Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 1511 Trade Window

Strictly speaking, the current Jiaohe Port can only be regarded as a large rural area.Although there are the prototypes of towns left by the Portuguese, although there are various facilities built by the people on the east coast, and although many pioneers have immigrated, compared with other places, this place is indeed too remote, too desolate, and too backward. The conditions are also far apart.

Today is February 1668, 2, and the weather in Jiaohe Port is extremely hot, especially after a heavy rain in the afternoon.However, Baron Krivitz, who came here from the same humid and hot place in New Courland, did not feel the heat at all.Years of living in the tropics has changed a lot for this man who almost planned to move back to his hometown in the Baltic Sea because he was not used to the climate. He no longer regards the tropical weather as a daunting way. area.

The "gold" produced by the Courlandians is mainly tobacco, followed by black slaves, pepper, sugar, wood and some medicinal herbs.These things were originally sold on the east coast. Later, with the intervention of Italian businessmen, New Courland tobacco was introduced to the Apennine Peninsula market, which made the development of New Courland enter the fast lane.

The new market brought new demand. In order to satisfy the appetite of the East Bank and Italian merchants, the Courlands began to continuously launch wars of conquest against the black tribes. On the one hand, they captured slaves and sold them to the East Bank (most of the Congolese slaves It is an iron law to sell to the east bank government, which cannot be violated, even if outsiders bid higher). The land can be used to grow cash crops such as tobacco, cotton, spices, and sugar, which are the economic lifeline of New Courland.

In history, Courland had two relatively rapid developments. One was during the Polish-Russian War. The armies of Crimea, Russia, Prussia, Sweden, and Transylvania successively invaded Poland. Numerous refugees have been created in the territory.Grand Duke Jacob of Courland took the opportunity to absorb these fearful Polish refugees, and then sent them, together with some domestic craftsmen and family members in the paper, glass, shipbuilding, metallurgy, timber and other industries, on his own and the East Coast people's boats. Shipped to the South Atlantic, and then took root in New Courland.

The arrival of a large number of Polish refugees helped New Courland solve great troubles: white armed forces, white civilian officials, white supervisors, white handicraftsmen, white businessmen and even white yeoman.At that time, the [-] Polish white immigrants (a considerable part of which were allocated to the east bank) and the early Latvian colonists together became the basic board for the Courland government to rule the Congo River Basin.After the end of the war with the Portuguese on the east bank, New Courland, which had a small surplus of money by exporting goods to the east bank during the war, was insisted on by Governor Hewitt de Beveren from the east. They bought a large number of Portuguese men and women captured when they harassed the coast of Portugal. In addition, they also took in a large number of white people who did not want to stay under the rule of the East Coast from the East Coast to New Courland. More than half of them were the so-called "New Christians" (that is, Portuguese Jews who converted to Catholicism), which greatly promoted the development of the New Courland Colony-to be honest, the quality of these new Christians is still very high, many of whom have attended Those who have studied, even those who have not, are generally skilled craftsmen, and farmers who are skilled in planting grain, gardening vegetable beds and fruit trees, in short, these are talents that New Courland desperately needs.They chose to leave because of the depressive religious atmosphere on the east coast (people in Portuguese Brazil know that the east coast is a famous "religious prison"). It just so happened that the Principality of Courland had been converted to Catholicism for decades and a half. There are a lot of religious believers, and the religious atmosphere in the whole country is not strong at all, and New Courland is more tolerant of various Christian denominations, so these people have come to live in New Courland one after another.

The introduction of a large number of talents put New Courland on the fast track of development, and with the growing trade with the east coast, they started at a much lower cost than other European colonists in the Congo River The in-depth colonization of the watershed and a lot of benefits have been obtained.This income eventually caused a sensation in the Baltic Sea Basin—especially Courland itself and the neighboring Livonia region—and then continued to attract a large number of newcomers who were full of dreams of getting rich and devoted themselves to the New Courland Colony , This is most obvious in the Principality of Courland, which has a population of only over [-]. This small country now has more than [-] people who immigrate overseas through various channels every year, which is shocking.

The estate of the Knights of Krivitz benefited from this wave of overseas immigration.He was made a baron by Prince Frederick for his contribution in the war to conquer the blacks, and he had his own fiefdom and manor (of course, these are wild lands, which still need to invest money and manpower for construction), and then he hired Many immigrants from the Old World served as accountants, stewards, servants, overseers or craftsmen for their own manors, and then enslaved blacks to grow tobacco and pepper, and exported them to the East Bank for profit, making the Krivitz Knights so impoverished Incomparably, a warrior who worked his life for a living in the Old Continent (the life of the knight master in Livonia has not been very good...), now he has become a nobleman in the upper class.

However, although he has become a baron, Krivitz is still unable to completely stay in his humble manor and wait to die. He still has to work for the interests of Governor Beveren and Prince Frederick. For example, they will go to the east bank to discuss some matters with officials or businessmen in the east bank trade, and they had the first round of communication with the people on the east bank as early as a year ago, and received a positive response from the local officials.This time he came to the east coast again. In addition to delivering a batch of goods with the east coast, he also finalized some matters with their trade officials. At worst, he also asked for their commitment and permission on certain matters. .

Baron Krivitz brought three ships this time, which were quite large in scale.The ship is fully loaded with tobacco, pepper, ginger, sucrose, coffee and other special products, almost occupying the small cabin capacity.In addition, they also carried 360 Congolese black slaves with them when they set off from Port Jacob. It was a surprise that [-] nine of them survived when they arrived at Jiaohe Port. They could get more slaves from the East Coast. A lot of goods.

After sending his entourage to negotiate with the east coast customs officer in the customs house (currently only a hut, probably the poorest customs house on the entire east coast), Baron Krivitz took two servants straight to the east bank of the town He went to the town government, intending to use them to inform the officials on the east coast that he wanted to meet——Bai Yutang, the director of the Ministry of Trade, is said to be waiting for him in Jiaohe Town, and it has been quite a while.

The street leading to the town hall is probably the best road in this port city.Although the road paved with cobblestones, brick debris, and cinders is still not lightly damaged under the heavy rain, it is much better than the slippery dirt road when walking all the way from the pier.

There is nothing to see on the street, but there are some east coast merchants who are haggling before the deal.They sat in a tea shop, holding dry tobacco in their hands, and had a heated argument while smoking.Perhaps it is because many residents and businessmen here come from another place (mostly from Guangzhou and Huizhou), Baron Krivitz, who is fluent in Chinese, finds it difficult to understand what they are saying, especially the emotions of these people Still so excited and speaking so fast.

There is a religious place next to the tea shop, but it does not seem to be the common Tianzun Taoist temple on the east coast. Maybe the power of Tianzun has not yet enveloped this remote port town, Baron Krivitz thought secretly.

This religious place is also a temple, and there are some statues in the temple.Lord Krivitz guessed that these statues must have been copied from the saints as they had seen them in life, and that they were honored for their writing or their service to the public, just as the Portuguese Famous believers such as Santiago and San Marcelo can be seen everywhere in Brazil.These engraved portraits are now placed on an altar table, flanked by vases, incense, and a variety of food and drink, such as fruit and so on.

"I don't think it will take long. After the earthly emissary of the god Tianzun arrives in this port city, these messy beliefs will be gradually unified? It's just that there are so many heretical sects, why don't the people on the east coast have disputes, divisions or even disputes because of this? How about a fight? Thinking about it, it’s really unbelievable..." Krivitz was thinking as he walked, and soon arrived in front of the town government of the East Coasters.

Director Bai Yutang, who happened to be waiting for someone from New Courland at Jiaohe Port, quickly received Baron Krivitz and his party, and then everyone sat down in the backyard of the town government to discuss the matter while drinking tea. main topic of the line.

"Mr. Krivitz, you have been here many times. But to be honest, you have never caused us such a great trouble like this time." Bai Yutang gently put down the teacup in his hand, with a kind of joke The tone said: "Since you proposed to build Jiaohe Port into the main port for trade between New Courland and the East Coast, the officials in Jiaohe Town became impatient. They felt that they seemed to see hope from it, and kept reporting to their superiors. Applying for an increase in investment and packaging this slightly dilapidated port city into a major trading town as soon as possible, this is a big problem for the superiors."

Baron Krivitz smiled when he heard this.In fact, since he crossed the sea and came to the east bank a year ago at the behest of Prince Frederick and Governor Beveren, he proposed to the officials leading trade on the east bank that Jiaohe Port and Yancheng Port should be the main ports for both sides. The requirements of the trading port, that is, they will ship a large number of special products from New Courland, and then cross the Atlantic Ocean to Jiaohe Port, where all the goods will be delivered. By the way, they can also supply and repair the ships, and they can also help Jiaohe when they go south to Yancheng Port. Pull some timber or personnel to the south, so as not to waste capacity by leaving the cabin empty, and earn some shipping costs along the way.

And when these empty Courland ships arrive at the port of Yancheng in the south, they will spend real money there - in the later discussions between the two parties, real money seems unnecessary, because the Courlands have already planned to use it in the east. Open a current account in the Northwest Reclamation Bank, the largest bank on the coast, and transfer transactions directly to the account, which is convenient and fast—purchasing salt, various daily necessities, medicines, production tools, weapons and ammunition and even luxury goods needed by the New Courland Colony , and then cross the Atlantic to South Africa's River Port, and return to Port Jacobs, New Courland after replenishment and maintenance of the ships.

The reason why the Kurlanders made this request was mainly for convenience, not to waste time, and at the same time, to allow the ship to have a place to rest and shelter from the wind midway.For example, they asked the people on the east bank to set up a super-large department store in Jiaohe Port, like the capital city on the east bank.Otherwise, if, as in the past, this port stops for a few days to purchase a batch of supplies, and that port rests for a few days to make a few transactions, the efficiency will be too low.

In addition, after the ship crossed the Atlantic, the condition of the ship was generally not very good, and the crew often had physical problems.At this time, if their ships can be maintained at Jiaohe Port, fresh water, meat, fish, fruits and vegetables can be replenished on board, and sick people can stay here temporarily for medical treatment or recuperation (so as not to continue to follow If the ship is swaying and looking for death), then it is simply the best thing.Moreover, the Courlandians also believed that the people from the east coast had set up so many logging camps in Jiaohe Port, so there must be a shortage of manpower. They sent a large number of Congolese black slaves here for delivery, which happened to be used nearby. This is definitely beneficial to people. Selfish things.

In fact, the people on the east coast also attach great importance to the opinions from New Courland, and decided to meet some of their requirements, but this does not mean that they will instantly spend a large amount of money in a place like Jiaohe Port. invest.The development of Jiaohe Port still needs to be done step by step, slowly, and it cannot be accomplished overnight - at present, the Government Council has approved the investment and construction of a ship repair station in Jiaohe Port, and at the same time mobilized two large syndicated enterprises, the State-owned Department Store and Sun Chunyang Nanhuo Store, to come here Open a branch store and prepare a large number of goods. In addition, it plans to allocate funds to renovate the Jiaohe Port Wharf and Shugang Highway.

But apart from the above, other large investments that local officials had hoped for were dropped because they were deemed unnecessary.If Jiaohe Port wants to develop, it needs to gain a foothold in itself first, do a good job in agriculture or forestry industry, and then further promote business prosperity through trade with New Courland, and then it is suitable to talk about other things.

"However, for the sake of the friendly relationship between the two countries, most of your requests have been met, my friend." After making a joke, Bai Yutang changed the subject and said in a solemn tone: " From now on, the economy of New Courland will be more deeply connected with the east coast, and our government will continue to spare no effort to support you. I hope you can continue to maintain the consistent policy. This is what we hope to see It is of course in your interest."

(End of this chapter)