Rise of the 1630s South America

It was sunny on March 10.

With a small briefcase under his arm, Qian Hao rushed to a large shed temporarily erected on the vacant lot of the residential area, found a wooden stake and sat down.The meeting has been going on for half an hour, and Ma Ganzu is currently speaking on the rostrum.

Qian Hao looked around and saw a dense crowd.After several days of preparation, today is the first general meeting held by the cross-travelers. Except for the two squads of the Dutch guards and some left-behind personnel in some important areas, almost all of them are present. The number of people exceeds 500.

"To sum up, the General Assembly of the Crossing Congregation is the highest authority and is held once a year. When the General Assembly is not in session, an executive committee is set up as the executive body. The executive committee has a chairman, and its members are: the chairman of the executive committee, the army member , Navy Committee, Agriculture Committee, Industry Committee, Materials Committee, Foreign Affairs Committee, Judicial Committee, Transportation Committee, Finance Committee and Internal Affairs Committee. The chairman is responsible for presiding over the overall work, and any proposal submitted by any member must be voted on by all members of the Executive Committee Approved. The term of office of the members of the executive committee is three years, and they are elected by the plenary meeting. During the intersessional period of the plenary meeting, if the members of the executive committee need to be re-elected, it must be proposed by the chairman of the executive committee or jointly proposed by more than one-third of the public Call a general meeting to discuss the election." After repeated consultations, Ma Ganzu proposed this proposal that he had been pondering for several days.

"Let's vote by show of hands." Liu Weimin, who presided over the meeting, cleared his throat, "Please ask the staff to do a good job of counting the votes."

This organizational structure is similar to the current one, only more complete and formal.The time-traveling people have nothing to do. Soon, the statistics came out. There were 502 participants, 476 people agreed, and the proposal was passed smoothly.

“下面进行执委会成员选举，所有年满18周岁的穿越众都有选举权和被选举权，任期为1630年10月18日至1633年10月17日止。请大家将自己面前的选票…咳…黄豆投入各个候选人面前的碗里。下面开始进行陆军委员的选举…”

Army Commissioner Peng Zhicheng, Navy Commissioner Wang Qinian, Industry Commissioner Ma Jia, and Agriculture Commissioner Jin Kela were elected without doubt; because Xiao Bailang was the captain of the freighter Yunsheng No. [-], he became a transportation commissioner based on his "seniority"; he has a solid foundation in history and geography , Gao Mo, who can speak French, was elected as a member of the foreign affairs committee; Shao Shude was successfully elected as a material committee member after defeating a competitor; Bai Siwen was elected as a member of the judiciary; Jiao Tang, a former criminal police officer of a certain city's public security bureau, was elected as an internal affairs member.

In the end, the much-anticipated chairmanship of the executive committee was easily won by Ma Ganzu because Liu Weimin gave up his candidature, and Liu Weimin was elected as the director of the general meeting.At this point, the organizational power structure of the crossing public has been initially formed, and what is needed next is to improve the lower-level institutions.

After the election, Liu Weimin announced the adjournment of the meeting.The dizzy and dizzy travelers who were already hungry scattered and went to eat.

The newly elected Foreign Affairs Commissioner Gao Mo immediately submitted a proposal to the Executive Committee on how to deal with the armed ship "Orange River" of the Dutch West India Company.

Gaumo proposed to establish good relations with the Dutch West India Company. "Geographically speaking, the Portuguese in Brazil and the Spaniards on the west bank of the Uruguay River are our potential enemies. Portugal is currently under the joint rule of Spain, and the Netherlands has been at war with Spain. The best thing is that in recent years, the Netherlands The competition between the Portuguese and the Portuguese in the Amazon basin is also becoming increasingly fierce. In 1624 and 1627, the Dutch occupied Bahia twice; this year, they occupied Pernambuco. The enemy of the enemy is the friend. Be friendly to everything related to the Netherlands. Here I ask the Executive Committee to agree to the request of the Orange River for port repairs, and actively negotiate with it to try to establish a trade relationship."

"I still say the same thing, the Dutch may not treat us equally, we have no capital to take risks." Peng Zhicheng, the new army commissioner, was the first to object.

Wang Qinian, a naval commissioner, is still a bare-bones man, and the Yunsheng No. [-] and the tugboat cannot be used for the time being, so he has his eyes on the Dutchman's ship. "The Big Fish River has been an inalienable sacred territory of our country since ancient times. The armed merchant ship Orange River illegally invaded the inland river of our country with weapons, causing extremely serious consequences. I express my strong indignation about this. I think that these invaders should be immediately The arrest will be carried out, and the tools of crime will be confiscated.”

Ahem... Wang Qinian's shameless words caused the members of the executive committee to cough.

The military's opposition did not dampen the enthusiasm of other members of the executive committee.The Agriculture Committee expressed the need for cattle, sheep, horses, and various seeds; the Industry Committee expressed the need for production materials such as copper, iron, fur, and graphite; the Material Committee expressed the need for daily necessities such as cloth, medicine, and tools; the Transportation Committee expressed the need to introduce urgently needed technical personnel; In the end, even Peng Zhicheng felt that he needed to buy some artillery to enrich the planned fort.

Ma Ganzu concluded: "We need a population! Comrades, we need a large number of people! Where do factories, mines, logging camps, farms and even the army need manpower? I think we should talk to them about immigration or slaves."

There was no suspense in the final voting result: 8 votes in favor and 3 votes against, the proposal was passed.

With a smile on his face, Gao Mo came to the shanty town where the Dutch were temporarily housed.

"Gao, you're finally here. I hope you don't bring any bad news." Couette, who had been waiting long ago, stood up suddenly.He and his sailors have been under house arrest here for three full days, and he even once thought that they would be secretly executed by these barbarians.Fortunately, things didn't seem to be going the worst he feared.

"Ha, in the name of the executive committee, the ruler of this land, you and your sailors will be treated fairly." Gao Mo said, "You will be provided with sufficient food, water and even wine. The ships need to be handled by you. For the repairs, we are responsible for supplying the wood, of course fresh, untreated wood."

"Thank God." The impious Captain Couette praised the Lord sincerely at this moment. "These Tartan barbarians must have been influenced by the Lord." He thought to himself.

"Moreover, after my hard work, the executive committee has agreed that Dutch ships can berth freely in our port and obtain supplies in the future." Gao Mo said with a smile, "As far as I know, there is an ongoing crisis between your country and Spain. A state of war. As soon as you can get supplies from us, the range of your ships attacking Santiago, Lima and Guayaquil will be cut in half."

Couette's face became serious, "What do you need, at the risk of offending the Spaniards? The Federal Republic is fighting for freedom, what about you?"

"The Spaniards are also our enemies." Gaumo said equally seriously, "The governor of Peru is a greedy person. The Spaniards have established small trading points in the Montevideo area, and Jesuit missionaries have even penetrated into the interior. Land area. And this land can only have one owner, that is the Executive Committee. We will never submit, maybe the Spaniards, maybe the people of Sao Paulo, sooner or later the conflict will break out."

Couette looked at the righteous Gaumo with incredible eyes. In his opinion, these Tatans (maybe Indians?) were so arrogant that they challenged the rule of the Portuguese and the Governor of Peru on the east coast of La Plata. right. "But who cares?" He immediately relieved, "At least before being destroyed by the Spaniards, they can indeed provide us with the supplies we need for our voyage, so that the death rate of the crew will be greatly reduced. What we need to pay, maybe just a little Friendly attitude?"

"In addition, we hope to trade with you. We need cattle, sheep, horses, copper, iron, lead, people, etc., as long as you can transport them, we can buy them. You can even dispose of the captured spoils Give it to us, and fill it with us and go back to Europe,” Gaumo said.

"Porcelain?!" Couette's expression finally changed.He is well aware of the price in Europe for a beautiful piece of Chinese porcelain, which is absolutely staggering.Except for the royal family and nobles, most people don't even have to think about it.Moreover, the key is that this thing has a price but no market, and the supply exceeds the demand!

"Yes, authentic Ming Dynasty porcelain, I can even show you samples." Gao Mo obviously came prepared, and he took out a round porcelain plate from his leather bag.This is a modern imitation blue and white porcelain plate exported during the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty. The upper part of the plate is painted with a bust of Martin Luther, one of the founders of the Protestant Reformation, two angel boys on the left and right, and Martin Luther on the lower part. Lecture portrait.

Not only Couette, but even the first mate and bosun behind him became short of breath immediately after seeing this blue and white porcelain.Such exquisite Chinese porcelain with a religious style can definitely sell for sky-high prices in Protestant areas such as Germany.

"This set of tableware includes soup plates, dinner plates, fish plates, fruit plates, salad bowls, soup bowls, sauce plates, salt shakers, etc., a total of 66 pieces, and the price is only 500 ducats." After careful calculation by the executive committee The guide price given was 200 ducats, that is, the price of a Spanish thoroughbred army horse. Gao Mo was asking a lot.

Couette calculated silently in his mind: "The price of 500 ducats is too high. It will never cost more than 30 ducats to buy such a set of porcelain from Guangzhou."

"No, no, it can't be calculated like this." Gao Mo interrupted with a smile, "Starting from Guangzhou, passing through Batavia, crossing the Cape of Good Hope, and then arriving in Amsterdam, not only is the journey far away, but you will also face Spaniards, Portuguese, There is a danger of attacks from the English or even the French, and there is a great possibility that you will lose everything and lose your life. Now you return to Amsterdam from us via Guyana, no one knows the precious porcelain you loaded, and the distance is also short, save you It’s a lot of trouble. Moreover, the price of this kind of religious-style porcelain in the Netherlands will never be less than 1500 ducats, and in Germany, you can even sell it for a high price of 2000-3000 ducats.”

Couette was a little moved, but still calm.However, the chief mate and the bosun behind him couldn't hide their excitement. Although such a high profit was definitely earned by the captain and the merchants, their share of the profits would not be small.

"500 is too much." Couette took a deep breath, "250 ducats, no more, my funds are not sufficient."

After some not-so-intense haggling, the two parties finally agreed on a price of 350 ducats.The additional condition is: the crossing crowd must give Couette the exclusive right to operate, and Couette must carry the goods designated by the crossing crowd to trade.