December 10, 1646, fine.

Captain Ventura sat bored on the stone railing by the quayside of the port of Rocha, and by the deep-water trestle of the port of Rocha, which had been built with a wide and atmospheric structure, several merchant ships flying the flag of the United Province (i.e., the Netherlands) were moored. But don't get me wrong, these merchant ships didn't sail from the Netherlands, but from the ports of Dutch Brazil. Loaded with cane sugar, Brazilian sumac, dried tropical fruit and, crucially, cotton, these ships are in desperate need on the East Coast.

"The Dutch are really in the eye of money, they are everywhere, what the hell!" Captain Ventura squinted at the busy German sailors on the ships, and muttered, "It's all a bunch of poor ghosts!" ”

"So, our country's business was taken over by the Dutch, right? They've been our stewards ever since? A man in a gray uniform suddenly said behind Captain Ventura.

"Hell, Silvio, I can see you anywhere!" Captain Ventura was frightened, and almost plunged headlong into the harbor with floating leaves, rotten wood, and rotten fish and shrimp, only to see him take one look at his fellow countryman, and said stupidly: "Aren't you an investigator in the Mei Agency, why did you come here?" Furlough? It's not like ah......"

"Don't guess." Silvio said somewhat unnaturally, "My head has been wronged and sent to the Far East. The new head was the former commander of the gendarmerie, Pu Ting, but I didn't seem to like him, so I was purged, and now I work at the customs office of Rocha Port. Well, it's still the old business, counting import and export materials. ”

"Unlucky guy." Captain Ventura gave him a sympathetic look, then said, "But seriously. Silvio. Do you also feel that our country's economy is going to be taken over by the Dutch? That's incredible, isn't it? ”

"That's what I kidding." Ignore the white eyes of Captain Ventura. Silvio continued: "But the fact that immediately after the outbreak of the war, our country sent people to Fort Good Hope and Recife to negotiate with the Dutch East India Company and the West India Company, respectively, in the hope that they would increase the export of goods to the East Coast. The Dutch East India Company was noncommittal, but the West India Company agreed and signed a trade agreement with us. We made concessions on price, and gave them a ten-year monopoly on the East Coast of hardware, leather goods, cotton cloth, wine, weapons, and other goods in Dutch Brazil, Guyana, the West Indies, West Africa, the British North American colonies, etc., and at the same time completely cut off the supply of weapons to the Brazilians; In exchange, they agreed to transport all kinds of supplies needed on the east coast to the port of Rocha to be sold. This is what our leaders mentioned when we had a meeting a while ago. It was also reported in the newspapers that it was beneficial for us to use neutral ships to transport supplies during the war. ”

In fact, strictly speaking, the Netherlands and Spain were nominally at this time in a state of war, but in fact there was a basic truce between the two countries. The Spaniards also began to gradually repay the large sums of cash owed to the Dutch moneylenders, and many Spanish American silver bars were sent back to Amsterdam by Dutch ships to mint silver dollars, and after deducting the annual repayment, the Dutch would purchase the remaining silver dollars on the spot and transport them to the port of Santander in northern Spain to support the Spanish war effort.

And the current economic situation of the Dutch West India Company is not very optimistic. The Dutch company, based in the province of Zeeland (the East India Company was based in the province of Holland), was a complete failure in the Americas and Africa in terms of economic terms. They spent tens of millions of ducats on protracted wars with the Spaniards and Portuguese. But their gains are very limited, and now they have to maintain a larger and larger control area. Spending money is even more like water, which has kept the company's financial situation from improving.

In fact, in the final analysis, it is their own problem that the Dutch are in trouble in the Americas. Unlike the British and Spaniards, the Dutch colonies were generally commercial colonies, not so-called development colonies. That is, the Dutch only focused on how to quickly grab local business interests, rather than making huge upfront investments and then talking about profits, as the British did, and the Dutch could not afford to invest large sums of money but not pay back quickly, so they naturally failed in the Americas.

Now that war broke out between the East Coast and Spain, the economically troubled businessmen immediately seized the rare opportunity and in a very short time they hit it off with the East Coasters and reached a cooperative agreement. You know, East Coast goods are very popular in the New World, and they are also known for their good quality and low prices. If they have franchises in some areas, then they can still make a lot of money, at least they don't have to go to the Amsterdam market to buy the expensive defective goods.

And the people of the East Coast could not ask for the cooperation of the Dutch West India Company. Although it is a lot more expensive than spending money to buy goods in Europe, the Dutch, who have the world's largest commodity distribution market in Amsterdam, are absolutely undeniable in terms of the speed of sourcing goods, and even some in-demand goods will be found for you as soon as possible as long as you can afford them.

Most of the European countries' international trade and even coastal shipping business were taken over by the Dutch, and even in the Baltic Sea, Sweden, Poland, North Germany and other regions, the merchants responsible for collecting local specialties such as grain, timber, masts, flax, and tar were Dutch. They controlled the qiē trade, and even when the British exported a batch of goods to France, they had to transport them to Amsterdam first, and the Dutch bought them before shipping them to France via the Guò Rhine. This made the French furious and helpless at the same time, because the Dutch had so many places to threaten them, such as embargoing goods, stopping loans, and so on. In this era, only people on the East Coast, who have not yet fully integrated into the European market, dare to snub at the Netherlands, because they do not need to get loans from the Netherlands.

Moreover, allowing the big merchants with great influence in The Hague (the capital of the Netherlands) to run the import trade for the east coast was tantamount to imposing a commercial bribe on the Dutch in disguise, which should have helped them to maintain their neutrality in the war, although they did not necessarily value the "small money".

"Look, these Dutch ships are carrying the timber and cotton we desperately need. All of these goods are tax-free! Silvio watched his men inspect and register on the Dutch ship, and said slowly, "They will fill the ship with food when they return." Potatoes, sweet potatoes, corn and other grains are 45 yuan/ton, and the price of wheat is negotiated once a year, but this year it is only 75 yuan/ton, and we don't even have pricing power. The Dutch controlled more than 70 percent of Europe's grain trade, buying grain from Danzig and Arkhangelsk and shipping it to Amsterdam for trading. They controlled the prices, but also the flow of food, and the famine was groveling to get their goods or loans, and the Dutch used their food weapons very well to beat some countries, which was jealous. ”

"With so much grain exported, will the price of food in our country rise sharply?" Captain Ventura asked worriedly, sitting up straight suddenly.

"No!" Silvio did not hesitate to say, "It's a wartime system, and many commodities are subject to price controls, and food happens to be one of them. In addition, last year, China (including South Africa and New China) harvested more than 32,000 tons of various types of grain. Although most of them are sweet potatoes, corn and potatoes that are high-yielding but not very tasty, they are also grains after all, and they can make a lot of money by selling them in Europe. Moreover, the state's grain export quota for this year is only 3,200 tons, accounting for only one-tenth of the grain harvest, and the number of cattle and sheep we have snatched back from La Plata has reached an astonishing 50,000 heads. ”

"I don't like the Dutch." Captain Ventura looked at the German sailors who were chatting and laughing on the docks for a long time, and said sourly: "Are we going to rely on the Dutch to get through the difficult years of war?" They are profiteers, just like the Jews who deserve hell! ”

"Don't be stupid, my friend." Silvio sneered and said, "If you look at the ships of various countries entering the port, the proportion of Dutch ships has increased over the years. Wait and see, as the war between our country and the Kingdom of Spain continues to ferment, there will be fewer and fewer ships from other European countries such as Portugal, France, England, and Germany, because they are not sure whether their ships will be intercepted off the coast of our country. At this time, only the intrepid Dutch have the courage to break through a single obstacle, and sometimes you have to admire them, their success is justified. ”

"When you open your eyes, last month there were 27 Dutch fishing boats that came into the port of Rocha to sell their cargo, seven of which were whaling ships. The Spanish and Portuguese fishermen who used to sell us seafood have disappeared without a trace, but the Dutch have filled the void well. Last month's figures, the supply of cod was reduced by only 10%, the supply of squid by 15%, and even the largest drop in the supply of red shrimp by only 20%, and there was no widespread shortage of goods in the market. Although the price has indeed risen a bit, it is still within a controllable range after all. Without the Dutch, we wouldn't even have a single kelp. And, you see, the German sailors on the Dutch ships lived in the port of Rocha, and they spent a lot of money on wine, and the silver coins they had earned from us were soon returned to us in guò for liquor, cured meats, leather shoes, leather coats, and so on. Their existence did us little harm, on the contrary, it was very beneficial, and some of the sailors even asked for naturalization of our country, which is definitely good for us. ”

"Perhaps." Captain Ventura jumped onto the stone permanent trestle, glanced at the steamship River 007 moored in the harbor, and said, "They have loaded my ship with timber, I have to go back, and I hope to reach Fort West Lake tonight." Goodbye, my friend. (To be continued......)