Now Dashun is holding the neck of the Swedish East India Company, and wants to blackmail on tariffs and trade issues, and the directors of the company are actually willing to accept it, and would rather make less money than go bankrupt.

But in terms of attitude, it is still necessary to make a lip service, saying that Dashun is using official power to hinder trade.

But as soon as he said these words a few days ago, he was sprayed wildly by the people on the side of Dashun, asking rhetorically what kind of free trade is the East India Company with monopoly rights? Only allow your parliament to authorize the monopoly, and not allow my court to order tariffs?

Cambier knows that he is wrong, and he can't say these Chinese in matters of reason.

At least, on the issue of free trade, Dashun can really accuse any European country of engaging in trade monopoly. It doesn't matter if it's English, French, Dutch or Spanish.

Dashun is not open to customs, but after it is opened, your goods cannot be sold, so what can be done?

Don't say that the tariffs in Dashun are quite low now, even if there are no tariffs, what else can be sold except for Dutch spices and French watch machinery?

Dashun did not issue a policy, saying that Chinese are not allowed to wear cotton cloth to prevent the impact of Indian cotton cloth; There was also no policy that Chinese were not allowed to wear woolen wool to prevent European wool textiles from impacting the textile industry.

Free trade, each according to his ability. These Dashun officers who were influenced by Liu Yu all felt that where did Sweden come from, embarrassed to accuse Dashun of influencing trade with government orders?

The debate could not be argued, the threat of force did not dare to dream, it did not matter if the trade was really cut off, and the Swedish East India Company had to go bankrupt.

A few unskillful negotiating words suddenly forced Cambier into a situation where he had nothing to say. In the face of absolute strength, negotiation skills are meaningless.

"Mr. Captain, if the trade business with China is divested, the East India Company's business volume will be left with very little left. This condition ......"

Mantou immediately said: "I am not a negotiator, nor am I a plenipotentiary. I'm just bringing you a message for someone. If you have any questions, you can go to the Celestial Empire to talk about it. ”

That's right, but back and forth for at least a year and a half, and you have to come up with an acceptable bottom line before you go.

Where should this bottom line be?

Knowing that such negotiations were meaningless, Kambir traveled to Gothenburg by Starry Night.

In Gothenburg, an internal secret meeting was held with the shareholders of the East India Company, who were waiting there.

When he said the conditions offered by Dashun, the other promoter, Henrik Xueping, slapped the table and roared.

"This is blackmail! This is a robbery while the fire is burning! It's outrageous, pirate-like! ”

"The whole of Europe is saying that the Chinese are polite and a country of gentlemen. Gentlemen, it seems that these rumors are false, they are simply a bunch of robbers, fraudsters, blackmailing bandits! ”

"Only Montesquieu was right, the Chinese are a bunch of fraudsters and have no credibility at all! The reason why European countries cannot trade with Japan is because they have hired Chinese as crew members, which makes the Japanese disgusted! ”

"Let them eat! We don't give them a share of the trade. ”

His exuberant shouts attracted the support of several people, who screamed and clapped their hands. The sober head is a little more sober, but he thinks, what does it have to do with the Chinese crew if he can't trade with Japan? Except for the Netherlands, only China can trade with Japan, where did this man named Montesquieu get his idiot-like remarks?

After the exuberant revelry of several people, Cambier said calmly: "Gentlemen, such accusations and venting are meaningless. Are you little girls? How can a nation that can do business be a polite nation? The truly polite people are those who can exchange a glass ball for half a dozen furs on the island, and the Chinese are obviously not like that. ”

"Now, if we don't agree to the conditions of the Shun Empire, they will raise the tariffs. Gentlemen, I think you are well aware that our main profit is in trade with China. Without their raw silk and tea, we have no customers, but we can't earn even half a copper. ”

A basin of cool ice water was splashed, and the major shareholders who were clamoring for Dashun to eat were silent.

This is beyond their comprehension.

According to their understanding, Dashun didn't understand what tariffs were, let alone monopolies, and they just sold their goods stupidly.

Although officials take bribes, and although they have to use the Oriental kneeling salute that they think is ridiculous, the overall tax rate is still the lowest in the whole world, and the trade environment is the best.

In the eyes of all of them, Dashun free trade is a matter of course.

It seems that this has been the case since the beginning and will always be so.

When one day, they found out that Dashun would also use tariffs and trade as weapons, and they were all unacceptable.

I was amazed.

Henrik, who gradually calmed down, lamented: "I have worked in the Ostend company, and I have also been to Guangdong and Songjiang. The merchants there only wanted to get the goods to our ships, but they never thought of sending them to Europe. ”

"The root of all this, I can hear the officers of the Free Trade Account mention it, it is all because of Liu Yu raised by that son of a bitch. His policies bewitched the emperors of the empire and made their emperors and merchants greedy. This is no longer the country of etiquette. ”

After scolding Liu Yu, he said: "And this time the prisoners of war they sent back, those old-fashioned guys should die in the hands of the Mongols, not come back." They returned, bringing with them the greed of the Orientals. ”

"Those captured fools should be digging potatoes in Siberia! Why come back? ”

The scolding is not cool enough, especially when I think of the experience in Ostend back then, Guangdong was really a heavenly place at that time.

But now, the group of Chinese is wielding the stick of tariffs in a vain attempt to take a part of his interests, and Henrik is furious.

However......

"Meaningless."

Cambier calmly pointed out that Henrik's words were all nonsense.

"Verbal abuse won't solve the problem. God will not punish them either. We must now make one thing clear: trade with China cannot be stopped, let alone allow them to raise tariffs. ”

"Gentlemen, if they raise the tariffs, we will have no advantage over the Dutch and British East India Company. Our advantage is that we can smuggle. And the price of smuggling is too high, why should they risk buying contraband? Why not just go and auction off the tea brought back by the Dutch or the British? ”

This most realistic question is finally put in front of this group of incompetent and furious shareholders: if Dashun increases tariffs, then why don't customers buy "legal" Dutch or British goods?

After the shareholders had calmed down, Mr. Cambier shared his vision for the future.

"Gentlemen, although it will harm our interests to let Chinese businessmen intervene, we must be clear that if we do not allow it, we will have no interests at all."

"I'll settle an account for you. A ship to China costs about 900,000 Spanish silver dollars. The cycle is one and a half years. We now send an average of about six ships a year. That's about 6 million silver dollars. ”

"If they go to China and find that no one dares to sell them goods. Not counting the loss, what is the interest of the 6 million silver dollars for a year and a half? If they had stopped a little bit and missed the monsoon, we would have lost about 1,000,000 silver dollars in interest. And as you all know, the company still owes the bankers a sum of money, and although we don't have to repay the principal for the time being, we have to pay interest. ”

This is still the premise that the Chinese imperial court is only obstructing it by administrative means. And if they do implement the policy, we will only have the only way to bankruptcy. ”

"Gentlemen, gentlemen! I think you should know that the Eastern Empire is an absolute monarchy, and they don't even have nobles, even dukes, but only officials under the emperor, and they will carry out the emperor's orders with an attitude that we cannot understand, and there will be no discount. ”

"Believe me, I went to China three times before '31 and again in '31, and I know all too well what kind of efficient bureaucracy it is. The word of their emperor is the law. ”

Some of the shareholders have never been to China, especially some of the shareholders have witnessed how the Swedish parliament forced the queen to sign an order to renounce the absolute monarchy; Nor had they seen a well-established bureaucratic system under the real imperial examination system, a bureaucratic machine that carried out the emperor's orders completely and thoroughly.

However, Cambier had seen it, and so had Henrik, who had worked for the Ostend company.

Henrik, who had been insulting just now, was silent, knowing that what Cambier said was the truth.

A Fujian Jiedu envoy can make the Swedish merchant ship unable to get a load of Wuyi tea.

And they, without the ability to smuggle, the Dutch and the British will report to the Dashun official as soon as possible, and they carry out illegal smuggling activities, thus giving the Dutch and the British a golden opportunity to squeeze them away - and the last time the same type of competitor Ostend Company was eliminated, or taking advantage of Austria's "State Edict" to change the inheritance law, in exchange for supporting the woman's accession to the throne in exchange for abolishing the Ostend Company; If Dashun really did not allow trade with Sweden this time, and there were Dashun merchants smuggling, the Dutch and British would happily set off fireworks.

The Dutch and British "Hirayama Tsunekan Incident" in Japan was enough to prove that they were bold enough, clever enough, and willing to use the government of the Eastern Empire to achieve their goal of squeezing out their competitors.

For Dashun's producers, Sweden is a dispensable option. Portugal, Spain, Netherlands, United Kingdom, France...... can withstand their cargo gaps.

Dashun, perhaps, was the only great power in the world at this time that dared to "give up some exports", and would not have even a ripple-like effect on the empire.

After explaining to the shareholders the powerful bureaucracy of the Eastern Empire, Cambier spoke of his outlook.

"I don't think we have much to lose by working with Chinese businessmen. First of all, we are short of silver coins, and we are limited in the amount of purchases we can make each time. And we had a very short time there, and we couldn't compete with the Dutch and the British in terms of supplies. After the Ostend tea incident, both Britain and the Netherlands sent professional trade personnel to China, and always had a large amount of cash in reserve to ensure that there would be no similar competitive incidents. ”

"If there are Chinese businessmen who can participate in the shares, gentlemen, just like this time we got the order of porcelain, we can get better goods than the Netherlands, England, Portugal and Spain, and the supply is absolutely guaranteed."

"Our customers need more tea, more silk and cotton cloth, and more porcelain. If we want to expand trade, we have to build new ships. The Gothenburg, which is under construction, has cost us a lot of our profits this year. If the Chinese businessmen can ship and ship, we can negotiate with them on the premise of guaranteeing our original shares. ”

"We can delineate a share. However, they must not be cut off from trade. ”

"In fact, gentlemen, the company's greatest guarantee to Congress is only one thing: these goods will not be sold in Sweden, but smuggled to third countries. As long as we make sure that the bottom line of this guarantee is not crossed, Congress can accept our conditions - patriots, will consider the antagonistic relationship between China and Russia; Shareholders will consider whether the East India Company will go bankrupt. ”

"And that's exactly where we can incite Congress to attack opponents: Whoever doesn't allow cooperation with Chinese businessmen is unpatriotic."