Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 773 Trade Friction ([-])

Another ship came into port.This is a merchant ship from La Rochelle in the north. She brought salted cod from the North Atlantic to the residents of Bordeaux, and at the same time brought the latest news from the north.

"The king has returned to the palace! The rebellious nobles have been forgiven, and all those who participated in the civil war have been pardoned, as if nothing had happened!" A middle-aged man with a loud voice stood on the pier and said to everyone Speaking of the latest domestic situation.

In early January of this year, Mazarin was forced to flee to Saint-Germain with the king and queen mother due to threats from the rebellious nobles and Parisian citizens.The nobles occupying Paris announced the confiscation of all royal property, and the property of all the king’s henchmen, including Mazarin, was also confiscated. They also demanded the restoration of their feudal privileges and the abolition of the central government that Richelieu and Mazarin had been strengthening. centralized policy.

The following Paris was completely caught in a farce.The Dukes of Langeville, Beaufort, and Bouillon, who provided military and financial support for the rebellion, quarreled all day long over all sorts of things, including contacting the Spaniards and sharing their rebellion. The issue of military expenses and so on, in short, there was a lot of quarrel.

The men were arguing, and their women started frequent sex-hunting trips. There were romantic affairs reported in Paris every day. People are injured or killed every day.And some well-known wives also enjoyed it, such as the famous Mrs. Longueville, who gave birth to a son for Prince Mahirak, which made the rebellion more sensual.

The situation of Louis XIV took a turn for the better because of the dispute between Prince Conti and Prince Condé.Dissatisfied with his small power, Prince Condé, who had made great contributions in Rocroix and Lens, decided to support the king instead and break with their younger brothers and sisters.Prince Condé led his invincible army to occupy the fortress of Charenton, and then besieged Paris, preparing to send the king and others back to take power again. The nobles in Paris were forced to ask for help from the Habsburg dynasty.

However, this decision of the nobles aroused the resentment of ordinary Parisians. They uphold the simple patriotic enthusiasm and resolutely oppose the introduction of wolves into the house.And some aristocratic members with strong patriotic sentiments are unwilling to lose the fruits of victory gained by the Richelieu era in the great France, and they do not want the Spanish or Austrians to intervene in France's internal affairs, nor do they want France to be divided into feudal territories again.The two powers therefore united, deserted the nobles, surrendered to the king, and dismissed their own armies.

Seeing that the situation was over, the rebellious nobles in Paris had no choice but to bow their heads and sent representatives to see the king and ask for forgiveness.The Empress Dowager Anne pardoned these people, so the civil strife in France subsided, and the poor Spaniards had just organized an army into the south of France (the rest were either in Catalonia, or in Flanders and Turenne), they did not know that the two sides of the French rebellion had reached a settlement, and they continued to march forward until they were defeated by the army mobilized by France and retreated to Spain.

News of the quelling of the Fronde riots brought a sigh of relief to those on the docks in Bordeaux.After all, civil war is the most terrible thing, and now everything is settled in Paris and its suburbs, so it is a good thing for people in other parts of France.But the ordinary citizens of Bordeaux are happy, and those businessmen from other countries may not be.Spanish merchants (whose number is small, and this country does not seem to have a strong commercial atmosphere) lamented, Dutch and British merchants were depressed, and Portuguese, Swedish, Genoa, and Venice merchants looked indifferent.

As for Kang Ding, the head of the east bank who stayed at the commercial station in the city, at first he had an indifferent attitude with everyone. At most, he felt a little regret that France, a large country with a population of 2200 million, failed to fight.However, when he returned to the Bordeaux trading station and received the latest news from the Pasquale family, he was so angry at the news that the civil unrest in France had subsided: because the French had just introduced the latest policy against foreign goods .

The French once again reiterated the importance of protective tariffs!As we all know, the French started to develop their own industry from the time of Richelieu. Even when the Thirty Years War broke out and the finances were not ample, the government at that time still allocated huge sums of money every year to encourage the development of domestic industry and achieved certain results. Achievement.It's just that after France entered the war in person, the era of material shortages began, so the French government lowered tariffs on foreign goods to prevent domestic prices from rising too much.

Later, with the progress of the war, France's tariff level also fluctuated, sometimes high and sometimes low, but generally it went upwards, which showed France's firm will to develop its own industry.This time, after the civil strife subsided in the Fronde, the French once again resorted to high tariffs, a big killer that caused headaches for all foreign businessmen, which is also reasonable.

After all, France is a big country, a big country with lofty aspirations and a clear mind.Unlike the fools of the Ottoman Empire, the Kingdom of France clearly knows what it needs and what it doesn't need, so she may be able to tolerate foreign businessmen making a lot of money in a short period of time, but she will never let her interests flow out for a long time.After all, this is an era when mercantilism is extremely popular!

Contin took the secret letter of the Pasquale family and looked at it carefully: the tax rate on herring in the Netherlands has risen to 7.5%, the tax rate on Situbar salt in Portugal has increased to 18% (there is serious competition with the salt in Nantes, France), the British The tax rate on woolen fabrics is the normal 5%, well, I saw the tax rate on East Coast textiles, it was an astonishing 25%!

God, is this going to start with me on the East Coast?Fine sweat immediately oozed from Kang Ding's forehead.In the past, the 17.5% tax rate for textiles on the east coast was already frighteningly high, but now it has risen to a crazy 25%. Does this still make people live?Under this tax rate, ordinary white cotton cloth, which is the most sold on the east coast, will become unprofitable, and only dyed cloth, printed cloth and some other high-end textiles can rely on their own technical advantages to maintain their prices.

This is the French protecting their cotton textile industry!Kang Ding made a judgment immediately.

And it's pretty much the same.Although France itself produces a certain amount of wool, the woolen industry is generally underdeveloped, even worse than the Spaniards who do not like to produce.In addition, the Spanish Netherlands and the United Provinces in the northeast of the country are areas with developed textile technology and industry, and the textile industry in the southern Italian region has only begun to decline in recent years. So far, it has been suppressed by both the north and the south, and has never been able to develop.

However, the appearance of cotton made the French see opportunities, and the high profits of cotton cloth further strengthened their determination.Therefore, starting almost ten years ago, the French government began to invest heavily in the development of the cotton textile industry.They imported the most advanced machines from Holland, introduced a large number of skilled workers from the South Netherlands, and then started their own development journey.It's a pity that this road is destined to be extremely difficult for the French. The East Coast Republic, which occupies the first-mover advantage in the cotton textile industry, used its huge industry to wage a price war with the French, which caused the nascent French textile industry to suffer a cold snap. of baptism.

Then, the "hateful" people on the east coast also took advantage of their control over the cotton pricing power to raise the price of raw materials, forcing France, Sweden, Venice and other countries that have recently entered the cotton textile industry to complain, and their domestic factories were underutilized. Huge losses were incurred, and many businessmen withdrew.

However, Sweden and Venice are extremely difficult, and France, which has a huge domestic market, is not prepared to let it go.They have repeatedly raised import tariffs on textiles from the East Coast, from the initial 2% to the current 25%, which is shocking.Contin reckoned that if the textiles from the east coast could still occupy a large share of the French market, the French might be outraged and would directly ban the import of textiles from the east coast.This is no joke, the French could do it, and the British could do it a few years later when they flooded their country with Dutch goods.All in all, they just can't tolerate a large outflow of their own silver, and they just don't want to see others make money and force themselves hard.

The French are now almost saying that you are not allowed to sell your products here again, and do the people on the east coast have a way to fight back against them?Kanting thought about it, but sadly found that there seemed to be no.They can't do anything about this relatively unified country with a population of more than 2000 million. They can neither influence their policies nor overthrow their government. It is really frustrating.

Is it possible to withdraw from the vast French market and close the Bordeaux trading station like the Danzig trading station?Thinking of this possible consequence, Kang Ding couldn't help but shudder. Then he would have to pack up his bed and go back to the east bank to farm in despair, right?Because most of the other commercial sites already have owners, and I don't have the face to squeeze in to be a deputy station master or something.

Kang Ding walked around the office several times like an ant in a hot pot, and finally settled down and began to write a letter to Mo San.He has to tell Mo San what happened here. The French have established new import tariffs on goods from the East Coast (including textiles, leather goods, metal utensils, soda ash, refined flour, etc.) Taking away a profit of more than [-] yuan, once this happened, the trade would be greatly affected.What to do next, Mo San must give an answer as soon as possible.

(End of this chapter)