Twenty days after the end of the expedition to the Galapagos Islands, the last two ships of the round-the-world fleet finally arrived at the ports of the Republic, the most prosperous island in the entire tropical archipelago at this time.

In the distance, the boulder and concrete forts resembled crouching beasts, and some of the high logs on the shore hung many dried pirate corpses, moving like wind chimes in the wind, and some of them had peeled off their skins and covered them with straw, and the wind whined through them.

In contrast to this savage landscape, there are a variety of ships moored at the oil port, flying various flags. The hired men carrying the goods could be seen at the port, a group of soldiers saw Chen Jian's flagship and fired their guns, and the hired men who carried the goods also stood up and shouted at the sea.

In addition to the black and white flags and the sinuous dragon flag, there was also the strange flag of the Nanyang Trading Company with a painting of a sailing ship sailing upstream with gold coins, and the red slogan painted on the wall facing the harbor: To the pirates, to be good soon.

A slave ship that had just returned from Africa was unloading its "cargo" at the port, and a group of Africans were being driven to an open field, where several people were throwing bleached water on the Africans, grouped according to height, sex, and robustness.

A four-storey wooden frame building that is obviously imitating the earliest masonry structure of Min County, with the words "Joint-stock Bank of the Coastal People's Self-Oil Port Branch" written on it, seems to be used to settle bills and exchange silver coins from various countries, and many people come and go, and they all go to the wharf to meet them when they know the news of the return of the fleet.

A warship approached and fired a salute in the distance, and then the two cargo ships were forcibly diverted to other places to allow Chen Jian's ship to enter the harbor first.

On the deck, Jian Chen looked at a few people around him and said with a smile: "I guess you are still very uncomfortable in your hearts, such a great honor as the first batch of people to sail around the world in the Republic does not belong to you, but to those who came back first." Whether you say it or not, I know that this kind of thing that will go down in history is always something that many people want. ”

"But we were the first to discover the New World in the southern Pacific Ocean," the sailors said. Speaking of which, we have not yet reached the higher-level needs that Mr. Chen said have been solved, but there will definitely be regrets. Even if Mr. Chen had written down our names, people would not have thought of us hundreds of years later when they talked about the discovery of continents in the southern hemisphere...... I think of you first. ”

"Then I can only blame you for not having money, who made me rich before?"

Everyone laughed, tidied up their clothes, and many sailors were ready to get off the ship and go to **, scrambling for binoculars to look at the women on the dock who were specialized in doing this kind of thing, and pushed away Chen Jian with a smile, and the group of people said something that had been held back for a long time, and let out bursts of laughter.

The commanders of the local garrison and the heads of banks and companies also came in horse-drawn carriages to greet them, and prepared the banquet as fast as they could.

Whether it is a bank or a Nanyang company, Chen Jian has a lot of shares, and he is the initiator, so the specifications of such hospitality are already a bit strange.

In the banquet, Chen Jian naturally sat on the left, and the people who received him did not know that he was going to withdraw his shares, and Chen Jian had the right to inquire about many company news.

Everyone in the banquet also knew the news of the company that Chen Jian was concerned about, and the wine was just ordered to stop, talking about the current situation.

"There are now two batteries on the island, and the garrisons are still the same, but the company's armed employees are more than 900. Plantations have also been developed on the island, which is an important transit point and the company has invested a lot. In addition, the Anti-Piracy Convention was initiated with Spain, and the fleet also patrolled on time, which can be said to be indestructible. ”

Jian Chen thought of the pirates hanging from the trees and asked, "Are these pirates captured at sea?" ”

"Yes. As long as the Spaniards can provide evidence, the Spaniards will recognize the pirates as well. A few years ago, the Spanish navy was defeated by the Dutch, and the royal family went bankrupt, and we also helped escort a number of silver ships and trading fleets. Sometimes, he also helped the Spaniards patrol the colonies and catch smugglers from other countries. ”

Jian Chen smiled: "The group of people on the board of directors are really warm-hearted. ”

Everyone at the banquet laughed, and they knew better than anyone else what was going on. Now Spain is maintaining a colony, relying on the legal trading rights it has obtained, every smuggling ship of the company is legal, and Spain cannot seize it - what is seized must be legal, and what is not seized is smuggled. As for the smuggling ships of other countries, they naturally had to be blocked in the port and handed over to the Spanish governor-general for disposal, and in the past few years, the second-class smugglers in the colonies were unwilling to trade with people from other countries, and sometimes they would take the initiative to report it.

The smuggling trade of the two major viceroyalties of Spain was basically monopolized by the Nanyang Company, and the price paid was to be the enemy of all the pirates in the entire sea, and now it seems that this price is extremely worthwhile, and it is not the crooked path of you pirates and pirates.

After a while, someone said: "Now only we and Spain have signed the Anti-Piracy Convention." The British, French, and Dutch didn't sign it, so sometimes it's not easy to do. When we hunted down pirate ships, they hid in the French Puritans or the small ports of the British, and to go in and capture them was to go to war, and they did not admit that they were pirates...... Sometimes it's hard to get around. Sometimes the pirates change ships when they enter the harbor, and we can't catch ......."

Jian Chen pondered for a moment and said: "Don't touch the bottom line easily, there are some things that must be decided by the board of directors." ”

"Mr. Chen is relieved of this, and now everyone here understands that you can do anything in secret, but you still can't do too much on the surface."

"Well, what about the rest of the maritime merchants in the country?"

"What else can I do if I beg the company to expand its shares? The company is now helping the navy to crack down on smuggling, and Mr. Chen's father is in Min County, which is extremely strict. Coupled with the audit of the marine insurance company, we don't care about domestic trade, and trading companies outside Africa, Europe and Spanish colonies don't reach out, and everyone is okay with it. ”

Another person also smiled: "You can't fight and you can't fight for money, where can you ever be a joint-stock company?" However, there are also those who take risks to smuggle, and they are all honest after being caught a few times, and now there are so many people in the coastal counties who have invested in them, how many people's interests are involved? Don't talk about them, even if those families in the north really want to smuggle, they will have fun in the country, and they have to listen to the company when they come here. ”

"The training of the crew must also keep up, and this money cannot be spent."

"You can rest assured about this. Navy...... Uh, no, the Ocean Navigation Academy, which offers a batch of qualified interns every year. Now it has formed a scale, the company has subsidies, there are many students who are admitted to the school every year, and the number of interns is definitely enough. Just in the six coastal counties, the poor children who sign up every year can support two fleets. Now the board of directors is waiting for Mr. Chen to return to discuss the share expansion and some future matters. ”

"What? Got an appetite again? ”

"If the situation doesn't change much, there's no problem controlling the sea power here. But it is difficult for us to get the right to trade in Europe, the Spaniards forbade us to trade in the European ports of Spain and Portugal, and the Dutch monopolized the trade in the rest of the place to make the difference, but the Dutch navy was in full swing at this time, and we would definitely not be able to beat us here, and we would definitely not be able to beat them in Europe...... Now European ships that want to trade domestically must be registered at their own oil ports; But if we want to trade in Europe, we can only go to the Dutch first......"

Jian Chen spread his hands and said, "There is no way." Spain is still a behemoth now, and if we want to take care of the colonies, the cost is too high, so we might as well continue to smuggle. It is still up to the Dutch to drag down Spain, and now it is better not to eat alone, and appropriately give away some of the benefits. Wait, the pirate trainer who should be the pirate trainer, the trainee who should be the trainee, the opportunity may only come once, don't fail to grasp it when the time comes. ”

Everyone at the banquet nodded and said, "We can't help it." It is inconvenient for us to meddle in domestic trade, so we can only put our minds outside. As it stands, it is impossible to continue to make high profits without expanding the scope of trade. The company wanted to learn from Spain to collect land rent in some places, which was also a big income, so they were looking forward to Mr. Chen's return and pondering where to collect land rent. ”

"Isn't there enough profit from trade?"

Mr. Chen laughed, how can there be too little money? The company had already calculated that if it could conquer a rich, populous and manageable piece of land, the profit of collecting rent would be no less than that of trade. Or a place with a lot of gold and silver mines. ”

"The company can't be fighting the idea of the Great Wilderness City, right?"

"Not really, Mr. Chen is relieved. In that dilapidated place, there are not many things to sell, and there are not many people who collect land rent, and the rate of return is too low. Besides, it's a place for your party, and it's not easy for us to go there, and the company is not interested in transforming that place first—like you say, first abolish slavery, promote the tools and develop productivity—my God, it will take ten years, to say the least. There are investments with high returns everywhere, so why throw money there? ”

Jian Chen also smiled, raised his glass, everyone hurriedly raised their glasses, and after a toast, Jian Chen asked, "How did the company's current middle level come from?" ”

"Exams. Some of the schools of your party, as well as the university hall built by Mr. Chen, are not recognized in the north with the same qualifications as those schools. If you are not qualified to be an official, you must want to drill into the company. ”

Hearing this, Jian Chen nodded slightly and smiled secretly in his heart, there must be someone here who is fueling the trouble. It is said that the level of the university hall built in Min County is actually sufficient, although the number of people is not large now, but it deliberately blocks the normal upward channel. Large-scale bribery is almost certain, but it is not certain that there are some people behind it who manipulate or even deliberately do it.

A group of junior high school students of a rough level are not recognized as having qualifications similar to those of the imperial examination, which is really the three small elements of rebellion under this big condition after the emergence of the change—organization, capital, and new students who graduated in batches but were not recognized by the old system.

Not being officially recognized is probably the most overlooked thing.