1635 Han style rises again

Bala Katra Palace, Bengal, July 1672, 7.

This resplendent palace was presided over by Prince Shah Shuja, the second son of Shah Jahan, who was the governor of Bangladesh. In 1658, during the war of succession to the throne, he took the lead in proclaiming himself emperor in this palace, and then led an army from Dhaka to Agra, ready to take over the entire Mughal Empire in high spirits.

However, the brave Aurangzeb easily defeated Shuja and sent his trusted general Mir Jumura to pursue him all the way, driving him out of Bengal and forcing him to escape across the border of Arakan in October 1660 , Since then there has been no news.It is said that he and his family were killed by the Arakanese, and all their belongings were looted.

Today, this luxurious and majestic palace has been used as the Governor's Palace of Bangladesh. His Majesty's uncle, Shaista Khan, the Governor of Bangladesh, has been stationed here since 1663, managing the richest province of Bengal under the empire.

When he arrived in Bengal, Shaystan Khan put down rebellions of various tribes with boldness.He also foresees a strong threat from the kingdom of Arakan, which has developed a relatively strong military and naval power.To this end, he immediately began building the Mughal Navy, increasing its fleet to 300 ships within a year.

He also made strenuous diplomatic efforts to win the sea support of the Qi people and the Dutch. In November and December 1665, with the active support of the Qi State, Shaista Khan led the Mughal troops to successively capture Sundibu Island and Chittagong under the control of the Arakanese.

The conquered territory on the west bank of the Kalatan River was placed under the direct administration of the empire, the name of Chittagong was changed to *** (yi si lan) Fort, and the war-ravaged port Entrust the people of Qi to build and manage it.

During Shaista Khan's administration, he focused on building modern townships and public works in Dhaka, resulting in massive urban and economic expansion.He was also a patron of the arts and encouraged the construction of magnificent buildings throughout the province, including mosques, mausoleums and palaces.

He encouraged local merchants to actively carry out trade with Hanzhou, Europe, Southeast Asia and other parts of India, and tried his best to promote and upgrade the local economy.

During this period, in the eyes of all Mughals, their empire was the richest and most powerful country in the world today, one of the leading forces in the global economy, and even the leader of the world's manufacturing industry.The Bengal province (now Bangladesh and most of Bengal in western India) has half of the manufacturing power of the entire empire and contributes [-]% of the fiscal revenue to the empire. It can be called the brightest jewel in the crown of the empire. .

Although Shaista Khan has a strong political status and a deep court background, he exists like an emperor in the entire Bengal area, ruling and killing decisively, and the life, death and wealth of thousands of people are all decided by him, but he is still loyal. Emperor Aurangzeb, finally the great Mughal Empire.

However, an imperial decree sent from Delhi filled this loyal veteran with doubts and worries.In order to protect the prosperous cotton fabric industry of the empire and to obtain more tax revenue, His Majesty the Emperor once again raised the import tariff on cotton cloth in Qi State. The tax rate rose sharply from an average of 10%-20% three years ago to 40%.It also added that if the local cotton textile industry was severely eroded by Qi products, a trade ban could be issued to temporarily prohibit Qi's cotton cloth from entering the empire.

Regarding His Majesty's decision, Shaista Khan did not dare to disobey, but he knew that such a move would definitely anger the Qi people.Three years ago, they levied high tariffs on cotton cloth produced in Qi for the empire alone, and issued a serious protest, believing that the empire was discriminating against Qi in trade.

You must know that in the foreign trade of the Mughal Empire, almost all imported goods have very low tariffs, generally not exceeding 10%.Even in order to encourage foreign merchants to bring in goods that the empire desperately needs, such as horses, sugar, precious metals, ironware, etc., zero tariffs will be set on this.

More than 20 years ago, in order to counter the trade power of Portugal, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom, the empire gave many preferential trade conditions to the merchants of Qi who had just entered.All kinds of luxurious novelties produced by them have greatly satisfied the consumption desires of the royal family and the wealthy class of the empire.Commodities such as tea, porcelain, and hardware tools also profoundly changed the production and lifestyle of the empire.

However, with the passage of time, more and more types of commodities were imported from Qi, and the quantity also increased geometrically. Equality has also become more prominent.

In the past, the people of Qi State liked to scatter the coins they earned into the empire to buy a large amount of Indian products and ship them back to their mainland of Hanzhou.

But in recent years, with the year-on-year increase in the volume of trade between the two sides, the gold and silver earned by Qi from the Mughal Empire has reached tens of millions of rupees.Even though they would still spend large sums of money to buy cotton, indigo, saltpeter, medicinal materials, ivory, pepper and other commodities produced by the empire, this still could not digest the large amount of gold and silver they earned.

As a result, the Mughal Empire inevitably experienced a trade deficit, and the outflow of gold and silver, which had not been seen for hundreds of years, began to appear.

You must know that during this period, most of the rulers, whether they were the kings of Britain or the emperors of the Mughal Empire, were heavy money advocates.They believed that, according to prevailing economic thinking, a rich country was one with enormous reserves of precious metals.

Now, the Qi State in the southern New World began to absorb the gold and silver accumulated by the Mughal Empire for hundreds of years, and the amount was increasing year by year.Not to mention, their cotton cloth began to invade the cotton textile industry that the empire relied on to "earn foreign exchange". Isn't this going to break the financial foundation of the empire?

Deep in Shaista Khan's heart, he felt that it was inappropriate for Qi country's goods to be raging in the empire, and certain restrictive measures needed to be taken.But he has objections to His Majesty's approach.Raising the import tariff on Qi State's cotton cloth alone seems too rough and too direct, and it will inevitably cause Qi State's displeasure.

However, His Majesty the Emperor has been on the throne for 14 years, and his authority is growing day by day, and he has already eradicated all opponents in the country.Now, the ambitious emperor began to look far away, ready to conquer the four fields, expand the territory, and establish an unprecedented great empire.In his eyes, Qi's cotton invasion may be a trivial matter.Raising tariffs and increasing the sales cost of cotton cloth in Qi State will make them unprofitable, so they will naturally transfer the market and find another place.

"Mr. Qi, His Majesty the Emperor issued this decree without any intention of discrimination." Shaista Khan looked at the young person in charge of the Qi State Bangladesh Trading Company in Dhaka, and said gently: "We must not The Woer Empire has always cherished the friendship with you, Qi, and has a good impression of many Qi merchants in the empire. However, the cotton cloth you sell in the empire has indeed harmed the interests of our countless cotton workers and merchants, making many families therefore into a state of poverty and helplessness."

Qi Pengwei listened expressionlessly to the words conveyed by the interpreter to Shaista Khan, but he was full of slander in his heart.

This Mughal is a bit deceitful!

Although the cotton cloth business of Qi State in India is only two or three million Hanzhou silver dollars per year, accounting for less than 300% of the trade between the two countries, but it is really wrong to target us again and again. Is Qi Guo easy to bully?
"Governor, I personally think it is extremely inappropriate for your country to raise import tariffs on cotton cloth from Qi country without authorization." Qi Pengwei took a deep breath, "Three years ago, when you raised tariffs for the first time, We also fully consulted the opinions of our businessmen from Qi State, and gave a transitional period of six months. However, this time to increase the import tariff on cotton cloth, your country did not conduct any consultations with our businessmen at all, and suddenly issued an order. Moreover, It only took two short months from the promulgation of this decision to its implementation. This will inevitably cause us major trade losses, because, in such a short period of time, we simply cannot make timely adjustments and changes.”

"Mr. Qi, I deeply regret this." Shaista Khan sighed, "No one of us can violate His Majesty's decree, and we must strictly follow it. However, in order to reduce your unnecessary I will agree that your merchant ships can go up the Hooghly River to Jagdhar without approval. At the same time, I will also approve you to build a one on the east bank of the Hooghly River (now Kolkata, India) 80 kilometers away from the Gulf. A new trading post."

As the governor of the empire in Bangladesh, Shaista Khan has been dealing with Qi for nearly ten years, and he has a certain understanding of their strength.Not only did they establish several solid strongholds in the south, but they also had a powerful naval fleet anchored at Fort Amphon (now Cochin City in southwestern India) to safeguard their commercial interests along the Indian Ocean.

It is said that this fleet has more than [-] professional warships, swimming in India, Persia, Arabia and the Red Sea. In addition to performing the mission of combating pirates and escorting merchant ships, it also has the potential to deter countries around the Indian Ocean.

Seven years ago, Qi State only sent more than a dozen armed merchant ships to support the imperial navy, and easily defeated the Arakanese, captured Fort Fort, and completely eliminated the threat to the northwest coastal areas of the empire.

Shaista Khan didn't dare to imagine that if the empire turned against Qi, with their powerful sea power and the support of a solid southern stronghold, they would not know how serious damage would be caused to the empire!
Many coastal towns on the east and west coasts of the empire will be attacked by the opponent's navy, and the main elite areas of the wealthy Bengal province are basically distributed along the coast and near major rivers, making them more vulnerable to enemy damage.Relying on the weak navy of the empire, it is impossible to compete with it. It can only be beaten passively and let the opponent roam freely on the sea.

In Shaista Khan's view, Qi is a very powerful and dangerous enemy, which is more difficult to deal with than Portugal, which once ravaged the Indian Ocean region.If there is a conflict between the empire and it, it will probably not be happy.

Therefore, on the premise of not seriously damaging the interests of the empire, he would generally give them a more moderate attitude and policy for the merchants of Qi State in Bangladesh, and guide and use them.Whether it is to allow Qi merchants to freely pass through the Hooghly River's chartered trade, or to allow them to establish new trading posts, he only hopes to appease their anger and not create a rift with the empire.

However, he is only a governor in charge of Bengal province. How can he remedy the rest of the empire? ——
On August 8, Fengyuanbao (now Chennai, India, also known as Madras)
"What kind of regulations does your Bangladesh trading company have on the matter of the Mughals arbitrarily raising the import tariffs on cotton cloth from our country?"

In the former Governor's Mansion of Fort St. George in the United Kingdom, Su Dengwen, the chief treasurer of the Indian Trading Company in the Mughal Empire, held a teacup, took a sip, and then turned to ask Gong Wangui, the chief treasurer of the Bangladesh Trading Company in India.

"What kind of regulations can there be?" Gong Wangui said indifferently: "The Mughals obviously want to drive our cotton cloth from the Qi State out of the market to protect their domestic cotton fabric industry. Today, they did not explicitly ban our Qi State The import of cotton cloth still has a bit of scruples about our country of Qi. Heh, since they are doing this, we simply smuggle it in without going through the normal customs procedures. Based on the rough import and export management mode of the Mughals, we guessed They can't catch our hands or feet."

"Hehe..." Su Dengwen laughed, "Although we can bypass the official Mughal pass, there is suddenly so much cotton cloth in the market, and our cotton cloth is mass-produced by machines. It’s very easy to distinguish, and people will immediately know that we have smuggled the cotton cloth in. ... I’m afraid this will make the Mughals anxious!"

"What if you are impatient? No one in this world will be against money! Our cotton cloth is not only of good quality, but also the price is much cheaper than the local homemade cloth after paying less customs duties. You say, those from various places How will the comprador merchants choose? Then you have to sharpen your head and find us to get more cotton cloth to sell. It’s all about making money anyway, whether it’s Indian cotton cloth or our country’s cotton cloth!”

"Gong Da shopkeeper is right." A shopkeeper of a Bangladesh trading company said: "In those days, the price of our cotton cloth could not be lowered, so we could let Indian cotton cloth control the market. But now, with the wide application of domestic steam engines, the mechanized production of cotton cloth The scale is getting bigger and bigger, and the cost is falling over and over again. Even though the cotton raw materials and cotton finished products have traveled thousands of miles by sea, and there is a lot of transportation cost, the sales price is still lower than that of Indian cotton cloth. This Mughal The empire is surrounded by the sea on both sides, how can we prevent our cotton cloth from being smuggled in!?"

"I remember that His Majesty once said that the best way to destroy a certain industry in a country is to dump it. Now, the Mughals are trying to prohibit our cotton cloth from entering their country by raising tariffs. How can this allow it to succeed?" Another shopkeeper from an Indian trading company went on to say: "You must know that after more than 20 years of hard work, the cotton cloth market in the Nanyang region has become saturated and growth is sluggish. So much so that the sales quota of cotton cloth given by the Ministry of Industry and Commerce to our two companies is increasing year by year. We will not throw those cotton cloths into our hands, right? Therefore, if the cotton cloth industry in India is weakened by one point, our sales share will increase by one point. Points. If the Mughals come up with any trade restrictive measures, we can even go to war!"

Hearing the words, the black-clothed guard officer who was watching by the side couldn't help but feel moved, and looked at the shopkeepers of the two trading companies who were excited in the hall with deep meaning.

In other words, the Ministry of the Army always wanted to cause some troubles to take the opportunity to expand the size of the army and increase their influence, but it has never found an opportunity.

If there is a conflict between the Mughal Empire and the two trading companies, will the Ministry of War be able to find a reason to send troops to intervene?