Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 925 Transportation Line Lifeline ([-])

On July 1652, 7, after waiting for a long time off the coast of Tethyr, the escort gunship "Horse Mackerel" finally obtained permission from the Dutch to follow the prescribed route together with four east coast flute-shaped transport ships. After crossing the Zuiderzee with difficulty, it finally docked at the pier in Amsterdam.

The atmosphere in the port of Amsterdam is very solemn now. In previous years, more than 2000 ships berthed here every day, but now this number has decreased by a quarter. As the war progresses, this number may continue to decline.And the number of ships entering and leaving the port has decreased, which is undoubtedly a fatal threat to Amsterdam, which lives on trade.

We can already see signs of this now, as the British Navy continues to intercept and confiscate Dutch ships in the Strait of Dover (these British people have become so "crazy" that even Dutch ships that have not violated the "Navigation Regulations" have to be punished For this reason, the Dutch Navy had to send a large number of warships or armed merchant ships to participate in escort missions, but this further dispersed their already dominant sea power), the prices in Amsterdam have begun to rise sharply, wheat, butter, cheese The price of cattle and cattle has risen by [-]% compared with a few months ago. Many poor people complained, and the Dutch province and the municipality of Amsterdam are also devastated.

You should know that among the nine provincial-level administrative districts in the seven provinces, one common land (Brabant Duchy), and one region (Drenthe region) in the federal republic, the Dutch province has the largest population and the most developed business, but it is As far as agricultural output is concerned, "it cannot feed one percent of its own population", so the wealthy Dutch province urgently needs the import of daily necessities—especially food.

But now, under the interception of the "Bitch-raised British pirates" (actually the British Navy), a large number of Dutch transport ships cannot enter even any port in the Dutch province smoothly - what's more tragic is that many transport ships were taken away by the British That's it - this made the market in Amsterdam immediately tense, and the prices of many materials increased due to shortages.

Although the city of Amsterdam and the provincial government of the Netherlands have made a lot of efforts, the three-level parliament in The Hague also asked the rest of the provinces to import various daily necessities to the Netherlands-this request is not too much, because the population of the Dutch province is in the United Provinces of the Netherlands. The total population of 170-180 million accounts for half of the total, 66% of fiscal revenue, and [-]% of military expenditure.If the province of the Netherlands is abolished, then there will be no need for the Seven Provinces Alliance, which has been quarreling and infighting for more than a hundred years, to survive.

However, it is not easy to ask other provinces to squeeze out agricultural products to support the Dutch province!Let me first talk about Zeeland Province in the west, which was originally the province with the best agricultural conditions in the Seven Provinces Alliance (in the beginning, it was a famous wheat producing area with extremely high yields). Because of the highly developed commerce, it has not grown food for many years. They planted The most important is madder - a commercial crop from which dyes can be extracted - so it is unlikely that they can be expected to export grain to the Dutch province.

There are a large number of peatlands in the provinces of the Netherlands, Utrecht, Brabant, Oberijssel, and Friesland, which have always been large grain importers. The current economy is mainly fishing and fishery processing and re-export. Trading and other businesses are the main business, so it is naturally impossible to count on them.

As for the provinces of Gelderland, Groningen, and Drenthe in the east, these provinces are dominated by sandy land. The agricultural conditions are not as good as Zeeland, but they are much better than the Netherlands and other provinces.But the problem is that these provinces, which mainly grow rye and pasture, are not rich in materials and have limited production capacity, so they are simply unable to support the Netherlands on a large scale.

As a result, the prices of daily necessities such as flour, meat, oil, wine, vinegar, and salt in the Amsterdam market began to skyrocket, and this obviously dealt a heavy blow to the morale of the people of the Netherlands—the East Bank As soon as a person came to the pier, he felt this indescribable oppressive atmosphere.

"Get out of the way, you bloody vampires!" Second Lieutenant McKinley pushed away several dock brokers who were chasing him, and complained to his first mate in Chinese: "Where did these Dutchmen know about us?" There is a ship with refined flour? Damn it, it must have been leaked by those dock officials when they boarded the ship to inspect, we have to hurry, or there will be more Dutch merchants coming, they don't want to see white flour now! "

The first mate looked at those Dutch brokers or small businessmen rushing over like sharks smelling blood with lingering fear, nodded deeply and said, "I'll go and urge Lao Zhang, and let him quickly take the medicines ordered by customers, stop bleeding Bandages, knitted lace, and dyed leather goods have been settled. Our ship of refined flour is intended to be promoted by the Riga merchant station to the princes of Moscow. These Dutchmen can't just snatch it up here. Damn it, we shouldn't let All the ships have entered the port for supplies, and now the boys have all disappeared in the tavern on the pier, how can we find them all in a short while!"

McKinley was also aware of this problem, which made his face look bad again. He was now more and more worried that the ship of refined flour ordered by the Riga Merchant Station would be intercepted by the Dutch.

His bad premonition soon took effect, and after a while, a well-dressed Dutch man came down to Second Lieutenant McKinley surrounded by several entourages, looked at his face, and said in Dutch: "I It's Konrad Van Beuningen, the mayor of Amsterdam (the highest official in charge of public security and law), and also the provincial councilor of the province of Holland. I just happened to hear from my servant that there is something wrong here, so I stopped by Look. Now, I think it's clear what's going on here, and I heard that one of your fruit ships was loaded with the finest refined flour, is that true?"

McKinley looked at Van Beuningen blankly. He couldn't understand Dutch and didn't know what the other party was talking about, but he could more or less guess something.However, he felt that it was better to play dumb at this time, hoping to get away with it-unfortunately, his plan soon went bankrupt, and a scholar wearing glasses behind Van Boyningen stepped forward and translated his original words into French. , English, Portuguese and Spanish, so he felt that he couldn't pretend anymore. He had indeed learned Spanish.

"Yes, we did bring a shipment of refined flour, your officials have inspected it, 520 metric tons in total, but it has been booked. We have no intention of selling it openly in the Amsterdam market, we just want to stop here Two days for supplies." Lieutenant McKinley said in brusque Spanish.

"Sell it to us." Van Beuningen said in a tone that seemed to be requesting and seemed to be commanding, "Amsterdam needs these flours, and I will find some decent buyers for them, not these small merchants on the docks, but Tripp Hendrick of the family comes from one of the most prestigious merchant families in the province of Holland."

"This..." McKinley hesitated. He could see that these Dutchmen were determined to buy his ship of flour—especially these flours were mainly special-grade and first-grade flour. I can't find such a white high-end product. In Amsterdam, where supplies are gradually in short supply, it's no wonder that such a short-sought product is not being targeted.It's just that the cargo has to be transported to the port of Riga to complete the mission. If it is intercepted by the Dutch halfway, it will be Second Lieutenant McKinley's negligence. This will definitely affect his future, so he is still hesitating .

"Are you still hesitating, Mr. Captain?" Van Beuningen was a little impatient.He comes from a well-born family whose grandfather was mayor of Amsterdam, who at the age of 21 was secretary of the Amsterdam City Council - a key position envied by many - and is now in charge of city policing He is a senior official in the field of judicial work, and has joined the Dutch Provincial Council on behalf of the Amsterdam City Council a few years ago. He is a rising star in local politics. If he said that, he thought he was already very polite, so he urgently waited for the other party to give him a satisfactory answer.

But unexpectedly, the captain of the east coast insisted on his principles and shook his head firmly at him.

"By the way, your plenipotentiary envoy, Mr. Mo San, is currently in Amsterdam. Do you need him to give you an order?" Boyningen's face was already ugly, but he still said patiently.

"Mr. Mo San is actually here?" Second Lieutenant McKinley was a little surprised, and then said quickly and solemnly: "Of course! Mr. Mo San is the special envoy appointed by our country to Europe. If it is up to him to give the order, according to the organization's regulations, I cannot refuse."

Mo San will come soon.At that time, he was discussing some business with some Dutch businessmen, but he was told what happened on the pier, so he quickly drove over in a carriage.

"Sell them, the price they give is very fair." Mo Sanyong first ordered in Spanish, then switched to Chinese, and praised Second Lieutenant McKinley: "Second Lieutenant, I appreciate your attitude of sticking to principles. Please keep it up, the country needs people like you. But now, we are discussing some business matters with the Dutch. Compared with these potentially large-scale businesses, the affairs of the Principality of Moscow can be postponed for a while. No hurry. The sale of this whole shipment of refined flour to the high-class gentlemen in Amsterdam is a strong support for my actions to expand business here, thank you, Ensign."

"This... this is my duty." Second Lieutenant McKinley was a little at a loss after hearing the compliment, and finally gave a standard military salute to Mo San, and said.

(End of this chapter)