Wind Rises in North America 1625

Chapter 178 The Rise of the Alamob Family

March 1631, 3, Panama City.

In 1513, the Spaniard Balboa landed on the Central American continent from the Atlantic Ocean. It is said that when he was observing the terrain on a mountain, he suddenly saw the Pacific Ocean through a telescope. He immediately realized that this place was of great geographical significance, so he traveled day and night to the Pacific Ocean, chose a fishing village as his foothold, built some houses one after another, and followed the name of the local Indians, calling this place "Panama", which means "fishing village". This was the predecessor of Panama City.

In 1519, the Kingdom of Spain sent Davila here as governor. After he took office, he started large-scale construction and expanded the fishing village into a town. Castles, churches, barracks, prisons, warehouses, grocery stores, taverns and other urban facilities appeared one after another, and Panama City was officially born.

In the years that followed, Panama City became a base for Spanish colonists to enslave American Indians and a center for religious activities. It was also a distribution center for Spanish colonists to plunder wealth and sell black slaves in the Americas. The Spanish colonists concentrated the large amount of gold, silver and jewelry looted from all directions in the city, and then transported them to the Atlantic side by packhorses, and then loaded them onto treasure ships and brought them back to the Spanish mainland.

At this time, more than ten merchant ships were docked in the port of Panama. Countless Indian coolies, driven by supervisors, were unloading box after box of heavy goods such as gold, silver, gems, cocoa, packhorse hair, etc. from the ships, and then moving them onto horse-drawn carriages. After staying in the city for a few days, they would be escorted by a large number of troops across the isthmus to Porto Bello (now Portobelo, Panama), waiting to be shipped back to the European mainland.

Adro Papu Gomez stood in front of the small window in the attic, looking out for a while, and couldn't help but sigh softly, revealing a look of regret.

If a powerful fleet could be dispatched to break into the port and occupy the entire city at lightning speed, it would be possible to seize millions of pesos in wealth here.

Those heavy boxes are so tempting and so alluring.

However, all this can only be imagined and cannot be put into practice.

Well, at least not within 5 years.

With the current strength of our Qiming Island, let alone actively attacking Panama City, I am afraid we may not even be able to take down a slightly larger coastal town.

It is said that after being attacked several times by our Qiming Island several years ago, many port towns have begun to build coastal defense batteries and form and train local armed militias to protect the towns from "pirate" attacks.

Therefore, if they launched a surprise attack and tried to go ashore and plunder like the previous two times, they might encounter fierce resistance from the other side, resulting in heavy casualties.

Well, as the Chinese say, every person is precious, and any major loss is unbearable.

"Are you going out?" Just as he walked out of the room and was about to walk around the city, Luis Sigüenza Alamober's face darkened and he reached out to stop him.

"Mr. Alamober, I'm not your prisoner," Gomez said dissatisfiedly. "I should enjoy complete freedom here. You can't stop me from doing anything."

"But, Mr. Gomez, your identity..." Louis said in a deep voice: "If you are caught by the local Panamanian authorities, it will cause us huge trouble."

"How is that possible?" Gomez glared at him. "No one here knows my identity. How could the Panamanian government rashly arrest me? Unless, it's you..."

"We wouldn't be so foolish as to hand over our secrets to the colonial authorities," Louis said, his expression darkening. "But we also don't want anyone to be careless and rashly expose their identities, putting us in danger."

"Mr. Gomez, don't forget your duties in Panama City. You are merely acting as your group's intermediary and information collector. Therefore, for the long-term and security of our cooperation, it is best for you to stay in this manor and not wander around the city."

"As you said, I need to gather the necessary information in Panama City and recruit various personnel for our use," Gomez said. "If you confine me to the manor, how can I accomplish these tasks?"

"We will help you gather the information you need. We can also recruit and hire the people you need. In short, for your own safety, please stay quietly in the manor."

"You mean, I can't go anywhere except this manor?"

"Yes." Louis nodded firmly. "That's what my brother told me when he left. Unless it's necessary, you'd better not go anywhere, especially into Panama City."

Seeing the other party's resolute attitude and the two guards who were eyeing him covetously, Gomes suddenly felt extremely angry. He glared at him hatefully, turned around and walked into the room, slamming the door shut.

Damn it, I thought I was sent to Panama City as a liaison, and I could take the opportunity to enjoy the civilized and prosperous world here, but I didn’t expect to be confined in this manor and not be able to go anywhere freely.

So frustrating!

"I'm sorry, Mr. Gomez." Luis shrugged his shoulders and said through the door: "If you walk around Panama City rashly, and if someone you used to know recognizes you, I can't guarantee what tragic things will happen. For the sake of our safety, I have to inconvenience you a little." "Okay, okay, I get it!" An impatient response came from the other party in the room.

After hearing this, Louis just smiled and turned away.

Last year, their Alamo family had successfully opened up the transportation routes across the Isthmus through the relationship with the Governor of Panama. They were able to smuggle a large number of Eastern goods along with the gold and silver camel caravans sent from the Viceroyalty of Peru to the mainland directly to Porto Bello, and then load them onto ships for sale to Spain and other European countries and regions.

Although the Spanish West India Fleet, under the king's orders, spared no effort to crack down on various smuggling activities, no one really checked the treasure fleets that traveled between America and the mainland every year.

The customers who could deliver goods through the treasure fleet were either royal members and nobles in the Madrid court, or officials and military officers at all levels of government. The interests of all of them were closely linked together.

Even the powerful Chief Minister of the Kingdom, Duke Sanlucar, did not dare to risk offending everyone by thoroughly investigating the treasure fleet traveling between the two places.

You see, in order to increase the financial revenue of the royal government, the Duke of Sanlúcar had just taken action against the merchant organizations and chambers of commerce in Seville and confiscated the goods and gold and silver suspected of smuggling. He was immediately opposed by the whole kingdom, and even forced King Philip IV to remove the Duke of Sanlúcar from his position as chief minister, making him very embarrassed.

Soon, amidst numerous objections, the Duke of Sanlúcar was forced to cancel his investigation into Seville's merchant organizations.

It can be said that smuggling activities in the Americas cannot be eradicated at all.

Because, in terms of manufacturing, the Spanish Kingdom really lacked the necessary industries, and the remaining manufacturing industry disappeared when a large amount of gold and silver poured in from the Americas, which made Spain extremely dependent on the import of foreign goods.

As a result, the Kingdom of Spain could not provide the various production and living materials needed by its American colonial territories, and it still had to import large quantities from other European countries and then resell them to America.

Well, this re-export trade is not very profitable to begin with. If we have to pay a high tax, not to mention whether the country folks in America can afford it, the trade profit will probably be reduced by a lot?

Besides, we Spaniards honestly obey the orders of His Majesty the King and the government and pay the corresponding import and export taxes as required, while merchants from other European countries secretly smuggle large quantities of goods in, and all the trade profits are earned by others. No matter how you look at it, it feels like we are at a disadvantage!

Therefore, in the entire Spanish American colonial territories, the vast majority of industrial products were basically imported through smuggling channels, and goods transported through formal trade channels accounted for only a small part.

Since the Alamober family accidentally got in touch with a group of Eastern pirates four years ago, they have quickly established a secret smuggling network by relying on the network of relationships and sales channels they have built over the years. They have sold the originally scarce Eastern goods to various parts of the Americas, and even to distant Paraguay and Portuguese Brazil, making astonishing profits.

In just four years, the Alamober family's wealth has grown far more than the accumulation of the past sixty years, and they have become an important business giant in the Americas.

Now, in order to obtain higher profits from smuggling, Pedro launched a silver bullet offensive, dragging all the officials of the Panama Military District into the water, thus successfully opening up the smuggling channel from the Americas to the European mainland, and using the treasure fleet that set sail from Porto Bello to transport Eastern goods to Europe.

The smuggling scale has gradually increased from less than 200,000 pesos per year to more than 700,000 pesos at present, causing prices in the entire American market to gradually fall due to "ample supply".

Therefore, in order to obtain enough profits and to absorb more goods, it is necessary to open up a larger market.

What made the Alamober family even more delighted was that, in addition to providing oriental goods, the group of oriental pirates also brought a lot of daily necessities, including various iron products, pottery, spirits, as well as high-quality soap, whale oil candles, smoked ham, salted fish and other supplies.

Although the profits of these products are far lower than those of Eastern products, their sales are extremely wide and can greatly improve and consolidate the business empire of the Alamober family.

To be honest, they really loved this group of Eastern pirates. They were like their god Hermes, bringing them endless wealth.

God bless them, and hope they will never be discovered by the American colonial authorities, let alone destroyed.

Luis thought of the recent news from Mexico. Before leaving, the outgoing governor, Marquis Rivera, issued a military order to let the exploration fleet continue its annual routine patrol in the north to search for the presence of pirates.

I hope they still won't gain anything this time.

(End of this chapter)