1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 976 Going to Changhua Port

Of course, it doesn't seem fair to attribute these historical mistakes entirely to the misconduct of former Governor Cohen. Many more important things are waiting for adventurers to complete.The colonists of Portugal and Spain, who also came from Europe, were the most powerful competitors of the Netherlands in the Far East at that time.With the strength of the East India Company, it is true that there is no way to allocate some energy to establish a new opponent for itself.But who would have thought that Haihan would grow from nothing to become the most powerful armed force in the South China Sea in just a few years?This unreasonable situation is indeed difficult to make accurate predictions several years ago.

As for the bureaucrats in the Batavia Council, most of them are just the interest agents sent by the major shareholders in Europe to the Far East. What they pursue is purely economic benefits, and they are not willing to accept combat operations. For the required military expenditure, even if they are fighting against Portugal, Spain, and Ming Dynasty, they first consider whether they will obtain direct benefits after the war, rather than the long-term impact of the war result.For these people, it is best not to do such a thankless thing as fighting Haihan. It is more cost-effective to save military expenses and buy hundreds of tons of raw silk.

Van Diemen naturally had some personal ambitions that he wanted to realize after succeeding to the post of governor, but Batavia's post-war reconstruction project greatly slowed down his development plan for the East India Company, and most of the funds and Resources can only be allocated to Batavia first, otherwise the foundation of the East India Company's rule in the Far East will be somewhat unstable.However, the speed of Haihan's development and expansion during this period can only be described as rapid growth. When the Dutch hadn't recovered from the last battle with the Matalan Kingdom, they found that Haihan was silent. Without making a sound, he extended his tentacles to the door of his house.Although Van Diemen doesn't like Haihan, he is a very pragmatic person. After he knew that he could not defeat Haihan by force, he chose to compromise with humiliation, hoping to buy time for the East India Company to recover. , adjust the direction of development, and then seek opportunities to compete with Haihan.

The Haihan people were willing to arrange such an inspection trip around the island for Van Diemen. To be honest, he was very surprised. After all, it was equivalent to exposing their own strength to the East India Company, a competitor.Van Diemen knew that the value of the information he had gained during this trip was incalculable. If he only relied on the intelligence agency under the East India Company, it would not necessarily be able to achieve the same effect in ten years.Van Diemen hopes to use this expedition to gauge Haihan's strength more accurately, and to find out their possible weaknesses in politics, military, economy, and people's livelihood, so that they can take advantage of them when they launch counterattacks in the future.

However, after Fan Dimen visited Yacheng and Yinggehai, he found that the weakness of the East India Company compared with Haihan was not only in the military, but a frustrating backwardness in all aspects.In comparison, Haihan's soft power in social management, organization of production, transportation and sales seems to be more difficult to catch up than its advantages in the military field.In time, Van Diemen is confident that he can retrain an army with a tough fighting style, but he is not sure that the East India Company's business system will reach Haihan's level of operation.

"Mr. Van Diemen, if the East India Company is interested, we can consider finding a suitable seashore on Java Island to build a Haihan-style salt field, and introduce high-quality and cheap table salt to the local market. Based on your company's local commercial distribution It shouldn’t be difficult to profit from it.” Anxi’s words made Van Diemen come back from his contemplation, but he didn’t expect that the other party would bring up this matter on his own initiative, and even planned to bring the East India Company into the group. .

For a while, Fan Diemen couldn't figure out whether this kind of cooperation would be a big disadvantage or a big benefit to the East India Company, but his fear of Haihan made him unable to agree to Anxi's invitation immediately.Haihan people are well known for their business acumen, but Van Diemen is not sure what kind of secret tricks are hidden behind the attractive trading conditions.After opening this hole, Haihan products are likely to flood into the Nanyang market that originally belonged to the East India Company like a scourge. At that time, the Batavian authorities may not be able to come up with any effective measures to stabilize the market.

"Mr. Anxi's proposal is good, but I can't make a decision here immediately. For such an important trade agreement, the company's board of directors needs to discuss and vote on the process. When I go back, I will let the board of directors study this proposal carefully. Let's see if we can find a cooperation method that makes both of us feel reasonable." Fan Diemen's words were very tactful, and he was noncommittal about the feasibility of this business, but he had a good sense of proportion.

Anxi spread his hands in a little disappointment and said: "Okay, we will wait for your reply. But I must remind you that there are quite a few people who want to be our agents in Nanyang. If the East India Company gives up this opportunity, it is really a miss." It’s a great business opportunity.”

Fan Dimen thought whether this is a business opportunity or a crisis. It is really hard to say. Haihan’s initial business activities in places like Guangdong, Guangxi and Annan started with the salt industry. But it almost controls most of the local import and export trade, earning much more income than selling salt.Nanyang's business form is far more primitive than that of Ming Dynasty, and it is also less resistant to Haihan's endless business methods. Once Haihan enters this market, it is estimated that the difficulty of obtaining control is much lower than in previous regions.

If Haihan finds other people to cooperate and enter Nanyang, Fan Dimen is not too afraid. The East India Company has been operating in Nanyang for more than ten years, and the distribution channels are far from comparable to other companies. Even Haihan people are very clear about this.It would take several times more effort to do the same thing in other companies, so Anxi tried to persuade Fan Diemen to join the great business of selling Haihan salt.

During his visit to the saltworks, Van Diemen noticed that ships were constantly entering and leaving Yinggehai Harbor, and there was a mountain of salt piled up on the loading dock.Although it is not clear where the next stop of these salt ships will be, judging from the frequency of ships entering and leaving the port, the business here is indeed quite good.Anxi boasted that the salt here could supply the needs of Guangdong, Guangxi and northern Annan, but it didn't seem like he was bragging.

Anxi's inspection work actually ended before the arrival of Ning Qi and Van Diemen, but in order to brainwash the Dutch, Anxi stayed here and acted as a tour guide at the Yinggehai Salt Works for a day.Although Van Diemen was not persuaded in the end, Anxi at least convinced him of one thing - in the entire Far East, Haihan is second to none in terms of salt production capacity, and the adjustment of the production capacity of its salt farms will even affect the production capacity of other countries. Salt prices fluctuate.

However, Fan Dimen's mind is not on the salt business. Haihan has used advanced equipment such as steam engines to improve production efficiency in various production sites, which is what he cares most about.Although the Haihan people said that the production capacity of the steam engine is seriously insufficient and cannot be exported, Van Diemen believes that this is just an excuse to paralyze himself. The gap in productivity between the two sides is bound to be further widened due to the promotion and application of this kind of machinery. .Compared with this unstoppable trend, Haihan's attempt to use salt to open up the Nanyang market is not so urgent.

Fan Dimen’s inspection trip in Yinggehai only lasted half a day and ended. The production mode of Haihan Salt Field cannot be copied, even it is very difficult to imitate. The inspection at this stop not only confirmed Haihan’s terrible salt production capacity Besides, there seems to be nothing else to gain.

After bidding farewell to Anxi and leaving the Yinggehai Saltworks, Fan Dimen continued to go northward along the coastline on the "Flying Speed" sailboat. His next inspection site was Changhua, a major industrial base on the west coast of Hainan Island.

The construction project of Changhua Shilu began in June 1629, and the land passage connecting the two places was completed in November 1630. The Shilu Mine was officially put into operation in 11, and the large-scale smelting plant in Changhua was gradually put into use in the same year. middle.The ore extracted from the Shilu Mine was transported to Changhua by special freight railway, and then smelted locally.There are more than 1631 employees in the two local industries of mining and smelting alone, and the scale is definitely second to none in the Far East.

Fan Dimen also knew through information that Changhua was the main place for Haihan people to produce steel, but he lacked a deeper understanding of the level of Haihan people's smelting technology and production capacity.And this time, with the opportunity to visit here in person, Fan Dimen can finally witness the hard power of Haihan people in industry.

When it was more than 20 nautical miles away from Changhua Port, Fan Dimen could already see black smoke rising from the northeast coast.It goes without saying that this is probably the smoke released from the chimneys of the local blast furnaces for smelting steel.

The fishing village of Changhua, which used to have only a few dozen households, has long since disappeared, replaced by a freight wharf stretching for several miles at the mouth of the Changjiang River.When Van Diemen came here, he thought that this was not a commercial port, and there should not be many ships coming and going, but after arriving here, he realized that his idea was completely wrong. There were at least three large and small coal ships docked on the pier. As many as forty ships.Moreover, there are quite a few merchant ships loading and unloading cargo here, which made Fan Dimen's eyes straight.

These coal ships basically come from Annan Black Soil Port, transporting the coal needed for smelting from the local area to Changhua for unloading, and then loading some goods back to Annan.Therefore, these coal carriers that travel to and from the Beibu Gulf all year round not only transport coal, but also carry part of the task of transshipment of other goods. Since these ships are almost empty when they return, they earn a little by loading a little, so the freight is also low. Relatively cheaper.So in this way, many goods that need to be sent from Sanya and other places to the north of Annan will be transported to Changhua Port for transshipment, and the freight will save a lot compared to transporting them to Annan by themselves.The freight terminal, which was not originally involved in commercial and trade functions, has gradually become a transshipment center on the west coast of Hainan Island in actual operation.

And the cargo ships that come here are not only loaded with goods that need to be transshipped to Annan. Changhua and Shilu have a permanent population of more than 2, and the largest local output is only ore and steel. So many people eat Clothing and housing almost all depend on external supply, and the amount of food shipped here is as many as hundreds of tons every month, and the transportation capacity required for various living materials is by no means a small amount.

"We have several specialized fleets that are responsible for transporting daily necessities here every month." Ning Qi explained to Fan Dimen: "The cargo ships you see actually carry nearly half of the cargo to the local area. , and the rest is the part that is transshipped to Annan through Changhua Port."

Due to the relatively large volume of cargo transshipment, the wharf of Changhua Port is obviously much busier than the Yacheng and Yinggehai that Fan Dimen visited before, and the number of dock workers is more than the previous two places combined.Although it is not as good as Shengli Port and Sanya Port, it is already quite prosperous as a non-trade port.

Qiao Zhiya, the director of Changhua District, came to receive Ningqi and his party on the pier. He has stayed here for several years without moving his nest, and he has not even participated in various military operations in the past two years. He has basically given up. The military post was devoted to politics.

After a long distance, Qiao Zhiya took the initiative to say hello: "Mr. Ning, you are a rare visitor, you rarely come to our place! How have you been?"

"It's pretty good. Look at your body and you're quite handsome, old Qiao!" Ning Qi laughed and shook hands with Qiao Zhiya tightly, and then introduced Fan Dimen to him.

The itinerary arranged by the executive committee for Van Diemen had already been notified by telegram to all places in advance, so Qiao Zhiya was not surprised by the arrival of the Dutchman, and stepped forward to greet him.Qiao Zhiya was originally an ABC born in North America. Seeing Van Diemen's European face, he naturally used English, and there was no communication barrier.Fan Dimen was very surprised. Among the Haihan people he came into contact with, there were quite a few who could speak English fluently, and their proficiency was far higher than that of the Orientals he had come into contact with in the Far East. Could it be that these people came here Before going to the Far East, did you live in Europe for a long time?
"Staying in this place, home, cafeteria, and work are all three points and one line every day. It's not like I used to go out to the sea for activities, and it's inevitable to gain weight!" Qiao Zhiya and Fan Dimen greeted each other, and then responded to what Ning Qi said just now if.His current work content does not have as much exercise as before in the army, and he is pampered every day, so naturally the weight has gone up.

Ning Qi said with a smile: "I heard that life in Changhua is very difficult, and there is nothing delicious, but seeing you like this... the rumors are not true!"

Qiao Zhiya smiled and said, "Whether it's true or not, you'll know after the banquet...Mr. Fan Dimen, why is your complexion a bit unwell? Are you feeling unwell?"

Ning Qi smiled and said: "No, he just has some allergic symptoms...allergic to Jiefengyan."

(End of this chapter)