"Didn't quite complete the task." After disembarking from the deck of a naval liaison ship to the dock, Gaumo greeted him in a relaxed tone, Liu Weimin, the chairman of the Executive Committee, and said: "We have forced the Portuguese to reopen trade, but we cannot completely stop the war between them and the Dutch West India Company. However, this does not seem to be a big problem, the navy has left two frigates and four shallow gunboats over there, and the Dutch have received a large amount of artillery from us, so it seems that holding the line of Recife, Olinda, and Fortaleza will not be a problem......"

"We have also read your briefing on the negotiations, and the Executive Committee has already met and discussed it, and it has been agreed in principle to send the first batch of 500 South African Eight Banner Forces to Recife. In addition, Jacobs will also send 400 Latvian musketeers to Dutch Brazil, and the employment contracts of these people totaling 48,000 yuan will be loaned to the Dutch as the second interest-free loan provided by the New World Friendship and Mutual Bank. Moreover, the Dutch must have been more aware of the benefits that an ally of a regional power located in the Southern New World could bring to them, and this is the real meaning of our busy work, helping the West India Company, which is only incidental. Liu Weimin explained the final intention of the people on the east coast, which also touched Golmo's ears, and it seemed that the national policy of uniting the Dutch to control the British had become more and more deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, but I don't know if the Dutch looked down on the East Coast Republic of China, and were willing to make friends or even form an alliance with these heretics - but in the current situation, the situation seems to be okay.

"This is the first time that our government has openly intervened in an international armed conflict on our doorstep, and it is of extraordinary significance. Especially for the improvement of China's international status. The positive impact is incalculable. The Dutch will value us more. The cooperation between the two sides will be deepened. Perhaps, in a few years' time, the Dutch, having come to a deeper understanding of our strength, will be more willing to accept us into their existing international trading system; Or at the very least, they will also ask us more on international matters. He also thinks a lot about it these days, and he clearly knows how much impact this incident has on the East Coast, Portugal, and the Dutch West India Company, especially the brazen dispatch of a large number of warships on the East Coast to interfere in a war between two old colonial powers, which is of far-reaching significance.

The location of the two of them is the dock in the capital, Dongfang County. In the commercial dock area, several 650-ton Nanhai Transportation Company flute-type transport ships are loading, and the cargo is mainly refined bagged flour, butter, cheese, ham and other food; Next to these ships, there are two refrigerated ships that have been fully loaded with goods, one of which is full of cod, and the other is mixed with whale meat, seal meat, vicuña meat, beef and other fresh meat products, these two ships respectively from the port of baleen whales and Yancheng port, the goods did not get off the ship, after paying the export duties at the customs of Dongfang Port, they were moored in the wharf on the spot, waiting for the rest of the merchant ships to depart together and the two sail gunboats escorted by the navy.

Gaumo can't remember how many ships have gone to the Netherlands, since the Lodge Secret was approved by the Executive Committee. The Ministry of Industry and Commerce, the Ministry of Agriculture, the Ministry of Communications and other units immediately began an emergency operation to raise a large number of materials on the list. Precious transport capacity was squeezed out, and effective escorts were sent to give the Dutch blood transfusions with all their might—of course, blood transfusions were excessive, after all, the Dutch were buying these goods at a higher price than the market price, but considering that it was a sensitive time of war, and there were not many countries that could afford to do so, the Dutch really should be grateful to the East Coast Republic of China.

Almost all of the industrial production areas on the East Coast were covered by a series of commodities such as water-powered machinery and metal-smelting equipment ordered by the Tripp Company, industrial windmill parts and hydraulic saws ordered by the Saldan Shipyard, muskets and cannons ordered by the East India Company (many of which were previously supplied by the Birmingham area of England), food products ordered by grain wholesalers in Amsterdam, and high-end textiles and leather goods ordered by ordinary merchants.

Truth be told, it was only when the officials of the Ministry of Commerce and Industry saw the list of goods that the Dutch were looking for that they knew for the first time that there were so many kinds of goods in the world at this time, and at the same time, they also realized for the first time how scarce the number of goods that could be produced by the people of the East Coast (and only a few of these goods were industrialized and mass-produced). With this understanding, everyone has a little more desire to squeeze into the current national trade order dominated by the Dutch - it is almost a brilliant market paved with gold - and at the same time, everyone has strengthened the determination of immigrants to re-immigrate, develop and develop, and persist in cultivating markets, popularizing education, and promoting the industrialization process of the East Coast for a hundred years!

"Exports are booming, and all the people working in the industry and agriculture are smiling, especially some private workshop owners in the food processing industry, who are excited to make foreign money for the first time. However, if I want to say that there are good and bad news, the domestic money stock may set a new record this year, the inflation rate will continue to rise, and the cost of labor and production will increase, which is not necessarily a good thing for the operation of the economy. Liu Weimin saw Gao Mo staring at the merchant ships that were about to leave Hong Kong, and said with a smile: "However, the Government Council will make overall plans, and we don't have to worry about this, the progress of some large-scale infrastructure projects that will generate a large amount of circulating currency in the society will slow down a little, and the cash snatched back by the navy and the gold and silver produced by the Tieling Gold Mine will be temporarily stored in the No. 1 Prison of the Army, and then put on the market according to the situation, so as not to spoil the domestic economy." ”

"Development is a good thing after all! How can a fast-growing economy not be high inflation? As long as there is an export surplus, then the money stock in the domestic market will only increase, and even if we have vigorously imported, it is estimated that the whole society's money stock will exceed 15 million in the near future. "Besides, the rapid development of manufacturing and the commodification of agriculture show that our economy is becoming more and more dynamic." To put it mildly, even if some people want to do the opposite thing in the future, it will be difficult for our economy to return to the era of agricultural feudalism. Of course, if it is in the Ming Dynasty, it is difficult to say, the conservative forces and feudal forces are too strong, if any leader is brainwashed - this is what they are best at - if the society is not good, it will turn back the clock of history. ”

"Okay, let's not talk about those useless things, how does it feel to come back from San Vicente this time?" Liu Weimin asked.

"I feel that the Portuguese are only temporarily forbearing, but controlling the whole of Brazil is also their basic national policy, and the war with the Dutch West India Company will be a long-term thing. It is difficult to say whether the Dutch were determined to hold on, because in the present situation, the West India Company was too spread and resistant to spending a lot of money to get bogged down in the quagmire of war for a long time, so it is difficult to say what the future of Brazil would be, and we can only take it one step at a time. "In addition, I think the Portuguese should have been somewhat touched by the incident of our navy blocking the door, and then they may adjust their policy, vigorously develop the navy and enrich the strength of the Brazilian colonies, in the hope of being able to compete with us in the future." ”

"What do you think the Portuguese will do?"

"I don't know, I can only make inferences based on some of the information I have. I think that in a country where they are still very feudal, there are probably people who want to restore the 'ancient system' when they first discovered Brazil. The system of granting trade privileges to some merchants or lords and then leasing them a certain area of land required the lessee to build and maintain one or more forts on Brazilian territory for the duration of the contract. Gaumo responded, "The first Brazilian land tenant in history was Fernand. Deloronia, which he rented for ten years at a rent of 4,000 ducats (about 10,000 East Coast silver dollars) a year, raised his own funds, sent men and ships to colonize Brazil, and was said to have exported more than 20,000 quintals of expensive Brazilian sumac to Portugal every year. In addition, under the contract, he was obliged to send six ships a year to discover at least 300 leagues of uncharted territory, on the condition that the king forbade the extraction of timber similar to that of brazilian sumac from India or elsewhere. ”

"It sounds interesting, but the lessee doesn't necessarily make a profit, right? Why did the Portuguese stop making such colonization attempts? Liu Weimin keenly grasped the key point and asked.

"There's really no guarantee of profitability." Gao Mo nodded and said, "Even if the tenant is given monopoly privileges, the risk of loss is still quite large, and a disease or an attack by the natives may cause the tenant to lose his fortune. However, it is fair to say that this condition is still very attractive to merchants or aristocrats, and if it is run in a good way, with the rich Cheng dù of Brazil, the profit side still accounts for the majority. Later, the Portuguese royal family was mainly afraid of enlarging the local native-born whites, coupled with the low rents given by the tenants but still giving them all kinds of preferential or privileges (the bulk of the profits were privately owned, and the king's income was limited, but the whole of Brazil was theoretically the king's private property), and the profit was really not large, so the royal family slowly abandoned this colonial method. These exploited lands were then merged with the early colonial generals' districts, and the crown sent governors to administer them directly, replacing the previous model of fiefdoms with strong medieval overtones. ”

"Well......" Liu Weimin thought for a long time, and then said: "I still have to work hard for you, do your best to put these views into words, and then submit them to the Executive Committee, and we will hold a special meeting to discuss." The next period should be relatively calm, and the Portuguese home fleet will be a few months away, right? Hehe, we can finally take a breather for a while. (To be continued......)