under Zheng's control began to continuously create friction with the Dutch, and even caused conflicts. There have been fatal incidents, so that the Dutchman Alexander.In the year before (1699), the Zheng family even directly sent troops to occupy the Pescaldo Islands (Penghu Islands), and grandly established Penghu County, which was under the jurisdiction of Taipei Prefecture.

The Penghu Islands have been visited by the Dutch, the Portuguese, and the Spaniards.The Dutch once set up a military camp on the island, built a lighthouse and a sheltered anchorage, but later abandoned it because of no benefit.At that time, fishermen from Fujian often came here to take shelter from the wind, and some immigrants came to reclaim wasteland and farm land one after another. The Dutch did not express any objection, and Zheng did not say that this was their land. The status of the archipelago has always been ambiguous.But now that Mrs. Zheng has made it clear, and made it clear that this is her territory, how can the Dutch not feel the pressure?

After careful discussion, the Batavia side believes that Formosa Island is likely to become a blood loss for the company in the next few years.Facing the swift and fierce offensive of Fujian King Zheng Kezang, they are likely to be unable to resist, and armed conflicts may even break out.At this time, will Batavia support or not?To support, it will cost a lot of money, and if it takes a long time, it may cost millions of guilders; if it does not support, it will be directly occupied by the opponent's armed forces and get nothing. It is really a dilemma.

Therefore, the best option for the Dutch East India Company was to sell it.Considering that Formosa Island can bring more than 30 dong in taxes to the company every year, and also has a large amount of income from foreign trade, but because of external threats, it is more appropriate to price it at 300 million dong.If the people on the east coast don’t want to buy it, just ask them to contact them and sell it to the king of Fujian.

When Zheng Dexiang heard about this incident, he felt that the Dutch were really open-minded, and they didn't care about face at all. They were really businessmen, and they had to calculate income and expenditure in everything.The proceeds from the sale of Formosa Island will most likely be filled into the account of the East India Company to supplement cash flow.This giant colonial enterprise is said to have been forced to purchase bonds of the three levels of government of the United Provinces, the Province of the Netherlands, and the City of Amsterdam for 500 million dong, 300 million, and 200 million dong respectively.Hague probably also felt that the company had been slaughtered too harshly, so they acted as an introducer to help Zheng Dexiang sell his assets and recover his blood.

Van Beverninghe deliberately avoided the issue of the Malacca port. In fact, this is the place that people on the east coast are most concerned about and eager to seize.But obviously, this place is also extremely important to the Dutch East India Company and belongs to the core assets of the other party.Although the people from the east coast have infiltrated the city on a large scale, not only there are members from the east coast in the city council, but there are also a large number of land reclamators outside the city, but after careful consideration, the Dutch East India Company is still unwilling to sell this project. asset, and that speaks volumes, the city plays a big part in their plans!

But the city also plays an important role in the plans of the East Coast government!Zheng Dexiang unceremoniously asked Van Beveninghe whether the city was for sale. After receiving a negative answer, he said that the people on the east coast were willing to bid 200 million dong for it and give it to the Dutch East India Company merchant ship The free docking right, and various fees for entering and leaving the port can also be paid at a 50% discount for a period of [-] years.Van Beverninghe did not explicitly refuse, but excused that the Malacca port was a private property, and they were inconvenient to intervene.Zheng Dexiang just laughed at this.private industry?Why didn't you mention that it is a private property when you help sell Cochin Port?I still can't think about it, if you don't sell it now, in the future when the war is at its most critical, don't you still want to sell it?And it can only be sold to people on the east coast, and no one else can buy it, and they dare not buy it!Do not believe?try it!

Another important achievement of Zheng Dexiang in the Netherlands is to communicate with the Dutch about the Gdansk Free City.Van Beveninghe has no objection in principle. He said that the people of Gdansk are free, and its port is only lent to the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. At present, it is illegal for Poland to appoint local officials, and the Poles have no right dispose of the city.In addition, Van Beveninghe also hinted that Zheng Dexiang, the United Provincial Government will come forward to make a statement, so that King Charles XII of Sweden agrees to hand over this port city to the people on the east coast-the Free City of Gdansk is currently under the occupation of the Swedish army Next—the price is just some money and military supplies, not too much, three to five million yuan is enough.

Zheng expressed his admiration for the Dutch government's clean sale of the "free people" of Gdansk, and expressed appreciation for the goodwill released by the Dutch government.At the same time, he made it clear that the trade between the two countries is "very great", and that the United Provinces still rank first on the list of trading partners on the East Coast, and any procurement of materials has priority.He already knew that the Hague government planned to intervene in the succession of the Spanish throne, and he did not hesitate to resort to force at critical moments.At present, they have mobilized militias in the country, repaired ships, and searched for mercenaries all over the world.And this is inseparable from a large amount of military equipment. The people on the east coast are willing to give benefits in this regard, which is already a considerable support.After all, the people on the east coast also have plans to purchase a large amount of military equipment.The Dutch family is not the only one who is preparing for war!

(End of this chapter)