Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 1576 Iron Mansion ([-])

July 1670, 2, London.

It was raining again today. In the newly decorated London Iron Mansion, two capable young men from the East Coast were lowering their heads and sorting out the documents at hand. Some assistants and entourages were serving tea and drinking water. start.

The Iron Mansion occupies a large area and is located in a prime location in the city of London. It was originally the guild hall of the London Iron and Steel Guild.In England, which has always had a tradition of iron smelting and iron making, the economic strength of the Iron and Steel Guild is beyond doubt. Therefore, no expense was spared from the beginning of the construction of this guild hall, and it has become a famous building in London.

Later, the flourishing German Hanseatic League opened a trading house in London and took a fancy to the Iron Mansion. They bought it with huge sums of money and used it as a trading station for purchasing English woolen fabrics, wool and ironware. It was expanded to accommodate more people.

The Hanseatic League’s commercial station in London did not last long. The ups and downs of bilateral relations and England’s determination to develop its national industry made the business here gradually sluggish and eventually unprofitable.Coupled with the weakness of the Hanseatic League and internal divisions, they soon closed their London business house and sold it, completely withdrawing from the British market.

Now, after changing hands many times, the famous Iron Mansion was bought by the East Coast Ministry of Foreign Affairs with a huge sum of money, and it was used as the embassy of the East Coast Republic of China in England, which made it useful.

Cai Zhenguo, the first East Coast ambassador to the UK, is the son of Cai De, the general manager of Dafeng Food Company. He is also in his 30s this year. Before that, he had been working as a clerical staff in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. This may be the main reason why he was able to overwhelm the others and take up the important position of East Coast Ambassador to the UK.

"This is rare information, commercial data purchased at a huge price." The one who will be speaking is the ambassador to the UK, Cai Zhenguo. With a pipe in his mouth, he raised a piece of paper in his hand, He said with a smile: "The Merchant Adventurer Company, which accounts for most of the British woolen exports, exported 1632 bolts of suede to Central Europe and the Baltic coast in 6, worth 48 pounds; £1640 worth of suede exported in 5; in 40—that is, the last year—the export volume increased a lot to 1663 pounds. Look, the Holy Roman Empire and the Nordic region alone combined There is a market of 40.6 pounds, which is really good! The climate in these places is colder, and the sales of cotton cloth are very mediocre, and woolen cloth is relatively popular. It is no wonder that this is the traditional market for the British. Northern Europe can sell so much, and France , the Iberian Peninsula, the Italian region, and the Ottoman Empire, add up to close to 1669 million pounds, tsk tsk, it is indeed a national industry, amazing!"

"Ambassador, I don't think this matter should be taken lightly. The British have now developed new woolen products, and the sales are very good. I remember that there was a more reliable estimate from Istanbul, that is, the British are now The various types of woolens sold to the Ottoman Empire exceed [-] pieces each year. This figure is worthy of our vigilance. The woolen textile industry is the national industry of the United Kingdom, and it is also the first of the six pillar industries of their country. If we want to hit the UK, we still have to start from this aspect. At present, our country is also vigorously developing the woolen wool industry. The number of sheep in Patagonia has increased year after year. The United Textile Mill in Huangyang County is now It produces more than [-] pieces of woolen fabrics of various colors every year, but most of them are digested in the country and Chile in Spain, and it is a pity that they are not sold to the old continent.” Cai Zhenguo’s secretary graduated from Bingtuanbao and studied for ten years Economy, this professional quality is naturally not covered, so he immediately spoke up.

"Yes, yes, of course I understand, Xiao Zhang." Cai Zhenguo sat comfortably on the chair, raised his legs, and said while puffing out smoke rings: "Now the textile industry is really the industry with the largest output value. Our country, France, the United Kingdom, and Italy all regard it as a pillar industry. Among these countries, the United Kingdom has advantages in raw materials, and its technology is second only to China. I heard that they have further researched and developed on the basis of textile machinery imported from the Netherlands. The technology of the spinning machine has reached the early stage of our country. I heard that the spinning machine has also made a breakthrough recently, which has greatly reduced their cost. They can be called the biggest competitors of China's textile industry in the future. As for France, Italy and other countries, in the The silk weaving industry has an advantage in raw materials, but the cotton textile industry, like us, needs to import from abroad. At present, these two industries can only survive on the basis of tariffs and regional trade advantages, and they cannot compete directly with China. So, our worst enemy is the British, especially now that they have taken the first steps in the technology of the steam engine."

"We have to find a way to curb the development of the British textile industry." Secretary Zhang scratched his head and said after thinking: "The best way is to let them get involved in a war, and then have no energy or money to develop textile technology. And , Because of the war, their trade is likely to be affected to a certain extent. After all, the privateers of hostile countries are not vegetarians. They can always intercept some British ships, which is enough to cause them some trouble. I used to According to the data, the two naval battles during the Cromwell period laid a solid foundation for the strength of British merchant ships. The British captured 1700 Dutch merchant ships and fishing boats in the first Anglo-Dutch war, and captured 400 Spanish merchant ships and fishing boats in the Anglo-Spanish war. Fishing boats, hundreds of Dutch merchant ships were captured in the second Anglo-Dutch naval battle. Don’t these two countries hate Britain? Once the British are in the quagmire of war and have no time to care about others, I don’t believe they won’t jump out Bite the British."

"The only way to get the British into war is to let them go to war against the Dutch. They have no conflict of interest with the French, and they have no unresolved conflicts with the Spaniards for the time being. Their relationship with the Nordic countries is even better. Then we can only let them bite each other with the Dutch. I heard that Charles II was not convinced when he lost in the last war, because in several naval battles, the British navy had a superior battle loss ratio, and it was sunk , Captured, and burned thousands of Dutch merchant ships. It should have been able to defeat the Dutch, but the rich members of Congress did not want to fight and refused to allocate funds to the navy, which led to failure. This guy should be thinking about revenge against the Dutch all the time. This is the opportunity. I think the greatest possibility for them is to join the French side and attack the United Provinces from land and sea to completely wipe out this biggest competitor. Hehe, by then the British textile industry—whether it is the traditional woolen industry or recent years The cotton and linen industry in Manchester, which is developing rapidly - exports will be greatly affected, and we can take advantage of the opportunity to distribute goods. Although they will probably regain the upper hand after the war is over, we can more or less maintain some markets. , This is progress." Cai Zhenguo slapped his thigh suddenly, and said with a smile: "Xiao Zhang, tell me, will there be a fight between Britain and the Netherlands?"

"There will definitely be a fight, but it will be sooner or later. It mainly depends on King Louis XIV of France." Secretary Zhang replied almost immediately without thinking: "Although Special Envoy Li Qing has received the negotiation guidelines from the mainland, and has initially negotiated with France and Spain. The negotiating envoys reached an agreement, but it is true that the French were greatly angered by the Netherlands this time, so it is not ruled out that the French will launch a war against the Netherlands soon. Therefore, even if the members of the British Parliament do not cooperate with the king to allocate funds for the war, as long as King Louis XIV of France gave financial support, and King Charles II of England relied on the tax revenue at hand, the assistance of the nobles, and some real estate, so he should be able to initially arm the navy and fight the Dutch, although its size and combat effectiveness It certainly cannot be compared with the past, after all, the funds are still limited, but they are already considerable, which will greatly restrain the energy of the Dutch people."

It is said that since the Dutch sent Little Tripp to the East Coast in the second half of last year, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the East Coast, which has long wanted to end the war to avoid unnecessary losses (the loss of merchant ships is quite large), immediately passed the latest negotiation guidelines through The liaison ship arrived in Amsterdam via Cape Verde, and then arrived at the Aachen Peace Conference as quickly as possible, and handed it over to Li Qing for review.

Prior to this, the special envoys of France and Spain had already learned of the latest instructions from Li Qing, and they should have communicated in private. Now they are waiting for the official reply from the special envoy for the East Coast Negotiations.And Li Qing's answer was exactly as they expected. The East Bank agreed to the terms of the peace proposed by the Dutch. The free city was also assigned to the Kingdom of France as compensation for the loss of Santo Domingo in France; in addition, the Kingdom of France lowered the tariffs on some goods on the east coast (the regulations are based on the average level of the four countries of Britain, the Netherlands, Spain and Portugal), At the same time, a compensation of 100 million livres was paid as a compensation for their redemption of the ownership of the Caribbean islands occupied by the east coast. The representatives of the three parties signed the "Aachen Peace Treaty" and declared the end.

In this war, the Kingdom of Spain was defeated and lost. Although it gained half of Hispaniola Island with the help of the people on the east coast, it lost part of the territory of the Southern Netherlands and Strasbourg. Cities, still having their bottoms stripped off by the French.And judging from the strength shown by their navy and army in this battle, if the French attack again next time, they will still be unable to resist.Therefore, the Spaniards are really at their lowest ebb, especially after they were defeated by the Portuguese Army a few months ago.Now, the Queen Mother and Don Juan, who are in charge, have decided to sign a peace treaty with Portugal, formally recognize their independence, and then completely withdraw from all wars, silently licking their wounds and recuperating. Spain, an old kingdom with a population of 800 million, is really going through Sorry to bother.

As for the French who got some cities in the southern Netherlands, in fact, more than a year before the signing of the peace treaty, they had already begun to reorganize the roads from Paris to Charleroi and other places, and set up military stations along the way, stored materials, and did everything they could. It's really eye-catching.The Dutch naturally knew every move of the French, and there was a tense atmosphere in the United Provinces. Many people wondered if the French were preparing for war against the United Provinces, so they immediately began to allocate funds to strengthen their armaments (although it seemed It's too late, the Dutch Army's combat effectiveness, which has not heard of military affairs for decades, is so slack), and this has also contributed to the substantial increase in the power of the Orange faction from the side. The days of the republican Speaker De Witt He was having a hard time at home, and a series of complicated affairs at home and abroad gave him a headache.

Therefore, judging from various signs, with the intensive preparations of the militant King Louis XIV of France, a new round of European war is imminent, and it seems that the United Provinces are the first to take the lead, and maybe many other countries will also Was deeply involved, which naturally included England.

"Actually, we can properly collect intelligence in England now, right?" Secretary Zhang suddenly said: "If the British officially decide to attack the United Provinces with France, then necessary war preparations are indispensable. Then can we Staring at the shipyards and repair yards in London, Bristol, Portsmouth and other places? When Britain declares war on the United Provinces, the navy must go first, and war preparations are made from masts, wood tar, ship plates, and anchor chains on the market. Can you see the clues of the shortage and price increase of a series of materials such as canvas, artillery, ammunition, cables, barrels, skins, and even water pumps? Maybe we can start from this aspect, that is, send some capable personnel to distribute Go to various places to regularly investigate the shortage and price of the above-mentioned materials. In addition, sailors can be recruited to hear the wind. These are clear signals of war. However, what name should we use to send these people to these cities? This is a problem, after all, the British are not fools, and our Iron Mansion must be a key target of their intelligence system, so can we only investigate in London through open channels? Sigh, this is even nerve-wracking..."

"Don't worry about these things. The peace treaty has just been signed, and the war didn't start so soon. That would be too exaggerated, so we still have time to take our time. Oh, by the way, we have to report this to Special Envoy Li Qing in Amsterdam. It’s up to you to write the report, including our concerns about the British textile industry and our thoughts on seizing the British textile product market. Since I have taken up the post of ambassador to the UK, I must try my best to do this well.” Cai Zhenguo said .

(End of this chapter)