After the performance, everyone didn't stop long and left. However, Ho Yuan, the commissioner of the Hue District Administration, did not return to the office, but went to a teahouse in the county town to meet with Dirk Cornelis, a representative of the Dutch West India Company.

Dirk Cornelis, as his surname suggests, is a member of the famous Dutch family of Cornelis, and is currently one of the two major commercial representatives of the West India Company on the East Coast, based in the port of Hue, where he manages and operates the company's properties, including several sugar cane and tobacco plantations and a deep processing center.

It is worth mentioning that the Dutch West India Company was almost dissolved due to financial crisis more than ten years ago, but it was only through the joint capital injection of Zeeland merchants and the East India Company that it was able to survive. However, after two capital injections, the East India Company's stake in it increased dramatically and its voice grew, which inevitably affected many of West India Company's day-to-day business strategies.

First of all, the large colonial, trading company still did not give up its business in the Caribbean, but continued to compete with the Easterners, the British, and the French. This is not very in the interests of the West India Company, because the Caribbean trade has developed so far, the competition has been very cruel, and the East, Britain, and France have used their own means to keep their colonial trade, and they are also fighting in the Spanish colony, the largest market.

At present, it seems that because of various early moves, the Caribbean shipping companies of the East Coasters have the upper hand in the trade of the Spanish colonies. They controlled five important commercial ports, and by collecting customs duties, they justifiably cracked down on the smuggling of merchant ships from other countries, monopolized the trade of these major commercial ports, and obtained huge profits. British, French, Dutch, and even some small Danish, Swedish and Italian merchants, and the German Confederation, had to venture to other small cities and small ports to trade, and if they failed to keep their money, they would encounter rampant Caribbean pirates to attack, resulting in heavy losses.

Therefore, the Dutch West India Company still insisted on trading in the Caribbean at this time, although it was not to say that there was no profit and no money, but why bother? Why bother? With this energy, it is better to think of ways to better compete with British merchants in North America and eat away at the trade share of the British North American colonies.

In fact, the people on the East Coast also speculated that the reason why the Dutch West India Company was so strong and did not give up the trade between the two viceroyalties of New Spain and Peru was probably due to the strong demand of the East India Company, which was obviously due to the strong demand of the company's shareholder, the East India Company. The people on the east coast can only say hehe, Air Canada has already controlled the trade of the five most lucrative commercial ports, and the trade of other small broken ports and small fishing villages is really not eyed, and the Dutch are willing to go, it doesn't matter. What's more, Air Canada's ships will also go out to sea to patrol when they are empty, and they don't mind going up to intercept foreign merchant ships if they encounter them, so it is not wise for the Dutch West India Company to still toss in this muddy water, and it is better to focus on other aspects, so that maybe some new breakthroughs can be made.

Second, the company was forced to make significant investments on the coast of West Africa and established a number of strongholds, most of which were in the nature of trading posts. Although these trading posts were built like fortresses, they were trading stations, and they killed garrisons ranging from dozens to a hundred people, as well as administrative and commercial personnel, and nothing else.

The warships of the East Coast had "visited" some of these trading stations, and found that most of them, with the exception of a few that were capable of repairing ships, could only replenish the water and accommodate a few wounded and sick. In contrast to these low logistical capabilities, almost every Dutch trading post was able to provide a range of goods, including gold, ivory, leather, and slaves, especially slaves, and was also drunk. To put it figuratively, the Dutch West India Company did not care about the state of the crew and the ships at all, nor did they intend to build a supply base like the string of pearls (their crews could even sail for six months without disembarking, which was the first in the world), it was just for business, and it was simply rude.

Now the people on the East Coast have basically come to the conclusion that the Dutch West India Company poses basically no threat to the trade and economy of the East Coast, and there is no need to pay special attention to it or target it. What's more, people have also purchased a lot of goods from the East Coast to sell in the Caribbean, North America and even Europe, and there is a low degree of competition with the Caribbean shipping company, but it is good for the East Coast industry and commerce, and it is a harmless enterprise.

It is precisely because of this conclusion that the people of the East Coast continue to be open to the investment of the Dutch West India Company in the East Coast, especially the Hue Regional Administration, which is more welcome for the company to continue to invest in the local plantation industry, provided that they bring people from Europe to the East Coast, and the East Coast does not allow them to hire labor in their own market, and of course the Dutch cannot afford to hire them.

Today, He Yuan went to Dingfeng Teahouse to meet with the members of the Cornelis family, and the discussion was mainly about the follow-up investment in related industries, which is still relatively important for the development of the local economy. Moreover, he would prefer the Dutch to invest more in industry than in commercial trading enterprises, that is, to help the local government to undertake some of the land reclamation work, even if the land lease period is extended and the rent is lowered.

He Yuan did not think that the Dutch would not accept this proposal. Compared with the chaotic situation in the Caribbean, the investment environment provided by the East Coast people is really good. Although the upfront investment may be relatively large, which sets a high threshold for some small businessmen, the safe environment, the stable political situation and the convenience of purchasing all kinds of daily necessities, consumables and medicines have a strong attraction for investors. Not to mention, the East Coast Republic of China itself is a huge market for tropical goods, and the people have strong spending power and are willing to spend, so it is really suitable to invest here.

"Your company has invested in Hue district for many years, has made great contributions to the economy of the region, and is also a major taxpayer in the local area. We hope that your company will continue to invest in the region in the future, and we will give a certain degree of cooperation, and we will work together for a win-win situation. He Yuan first let Dirk Cornelis taste the green tea imported from China, and then said with a smile.

He Yuan's words fell, and the secretary standing on the side quickly stepped forward and placed a small map in front of the two of them, which circled some areas to be developed by the Hue District Administration, which were basically places where new settlements would be set up in the future. He Yuan means that he hopes that the Dutch West India Company will give more consideration to these places, invest in these places, and the East Coast government will provide them with security, and at the same time, it will spend a huge amount of money to build a second-class national highway to connect these areas for the transshipment of all kinds of materials.

Needless to say, this proposal was a bit of a dilemma for the Dutch. According to their original intention, they wanted to develop a vacant land in the coastal circle of Hue district, that is, to set up a timber company, cut down patches of forest, process the timber and sell it to the eastern steppes and Pampa plains in the south, which are the largest consumer markets. On this basis, the shrubs were cleared, the land was leveled, and plantations of coffee, pepper, tobacco, sugar cane and other tropical specialties were established, and the products produced were further processed and some were sold locally on the east coast and some were shipped back to Europe for sale.

But now the people on the east coast are asking them to invest further inland, which is a bit of a tough problem. You must know that the inland area has a harsh environment and is basically in a state of undeveloped, not only is there a shortage of living materials (if there are them, the price will be very high), and the transportation costs incurred on this road are not small. The East Coasters promised to build high-grade roads, but God knows when they would be completed! If they don't finish it in five or ten years, won't the plantation be opened? Therefore, Dirk Cornelis was extremely reluctant to go to the inland areas to clear the land for the people of the East Coast, for no other reason, but to the ear!

But now that the people on the east coast have made it clear that they are asking you to go inland for development, can you really refuse? Dirk Cornelis was not sure, he had just recently received an instruction from Amsterdam, in which the company's top management instructed him to strengthen his trade ties with the East Coasters, and there was even the signature of the East India Company's representative to the West India Company. This shows that both the East India and West India Companies now wanted to improve relations with the East Coasters and maintain a closer relationship than before.

Dirk Cornelis is not a fool, nor is he a person who is not informed, he vaguely suspects that this is also related to the situation in the United Provinces, and some people do not want to offend the East Coasters at this time, but on the contrary, they may have to curry favor with them. If he thinks about it this way, then he actually doesn't have a lot of options, and he has to pick and choose from those places on the east coast to get other preferential measures, such as land lease terms, rent, and financing concessions. Therefore, he quickly put forward his requirements to He Yuan in this regard, especially the issue of bank financing, and he emphasized that he hoped that the people of the East Coast could open up on this basis, give them equal treatment of domestic capital as foreign investors, and also raise funds on the spot in the East Coast banking system, so as to reduce the pressure on funds.

He Yuan was actually prepared for this. Therefore, after a few back and forth, he agreed to extend the lease of the plantation plot invested by the West India Company to sixty years, and at the same time gave a major preferential measure of halving the rent for the first twenty years.

Of course, he didn't forget to ask He Yuan about the relaxation of financing restrictions, but He Yuan couldn't make the decision about this matter, so he could only say that he would report it to the higher-level government for decision. Although his wife Liu Wei is a middle-level cadre of the East Coast Agricultural Bank, he has no right to decide, anyway, he really can't help in this matter, so he can only try to report it and see what it says.

However, he was confident that the State Precious Metals Administration would eventually approve the granting of financing authority to the Dutch West India Company. There are two reasons, one is that the New World Friendship and Mutual Bank has lent money to this colonial enterprise in the past, which is one and two, and everything is easy to say; Second, the East Coast government is now trying to win over the big business owners, big wholesalers, and colonial trade enterprises in the Netherlands, strengthen ties with them, and at the same time let them merge with the Republican parliamentarians, so as to become an important force in the Netherlands to contain the Prince of Orange, and lay the foundation for some future plans.

It just so happened that representative companies such as the Dutch East India Company now wanted to ease relations with the East Coast, so there was a basis for cooperation between the two sides. For example, the East and West Indies are based in the United Provinces, so are they really not afraid of the merger of Britain and the Netherlands, which will hurt their interests? You know, they can call for wind and rain in the Netherlands now, but once the two countries merge, will they still be able to call for wind and rain in the new system after the merger? I'm afraid not! Therefore, the people on the East Coast believed that these were forces that could be fought for, and that once William III came to London in the future, then the East Coasters should unite the bourgeois groups in the Netherlands against the forces of the Prince of Orange, and do everything possible to preserve the interests of the United Provinces, and at the same time the interests of the East Coast Republic.

From this point of view, it seems that it is not a problem to give the Dutch West India Company a little convenience in terms of financing, and the possibility of passing it should be very high.