Xie Qinggao bought a large amount of cotton, cotton cloth, iron pots, farm tools and other commodities in India, and then on the return trip, Temasek was already able to dock big ships, but there were still few berths, and the merchants in the past were more accustomed to resupplying in Malacca, where the conditions were better, and the defense personnel he left behind had several conflicts with the local Malay princely states to ensure Temasek's safety.

After selling some Indian goods in Nanyang for gold, he set sail for Guangzhou.

The voyage was basically a net loss, and Zhou Lang gave only 500,000 taels of silver for the start-up capital, most of which had already been spent, the biggest support of which was the purchase of Temasek, and the other expenses were mainly the salaries of the crew.

In the past, Xie Qinggao didn't care about money, but now he has to worry about money, and he plans to go on a few voyages and explorations next year, which all require money. And he could not see any hope of the output of the colony, so he could only pin his money on entrepot trade.

Immediately after returning to China, he communicated with the maritime groups that were becoming more and more active, provided them with the charts of his trip, and welcomed them to trade in Africa.

Zhou Guan, a Guangdong giant merchant who had been operating the Nanyang route, was very interested in this, but what was more interested was the policy of the imperial court.

Pirates, maritime merchants and sailors are the three eternal forces at sea, and China is no exception. Zhou Guan is a Guangdong maritime merchant, similar to most businessmen who do maritime trade, he is a Chaozhou native, and he is one of the leaders.

The Zhou official family has a similar background to the Zhu family, both of them are generations of maritime merchants, and doing business at sea requires not only commercial experience, but also a wealth of nautical knowledge, which is a high technical barrier, and in China, where the tradition of father and son is popular, these maritime families are easy to pass down from generation to generation, like small craftsmen.

Unlike Zhu Li, Zhou Guan has never been transformed into a pirate, he is more flexible than Zhu Li, does not offend the government, and is more able to maneuver between various forces, including pirates. He had good friendships with the government and foreigners, which made him rely more on the official background to trade, rather than being forced to become a pirate.

With his relationship, he can keep his sea ship from being robbed by pirates, and even if he is robbed, he can get it back, not only the cargo ships robbed by the Chinese pirates, but also the foreigners.

Twenty years ago, when the American Revolutionary War broke out, the countries of continental Europe supported the United States and almost all declared war on Britain. The British merchant ships immediately resurrected the pirate blood of their ancestors and began to raid these European merchant ships everywhere, the most important of which were Dutch ships.

There was a British captain named McClary who captured a Spanish merchant ship bound for Manila from Macau. Then the ship was sailed into Canton and tried to sell the goods on board, but the governor of Liangguang at that time was very angry about this, how dare these satisfied robbers in the waters of the Celestial Empire and sell the stolen goods in Canton!

Captain McCary was then captured and asked to order the release of the captured Spanish ships. Before it could be released, the Spanish dhow sank due to high winds. At this time, the Cantonese government demanded that McClary, who had been imprisoned for two months, pay 70,000 silver dollars in compensation for the sunken Spanish ship and cargo, otherwise McClary would be executed as a pirate.

McClary claimed that he had a license issued by the British Governor of India to "allow the capture of enemy ships" and a license for "wartime reprisals", and that the ownership of the captured enemy ships belonged to the captain of the ship, McClary, and that the Governor of Liangguang did not recognize the British at all, and McClary had to pay for it.

After leaving prison, McCary was very unconvinced, this kind of guy who applied for permission to retaliate in wartime was ruthless. He continued to roam the waters off Macao in search of enemy merchant ships, and soon he and another privateer captured two merchant ships sailing from Macao, one of which was Dutch and the other of Zhou Guan's, in the South Seas.

Zhou Guan directly approached the Guangzhou Management Committee of the East India Company, saying that the goods belonged to him, and demanded compensation of 38,398 taels of silver. According to the variety of goods and the status of Zhou Guan, the Taipan of the Governing Council agreed with him, but did not pay compensation, telling him that the Governing Council had no power to stop Captain McClary, but promised to convey his indictment and oath to the British Governor of India.

The East India Company's Governing Council in its complaint to the Viceroy of Hattings in India reads: "Allow us to complain again about the conduct of this gentleman [McClary], who near the island of Bangka, forcibly plundered for four days a Chinese galleon belonging to a great merchant (referring to Zhouguan) here (referring to Canton), and took away a great deal of goods, on the pretext that it was Dutch; Several of the original owners have complained to us that the goods are the property of the Chinese, and judging by the nature of the types of goods, we are inclined to believe them. ”

Although this matter is over, Zhou Guan can not only communicate with pirates, but also communicate with the East India Company, and go directly to Nanyang to do business, although he does not have as strong hard power as Zhu Li, but his connections are not lost to Zhu Li. Moreover, even the British East India Company Management Council called them giant merchants, and they were even more financially than Zhu Li.

Now that Zhu Lian has become the governor of Xiongzhen because he has been appreciated by the emperor of the new dynasty, it is impossible for Zhou Guan, who thinks that he is no worse than Zhu Hui, to have no ideas.

Especially after the imperial court in Vietnam absorbed Zheng Qi, the largest pirate leader in Guangdong, quickly under the guidance of Zheng Qi, the pirate nests entrenched in the border area between China and Vietnam carried out a devastating cleansing, and now there are almost no pirates in China's waters, the sea route is unblocked, Zhou Guan's fleet does not have to pay the pirate group to buy the road, coupled with the attitude of the imperial court to encourage trade, he has added many new sea ships that could not be built in the past in recent years, and the business has done greatly. The business has grown, but the status has not improved, under the influence of traditional culture, he is still a small businessman who does not enter the stream, and he is also a dead maritime merchant with nowhere to bury, and is particularly looked down upon. Under the influence of this emotion, Zhou Guan was particularly eager to get an official status.

But he had no way, he knew Zhu Lian, and hoped that Zhu Mian could help him introduce the emperor, or at least a minister who could speak, but Zhu Mian was silent and refused to help. He understands Zhu Li, being in officialdom, he has to be careful everywhere, especially with their status, more is better than less.

From Zhu Li, he didn't find a way, but Xie Qinggao is a good man, and he is also a person who is very close to the emperor, everyone knows that Xie Qinggao came back from India with the emperor to fight the world, although he is not a capable minister or a general, but his face is familiar, and he can talk to the emperor.

Xie Qinggao is in the newspaper in Guangdong to attract investment, if Zhou Guan can't seize this kind of opportunity, he will not be an eight-sided and exquisite character.

So he immediately visited in person, and under the pretext of discussing business, he really met Xie Qinggao. made a heavy promise to Xie Qinggao, promising to send fifty big ships to Xie Qinggao's port every year to do business, and then proposed to let Xie Qinggao help him introduce him.

After listening to Zhou Guan's appeal, Xie Qinggao looked embarrassed, but he couldn't withstand Zhou Guan's soft grinding and hard bubbles, and agreed to plead to the emperor.

Zhou Lang quickly learned about such a character as Zhou Guan from Xie Qinggao.

Zhou Guan is not his real name, just like the Pan family calls Pan Qiguan, and the Wu family calls Wu Haoguan, Zhou Guan is a business name, and the business culture in these years is very particular, and he will give a business name when doing business, but this business name is often more famous than his real name.

This Zhou official is over fifty years old, is the largest maritime merchant in Guangdong, has formed a fleet of more than 80 large and small ships, mainly dealing in Siamese rice, Nanyang pepper, of course, mainly to sell Chinese goods to these regions, the annual trade volume is as high as 35 million taels, has been deeply involved in the Nanyang trade for several generations.

Zhou Lang also understood Xie Qinggao's purpose, Xie Qinggao had no confidence in his ability to operate, felt that he could not maintain the operation of African companies by trade alone, and he himself was not very interested in doing business, so he planned to open the route, similar to the British East India Company authorized retail merchants to operate, he planned to invite Chinese merchants to trade on the routes he managed, charging a certain management fee.

It's not a bad idea, it saves worry and effort, and it can free up more time for Xie Qinggao to explore more interestingly, and he went to Africa, and he also interacted with the local natives, and he was very interested in these Kunlun slaves, and planned to go on a long-distance expedition next time to visit more black villages.

However, the situation in the South Seas is now very delicate, as the Dutch East India Company lost seventy percent of its assets due to the American Revolutionary War, and finally went bankrupt under the influence of the French Revolution. A few years earlier, in 1799, the Dutch had dissolved the East India Company, and the Dutch government had taken over all the assets of the East India Company.

But this Dutch government is a bit peculiar, it is not the government of the Dutch Republic in the past, but a government called the Republic of Batavia. In fact, the Batavia Republic was established in the Netherlands itself, and its jurisdiction included the Netherlands and all the Dutch colonies.

Why did the good Dutch Republic change its name? This is also why the Netherlands will not die, as a small country, a country that relies heavily on trade, the last thing to get involved in a big power war, but the Netherlands always joins a war that makes them lust and die when there is no war when it is least supposed to happen.

For example, the American Revolutionary War had a Maoist relationship with the Netherlands, because the United States was rebelling against Britain and was a republic, the Dutch actively supported the United States, but the British destroyed the merchant fleet on which they depended, causing the Dutch East India Company to lose seventy percent of its assets and bear heavy debts.

The French Revolution had nothing to do with the Netherlands, Britain forbade foreign merchant ships to sail into British ports, and always regarded the Netherlands as a competitor, but France was the largest trading partner of the Netherlands, but the Dutch accepted the instigation of Britain and joined the first anti-French alliance.

The first anti-French alliance mainly included Britain, Prussia, Austria, the Netherlands, Spain, Sardinia, Naples and other countries, of which the Netherlands joined as a great power, at least the Netherlands at that time was much higher in national strength and status than Prussia, Sardinia and other small countries.

But after this battle, the most unlucky was the Netherlands, other countries were basically fine, not to mention that the Netherlands itself was reduced to the main battlefield, and in the end it was almost annexed by France.