Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 1541 West Indian Ocean ([-])

In the northern Indian Ocean in late March, the northeasterly wind still prevailed, and the gunboat "Bonito" commanded by Captain Eichto escorted several merchant ships of the East African Shipping Company just returning from the Red Sea.

They went north from Xinhua Port last autumn (autumn in the northern hemisphere) and stayed in Suez Port in the Ottoman Empire for half a year.The main reason for this is that the speed at which the Ottomans organized the supply of goods was so slow that they had to wait until now to have the opportunity to return to the voyage—if it was more than half a month at night, the currents and wind directions in the North Indian Ocean would undergo another huge change. At that time, any move to sail south along the Red Sea will inevitably encounter huge resistance, and it is impossible for them to stay in Suez Port even if they don't want to.

The goods loaded on several ships were varied, ranging from small foods such as dates and raisins to large livestock such as horses and camels.Of course, the Slavic slaves resold by the Ottomans are indispensable among the goods. It is the failure of these slaves that makes the journey of the East African Shipping Company's fleet so delayed that it almost couldn't leave in the end. But finally caught up with the last train, luck is not bad.

The business of importing slaves from the Ottoman Empire has been an important means for people on the East Bank to balance bilateral trade for many years (of course it is impossible to achieve a complete balance, Ottomans are still exporting precious metals to the East Bank year after year), whether it is local or new Huaxia Island imports more or less every year to fill the shortage of labor in various places.Most of the [-] Transylvanian slaves imported from Ottoman were young and middle-aged men. They were ordered by the state-owned cotton plantation. They planned to transport them to the banks of the Cotton River to build irrigation facilities, and then distribute them to various plantations for repairs. Earth.

The fleet stopped at the port of Djibouti for a short time, and sent some cattle, sheep and wheat to the more than [-] soldiers and engineers on the east coast who stayed there, so as to support them to continue to catch black people in the local area to mine potassium salt. The strategic materials that are urgently needed at home and abroad cannot be ignored-the current local requirement for the Djibouti colony is to provide "at least one ship" of potash salt every year. To be honest, this requirement is not high. The place is easy enough to complete, provided that the supplies are relatively sufficient .

After docking in Djibouti, the fleet did not stop in the middle, but pointed down along the coast of East Africa. The wind was smooth and the speed was extremely fast. On March 3, it crossed Mombasa Island and then on the west coast of Zanzibar Island. Anchor and berth.

The stronghold of the people on the east coast on the island is located on the west coast, near the city of Zanzibar in later generations. The name of the ancestor, Captain Echito of Italian origin, is not sure whether it is true or not.

The population of Pemba Island was originally quite large, but over the years, due to the competition between the Portuguese and the Omanis here, as well as the massive hunting and killing by the colonists on the east coast, the number of indigenous blacks on the island has dropped sharply to one With less than [-] yuan, Japanese businessmen represented by Omanis were "sent out of the country". Saif Sultan of the Muscat Sultanate was shocked and angry, and repeatedly reprimanded the people on the east coast for destroying the relationship between the two countries. Originally several harmonious diplomatic relations.

However, for an island with such an important strategic position as Tiuba Island, the people on the east coast would never give it up to foreigners.No matter how upset you Omanis are, you have to bear it with me, otherwise, everyone will put up a fight and see whose fist is tough. After the Portuguese maritime forces that have been dominating the Western Indian Ocean for many years have been defeated, The new overlord has surfaced. If the Omanis do not want to suffer irreparable losses in the future, it is better to be low-key and subtle at this time, but many times people cannot view the situation correctly and rationally.

When the people on the east bank drove away the Omani forces and built forts, customs buildings, prisons (actually a slave concentration camp), barracks and Taoist temples on the original site of Zanzibar City, they completely cut off the vast majority of communication with the east bank. Part of the trade, the once thriving Persian female slave trade has completely become history, and the situation in the entire Northwest Indian Ocean has fallen into a very tense state - the Omanis are driving armed merchant ships (reformed from transport ships) ordered from the Xinhua Shipyard , All the way from Mogadishu and other places to the south, while fighting against the local indigenous princes, it may not necessarily mean to demonstrate to the people on the east coast.

People on the east coast sneered at their behavior, as if they didn't see it at all. Anyway, as long as they didn't hinder them, they would ignore it and focus on the work at hand, such as how to better organize the East African continent. Become your own cash machine, and Layer Island is a breakthrough chosen by the people on the east coast.

According to the information compiled by the National Intelligence Agency over the years, the trade on the Swahili coast of East Africa can be roughly divided into two regions, namely the North and the South.The northern region is dominated by Kenya, Tanzania and a part of Somalia in later generations, while the southern region is dominated by Mozambique and the inland Zimbabwe plateau. It is required that all nearby city-states are no longer allowed to trade with foreign countries without authorization, so all foreign transactions must be concentrated on the island of Tiuba, so that the customs of the people on the east coast can collect taxes on them.

As for the trade in the southern region, the people on the east coast have also set up a temporary trading location, that is, the port of Nghe Seng captured from the Portuguese.

There is no doubt that this "tyrannical behavior" of the people on the east coast will be resisted by most people on the Swahili coast, whether it is the extremely active Omanis, who stationed in Mombasa and controlled a considerable number of indigenous chiefs. The Portuguese, who were local indigenous warlords or princes, were extremely dissatisfied with this at first, and had no intention of coming to Pauba Island or Ng Seng Port for transactions.

Faced with this situation, the Second Fleet of the Navy, which had been prepared for a long time, did not need to be mobilized. It immediately dispatched a number of combat ships to patrol near the Swahili coast, focusing on intercepting and arresting those who did not have tax payment certificates (need to arrive Ships from various countries, including Indian, Portuguese, Omani, Persian, and even Dutch merchant ships, have been caught, although it is not ruled out that there is still smuggling (in fact, this cannot be eliminated. ), but it has greatly increased the cost of smugglers, making them seriously consider whether to really pay customs duties at Pauba Island or Nghee Seng Port in order to seek safety.

There are many merchant ships from India, Persia, and Arabia in the port where Captain Axito is currently stationed. They bring livestock, dried fruits, wool fabrics (tapestries or carpets) from the Middle East, gems, perfumes, dyes, and saltpeter from India. And spices, Persian porcelain, tiles and raw silk, in exchange for some industrial products of the people on the east coast and commodities from the East African continent.

All trade must be carried out in the trade market in the Port of Strait. The East Coast Customs imposes a 5% tariff on imports and exports, and takes away 7.4% of the tax when they come and go without doing anything. This is too much money. It’s also easy—according to the statistics of the island’s customs, last year they collected a total of [-] yuan in import and export duties, which is amazing. Of course, this figure still has great potential to be tapped, because obviously there are still a lot of import and export duties from the Middle East. Trade with Indian merchants outside of Pawat Island, and this part of the tax revenue is lost.

In addition to collecting taxes, people on the east coast often end up trading by themselves, because ivory, high-grade fur, rhino horns, herbs and other commodities produced on the North Swahili coast are also urgently needed by the east coast, not to mention there are What about the slave trade, which accounts for the largest share of the trade volume—the local chieftains sold the captured prisoners of war to the east bank in exchange for commodities such as textiles, medicines, ironware, weapons, sugar, etc., and the people of the east bank unified these slaves The state-run cotton and sugar cane plantations shipped back to Xinhua Island were used as coolies, and Duandi was a good business.

Compared with Mamba Port, Nisheng Port’s trade mainly faces Mozambique and Zimbabwe, especially the Matapa Kingdom built on the plateau of Zimbabwe, which produces a large amount of gold every year, and has long been envied by people on the east coast.This time they cracked down on the so-called smuggling ships in the offshore, in order to force the inland merchants to no longer go to Sofala under the control of the Portuguese for trade, and instead go to the Yicheng Port of the people on the east coast for delivery of goods in order to grab huge profits.

You must know that in this era, the Matapa Kingdom exported more than one ton of gold each year, and gold mining has almost become the main business activity of the Matapa Kingdom and the nearby Shona-speaking indigenous tribes.Some of them dig for gold in mines, and some pan for gold in rivers. Gold production areas are almost all over the Zimbabwe plateau.What's even more amazing is that gold is not a currency in the local society, but a simple commodity, which is generally used to exchange the necessities of life transported from the coast to the inland - such "stupid" natives are not civilization Is it the favorite of profiteers in the world!

East Coasters have been paying attention to gold from Zimbabwe for a long time.In the past two or three years, warships have been dispatched to sweep the coast of Swahili in order to cut off the overseas trade of these ports, so that they have to turn to the people on the east coast who have sources of goods such as cloth, and finally transport most of the gold and ivory to righteousness. Chenggang came to exchange.

Their efforts have achieved a little success. Gein cloth is a necessity in the cold Zimbabwe plateau, but the local production is seriously insufficient. In the past, it was always solved by importing cotton cloth from India. The number of people in the coast was greatly reduced, and the amount of cloth the Portuguese brought from other places was also very scarce. In the end, they could only purchase cotton and woolen products from the people on the east coast. sent to the East Coast.

The reason why the people on the east coast guide (although they use force to "guide") merchant ships from various countries to go to Pemba Island for trade is not only to collect taxes, but also to promote their own industrial products.For example, Indian cotton cloth, which was originally sold very well on the coast of East Africa, was mainly produced in Gujarat and Coromandel. These two places obtained a large amount of surplus food from rice planting, so sufficient labor was liberated from agriculture. Can be engaged in manufacturing - was defeated by the East Coast cotton cloth produced in Ping'an Weaving Factory, not only because the price of East Coast cotton cloth is not much higher than Indian cloth, but also because of the extremely strong position of the East Coast people in the local area, The Indian merchants who came to sell cotton cloth were a little trembling, and finally they were slowly squeezed out of the market.

There are many kinds of commodities that the local people use to trade with the east coast, but the most common ones are ivory, gold, high-grade fur, rhinoceros horn and other things.Especially ivory, which is extremely valuable everywhere, and the East Coast is no exception. Many wealthy people like to buy ivory products to make decorations or daily utensils at home, so it is a very good market.

Africans have mastered the brutal and effective hunting methods for elephants, and can use traps, snares and spears freely, and a large number of wild elephants fell down in front of them.On average, an elephant can yield more than five tons of meat — meat that is said to be high in protein but eaten by few outside Africans — and ivory weighing up to 40kg.

These ivory will then go through long-distance transportation to various ports by the sea, such as Mombasa, Zanzibar, Kilwa, Sofala and other places, among which Kilwa and Sofala are the most important, and they also collect and distribute the most ivory, gold and high-grade fur .However, after a period of attack by the East Coast Navy, except for Mombasa Island controlled by the Portuguese, the trade of other ports was more or less affected. The two places traded and paid taxes between Pumba Island and Nghe Seng Port, which caused a large amount of gold to flow into the hands of people on the east coast. In order to smelt and cast the gold, the State Administration of Precious Metals even built a small The Mint specializes in casting the collected gold into gold coins with a face value of 1668 yuan and transporting them back to the country. It is said that in 11 alone, the mint stamped and cast more than [-] yuan of gold coins for the gold reserves of the Eastern Republic of China. made a great contribution.

Because the fleet escorted by Captain Echito belongs to the East African Transportation Company, it does not need to pay customs duties in the port. It only needs to pay a negligible entry management fee at the Port Authority to berth freely.However, they didn't plan to stay here for a long time. The livestock and slaves on the ship had to eat. If they stayed for one more day, they would incur an extra day's expenses. It was better to leave as soon as possible.

So, on March 1669, 3, after resupplying with fresh water, before they even had time to maintain the ship, they hurried south again, following the current straight toward the port of Cotton River, and finally on April 23. Arrived in this port city with a large cotton plantation.And when they entered the port, it is said that the ships carrying the last batch of immigrants from the Huai'an Prefecture of the Qing Dynasty in the Far East happened to be anchored here for renovations.

(End of this chapter)