Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 961 The Deepening Gap ([-])

Liqun went south to Xingnan Port on the ship of the Messenger Liner Company.

After he left, a large naval fleet quietly sailed into the somewhat empty port of Rocha—this is part of the Navy's First Fleet.Together with them sailing into the port of Rocha, there are two "captive ships" refitted in the South African River Central Port. These two ships have been bought by the Southern Railway Company and have become the seventh and eighth ships owned by the company. Next, they will ship a large amount of supplies at Rocha Port, and then go south to the Fort behind the mountain to deliver supplies and supplies to the area behind the mountain that is under construction in full swing.

After more than three years of sneaky privateering operations, the navy is now rich and powerful, with more than 250 million yuan in cash obtained through auctioning ships and cargo - some of which can be used because of the source of the money Most of them come from China, and if they are used, they will not cause serious inflation in the "small pool" of the East Coast Republic.

Among these funds, apart from the half that was handed over to the Executive Committee and the promised share to the officers and soldiers, the Ministry of the Navy still had more than 75 yuan of funds at its disposal.Therefore, after reporting to the executive committee for approval, they provided 15 yuan to subsidize the South Railway Company to help them expedite the construction of a special wharf and ancillary forts for battleships in Xingnan Port; Funded them to speed up the research and development of large-tonnage hydraulic presses and steel rolling equipment; in the end, they also gave 10 yuan to the Ship Design Institute of the Academy of Natural Sciences to fund their research and development of various ship types.

After removing the 30 yuan in cash that was thrown out, the Admiralty still holds a huge amount of 45 yuan in cash.As for the purpose of the money, it seems clear now that Zhenhai Shipyard has received an order from the Ministry of the Navy for the three-decked battleship "Executive Committee" for 20 yuan, and the factory has already begun to tense up. The preparatory work of the preparatory work and the start of construction are already imminent.Of course, the construction funds of the "Executive Committee" obviously cost less than 20 yuan. The reason why the Ministry of the Navy transferred 20 yuan through the account of the United Industrial Credit Bank is actually to subsidize the research and development funds invested by Zhenhai Shipyard in the early stage. The meaning is included——Anyway, the Admiralty is not short of money now, and it is happy to be a boy who spreads money and makes good fortune everywhere.

In addition, the Ministry of the Navy also ordered the construction of 2 sail escort gunboats at the Dayuhe Naval Shipyard, and ordered 8 inland river shallow water gunboats and a medical ship at the Modern Special Shipyard. More than 10 yuan; the remaining more than [-] yuan, Navy Commander Lu Ming plans to build a coastal defense fort in Jingjiang Port and Yancheng Port, and then repair the building of the Ministry of the Navy, that's about it.

In addition to the proceeds from these auctions of ships and goods, the navy has actually seized a large amount of foreign gold and silver coins in the past three years, equivalent to more than [-] yuan in East Coast silver dollars, but the money has not yet been used.Because the number of them is too large, and they are superfluous out of thin air (actually no different from mining gold mines), once they enter the market, they will definitely cause serious interference to the real economy on the east coast, which is currently developing in a healthy and orderly manner, so we can only temporarily It was first transported to the Shipu Mint in the Wujiang area (the newly opened mint near the Shipu Reservoir, using the local abundant water resources) to be melted into silver dollars on the east bank, and sealed in the vault of the Northwest Reclamation Bank.As for the share that the soldiers should get, they can only wait two years later. After two years, they will use the certificate of deposit issued this time to the Northwest Reclamation Bank to receive the bonus with principal and interest.

However, in a short time, the Navy may no longer be able to continue doing such good things.One is because although they have moved to the Caribbean Sea, the southeastern coast of North America, the Gulf of Guinea, the coast of Brazil, and the coast of South Africa in the past three years, their frequent privateering activities still attracted the attention of European countries. The [-] or [-] ships are real. The Europeans have long suspected that this matter is related to the people on the east coast, but there is no real evidence so far.

Second, after several years of hard work and development, the East Coast people have cultivated a large number of Spanish compradors in the Viceroyalty of Peru. These people made a fortune through smuggling trade with the East Coast, and their power and influence in Peru are also growing. The stronger it is—correspondingly, the share of goods on the east coast is also increasing—at this time, it is difficult for foreign goods to shake the dominant position of people on the east coast here, unless they supply goods that cannot be produced on the east coast .Under such circumstances, it seems no longer necessary to crack down on smuggling ships from European countries to Peru in the short term.

The third and most important factor is that the executive committee may need to use the navy next, so they managed to recall the ships of the First Fleet wandering in the open sea in batches.As for where to use them, the Executive Committee has already made it very clear to the Ministry of the Navy: Brazil.

Because now things are getting a little tricky!In order to express their dissatisfaction, the Brazilian colonial authorities blatantly used the big stick of economic sanctions and cut off the trade between East and Portugal, which made the people on the east coast feel a little uncomfortable.Not to mention cane sugar, tropical fruits, candied dried fruits, feathers, cocoa, coffee, tobacco, and small commodities including silver and copperware, embroidery needles, fishhooks, buttons, candlesticks, etc., which are closely related to people's daily life, the east coast imports from The cut-off of Brazil's two largest commodities, cotton and ship materials, still made the members of the Executive Committee seem particularly upset.

Ship materials are easy to solve. There is also Brazilian sumac in Central America in Spain (but the quantity is far less than that in Brazil). It should not be a problem to buy some through the compradors in Peru. It’s just a matter of spending more money, but cotton is a bit difficult to deal with. up!

As we all know, many countries in Europe have begun to develop cotton textile industry, such as the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, France, Venice, Sweden, Spain (mainly concentrated in the Southern Netherlands) and so on.Among these countries, the Netherlands, Britain, and France should be the largest, and they are also supported by the official system. For example, Leiden, the "textile city" in the Netherlands, has also built some cotton textile factories in addition to wool textiles, such as Manchester, England. Cotton linen, silk linen, and silk-cotton blended industrial area—the cotton cloth produced in this industrial area even competed fiercely with the Indian cotton cloth sold by the British East India Company, such as the privately funded and government-supported cotton textile factory in Paris, France, etc. .

The rise of the cotton textile industry in Western Europe has greatly reduced the source of raw materials for people on the east coast.For example, the Florida cotton market, which used to be exclusively enjoyed by people on the east coast, is now gradually being squeezed in by some European businessmen; for example, some cotton plantations on the Caribbean islands are exporting less and less cotton to the east coast.

All of this has made the East Bank start to import Brazilian cotton vigorously in recent years-and Brazil's cotton plantations have also achieved rapid development in recent years, and Brazil's population has also increased a lot compared with the same period in history-to make up for the natural Insufficient quality and quantity of cotton produced.

It is not that no one in the east coast is worried about this situation. Therefore, when someone discovered a large area of ​​land suitable for growing cotton in the western coastal basin of Xinhua Island a few years ago, the east coast government also made great efforts to develop it in accordance with public opinion. In order to gradually reduce the import demand for foreign cotton and increase the self-sufficiency rate of cotton, an important industrial raw material.It's a pity that the current time is still short. Due to the shortage of manpower and the attacks of the natives of the Manabo Kingdom, the cotton plantations in the Mian River Basin are still very limited in cotton production, and the east bank still has to import foreign cotton vigorously.

But now the Portuguese have begun to sanction us, and they have completely interrupted the trade between the two countries, which is unreasonable!We will never accept the hegemonic behavior of the Portuguese that violates the principle of free trade!At this time, the navy, as the most powerful tool to reflect the will of the country, must be ready to play at any time.After all, most of the time you can't convince others by relying on words. You have to use appropriate methods to put pressure on people at the right time, so that you may get better results.

Of course, as a "rogue country" east bank republic that has always practiced double standards, they couldn't see how they blatantly ignored the interests of the Brazilian colonial authorities and colluded with the Dutch West India Company in the first place. They only saw the Portuguese It's really abominable, to impose economic sanctions, this is absolutely forced to fake punishment!If the Portuguese want to blame, they blame themselves for being too weak, and they are caught in a protracted war with Spain and the Netherlands. At this time, your demands and interests will naturally be selectively ignored by many people.This has nothing to do with justice, but strength dictates it!

And it is foreseeable that if the Portuguese do not quickly get rid of the quagmire of war, vigorously reform domestic political, economic and religious policies, and encourage the development of industry and commerce to improve national strength, similar face-slapping behaviors will be staged one after another. Get out, there is no third way to go.After all, on the east coast today, with Mo San sending back a series of first-hand information about the Anglo-Dutch war, more and more people in the executive committee are inclined to unite the Netherlands to control the British.In such a way of thinking, it is not surprising that Portugal is destined to become a bargaining chip in transactions between major powers.

Don't you see that in Europe, Portugal is now just a poor bargaining chip.The country has been locked in a protracted war with the Kingdom of Spain since its uprising against the Kingdom of Spain in 1637 (eventually becoming independent in 1640).The Portuguese naively thought that if they were at war with the Habsburg royal family group headed by Spain, they would definitely be able to join the anti-Habsburg group headed by France naturally, but the reality is that the Portuguese were greatly beaten in the face up!Because Britain, the Netherlands, France and other countries agree that Portugal's strength is insignificant and cannot add much chips to the victory of the war, but they have too much wealth that is not commensurate with their status, so it may be more cost-effective to treat the Portuguese as an enemy Some, so the Portuguese were in tragedy.

This fact once again proves to people what it means to be weak without diplomacy, especially when facing a gang of robbers, your weakness and wealth are the original sins. This is an undeniable truth in the world!

On April 1653, 4, a large number of warships on the east coast sailed into the Zhenhai Port Naval Base after replenishment, waiting for further instructions from the executive committee and the military department.

(End of this chapter)