Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 921 Unexpected Prosperity

The sky was gloomy, and the strong wind rolled up the waves of the open sea, and then slammed into the breakwater built by filling the sea with construction waste.On the breakwater that doubles as a trestle bridge, dock workers in raincoats go back and forth, constantly using flat rail cars to pull away truckloads of sulfur, lead, tin, graphite and other mineral products, and then seal the bags tightly. The solid wheat was pulled over and was ready to be hoisted onto the deck of the ship with the pulley boom on the cargo ship.

Although in this kind of windy weather, even if it is sealed well, some wheat will be damp, but since the customer doesn't care about it and insists on going to sea in such bad weather, then as the seller, the east coast people can say what?For the sake of its long-term partners, the Director of the Port Authority of Luocha Port gave some moisture-proof quicklime for free, which is considered to have fulfilled his responsibility.

"It's a Dutchman's merchant ship." Everyone at the pier knew the details of the merchant ship "Hin" from Recife. This is a medium-to-large merchant ship with a deadweight of about 300 tons and a crew of 21 He has 8 cannons and operates the business from Recife to Port Rocha all the year round, and people on the east coast are very familiar with it.

"I heard that the relationship between the United Kingdom and the Netherlands continued to deteriorate. The mission sent by the Dutch government in The Hague broke down with the British in London. After the new "Navigation Act" was promulgated, the British are looking for irregularities at sea with wide eyes As for the Dutch merchant ships that came, some merchants with a strong sense of crisis have already begun to plan ahead. In fact, this is a gamble, hoarding goods in advance, and then waiting for a possible war, so that they can make a fortune, although this It’s a national calamity, but who cares.” Sitting in the office, the dock officials watched the busy Dutch ships in the harbor through the glass windows, secretly echoing all kinds of gossip that spread to the dock pubs and brothels.

The "Hind" was not the only ship that came to the port of Rocha for trade. In fact, there were seven or eight Dutch merchant ships, most of which belonged to the West India Company.These speculators have a very keen sense of smell—in fact, they always have some relatives in the political circle, and it is not difficult to inquire about some news—they have long noticed the tense situation between Britain and the Netherlands, and then made predictions in advance. And then began to frantically purchase and hoard supplies.

In recent years—especially in the years since the founding of the English Republic—relations between Britain and the Netherlands have deteriorated with a speed that is dizzying and jaw-dropping.The English republic, where bourgeois businessmen flocked to key government positions, showed growing hardliness under military strongman Cromwell.

The Netherlands also showed an unexpectedly hostile attitude towards the new bourgeois country, the English Republic, because the commercial capitalists who held power in the Netherlands were afraid that British businessmen would compete with them, so they continued to attack these English counterparts from all aspects.

Their initial hostilities began at the outset of the English Civil War, when the Dutch unanimously decided to support King Charles I of England in all its aspects.For this reason, the English Parliament had to send an envoy Walter Strickland to the Netherlands in 1642, asking the Dutch to stop interfering in the English Civil War, but was ruthlessly rejected by the Dutch—the Dutch still went their own way and sent four ships to England. Ships loaded with ordnance, gunpowder, and mercenaries to support the Royalists in their operations.

Not only that, the Dutch also gave full asylum to the British royalists, which annoyed the British bourgeois government.In particular, Cromwell, who had begun large-scale trials of royalist elements in the country, was even more angry about this. He later sent envoys to the Netherlands again, demanding that the Netherlands expel the royalist elements. , but this must have greatly exacerbated relations between the two parties.

If all this is not enough to make people believe that these two countries are on the brink of war, then in the second half of last year (1651), the "Navigation Regulations" passed by the British Parliament has already explained everything: the British have begun to move from The law gave the navy the power to intercept Dutch merchant ships at any time.

And the British Navy has strictly enforced this law from the very beginning. They first restored and expanded the patrol area of ​​the British Navy—the English Channel used to be the coast of the North Sea, and now it has extended to the Baltic Sea and the Mediterranean Sea— In order to enhance the influence of the United Kingdom; and then set up a maritime court in the North American colonies to strictly supervise whether the colonies with frequent trade with the Netherlands violated the "Navigation Regulations", especially the West Indies colonies where the royalists concentrated (mainly manufacturing Barbados, where the sugar industry is developed) and Virginia, where the British Navy confiscated several Dutch merchant ships, which further aggravated the diplomatic disputes between the two countries.

Things have developed to this day, and any businessman with a bit of knowledge may no longer have illusions about peace. It is time to deal with the arrival of war!Therefore, some well-informed Dutch businessmen ran to the east bank to import various supplies—especially the crucial food—because even they were not sure about the relationship between Britain and the Netherlands after the war broke out. It seems unlikely that peace could be maintained among the overseas colonies.

Therefore, based on this idea, the top management of the Dutch West India Company stepped up their vigilance-their approach was to transform some merchant ships into warships to maintain the security of the vast area from the West Indies in the north, to the coast of West Africa in the east, and to the northeastern part of Brazil in the south. The route is safe. As for the British North American colonies, they dare not go there for the time being, because there are already British Navy warships there; A large amount of supplies is a normal thing.In particular, war preparation materials such as food, gunpowder, ordnance, medicine, canvas, cables, and tar, as well as important living and production materials such as spirits, cloth, agricultural tools, bean cakes, and butter, are all priority purchases.

After all, the top executives of the West India Company are now also worried that if the British brainstorm and send warships southward to block important ports under the West India Company, they may not have enough strength to escort them, because the company's limited resources must be guaranteed first. Important materials such as sugar, salt, indigo, and cocoa from Brazil can be safely transported to Amsterdam, and the settlers in the colonial ports who have no time to take care of them can only find their own way.

The Dutch were unlucky, but the people on the east coast smiled inadvertently.why?Because the crops harvested again this year finally have a buyer, and it seems that the buyer has a lot of appetite, and bought 5.5 yuan worth of wheat in one go.This made the national reserve grain depot, who was worried about increasing grain income, breathe a sigh of relief. Previously, in order to deal with the increasing amount of grain (in order to maintain the enthusiasm of farmers to produce grain, the national reserve grain depot would purchase it at a protective price every year) All kinds of grains), they are all ready to launch a large-scale semi-mechanized brewing production line.

Of course, although the food crisis has eased a bit, the winemaking production line still needs to be installed, because the Archangel Commercial Station in Europe has already issued orders to the country, and there is still a great demand for spirits in the Principality of Moscow. Zheng Yong And others plan to take advantage of the Western spirits (brandy) before they invade Moscow on a large scale, to enter the East Coast spirits (currently mainly the river Daqu produced in South Africa), and cultivate Russians' preference for the taste of spirits, so that Once it comes, it will be able to better occupy this market.

And the profit of agricultural production has increased again, which is also extremely important for the East China Republic today.Because this means that the barren fields in the inland areas will once again attract a certain amount of private investment, and at the same time, the income of the vast number of rural farmers has also been improved to a certain extent, which is also extremely critical for stabilizing the domestic situation on the east coast—food Exports have solved the three problems of increasing farmers' income, agricultural development and rural stability in one fell swoop. This has finally made it possible for agriculture, which has absorbed the largest number of employed people in the East Coast, to sweep away the decline in recent years. Farmers' income (relative to workers' income) that has been stagnant for many years For example) is also expected to rise again.

Grain exports have increased, so the related exports of meat and seafood are naturally indispensable.However, in this regard, the Dutch asked whether the East Coast could deliver the goods to their door. After all, their ships are limited, and seafood and meat are not easy to preserve (even marinated ones will have a peculiar smell), especially when listening to In the case of saying that there is a magical refrigerated ship on the east coast that can store goods at freezing point, they think it is best that the people on the east coast can deliver the goods to their door-of course they are willing to pay a shipping fee of 50 Dutch guilders per ton for this.

Faced with this request from the Dutch, the Council of Government of the East Coast Republic decided to agree to the request of the Dutch after a collective study, and then wrote a letter to the South China Sea Shipping Company, asking them to use refrigerated ships to export frozen meat and fish to the Netherlands, while the Navy simultaneously It is also necessary to allocate a certain number of warships to escort this, to avoid possible accidents in the middle - I heard that the scope of activities of the British navy and privateers is getting wider and wider, so it is better to be careful in everything.

The increasingly tense situation between Britain and the Netherlands has actually made the east coast of the New World a fortune, which cannot but be said to be a wonderful thing.Of course, this is also thanks to the deformed economic structure under the rule of the Dutch West India Company, that is, the tropical colonies dominated by plantations mainly focus on sugar cane planting and sugar extraction, and the daily needs of the local people are provided by the West. Indian companies trafficked from outside (the advantage of doing this is that they can make money twice) - for example, they shipped cloth and alcohol from the mainland, food from British North America, salt from Curacao, etc. .

But no matter what, the demand of the Dutch West India Company has begun to gradually affect the industrial and agricultural production of the East Coast Republic of China. The South China Sea Shipping Company, a large trust shipping company, simply ordered six refrigerated ships to the shipyards of the three major countries. The new order intends to expand the number of refrigerated ships to ten; at the same time, the Northern Arsenal and the Northern Gunpowder Factory have gradually increased their horsepower to prepare for the production of various types of arms; the comprehensive workshop of the Dayuhe Armory has also begun to produce a large number of labor tools and steel bars. In short, everything seems to be thriving under the stimulation of external demand.

(End of this chapter)