Wind Rises in North America 1625

Chapter 176: The New Order in America

"For the past decade or so, France has been a staunch supporter of the anti-Habsburg alliance, secretly providing money, supplies, and even military training to various resistance forces. However, we in the Kingdom of Spain cannot easily launch a military attack on them."

"Because, with our current military strength, conquering or defeating a great power like France is impossible. Moreover, if France directly joins the war, it will definitely not be a good thing for our kingdom and the Habsburg Alliance. It will most likely divert more of our energy, thereby weakening our influence and control in some important regions of Europe."

On February 1631, 2, the new Governor of New Spain, Count Juan Martínez Montañez of Avila, was sitting in a luxurious carriage heading to Mexico City and was talking to a young man with a smile on his face.

After more than half a year of operation, and having established a relationship with the Kingdom's Chief Minister (Prime Minister) Olivares, Duke of Sanlúcar, he was appointed by His Majesty the King and the Committee of Indian Affairs as he wished, becoming the new Governor-General of the Territory of New Spain, replacing the Marquis Rivera who had been in office for six years.

As the helmsman and chief minister of the kingdom, the Duke of Sanlúcar is well aware of the current predicament of the Kingdom of Spain, which is mainly due to the increasingly weak financial resources, which makes the kingdom often appear to be somewhat powerless when facing many challengers.

Castile had spent a century serving the Habsburg ambition of dividing Europe, and during that time the bleak new reality was that revenues from the Americas had begun to decline sharply.

He realized that the root of the problem was corruption within the kingdom.

The inspection report submitted by the Committee on Indian Affairs also showed how large amounts of smuggled gold, silver and goods were smuggled down from the American fleet and loaded onto ships from France, England, Flanders and the Netherlands for direct export before they docked in Spain, thus perfectly avoiding tax inspections at domestic ports.

Similarly, large quantities of cargo were smuggled onto ships before the fleets sailed to the Caribbean and America.

However, despite all these events, the Marquis Rivera, the governor of the New Spain territory who had certain supervisory responsibilities, was unable to completely resolve these problems and eradicate the increasingly frequent smuggling activities.

What made the Madrid court even more dissatisfied was that three years ago (1628), when the kingdom's finances were extremely tight, the Dutch intercepted the treasure fleet in Matanzas Bay near Havana, Cuba, resulting in the theft of gold and silver worth millions of pesos, which made the royal government, which had just experienced financial bankruptcy, even worse.

Cuba was under the jurisdiction of the Viceroyalty of New Spain, and the Dutch intercepted the treasure fleet right under their noses. As the governor, Marquis Rivera definitely bears a considerable responsibility.

In addition, some information was received from different channels that a group of pirates roaming the Pacific Ocean frequently launched attacks on Mexican coastal towns, and also robbed several merchant ships engaged in trans-Pacific trade, causing losses of more than hundreds of thousands of pesos, causing many nobles in the Madrid court to lose a lot of blood.

But to date, the Viceroyalty of New Spain has not found these pirates, which makes people wonder whether the Marquis of Rivera is still capable of continuing to defend the king's overseas colonial territories and the Lord's people.

Therefore, the Duke of Sanlúcar prepared to replace the Marquis Rivera with a more decisive person, who would not only ensure the security of the colonial territories of New Spain, but also be able to collect more "taxes" for His Majesty the King and the government to support the kingdom's military operations in Europe.

After being appointed governor in November last year, the Count of Avila could not wait to set sail from Seville with the fleet in January this year, crossing the turbulent Atlantic Ocean and arriving in Mexico.

Carrying the earnest expectations of His Majesty the King and the full authorization document of His Royal Highness the Duke of Sanlúcar, he was ready to take action and begin to rectify the "smoky and chaotic" colonial territory of New Spain and transport every silver coin (gold coin) belonging to the king and the government back to Madrid.

Yes, the Duke of Sanlúcar encountered a series of questions and attacks in his attempts to clean up the lawless merchants in mainland Spain.

The interested nobles constantly complained to the king that the Duke of Sanlúcar's "exorbitant taxation" and "extreme greed" were destroying the financial foundation of the kingdom.

In response to the Duke of Sanlúcar's attack, the powerful Chamber of Commerce, a merchant organization in Seville, warned that this would disrupt the "normal economic order," potentially preventing the unloading of American treasure fleets and, "worse still," possibly leading to "a halt in the export of silver from Peru for fear of confiscation of its goods." The Chamber of Commerce also wrote a long letter to King Philip IV, explaining that due to the large amount of undeclared trade, it had become a long-standing practice for port tax collectors, acting on behalf of the king, to impose import duties of 100% to 350% on the silver they officially registered.

Therefore, the corruption and tax evasion that the Duke of Sanlúcar accused them of did not exist.

"What good can the kingdom gain by bringing such devastating accusations against merchants?"

Perhaps due to strong political pressure at home, most of the Duke of Sanlúcar's many inventory measures ended in failure, so he chose to give up temporarily and then shifted his attention to rectifying the order of the American colonial territories, hoping that the newly appointed Count of Ávila could reverse the situation "made a mess" by the previous governor, crack down on smuggling as much as possible, and collect enough gold and silver taxes to alleviate the kingdom's financial problems.

"Count of Ávila, can we curb the rampant smuggling trade in the Americas?" asked the Duke of Sanlúcar's nephew, the young and energetic Lieutenant Colonel Francisco Esteban Olivares.

"We might be able to put an end to some smuggling, but it's unlikely we can completely ban it," Count Ávila said, shaking his head. "After all, not all local Creoles are on the same page with us. They'll continue smuggling in dark corners we haven't noticed, exporting large quantities of American silver to European countries."

"But it doesn't matter. We just need to collect the 'taxes' demanded by His Majesty the King and His Royal Highness the Duke and send them safely to Madrid. Then, our duty in America will be largely accomplished."

"So, what are the other half's responsibilities?"

"Haha, the other half of our responsibility is naturally to protect our American colonial territories and prevent any ambitious countries or local forces from coveting the wealth and land here."
-
February 2, Mexico City, Governor's Palace.

Marquis Pedro de Rivera, the outgoing Governor-General of New Spain, looked at a military mobilization order on the table, pondered for a long time, and finally signed the instruction to allow it to be executed, and then handed it to the clerk Agustín Ruiz Iturbide.

"Your Excellency the Governor..." Iturbide took the order and looked at him solemnly, "Actually, we can leave these matters to the Count of Avila, and there is no need to..."

"Haha..." Marquis Rivera chuckled, placed his quill in the pen holder, and sighed deeply. "After all, those pirates committed many heinous acts during my tenure. According to the Madrid court, this constitutes dereliction of duty. I failed to diligently protect the king's territory and wealth, and even caused the Lord's people to suffer continuous disasters."

"I cannot shirk my responsibility for this. However, I deeply regret not having sent these daring pirates to the gallows during my tenure as Governor. Therefore, before I hand over my authority, signing this order for the search fleet to continue its exploration northward may bring some comfort to my lost heart."

"I hope God will bless us and allow this exploration fleet to find the stronghold where those pirates are hiding and capture them completely, thereby restoring the dignity and honor of our Spanish kingdom and giving me a little comfort in the distant Spanish mainland."

"Your Excellency, Governor, what if this exploration mission yields no results?"

"If we don't find anything else this time, I hope you and General Antonio can persuade Count Ávila not to give up this exploration and continue searching for the pirates' stronghold."

"I have a hunch that those pirates might not have simple motives. They might be using plunder as a means to colonize somewhere in North America."

"Perhaps, as one officer has speculated, this group of pirates will gradually grow larger right under the noses of our American colonies, and then pose a threat to us."

(End of this chapter)