Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 774 Trade Friction ([-])

Mo San is in Messina at this time.He has been here for more than a week, and he has chatted with Mario of the Doria family for a long time.Their topics mainly focused on the sales of goods from the East Coast in Europe, as well as the trend of trade protectionism that has emerged in various places recently.The Doria family has long been accustomed to this, because for their multinational syndicate, competition with local businessmen is an eternal issue.

In order to compete with the local business forces of various countries, what they adopted was nothing more than getting acquainted with the rich and powerful of the country and controlling the supply of goods to make their opponents succumb. This is undoubtedly what the Doria family did.They were the guests of the Habsburg royal family, and they still have a large number of financial businesses in Spain and Austria today when Genoese capital has withdrawn from Spain.In addition, the Doria family has also operated in the port of Cadiz for 200 years, controlling a considerable part of the trading business and making huge profits every year.

It is actually a good move for people from the east coast to sell their products to them, because it saves the huge upfront costs of developing the market. After all, channels and contacts are accumulated by time and money.Today, when the long-term relationship between the East Coast and Spain is bad, if you want to sell your products into the vast Spanish market (including Spain, Naples, Sicily, Parma, the Southern Netherlands and the New World), you can only go through a strong force. Agents are here to do it.

"As the war gradually subsides, it is becoming more and more difficult to do business now." Mario sat on a chair with a tired face, and said to Mo San with exaggerated gestures: "Tuscan people are more and more inclined to Because of the cooperation with the shameless and despicable Venetians, our products have been levied high tariffs locally, and your trading station in Florence should also fully feel this. Seriously, if the profit is not large, it is better to close it as soon as possible , to invest resources where they are more needed.”

What Mario said was exactly the pain in Mo San's heart.The operating conditions of Florence Commercial Station have been deteriorating over the years. Seeing that the accounts are about to turn from black to deficit, Mo San has a headache.It is not easy to close a business site, because there are too many factors involved.At the beginning, the people from the east bank opened a business station in Florence, relying on the mother relationship of Frank, the baronial family of Toulouse in France. The East Coast mainland provides a profit of one hundred and eighty thousand.

Although the amount of profit that the business station can provide is decreasing day by day under the squeeze of various factors, the channels, agents and official relations in the place are still there.Once the Keshang website is closed, there is basically nothing left.Moreover, in this way, the people on the east coast will not be able to collect first-hand information about Tuscany and even northern Italy in time, and the recruitment of European technicians and even the organization of immigrants from Tuscany will also be ruined, and the loss is still considerable. big.Therefore, Mo Sansi thought about it until the end, but he still didn't make up his mind. He just planned to reduce some of the staff of the business station. Those who are willing to go to Russia to develop, and those who are not willing to pack up and go back to the mainland.As for the most expensive tribute to local officials, Mo San felt that since the situation was already difficult to recover, it would be better to reduce or even stop it, which would save a lot of money.

"The commercial station in Florence will not be closed for a while, at least until this year, it seems to be making money here. Also, we also need to keep a window, a window in Tuscany, which will give us a lot of money. Convenience." Mo San waved his hand and said: "The Italian market is like this, and the French side is probably not optimistic. Now that the war is over, the era of extravagant spending is over, and everyone is clutching their wallets tightly. And staring into other people's pocketbooks, it's just so frustrating."

"The market is like this, Mo." Mario said with a glass of wine in his hand, "The Doria family has experienced too many periods like this in hundreds of years of history. We have been thinking about how to make cute The silver coins traveled between countries without interruption, but it was always difficult. Even a small commercial city-state would be worried about the outflow of silver coins, so they preferred to use their own This is the current situation in Tuscany. If you take into account the commercial competition between the Venetians and you, it is normal for your business in Florence to become increasingly distressed."

Mo San nodded when he heard the words, and said: "The market in Northern Italy is too fragmented and the forces are intricate. We have never really owned it. Besides, the Venetians who have always been unfriendly to us are deeply rooted there, so it will be even more difficult for us. Forget it. Forget it, let’s not mention those disappointing things, and talk about some happy topics. For example, you said last time that some gentlemen in Sicily plan to plant sugar cane, and then want us to prepare more bean cakes for export?”

"Yes." Mario confirmed without hesitation, "thank God, last year the entire south-central region of Italy had good weather and a good harvest of grain. It is foreseeable that with the recovery of agricultural and animal husbandry production in the war-torn German region, The CIF price of food along the entire Mediterranean and Baltic Sea coasts will drop sharply. Since growing food is no longer so profitable, they plan to grow sugar cane to refine sugar, a commodity that will never be in short supply. With the vigorous promotion of our family , They have also developed a certain interest in your bean cakes, and they plan to import a batch to Feitian. This is a very good opportunity, Mo, once they form a habit, there will be an endless stream of orders in the future."

Mo San was also very happy to hear what Mario said. After all, it is not easy to open up a new source of income now. Everyone holds the money tightly in their hands, and it takes a lot of effort to dig out a little bit.

Mo San lingered in Messina for another two days. On September 9, when he was preparing to take a boat to the port of Livorno, intending to go to Florence to deal with the head and tail of the commercial station, a letter from Candin, the stationmaster of Bordeaux commercial station, was also sent. passed it on.It was at this time that Mo San finally knew about the "nightmare" that happened in France.

East coast textiles are about to lose the French market!

This was Mo San's first reaction when he first heard the news, because white cotton cloth, which accounts for most of the textile sales in the east coast, will no longer be profitable under such a high tariff (the people in the east coast will also give local agents a lot of money. Philippine profit margin).Moreover, with the continuous improvement of Europeans in textile machinery over the years, the quality of their cotton yarn and cotton cloth has also been greatly improved. Under the strict trade protection mechanism, they can rely on their price advantage to compete with East Coast cotton cloth. This will undoubtedly lead to a total defeat of the East Coast calico in the French market.

If the white cotton cloth cannot be sold, the profit of at least 40 yuan will be lost this year. The annual profit of 6 yuan or [-] yuan generated by dyed cloth, printed cloth and some new textile products alone will be more and more difficult to use today. For the powerful East Coast locals, it is undoubtedly a drop in the bucket.Not to mention that the French have also raised import tariffs on other commodities, but the rate is not as large as that of cotton cloth. These will also cause an additional loss of more than [-] yuan a year for East Coast commodities, which is really unbearable.

Mo San immediately felt the difficulty of the matter.What happened this time was caused by the French government. To put it bluntly, it was caused by their powerful Prime Minister Mazarin.Of course, they are not particularly targeting people on the east coast, because they also imposed unbearably high tariffs on some goods from the Netherlands, Portugal and the United Kingdom. What they did was purely due to trade protectionism and mercantilism. That's all.Who made the East Coast textiles so arrogant that they have already been sold in less than half of the south-central region of France?

It is obviously useless to go to the French government to negotiate at this time.Mo San began to analyze, and he believed that with the virtues of the French with nostrils on the top of their heads that he saw, it would undoubtedly be humiliating to represent the government of the East Coast Republic of China to negotiate tariff rates with them.Mo San didn't want to be neglected and humiliated by the French for the second time, so he immediately rejected the plan to negotiate with the French.

Since diplomatic channels are not working, it seems that other means can only be used.For example, using other interests to exchange with the French - the possibility of this is also infinitely small; or simply using commercial means to kill the French cotton textile industry, so that they have no domestic products to use - and this undoubtedly requires local The Executive Committee formulated a rigorous plan, and at the same time, all departments fully cooperated with the launch.

Mo San thought about it carefully, and finally found that it seemed that the only way to "remind" the French was through this rather drastic method.If the French want to develop their own cotton textile industry, but they do not grow cotton locally and need to import it from the Caribbean Islands or the New World, there are too many places to make a fuss about.Raising the price of cotton with funds is one way, but it is also a very good way to prevent the flow of cotton into France by violent means.

Now that the war was over, the huge navy on the east coast (France had fewer than 1663 military sailing ships until 20) suddenly lost its use.That being the case, why not send them to the Caribbean Sea to intercept the French transport ship without anyone noticing, I believe it will not be difficult.Anyway, this is not the first time that the East Coast Navy has been a pirate. In normal years, the navy spends 145 million yuan a year on military expenditures (excluding shipbuilding costs, only maintenance costs). The annual military expenditure may be close to 1650 million yuan), can such a huge expenditure be expected to be paid by the Executive Committee?It’s nothing in the war years, but keeping such a large fleet in peacetime is indeed a huge financial burden. Therefore, it is urgent for the navy to go out to get some wild food and find a way. built?

Thinking of this, Mo San also spread out the paper and wrote a secret letter to the native land.The French have already fired the first shot in trade friction, and the people on the east coast always need to make some kind of response.Otherwise, you are just a piece of mud, anyone can come up and step on it, so what a fart!

(End of this chapter)