1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 630 Competition and Threat

"This wine bottle is no worse than the one produced in Venice!" Brower couldn't help admiring while playing with the Sanya special wine bottle.

"Venice glassware has been unable to be sold in Daming in the past two years." Van Longen, who has a better understanding of the market, explained: "The glassware produced by Haihan is not inferior to Venice in terms of craftsmanship, and their production volume and shipping costs They all have great advantages, and they can beat Venice’s goods to death in terms of price. Not only us, but even the Spaniards and Portuguese have rarely sold glassware to Daming in the past two years.”

In terms of production technology, the production technology mastered by Venetian glass craftsmen in the 17th century is definitely incomparable with Haihan, which has accumulated 400 years of technology.Although there are no professional glass craftsmen in the time-traveling group, Haihan glass products have shown a production level no less than that of imported products in a short period of time, and the speed of increase in production capacity has kept pace with The growth rate of the labor force under Haihan's administration is also proportional, and the monthly supply volume has quickly increased from a three-digit level to a four-digit level.Coupled with the fact that the distance between Qiongzhou Island and the mainland is much closer than between Europe and the Far East, glassware produced in Europe cannot compete with Haihan products in terms of shipping costs.

The factors contributing to the popularity of Haihan glass products in the market are not limited to these. At least there are two reasons that Fan Longen is not particularly aware of. One is Haihan's product development and innovation capabilities, and the other is Haihan's unique business promotion methods.

Haihan has developed a unique method since the beginning of making glassware, and has developed a wide variety of glass stationery for Ming literati. Naturally, these practical glassware are more likely to be consumed than purely decorative glass ornaments. favor.And the various fancy promotional routines specially designed by the business department for this purpose are tricks that businessmen in this era can't think of even if they break their heads.In just two or three years, cultural circles in the southeastern provinces have become proud of using Haihan glass stationery.For the well-known Daming literati in these areas, it is normal that there is no glassware sold to Daming by the Frang machine at home, but if there is not even a piece of Haihan glass stationery, it is really a bit of a loss.

The consumption trend led by the cultural circle soon had an impact on all levels of society. The glassware produced by Haihan took away the market share that originally belonged to European products in a short period of time.The Portuguese didn't care about this, because after they established a business relationship with Haihan, they had already obtained more trade opportunities, and the benefits they could obtain were far better than trafficking glassware from Europe to Ming Dynasty.The pain is the pain of the Spaniards and the Dutch. For them, it is really missing a high-profit business, and it is impossible to take the market back from the hands of the Haihan people through technical means.

Of course, these Western colonists who couldn’t go deep into the territory of Ming Dynasty to trade like the Haihan people didn’t realize the real advantages of Haihan in a short period of time. In the market, the Haihan people have already consolidated their position and sales channels with more advanced technical means, and no longer leave them any opportunities to take advantage of.

After opening a bottle and tasting the wine produced in Haihan, all three Dutchmen gave it a very high evaluation.This is no wonder, after all, Sanya Special Brew is a finished product obtained by imitating the brewing method of rum, and in the time and space before time travel, rum was a very popular wine in Europe and the United States.

However, in this time and space, even the Dutch, who have traveled almost all over the world, have not tasted this kind of distilled wine made from sugarcane rhizomes.Although Columbus brought sugar cane to Cuba during his second voyage to America, and began the history of sugar cane planting in Cuba, the Europeans discovered that the local natives used sugar cane juice to make strong medicine, and were inspired to develop shochu , but already in the early 18th century.Cuba began to produce rum in a truly industrialized manner, but it had to wait until the mid-19th century when advanced technologies such as steam engines were introduced to the local area.

The rum imitated by Haihan is based on the authentic taste of Cuba.Of course, it is currently impossible for Haihan to produce wine that has been aged for more than seven years, or even as long as 20 years.The products are basically light-flavored wines made from sugarcane juice, and there are also a small amount of strong-flavored wines made from sugarcane syrup, such as the bottle of "Sanya Special Brew" in Brower's hand.

"This taste is not the same as the liquor produced by Daming. This kind of wine... is sweeter!" After drinking another glass, Brower gave his own comment: "It may be brewed with some kind of fruit."

"It's sugarcane, Mr. Brower. The Haihan people plant a large amount of sugarcane on Qiongzhou Island. According to the information we have obtained before, at least tens of thousands of people are managing a large-scale sugarcane plantation for them." Van Longen explained .Although it was also the first time for him to drink this kind of wine, he had heard many rumors about this kind of fruit wine before.

"The Haihan people planted so much sugar cane on Qiongzhou Island?" Spikes asked with some doubts: "Then their sugar production is also surprisingly high?"

Spikes' cousin is also a Dutch sea merchant. He owns several sugarcane plantations in the Caribbean on the other side of the world, and employs thousands of slave laborers. Therefore, Spikes generally knows the concept of the size of a large plantation. .A sugarcane plantation with tens of thousands of people working is at least the scale of planting that can only be owned by the union of more than ten manor owners in the Americas.The Haihan people have only settled in Qiongzhou for more than four years, and Spikes is a little suspicious of the information provided by Van Longen.

Fan Longen was silent for a moment before he said: "Actually, a white granulated sugar produced by Haihan is now in short supply in the Guangdong and Fujian markets. Those rich officials and businessmen will buy this kind of white sugar produced by Haihan, which has higher purity and sweetness. Cane sugar. I tasted this white granulated sugar when I was in Dayuangang, and I have to admit that they also have some unique places in the sugar making process.”

"Can't our plantations produce sugar of the same quality?" Spikes asked in disbelief.Although the Dutch have been running plantations in the tropics for as long as the pioneers in southern Europe, they have a history of decades anyway. Van Longen's statement is really shocking.

"About this issue, I also asked Dayuan's local plantation. It can be done, but it is very labor-intensive, and the cost will be nearly double the price of Haihan white sugar." Van Longen's His tone was also very depressing.

If the production cost is much higher than the sales price of others, then naturally no one will be stupid enough to spend money to produce such a product.In this way, there is no doubt that the income of sugar cane plantations under the name of the East India Company will also be affected accordingly.

"Then our sugar cane plantation in Dayuan can't continue to operate?" Brower thought of more things, and immediately asked.

"In fact, when I went to Dayuan half a year ago, the local sugarcane plantations had already begun to partially switch to planting other crops. The farmers all thought that the chances of competing with the Haihan people in this area were very small. According to some people from Daming Insiders said that the Haihan people have surpassed Ming Dynasty in terms of farming technology, and some immigrants even think that their farming method is a magical skill.” A sense of helplessness began to appear in Van Longen’s words: “Is it a magical skill? I don’t know, but after the Haihan people settled in Qiongzhou Island, they never heard of any disasters such as famine. They even recruited a large number of immigrants from Guangdong to transport them to Qiongzhou Island by providing food relief. It can be seen that their The food supply is very plentiful."

"Where did this group of people come from?" For a competitor who seemed to be better than himself in every way, all Spikes could do now was to spit slobber in spite of defeat.

Mayor Jonker interjected cautiously: "I have heard some businessmen from Daming say that they come from the other side of the sea in the east, and they are thousands of miles away from Daming."

"It's just people who don't know the truth." Brower shook his head and said, "Those Ming merchants have only been to Batavia and Malacca at the farthest. As for the other side of the eastern sea, they have never been, but But we know what the situation is like there. There is no civilized country on that continent, and there is no Haihan country."

"But their origins are indeed a mystery." Van Longen took up the conversation and said, "I have asked many people before, but the information I can get is similar to what Mr. Jonker said. No one knows where they come from. The only thing that can be confirmed is that all the large iron ships they took when they arrived at Qiongzhou Island are still docked in Shengli Harbor, and that kind of iron ships are not what we can manufacture now."

"They have had a lot of trouble in Fujian in the past two years, maybe they will be the ones who will fight us head-on in the future, not the navy of Ming Dynasty." Brower said with a gloomy face.

What Brower didn't know was that the Haihan militia had already engaged in the first exchange of fire with the Dutch East India Company two months ago.However, Haihan's mental arithmetic and inadvertentness, coupled with the advantages of strength itself, won this confrontation, and the Dutch on the island of Annbuna could not escape even a single person, so that Batavia There was no sound from here.However, it has to be said that Brower's vigilance is commendable, and he has already detected the ambition of this emerging force to expand externally from Haihan's various behaviors.

"Yes, they provided military assistance to the Fujian government. They not only sold a large amount of weapons to the Fujian government, but also helped them train the army. This has made Zheng Zhilong's situation very embarrassing." Spikes said about the company's local plans I knew a little bit about it, and at this moment, when I was drunk, I chatted: "The governor intended to support Xu Xinsu, but this guy became less reliable after he joined Daming. Then he planned to support Zheng Zhilong, but this guy just didn't live up to it. After several years of fighting, they couldn’t beat Xu Xinsu. Now that the Haihan people have intervened, Zheng Zhilong’s army is struggling even more, and the range of sea lanes it controls is getting smaller and smaller.”

What Spikes didn't know was that the Haihan people had recently sent a fleet to Fujian to assist the local Ming army, or more precisely, with the assistance of the Ming army, conquered the key point of the Fujian waterway that had been controlled by Shibazhi. The location is Nanri Island.The change of hands of Nanri Island caused the loss to Shibazhi almost like a broken arm. Losing this place would hardly threaten the ships passing the nearby waterway to pay tolls, and the annual income generated by this The loss is at least in the number of 10 taels.For Shibazhi, which has been mired in the quagmire of war in recent years, it is a serious financial blow.

"However, our fighters have faced various opponents all over the world. I believe our strength must be higher than that of the Haihan people!" will lose to them!"

"For the honor of the company!"

"cheers!"

The three commanders were all a little drunk that night, so that the three prostitutes that Mayor Jonker kindly prepared for them were useless, and they had to send one silver coin each to send them home.However, Jonker will not be disappointed by this. In fact, he is not happy to receive these high-level figures from the company headquarters, because they are often very picky about the local reception work and living environment, and they will point fingers if they are dissatisfied. Feet, ask for this and that.Being able to pour these guys down and spend a quiet night is already a very ideal effect.

Of course, this has to exclude the five bottles of "Sanya Special Brew" they drank. The value of these five bottles of wine alone is almost equivalent to half a year's salary of Jonker.If he paid for it himself, he would definitely feel distressed to death. Fortunately, these wines are sponsored by one of the frequent customers here, Daming Sea Merchant Zhan Gui.Jonker had a very good impression of this Han man, because every time Zhan Gui came here with the boat, he would take time to eat and chat with Jonker. Appeared empty-handed.For example, Zhan Gui led a fleet to come here two months ago, and stayed on the island for half a month, and even handed over the business of going to Batavia to deal with.It was that time that Zhan Gui brought two boxes of "Sanya Special Brew" and gave them to Jonke as a gift.

In Jonker's eyes, Zhan Gui is a warm and generous Han Chinese, rich and generous, and does not seem to be threatening at all. It is really lucky to make such friends in a foreign country.But what he didn't know was that the purpose of Zhan Gui's staying on the island for so long last time was not that simple. He came here to carry out the mission with the order of the military and the Ministry of Security.

(End of this chapter)