1635 Han style rises again

Chapter 662 The Kindness of the Dutch
On March 1651, 3, Hanzhou, Jianye City.

Rick Wolf, the commercial representative of the Dutch East India Company in Qi, took a piece of white porcelain from Xu Yuchang. It was as white as jade, as bright as a mirror, as thin as paper, and as loud as a chime. The whole body of the porcelain was decorated with quiet and elegant blue and white shadows. The contrast of blue and white is pleasant and interesting, which can be called exquisite.

"Is this porcelain really made by your native Hanzhou?" Rick Wolf watched it carefully, and kept rubbing his hands on the blue and white porcelain.

"Of course!" Xu Yuchang, the head shopkeeper of Hanzhou General Trading Co., said quite proudly: "In addition to this blue and white porcelain, there are also several pieces of exquisite porcelain, pastel porcelain, colored glaze porcelain and other different types of porcelain over there. The texture and appearance are almost the same as the porcelain produced in Jingde, Ming Dynasty."

A few years ago, after Zhou Yingping, a great businessman from Huai'an in the Ming Dynasty, sent dozens of Jingdezhen porcelain craftsmen, the State of Qi also used various means to recruit hundreds of porcelain craftsmen in the territory of the Ming Dynasty. "The master craftsman.

After more than three years of geological investigation, these porcelain craftsmen finally discovered a large amount of high-grade kaolin near Yunyang in the east of Hanzhou (now Mackay in eastern Australia), and the reserves are huge, which is very suitable for firing porcelain.

In August last year, a small kiln was built in Yunyang, and then began to carry out experimental firing continuously. Finally, in January this year, a batch of exquisite porcelain comparable to that produced by Jingde official kiln was successfully fired.Immediately afterwards, the Ministry of Industry and the Yunyang Mansion immediately invested personnel and funds to build a large-scale kiln, preparing to mass-produce various types of porcelain to make up for and replace the porcelain market that had been suspended due to civil strife in Ming Dynasty.

Among the trade products of the East India Company, apart from the spice products that accounted for the largest share, the most important ones were Ming porcelain and silk, which brought huge trade profits to the Dutch.

The Dutch East India Company first acquired porcelain from Ming Dynasty when it captured the Portuguese merchant ship "Santa Catarina" in the Strait of Malacca at the beginning of the company's establishment, and captured about 10 pieces of porcelain weighing 60 tons.There are a large number of unique styles of Chinese blue and white porcelain on board, which are characterized by neatly arranged grids and consecrations drawn on the rims of plates and bowls, with landscapes, figures, flowers, and fruits inside, and auspicious patterns of flowers and birds painted in the center.

The porcelain caused a sensation when it arrived in Amsterdam, auctioning off nearly 200 million Dutch guilders.At that time, the start-up capital of the Dutch East India Company was only 650 million Dutch guilders, and this batch of porcelain from Daming brought such a huge profit to the company, which is quite amazing.

It has to be said that the Dutch are very business-minded. In addition to reselling the exquisite porcelain artworks of the Ming Dynasty, they soon found that they needed to increase the daily-use porcelain of the Europeans and take the "traffic route" for daily customization, such as candlesticks, mustard jars, and beer. Cups, salt shakers and other utensils.The Dutch who are good at innovation adopted the custom-made production mode of "processing with samples", made wooden models of European living utensils, and brought them to China for imitation production in 1635.The first production was shipped back to Holland in 1639, where it was a hit.In addition to wooden models, found glass, silver and earthenware vessels were used.With the increasing demand for Ding-fired porcelain, pictures in picture books with the required shapes and patterns replaced models, which greatly promoted the production of Ding-fired porcelain.These porcelains are "ingenious in style and changeable every year", constantly changing with the trend of the European market.

According to conservative estimates by later generations, the Dutch East India Company imported more than 17 million pieces of porcelain from China and sold them to European and Asian countries throughout the 1500th century, and the East India Company also made huge trade profits from it.

However, with the entry of the Qing Dynasty in 1644, the Ming regime collapsed, and the entire country fell into disorderly wars, the porcelain obtained by the Dutch East India Company decreased year by year until it approached nothing in the past two years. Indian companies were dismayed at the sudden loss of one of the most lucrative commodities.

Today, the magical Hanzhou can actually produce porcelain that is the same as that of the Ming Dynasty. How can Rick Wolfe not be delighted by it.

"How many pieces of porcelain can your Hanzhou produce each year? Can you custom-fire it according to the models and patterns we provide?" Wolf put the piece of celadon gently on the table and looked at Xu Yuchang, "In addition , how to negotiate this price?"

"This year we can provide your East India Company with 150,000 to [-] pieces, and next year, the quantity can reach more than [-] pieces." Xu Yuchang said with a smile: "For your East India Company's custom-made porcelain, we can also completely Do it. As for the price, we can conduct in-depth discussions and negotiations on different types of porcelain. But I can guarantee that your East India Company will get enviable rewards if you ship our porcelain back to the European market. huge profits."

Wolf heard this, with a satisfied smile on his face.After the end of the European War, the markets in various countries and regions were booming unprecedentedly. There was a strong demand for spices, raw silk, silk fabrics, lacquerware, furniture, sugar, medicinal materials, cloth, steel and other products from the Far East. The royal families and nobles of some countries, He is also obsessed with luxury goods such as porcelain, cloisonne, jewelry, silk, and diamonds (from India) from the East.

And most of these commodities can be provided by Hanzhou. Although the quantity is not as huge as that of Ming Dynasty before, it can also temporarily fill the gap in the market.

"Dear Xu, with the commodity of porcelain, I think the trade volume between our East India Company and your Hanzhou will definitely increase significantly on the original basis, and it may very well be doubled." Wall Fu smiled and said: "The business relationship between our two sides is also closer and deeper. I think we can further maintain this cooperative relationship in terms of political and military cooperation."

"Huh?" Xu Yuchang was taken aback. Why did the well-spoken trade cooperation involve political and military aspects? What does the East India Company want to do?
"Dear Xu, I heard that your Hanzhou had a fierce conflict with General Zheng Zhilong in the territory of the Ming Dynasty and in the coastal waters, is that right?" Wolfe looked straight at Xu Yuchang.

"Well, our country of Qi broke out in direct battle with Zheng Zhilong in the territory of Ming Dynasty. But this has no effect on our country of Qi. With Zheng Zhilong's strength, we can't threaten our mainland of Hanzhou." Xu Yuchang felt a little unhappy.Why, Zheng Zhilong, who has been cooperating closely with our country of Qi, suddenly launched an attack on us. Are you, the Dutch East India Company, planning to see a joke about our country of Qi?
"Zheng is a despicable and shameless villain. He will not seriously abide by any agreement reached with the other party. In his eyes, he only has interests." Wolfe's face showed a ray of justice, "Zheng is still a murderous Pirates will carry out indiscriminate sneak attacks and attacks on all normal trading merchant ships on the sea. For this reason, our East India Company has suffered greatly. Therefore, Zheng is not only the enemy of your Hanzhou, but also our East India Company Enemy. Dear Xu, we are very willing to cooperate with you to deal with the evil Zheng and jointly maintain trade security and commercial order in the Far East Sea.”

"You want to join us in attacking Zheng Zhilong?" Xu Yuchang asked in surprise, "What do you want to gain from this?"

"Japan." Wolf said bluntly: "We need to restore the Japanese market we once owned. There was originally our existing business channel, but the shameful Zheng forced us to live by brutal and domineering means. Come out. I think it's time to change that."
-
"The Dutch are willing to take the initiative to help us attack Zheng Zhilong?" After Qi Tian received the unofficial statement from the Dutch East India Company, he suddenly felt a strange feeling in his heart.

In the past, the Tang Dynasty borrowed troops from the Uyghurs due to the turmoil in the history of Ping An, and was condemned by the literati for hundreds of years, which was criticized by the world.

In later generations, the Qing Dynasty borrowed teachers to assist in the suppression, which to a large extent also fueled the aggressive arrogance of the Western colonial forces, expanded the contradictions between China and foreign countries, and enabled the Western powers to consolidate their positions and expand their influence, causing endless harm.

Now, if the Qi State united with the East India Company to suppress Zheng Zhilong's maritime forces together, how would future generations evaluate this behavior?
Although Zheng Zhilong has already surrendered to the Qing Dynasty, and with his powerful naval ships, he has seriously threatened the immigration affairs of Qi State, and even helped the evildoers to kill the anti-Qing forces in the country, but this is after all a dispute within the Chinese nation.This will involve the influence of the Dutch East India Company. Intervening in it always feels a bit like luring wolves into the house or uniting with outsiders to beat their own children.

"Your Majesty, what the Dutch mean is that they only undertake combat missions at sea, intercept and kill Zheng Zhilong's ships traveling to and from the sea, and at the same time expel all of Zheng Zhilong's trading ships heading to Japan and Southeast Asia." Cao He, the commander of the black guards, said: "They will not participate in the battles on land in Ming Dynasty. In addition, they hope that they can be allowed to stop at several overseas bases in Denglai and Ryukyu to maintain and resupply the ships during the battles in the Daming sea area and the Japanese sea area."

"In this way, the Dutch will not take the initiative to seek to fight with Zheng Zhilong's main naval fleet?" Qi Tian asked.

"It should be like this." Cao He said: "The Dutch just want to reap the benefits of the fisherman and resume trade with Japan while we are fighting with Zheng Zhilong. If they encounter Zheng's merchant ships at sea, they will also I don't mind going for a kill."

"If they give money, would they be willing to provide armed escort for our Qi country immigrant ship." Qi Tian was silent for a while, and suddenly asked.

Over the past few years, Qi State has successively built more than ten large immigration ships.In order to ensure the comfort and safety of the immigrants, this kind of ship has a large size, ranging from [-] tons to [-] tons. Not only is it not equipped with powerful weapons, but it also travels slower than ordinary armed merchant ships.If they are being besieged by many naval warships of the Zheng family, they will probably be unable to escape.

"Your Majesty, I suspect that the Dutch will probably not agree. Most of them don't want to get involved in fierce sea conflicts." Cao He replied cautiously: "When Zheng's navy encounters our immigrant fleet, they must A large number of warships will be assembled to intercept. In the face of such a large-scale sea battle, the Dutch will definitely stay away. After all, the loss of our two sea power is too large, which is what the Dutch are very happy to see matter."

"Actually, we don't have to worry about immigration affairs being hindered by Zheng Zhilong. Peasant armies such as Sun Kewang and Li Dingguo occupy most of Guangxi, and there are several good sea ports, which can completely replace Denglai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Fujian. The source of immigrants. More importantly, Guangxi is very close to several of our Annan territories, so there is no need to worry about the interception and attacks of Zheng’s navy.” Seeing that the king still seemed to be concerned about the various incidents brought about by Zheng Zhilong’s surrender Negative impact, but brooding, Cao He comforted him.

"I thought that Zheng Zhilong was a hero in troubled times, and he could do great things when the world was in peril. But I never thought that he would still be willing to surrender to the Qing captives for the sake of temporary wealth. It makes people sigh!" Qi Heaven couldn't help sighing.

"Your Majesty..." Cao He hesitated for a moment, and then said softly: "Our black guard intelligence analysts estimated that Zheng Zhilong's surrender to the Qing may be because he has the only sea power in Ming Dynasty. After the Qing captured the customs, it quickly swept the world, Almost invincible and invincible. However, with our support, the Yongchu court established a foothold in Denglai and defeated the large-scale siege of the Qing captives several times. The Qing captives had a powerful horse-buying elite army, but they were always helpless. And the Denglai area held by it is even more troublesome for the ships of our Qi State Navy to frequently attack the coast and the important towns along the river."

"Once Zheng Zhilong surrenders to the Qing captives, whether it is helping the Qing captives to unify the world, or protecting the mainland's waters in the future, Zheng Zhilong's naval fleet will be an indispensable and important part of the Qing captives' forces. Formally relying on this, Zheng Zhilong will not hesitate He hesitated to accept the surrender of the Qing captives, let alone worry about the consequences of being killed by the Qing captives after the unification of the world. In addition, Zheng Zhilong occupies both Fujian and Guangdong, so even if things fail in the future, he can easily sail to sea. to avoid going abroad."

Qi Tian nodded, but still felt uneasy.I once thought that vigorously supporting Zheng Zhilong, and jointly weakening the Dutch East India Company several times, and guiding Zheng Zhilong to attack Taiwan and Luzon, expanding his power to become stronger, would inspire his heroic qualities.But in the end, as in history, the Qing captives were surrendered.Although the time of surrender was more than four years later than the original historical period, the harm it brought was even worse.

"In addition to sending more spies to Daming, you black guards also need to keep a close eye on the movements of the Dutch in Batavia." Qi Tian solemnly ordered.

"Your Majesty is worried that the Dutch will..." Cao He was also startled when he heard this.

"Prevention is a must!" Qi Tian said, "Who knows if the Dutch will see that our house is empty and want to take a risk and steal it."

(End of this chapter)