1635 Han style rises again

Chapter 553
The two armed merchant ships of the Hanzhou Indian Trading Company sailed to India in June, just after the Qi State and the Dutch East India Company reached a preliminary settlement on the Hollenburg Crisis.

When they went to India this time, they did not go to the sphere of influence on the east coast controlled by the Dutch. Instead, they were led by several Portuguese from Makassar to the west coast of India, a port called Calicut (now the southwestern port of India). city ​​of Kozhikode).

This port was also visited by Zheng He of the Ming Dynasty when he sailed to the West. However, at that time, the Ming Dynasty called this place Guli, which was part of the former Malabar region.In addition, Vasco da Gama of Portugal also visited this port, and he was one of the earliest colonies established by the Portuguese.

In 1528 and 1538, the ruler of Calicut lost two consecutive battles with the Portuguese for the dominance of the spice trade, and the Portuguese immediately built a fort here. The Portuguese monopoly on the spice trade was finally recognized in 1540.But the peace lasted less than 30 years, and in 1571 the local king destroyed the Portuguese fortress through the siege of Chale.In 1588, however, the Portuguese again won the war and regained the right to station Calicut, bringing a nearby area into their sphere of colonial influence.

When two armed merchant ships from the Han Chau Indian Trading Company came to Calicut, they were warmly welcomed by the local Portuguese colonial officials.

At the suggestion of Wang Jiaxi Portugal, a lot of artillery, muskets, plate armor, swords and other ordnance materials were shipped with the ship, and were immediately bought by the local Portuguese colonial government in Calicut to enrich the local armaments.As for other goods brought by the Hanzhou people, the Portuguese allowed the people of the Hanzhou Indian trading company to temporarily stop in Calicut after delivering hundreds of Hanzhou silver dollars, and trade goods with the inland Indian states.

Glass mirrors, honey wine, sugar, steel bars, iron blocks, cloisonné, leather goods, soaps, soaps and other Hanzhou products were all sold out in less than half a month, in exchange for a large amount of gold, silver and jewelry.However, to the disappointment of several shopkeepers of the Hanzhou Indian Trading Company, the thousands of woolen and cotton cloths they brought were unsalable here, and only dozens of them were sold.

The local Portuguese then kindly told these foolish Hanzhou people that the whole of India is the most important cotton cloth producing area. Not only is the price cheap, but the quality of the design and color is acceptable, and it is the largest commodity purchased by many traders who come here.Although the woolen cloth and cotton cloth produced by you in Hanzhou seem to be of better quality than Indian cotton cloth, and there are more varieties of designs and colors, but if you transport them here from the distant Hanzhou, you probably won’t be able to sell them at a high price.

Depressed, the shopkeepers of the Hanzhou Indian Trading Company could only sell all the woolen and cotton cloths at a price that was twice the cost, and then they purchased a large amount of cotton, indigo, spices, and saltpeter locally. Primary raw materials, as well as more than a dozen camels, Brahman cattle and other local unique livestock, are going to be brought back to the mainland of Hanzhou.

At the end of August, when the two armed merchant ships of the Hanzhou Indian Trading Company were about to leave Calicut, they were informed by the local Portuguese colonial government that the Governor of Goa would send several representatives to accompany the Indian Trading Company’s ships to the mainland of Hanzhou to seek cooperation from both sides. trade and political-military cooperation.

The reason why the Portuguese Governor in Goa sent representatives to Hanzhou to try to get in touch with Hanzhou and establish a political and military cooperation relationship was because they were strongly challenged by the Dutch in India.

In the early 17th century, the Dutch East India Company began to set foot in India. It successively established colonial strongholds such as Coromandel, Malabar, Bengal, and Surat on the eastern coast of India, and vigorously squeezed the colonial power of the Portuguese.

In 1641, the Dutch East India Company captured Malacca and became more aggressive in India after landing in Ceylon.Two years ago, the Dutch established a trading post directly more than a hundred kilometers south of Calicut.Although shortly thereafter, the Portuguese united with the inland Kingdom of Cochin to destroy it.But the Dutch were still undeterred, sending ships on the west coast of India from time to time to harass and attack the Portuguese strongholds, and planned to land on the west coast again to set up colonial strongholds.

Facing the dominance of the Dutch East India Company, the Portuguese accepted the suggestion from the Makassar Portuguese and prepared to use the strength of the Hanzhou people appropriately to deal with the threat of the Dutch.I heard that this Hanzhou people living in the southern New World has not weak force, and once fought a war with the Netherlands for more than three years, forcing the Dutch to re-sign a peace agreement with them, and also divided each other. sphere of influence.If Hanzhou can be brought to the Portuguese side, it will somewhat dampen the greedy ambitions of the Dutch.

Sebastian Bernish, the special envoy of the Portuguese Governor in Goa, arrived at Jianye Port in Hanzhou on October 10, along with the armed transport ship of the Hanzhou Indian Trading Company.

A port with advanced and complete facilities, a coastal defense lined with muzzles, an above-ground horse-drawn track thousands of meters long, a towering city wall, awe-inspiring guards, unusually clean and orderly streets, and confident officials... , and everything gave Special Envoy Sebastian Bernish an extremely shocking feeling.

With this large city with a population of tens of thousands (as of June 1645, the population of Jianye City was actually only 6 people), Hanzhou can prove its strong strength.I heard that in the eastern part of Hanzhou, there are more than a dozen cities in this country with a population of no less than tens of thousands.Although in any state in India, its population can easily reach [-] or hundreds of thousands.But the difference is that Hanzhou is a civilized country like Portugal.When they faced the threat of the powerful strength of the Dutch, they were able to force them to make peace and gain the respect of the other party.

According to the Portuguese in Makassar, in addition to occupying this huge piece of land, the Hanzhou people also occupied a very large island in the northwest of Hanzhou. Of course, they also took away our Portugal before. the city of Dili and controlled most of Timor Island.

Colonial officials in the Goa Governor's Office had a heated discussion about whether to introduce Han Chinese forces in India to counter the Dutch East India Company's constant coercion of the Portuguese.Some people are afraid that after introducing the power of Hanzhou people into India, another "Dutch East India Company" will be created, which will make the situation of the Portuguese even worse.

There are also people who disagree with this, and think that the Hanzhou people are from the Ming Dynasty, and their national nature is not aggressive, but rather a nation that is good at creation and construction.If the Hanzhou forces are properly introduced, it will not only bring more convenience to production and life in the Portuguese colonies, but also effectively share the threat of the Dutch.If they are afraid that Hanzhou will erode the Portuguese colony, it is better for them to introduce the places that the Dutch covet and compete for, so that the two sides will compete with each other and lose both sides.

In the end, in the face of the increasingly aggressive Dutch East India Company, the Portuguese governor of Goa, Felipe deo Mascare, made a decisive decision to contact the Hanzhou people first and conduct business with them temporarily. Political and military cooperation will begin after mutual understanding has been enhanced.

"If we can gain a foothold in India with the help of the Portuguese, that would be the best thing for us Qi." After the business report, he nodded with satisfaction and said: "India's wealth must have gone through the two years of operation and trade exchanges of the Hanzhou Indian Trading Company. You also have a deep feeling for this. Compared with the Portuguese, Dutch, and English, French people, we Qi people went a little late."

"However, compared with these Western forces, our country of Qi has one of the most obvious advantages, that is, we are not very far from India, and we can get effective support from the mainland of Hanzhou. Once something happens, the response speed and support strength are definitely better than these The Western forces need to be fast and powerful. Now, our country of Qi is not very strong, but it does not prevent us from setting up a business in India first. If we manage well in the future, one India is enough to make our country Qi become the richest country in the future. s country."

"Your Majesty is right." Bai Yuangui, the shopkeeper of the Hanzhou Indian Trading Company, said with a smile, "In the past two years, our Indian Trading Company has made five round trips to and from India, and every time we have made huge profits, we have made nearly 70 Hanzhou silver dollars. Profit. Today, not only have a large number of dividends been distributed to many shareholders and the government in the country, but two armed transport ships have also been added, and the personnel have more than doubled. If they can gain a foothold in India, it must also expand the trading company More reach and commercial markets."

"Your Majesty, in your opinion, do we want to fully support the Portuguese in India?" Pan Qifeng naturally knew how the Indian trading company made money. In order to ensure the company's continuous income, building a stronghold in India was a matter of course.However, after all, India is an unfamiliar market to Qi, and it had to rely on the strength of the Portuguese in the early stage.

"The most important foreign policy of Qi State in the future is to continuously weaken and limit the development of the Dutch's power." Qi Tian said: "Compared to the Dutch, the Portuguese are small and weak. The threat is not great. Therefore, whether it is Makassar or India, we must give a certain helping hand to the Portuguese. When we have another conflict with the Dutch in the future, we must pull them to our side and deal with them together Dutch East India Company."

"Of course, the Portuguese want to use our power to prevent the Dutch from encroaching on their influence in India. They even hope that we can block the gun for them and face the threat of the Dutch. In this regard, your government's Ministry of Commerce and Indian business associations must have We have a clear understanding. In India, we did business at the beginning, so we should not overly provoke the Dutch. In this regard, we might as well tell the Dutch that we will not harm their interests in India, but we must also let them respect ours Commercial interests."

"In addition, in India, your Indian trading company must maintain the necessary vigilance against the British East India Company. I think that in the near future, they may become our most important opponent in the Indian region and even the Southeast Asia region."

(End of this chapter)