1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 3980

Nine days later, the fleet successfully arrived at Hamban Port at the southern tip of Ceylon.

Even before the ships docked, Chen Pingliao could clearly see that the number of ships in Hamban Port was indeed much less than that in Phuket Port.

As Li Yuande said, once you cross the Strait of Malacca and enter the Indian Ocean, the scale of shipping decreases significantly. In particular, the Bay of Bengal, east of the Indian peninsula, although two-thirds the size of the South China Sea, has almost no decent large ports along its coastline, and is not at all on the same level as the maritime trade in the South China Sea.

Chittagong, the only decent port, is now under the control of Portuguese mercenaries and Burmese pirates, and the Rakhine Dynasty to which it is loyal is in constant conflict with the neighboring Mughal Empire, making Chittagong one of the targets of contention between the two sides.

Chittagong is located at the northernmost tip of the Bay of Bengal, quite far from Phuket and Hamban. The three ports almost form an equilateral triangle, so a trip to Chittagong would more than double the journey time, exceeding Li Yuande's plan.

Therefore, after departing from Phuket, Li Yuande's fleet sailed directly to Ceylon and did not head north into the Bay of Bengal to avoid being drawn into the conflict between the two countries.

However, Li Yuande believes that the commercial potential along the Bay of Bengal is still great. After all, this sea area is vast, and there are several relatively large countries along the bay. In terms of population and productivity, they should be more powerful than the small countries on the Malay Peninsula. However, due to limitations in navigation, the scale of maritime trade has not developed to its full potential.

"Currently, there are not many people living in Hamban Port, and the available labor force is limited, so the port is not as big as Phuket. At present, it is mainly used as a transshipment port for goods. After all, if this stop is not available, our ships will have to stop at Portuguese or Dutch ports to resupply during their crossing of the Indian Ocean."

After listening to Li Yuande's explanation, Chen Pingliao asked curiously, "Can't we hire local natives as laborers like we do in Phuket?"

Li Yuande shook his head with a wry smile and said, "Most of the natives on Ceylon Island, including the people of the Mughal Empire next door, are uneducated. They can't be taught many things and are unwilling to listen to the commands of us foreigners. They are far inferior to the natives of Malacca."

Li Yuande's words were actually quite subtle. The level of civilization in many areas of the Indian subcontinent was still relatively primitive, with fragmented languages ​​and scripts, making communication between different tribes difficult, let alone for outsiders like Haihan.

The Portuguese and Dutch also spent a considerable amount of time here, gradually training some native servants and armed forces. The special forces division has only been stationed in Ceylon for a little over two years, and progress in this area has indeed been limited. Local development mainly relies on immigrants relocated from the mainland.

Fortunately, the gem mines on Ceylon Island can generate considerable profits, so the construction funds are relatively plentiful.

Of course, there's no doubt that Frye Financial Holdings had a stake in all the infrastructure projects funded by the profits from the gem trade, including ports, docks, and resettlement sites. Even the military camps were funded by Frye Financial Holdings during their construction.

Therefore, the largest landowner in Hamban Port at present is the Furi Fung Trading Company, for which Li Yuande works. Newcomers wanting to purchase land in Hamban Port either have to buy from Furi Fung or develop new areas on the outskirts of the port. When the immigrants were unloaded at Hamban Port and their settlement arrangements were announced, there was no further chaos like in Phuket; the immigrants were all terrified. After all, those troublemakers who had been arrested also disembarked here, and right in front of the immigrants, they were escorted to the gem mines in the inland mountains.

After disembarking, Chen Pingliao quickly noticed some shops run by the Portuguese in the port area, and joked with Li Yuande, "Looks like you guys get along well with the Portuguese, you've even opened shops here!"

Li Yuande explained, "Since the special forces division landed on the island, we have monopolized most of the gem trade in Ceylon. Since we can't buy gems in Colombo, Portuguese merchants can only import from us now. Of course, it's not good to only export and not import, so we let the Portuguese open a shop here to sell some Western goods. Of course, they still have to pay the taxes they are required to pay."

"The Dutch also wanted to open shops in Hamban Port, but considering their tense relationship with the Portuguese, it would be troublesome if they fought under our noses. So for the time being, we haven't let the Dutch in, and only allow their merchant ships to dock in the port."

Having read the battle report about the Battle of Colombo earlier, Chen Pingliao asked, "If we monopolize the gem trade, wouldn't their capture of Colombo be less significant?"

Li Yuande nodded and said, "It does have a significant impact, but even without the gem trade, the Portuguese still need the port of Colombo to block the Palk Strait on the west side of Ceylon. If the Dutch want to travel between the Arabian Sea and the northern Bay of Bengal and want to be 100% safe, they can no longer take the Palk Strait shortcut and will have to go around the east coast of Ceylon, which will take several more days at sea."

Chen Pingliao laughed and said, "This is just disgusting the Dutch!"

Li Yuande said, "That's why the Dutch have always wanted to remove Colombo. If it weren't for the intervention of the special forces division, they would have succeeded three years ago!"

However, the special operations division's intervention was merely aimed at securing this Portuguese stronghold and maintaining a delicate balance between Portugal and the Netherlands in the Indian Ocean region. This mutual restraint between the two European nations would save the special operations division's expansion plans a lot of trouble.

As arranged beforehand, the fleet unloaded over five hundred immigrants and more than twenty sons of salt merchants here. Sun Zhen also deployed a platoon of men here for security and defense purposes.

Most of the merchant ships that came from China stopped at Hamban Port because the journey across the Arabian Sea to Fubo Port was half again as long as the distance from Phuket to Hamban Port. However, the trade volume there was almost the same as that of Hamban Port, so it was not worthwhile for small businesses to travel such a long distance.

As for Zhenhai Port, which is even further away, even fewer merchant ships are willing to go there. Chen Pingliao found it hard to imagine how many domestic merchant ships would be willing to travel so far to do business in the future, given that the Suez region, which the special operations division had its eye on, is separated from Zhenhai Port by the Red Sea.

But then I thought, the Netherlands and Portugal are even further from the sea, yet these Europeans still crossed oceans to come to the East. As long as there are enough benefits, there should still be quite a few businessmen willing to follow the special forces division westward like Li Yuande.