Mo San was shy and had been stranded in Horen and Enkhei for a week, but the results were mediocre. At the time when Britain had officially declared war on the Dutch, the Dutch merchants, whose business had been greatly affected, were now busier than ever, as they rushed to hire ships that were returning to port, and then ventured out to sea again in pursuit of the lovely gold coins, despite naval warnings.

As a yellow-skinned pagan diplomatic envoy, Mo San was not welcomed in the eyes of the Dutch red hair, if it weren't for the entire East Coast Republic of China supporting him behind his back, it is estimated that the Dutch would not even see him. However, Mo San didn't care about these at all, all he cared about was how to grab greater benefits for the East Coast Republic of China.

After a week of wandering around the Baltic port cities of Horen and Enkhuizen, he became acquainted with only one merchant, though a big man, the Cockelis of the Bikel family. The Bickel family is a well-known family in the Netherlands, and Cornelis' father is a member of the Amsterdam City Council and a member of the Dutch Provincial Council. Of course, he also had a reputation in the business world compared to his political titles, being one of the founders of the Dutch East India Company and one of the first Dutch merchants to open the Moscow market.

The Bickel family came to the Cornelis generation, and the eldest son, Andris, succeeded his father in politics and entered the Amsterdam City Council. Andris had three brothers, Jacob was in the grain trade in the Baltics, Cornelis invested almost all of his money in the Americas and the West India Company, Jan was in charge of the Mediterranean trade, and their sister Elizabeth was married to the newly rising Tripp family, the deceased Tripp Sr. left behind a vast merchant empire based on iron and copper mining and foundry and weapons trading. At the same time, during the Thirty Years' War, he borrowed 750,000 guilders per year from the Swedish king (the Swedes offset it with the proceeds of copper and iron mines). The power is also very strong.

Mo San was able to catch the line of Cornelis. Thanks to the introduction of the Tripp family, which seemed to the Tripp family to be a casual introduction, but to Mo San and some other small and medium-sized businessmen, it was a pie from the sky. For Cornelis, who had invested heavily in the Caribbean and West India Companies, it was not a bad thing to come into contact with the people of the East Coast, for he was also very concerned about his own investments, although he rarely went to the New World, and the family managers usually went on his behalf.

Mo San was also very satisfied with being able to talk to Cornelis - it was pitiful to see that the East Coast people had been doing business with the West India Company for so many years, and they could be regarded as talking to one of the big bosses behind the scenes. Congratulations. During the two-hour meeting between the two sides, Mo San was not without results, and he reminded Cornelis that now that Britain and the Netherlands had officially declared war, the Portuguese, who were fighting with the West India Company for the ownership of northeastern Brazil, would not rest on their laurels, and they would definitely take the opportunity to intensify their offensive in the hope of completely expelling the Dutch from Brazil.

Cornelius was convinced, but there was not much he could do. Because the West India Company has been in operation until now, due to the continuous war all year round, the income is actually very poor. As a result, investors are reluctant to invest again. Especially at a time when transport ships were being intercepted by the British, it was risky to invest heavily in the West India Company.

Mo San had some understanding of the minds of Cornelius and the others. Thus it was asserted that the Republic of the East Coast of China could provide the West India Company with a large stockpile of weapons and military supplies at a favorable price and of high quality, which would be of great benefit to the West India Company in its simultaneous slavery on the coast of West Africa (the Slave Coast, the Barbaric Coast) - which, unlike other countries, came mainly from its own capture, fought against the Portuguese in northeastern Brazil and fought against the Indians in New Netherlands (later New York), without the need to ship from Europe, Cut off the possibility of interception by the British.

Cornelius was very moved by Mo San's offer, saying that he would instruct his ships to depart from Recife and order a batch of weapons and military supplies to the east coast, for which he signed a contract with Mo San for the supply and sale of goods. The five-year contract was for the purpose of the five-year contract, which, in addition to the purchase of large quantities of supplies from the East Coast, also included the export of large quantities of cane sugar (jaggery), tobacco, dried fruits, cotton, cocoa, and the Brazilian sumac, which were essential for the construction of ships on the East Coast, which were essential for the construction of ships on the East Coast.

After taking over this small business from the Bickel family, Mo San felt that he had done a very good job as a "sales representative", so he returned to Amsterdam from Enkhuizen at the urging of the De Hare family. Matthias of the de Hare family will take him today (25 August) to meet with some of the Amsterdam guild representatives, after all, they have signed some food purchase contracts with the East Coast, and some of them must be straightened out.

The two arrived at the wine guild early the next morning and met with several members of the guild's leadership. Although the leaders of these guilds (basically large wine wholesalers) were a little dissatisfied with the fact that Tripp Comptoir had squeezed into this circle, they finally did not have much trouble in the exchange of interests, but after a little inquiry about Mo San, they agreed to enter the Amsterdam market with Xiangshan dry red and Xianghe wine from the east coast.

Speaking of which, even the Netherlands, which claims to be the most open to business, still has a commercial policy tinged with local protectionism in the Middle Ages. For example, in order for East Coast wine to enter the Amsterdam market, it must first obtain permission from the Wine Wholesalers' Guild, and the East Coast Wine Agent (Tripp Comptoir) must also apply to join this guild and be approved before selling wine wholesale, otherwise it will not be able to sell East Coast wine in the city, and offenders will be imprisoned.

Throughout the 17th century and into the first half of the 18th century, the number of guilds throughout the Netherlands continued to proliferate, and the business and economy of the Netherlands were largely controlled by these monopolistic guilds, large and small. In particular, important industries such as grain, ironware, weapons, timber, fish, and wine were basically controlled by a single monopoly guild, and all the merchants and business owners in the Seven Provinces Alliance were members of these guilds.

Guilds are extremely xenophobic and extremely vigilant against foreign competing goods that endanger the interests of their members. They charge a fee to their members and then provide services (including bailouts) to all members, such as the Wine Merchants' Guild, which provides a weekly allowance of 3 guilders to guild members who are in difficulty. And it was not the only guild to do so, the guilds of doctors, goldsmiths, and silversmiths also provided a weekly allowance of 3 guilders to members who were sick or in difficulty; Guilds that are not so strong such as tailors, booksellers, and confectioners only provide subsidies of 1-2 dong per week to members in need.

And in some of the deep-pocketed guilds - such as the grain wholesalers' guild and the timber wholesalers' guild - orphanages were set up at the expense of wealthy members of the guilds. The standard of food in this orphanage is very high, there is never a shortage of meat, fish, and eggs, and scholars are also hired to provide qualified education for the orphans admitted to the orphanage, so that these orphans can acquire the necessary knowledge and ensure that their social class will not slip down in the future. Of course, this kind of orphanage only accepts the orphans of its members, and orphans other than members are not allowed to enter.

The wine merchant guild that Mo San and de Haire are now visiting has a monopoly on the wholesale of wine in the entire Amsterdam market, so obtaining their approval and permission, and officially obtaining membership (and of course, the Tripp Comptoir is qualified), is a prerequisite for East Coast wine to be sold in Amsterdam - otherwise it will only be smuggled.

After visiting the wine merchants' guilds, De Haier took Mo San to various monopoly business guilds such as the fish merchants' guild, the cheese merchants' guild, and the clothing merchants' guild, and then relied on the golden signboard of the Tripp merchant house and the tacit understanding that had been communicated in advance, and obtained the recognition of these guilds, and officially obtained the membership, which can be regarded as being able to sell things on the signboard.

However, gaining the approval of so many guilds in Amsterdam is only the first step, and the rest of the guilds have not yet been there! Because of the special system of the Netherlands (the Confederation system), each municipality and province is very independent. This independence is reflected in the economic and commercial aspects of homogeneous guilds that exist in every municipality. Do you think you'll have enough to get a membership of the Amsterdam Wine Merchants' Guild? No, that would only allow you to sell your goods in the city, and if you want to sell your goods to Horen, to Enkhuizen, to Rotterdam, to Utrecht, you have to go to each of these cities and join the local wine merchants' guilds, otherwise you can't sell here, or you can only sell to the guild members of these towns.

Of course, the Tripp Comptoir did not want to join the guilds of every municipality (and in fact it was unlikely), they were prepared to join only a few of the major guilds - if they were to focus on international trade, they would generally only have to join the guilds of these regions, since most of the entrepot trade took place at these ports - and as for the rest of the regions, it would be better to develop agents. Therefore, in the next ten days or so, Mo San and De Haier rushed to important cities in important provinces such as the Netherlands and Zeeland non-stop, and completed the membership procedures respectively.

And after finally completing this qiē on September 10, Mo San suddenly found that he was almost exhausted - it was really not easy for his grandmother to sell something for the "party-state" in Europe! (To be continued......) R1292