Mo San was in Messina at this time. He's been here for over a week, and he's been talking to Mario from House Doria for a long time. Their topics focused on the sale of East Coast goods in Europe and the recent rise of protectionism in various places. The Doria family had long been accustomed to this, as competition with local merchants was an eternal subject for a multinational syndicate like theirs.

In order to compete with the local business forces of various countries, they adopted nothing more than to get acquainted with the country's elites and control the source of goods to make their opponents submit, and the Doria family undoubtedly did this. They were guests of honour of the Habsburg royal family, and they still had a large financial presence in Spain and Austria even after Genoese capital withdrew from Spain. In addition, the Doria family has been operating in the port of Cádiz for two hundred years, controlling a considerable part of the trading business, and making huge profits every year.

It is actually a good move for the people on the east coast to sell their goods, because it saves the huge upfront cost of developing the market, after all, channels and contacts are accumulated by time and money. In today's long-term poor relations between the East Coast and Spain, if you want to sell your goods to the vast Spanish market (including Spain proper, as well as Naples, Sicily, Parma, the South Netherlands and the New World, you have to do it through strong agents.

"As the war subsides, it's getting harder and harder to do business." Mario sat down in his chair with a tired face and said to Mo San with an exaggerated gesture: "The Tuscans are now more and more inclined to cooperate with the shameless and despicable Venetians, and our goods are subject to high customs duties in the local area, and you should feel this at the Florence trading post. Seriously. If the profit is not large, it is better to close it as soon as possible. Invest resources where they are needed most. ”

What Mario said was the hidden pain in Mo San's heart. The business conditions of the Florentine trade station have deteriorated over the years. Seeing that the accounts were about to change from black to deficit, it really gave Mo San a headache. Closing a shop is not something that can be done casually, because there are so many factors involved. At the beginning, the East Coast people opened a trading station in Florence, relying on the maternal relationship of Frank of the French Baron Toulouse family, and later the East Coast people themselves vigorously operated in the local area, and the relationship became deeper and deeper, and the business gradually improved, and it was always able to provide a profit of 180,000 yuan for the East Coast every year.

Although the amount of profit that the merchant can provide today, it is gradually decreasing under the pressure of various factors. But the channels, agents and official relationships in the area are still there. But once the store is closed, there is basically nothing. Moreover, in this way, the people on the east coast could not collect first-hand information about Tuscany and even the whole of northern Italy in time, and the recruitment of European technicians and even the organization of immigrants from Tuscany would also be yellow, and the losses were still quite large. Therefore, Mo Sansi thought about it until the end, but he still didn't make up his mind, but he just planned to streamline some of the personnel of the trading station, and those who were willing to go to Russia to open up went to Russia to open up, and those who were unwilling to pack up and go back to the mainland. As for the most expensive tribute to local officials. Mo San felt that since the shape was already irreparable, it was better to reduce or even stop. It also saves a lot of money.

"The trading post in Florence will not be closed for the time being, at least until this year, and it seems to be making money. And we also need to keep a window, a window in Tuscany, which gives us a lot of convenience. Mo San waved his hand and said, "The Italian market is like this, and the French side is probably not optimistic." Now that the war is over, the era of lavish spending is over, and it's so frustrating that everyone is clinging to their wallets and staring at other people's purses. ”

"That's what the market is, Mo." Mario held a glass of wine in his hand and said in surprise, "The Doria family has been through too many periods like this in their centuries of history. We've been thinking about how to make cute silver coins travel between countries without interruption, but it's always been difficult. Even a small, mercantile city-state would be concerned about the outflow of silver coins, so they preferred to use their own goods and reduce imports, as was the case in Tuscany. If you add to this the commercial rivalry between the Venetians and you, it is only natural that your business in Florence is becoming increasingly difficult. ”

Mo San nodded when he heard this, and said, "The market in Northern Italy is too scattered and the forces are complicated, and we have never really owned it. Moreover, the Venetians, who have always been unfriendly to us, are deeply entrenched there, so it will be even more difficult for us. Forget it, don't mention those things that are uninteresting, and talk about happy topics. For example, some gentlemen in Sicily that you mentioned last time are going to grow sugar cane and then ask us to prepare more bean cakes for export? ”

"Yes." Mario did not hesitate to confirm, "Thank God that last year the whole of south-central Italy had good weather and a good grain harvest. It is foreseeable that with the resumption of agricultural and animal husbandry production in war-torn Germany, the CIF price of grain will fall sharply along the entire Mediterranean and Baltic coasts. Now that growing food is no longer so lucrative, they plan to grow sugar cane to refine sugar, a commodity that is always in short supply. And with the vigorous promotion of our family, they have also developed a certain interest in your bean cakes, and plan to import a batch to fertilize the fields. It's a great opportunity, Mo, once they form a habit, there will be a steady stream of orders in the future. ”

Hearing Mario say this, Mo San was also very happy, after all, it is not easy to open up a new source of wealth now, everyone holds the money in their hands, and it takes a lot of effort to pick a little bit down.

Mo San spent two more days in Messina, and on 30 September, as he was preparing to take a ship to the port of Livorno, intending to take the route to Florence to deal with the beginning and end of the trading station, a letter came from Contin, the director of the Bordeaux trading station. It was at this time that Mo San finally knew about the "nightmare" that happened in France.

East Coast Textiles is losing the French market!

This was Mo San's first reaction when he first heard the news, because the white calico, which accounts for the majority of East Coast's textile sales, would no longer be profitable under such high tariffs (the East Coasters would also give local agents a lot of profits). And with the continuous improvement of Europeans in textile machinery in recent years, the quality of their cotton yarn and cotton cloth has also been greatly improved, under the strict trade protection mechanism, they can compete with the East Coast cotton cloth with price advantages, which will undoubtedly make the East Coast Calico in the French market completely defeated.

If the white cotton cloth cannot be sold, the profit of at least 400,000 yuan or more will be lost this year, and the profit of 1560,000 yuan a year generated by dyed cloth, calico and some new textile products is undoubtedly a drop in the bucket for the East Coast locals, who are now using more and more money. Not to mention that the French have also raised import tariffs on other goods, but not as much as cotton, which will also cause additional losses of more than 100,000 yuan a year to East Coast goods, which is really unbearable.

Mo San immediately felt the trickiness of the matter. This time the incident was made by the French government, and to put it more bluntly, it was their powerful Prime Minister Mazarin. Of course, they are not particularly targeting the East Coasters, because they have also imposed unbearably high tariffs on some goods from the Netherlands, Portugal and the United Kingdom, and they have done so purely by protectionist and mercantilist ideas. Who made the East Coast textiles so arrogant, and has already marketed a small half of the south-central part of France, and it is normal to be blackmailed to death at this time.

At this time, it is obviously useless to go to the French government to negotiate. Mo San began to analyze, and he believed that with the virtues of the French people he had seen with their nostrils on the top of their heads, it would be a shame to negotiate tariff rates with them on behalf of the government of the East Coast Republic of China. Mo San didn't want to be snubbed and humiliated by the French for the second time, so he immediately vetoed his plan to negotiate with the French.

Since diplomacy is not working, it seems that other means are the only way to go. For example, the possibility of exchanging other interests with the French - this is equally infinitely small; Or simply to kill the French cotton textile industry by commercial means, leaving them without domestic products - and this will undoubtedly require a rigorous plan by the local executive committee, and the full cooperation of the various departments.

Mo San thought about it carefully, and finally found that it seemed that he could only "remind" the French through the more drastic means of guò. If the French want to develop their own cotton textile industry, and they don't grow cotton in their own country, they need to import it from the Caribbean islands or the New World, so there is so much to make a fuss about. Raising the price of cotton with money is one way, but it is also a good way to block the flow of cotton into France through guò violence.

Now that the war was over, the huge navy on the east coast (France had fewer than 20 sailing ships until 1663) was out of use. In that case, why not send them to the Caribbean Sea for a spin and intercept the French transport ship without knowing it, I believe it is not a difficult task. Anyway, it is not the first time that the East Coast Navy has been a pirate, and in a normal year, the annual military expenditure of the Navy reaches 1.45 million yuan (not counting the cost of building ships, only the maintenance cost, with the entry into service of some auxiliary ships, the annual military expenditure of the Navy after 1650 may be close to 1.7 million yuan), is such a huge expenditure expected to be paid by the Executive Committee? There was nothing in the war years, but it was indeed a great burden on the finances to keep such a large fleet in the peacetime years, so it was urgent for the navy to go out and get some wild food and find some way, otherwise the funds would be squeezed out by military spending, and the country would not want to engage in construction?

Thinking of this, Mo San also spread out the paper and wrote a secret letter to the locals. The French have fired the first shot of the trade friction, and the East Coasters always need to react something. Otherwise, you're a mud guy, anyone can come up and step on it, then it's a fart! (To be continued......)