Some time ago, the "Imperial Ao Company" had already sold this blended wine to Kupang, which was the territory of the Dutch, but because the "old captain" in the hands of the Imperial Ao Company was too popular, the Kupang City Council resisted the pressure from the headquarters of the Batavia East India Company and issued a liquor business license to the Imperial Ao Company, after all, this wine is the exclusive distributor of the Imperial Ao Company, and if you want to get this kind of wine in batches, you must let people come in to do business.

At the same time, the management of the Imperial Ao Company - Pimont, the Duchess of Margaret and Dergus were also smart people, and the company brought more than just these wines to the Dutch - in fact, all the Australian varieties that the Imperial Ao Company could get their hands on would be sold to Dutch merchants in proportion to the Dutch merchants, and at a fairly favorable price, which is the so-called "everyone earns money".

It is said that ---- "don't eat alone, don't earn the last copper plate" is Sun Lao's advice to the Imperial Ao Company, and Pimont and Degus praise this statement, saying that this is the ultimate meaning of making business bigger and stronger.

And for the company, after all, the Kupang authorities allowed the company to directly enter the local market, which can be regarded as a reciprocation, obviously the Dutch also gave the company a variety of conveniences, such as in the trade of Australian goods, to give the company trade licenses and taxes "national treatment" and so on.

In fact, according to the Treaty of Oecussi signed by Portugal, the Netherlands and Macao, Portuguese merchants were allowed to do business in Kupang, but if there was no Australian goods in the business, there were still different treatment between Portuguese and Dutch merchants doing business there - including various restrictions on taxes and business licenses.

There is no doubt that the Dutch could certainly do business in Dili according to the "principle of reciprocity", but the Dutch also "enjoyed" these restrictions in Dili.

Therefore, for the Imperial Australian Company – and indeed for all Portuguese merchants, in reality only the purchase and sale of Australian goods can enjoy the "equal freedom" stipulated in the Treaty of Oecussi.

As a result, this situation has further strengthened the position of Australian goods in the market, resulting in all merchants flocking to Australian goods.

Therefore, if the company still wants to dominate the market, it must increase the volume of trade in Australian goods, so the company immediately feels a certain pressure to be unable to cope with the sudden increase in the variety and quantity of Australian goods - the profit you can make depends on how much silver you can mobilize to buy Australian goods, otherwise the company can only watch the Dutch, British, French and even the jungle trading caravans of the Loka tribe divide up these goods in an instant.

Also, Sin'an is the place where the Treaty of Oecussi is truly enforced, and any trader, including the Portuguese and the Dutch, can do business in Sian Ann on an equal footing without any distinction of status.

So in Xin'ancheng, the company actually has to face many competitors.

And Pimont knew that if it weren't for the fact that he and the Australians had a "special and close strategic partnership" - this was what Federal President Sun Lao personally said to Monte, otherwise, his Diao company would not have given priority to obtain bulk Australian goods, and there would be considerable discounts in price.

However, both Sun Lao and Xiao Pingguo, the governor of Sin'anseong, have recently pointed out on different occasions that this practice is not in line with the free and equal trade concept of Australians.

Xiao Pingguo has hinted to Pimont several times that this privilege of the Imperial Ao Company can only be a temporary expedient measure, while Sun Lao commented that the "dual-track system" of trade between the Imperial Ao Company and Australia cannot be sustained, and if both sides agree on the concept of "free trade", this expedient approach is not in line with the long-term interests of both sides.

Xiao Pingguo even proposed in a private occasion in front of Pimont and a Dutch businessman who came to visit: he really wanted to make the whole island of Timor a real "free trade zone", so he hoped that the three countries could sign a unified trade agreement, implement a consistent tariff and trade system, and eliminate any status discrimination in trade, just like the current Governorate of Sin'an City in the Australian Federation.

However, the situation is that the three countries still in practice each have their own tariff and non-tariff policies, so the Oecussi Treaty is not perfect and needs to be amended or replaced by a new trade agreement.

When Xiao Pingguo said this, he smiled and said to the two of them that the governor has thought of the name of this new agreement, and it will be called: "General Agreement on Common Tariffs and the Elimination of Non-Tariff Barriers to Trade among Countries" or "GATT" for short.

Although Pimont, who was a little nervous about Xiao Pingguo's statement, received verbal assurances from Mr. Sun that this agreement would not come out in the near future - however, Pimont knew very well that this was something that would happen sooner or later, and that the Australians would not delay it for too long.

What's more, as far as the current situation is concerned, because there are no discriminatory trade restrictions on foreigners, whether it is the Portuguese or the Dutch, of course, including those English, French and even Spanish, will gradually converge to Sian An to do trade, as the infrastructure of Sian An City becomes more and more perfect, and the safety factor continues to improve, the trade status of Si An City will be greatly improved.

Obviously, this will have an increasing impact on the status of Dili City as a core trading port.

Pimont knew that the only fundamental solution to the problem was for Dili to have the same trade laws as Sin'an, and he was very sure that the Dutch in Kupang, at the western end of the island of Timor, might be secretly discussing with the Australians now—because, when Xiao Pingguo talked to the two about his "General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade," Pimont had already seen in the excited eyes of the Dutch merchant that these Catholic pagans, these profiteers who had fallen into the eyes of money, would definitely take action.

Therefore, in order to solve this problem and maximize the interests of the company, one thing that must be done is to further expand the company's strength, to put it bluntly, it is to gather more real money, do bigger business, and maintain the company's share in the market.

The reality, however, was that the company's financial resources were very limited compared to the business ambitions of the Governor of Pimont.

At this very moment, Lao Ba and Han Lotian arrived—they also had an ambitious bank project with them, and they happened to meet the equally ambitious Governor of Pimont.

Finally, on a morning half a month later, on the stone outer column of a typical European Manueline/Moorish building diagonally opposite the square of Notre-Dame Cathedral in the center of Dili City, a huge carved hard mahogany sign was suddenly hung, on which were written in Portuguese and Chinese with the words "Bank of Dili City of Portugal and Macao".

A large crowd of citizens gathered outside the building to look at the building, which had no stores or shelves, only a gate that was so luxurious that it was not decent.

The building, owned by the former governor's official residence and an official property, is now a lattice-shaped mahogany gate inlaid with pieces of glass, and in the foyer there is a surprisingly large glass mirror, which clearly reflects the dignitaries who walked in front of it.