March is still a bit cold in the Northern Hemisphere. Especially on the seaside island of Tessel, the cold wind blowing from the North Atlantic Ocean sometimes makes the pedestrians on the street wrap their clothes tightly for fear of freezing in the cold wind.

The streets along the wharf are full of sailors from all over the world with red noses, and in the harbor not far away, there are many ships from all over the world, such as German ships flying flags with red and gold stripes, Brandenburg ships with silver flags with eagle wings, Stralsund ships with golden suns, and Ragusa ships with silver shields, indicating the extraordinary prosperity of Amsterdam, a large international port.

A wide variety of commodities are gathered here, the largest of which are grain, ore, timber, fishery products, and livestock. In addition, with the increasing influence of the Dutch economy and the increasing spread of the Dutch shipping industry in recent years, a large number of monopolistic syndicate enterprises have emerged in Amsterdam (only the Saldan shipyard is barely qualified, and the company is not one), among which the 12 largest wholesalers in the grain industry are the most famous. Grain from Poland and Moscow was bought by local Dutch dealers, then shipped back to Amsterdam by Dutch ships, and finally transported by Dutch ships to European ports for sale. In the process, the biggest profits were naturally made by Amsterdam's 12 main grain wholesalers.

The Dutch controlled most of the profits in this chain, both the grain producers (the lords of the Eastern European Plains) and the retailers in the end markets, whose margins were pitifully small, and naturally they were full of resentment. It was only taken at this time that the Dutch economy was strong. They had to swallow their anger. But as long as there is a chance. It is believed that they will not be stingy in taking back their own interests from the Dutch.

The strength of the Dutch economy at this time is unquestionable. This is due to the large distribution network, the development of the shipping business and the ease of financing. Among them, the development of the shipping industry has played a decisive role. For example, since the Dutch monopolized most of the Baltic trade, the coastal nations or merchants had to sell their goods to the Dutch, often not at a price that was satisfactory to them, or their goods might not be able to be transported.

Then some people will say that these countries can develop their own shipping business and then sell their own products. Theoretically yes, but the problem is that the Dutch can't sit idly by and watch this happen. They will use various means (such as financing, trade embargoes, etc.) to restrict every country or organization that wants to develop shipping and commerce. Just as they joined forces with the British to suppress the Hanseatic League (which gradually drove the commercial power of the Hanseatic League away from Britain, Norway, etc.), the commerce of these countries will gradually shrink under the pressure of Dutch capital, and eventually succumb.

The Dutch undoubtedly have this ability. Not to mention Poland, Sweden and the German states in the Baltic Sea (which are not very strong economically), even the economically strong countries of Western Europe, such as Britain and France, are constantly suffering from the exploitation of the Dutch. For example, the British exported a batch of woolen wool to France, with England as the producer and France as the consumer, and it was a very simple transaction (the British transported the wool from London or Bristol to Calais), but because of the Dutch, it had to be transported to Amsterdam by Dutch sea ships, and then by Dutch barges from the Rhine to eastern France. Finally, it enters the final consumption area of France by land. This way of doing business made a woollen horse that was no more than six pounds offshore in England come full circle. In the end, it reached more than ten pounds per horse, and the huge cost incurred in the middle was obviously the profit of the Dutch.

The wool is clearly only a microcosm of the Dutch control of the commodity trade, in fact the Dutch interfere in almost all the profitable business, relying on their vast maritime transport power and strong ability to organize the supply of goods. This further strengthens their ability to manipulate the commodity trade, allowing any humble broker or commodity broker on the Amsterdam docks to get their clients exactly what they want. It's not an exaggeration to say that the Dutch have the ability to do this, and the Amsterdam market has such a large and rich flow of goods.

Therefore, with such an explanation, you may be able to understand why Zheng Yong came to Amsterdam. In fact, he came to the front for the commercial interests of the East Coast Republic, and if the goods of the East Coast want to enter the European market more conveniently, in addition to finding the local real power aristocracy as agents, the best and most convenient way is actually to find the Dutch. In any case, it is necessary to share the profits with people, and it is one way to share the profits of goods with the local nobles, clergy, and guild leaders, and it is also the other way to share the profits of goods with the Dutch merchants with great energy.

The "friendship" that had been built up between Tor and the West India Company over the course of two years, and the goods of the East Coasters were now struggling to squeeze into the Amsterdam market. Entering here meant that these goods began to enter the Baltic Sea (the most powerful area of the Dutch, from which half of their profits came from), the North Sea (Norway, England, Denmark, etc.), eastern France and the Rhine region. Especially at a time when mercantilism is prevalent and European countries represented by France have repeatedly raised tariffs on goods on the East Coast and continue to create trade frictions, it is undoubtedly precious that goods from the East Coast can enter Amsterdam.

Of course, not all East Coast goods will be able to enter the area. According to the preliminary agreement with the Dutch, grain from the east coast (which was a scarce commodity in Europe at this time), steel bars (popular with European blacksmiths because of their good quality), medicines (aspirin had already been approved by some merchants for the treatment of rheumatism, etc.), knitted lace textiles (which did not compete with the Dutch textile industry), soda ash (a business which was currently mainly carried out by the Venetians, who controlled the Hungarian lakes of trona), and dyed leather goods, It will be sold publicly wholesale in Amsterdam by the chartered merchants of the Dutch West India Company.

From now on, thousands of agents active in Amsterdam will begin to include these five commodities in their sales catalogue and make key recommendations to merchants from all over the world who need them, which is almost equivalent to the advertising of CCTV in later generations, and is undoubtedly extremely beneficial to the promotion of goods on the east coast.

The reasons why the Dutch are so "righteous" are very complicated, but the most important thing is that these East Coast goods are indeed cheap and good, and the sales are very promising. Secondly, there are also reasons why the people on the east coast were outstanding in the war with Spain, especially their huge scale (seventeen or eighteen warships including sail frigates were dispatched to escort the convoy at one time, you must know that there were only more than 20 professional warships in Britain in this era, and civilian ships were recruited during the war), and the escort fleet with good combat power made the Dutch see the qualifications to be able to talk to them.

Coupled with the fact that over the years, the Dutch East India Company, which had a strong influence in Amsterdam, had come to understand that the East Coasters had no intention of entering the East Indies, that they had never crossed the Strait of Malacca, and that they had maintained a semblance of neutrality in the ongoing war between the Dutch and Portugal (Brazil, Ceylon, India, the East Indies), so they were relieved to show enough goodwill to the East Coasters. They even intend to win over the Easterners in a certain way, intending to coordinate their respective commercial interests with the Easterners in order to further consolidate their commercial hegemony.

The people on the east coast, who are temporarily unable to meddle in the European market, of course, readily agree. It was only good that the Dutch were willing to help them promote their goods, and although it was likely that the lion's share of the profits would have been taken away from them, why not at least the East Coasters had expanded the market for their own products and prospered the domestic industry? Moreover, long-lasting commercial ties will undoubtedly deepen relations between the two countries, and the tension between the East Coast and the Netherlands for various reasons a few years ago (the East Coast even attacked an armed merchant ship of the East India Company) is clearly not in the national interest of the East Coast. In the current international situation, cooperation between the East Coast and the Netherlands outweighs competition, and it is time to maintain a relatively good relationship.

Zheng Yong and others stayed in Amsterdam for about half a month, during which they visited some West India Company chartered merchants who acted as agents of goods on the East Coast, and signed some commercial agreements (entrusting these merchants to purchase goods needed by the East Coast). Zheng Yong, who is also quite surprised by the prosperity of Amsterdam, is also quite aware of the Dutch business model, and he is also impressed by the Dutch people's preference for eating alone (controlling almost all business), and now the European powers such as France, Britain, and Sweden have become more and more dissatisfied with this.

The British, in particular, were in the hands of the Dutch for their largest export, woolen wool, while their offshore herring resources were caught by the Dutch (and then dumped back into the UK), and the Moscow route opened up by the British was quickly taken over by the Dutch. All in all, relations between Britain and the Netherlands have deteriorated rapidly, especially after the coming to power representing the interests of the bourgeoisie.

Originally, Zheng Yong was skeptical that there would be a war between Britain and the Netherlands (because of the butterfly factor of the East Coasters), but after learning about the commercial hegemony of the Dutch in this era, he understood that the contradictions between Britain and the Netherlands were irreconcilable, and war was inevitable unless one side made substantial concessions, but this seems to be little hope at present.

But then again, no matter how fierce the fight between the two countries of Britain and the Netherlands is, what does it have to do with the East Coast? All I need to do is sell goods, transport immigrants, and practice my internal skills comfortably, and maybe I can still do some good if you fight hard, right? (To be continued......)