Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 966 Crisis and Mediation ([-])

In April 1653, when the east coast ushered in the busy autumn harvest work, two or three east coast warships forming a formation together were often seen along the coast of Brazil from San Vicente to General Pernambuco.Occasionally there are some merchant ships full of cargo, which are the east coast ships that provide supplies for the Dutch Brazil. When they return, they can often bring back some commodities such as sugar, timber, and dried fruits.In this way, under the resentful and unwilling eyes of the Portuguese, the people on the east bank blatantly interfered in the armed conflict at their doorstep.

It feels so good to bully the weak!Even Gaomo, who is known as a "calcium deficiency symptom", has an obvious psychological advantage when facing Portugal, the most backward country in Western Europe, as the country's comprehensive strength continues to improve.Especially after reaching a temporary "understanding" with the other party and reopening trade between the two countries, this sense of superiority has reached its peak.

"Portugal, the last place in Western Europe to resist the Romans, the last country to be incorporated into the Visigoth Empire, the last country to adopt the Christian calendar, the last country to adopt the titles of nobility consistent with the rest of the world, was destined to be What history has eliminated." Gao Mo held the memorandum of understanding in his hand, and looked at Blanco, Vieira and others who turned and left, thinking with emotion in his heart.

At the moment, the Portuguese, who was leaving the San Vicente Commercial Station on the East Bank, was also discussing something in a dignified atmosphere.

"Events have taught us and told us that the most effective course of action now is for His Majesty Joao to pander to and adapt to this 'rogue state', tolerating their fraud, double-dealing and other nasties, because that will obviously prevent us from Falling into disaster." Blanco said with a complicated face, "You have also seen that the people on the east coast only left San Vicente for a short time before, and the trade in this place was greatly damaged. Unfavorable capital turnover has turned into poverty. In addition, the customs tax has also been reduced a lot. In short, the impact of trade severance on us is quite serious. After all, the east coast is a market with a population of 40, and the purchasing power of residents in this market is average. stronger."

"Your Majesty, it's time to change the focus of our strategy." Vieira snorted heavily and complained: "Our country only has a population of more than 100 million, but from the Cape of Good Hope to Japan in the Far East, within this vast area of ​​5000 leagues , we want to grab almost everything and let nothing out of our control. It's bad, really bad! We don't have the ability to calculate ourselves, we are blinded by huge profits, we are constantly The victories that came have dazzled my mind. In fact, with the national strength and population of our country, this kind of conquest cannot last forever. Now our overseas colonies are strongly challenged by the British, the Dutch, and sometimes even Some French pirates will also come to trouble us, but we can't do anything about it, because the territory we control is far beyond our ability."

"Your Majesty should turn all your energy to Brazil!" Felipe Camarao, who had been silent by the side, suddenly said.Kamarao is the chief of a medium-sized Indian tribe with Portuguese ancestry. His tribe has been "successfully domesticated" by the Portuguese from top to bottom, and he fights for the benefit of Portugal all day long.In the war with the Dutch for the northeastern part of Brazil, they were one of the backbones of the Portuguese army along with the black armed forces led by Enrique Dias. They made great contributions in several battles, so they successfully became part of Portuguese Brazil. A member of the ruling class.

"That's right, His Majesty Joao should do his best to build his 'Atlantic Empire' instead of an 'Indian Ocean Empire'!" Vieira rarely echoed Kamarao, a guy of inferior blood in his opinion, only Listen to him say: "In Asia, we should give up as much as we need, and then shrink all our forces to the coast of East Africa. If it is really impossible, the coast of East Africa should also be abandoned, so as to free up manpower, material resources, financial resources and military power. Guarantee our Atlantic Empire. In this huge colonial empire, we should build Brazil as the center, Luanda, Benguela and some other West African colonies as subordinates. This is not alarmist, in fact we are now working with the Netherlands, the East Coast, etc. Two rogue countries are neighbors, so our peace is in jeopardy, and these two countries have strong expansionist desires, and we have to be vigilant against this."

"Without Brazil, we would lose our precious sources of sugar, cotton, tobacco, cocoa, timber for our ships, and lovely dyes, and we would have nothing. Beyond that, by distance, we are in Efforts in Asia have always been difficult, costly, and outweighed. Rather than give up the damned Ceylon, East Indies, and the Malabar coast to the Dutch East India Company that is attacking us, we evacuate Just like the evacuation of Malacca, we don’t want it anymore, and give everything to the Netherlands! You know, the Netherlands has a population of less than 180 million. The larger the territory they occupy and the more routes they control, the more scattered their energy will be , the less you can compete with us in Brazil!"

Vieira's inadvertent complaints just expressed the essence of Portugal's future development thinking, which is to give up some areas beyond its reach, establish where its core interests are, and then carry out key operations.Of course, starting from the 17s, the nobles of the Kingdom of Portugal have done more thoroughly: they have been on the lap of the British, not only marrying the sister of King Alfonso VI to King Charles II of England, but also comprehensively The various privileges given to British businessmen in Portugal attracted a large number of British Protestant investments (later, the newly established Brazilian head office had a large amount of Protestant capital). One of the most important factors in preserving a large number of colonies well into the later 60th century.

To be honest, the Portuguese aristocrats are not without strategic vision. In fact, they have been making some changes over the years.For example, after the recovery of Portugal, the trade network that used to pass through Manila was suddenly broken, and the Portuguese had to independently undertake the reconstruction of the Eastern trade network.After several years of restorative development, a large number of Portuguese merchant ships from Asia have begun to berth in the Gulf of Salvador. These merchant ships have brought textiles, silk, porcelain, spices, gemstones and other commodities from Asia.

There was no market for these commodities in Brazil in the past, but in recent years, with the development of Brazil's economy and the increase of population, many luxury goods have also found a market.In addition, the large amount of Indian cotton textiles smuggled by the sailors of these merchant ships also formed a certain degree of competition with the east coast textiles, because many black and Indian slaves in Brazil wore this crude and cheap Indian textiles.

In addition, the Portuguese government has temporarily waived the requirement to allow ships from the colonies to sail directly to Lisbon—they previously required ships heading to the colonies to sail directly to Lisbon and not to stop at any port on the way, in order not to cause the country to lose customs revenue. , but now this law has existed in name only - ships bound for mainland China from colonies such as Macau, Goa, Sofala, Mozambique, Luanda, Benguela, and Brazil have been allowed to temporarily dock in Salvador Bay, Brazil.

This decree has not been implemented for a long time, but in fact it has promoted the prosperity of Brazil's economy. Many people of insight have seen signs of this from some small details.Vieira was one of them. Ships from Africa were loaded with ivory, leather, wood, jewelry, and black slaves that were considered important property in Portuguese Brazil. Ships from Asia were loaded with luxury goods and Indian textiles. The ships brought together were filled with specialties from all over Brazil, which undoubtedly promoted the overall prosperity of the Brazilian economy, which was undoubtedly a welcome sight for Vieira, a sugar tycoon family rooted in the local area.

In addition, the super-national treatment given to Britain also attracted quite a few British businessmen, which undoubtedly opened another channel for the sale of Brazilian sugar.All in all, Brazil is gradually embarking on a fast track of development as the Portuguese government changes its policy intentionally or unintentionally—perhaps at this stage, this policy change is still a bit slow (because changing a country’s national policy is not so simple Coupled with Portugal's backward system, it took them 20-30 years to make changes in history), but Brazil has undoubtedly seen the dawn of hope.

"Brazil is still very weak, and the people on the east coast are so strong, which makes us more cautious in dealing with such incidents. Look, the people on the east coast are so arrogant that they want to fill them with warships. This piece of sea water blocks our trade lines and makes us exhausted." Vieira turned his head and glanced at the gunboats on the east coast that were still slowly cruising on the sea outside the window, and said: "We can't let them do what they want, we It is very important to work hard to develop the Brazilian economy, move more people to Brazil, build our forts and forts, and build a fleet that can bring us security!"

"Go back and go to El Salvador to find Governor Silva. It's time for us to talk about the future of Brazil. This rich land must receive the greatest attention and investment from His Majesty the King, otherwise, it will be a shame like today It will still be repeated in the days to come, I am sure of that." Vieira concluded, "This time His Excellency was forced to reopen trade under the gunboats of the East Coasters, after this succumbing to the heathen thing It's best not to show up again."

Continue to recommend the colleague "Looking West: From China to the East Coast" written by book friend Lao Liang,

(End of this chapter)