Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 1685 Variables in the Continent

"What kind of policy should we adopt for the people on the east coast?" In the city of Batavia, which is humid and hot all year round, the new governor, Ricklauf Vangoens, occupies the balcony on the second floor of the villa, looking at the city. Row upon row of buildings, large and small, asked the man standing behind him.

Behind him is a short man with blond hair, who looks even a little fat, with a hideous scar on his face, with dark eyes and a fierce expression. He is one of Van Goins' most trusted confidantes and is in charge of the East India Company. Balthazar Burt of a major naval force.

This gentleman followed Van Goens when he was attacking the city of Ceylon, because of his excellent sea command art, brave and courageous character, and his achievements in defeating the Portuguese navy many times, he finally sat on Bada in Van Goens After the throne of the Governor of Via, he also took charge of the most important maritime military force of the East India Company in the Far East-the patrol fleet located in Gallenburg, Ceylon Island, a maritime armed force with 8 professional warships.

The reason why the Dutch East India Company placed the most elite sea power in the area around Ceylon Island is because the island is now becoming more and more important in the East India Company's commercial territory, and the second is because it is closer to India and can be more powerful. Keep an eye on the English and their little brothers, the Portuguese, who have become more and more powerful in India in recent years. Of course, the French who come here from time to time and have had friction with the East India Company also have to guard against it. There is no way, Badawi Asia has too many enemies.

Of course, the island of Ceylon, where the new governor, Ricklaw Vangoens, started his career, is also an important factor.After the armistice agreement signed by the East India Company and the Portuguese expired, the Dutch immediately launched a new offensive against them. Colombo and Jaffna were successively captured by the Dutch army led by Van Goens, and he also occupied the opposite Madurai, an Indian coastal area on the island of Ceylon, adds a layer of protection to the safety of the island of Ceylon.

Controlling the entire island of Ceylon, the Dutch East India Company took control of the vital cinnamon producing area in its own hands and completely monopolized the sales of this spice.This is not a small business, but a big business with annual sales of more than 300 million dong, and a considerable part of it is sold to the east coast, because its texture is many times better than the local cinnamon on the east coast , the local sales on the east coast, which love to eat beef and mutton, are huge. It is conservatively estimated that there are more than 70 dong in annual sales, and there is a tendency to increase year by year, which shows the importance of this island.

Correspondingly, Ricklaw Van Goins also relied on the dual advantages of the island's resources and geography to gradually operate it as the headquarters of the East India Company's trading post in India and its west, and successfully won over the island. A group of forces are around, and their status within the East India Company is also rising day by day.Especially after he led the army to seize the Cochin Fortress that originally belonged to the Portuguese, this guy even sent the armed sailboat "Mayue Zhu" directly to the United Provinces, and then proudly announced his victory to the company's directors.

This is a very taboo step, because at this time, any ship going to the mainland of the United Provinces must transit through Batavia. This move by Fan Goins undoubtedly established a direct route, which seems to be separated from Batavia. The meaning of control was in it, which naturally dissatisfied the then governor Joan Matesolko, and directly filed a complaint with Amsterdam, asking the company to punish Fan Goins.

The result of the company's ruling was surprising. They did not take any measures to punish Fan Goins. Instead, they directly dismissed Matt Saulko and sent him to the Cape Town colony that had been occupied by the East Coasters to negotiate. At the same time, Fan Goens was righted As the governor of Batavia, in order to prevent any trouble in this colony that is fundamental to the East India Company.

The reason for this somewhat surprising result is actually related to Van Goins’ excellent record and the prospect of making money for the directors of the company after he monopolized the cinnamon business. The words were moved, so it was finally decided to appoint him as the new Governor of Batavia, and poor Matt Solko was abandoned.

At this time, Ricklaw Van Goins has moved to Batavia for more than a month. He is extremely happy to take over the power of the entire East Indies, as if all trade and colonial activities will be carried out smoothly under his guidance. , The turnover of the East India Company will once again reach a new level, and the shareholders and their own wallets will become richer.

The only thing that gave Governor Van Goins a bad impression was that the heretics from the southern New World brazenly sent troops to occupy the Cape Town colony where the company had been operating for many years, and all of a sudden lost an important repair to the merchant ships going to and from the Far East and Amsterdam. Points and supply points, the difficulty of navigation has greatly increased.

However, the Cape Town colony is too far away. It takes Batavia a fleet to sail for more than a month to reach that sea area, and there is no place to repair ships and supplies. There is no chance of winning the fight.What's more, there is a characteristic of the colonization of the people on the east coast, that is, most of them are government actions, so their Second Fleet (the Dutch East India Company still knows the strength of the Second Fleet) and even the First Fleet sent some main warships to come. If there is a war, the valuable property of these companies will be lost there, so it is better to be cautious.

Although Fan Goins is arrogant and arrogant, he is sober enough. He clearly knows that the English and Portuguese can be provoked, but when he bullies the people on the east coast who are backed by the government and have a lot of assistance, he needs to weigh it carefully, because you first You need to understand the size of the enemies you are likely to face before making a decision.

"The strength of the people on the east coast cannot be underestimated." After a short silence, Balthazar Burt said: "Their Second Fleet is stationed on Xinhua Island and has many powerful professional warships. In particular, the double-deck battleship is second only to our "Mrs. Cornelis Van der Linn" in the Indian Ocean, and even surpasses it in speed and maneuverability. This must attract our attention. And even if we can beat their Second Fleet, the people on the East Coast can definitely send warships from the more powerful First Fleet to participate in the battle. Compared with such a huge national power, the strength of the East India Company is somewhat insufficient. Moreover, Your Excellency Governor, I think it is a very stupid thing for a company like ours to confront the country on the east coast."

"You are very rude, Balthazar." Van Goins turned around, looked at his old subordinates, and said again: "But what you said is right. Although the loss of the Cape Town Colony is a big deal for the company An important blow, but considering the strength of the people on the east coast who occupy that piece of land, it is unrealistic to expect Batavia to recover the lost ground. This requires more efforts from the local side, and finally through diplomatic channels Negotiation. Now we still have a lot of things to do. The restoration of Bago’s trading station requires a lot of resources; the trade volume of Tokyo’s trading station has been declining year after year, and the Vietnamese are no longer respectful to us. We need to find a way Turn the situation around; there are now more and more foreign businessmen or explorers in Siam, and a single Greek, Palfkon, has caused a lot of trouble, not to mention the peeping and coveting of French expedition warships, Our pressure in Siam is unprecedented, and we need to invest resources to make up for it. In short, we still have a lot to do. At this time, how can we take the risk of being seriously weakened to compete with the East Coasters for Cape Town? Well, that's unrealistic, at least not for us in Batavia."

It is said that although Van Goens has gained a greater advantage for the East India Company in the spice trade, but he himself is an out-and-out member of the new trading system within the company, and has been advocating that the company should not only focus on Spice trade, while ignoring other possible profit opportunities, such as Ningbo, Japan, Taiwan and Siam trade, which are becoming more and more important to the company, which have even accounted for about one-third of the company's annual profit.

But Van Goins believes that there is still a lot of potential to be tapped, especially in Ningbo and Siam, but it seems that they have been challenged to a certain extent.Among them, Siam is due to the emergence of competitors, which caused the Siamese to no longer rely on the Dutch East India Company, which in turn caused a sharp drop in trade revenue at the trading stations in Ayutthaya and Liukun, and major imported commodities such as hematoxylin, ash, and furs were also frequently imported. Out of stock has greatly affected the operation of the commercial stations in the two places; and the Ningbo trade is not mentioned. After the people on the east bank brazenly sent troops to occupy the Dutch South African colony, whether this lucrative trade can continue to exist is a question. An unknown, so Governor Van Goens felt very sad, and thought about whether to expand the scale of trade with Zheng Chenggong, the "pirate country lord" and the Tatar emperor Manchurians, to make up for the loss of Ningbo trade. The scale of this loss seems irreparable.

"But seriously, Ricklough, we've known each other for so many years, you know I never talk nonsense, I insist that we should still try to win the Ningbo trade, because the East Coast people still haven't said they will cut off the relationship Business between us. I heard from Hendelman that the people on the east coast are still begging us for food, because they seem to have suffered a lot in the battle with the Manchurian emperor, and food is relatively scarce at present. Therefore, I think we can give it a try, maybe the people on the east coast don't refuse to trade with us?" Balthazar Burt shrugged and said to Van Goins: "The people on the east coast can't do without our trade, otherwise The industry they produce, raw silk, will not find enough buyers and will have to sell it in their own domestic market, which is totally impossible."

"Perhaps you are right, Balthazar, but the trade with the pirate kings and the emperors of Manchuria is indeed to be strengthened. We are now too dependent on the goods supplied by the people on the east coast, which is not good, very bad , dispersing trade is the right thing we should do. For commodities like green tea, we can buy Wuyi green tea from Fujian to replace them. Moreover, there are still a lot of tea, raw silk and porcelain in the Qing Dynasty, and there are also many high-grade furs. We should Buy vigorously, rather than sit back and watch these goods be snatched by the English and Portuguese. The agreement we signed with the East Coast has brought us a stable income, but is it not a bondage?" Governor Van Goins Said: "What I mean is to adjust the trade structure as soon as possible, so that the people on the east coast will no longer have the initiative. Regarding this, I will write to Hugo Rolle of Formosa Island, and he will understand me the meaning of."

"Well, you are the governor, you have the final say." Balthazar Burt said indifferently: "But considering that the main products we sell to the Qing Dynasty are rifles, artillery and their accessories, as well as some Professional military officers on the border, once we deepen the trade relationship with the Qing Dynasty, maybe the strength of the Qing Army will be improved to a certain extent. This will inevitably bring more troubles to the people on the east coast. The evil deeds that Puton has done. Ah, yes, since the last time I helped the Qing Dynasty build an armed sailing ship, I heard that the officials leading the Qing Dynasty’s trade are eager to build a second one, and asked us to send some more excellent ships. The sailors and gunners go over and help them train the crew, as Hendelman has already mentioned to me, to prepare my officers for service, Your Excellency Governor, what should we do?"

"It fully meets the requirements of the Qing people. You don't need to ask me for instructions in the future. You can just agree to this kind of thing." Ricklauf Vangoens immediately replied: "The Qing navy has no conflict of interest with us. On the contrary, it does contain the people on the east coast. It is an excellent weapon for sea power, and they offer enough money, so why should we refuse? Balthazar, after what you said, my thinking is becoming clearer now. It is true that we can Continuing to trade with the people on the east coast—at least until the seventeen gentlemen in Amsterdam refused us to do so—at the same time, we can increase trade ties with the Qing Dynasty, enhance various technical assistance to them, and improve their sea level. The strength of the army. Considering the huge size and large population of the Qing Dynasty, the combat power bonus brought about by this increase is very obvious, and it will definitely cause more trouble for the people on the east coast, so that we can get benefits , can also let out a bad breath, which is really a good way."

"I will have someone formulate a detailed plan, and at the same time wish Hendelman and Rolle to step up their implementation. This is also good for the company's long-term interests in mainland China. Such a large market should not be overthrown by brutal and brutal Dong The shore people continue to control it!" Governor Van Goins finally said.

(End of this chapter)