After Julian left, Gaumo walked into the study and took up a pen to write a report for the local.

Before writing this report, he hesitated for a long time and carefully sorted out his thoughts. First of all, judging from the information available so far, the French should be overwhelmed financially. Although they had just routed Spain's elite Flemish legions at the Battle of Rocroix, the growing French army and the growing war were about to drain the last silver coin in the French treasury. But the tragedy is that they have not yet completely defeated the enemy, they have not yet been able to end the war, so they urgently need the funds to continue the war.

So raising taxes at home is inevitable, and they're already doing it. In order to deal with the two powerful enemies of Spain and Austria at the same time, as well as to finance quasi-allies such as Sweden and the royal party of England, the new prime minister and cardinal Mazarin has begun to impose large taxes at home to maintain France's growing front. This undoubtedly led to complaints from all classes in France, whether it was the aristocracy, the clergy, the middle and low bureaucrats, the merchants, or the common people, everyone had no good opinion of the rumored greedy bishop, and was ready to overthrow him.

In addition to taxing at home, the French seem to be ready to engage in some lucrative businesses, such as cotton cloth, which has begun to become increasingly popular. When cotton cloth appeared on the market many years ago, it was initially just a plaything from India; Over time, people began to get used to using this fabric to make clothes, and some cotton plantations began to appear in France and overseas colonies, and people began to grow cotton. It is then spun into cloth. Sell on the market.

As a substitute between expensive and fine woolen and cheap and coarse linen. After years of market cultivation, cotton gradually became popular among the increasingly affluent French populace. After the East Coast people launched better quality and cheaper high-quality cotton cloth through machine spinning and weaving, the market finally ushered in explosive growth, and the sales of high-quality white cotton cloth of the East Coast people increased year by year, squeezing out the messy French local cotton, Venetian cotton, Dutch cotton and imported Indian cotton cloth that originally carved up the market. Subsequently, the East Coast people successively launched dyed cloth, calico and later more exquisite second-generation dyed cloth, calico and its derivatives such as gloves, burqas, cloaks, towels, etc., pushing the market enthusiasm to a higher peak.

So far. Even though the sales of the East Coasters are limited to the six provinces in the south-west of France, the annual sales of the East Coasters are close to two million yuan, fueled by the many contraband. This is an eye-popping figure, so it is not surprising that it has been targeted, and the greedy French Prime Minister Mazarin, as well as the nobles and clergy who depend on them, have long wanted to take it for themselves. However, they did not dare to do anything before the complete defeat of Spain, and finally the smoke of Rocroix dissipated, and the French, who had defeated the first hegemony on the European continent, were full of ambition, and their self-confidence and national pride with more than 100,000 troops swelled sharply, and they felt that they no longer needed to buy cheap muskets, cannons, leather goods and sabers from the East coast. So in order to feed such a large army and an even larger bureaucratic team in the country, they finally stopped hiding their greed. Reached into the pockets of the East Coasters.

"A huge market of 20 million people!" Gao Mo sighed as he wrote, "It's a shame to lose it." It's just that the country's strength is still too weak today. People don't treat you as an equal opponent at all. When you still have use value, just leave it alone, and kick it away when you have no use value, and don't even bother to talk nonsense with you, fuck! ”

Thinking of this, Gao Mo was so angry that he slapped his palm on the table, making a crisp sound. Outside the door, Konstantin, the head of the Bordeaux station and the secretary of the original Xu Xin, came to take a look, and when he found that there was nothing, he retired again.

After evacuating his anger a little, Gao Mo took two sips of tea and continued to write a report.

"Since we are powerless to stop the established policies of the French leadership, and we cannot avoid taxes by other means, then I suggest that the country needs to adjust the current export policy, that is, reduce the proportion of white cotton cloth, increase the proportion of profitable printed cloth and dyed cloth, and use the huge profits to offset some of the tax losses. Of course, the lion's share of the total profit will always be calico, but there is nothing we can do about it at the moment, and the shrinkage of the East Coast calico market, which is not very competitive in price after taxation, is inevitable. What is more important is that this wave of taxation may be just the beginning, and various taxes on East Coast textiles may be introduced one after another, and the Ministry of Trade should maintain a high degree of vigilance in this regard. ”

"In addition, opening up new markets should be a high priority at this time. In the whole of 43 years, we made a huge profit of 480,000 yuan in the Ottoman Empire, which is too insignificant for a large empire with a population of more than 30 million. The Ministry of Trade should abandon the anachronistic old agreements with the British and increase dumping in the Ottoman market in order to maximize the influence of East Coast textiles. I suggest that the Executive Committee carefully assess the feasibility of expanding the sale of cotton cloth in the Ottoman Empire, and that Britain is currently in the midst of a civil war and I think it is difficult for them to accuse us of violating the trade agreement between the two sides. As China's second largest exporter and first largest importer, the Ottoman Empire deserves our capital to operate. ”

Writing this, Gao Mo stopped thinking for a while. The British civil war has gradually reached a critical moment, and the two sides have almost beaten their brains. Unfortunately, most of the British navy sided with the capitalist parliamentarians, so that the people on the east coast who were inclined to the royal party could not even do business with them in order to provide some support indirectly. But that's fine, meddling in other people's civil wars is a very taboo thing, especially since the strength of the East Coast Republic is still very weak, and it seems that it is better to strictly maintain neutrality at present, so as not to get into trouble.

However, the agreement signed a few years ago with the British colonial companies and trading companies now looks null and void, and the agreement to divide the textile market severely limits the number of textiles that the Easterners could sell in the Ottoman Empire. At that time, the people on the east coast were making every effort to develop the relatively rich French market, and did not pay much attention to the Ottomans, whose purchasing power was much lower than that of the French, and other factors, such as avoiding irritating the Dutch, Venetians, etc., so they agreed to the proposal of the British. But now it is different, the people of the East Coast are now in danger of losing the French market, and it would be self-defeating to strictly abide by the agreement reached with the British at this time!

Therefore, it was imperative to expand textile sales in the Ottoman Empire! I believe that the friends of the people on the east coast in the Ottoman Empire, such as the Hornisian family, the Aleppo Pasha, the Egyptian pasha, the naval pasha, and the Suez Mamluk chieftain Gregory family, would be happy to see this happen. Nowadays, the cooperation between the East Coast and the Ottoman Empire is deepening, such as cooperation in naval ships, cooperation in army weapons, and cooperation in human trade, and this big business has brought the relationship between the two countries closer and closer. If this continues, perhaps in the near future, the Ottomans will once again mention the construction of battleships to the people on the east coast.

Of course, in-depth cooperation with the Ottoman Empire would inevitably cause discontent among the Dutch, British, and Venetians, who also had extensive interests in the Ottomans. Especially the Venetians, who had territorial disputes with the Ottoman Empire, they would certainly have adopted a more radical policy towards our country. It is foreseeable that the sale of our textiles in the Tuscan market will inevitably be affected, that the search for immigrants from Italy will be further obstructed, and that our prestige in the Christian world (such as Spain, Austria, etc.) will continue to decline, although we have little prestige at the moment. As for the negative impact of this, I would like to ask the Executive Committee to carefully assess it. ”

It is really not easy for diplomatic work to affect the whole body! Gao Mo wrote the last full stop, leaned his head back in his chair, and closed his eyes in thought. The report that should be written has been written, and it depends on how the country makes a choice. In the face of the huge risk of losing France, the golden hen, how to make the right response as quickly as possible, and then find a solution to the problem is not something that everyone can cope with sitting in the office and discussing a few words.

There is a huge amount of work to be done here, and a huge amount of resources to be used, even if all this is done, it depends on how God arranges it, and the people of the East Coast will not be able to fully control their own destiny, at least for now.

The next day, after a long conversation with Julian, Gaumore visited Bishop Loris, Baron de Toulouse and other old friends of the East Coast in the next few days, and then boarded a Spanish merchant ship to visit the high-ranking officials of the Spanish West Indies in Seville. However, the Spaniards refused Gaumo's request to visit, and in desperation, Gaumo hurriedly boarded a French merchant ship hired by the people from the east coast and headed for the ancient city of Riga on the Baltic coast.

On April 25, 1644, the merchant ship on which Gao Mo and his entourage were traveling docked at the docks of the port of Riga. After a brief discussion with Schneider, the person in charge of the Riga Merchant Station, who had rushed to hear the news, Gao Mo and a large group of people stayed at the East Coast Merchant House located in the city. (To be continued......)