Portugal's decline is visible to the naked eye, and it is still in East Africa.

Its Brazilian colony in South America was robbed by the Netherlands a few years ago, and Spain and Portugal did not regain it.

However, the Dutch were also embarrassed, and after gaining a foothold in Brazil, although the colony expanded year by year, there were not enough Dutch immigrants to fill it. So it's funny that the main population of the Dutch colony in Brazil is actually a mixed descendant of Portuguese and indigenous people, and every year Portuguese farmers revolt and rebel.

Portugal's colonies in Asia were constantly seized by the Dutch, and only a few ports along the coast of India remained. Moreover, the exploitation of the Portuguese royal family was too heavy, which led to the continuous conversion of Portuguese descendants who settled in India to Hinduism or Green Religion, betraying the mother country and claiming to be Indians from now on.

It was a good thing to bully Africans, and after the occupation of East Africa, the Portuguese royal family wantonly divided the lords.

The Portuguese lords in East Africa, known as Plazo, were all locally recruited blacks. Their main income was gold mining and slave trading. As the gold mines dried up, a new business was opened - auctioning lordship titles, and the lords who had earned the money returned to Portugal to sell their lordship to the local wealthy.

If Portugal brought any benefit to the East, it was only the spread of knowledge and weapons.

The Ming Franco's cannon came from Portugal, and the knowledge of natural science came from the Portuguese-funded Jesuits. On the Indian side, the Indians have learned to make cannons, and there is an Indian maharaja's cannon that was captured, which was 6 meters long and weighed 20 tons, and was called the "Diu cannon", even the Portuguese had never seen such a large cannon.

Now that Macao has been completely recovered by China, the commander of the Portuguese-Macao (trade) fleet has given up the Portuguese title without hesitation and led the entire fleet into the arms of China.

The Portuguese and Macao fleets were renamed, and a group of Portuguese divided the royal property and registered the "Franco-Macau Trading Company" in China. The Commander of the Portuguese-Macao Fleet became the largest shareholder, with a sole stake of 5%, while the Speaker of the Macau Municipal Assembly became the Chairman of the Board of Directors.

These Portuguese merchants, led by missionaries, traveled around the southern provinces, seeking marriages with Chinese suppliers.

In just half a year, more than 20 interracial marriages have been successful. It is nothing more than a Portuguese woman, married to a son or clansman of a Chinese merchant; Or a Portuguese man who married a Chinese merchant's concubine or clansman.

The children of Chinese businessmen are unwilling to marry ghosts at all, and the red-haired and green-eyed ones are terrible at first glance.

……

Batavia.

The hard-nosed Dutch governor Van Diemen died of illness early last year, and the new governor is called Cornelius van der Linyin, which is translated as "van der Lin" in Chinese.

Shortly after Van Diemen's death, Van der Rin had already set out from Europe.

It was not that the headquarters of the East India Company was unpredictable, but that Van Dimen lay down for more than half a year before he died, and in his illness, he asked the headquarters to send a new governor immediately. Because, the situation in the Far East is not optimistic, and the development momentum of China's maritime industry is too strong!

"Your Excellency, this is the financial report of the last fifteen years." The adjutant handed over a stack of reports.

Vanderlin didn't bother to read it himself, and only said, "You briefly describe it." ”

"From 1631 to 1640, the company's expenditure in Asia was 16.4 million guilders, with revenues of about 28.4 million guilders and profits of 12 million guilders, with an average annual profit of 1.2 million guilders," the lieutenant said. From 1641 to the present, the average annual expenditure has increased by Rp 1.1 million compared to the previous decade, while the average annual income has increased by only Rp 900,000. Our net profit is declining year by year. ”

Van der Rin asked: "What are the main items of increased spending?" ”

"War!" The adjutant replied succinctly.

Spain was defeated in the South Philippine Islands, and China, the Netherlands, and Spain signed an armistice. However, there were constant small frictions between Spain and the Netherlands, and Dutch warships always disguised themselves as pirates and ran to harass and plunder Spanish merchant ships.

At the same time, the Dutch set up trading posts in North Vietnam and became involved in the civil war between the North and the South in Vietnam, which they lost.

The adjutant said: "Before Your Excellency arrived, the Batavian Council held several meetings. The parliamentarians unanimously decided to stop the silk trade with Japan at the Vietnamese trading post. ”

"Why stop?" Van der Lin asked.

The adjutant explained: "In previous years, there was no reunification of China. A large amount of Chinese silk was shipped from Sichuan, Yunnan, Guizhou, and Guangxi to northern Vietnam for trading, and we then shipped the silk to Japan for sale. But with the Chinese emperor's occupation of Sichuan, the supply of silk was reduced by more than half. After the Chinese emperor completely occupied Guizhou and Guangxi, silk and brocade were even more difficult to buy in Vietnam. And this year, the Chinese emperor occupied Yunnan, and our supply of textiles was cut off. ”

It has been very difficult for the Netherlands to get goods directly from China.

Of course, a small number of goods can be used, but a large number of goods are extremely unstable, and they are all controlled by Chinese merchants. Moreover, China is also doing business with Japan, how can the Netherlands be allowed to run to seize market share?

Just last year, more than 20 maritime merchants from Fujian and Zhejiang provinces joined forces to dump related textiles in Japan at a low price at the cost price of silk trafficking in the Netherlands. Not only did the Dutch lose all their money, but they also forced many small Chinese maritime merchants to go bankrupt, and Chinese maritime merchants took the opportunity to carry out market mergers.

After the adjutant explained in detail, Van der Lin frowned: "We can't let China's maritime business develop, we should concentrate all our efforts to fight a war with the Chinese and force them to sell us silk at a low price." ”

"This ...... I'm afraid the council won't support you," said the adjutant, "and in the event of a war with China, whatever the outcome, at least a third of the company's trade in the Far East will be ruined." ”

At present, 30% of the Dutch East India Company's trade in Asia (not profit) comes from pepper and 28% from other spices.

However, due to Portugal's nonsense, the price of spices has been decreasing, and the profits of the spice trade have continued to decline. Given that 58% of the trade came from spices, but the overall profits were far less than silk, tea, and porcelain, and in the event of a war with China, Emperor Zhao's trade ban would be devastating.

Of course, the trade ban is also a lose-lose situation for China.

The adjutant added: "This is the information submitted by the Council, the Chinese emperor took back Macao, and the Portuguese in Macao all turned their backs on the king and became Chinese. ”

"And that kind of thing?" Vanderlin was surprised.

The adjutant continued: "In the last two years of trade, the profits of cotton, opium, and slaves have increased the most. The Council's opinion was to order more cotton cloth from China, sell more opium to Southeast Asia, and supply more Asian slaves to China. ”

Van der Lin wondered: "Why is the profit of cotton growing fast?" ”

"China's cotton production has increased dramatically as China's Shandong province has come back to life," the adjutant said. The Chinese are constantly inventing new textile machinery, the price of cotton cloth continues to fall, and our purchase price in Batavia is also falling. With regard to cotton cloth, the Emperor of China also issued a decree that part of the customs duty could be refunded for the export of cotton cloth. ”

The export tax rebate of cotton cloth is to encourage the export of cotton cloth, and the second is to reduce the impact on the domestic small handicraft industry as much as possible - although the effect is not very large.

The adjutant added: "China's cotton production has decreased this year, and although the price of cotton cloth has risen a lot, this is only temporary. The overall trend is that the price of cotton cloth is getting lower and lower, and Chinese merchants are shipping more and more cotton cloth to Batavia. ”

Van der Lin had just arrived in the Far East and was unaware of the situation. "Convene a meeting of the councillors, and I'm going to talk to them in detail," he said. ”

The meeting lasted more than 10 days, and the result was similar to the decision of the Council.

It is to increase the trade volume of cotton cloth, anyway, Europe is also very cold, and cotton cloth is not worried about not being able to sell at all. Moreover, cotton cloth has been selling well in Ottoman and Persia, and it can also take the opportunity to expand the market share of these two countries.

Then there was opium, and the Dutch East India Company decided to spread opium throughout the South Seas, so that the natives of the South Seas would use opium as a necessity.

Finally, there was the slave trade, and it was too much trouble to go directly to war and capture prisoners. They could continue to stir up the natives and make them attack each other, and the captured captives would be sold to the Dutch, who in turn would sell them to the Chinese maritime merchants.

The Far East strategy of the Dutch East India Company has also been significantly adjusted:

First, a complete truce with Spain, no longer disguised as pirates to plunder Spanish ships.

Second, the number one enemy was identified as the Banten Sultanate.

Third, try to reconcile with the Mata Lan Kingdom, and it would be best if you could conquer the Banten Kingdom with the Mata Lan Kingdom!

The kingdom of Banten, a country of green religion, once destroyed the Sunda kingdom of Hinduism. After conquering the capital, the city was slaughtered, and all the people who did not convert to the Green Religion were killed. The territory is in the western part of Java, the southern part of Sumatra and the western part of Borneo.

Mataran is a country of green religion, and its territory is located in the central part of the island of Java.

Banten and Mataram have been fighting each other, and at the same time they are fighting against the Dutch.

In particular, the Kingdom of Banten, the Dutch colony of Batavia, was snatched from the Kingdom of Banten. Banten City is another trade center in the South Seas, where Chinese maritime merchants ship goods to Banten for sale, and European countries import and export goods in Banten.

The Dutch East India Company wanted to repair relations with all enemies, and wanted to concentrate all its efforts on destroying Banten, and then further monopolize the trade between the East and the West.

It can only be said that Van Dimen and Van der Lin, the two governors, have completely different styles of doing things.

Fan Dimen chose to expand in all directions, dipping here and there, wanting to be a hegemon in the Far East.

Vanderlin broke them one by one, and he had to completely kill the Banten Kingdom first, and then completely kill the Mada Blue Kingdom. The base camp of Java Island was consolidated, and the monopoly of East-West trade was maximized, so as to grab more practical commercial profits.

This commodity even took the initiative to shrink the trade between Japan and allowed Chinese maritime merchants to encroach on the Japanese market. As for the Dutch merchants, they just waited for the Chinese merchants to come to the island of Java, so that the trade volume and profits could increase steadily.

As for ten or twenty years later, China's maritime merchants will grow and may even threaten the Dutch colonies. In that case, what is the matter with Vanderlin? He has long since stepped down and returned to China, and he is a good governor with excellent performance.

(One shift today, three shifts tomorrow.) ）