1635 Han style rises again

Chapter 521 The Contradiction Of He Zheng

Batavia, Governor's Palace, 1644 June 10.

Batavia Navy Commander Colonel Dachman Barek and a group of colonial officials sat quietly in the meeting room of the Governor's Palace, waiting for the arrival of Governor Durin.Because he came in a hurry, he hadn't had time to inquire about the theme of the meeting, but seeing the serious expressions of the senior commercial counselor Mr. Fred Upton and several business representatives, he knew he didn't show up. asked loudly.It is estimated that the trade prospects of a certain business station or a certain market area of ​​the company are not very good, which makes them a little worried.

The transfer order from mainland Europe has already come down. Colonel Dachman Barek will step down as the commander of the Batavia Navy and return to the mainland of the Netherlands to enter the navy and serve as the commander of a certain fleet.For this, Colonel Barek was quite reluctant in his heart. Although he returned to serve in the Dutch local navy, he had a high probability of being promoted again after the meeting and became a general.However, he did not want to leave, because of the great wealth that could be obtained every year in the East Indies, with little danger and high status.

On the contrary, if you return to the mainland of the Netherlands and serve as the commander of a fleet, you may be at war with the Spanish navy, or you may fight against vicious pirates at sea while escorting Dutch merchant ships.But the remuneration received is far inferior to the wealth gained during his tenure in the East Indies.Alas, how can everything go as planned.

"Gentlemen, I'm very sorry for the delay because I had to talk to the representatives of the Kingdom of Johor." Governor Cornelis Van der Lin came to the conference room and nodded to the colonial officials present.

"Governor, gentlemen, the issue we are discussing now is how to deal with the endless greed of the Ming Dynasty official Nicholas (Zheng Zhilong's Christian name), which is increasingly damaging the commercial interests of our East India Company." Senior Business Counselor Fred Upton directly elicited the theme of the meeting after Governor During sat down, "From the perspective of business transaction records over the years, our East India Company started three years ago and ended last month for , Our entire company's trade volume with Japan has dropped by [-]%, and now it has reached the point where it is almost unsustainable."

As soon as this remark came out, the colonial officials present were in an uproar.Although they had a certain understanding of the sharp decline in trade with Japan, Fred Upton bluntly said that there was a [-]% decline, which still shocked everyone.

"Mr. Upton, are the trade volume data you mentioned true and accurate?" Governor Delin frowned and asked: "Although our trade volume with Japan is shrinking almost month by month, the current situation is really Has it reached the point where it is unsustainable? You know, five years ago, the Japanese market seemed to be able to provide the company with trade profits of nearly 80 to 100 million dong every year. Now, is it really bad?"

"Yes, Governor." Upton nodded and said, "We are already in the worst situation for Japanese trade. As of the end of August this year, our trade volume in the Japanese market was only 8 dong, and the profit was only 200,000 dong. Wan Dun, for our entire East India Company, has been reduced to a very small market, not even as good as our newly opened Annan market."

"Is it all because of Nicholas, an official of the Ming Dynasty?" Governor Delin asked in a deep voice.

"Yes." Upton nodded and said: "The current situation in the Japanese market is caused by the official Nicholas. He not only seriously damaged the trade terms we signed at the beginning, but also in the name of civil strife in Ming Dynasty, It is forbidden to provide raw silk, cotton cloth, porcelain, and other Ming products with us. On the contrary, he relied on his geographical advantages and identity as a Ming countryman to dump a large amount of Ming products to Japan, almost monopolizing the entire Japanese market. It is a pity Tell gentlemen that we may have lost the Japanese market, or rather, we have been squeezed out of the Japanese market."

In 1639, Japan's Edo Shogunate issued the strictest national order, except for the Ming Dynasty and the Dutch East India Company, all other countries and regions were not allowed to go to Japan to engage in foreign trade activities.After the promulgation of the Japanese Lock-Up Order, there were follow-up actions, such as prohibiting civilians from wearing silk fabrics, prohibiting luxury, closing silver mines, and reducing production, so as to cause the price of silver to rise and achieve the purpose of forcing foreign goods to reduce prices.

Japan's national lock-up order had a great impact on the Dutch trade ecology, because they relied on the Ming government's anti-women policy, and were able to use their strong shipping capabilities to seek the difference in trade prices between China and Japan to earn high profits.However, Zheng Zhilong took advantage of his special advantageous position of monopolizing the entire Daming sea area, as well as his relatively close geographical location, to quickly squeeze out the Dutch's trade share.

Three years ago, Zheng Zhilong even sent troops to attack two strongholds of the Dutch East India Company on Taiwan Island, causing the Dutch to lose their trade transit foothold near Daming.

Moreover, Zheng Zhilong has a good understanding of the overall trade situation. He has always adopted a wait-and-see attitude towards the wars in the interior, but he has made effective arrangements for the supply of silk products due to civil turmoil.In 1640, he brought more than 150 households of weavers from Guangdong and Macau to Anhai Street (Anhai Town, Jinjiang City, Quanzhou City, Fujian Province) to produce locally, so as to provide a sufficient supply of silk fabrics.

Because of the Japanese lock-up order, the Portuguese in Macau were severely hit. The once prosperous trade with Japan declined. We can only watch a group of outstanding weavers and businessmen being relocated to Quanzhou by Zheng Zhilong.Of course, Zheng Zhilong also compensated them, allowing the Portuguese to rent ships and personnel from the Zheng family, and go to Japan for sporadic trade activities in the name of Zheng Zhilong.

Although three years ago, the Dutch East India Company and Zheng Zhilong reached a settlement and signed a trade agreement, the two parties simply divided up the Japanese market.

However, the powerful Zheng Zhilong has never seriously abided by this trade agreement. In addition, to develop Taiwan and Luzon requires a lot of money. Therefore, Zheng Zhilong began to dump goods to Japan frantically, preparing to monopolize the entire Japanese trade share.Two years ago (1642), the Dutch accused Zheng Zhilong of unreasonable trade practices, that is, to increase the annual shipment of goods to Japan by ship from 4 to 5 Lears to 10 Lears. , greatly squeezed the Dutch trade share.At the same time, the Dutch kept complaining that Zheng Zhilong did not provide them with more silk goods.

Zheng Que said: "There are civil strife in the provinces of Ming Dynasty, and thieves are hindering the silk market."

In 1643, Zheng Zhilong had 122 junk ships carrying a large number of commodities to Japan for sale, which caused the prices of Ming commodities to fall, and merchants suffered heavy losses.The Dutch business representative in Japan said pessimistically: It is expected that the current situation of Japanese trade is not good, and it is bound to be wiped out.

In the past two years, many officials of the Batavian colonial authorities have stated several times, "The people of the Ming Dynasty shipped so much goods to Japan that the company had no place to stand there. Therefore, it is now decided to send ships to intercept the sailing ships returning to China. Next year it is planned to intercept sailing ships bound for Japan, whether the Japanese agree or not.

Facing its trade competitors, the Dutch even began to consider using force to solve it, which shows the bleak predicament of their Japanese market.The Dutch representative in Nagasaki asked Japanese officials several times, what would Japan think if the sailing ships of the Chinese people doing business with Japan were "detained as legitimate catches?" , Japan will not interfere, "but will be badly criticized by pirates."

"So, are we, the East India Company, going to take tough measures against Mr. Nicholas and use the necessary force?" Governor Derlin asked, "Everyone, do you have any corresponding plans and plans? Note, Mr. Nicholas The maritime power possessed by the official in the waters of the Ming Dynasty is not weaker than that of our East India Company. What's more, it is backed by the mainland and has two maritime strongholds in Taiwan and Luzon. We are sure to force it to submit, and then strictly abide by the agreement signed by the two parties. trade agreement?"

"Since the trade volume of our East India Company in the Japanese market has shrunk to almost nothing. I think that corresponding armed merchant ships can be sent to the Ming Dynasty and the Japanese waters to attack the merchant ships of the official Nicholas." Governor Derlin's eyes fixed on himself, and Colonel Dachman Barek quickly said: "But we must find a supply point there for the long-term sabotage operation."

"If Officer Nicholas sends warships to expel them, can your navy continue to attack them while ensuring your own safety? I heard that they have tens of thousands of navies and more than a thousand ships. ’” Upton asked.

"According to what our navy has learned, although Officer Nicholas has nearly a thousand ships of various types, most of them are small junk ships, and they are no match for our armed merchant ships at sea." Colonel Barek Confidently said: "He only has dozens of large ships, which may pose a certain threat. However, the sea is vast, can they still encircle and annihilate our ships like they are in the bay? No, if they If we want to gather those large ships with combat effectiveness to encircle and suppress our destroying fleet, it is tantamount to finding a needle in a haystack, and it is destined to be impossible."

"Just like a few years ago, the war broke out between us and Hanzhou. We have a strong sea force, but we can't catch a few nasty destroying ships on the ocean. We can only watch them passively. Constantly attack our trading posts and strongholds. Therefore, if we want to teach Nicholas a lesson this time, we can also copy the tactics of the Hanzhou people. Send several capable raiding fleets to attack and kill Nicholas officials everywhere trade vessels, forcing him to make certain concessions to us in the Japanese market."

"Then, do you have any good suggestions for your navy to find a temporary supply point near the waters of Daming and Japan?" Governor De Lin asked.

"Ming and Japan will definitely not agree to allow us to randomly occupy a temporary supply point on their land." Colonel Barek thought for a while, and then said: "So, we must find a third-party force and obtain a You can stop at a supply point. I think you can go to Hanzhou or Annan and ask them if they are willing to provide a supply point with us."

"Hanzhou?"

"Hanzhou occupies several islands near Ryukyu, and has been developing and operating them for several years. Moreover, the location of those small islands is very good. It is relatively close to the Ming Dynasty and Japan, and it is a good supply transit point."

"Hanzhou immigrates from the Ming Dynasty every year. I'm afraid they won't take the risk of offending Mr. Nicholas and let us use several strongholds on Ryukyu Island as a logistics base for attacking Mr. Nicholas."

"Then, we can only go to the Annan people." Colonel Barek shrugged and said, "They may be willing to introduce a powerful sea force that can fight against the Hanzhou people."

(End of this chapter)