Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 924 Transportation Line Lifeline ([-])

John Hill fled into Jacobshavn in embarrassment on his ship "Skylark".

The Courland soldiers guarding the turret outside the port looked nervously at the Dutch armed merchant ships cruising in the outer ocean, lamenting in their hearts: I accidentally let this British ship rush into the port just now, Now it seems to be a great trouble, if these Dutch ships break in recklessly, the old bronze cannons on the fort alone may not be able to stop these invaders.

However, their luck seems to be good. Several Dutch ships in the open sea obviously hesitated for a long time, and then adjusted their sails and continued to go south—they were armed merchant ships of the East India Company going to Batavia. Come is just a matter of convenience.Seeing the "Skylark" hiding in Jakobshaven at this moment, they knew that they had no chance, so they resolutely escaped, and it was more important to do business.

Of course, this does not mean that they are afraid of the newly established Jacob's Harbor. The old small-caliber bronze artillery on the fort still can't stop them. Several large three-masted sailing ships - three-masted sailing ships flying the flag of the Eastern China Republic, one of which is a sail escort gunboat equipped with 24 artillery pieces.In order to avoid misunderstandings, the Dutch decided to let the lucky British merchant ship go, and sailed to Cape Town instead.

McKinley, wearing a sky-blue short-sleeved navy uniform and a barrel cap, was lying under a shady tree on the pier, looking at Captain Hill who was walking down the deck in a playful look, and said with a smile : "Good luck, Brit! You almost fell into the sea to feed the fish."

There was a burst of good-natured laughter from the people around. Most of them were sailors from the east coast, and they were resting in the port at the moment.Several Latvian tavern waitresses from Courland looked at the giggling crowd inexplicably, put the beer in their hands heavily on the wooden table, and left with their buttocks twisted.

"It's really lucky." Captain Hill muttered something in not very standard Chinese, and then said: "Gentlemen, seriously, can I act with your fleet? Don't worry, I know the rules, I will How about taking a tenth of my ship's cargo as a reward for following your actions?"

"It seems that you are very insecure." After a short silence, McKinley, an Irish officer on the East Coast, stood up, looked at the panicked Hill with proud eyes, and said, "The benevolent East Coast Navy You will be allowed to follow us, chief mate, go to his ship to register the cargo, and transfer one-tenth of the value of the goods to our ship now, and then unify them to Riga for sale, and the proceeds will be distributed in proportion to Guys."

Captain Hill breathed a sigh of relief.

He had just returned home after attending a trade fair on the east coast. At the moment, more than 2.2 bolts of high-grade dyed cloth and printed cloth were shipped on board, as well as some steel bars, hardware tools, metal farm tools and soda ash (whether it was the traditional British woolen industry or The emerging glass manufacturing industry, which requires a large amount of soda ash), has a total value of more than [-] pounds.For the officers and soldiers of the navy on the east coast, everyone can always get dozens of yuan, which is not without small supplements.

"Our fleet will set off in two days. You can take the time to rest and recuperate in Port Jacobs, and then purchase some supplies." McKinley kindly reminded the English businessman in front of him, then changed the subject abruptly, and asked: "I heard that your navy has engaged with the Dutch? Is it safe to pass through the Strait of Dover now? Will our ships be stopped? Will the cargo be confiscated?"

"No, war hasn't been officially declared yet." After taking a sip of the beer (West Lake beer, imported from the east coast) delivered by the Latvian waitress, Captain Hill calmed down a bit, and only heard him say in Chinese mixed with English: "I When we set off from Bristol at the end of the year, our navy was just intercepting Dutch merchant ships that did not abide by the law, and then confiscated their ships as punishment. The Dutch also organized warships and armed merchant ships to escort, and the two sides The struggle is fierce, but it hasn't been completely ripped off and fought head-on."

"The Dutch are really greedy. Knowing that the British promulgated the "Navigation Regulations", there are still so many merchants running to do business. They really don't know what to do. Now that the ships are detained and the goods are confiscated, there is no time to cry, haha .” McKinley, who spent his entire youth on the east coast, mercilessly belittled a group of Dutch merchants who were doing business everywhere, and then asked suspiciously: “However, a considerable part of the cargo in these confiscated Dutch merchant ships is actually Is it owned by you English merchants? Now it's confiscated too?"

"Confiscated!" Captain Hill nodded and said: "The "Navigation Regulations" clearly state that goods shipped from Europe to the UK can only be transported by British ships or ships from the country where the goods are produced; The goods sold can only be transported by British ships. The confiscated goods will be publicly auctioned in the London market together with the property of the royalists, and the proceeds will be used for naval military expenses."

McKinley was silent when he heard the words.Although the "Navigation Regulations" obviously aimed at Dutch merchants who acted as distributors of goods, they also swept in people from the east coast, because if the goods produced on the east coast are to be sold to Britain and its colonies, they must Transported by British ships, this is tantamount to losing a piece of profit.Although there is no business in Britain on the east coast—except for the goods sold by the Dutch West India Company to the British North American colonies—the British's domineering style is always a bit uncomfortable.

"Hehe, the Dutch probably hate you! In the past, Languedoc's wine business was almost monopolized by them. Their ships kept going in and out of the Mediterranean Sea, and then exported the wine, brandy, Italian olive oil and cheese to England. , Ireland, now probably the French or Italians can only ship them by themselves?" McKinley joked with a smile, "The London market must be in distress now, with commodities scarce and prices soaring, the citizens must I regret to have provoked this commercial dispute with the Dutch."

"No, it's actually not that serious." Captain Hill quickly explained, "Actually, there are still many idle transport ships on the docks in London. With them, it is not difficult for Mediterranean goods to enter England. The freight rate is extremely low (the tonnage of Dutch merchant shipping is three times that of the United Kingdom at this time, and the largest gap in history is ten times), our ships can only berth in the port all day without doing anything. But after the promulgation of the "Navigation Regulations", these idle ships The shipping capacity was released in an instant, and many captains borrowed money from the London market, and then went straight to Marseille, Livorno, and Messina, and the private shipping industry in England suddenly developed..."

Promulgated together with the "Navigation Regulations", there are two other decrees passed in 1615 and 1622 respectively - this time they were reiterated by the British - that is, "only British ships can transport goods from the Mediterranean into England" and "Baltic goods can only be transported into England by British ships".After these two fucking decrees are strictly enforced again, even if merchants in the origins of various commodities in the Baltic Sea and the Mediterranean want to ship their products to the UK, it is basically impossible, and these two decrees have undoubtedly never been On the other hand, it has greatly stimulated the development of the British shipbuilding and shipping industries, and its influence must not be underestimated.

"It's not London, nor Bristol or Portsmouth, but Virginia and New England!" Captain Hill, who has invested in these two places, said in a very complicated tone, "Originally I thought life would be better after driving away the unscrupulous Dutch merchants who monopolized the cotton, tobacco and grain trade, but the new London merchants were even worse! They kept the purchase price of tobacco leaves very low, and the goods sold from the Old Continent It's outrageously expensive, it's outrageous!"

McKinley has actually heard about what Captain Hill said. During the Civil War, in order to prevent the colonies from getting closer to the royalists, the British Parliament tried their best to win them over. It's connivance. After so many means, they finally won the support of the parliamentary government in the colonies.But now that the dust of the civil war has settled and Charles I has been beheaded, it seems that the parliamentary government no longer needs to be used to the overseas colonies, so now the colonists like Captain Hill are all stupid—the good times are over. !

"It's really unfortunate." McKinley glanced at Captain Hill sympathetically, and thanked: "Well, I probably understand something, thank you for your straightforwardness. Take a good rest for two days in Port Jacobs. A city is shit in my opinion, but it's a city where you can drink good wine, eat fresh food, and spend a little money on a nice evening with lovely Latvian girls.Enjoy Here we go, we will start again in two days."

Captain Hill nodded, and then glanced blankly at the slightly messy city.Port Jacobs is mainly engaged in tobacco planting and high-quality logging (both are exported to the east coast), and at the same time it is engaged in the slave trade-they often sell Congolese black slaves obtained through various channels at an astonishingly low price. It was sold to people on the east coast at a low price, which greatly supported the infrastructure construction in the east coast, and at the same time made a lot of money for themselves.

There are about [-] people in Jacobshaven today, including about [-] Courland colonists (mainly Latvians), [-] German mercenaries, and [-] black servants.Their economy is almost entirely dependent on the east coast for survival. For example, they import a large amount of grain and salted fish from South Africa, and import weapons, bean cakes, farm tools, building materials, carriages, cloth, medicines and other commodities from the east coast. It is mainly tobacco, timber and slaves. At present, it seems that the operation of this colony is still so-so and can be maintained.

Everyone rested in Jacob's Harbor for two days. On June 6, led by McKinley's frigate, the four east coast flute ships and Captain Hill's "Skylark" followed closely, following the powerful Glacier, headed north.

(End of this chapter)