Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 305 Supplies for Combat Preparation ([-])

Since the end of the war with the Spaniards seven or eight years ago, the two sides signed a peace agreement at the port of Rocha, and the East Coast Republic of China, except for a little repair on the basis of the simple pier left by the original Spaniards in the port, has Turned its attention to the north, and began to focus on the heavy industrial area in the Duck Lake Basin and the capital's agricultural and animal husbandry area.Luocha Port, an excellent deep-water port, seems to be forgotten, and no one cares about it. Its resources and population have nothing to do with her. It can only watch the vigorous development of the northern region.

This situation changed in the first half of this year.After the Ministry of Industry and Commerce sent people to inspect the environment here, it quickly submitted a report to the Government Council on the phased construction of wharves, freight yards and the establishment of a bulk commodity trading market in Luocha Port.The Government Council quickly approved the report, and mobilized nearly [-] soldiers from the Guards Corps of the Executive Committee of Bingtuanbao to come to the wharf to participate in the construction during their spare time.These enthusiastic and pure students are still very powerful. With their efforts, a two-kilometer-long wharf berth has been built in Luocha Port, which is enough to berth dozens of large ships at the same time.Not to mention that, they also built a coastal defense fort with more than a dozen artillery positions around the port, adding another layer of protection to this natural deep-water port.

The main reason for the sudden decision of the Executive Committee to build Luocha Port is money.In view of the fact that the East Coast Republic has exported grain to Europe stably for many years in recent years, this has attracted the attention of many grain merchants in Europe, especially some Hanseatic League merchants from North Germany who have recently been in decline.These businessmen have given a lot of help to the people on the east coast in the matter of Livonian immigrants, and have transported about [-] Latvians, Estonians, Samogitians, and Lithuanians from there. Settling and living on the east coast, although they themselves have made a lot of money in this kind of immigration business, at least they have a good relationship with the people on the east coast, right?Therefore, when they learned that the people on the east coast were going to set up a trading market for food, which is extremely scarce in Europe, they immediately rushed over to find out the situation.

On July 7, for these old acquaintances who came to inquire about the situation, Gao Mo, the Foreign Affairs Commissioner who temporarily presided over the commodity trading market, and Han Gang, the director of the Trade Bureau under his jurisdiction, warmly introduced to them: "The original intention of this market is mainly to The transaction is convenient. The East Coast Republic of China will open up to export more than 2 tons of various grains in the next six months. You don't have to travel for a few days or even a month to buy a little grain, which saves a lot of trouble. Moreover, Trading here, in addition to the normal handling fee, we will no longer charge any other fees, you can buy the highest quality grain at the lowest cost, and we can save some shipping and sales intermediate costs. Therefore , This is actually a win-win thing for everyone.”

After hearing that the port of Rocha is full of big deals and no longer charges fees as numerous as those in Colonia, the merchants of the Hanseatic League are very excited.Without these miscellaneous expenses, it means that their cost has been greatly reduced.Moreover, as people on the east coast said, for the Hanseatic League merchants who do not have very extensive connections in the New World, it is not cost-effective to travel to several ports in a row in order to purchase one or two hundred tons of grain. A centralized trading market is exactly what everyone dreams of.The only ones who might be upset during this process are the Spanish businessmen in La Plata, but who cares?In the end, all the buyers went to Port Rocha to buy food, so those La Plata people had to come here to sell food, right?This is almost inevitable!

"In addition to food, we may continue to increase large-scale transactions of cloth, leather, spirits and other commodities in the future. Of course, this may be delayed for a while." Gao Mo continued to draw big cakes to the merchants who came. , These are all things that don't know about the Year of the Monkey, and you have to consider the mood of the Spanish merchants in the neighboring city of Colonia.

However, this does not prevent these German businessmen from excitedly telling each other the good news.The FOB prices of various grains given by people from the east coast are also quite attractive, for example: the FOB price of potatoes is 40 yuan/ton, the FOB price of wheat is 160 yuan/ton, and the FOB price of sorghum is 110 yuan /ton, the FOB price of rice is 180 yuan/ton.The prices of these grains are set by the people on the east coast based on their own domestic market conditions and with reference to international prices. Regardless of the price of rice, the prices of potatoes, wheat and sorghum still have some profit margins.Nowadays, the price of grains, especially grains, in the European market is skyrocketing like a rocket. If they buy thousands of tons of east coast grains here and sell them to Europe, they will earn a huge profit of more than 20 ducats. .Anyway, the immigrant ships departing from Hamburg, Rostock, Danzig and other places also need to carry some goods on the return journey so as not to run out, so these grains are simply the best commodities to carry on the return journey.

Of course, if people from the east coast sell these grains locally, they will not get such a high return, especially when the sea transportation capacity on the east coast is so tight, you have to bear the risks and costs of sea transportation. Said it is not very cost-effective.It's better to deal with these German businessmen at the FOB price in Luocha Port, which is convenient for everyone.

In the next few days, these German merchants from the Hanseatic League successively purchased about 45 tons of potatoes, [-] tons of wheat, and [-] tons of sorghum, which were enough to fill more than a dozen galleons.Even if these greedy Hanseatic merchants rent some Portuguese and Spanish merchant ships at high prices, they will spend every copper on their bodies into food.In the end, they paid a huge fee of about [-] yuan to the Trade Bureau of the East Coast Republic, and the East Coast people even sent two frigates of the First Fleet to escort them to San Francisco, Brazil in order to express their support for their large procurement operation until Puerto Vicente.

After the Hanseatic businessman left, Gao Mo and Director Han Da of the Bureau of Trade had not even had time to take a breather for a few days, and the supervisor of the nearby La Plata, Spain, sent an old friend of the crossing people——Captain Leo to come to this area recently. The port of Rocha, which is very popular in the region.Captain Leo did not come here to inquire about crimes—he didn’t have the right to do so either. He came mainly because people on the east coast were buying a large amount of war materials such as sulfur, copper, lead, draft horses, hardwood, and cotton recently. The Spaniards were disturbed.

Many businessmen in La Plata heard the news, and Superintendent Torres, the local supreme ruler, naturally heard the news, so he immediately sent Captain Leo, who was deeply trusted by him, to the Port of Rocha for inquiry and investigation. .After all, people on the east coast bought and hoarded war materials in large quantities, and the most nervous ones should be the Spaniards who had a holiday with them.In view of the strong force shown repeatedly by the people on the east coast, the few broken ships and hundreds of militiamen in La Plata can't hold back for long.Therefore, it is better to clarify the situation first, and if the people on the east coast have any unruly intentions, it is better to prepare to transfer in advance.

However, he quickly figured out that the attempt by the East Coast to hoard supplies was not actually aimed at the Spaniards.The trade director of the people on the east coast admitted to him that the relationship between the east coast and the Dutch has become more and more tense recently, and the people on the east coast have hoarded a large amount of war materials just in case.Captain Leo was extremely excited when he heard the news. The Dutch are the common enemy of both sides. Even today, even some remote ports such as La Plata have been repeatedly threatened by Dutch pirate ships.Therefore, for the Dutch, the attitudes of both sides are actually highly consistent.

After figuring out the situation, Captain Leo forwarded a letter from Peru to Foreign Minister Gao Mo.The letter was written in Spanish, and Gao Mo thought it was another cliché about asking the East Coast Republic of China to crack down on border smuggling trade, so he put it away indifferently, and planned to hand it over to his superiors when he returned in two days.

However, Captain Leo became a little anxious when he saw that Gao Mo didn't pay much attention. He looked around and reminded Gao Mo in a low voice. letters.This letter is extremely important. In the letter, the Governor invited the people of the East Coast and the Spaniards to send troops to attack the Brazilians in the Sao Paulo area to punish the traitors who betrayed the great Philip IV.

Hearing Captain Leo utter such earth-shattering words with a mysterious expression, Gao Mo was also stunned.This was a major diplomatic event, and he didn't dare to make decisions on his own, so after hastily handing over the affairs here to Han Gang, the director of the Trade Bureau, he immediately took Captain Leo back to Dongfang Port by boat.This kind of matter should be handed over to the executive committee for collective consideration. He dare not make decisions, and he can't make decisions.This involves an important diplomatic decision of the country, which cannot be handled by him alone.

On July 1641, 7, under the introduction of Gao Mo, Captain Leo came to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of East China, and sat down with Ma Ganzu, chairman of the Executive Committee, who had received the information in advance, and started a secret meeting.No one knew what the outcome of the negotiations between the two parties was. Anyway, no one saw Captain Leo's expression when he left Dongfang Port by boat late the next night.Gao Mo, the foreign affairs committee member of the East Coast Republic, and Ma Ganzu, the chairman of the executive committee, who were in charge of negotiating with him, did not reveal anything to the public. Instead, after sorting out the materials with their confidential secretaries, they discussed with other members of the executive committee. The committee members sat together and started a closed-door discussion.

On the second day after the executive committee discussion ended, that is, on July 7, when Blanco of the Almeida family came to the east bank to load weapons, Foreign Affairs Commissioner Gao Mo met with him in his own name and told him The meeting place was set at his manor villa by the reservoir outside the city.

(End of this chapter)