Wind Rises in North America 1625

Chapter 90 The Greed of Smugglers

January 1, late at night, 26 o'clock.

Manta town, Peru.

Suddenly, several dogs barking in the yard woke Pedro del Alamober from his dream.

I turned my head and glanced out the window. The night was still dark. Only a beam of moonlight shone into the house through the tassel curtains, revealing the shadows and outlines of the furniture in the room.

"Oh……"

Pedro was stunned for a while, then he heaved a sigh of relief and regained some consciousness.

He carefully removed Mrs. Plutarch's arm from her chest and then grabbed a handful of her body.

Mrs. Plutarch groaned a few times, mumbled a few words in her sleep, turned over, and continued to sleep soundly.

"Stay for three more days, yes, just three days, I have to return to Acapulco Port." Pedro made up his mind.

Oh, I was so stupid. After purchasing a large amount of cocoa from Guayaquil, I didn’t return to Mexico directly. Instead, I stopped in Manta for some unknown reason.

Yes, after much hesitation, he decided to wait for the pirates to arrive in Manta.

After they looted the small town last year, they told him that they would carry out a smuggling transaction with him around January of the following year, bringing a large amount of oriental specialties.

The other party promised that the goods provided to him would be 40% to 50% cheaper than the oriental goods in the port of Acapulco, and he would make unimaginable profits from it.

In fact, deep down in his heart, Pedro had deep doubts about this.

Since the trans-Pacific galleon trade began in 1565, except for the Portuguese secretly sending a 1590-ton merchant ship from the Atlantic to Mexico more than years ago (), no other country or force has ever been heard of getting involved in the Eastern trade, which has always been monopolized by the Spaniards.

During the trans-Pacific trade, it was also very "strictly" controlled and supervised by the colonial government. Not only was the quantity limited to a "specific" range, but even the distribution channels were controlled throughout by the Governor's Office and local colonial institutions to prevent the taxes and interests belonging to the royal family and the government from being invaded and damaged.

Moreover, the trade routes that could cross the Pacific Ocean and travel between Mexico and the Philippines were only controlled by the Spanish (the Pacific route taken by the British Drake was different from that of the Spanish. It started from near San Francisco and sailed with the help of the trade wind belt in the northern hemisphere), and almost no outsiders knew about it.

How could a group of pirates easily cross the Pacific Ocean and bring back a large amount of oriental goods!

However, when he was on his way back to Acapulco Port with a shipload of cocoa, for some reason this strange idea came into his mind.

What if these pirates can really do it?
So he ordered the ship to sail into the port of Manta, intending to stay there for a few days and wait for a miracle to happen.

His desire for wealth made him lose his mind and his vigilance in an instant.

If the pirates could provide him with oriental goods at a price 40% to 50% lower than that in Acapulco Port, he would be able to gain a huge trade advantage and earn several times the profit through the channels he established.

Even if this group of pirates only brought dozens of tons of oriental goods, it would still be a business worth tens of thousands of pesos, which is many times better than the cocoa trade he is doing now.

As for their pirate identities, Pedro didn't care much.

Because, compared to those lovely silver coins, this is nothing at all.

On the Atlantic coast of America and in the Caribbean Sea, countless colonial officials and merchants were actively engaged in smuggling business with smugglers of all sizes, disregarding the interests of the Spanish royal family.

Among these smugglers were enemies of the Spanish Kingdom, such as the Netherlands and England.

Therefore, Pedro had no psychological burden about doing business with pirates.

After all, the king is too far away, while the benefits are immediate.

"Just wait three more days..." Pedro murmured, and was about to close his eyes and fall asleep again.

Suddenly, there was another burst of dog barking outside the yard, and a faint knocking sound could be heard.

As if sensing something, he immediately sat up from the bed, took a piece of clothing and put it on, picked up a rapier from the wall, and walked to the window.

He lifted a corner of the curtain and peeked out. He saw two guards, already awakened by the frantic barking of dogs, half-dressed, each holding a musket, slowly walking towards the courtyard gate.

"Squeak..."

The two wooden doors made a grinding sound, and a dark shadow quickly flashed in from outside.

Before he could stand firmly, he was pinned to the ground by two Mestizo guards, one on each side, and their muskets were pointed at his forehead.

“No, no, no…” The man did not struggle much and let the guards tie his hands behind his back, but he whispered, “Gentlemen, be gentle, don’t be so rude. I’m here to see Mrs. Plutarch and have something important to discuss with her… Oh, damn it, you’re hurting me… Stop, stop now…”

When the guards heard the man say he wanted to see Mrs. Plutarch, they immediately kicked him to the ground and kicked him hard several times.

Damn it, don't you know our master is in Mrs. Plutarch's bed?
My lover, you chose the wrong time!

"Stop!" Pedro came out of the house and shouted in a low voice: "Stop fighting and bring him over to see me."

Upon hearing this, the two Mestizo guards grabbed the man and pushed him in front of Pedro.

Oh, God, would Mr. Pedro be so angry that he would stab to death this love rival who came to his house in the middle of the night?
"Are you... Mr. Pedro?" The man was dragged closer. In the dim moonlight, he couldn't see clearly, but the person standing at the door was undoubtedly a man, so he asked in a low voice.

"It's me." Pedro waved his hand to signal a guard to calm the family dog ​​that was still barking so as not to disturb the surrounding neighbors.

"Great..." The man showed a pleasantly surprised expression on his face. "Our chief asked me to ask you if you still want to continue the Eastern Trade."

"Huh?" Pedro's heart suddenly jumped up, "You... are here?"

"Yes, we're here." The man shook his arms vigorously, as if trying to remind the other party to quickly untie him. "We've brought a large amount of Oriental goods. ... The value of the goods is over 100,000 pesos!"

"Hiss..." Pedro took a breath.

One hundred thousand pesos!

Oh, God, they really brought in Eastern goods.

Moreover, the goods were worth 100,000 pesos.

Even if this batch of oriental goods were not shipped back to Spain, but resold locally to Mexico and Peru, after deducting the handling fees of all parties, a net profit of at least 20,000 to 30,000 pesos could be made!

"Come into the house with me." Pedro felt his heart beating violently at this moment.

If this trip is successful, he will open up a new trade channel to the East.

More importantly, this channel was not controlled by the colonial government and many big traders, but was completely manipulated by him.

By the way, those pirates clearly had a huge three-masted sailing ship, so how come they only brought back 100,000 pesos worth of cargo?

Well, their trip was mostly for testing, to test the waters first and see if they could establish a cooperative relationship with us.

"Mr. Pedro, before we talk, could you please untie the ropes on me first?" Alvarez said rather dissatisfiedly, while constantly glancing at the woman in the house from the corner of his eyes.

She was wearing a loose brocade robe, her hair was loose, and a large area of ​​white peaks were exposed on her chest, which made people drool when they saw her.

"My dear, please go to another room first. I have some personal matters here that will take me a while." Pedro turned to Mrs. Plutarch and said gently.

Mrs. Plutarch nodded slightly, then left the room with a hint of suspicion.

Is he going to start a new smuggling deal?
"Okay, now tell me, where are you going to trade with me? Also, how should we choose the transaction method?"

Pedro looked at the pirate in front of him with a burning gaze.

There is also a hint of greed.

(End of this chapter)