1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 759 The Dutch Messenger

"Qian Tiandun is really fast!" Tao Donglai couldn't help expressing emotion when he received the telegram report from Penghu.He looked up at Yan Chujie, who personally sent the telegram, and said, "So the Military Commission intends to approve his proposal and take Taiwan Island as the next occupation target?"

"Old Tao, you should be very clear about how much the establishment of a colony on Taiwan Island will affect our future development. Some people are only looking at the refugees in the Jiaodong Peninsula and want to open up a new base in the northern seas as soon as possible, but How much does Penghu produce? Can it supply the material needs of the new base? Most of the consumption has to be transported from Hainan Island, which is time-consuming, laborious and costly. In comparison, of course, it is more cost-effective to develop Taiwan first, and by the way Live on the main shipping route leading to Northeast Asia, kill two birds with one stone!" Yan Chujie spared no effort to persuade: "Except for iron ore, everything that can be produced in Hainan Island is basically available in Taiwan. Is it Hainan Island? It will be much easier than now, right? "

"I know the truth, but the shortage of labor force in Hainan Island is also obvious. You should also understand this situation. The development of Taiwan may not have much resistance from the outside world. Qian Tiandun personally led the team to the island this time. The executive committee proves this. But the amount of manpower, material and financial resources we will invest in the initial stage will not be small, and it is likely to affect the development process of Hainan Island." Tao Donglai explained in a deep voice: "The executive committee needs to consider What matters is not only the development layout in the north, but also the local development of Hainan Island, after all, the development of Hainan is still the top priority."

It has been five years since the traversers came to this time and space. Although there were some bumps and bumps at the beginning, generally speaking, the development is relatively smooth.After actually taking control of Hainan Island, the Haihan regime is entering a period of rapid development, and the main bottleneck restricting Haihan's development is the population problem that has not been completely resolved.

Compared with the Western colonists of the same era, the speed at which Haihan introduced immigrants from neighboring countries was not uncommon, but it still could not keep up with the speed at which Haihan expanded its territory.At present, in the northeastern part of Hainan Island alone, there are millions of acres of undeveloped cultivated land waiting for the Ministry of Agriculture to turn them into plantations for various cash crops, and plantations themselves are labor-intensive industries. It will be difficult to implement the large-scale development plan formulated by the Ministry of Agriculture in a short period of time if tens of thousands of immigrants are brought to the island.

In Haihan's current trade system, the income from cash crops still accounts for a non-negligible part of Haihan's trade income. It has always maintained a relatively neutral attitude, because everyone is uncertain what the future will look like in the next few years if Taiwan is developed first.It is still difficult to determine whether the development of Taiwan helped Haihan to take off, or whether it slowed down the development progress of Haihan's base camp and affected Haihan's overall development strategy.

When Qian Tiandun sent this telegram back to Sanya, he actually didn't expect to receive an immediate reply from the headquarters.Although he is away all year round, he also knows that there is still a big debate in the base camp about whether the Penghu base will expand its control area to the east or north in the future.Some people in the base camp are worried about the prospect of developing Taiwan, but Qian Tiandun knows that there are other forces that are more reluctant to see Haihan set foot on Taiwan Island.

On November 1632, 11, a Dutch merchant ship sailed into Magong Port, Penghu under the guidance of Haihan patrol boat.After undergoing detailed registration and inspection at the pier, the Dutch captain Philip finally set foot on the land of Penghu.

Philip came to the Far East ten years ago, and Penghu used to be a regular stop on his voyage between Southeast Asia and Northeast Asia.However, the current Magong Port is completely different from what he remembered when it was still the territory of the East India Company. The Haihan people's ability in engineering construction has been fully demonstrated.The ground of the entire terminal has been refurbished and leveled, and there are tall hangers near the berths. The dock workers are loading and unloading goods with extremely high efficiency, far faster than the previous loading and unloading method that only relied on shoulders and hands.The flat-bottomed vehicles transporting goods on the wharf are all running on the laid track, which looks very orderly.

All the original wooden shed warehouses on the pier were demolished and replaced by more solid and reliable masonry warehouses.Philip didn't dare to imagine how much money it would cost to transport so many bricks and stones from the mainland, and this seemed to reflect from the side that Haihan attached great importance to Penghu.Of course, Philip didn't know that Haihan had built two brick-making workshops on the island after capturing Penghu. Although the production capacity was not too high, it was basically able to meet the needs of local infrastructure projects.

In addition, Philip also noticed that Haihan militia soldiers in gray clothes can be seen everywhere on the pier. If it weren't for the past confrontation records, Philip would really find it hard to believe these thin, dark-skinned Haihan soldiers Being able to defeat the invincible East India Company made Batavia acquiesce in the Haihan people's enclosure of land in the Fujian Strait and Southeast Asia.However, Philip still firmly believes that the East India Company will one day reverse its decline and regain these lost lands from the Haihan people-of course, the East India Company must first recover from the destructive consequences of the Batavia War.

Although the battle in Batavia has ended for more than two months, its impact is far from over.Due to the loss of this important trade transfer station, the Dutch trade in Northeast Asia has also been greatly affected. At present, [-]% of the goods in Dayuan Port have become zero inventory due to the cut-off of Batavia, and merchants have almost no Any available goods can be shipped to Ryukyu, Japan and the Korean peninsula for sale.

A truly thoughtful maritime merchant would naturally foresee the crisis that this situation would bring, because the Spaniards, Portuguese, and even Ming people would take advantage of this window of time to erode the market share that originally belonged to the East India Company.But now Shibazhi, the sole agent of the Dutch in Daming, has become a lost dog and fled the sea area of ​​Fujian. Based on this strategy, it started a pure shipping industry between several countries in Northeast Asia.There are even sea merchants who have changed their minds and temporarily diverted their sailing boats to become fishing boats.

Philip is also one of the many Dutch maritime merchants who are lost and desperate. He does not want to engage in the cheap and hard fishing industry, and he does not want to waste time doing shipping with meager profits. If he can choose, Philip still hopes to continue to engage in low-cost buying. High selling East-West trade.Of course, the premise is that there must be products that can be sold in hand.

In the current environment, Philip thought about where to find the source of goods. After ruling out all possibilities, he finally chose a seemingly unlikely target.

In the perception of the Dutch, the Haihan people have a lot of commercial resources in their hands. Not only can they manufacture various commodities, but they also control most of the sea trade resources in Annan and the southeast of Ming Dynasty. If they can get the permission of the Haihan people , Entering the Haihan Port Trading Area to purchase goods, there is great hope that the maritime trade business can be restarted.However, it may not be easy to obtain a trading license from the Haihan people, because it has only been a year since the last time the two sides fought on the battlefield. No matter which side it is, it is not easy to let go of the psychological burden now.

However, Philip accidentally heard the news recently that Batavia's colleagues have actually been quietly doing business with the Haihan people, and the main content of the transaction is the slave population.Merchants organize the supply of goods in the Batavia slave market, send them in batches to the Ambuna Islands that have been occupied by Haihan, and then use barter to exchange them for the popular slaves in the Batavia market. Haihan goods.While the two sides have not made the trade relationship public, it is said to have been going on for months, and the company's board of directors has turned a blind eye to the situation -- likely because some high-ranking figure has an interest in it himself.

Although this news came a bit late, it still gave Philip a lot of inspiration.Since Batavia's colleagues can secretly do business with the Haihan people, why should I have any scruples?Philip made up his mind and commanded his boat to head straight to Penghu, hoping to have direct contact with the Haihan people to see if there was any opportunity to operate.

After Philip explained his purpose to the staff on the pier, he was quickly invited to the port center, where he met the local business affairs manager, a man who looked extremely young.From his skin color, clothing, and demeanor, Philip could tell almost instantly that this was a "real" Haihan, not the so-called Haihan naturalized people who originally belonged to Daming, Annan and other countries.

"I'm Li Dou, the person in charge of Haihan Commerce Department in Penghu. I heard that you have business and want to talk to me, Mr. Philip." After Li Dou invited Philip to take a seat, he took the initiative to introduce himself.

The translator standing behind Li Dou immediately translated it into a language that Philip could understand. Philip also knew this translator. He used to work for the East India Company in Dayuan Port. It seems that Haihan made a lot of money. price, and dug it over.

"It's a great honor to meet you, Mr. Li Dou." Philip was not affected by this small detail, and immediately cheered up and began to introduce his reason for coming to Li Dou. "I have been engaged in maritime trade in the Far East for many years, and I am willing to serve the respected Lord Haihan! If the adults can give me a chance, I will sell Haihan products to Japan and North Korea. I believe they will definitely sell there. Good price."

Li Dou held back his smile and said: "Mr. Philip, you probably forgot that we only signed an armistice agreement last year, but we didn't sign any form of cooperation agreement, and trade is naturally not included. You come to us for business, Mr. Does Hans of Port know? Does Batavia know?"

Philip responded: "Although Chief Hans may not publicly support this approach, he will never object... As for Batavia, I think the slave trade in Nanyang is no secret, right?"

When Li Dou rolled his eyes, he understood the information contained in Philip's words: "There is no trade in Dayuan Port recently, right? So you plan to follow Batavia's example and sell slaves to us? "

"Unfortunately, I don't have any slaves on hand to provide to you." Philip shook his head and corrected Li Dou's guess: "For example, the black slaves you bought in Nanyang in large quantities, the entire Dayuan Port not a lot."

"Then what are you going to trade with us?" Li Dou asked.

"How about the Japanese and Koreans?" Philip made an unexpected suggestion: "Exchange them for your products, and we can discuss the specific price later."

Li Dou frowned and said, "How do you plan to get people from these two countries?"

"Buy!" Seeing that Li Dou was still interested in asking, Philip immediately pulled himself together and explained to him: "Like Daming, many people in these two countries are degraded into slavery every year for various crimes. Just come down."

"You can buy it as a foreigner?" Although Li Dou didn't know much about the situation in Northeast Asia, he at least knew that Japan was in a state of trade blockade against Dutch merchants during this period, and the Dutch business houses in Japan were all sealed up. It may not be easy to buy slave populations from Japan.

Philip replied: "I have familiar officials in these two countries, they can operate on their behalf, and they don't need to do it themselves."

"This is a way." Li Dou rubbed his chin and pondered: "If you take the month as the unit, how many people do you think you can get with this method?"

"If the price is right, about [-] people per month should be able to guarantee the supply." Philip had already prepared a draft, and he replied immediately after Li Dou finished asking.

"A thousand people? Too few." Li Dou was not very satisfied with this number.If you need to pay a certain price to buy slaves from these two countries, it is better to spend more money to introduce Ming immigrants. After all, the northern refugees only want to have a bite to eat, and Haihan does not need to pay extra ransom money to anyone.If the method Philip mentioned is large enough to be considered, but if the small amount is too large and a waste of money, the Executive Committee will definitely not approve it.

Philip said: "Mr. Li Dou, although the quantity is not large, the quality can be guaranteed. I can choose the purchase target according to your requirements. For example, young women, craftsmen, strong laborers, and literate scholars Wait. I believe that even if there are similar transactions in other places, it will be difficult to provide such meticulous and thoughtful services.”

(End of this chapter)