Facing Chen Jian, Peter Sunkun hopes to strive for the greatest interests of the company, which is an excellent opportunity, not only for the company but also for his personal future.

As soon as he became an adult, he pinned all his life's hopes on overseas trade, and at the age of fifteen he made a plan for his life. The young people of the Netherlands were busy going to sea, and while he was young and rich, he went to Italy to enrich his mind, and spent two years learning a set of Venetian bookkeeping system; While the young people of the northern provinces of the Netherlands were fascinated by Indian company stocks, he calmed down and studied Latin, French, English and Italian for two years.

It was with his life planning and extremely useful knowledge that he was valued by the company as soon as he joined the company, and after participating in the voyage, he proposed the direction of the company in Asia in Amsterdam. The ambitious plan is in line with the ambition of the company's board of directors, and the 24-year-old has gone from being an intern employee to the most difficult step into the decision-making circles of Greater Asia.

Based on the experience accumulated in the Netherlands over the years, he came to a striking conclusion in this era: oversupply will lead to unprofitable.

It is very simple that it has become the most important reason why he is valued by the company's board of directors.

In response to the turbulent nature of the Asian trade, he proposed two important directions of development to the first Governor Plenipotentiary of Asia:

The first was to monopolize the spice trade, cut down trees to reduce production, burn surplus spices, monopolize by force, expel British, Spanish, and Portuguese forces in the spice-producing areas, kill people to the island without smuggling power, send Dutch residents to settle and bring slaves to establish spice plantations that companies can control, and burn some spices to maintain the shortage of spice markets in Europe.

The second is that the company abides by some of the agreements signed with Chen Jian in Pattani, no longer focusing on the north, concentrating on gaining a foothold in Jakarta, and focusing on patrolling Banten and other places, so as not to give the British the opportunity to transport rice and cotton cloth there, relying on the cotton cloth of rice, two necessities of life, in exchange for nutmeg and cardamom on the island at the lowest price.

The most important of these two development directions is to be able to reach a plan with Chen Jian to exchange spices for rice and cotton cloth, and to cooperate with Chen Jian to crack down on Ming Dynasty merchants who spontaneously went to trade in the Spice Islands area, forming a monopoly trade zone in which the south and the north do not interfere with each other.

At the same time, Chen Jian also needs to come forward to help collect or lure a group of immigrants from the coastal areas of the Ming Dynasty to Jakarta, so that these hard-working Chinese can become another force there, so as to provoke the relationship between the local indigenous and Chinese immigrants, especially the Chinese immigrants in the middle there, so that the indigenous hatred can find a vent point, and will not choose to directly resist the Dutch.

If we can't do it locally, then we should artificially create third-party participants, and don't engage in duality, which will lead to sharp and direct contradictions.

The plan was perfect, and was praised and supported by the first Governor as soon as it was proposed.

And the most uncontrollable factor in this plan was the British. The British are not strong in Asia, they do not have many footholds, and they are not afraid of losing anything if they have nothing: if the British find Chen Jian and the two sides cooperate, the bottom line of the British is predictable, and they can even choose only one-third of the share of spices, because they will not get much spices at this time except for future promises.

Once an indispensable ally of the Netherlands, the word indispensable no longer makes sense, and the board of directors has taken a tough stance on the UK.

Not giving an inch, completely no longer considering the monopoly of cooperation - for the sake of spices, he did not hesitate to go to war, and the navy of the United Provincial Republic finished the Battle of Gibraltar at the peak.

Chen Jian could hear the longing in this young man's heart, and he could also imagine this young man's ambition, and he had his own considerations for this matter.

The current situation in Asian trade was such that the British began to reach out to the spice trade, and the Dutch wanted to monopolize the spice trade, and the two had no conflict of interest with themselves until they won or lost in spices. Manila in Spain was an ATM to him, and now the Dutch were going to fight Manila in spite of the truce, and he had to send troops to support the legitimate Spanish rule in Manila - without the Spaniards who had traveled all the way from Potosí to bring silver, where to dump the handicrafts along the coast of Fujian in exchange for a large amount of precious metals?

In the short term, the European power in the entire Asian region is most in conflict with itself, but Portugal, which is gradually fading and weakening.

Spain and the Netherlands did not have the qualifications to trade directly with the Ming Dynasty, and the Portuguese occupation of Macao was very strict for Spanish merchants, and the Portuguese profited a lot from trading in Manila, but direct trade with the colonies of the Viceroyalty of the Americas was not allowed, and the local Spaniards would detain and confiscate the goods.

Therefore, there was a great overlap of interests between the Portuguese and Wangbei City and the Chamber of Commerce: both sides could legally trade with the Ming Dynasty, so the form of trade between the two sides was destined to be completely different from that of the Dutch or the Spaniards.

Because of the overlapping interests, the two sides have deep contradictions.

Every time a ship from the Fujian Maritime Chamber of Commerce arrived in Manila, the Portuguese would sell less goods; The Portuguese were greatly threatened by Chen Jian in the Japanese merchants, and Chen Jian added oil and vinegar to the Tokugawa family on the issue of Catholicism; Tran's actions in Pattani and Thailand have seriously infringed on Portuguese interests in Burma, and Portugal has made demands and threats to the King of Thailand to expel the merchants of the Republic; For the time being, the apparent act of friendship with the Dutch company and the substantive action of accompanying the Dutch to Malacca in the form of mercenaries made Portugal hold a grudge; Excluded Catholicism within the Ming Dynasty, and robbed the Jesuits of technology to spread the way to get close to the upper echelons of scholars......

It is a pity that now that the Netherlands has made a truce with Spain, they can only rely on themselves to deal with Portugal in ten years.

As for the choice of sides between the Netherlands and the United Kingdom, it has little impact on short-term interests.

In the long run, Chen Jian decided to stand on the side of the Netherlands and make some small moves neutrally.

Without it, the population of the Netherlands is too small, the territory is too small, the business is too developed, the return on investment of commercial capital is much higher than that of industrial capital, the national consciousness has not yet been formed, and the domestic political struggle is fierce...... It is destined that the Netherlands can only be a flash in the pan and can't jump up, so of course you have to stand on the side of the Netherlands, and it will be easy to clean up in the future - the Dutch need to win all the time, and it will be difficult to turn over as long as they lose once.

Let the British and the Dutch mix, and when the two sides really win or lose, just support the Dutch a little.

The two sides did not hit it off on this matter, but Peter Sunkun thought about ten years, and Chen Jian thought about ten years later, so there was a strange prospect of cooperation.

After waiting for a while, Peter Xunkun finally waited for Jian Chen to speak.

"You have a loan for the purchase of cannons and muskets, as well as a collection of cotton cloth and handicrafts...... Of course you can. It's just that this time you came from Europe, didn't you bring enough? ”

"Mr. Chen, the Board of Directors is in Amsterdam, and they don't have a complete grasp of the situation in Asia, which is what the position of Governor Plenipotentiary was for. The Governor has requested more warships and soldiers and silver from the company's board of directors, and is sure to get an answer. Given the risks of maritime transport, we can take advantage of the trading advantages of the Bank of Amsterdam to repay these debts in Europe. In addition, the company knows that you can legally trade in the Ming Empire, so it wants to establish a long-term relationship with you, including long-term trading methods. ”

Jian Chen snorted and smiled, shook his head and said, "Long-term transaction method is naturally possible, but this long-term transaction method cannot be settled in a bank in Amsterdam. You have to know that interest and sea freight costs. ”

"Yes, this requires you or your envoy to speak to the Governor, I am only conveying the company's wishes. In addition, we also want to be able to trade in Wangbei City. ”

"That's not possible. Wangbei City is not a trading port, but a military base to defend against pirates, and the emperor of the Ming Empire granted me the right to station and govern here, but did not give me the right to open a trade here. This is a military port, not a trading port. This is the territory of the Ming Empire, and I must abide by the treaty signed with the Ming Empire. ”

Chen Jian refused very simply, not because of any treaty, but because he could trade legally in Quanzhou and Zhangzhou, and there was no need to build Taiwan into a transit point for smuggling trade.

Not only could the Dutch not come here to trade, but neither could the Japanese, and the reason for refusal was to pull the Ming Empire as a tiger skin. Anyway, the Netherlands, Japan, and Spain could never have obtained the status of legal trade in the Ming Dynasty, and the trading companies of Fujian maritime merchants who wanted to smuggle were on the right track, and they were the most resolute anti-smuggling navy.

Peter Sunkun was not too surprised, the company was well aware of the trick, and also understood that Chen Jian could not spit out the trade rights that he had worked so hard to obtain.

Now the company's focus is on spices, and he doesn't want to provoke Jian Chen, so he naturally has other purposes when he says this.

After Jian Chen explained, Peter Sunkun nodded and said, "Mr. Chen, I don't think there is a third company in the whole world that can understand the similarities between us. Just as you and your employees have gone to great lengths to obtain the right to trade in the Ming Empire, it is natural that you will not share it with those who have not contributed. Why shouldn't we? It doesn't make sense that the British want to intervene in the spice islands, after fighting with the Spanish and Portuguese countries, and negotiating with the local natives several times to get the right to trade in spices? ”

Chen Jian said: "This analogy is not appropriate. I signed a treaty with the Ming Empire, and the Ming Empire, as a powerful, non-vassal empire, has the qualifications and strength to sign any treaty and ensure the implementation of the treaty. If you can secure a trade agreement with the Ming Empire, I will certainly respect the decision of the Ming Empire, and not dismiss this treaty as unreasonable because of the damage to our interests. Again, I repeat, that your war with Spain and Portugal has nothing to do with the British. Whether they sit back and enjoy their morals, it makes no sense until international law is truly established. If the new system of international law considers spheres of influence acquired by force to be in accordance with international law, then the Republic, as the initiator of international law, will naturally abide by it. ”