New Book Collection: The Rise of Great Powers 1900

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The trade between the Dutch and India often used the spices of the Spice Islands in exchange for the textiles of the Indians, and this trade did not require the exchange of gold and silver, which was more popular with the Dutch, but the trade with China often had to bring in large quantities of silver, which made them feel painful.

If they can export Indian cotton to Daming, then they naturally can't ask for it, because they can exchange spices with Indians, but their spices can't be sold at a high price like India in Daming, because the Indians don't have the maritime strength of Zheng's, and they can't import spices directly from the South Seas, so they have to transport them, and the price is set by them, and if the Dutch sell spices at a super high price in Daming, Zheng will go directly to Southeast Asia to smuggle when they see that it is profitable, and the Dutch don't want to attract this hungry wolf, so in the spice trade with China, Their profit margins have never been more than one hundred percent.

Nassau had to assess whether it could balance its balance with the Middle East Indian companies that traded cotton to China without paying more silver, giving up spices for Indian cotton in exchange for silver, and trading with the Middle East Indian companies that traded cotton to China.

This required a good assessment of the East India Company, and it was not something that Nassau could do alone, so he did not decide to settle down, but had to wait for the reply of the Governor of the East India Company.

Yang Chao is not in a hurry, anyway, this kind of trade is often calculated on an annual basis, and it is not in a hurry.

Anyway, in addition to exports, domestic demand is a more important market.

There are other important reasons why the textile industry in Jiangnan can explode this year.

One of them is that Yang Chao has continued to expand his army in recent years, and for the purpose of supporting large workshops. Basically, orders for the army were given to large workshops for production. This has encouraged a large number of workshops to expand their production capacity. There are no less than 10 large workshops with 1,000 textile machines in Songjiang Prefecture.

Another reason is that the overall economy is stable, that is, the fundamentals are good, and Jiangnan is a big market. After all, Yang Chao has produced a large amount of currency, and the economic impact of the shortage of silver is much smaller than in the past, and the market is much more active than in the past. A stable and active market, which is the best market, is the most favorable external conditions for production.

The third reason is the recovery of Hunan. Let Jiangnan have this traditional big market.

Huguang has always been one of the largest markets for Jiangnan products, Huizhou people almost monopolized the Hankou trade, Hankou wharf is even called Xin'an wharf, Xin'an is the ancient name and alias of Huizhou, Huizhou merchants are also known as Xin'an merchants.

During the occupation of the Qing army, Huguang was cut off from the Jiangnan market, but since Sun Kewang and others recovered Hunan last year, the big market in Hunan has recovered. And the demand that has been pent-up for several years is very strong.

Hunan has a population of millions, although it has experienced a brilliant war. But the demand is unchanged, once communicated with Jiangnan, there was a strong demand for the outbreak, and even in many ways, the destruction of production in Hunan has generated a market from the other side, such as Hunan people need to rebuild their homes, they need wood, bricks and tiles, and at the same time there are a large number of unemployed laborers, at this time the wood merchants can easily drive this demand.

They recruited a large number of laborers into the mountains to cut down timber in the vast mountains of the lake, and a small part of it was supplied to Hunan itself, and most of them were shipped to the south of the Yangtze River, and at the same time sold large quantities of salt and textiles to Hunan.

In the first nine months, Yang Chao has harvested 30 million taels of tax silver, and there are still three months left to receive at least 5 million taels according to estimates, a total of 35 million taels of silver, which is 10 million more than last year, which shows that the economy has fully recovered this year, and the potential for growth is huge.

Yang Chao also plans to sell 40 million taels of bonds to meet the market's abundant demand for money, so that this year's fiscal revenue will reach 75 million taels, in addition to 50 million taels of military expenditures, more than 10 million taels of various administrative expenditures, and finally there may be a surplus of 10 million taels.

In the past, Yang Chao definitely didn't want to see a surplus, and he would definitely temporarily decide to let various places build roads, etc., but this year he must stay, because the Northern Expedition will be launched next year, and he needs a lot of savings to deal with it.

If there is a Northern Expedition, just like the onslaught of the Qing army this year, military spending will rise sharply, at least 50 million taels will be spent, and with the current situation, it should be able to achieve such an income next year, but if you are prepared, the first military consideration is always security.

And once an agreement was reached with the forces of the Great Western Army on the Northern Expedition, it would be difficult for Yang Chao to support the army with some military rations, anyway, Yang Chao did not want to see them when they went on the Northern Expedition, through looting operations, then the Northern Expedition would be successful, and there would be no one in the north.

If Sun Kewang and Li Dingguo join the Northern Expedition, their strength may not be less than 300,000 people, according to the standard of Yang Chao's army, a soldier will have five loads of military rations plus one load of meat every year, and the current price will not be less than 20 taels of silver, which is not counting the freight.

If a soldier is considered leniently, he will have to consume 25 taels of military rations, and 300,000 people will be more than 7 million taels, which will account for more than half of the balance of more than 10 million.

Therefore, the bonds that should be sold will continue to be sold without affecting the market, and the military rations that should be saved will continue to be saved, and this year's target is a surplus of 1,500 taels, plus 20 million quintals of grain storage.

At the same time that Yang Chaoguang was accumulating grain.

High-level negotiators have been sent to Yunnan.

Sun Kewang sent Gong Yi, a representative of Wu Fengsheng and Li Dingguo, the little emperor sent Wen Anzhi, the first auxiliary minister, and Yang Chao asked Xu Sinan to participate, and the Quartet held talks in Kunming.

There are three main contents of the talks:

The first is to hope that Li Dingguo will return the descendants and generals who are loyal to Sun Kewang.

The second is to hope that the imperial court will allow Sun Kewang to return to Guizhou.

The third is the joint Northern Expedition of the Great Western Army and the Yang Army.

The first item is difficult to reach an agreement, the issue of people and horses is too sensitive, and no one wants to catch it and release it. After Li Dingguo incorporated the remnants of Sun Kewang. Treat these centaurs differently. It made many people feel chilled, and they secretly contacted Sun Kewang.

This was the case in the original history, the Great Western Army, which originally took an offensive against the Qing army, was greatly reduced in combat effectiveness because of this kind of disunity, and as a result, Wu Sangui was completely suppressed and Li Dingguo was beaten to Burma.

Yang Chao naturally did not want to see this situation, so he strongly advocated not damaging the Northern Expedition forces. Let their respective people return to their hearts, let Li Dingguo's return to Li Dingguo, and let Sun Kewang's return to Sun Kewang.

Li Dingguo's attitude was very fierce, believing that Yang Chao was suppressing him, and put on an unfriendly attitude, and even began to deploy troops on the Yunnan-Guizhou border.

Xu Sinan confronted him-for-tat and told Li Dingguo that the Yang family army had an army of one million, and Hunan and Guangxi had no less than 200,000, and they could attack Yunnan at any time. Li Dingguo is not afraid, but the small court is afraid. Wen Anzhi appeased from it, everyone is a force to resist the Qing Dynasty, they are all loyal to the imperial court, don't kill each other.

Even after the little emperor came forward to appease Li Dingguo, Li Dingguo reluctantly accepted the release of Sun Kewang's old ministry to Sun Kewang, but he never compromised on the Guizhou issue.

Thinking that letting Sun Kewang return to Guizhou was equivalent to putting a jackal on the side of the couch, the small court fully supported Li Dingguo's view, and they did not want to see Sun Kewang launch an attack on Yunnan after returning to Guizhou.

Wen Anzhi said that since it is a concerted effort to go on the Northern Expedition, then why fight for territory, the whole world is not the king's land, the land is the Son of Heaven, everyone is guarding the land for the Son of Heaven, and there must be no idea of cutting the land and being arrogant.

After some negotiations, Xu Sinan also persuaded Sun Kewang to take back the old ministry as the priority, and then make plans, anyway, there is a large area of territory to occupy after the Northern Expedition.

As for the third Northern Expedition, everyone has no problem, this is originally a big banner, from Sun Wang's rebellion in the Spring and Autumn Period to Cao Cao's coercion of the Son of Heaven to order the princes, everyone knows what is going on, and they are happy to play this game.

It's just that Wen Anzhi proposed that the Northern Expedition could also unite other forces, such as the rest of Li Zicheng in Kuidong.

After Li Zicheng died in Jiugong Mountain, Hubei, the rest of his troops did not scatter, but they could not be twisted into a rope.

Li Zicheng is too different from Zhang Xianzhong, although both of them are leaders of the rebel army, but Zhang Xianzhong's wildness is much stronger than Li Zicheng's, Li Zicheng can subdue all kinds of rebels, but he can't surrender this Zhang Xianzhong, Zhang Xianzhong can't beat Li Zicheng, and he doesn't want to belong like other rebel leaders, he would rather give up his territory and run to Sichuan to operate.

At the same time, the temperament of the two is also very different, although they are very barbaric, they will not be soft when they should slaughter the city, but Zhang Xianzhong is obviously more murderous, and the rule in Sichuan is basically by killing, compared with the Qing army, Sichuan was almost slaughtered, Zhang Xianzhong is the first wave, the warlord melee is the second wave, and the later Qing army is the third wave, after the three waves of massacres, there is almost no one in Sichuan.

In terms of his attitude towards his subordinates, Li Zicheng is also more equal, and his subordinates are more like brothers and subordinates.

But Zhang Xianzhong doesn't trust his subordinates very much, and he is always very suspicious.

So after the death of these two people, there was a completely different situation, most of Li Zicheng's old department thought of Li Zicheng, respected Li Zicheng's wife as the queen, and has been supporting in the army.

And Zhang Xianzhong's four righteous sons, Sun Kewang and others united to directly destroy the queen's strength and carve up the rest of Sun Kewang's army.

It is precisely because Li Zicheng relied on the personal charm of the leading brother to lead the army, and Zhang Xianzhong relied on cruelty to rule, so after one died, his subordinates would still care about their feelings, and the other would only have cruel interests.

It's just that history is often very cruel, Zhang Xianzhong's remnants were twisted into a rope under the integration of Sun Kewang and others, while Li Zicheng's subordinates were divided and no one obeyed anyone, and they were split into two forces at the beginning, one followed the governor of Hubei to block Yinxi in the Jingxiang area, and the other went south to Hunan, attached to He Tengjiao, the governor of Huguang, and was reorganized into a loyal battalion.

After the little emperor united with Sun Kewang, the loyal battalion was unwilling to be overwhelmed by the Great Western Army, and could not forget the grievances of Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong, so they went north to Kuidong to take refuge in other Dashun soldiers and horses, and opened up a base area in the Kuidong area relying on the protection of the mountains, forming a force called the Thirteen Families of Kuidong.

Wen Anzhi's suggestion to contact is this Kuidong Thirteen. (To be continued......)