1635 Han style rises again

Chapter 556 Scissors difference

December 1645, 12, Lombok (east of Bali, Indonesia), Mataram.

"We sell some swords and spears to this country, isn't it a little bit out of bounds for the Dutch?"

A three-masted armed transport ship was moored quietly at the port of the Kingdom of Mataland (not the Kingdom of Mataland on the island of Java). Dozens of natives, driven by several wharf officials, struggled to get the cargo on board The goods were carried down one by one, and then placed in a mess on the open space of the dock. The sailors on the ship saw this scene and couldn't help shaking their heads.The work of this native is too rough.

If this three-masted armed transport ship hadn't been flying the red rising sun and yellow dragon flag of Qi on its mast, it could easily be mistaken for a merchant ship under the Dutch East India Company.

This 30-ton three-masted armed transport ship is about [-] meters in length, and its overall shape and structure are almost exactly the same as the three-masted transport ships used by the Dutch in Europe and the East Indies.

Of course, this three-masted armed transport ship was not an East India Company merchant ship captured by the Qi people. It was produced at the Hanzhou Jianye Shipyard without a doubt, but its technical source was naturally Dutch.

Three years ago, Mr. Ludwild, the former senior commercial counselor of the East India Company, sent his butler to the Far East with the new governor of Batavia, and took advantage of the opportunity of peace negotiations with Hanzhou to come to Jianye City Made a very "valuable" commodity transaction with the Hanzhou people, and sold many local Dutch shipbuilding technologies, together with more than 20 shipwrights, to Hanzhou.

The three-masted warship is a ship developed by the Dutch in the seventeenth century. It has a shallow draft and a large cargo capacity. More importantly, the entire ship can be operated by only a few sailors. As far as the sailors' Hanzhou is concerned, it is simply a tailor-made ship type for them.

At present, eight of these three-masted warships have been successively built in Hanzhou, mainly for short- and medium-range cargo transportation tasks, traveling between the east and west of Hanzhou and nearby Nanyang islands.As for the small and medium-sized galleys under [-] tons built by Weiyuan Shipyard, they are basically used for offshore and some short-distance sea transportation.

With the development of Hanzhou's shipbuilding industry, the shortage of ships that plagued Qi for ten years has long since disappeared.If the two shipyards of Jianye and Weiyuan are built at full capacity, at least four or five large ships can be added every year, and the increased capacity will not be less than [-] tons.However, there is no shortage of ships, and there has always been a shortage of sailors who can be used to replenish them.

It can be said that most of the sailors who run ships at sea are fledglings who have no experience in ocean sailing, and some even have only experienced fishing in the coastal waters for more than half a year, and they will be eagerly asked by the navy and various shipping companies. Recruited to the ship to which they belong, to fill the various vacancies on the ship.

And this three-masted armed transport ship belonging to the Hanzhou General Trading Company, except for a few key positions who are veterans with several years of experience in handling ships, the rest of the sailors are novices who have been on the ship for less than a year.If you encounter pirates at sea, or intercept and kill by some hostile force, I am afraid that you will not even have the ability to sail and escape.

However, this place is relatively close to Timor Island, and except for the slight threat from the Dutch, the small sampans of the nearby Tubang Kingdom will naturally not pose a threat to the three-masted armed transport ship, and there is nothing to worry about in terms of safety.

More than ten years ago, Lombok belonged to the territory of the Lalantuka Sudan Kingdom in the west, but eight years ago, it was occupied by the Gova Sudan Kingdom in Makassar and included in its sphere of influence.In 1640, the Balinese people in the west captured the island and established four kingdoms on the island.One of them is the Kingdom of Mataram based on the surrounding territories of Mataram.

Because at the beginning of the year, Qi State and the Dutch East India Company had a tense confrontation over the existence of Hollenburg, which caused a large amount of local industrial products in Hanzhou to be backlogged in ports and factories. shock.For this reason, the Ministry of Commerce and Trade of the State of Qi and several trading companies under its control began to establish their own distribution network, develop their own independent market, and gradually reduce the business network channels of the Dutch East India Company.

Although the rulers of the island have changed from the original Gowa people to Balinese people, the influence of the Gowa people is still there.After establishing direct contact with Gova Sultan Kingdom in Makassar at the beginning of the year, through their relationship, Hanzhou General Trading Co., Ltd. successfully entered the market of Mataram Kingdom, and through this, extended its business tentacles to the entire island.

After the completion of the last transaction, the Kingdom of Mataram Sultan asked the Hanzhou people to provide some weapons such as swords and spears to suppress the resistance of the Sasak people in the country.Considering the maintenance of commercial trade, it is natural to try our best to meet the needs of customers.Although there was an agreement with the Dutch at the beginning, all kinds of military materials and equipment were not allowed to flow into the East Indies, so as not to affect the colonial operations of the Dutch East India Company.

However, this agreement was hardly implemented by the Qi State. Either through the Portuguese in Makassar or through the Kingdom of Wahali on Timor Island, a large number of weapons were imported to the Tubang Kingdom on the surrounding islands.However, in order to avoid over-irritating the Dutch, the input of some artillery and muskets was slightly controlled.

"As long as we are not caught by the Dutch, we are not crossing the border." A head of the Hanzhou General Trading Company who came with the boat said with a smile: "There are tens of thousands of islands in the South Seas, and there are no less than a few hundred native nations and tribes. Well, how can the Dutch manage it?"

"That's true!" Yuan Chengxiang, the captain of the Han Yun 2 transport ship, echoed: "In the future, when our country of Qi becomes stronger, there will be so many islands in Nanyang, sooner or later they will be re-divided with the Dutch, and they can't all be given to the red-haired ghosts! "

"Oh, this native has driven so many scalpers here, is he planning to use this to pay for the goods?" A nearby sailor pointed at the pier and exclaimed.

From the east side of the pier, seven or eight natives were driving a herd of cattle towards this side, which caused an uproar among the sailors on board.Damn it, if you take a boatload of cattle back, the road will definitely be stinky, and you won't be able to rest well.Unable to help, these sailors began to clamor.

"There are very few goods available for trade in Mataram. Although rice, copra, corn, and sugar cane are in large quantities, their value is relatively low, and we have no shortage of them, and their country lacks gold and silver. So..." the name The head of the Hanzhou General Trading Company explained with a wry smile: "However, I heard that there are lead mines here, maybe next time I can bring some lead mines back."

Yuan Chengxiang immediately understood that this country wanted products from our country of Qi, but did not have enough gold and silver to pay for them. It could only use a large amount of agricultural products and livestock to pay for the goods to deal with the trade activities between the two parties.

"Those women are also part of the payment?" Yuan Chengxiang asked softly when he saw a few guys from the Hanzhou General Trading Company in the distance selecting and inspecting a group of young local girls brought by Matalan officials.

"That's not true!" The head of the trading company said with a smile: "You may not know it. According to the meaning of the big shopkeeper of our trading company, it is best not to bring back a large amount of gold and silver for each transaction, and exchange them all for what we need in the local area. Supplies and population. Therefore, every time we come to trade with these natives, the most troublesome thing is to convert our commodities into how much food, or a head of livestock, or even a young woman."

"If it's such a long-term transaction, wouldn't these local people's things be replaced by our massive commodities?" Yuan Chengxiang asked: "In the future, if they have nothing to trade with us, what should we do?"

"In the end, they can trade the land under their feet with us!" The head of the trading company said softly: "As long as they have demand for our products, they will always be in a weak and subordinate position in the entire trade activity. And we , will also absorb a steady stream of trade profits from them, and eventually feed back our industrial production and make it grow stronger."
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On December 12, Hanzhou Yunyang Mansion (now Mackay, Eastern Australia).

"Why is the purchase price of sugarcane this year two cents lower than last year?"

In Xinchangbao (now a small town in Marianne, west of Mackay, Australia), more than 50 kilometers west of Yunyang City, dozens of farmers gathered, and many wooden carts were lined up beside them, piled up with freshly cut of sugar cane.

Because the vicinity of Yunyang City, both the climate and the soil quality, are very suitable for growing sugar cane.At the same time, a Yunyang River (now the Pioneer River in Australia) meanders through the west, which not only provides sufficient water for the fortresses and settlements established along the river, but also provides water for the inland pioneering areas through this river. Very convenient transportation.

As the region was just changed from the general management area to Yunyang Prefecture at the beginning of last year, and was formally included in the unified management of civil affairs, the Yunyang area has also begun to accelerate the pace of development.

At present, in addition to continuing to expand the cotton planting area and providing sufficient raw materials for the cotton spinning center in Weihai in the north (now Cairns in northeast Australia), Yunyang Prefecture is also vigorously developing sugarcane planting and establishing a sugar production center in the region.In addition, the Xiangjiang (now Rockhampton, Australia) coal mine in this area has begun to be mined in large quantities. Some technical engineers transferred from Jianyefu are planning to use the abundant coal reserves here to establish the second coal chemical industry base in Hanzhou. .

Cotton, sugar cane, and coal mines are the three pillar industries planned by the entire Yunyang Prefecture in the future. The prefect Hu Pingjiang is full of confidence in this and vows to build Yunyang Prefecture into the most dazzling industrial and agricultural base in the eastern part of Hanzhou.

Ordinary people don't care much about the plans and grand blueprints of big shots, but this year's sugarcane purchase price has dropped by two cents, which has deeply stimulated their sensitive nerves.

"That is, these unscrupulous sugar factories, seeing that our sugarcane harvest is good, want to lower the price and earn our unscrupulous money!" A farmer said loudly: "We will not sell to them. Yunyang City The price must be higher than theirs, let’s contact the sugar factory over there and sell it to them!”

Hou Guangsheng, the head of the "Huji" sugar factory, looked at the farmers in front of him coldly, and he was not moved at all even though they were making noise.If they wanted to sell the sugarcane in the field to Yunyang City, it would not be so easy.Not to mention the sugarcane output of a single farmer, it is not enough to hire a boat.Even if it can be shipped to Yunyang, can it be sold for two cents more?

Don't forget, the owners of the three sugar factories in Yunyang City sat together before the sugarcane harvest season and jointly set the purchase price for this year, and also divided the purchase areas.Don't underestimate the increase in the harvest price of two cents. The sugar cane is harvested in hundreds of thousands of catties, and the money involved is also thousands of dollars.What can be saved is naturally the extra profit earned by the owner.

Although the Yunyang area has a large yield of sugarcane, enough sweetness, and the purchase price is lower than that of Jianye Mansion in the north, they still have to travel a long distance by sea to squeeze the sugarcane into granulated sugar before selling it to the Dutch and the Nanyang Islands. Natives, this will increase a lot of freight.Therefore, the owners of several sugar factories in the region decided to lower the purchase price in order to obtain corresponding cost advantages.

After a day of quarreling, many sugarcane farmers in Xinchangbao sold all the harvested sugarcane to the purchasers of the "Huji" sugar factory at a purchase price of two cents lower than last year.Looking at the money they got in their hands, it seems that it is not a few dollars more than last year, and the faces of the farmers showed a trace of helplessness and bitterness.

Farmers in twos and threes, with a few Hanzhou silver dollars in their arms, lingered in the stores of grain, oil, cloth, and agricultural materials, wondering whether they should add a new clothes to their families, or whether they should be slightly damaged. Replace farm tools, or buy more rice, flour, grain and oil, and cut a piece of meat, so that the family members who have worked hard for half a year can improve their lives.

In the market, except for grain, oil and non-staple food, it seems that the prices of all industrial products have risen to varying degrees.It stands to reason that Weihai, which is not far from Yunyang Mansion, is the largest cotton spinning center in our country, and the prices of all kinds of cotton cloth shipped here should be very low.However, the cotton cloth supplied in the market, like other industrial products, has increased compared with last year.

The price of agricultural products is falling, and the price of industrial products is rising. This kind of scissors gap between workers and peasants that existed in the early stages of industrial development in later generations also quietly appeared uncontrollably in the small market environment of Hanzhou.

Although, compared with the lack of food and clothing of the Ming Dynasty, and even the cruel environment of troubled times and perils, the vast majority of Ming people who immigrated to Hanzhou can live a stable and peaceful life without fear of hunger and cold.But who doesn't want to live better and better days?
I thought that after two years of development, some wild lands gradually began to mature, and the output of agricultural products such as sugar cane and cotton gradually increased, but unexpectedly, the output increased, but the price fell. Not much has been added, which will inevitably make people a little disappointed.

The officials of Yunyang Mansion should take good care of this group of profit-seeking factory owners and businessmen, who abused and squeezed our farmers like this. After half a year of hard work, they made money away.

Many farmers hesitated again and again, and bought some oil at the grain and oil store, cut a piece of fat, and pulled a few feet of cloth to comfort their hard-working families and themselves.

Many farmers like to buy the "labor cloth" that has only been on the market for the past two years, a kind of indigo blue and thick yarn-dyed warp-face denim.Although this kind of denim cloth is a little more expensive than ordinary cotton cloth and has poor air permeability, compared with other cotton cloths, this "labor cloth" is very durable and not easy to be worn out. The most suitable cotton cloth.

It seems that no matter where you are, life is actually not easy.

(End of this chapter)