The port of Araukan in October is warmer than the port of Hindnan. Except for the westerly wind, which is still raging, everything is fine here, there is no heavy snow in the sky, and there is no sand and dust in the sky. It is a place of greenery - well, only on the shores or on the banks of the river, and it is thriving - and it is true, as can be seen from the constant flow of ships in and out of the port here, and the population is flourishing - in addition to the large number of Araucans, there are already more than a thousand inhabitants of the east coast, and the small port of Araucan has a population of thousands.

On the land bought by the East Coasters, the Southern Railway Company built a two-story brick house to serve as the company's office here. Next to the brick house is a stone-built storehouse that houses various goods shipped from the country, and also doubles as a company vault. At this time, Mo Ming was sitting in the office in the middle of the second floor, receiving a long-lost guest.

"This is truly a gift from God, President Mo. I met the famous Salvador in Santiago? Angel? Baron Bravo, who has agreed to your company's request for bilateral trade, has invited you to stay in Valparaiso for a while in due course, and to discuss some details. "Manuel? Ignacio? Rodriguez sat across from Mo Ming and talked eloquently.

This old guy is none other than the head of the Rodriguez family, the native-born white elite of La Plata, who has trade ties with the East Coasters for more than a decade. Although trade was interrupted for three years because of the war, as soon as the war ended, his son Álvaro reconnected with the East Coasters on behalf of the family: they first bought 200,000 yuan of 10-year bonds of the Southern Railway Company on the Qingdao financial market, and then applied to buy a 2% stake in the Southern Railway Company (worth 200,000 yuan).

Directly spending a huge amount of 400,000 yuan to repair the relationship between the two parties is not a big deal. And. Led by the Rodriguez family. Other native-born white families who had fled to Chile and Peru during the war also tentatively invested in the Southern Railway. As a vote for the restoration of trade ties with the people of the East Coast, this credit is quite large, so as the president of the Southern Railway Company, Mo Ming has always had a good impression of this business family in La Plata. This time, the Southern Railway Company intends to start private bilateral trade with Chile, Charcas and other places, and Mo Ming is ready to give their family a piece of the pie, which can be regarded as a reward.

"I have heard that during the war, some of Baron Bravo's estates on the banks of the Maurin River were sacked by the Araucan guerrillas, and the losses were not small. And. He himself was a devout Catholic and had a deep prejudice against us East Coasters...... So, is there really no problem here? Mo Ming groaned, and then asked Manuel rhetorically.

"Business is business." Manuel smiled disapprovingly and said, "The people of the peninsula in the old continent hate the Dutch to the core, and the war between the two sides has been going on for more than half a century, countless people, including a large number of noble children, have been killed in the battlefield, and countless nobles or merchants' ships have suffered heavy losses because they have been plundered by the Dutch...... However, this does not prevent trade between the two parties, and business is business. It has nothing to do with politics. As you know, during the long war with the Dutch. A considerable part of the kingdom's finances was sustained by borrowing from Dutch bankers, and a third to half of the silver now shipped back from the New World was to be shipped to Holland to pay interest on its debts. So, there's nothing wrong with that. ”

Mo Ming smiled when she heard this, and then bowed her head slightly, as if she agreed with Manuel's explanation. Trade between the Southern Railroad Company and the Spanish American colonies could only be a shady private trade, as the policy of the Kingdom of Spain did not allow it (the West Indies' restrictive trade policy). But if the participants are all powerful people in the colonies, then the problem is not very big, when everyone is tied to the same chain of interests, and the vested interests of Spain, mainly native-born whites, will help to cover up the homeland.

The Southern Railway Company once made a prediction on the trade prospects between the two sides, and the conclusion was that the market was very broad and the "money road" was very bright. Tropical trees, guano, cinchona bark and cane sugar from Peru, wool, leather and animal fat from Chile, lead, tin and sulphur from Chalcas, were all commodities needed on the eastern coast. Of course, the most produced commodity in the Viceroyalty of Peru - precious metals - is in desperate need of the people of the East Coast. And what are the export commodities of the East Coast, the answer is a lot!

Textiles, farm tools, hardware tools, dyed leather goods, soaps, greases, building materials, and even refined salt, as well as a small number of means of production, such as canvas, anchor chains, weapons (of course, this is up for debate) and even fishing boats, were all needed. Thanks to the Spanish kingdom's years of repression of the colonies (only a small amount of industry existed in Mexico), the industry of the Viceroyalty of Peru was almost completely empty, and almost all of the daily necessities of the region's millions of inhabitants were transported from the mainland by an annual treasure fleet. It has been recorded that some wealthy people in Peru even needed to import bricks from the Old World in order to build estates, which is incredible!

Of course, the daily needs of millions of people are extremely large, and they are simply not capable of being transported by dozens of treasure ships a year. This led to the thriving smuggling trade in Peru, with French, Dutch, British, Portuguese, and even Swedish and Danish smuggling ships from Nordic countries all carrying out a staggering amount of smuggling trade in the Peruvian Viceroyalty, which was full of holes like a sieve. Fortunately in the 17th century, this situation was just beginning, and by the 18th century, the Spanish treasure fleet transported only one-tenth of the goods consumed in the Americas by the two fleets of treasure ships a year. As for the other nine-tenths, the smuggling trade naturally fills the gap, and the most smuggling is naturally the British merchants.

The Southern Railway Company is now in financial difficulties, and urgently needs a large amount of money to build the Transoceanic Railway and the two large seaport terminals of Araucan Port and Xingnan Port, and the local government happens to give the Southern Railway Company the monopoly trading rights on the east coast of the southern Patagonia region, which creates a foundation for the Southern Railway Company to carry out entrepot trade in the Pacific waters. Anyway, this market seems to be about the same as the blank one at present, and it is not white.

Moreover, smuggling large quantities of goods from the East Coast into the vast Viceroyalty of Peru would not only stifle (though unlikely) the national industries that might emerge in the region, but would also squeeze out goods from other countries that were smuggling through loopholes. What a joke, the New World market is from the East coast, and the French, the British, the Dutch, the Portuguese and even the distant Norsemen have smuggled their goods over, what a system!

Mo Ming believes that with the low manufacturing cost of goods on the east coast and the lower cost of logistics and transportation, it will definitely be able to gradually drive the smuggled goods of other countries out of the Peruvian market -- of course, only the goods that the east coast can produce itself, and as for those labor-intensive goods, the east coast itself has to ask others to import them -- the benefits to the domestic manufacturing industry on the east coast are self-evident, and the Southern Railway Company can also take a free ride from it and obtain a large amount of entrepot trade profits. to gain the capacity to sustain infrastructure development in the Southern Patagonia region. Otherwise, with state subsidies and capital market financing, it will not be until the Year of the Monkey to raise enough funds. You know, this year there will be 2-3 migrant ships in the Far East tentatively going east from the port of Jinshan, along the northern edge of the westerly wind belt to the port of Araukan.

However, the smuggling of goods from the East Coast into the Viceroyalty of Peru is not without its pitfalls. For example, the goods transported by the Spanish treasure fleet and foreign smuggled goods that were hit by the goods on the east coast, among them, the Genoese losses were not small (the St. George trading house undertook a considerable amount of import and export trade in the Americas, and had a large warehouse in the port of Cádiz), and the Dutch West India Company was not a small loss as a large smuggler, which required the relevant departments of the local trade on the east coast to coordinate their interests with the two of them. Of course, this is not Mo Ming's business, he only pays attention to the interests of the Southern Railway Company, as for the trade disputes that may be caused by this, it is a matter for the government, and the relationship between Genoese and the Dutch is still up to them to appease.

Thinking of this, Mo Ming stood up, paced a few steps around the room, and then said to Manuel, "I'll write a letter now, and you can help me bring it to Baron Bravo." Preparing for the establishment of a smuggling network is a very complicated matter, which involves the interests of all aspects, and there are too many people who need to settle the matter. Well, after you're gone, I'll organize a negotiation team within a week, and they'll negotiate with you according to my will, so I don't have to come forward, they can represent me. Of course, once everything is agreed, I might go to Valparaíso, but not yet. ”

"I see." Manuel also stood up, looked at Mo Ming and said, "Baron Bravo will not refuse, and he will not be allowed to refuse." There are so many powerful people who have lost so much in the three-year war that they are in dire need of recoup, and smuggling with you is the quickest way to get results. Maybe this doesn't match their inner emotional tendencies, but everyone is an adult, and in the face of real interests, I believe they will make a rational choice. ”

On 15 October 1649, the fishing vessel "Nantieyu 001" left the port of Araucan with a five-member negotiating team and sailed north along the cold Humboldt Current, with their destination being Valparaíso, the outer port of Santiago. In addition, the ship was loaded with a considerable amount of goods from the East Coast, and the smuggling trade with the Spaniards was almost ready to fly. (To be continued......)