On May 25, 1681, after a long and difficult journey, the battleship "Vopowan" slowly arrived on the island of Diou, anchored offshore with the permission of the Portuguese, and then came ashore by small boat.

Governor Francisco de Tavola was immediately reported, as he was coming to the port of Diu to deal with a riot caused by unpaid wages. Because of the seriousness of the matter, the dock officials at the port of Diu did not dare to slack off, and directly sent people over to make a report, and then asked for instructions on the next step.

What's next? Governor Tavola smiled, there is no action, don't do anything, just let the people from the East Coast come over and talk about it together! As the new Governor of Goa, who had just succeeded Pedro de Almeida Portugal, Mr. Tavola came from a well-known family and had been in business for generations, so he was sensitive to anything related to trade, especially when the goods that the East Coasters were able to raise were extremely rich.

Because of this, Tavola was not prepared to change the slightest thing, although it was determined by the previous Governor, because it did have a very positive effect on the central finances of the Goa colony, which would allow His Excellency the Governor to get out of the financial quagmire, strengthen the authority of the government, and certainly better defend himself against the threat of the Dutch.

The Governor of Tavola was dissatisfied with the nobles who controlled a small town, or a shopping street, or several estates, and had a large number of followers. These guys, in his opinion, are moths, with them, most of the financial power of the Goa colony has nothing to do with the government, and the successive governors have to seek out them or the church in order to make up for the shortfall, which is simply unbearable.

And even more dissatisfyingly, these people often thwart business. In their monopoly position, they imposed heavy taxes and even confiscated goods from merchants who did not cooperate with them, and some of them were stubborn in their minds, and treated the infidels as if they were enemies of the generations, and were completely unable to do business with all kinds of pagans as tolerantly as the Dutch. So, if they don't want to harm business, who else will?

Of course, these stubborn aristocrats did not represent the whole of Goa's upper class, and in fact there were some more enlightened aristocrats who supported the decisions of the central government, because they mainly wanted money, not to be a native emperor in Goa. But the proportion of these people, to be honest, is not in the majority. In any case, at least in this part of Diu, there were many nobles and merchants who supported His Excellency the Doge, and this seems to be one of the main reasons why the Portuguese Doge and the people of the East Coast set up a trading place here in the first place.

Moree was a little surprised that the Portuguese governor was also here, and he came here temporarily, mainly to see the men who had been there for several years, and to tell them that they could get into action. They have not been idle here for several years, and although the two countries have not formally negotiated an agreement, the Portuguese, in order to show their friendship, have allowed the people of the East Coast to trade here, provided that they pay various taxes according to their rules. In the past few years, this small office-like department has also procured some supplies through various channels, hired Indian merchant ships, and sent a lot of things to Djibouti, much to the delight of Captain Eichito, who was the commander of the garrison there—he was originally the garrison commander on the island, but later he was transferred to Nanjiro in Djibouti, which can be regarded as an exchange of posts—because they can now supply supplies "around the clock", that is, supplies are sent from Xinhuaxia Island in the summer and autumn, and the Indian side is responsible for supplies in the winter and spring. Don't have a good time.

And since the Portuguese governor was here, Moreel didn't mind talking to him now, and it would be nice if he could sort out a lot of things on Diu. So, accompanied by four or five retinues, he walked easily into the city of Goa, where he met with the Governor of Tavola. The Governor seemed to be dealing with some important matter, surrounded by officers, clergy, nobles, and civil officials, who watched with complicated eyes at the pagans of the East Coast who had walked in with their heads held high, and they were all silent, as if they were holding a religious service for the martyrs.

"You're very welcome, Mr. Mo." As if to send a signal, Governor Francisco de Tavola himself got up and stepped forward, shook Moree's hand, and then led him and his entourage to the side of the parlor. As soon as he had said this, the people around him, who could have been almost used as scenery, came to life, and some of them directly cast their eager eyes, some whispered to each other, as if they were suspicious, and some were indifferent, which fully demonstrated the differences within the Portuguese colony of Goa on the matter of cooperating with the East Coast to develop the Indian commercial market.

"To be honest, I was surprised to hear the news of your arrival, and it was very delicate." Governor Tavola didn't care what the people below thought, he sat directly opposite Moliee and the others, and said with a smile: "The Governor of Portugal has been waiting for you for a long time, but unfortunately, there is no news until he returns to Lisbon at the end of his term. Everyone thinks this is probably the end of the matter, but I want to wait a little longer, because I don't think any sensible decision-maker would easily give up on such a win-win deal, and Diu trade is one of them. ”

"Sorry for being late, in fact we never gave up. Now I can confirm that the agreement we made is still valid? Mo Lie'e motioned for his entourage to take out a stack of documents from his briefcase, put them on the table in front of him, and asked, "Although some time has passed, we in the East Coast Republic of China do not plan to revise any of the terms in it. This agreement, which has been signed and sealed by the authority of our central government, will be signed and entered into force immediately if His Excellency the Governor has no doubt. Before I do that, of course, I need to look at the Governor's Warrant issued to you by your King, ah, I have no other intentions, and I intend to offend you, but I just want to make sure that you have sufficient authority to complete this agreement. ”

"For a very good reason." Governor Tavola smiled and responded, "Of course that's fine, but maybe we can wait for our arrival in Goa to check it out." Now, let's talk about the business side of things, after all, it's something that people have always been very concerned about, isn't it? ”

Next, Moreeg consulted with Governor Tavola on the specifics of trade. Of course, at this time, he doesn't have to do everything himself, and the details are basically brought forward by the attachés, and he only needs to grasp the big picture. During the hours-long conversation between the two sides, it was basically determined that the people on the eastern shore could build a masonry fortress on the island of Diu, but no batteries were allowed. The land and building materials of the fort were purchased from the Portuguese, and the laborers could hire local Indians, and there were no restrictions on the type of the fort, but there were restrictions on the size, and in short, everything was according to the general rules of the time.

As for the main event between the two sides, the details of the trade, the content is much richer. The East Coast people talked about several requirements, that is, first of all, the Goa side is required to focus on the supply of horses, this kind of draft animals are extremely lacking in both New China Island and the Far East, the former is because of the excessive loss of horses due to climatic factors, and the latter is the need for continuous import and improvement of excellent stallions in the horse political plan, if you take into account the degradation of some horse breeds, in short, the demand for horses on the east coast is still relatively large, but the long-distance transportation loss is large, if you can purchase in Diu, it would be great.

The Portuguese patted their chests directly on the trade in horses and said that there was no problem. In fact, the Rajput region has long been a horse trading center, and the Indian mainland in the east has a huge demand for horses, but the local climate is humid and sultry, which causes the problem of horses dying too quickly, which is exactly the same as the difficulties faced by the people on the east coast of New Huaxia Island. There is no choice but to step up procurement, and strive to make death a horse supplement a horse!

In addition to the horse trade, the Easterners also focused on the thirst for Punjabi silk, saltpeter, spices (ginger, fennel, benzoin, etc.) and other large trade goods, requiring the Portuguese to prepare sufficient quantities according to the purchase list submitted by the Easterners in advance each year, for which the Easterners could even pay a 20% deposit in advance. The Portuguese had no doubts about this trade, and in fact they wished that there would be more people on the east coast to buy something, so that they could make more money.

Then there were a few other bits and pieces, but because of the variety and quantity of each category, both sides only talked cursoryly, set an approximate level of tariffs, and then moved decisively on to the next topic.

Next is the goods that the Portuguese are going to import. In fact, it is also very simple, the first is weapons, ammunition, equipment and baggage, these military materials have been inadequate for many years, or need to pay expensive fees to buy a little, now there is a big merchant on the east coast to supply directly, which is a good thing to improve their equipment level.

In addition, there were a host of industrial goods, such as hardware, synthetic dyes, heavy carriages, and nautical equipment, some of which were needed by the Portuguese, but most of which were needed by the Indians on the other side of Rajput and even Cambay Bay. The easterners gave the Portuguese a large quota, almost as much as they wanted, as long as the easterners had stock in their trading post in the port of Diu.

It can be seen that the trade between East and Portugal is basically mutually beneficial, that is, each side takes what it needs. However, if you have a forward-looking vision, you will easily find that in the future, with the gradual opening of the Indian market, the Diu merchant station set up by the people on the east coast will definitely have a large surplus, and the Portuguese will have to flow a large amount of precious metals to balance the trade. Of course, this is not to say that they are going to suffer losses, but in fact they make money, and they do not lose at all, because in the end it is the Indians, not them, who pay for these industrial goods, but on the contrary they can collect a lot of customs duties on the import and export of goods from these trades, and they can also collect other miscellaneous taxes when they sell them into the interior of India, which will be of great help to improve the financial situation of the Viceroy.

Finally, Moree and Governor Tavola also discussed a very sensitive issue, namely, the formation of a joint force in the port of Diu, both of which would be owned by the navy and the army, in order to ensure the security of Diu and the surrounding seas. Note that the Portuguese also referred to the surrounding seas, i.e., they wanted to cooperate with the East Coasters to ensure the safety of their trade hotspots from being attacked by the Dutch East India Company and the Moorish fleets - you know, many Portuguese ships are now sunk or captured by the enemy every year, and the losses are not small, and it would have been a good thing to have if the East Coasters could have been brought over.

To be honest, Mo Lie's eel is still more concerned about penetrating his military tentacles into the Indian subcontinent. However, they mentioned the formation of a combined fleet, which is more sensitive, and needs to be carefully reported to the mainland to decide, not to mention that the current strength of the Second Fleet is still relatively limited, and it is also a problem to draw which ships to come over to cooperate with the Portuguese, so when talking about this, he finally chose to put the report on hold.

Compared with the navy, the army's joint force seems to be much simpler, because the new Huaxia Island side can send personnel under various names through various means, isn't it a force of 200 people, in fact, it is very simple, it is a matter of changing on the roster. Therefore, in this regard, Moreel instructed a lieutenant staff officer to talk with the Portuguese, and finally decided to use the 200 officers and men of the East Bank Escort at the Diu merchant station as part of this combined force, and the Portuguese would deploy an additional force of about 200 men in Diu as another part of the combined force.

The 400-strong force could train together on weekdays, but the command was in the hands of their respective unit commanders, and the two sides would only fight together if the property and personnel on the east coast or on the Portuguese side on the island of Diu were threatened, but the scope was limited to the island of Diu.

The Portuguese were already satisfied that such an agreement could be reached. Although some traditional nobles questioned whether there was a suspicion of "luring wolves into the house" and "selling themselves into the house", His Excellency the Governor blindly ignored them. You know, how weak the Portuguese are in India now, and how difficult it is to maintain them, this is something that many people see. Don't look at the current nothing, if one day people don't like you and expel you, it's a matter of one sentence - in the case of Diu, if it wasn't for the Mughal Dynasty, the local natives of Rajput drove the Portuguese away, and now the authority of the central government of India is being challenged, and the local forces are ready to move, it is difficult to guarantee that those Rajputs will not come back, this is a difficult thing to say.

Of course, the most important threat to be forgotten is the threat of the Dutch! Can they send a navy to blockade the Bay of Cambay and not land and take your land? How the island of Ceylon was lost, the Governor of Tavola has not forgotten. Therefore, whether it is to lure the wolf into the house or sell oneself to take refuge, taking advantage of this trade treaty to tie the East Coaster, who is known for being good at war, to his chariot is definitely a good deal! Governor Tavola was convinced of this.