Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 1150 Going North ([-])

Cartagena is an "old city".

This port city built in the early 16th century has a history of more than 120 years. Surrounded by water on three sides, it became one of the core ports of the Spanish mainland very early because of its outstanding geographical location—— One of the treasure fleets docks here every year for trade as evidenced by this.

Cartagena belongs to the district of Santo Domingo Prosecution Court. Today, the Spanish Caribbean has gradually declined. More and more Caribbean Spaniards began to immigrate to Caracas, Cartagena and other places, which promoted the The prosperity of the Spanish land economy.Especially after the rise of the plantation economy, the Spaniards increasingly preferred to set up plantations in relatively safe land and coastal areas, among which the Spanish land parts of Lima, Bogota Prosecutor's Court District and Santo Domingo Prosecutor's Court District were biggest beneficiary.

The shape of this city is very different from those irregular Spanish towns in the Old World. , fortified piers, and more messy rural huts-obviously, compared with the regular and neat checkerboard towns on the east coast, the cities under the Spaniards have reasons to review their poor planning.

The customs and commercial stations opened by the people on the east coast are all located in the messy and crowded dock area.Originally they wanted to buy a piece of land around the downtown square (Spanish with a strong Catholic atmosphere always like to build a wide square to facilitate religious activities), but unfortunately, the Spanish mayor flatly rejected it, because it is said that the local The priests strongly objected to this.

On March 1658, 3, the escort gunship "Swordfish" flying the flag of the east coast sailed into the port of Cartagena under the complicated eyes of the Spaniards, and then anchored in the bay near the pier.At this time, some Spanish businessmen who heard the news rushed over—the cabin of the "Swordfish" was loaded with a large number of agricultural tools, printed cloth, dyed leather goods, medicines, silk and other east coast commodities, which were very popular among Spanish American residents. Welcome, so this has attracted many local agents to come to buy.

And the way these Spaniards paid for the goods was obviously not gold and silver (or only part of it was gold and silver), but replaced by special products such as cocoa, coffee, tobacco, pearls, cane sugar-whether these commodities were shipped back to the country or resold to If you go to Europe, you can get a lot of money. You can earn money twice in one purchase and one sale. The profits of ocean trade are indeed more lucrative. No wonder the Southern Railway Company has developed so rapidly in recent years, and then the bitter cold in the Southern Cone The construction of the land is very impressive, it seems that there is still a lot of money!

However, both the director of Air Canada company surnamed Zhou and Anda Fifteen have noticed that most of the businessmen who come to negotiate purchases are small and medium-sized businessmen, because their purchase volume is not very large, they are fussy about the price, and they come and go in a hurry. After staying for a long time and being noticed by more people, this made everyone on the East Bank feel a little helpless - the city's hostility to the East Bank is still very strong, it seems that a lot of energy will be spent on coordinating the interests of all parties in the future , especially the Hidalgos who suffered losses due to the severance of the smuggling trade, they must be wooed well, otherwise the people from the east bank may not be able to move an inch in the city in the future.As for the other major force in the city besides the aristocrats (that is, the religious people), the people on the east coast think that it is better to give up trying to win them over, which is simply unrealistic.

"The industries of the Hidalgos in the city are relatively mixed, and the entire city and surrounding areas are mostly dominated by mixed economies. The nobles (many of them's ancestors became nobles for the first time in America) are good at adapting to changes in the situation. Switching investments between commerce, agriculture and mining when inherent economic activity takes a hit. In general, these native white Hidalgos are far more enlightened than Old World Spanish aristocracy, so I don't think our situation is too bad. Extreme." An official of the National Intelligence Agency who came to the local area to do liaison work reported to Director Zhou, "So, although our arrival has greatly impacted the inherent local interest pattern, many people who have regular smuggling trade with the old continent The nobles suffered a lot, but we can also give them a certain degree of commodity agency, which can alleviate their grievances. Even if some people come too late so that the cake has been divided, then we can completely persuade They used the capital originally invested in business in agriculture, and gained sufficient income by expanding the output of the plantation (also sold to people on the east coast)..."

"This is a method that can be tried. According to the research of the Southern Railway Company in Peru, even the Spanish business families in the New World rarely last for more than two generations. The descendants of most successful businessmen tend to prefer the church, the army and Jobs in the government, the merchant class has never formed a stable solidified class in Spanish America. Therefore, many of the merchants we are facing at this time are likely to have risen in this generation, which is much more convenient than dealing with those old families , I have to say, we are still very lucky." Director Zhou obviously has done research on this to a certain extent, of course, most of this is due to the ten-year-long research on the smuggling trade in Peru by the Southern Railway Company.

"In addition, although this city has a population of only a few thousand, it is the trading center of many surrounding villages and towns. Every month, a large number of horse-drawn carriages or mules and horse teams from inland villages enter and leave the city to transport various goods and buy various commodities. (Most of them are smuggled goods), so it is a good place for us to set up customs here. Well, one thing to note is that every summer and autumn, there will be a fleet of treasure ships coming to Kata The port of Hena usually brings in a large amount of commodities from the old continent and conducts a one-month trade fair. I hope that our usual commodity dumping will be properly controlled so as not to greatly impact the sales of commodities shipped by the treasure fleet. You must know that these commodities Everyone behind the scenes has a lot of energy in the Old Continent, and we shouldn't provoke them just yet-of course, I don't think this seems to be a problem for at least the first ten years, because it is now full of Cartagena More than 80% of the commodities on the market are smuggled commodities, leaving us with a huge market space to seize.” The intelligence official added.

"Very good, young man. I am very satisfied with your recent work. I hope you can continue to maintain it." Director Zhou first praised the young intelligence officer, and then said to everyone in an encouraging tone: "According to the company's charter In 1658, we had to pay the local Ministry of Finance a fixed tariff income of up to 20 yuan, and we would even increase it by 1 yuan every year until the payment was completed for 20 years. Years), this is not a small burden for the company in its infancy stage. Therefore, we must open up the situation as soon as possible, and spread more products to the vast inland villages and towns through the window of Cartagena, and at the same time Buy as many special products as possible and ship them back to the local market for sale—if it is not possible, these special products can also be resold to the Dutch, and let them find a way to digest them. This is the only way to quickly accumulate profits. This is the requirement of all commercial stations in every open port. Well, let’s not talk nonsense, I hope everyone will devote their energy to work from now on. The first step is to start with the statistics of the berths on the docks. A few ships have started, Major Anda, we may need your assistance at this time..."

"No problem, I know what to do." Anda fifteen nodded, and then waved to Nanjiro, asking him to call several officers under his command to give them orders.

Although Director Zhou's words were not very clear just now, Anda XV understood what he meant: the Kingdom of Spain restricts its colonies from trading with the outside world, but why are there so many ships openly moored in the port this time?And there is no sign hanging yet, what the hell is it not a smuggling ship?

Of course, since King Philip of Spain’s order to approve the opening of the port has not yet reached the American continent, theoretically, at this time, the people on the east coast have no right to exercise control over foreign smuggling ships. bird!For example, neither Director Zhou nor Anda Fifteen thought this was a problem. In their view, since the Spanish Governor of Peru was eager to urge them to come to the Caribbean to help defend, this naturally means that they can already advance There are many things to do, such as helping the Spaniards to manage the messy customs (in fact, there is no such thing as Cartagena at this time does not even have a police and cemetery system, let alone a high-level functional unit such as customs).

The speed at which Anda Fifteen summoned the officers and soldiers was obviously very fast, and more than a hundred heavily armed soldiers quickly assembled near the pier, which caused a small commotion among the Spaniards.However, Anda Fifteen ignored them, and instead ordered the officers of each company to take small traffic boats to go to the several foreign ships anchored in the harbor. Looking at the draft of these ships, it is obvious that they are loaded with a lot of cargo. Nima is definitely smuggling, and you are so grandiose, do you really treat other people as dead?It must be deducted!

The sailors on the smuggling boat quickly noticed the movement of the people from the east coast—in fact, they noticed it when the people from the east coast first entered the port. This will happen when they see a large number of men with guns approaching in small boats with malicious intentions. After coming over, these people immediately panicked and shouted.They heaved the anchor and hoisted the sails in a hurry, while warning loudly. Soon, there were messy footsteps on the deck, and a large group of sailors in messy clothes climbed out of the cabin with weapons in hand. This was the rhythm of blatantly resisting arrest.

At the same time, in the square in the center of Cartagena, a group of soldiers from the Lima Colonial Legion, led by the officer, rushed towards the pier panting. The boat is "violent", and the situation seems to be getting more and more interesting...

(End of this chapter)