The mixed-race servant came in with a kettle, and Palafu personally brewed the tea and said to Cheng Jingming: "The authentic West Lake Longjing, the traditional Chinese brewing method. Please use it slowly! ”

"Thank you, Governor, for your kindness." Cheng Jingming smiled.

Palafo sent the servant out, and there were only two people left in the house. He got straight to the point and said, "Even if you don't come, I'm going to send someone to deliver a letter to Mr. Li." Next year, the starting price of all goods must be increased at least three times, and cotton cloth must be more than five times. ”

"With so much more, can it still be sold?" Cheng Jingming was quite surprised.

"It's just a matter of raising the starting price to prevent the final price from getting too low. His Majesty the King already knows that you are smuggling, and Chinese goods can no longer be dumped at low prices, otherwise it will anger those colonial monopolies. Moreover, your reputation has spread, and more and more merchants have gone to buy goods. No matter how high the starting price is, it will not lead to unsuccessful auctions. ”

Cheng Jingming said: "I will relay this news to Commander Li. ”

"Also, for Chinese living in Mexico, allowing them to worship their ancestors in private is already the bottom line," Palafu said, "I heard that some people actually want to build temples, and you also go and tell them that this kind of behavior is going to be burned." ”

The Inquisition in Europe is in the hands of the Dominicans, and the trick of these guys is human barbecue.

The disagreement over the spread of Christianity in China was actually a disagreement between the Dominicans and the Society of Jesus, and it was also a struggle between Spain and Portugal for religious influence.

Spain supported the Dominican Society and forbade the Chinese to worship their ancestors.

Portugal supported the Society of Jesuits, advocating the integration of Christianity with Chinese cultural traditions.

As a result of the fighting, the Papal States severed diplomatic relations with Portugal, and the Portuguese king could not be crowned – several Portuguese kings in succession, all of whom did not wear crowns.

Cheng Jingming nodded and said, "I'll tell you about this too." ”

Palafu suddenly closed his eyes: "Your Majesty, next year you may send a messenger to strictly investigate the smuggling situation in the Americas." In the summer of the following year, the Chinese Navy could be dispatched to intercept Spanish galleons in the Kuroshio Belt. I will get the Philippine Overseers to cooperate, and a bloodless naval battle will break out, resulting in a one-year halt in the silver wire trade. Mr. Lee's fleet will come next year, and there will be a naval battle, so you go to the northernmost port and wait, so that he must be prepared. ”

"Your Excellency the Governor is a good means!" Cheng Jingming said sincerely.

These two naval battles were fought for the Spanish Chincha, and the war scripts had already been written.

Next year, the Spanish Navy attacked the Chinese fleet and "sank and damaged" several Chinese merchant ships, all of which were credited to the governor-general and navy.

The following year, the Chinese navy attacked the Spanish fleet, artificially cutting off the silver wire trade for a year and giving the illusion that the Philippines was not in danger. The king of Spain was absolutely frightened, and then sent an envoy to negotiate peace with China, and from then on acquiesced in the trade of Chinese merchant ships in the Americas.

Everyone can benefit, anyway, the king of the lake and the king of the chincha can be done.

The silver wire trade has been cut off for a year, and that loss doesn't matter.

When the Spanish Navy attacks Li Quan next year, the goods will be brought ashore in advance, and they will not be shipped without knowing that they are not shipping. The following year, the silver wire trade was cut off, which means that for two consecutive years, Chinese goods could not be imported into the Americas.

Then, the prices of Chinese goods will inevitably skyrocket, and when trade resumes, inventories will be taken out immediately, and profits will roll upward.

Everything is in the Palaff calculations, and the Philippine governor will certainly listen to him.

The Philippines, like Central America, is a Governorate. Strictly speaking, there was no Philippine governor, only the Philippine Overseer, and the Overseer was appointed and dismissed by the Governor of New Spain (Palafort). Therefore, the governor of Mexico City and the governor of the Philippines wear the same pants, and they are also in a subordinate relationship.

The biggest smuggling umbrella in the Americas is none other than Palafo himself!

When this cargo is discharged and returned to China, the silver caught will not be spent for ten lifetimes.

……

Netherlands, Amsterdam.

Inside and outside the stock exchange, there is a gloomy look, and countless investors are like walking corpses.

The Dutch West India Company declared bankruptcy and went out of business.

As early as thirty years ago, the West India Company began to lose money and needed the East India Company to continue to transfuse blood. The main reason for this is that the war expenses are too high. Unlike Asia, the Netherlands wanted to expand its colonies in the Americas, and had to fight Portugal and Spain for many years.

Today, the East India Company could not protect itself, and the West India Company was completely playing with eggs.

The last straw that broke the camel's back was the overflow of smuggling on the west coast of the Americas, the influx of cheap Chinese goods, and the West India Company's business even more difficult.

"Poof!"

A splash of water splashed, and a shout came from the harbor: "Someone has jumped into the sea!" ”

These cries did not lead to rescue, but rather served as a reminder to those who have no lovers. I saw a Dutch gentleman, speeding towards the seashore and jumping into the sea.

Inside and outside the city, there were beggars everywhere.

Many of these beggars came from the textile district, where a large number of handicraft workshops also closed down.

The Netherlands is the industrial center of Europe, wool, linen, cotton, printing and dyeing, shipbuilding, sugar and soap...... These industries are second to none, with Belgium alone producing more than half of the world's woolen wool.

Speaking of cotton cloth alone, cotton cloth produced in the Netherlands is sold in all regions of the world.

However, in recent years, China's cheap cotton cloth has hit the Indian market, and then the American market. The cotton spinning industry in the Netherlands has gone into decline, with a large backlog of cotton cloth in warehouses that cannot be sold at all, and cotton spinning workshops close down almost every month.

Hell, if you can compete with China, aside from the influence of the steam engine, the cost of raw materials will be thrown out of a big way.

Cotton was not abundant in Europe, and the Dutch had to import cotton raw materials from the Americas and India. It was shipped back from afar and made into cotton cloth for export. Especially in the Americas, from the import of raw materials to the sale of products, Selivian merchants have to peel off a layer of skin.

"War, war, a cotton war against China!"

A madman who lost his investment, standing at the door of the exchange and shouting. Such an outrageous slogan has won the approval of countless people, and even beggars on the street have joined in.

They gathered more and more, and spontaneously walked to the parliament building, surrounded by the members who were meeting inside.

"We don't want to beg, we want war!"

"War on China!"

The councillors came out onto the balcony and looked at the crowd outside, all of them wondering what to do.

They also want to concentrate their efforts and go to war with China alone.

But who would dare?

The arms race between Britain and the Netherlands has been going on for several years, both sides are frantically building ships, and the second Anglo-Dutch war is on the verge of breaking out.

At this time, if there is a war with China, I am afraid that the Dutch fleet will leave Europe on the front foot, and the British will be beaten to the doorstep of the British on the back foot. Merchants from other European countries were always keeping an eye on the situation and wanted to take a bite while the Netherlands was in decline.

……

Madrid, Spain.

The capital does not fit in with the image of a great power, because there are too many beggars and commerce has long since withered.

What's even more terrifying is that there are more foreign monks than beggars!

There are more than 200,000 priests and nearly a million monks and nuns, a quarter of Spain's population.

The fact that there are so many religious people is not that the Spaniards are religious, but that they are a natural choice to seek advantage and avoid harm.

The ecclesiastical power owned half of the land in Spain and had various political and economic privileges. At the same time, the king went on a hunt for heresies, causing 500,000 people to flee the colonies over the course of a few decades.

The decline of industry and commerce caused more workers to flee and go to the colonies to earn a living, and the population in Spain became even more scarce.

How difficult should it be for a quarter of the population with religious privileges to exploit the common people together with the nobility and merchants? As a result, more and more people chose to become clergy, and more and more people fled to the colonies, and a vicious circle had already been formed.

Spain, which had the largest number of colonies in the world, was forced to issue an order not to move to the colonies without permission......

This situation, compared to a hundred years ago, is completely different from heaven and hell.

At the time of the reunification of Spain, more than 50,000 Arabs converted to Catholicism, laying the foundation of Spain's industry and commerce. With the opening of the new shipping route, Spain's industry and commerce exploded, and there were more than 16,000 wool mills and more than 130,000 wool workers in Selivia alone. Toledo has become the center of the European silk weaving industry, with more than 3,000 silk workshops and more than 30,000 silk weavers. The sugar industry is also dominating the whole of Europe.

Everything changed from the beginning of the war.

Before the Thirty Years' War, Spain's treasury was empty, because the king was at war all over the world. In Europe alone, Spain has played with half of the countries, playing this and that, and often playing with several countries at the same time.

Not to mention the war, as a European nouveau riche, the Spanish royal family and aristocracy were open to enjoyment, and the extravagant life was like playing with gold and silver.

If the finances collapse, then collect taxes.

Transaction Tax, Checkpoint Tax, Real Estate Tax...... Even when people move from one street to another, they have to pay taxes to the government.

In the end, he didn't even bother to collect taxes himself, and directly contracted the taxes to merchants.

Under the joint pressure of the government and tax collectors, Spanish industry and commerce quickly collapsed, taxes accounted for more than half of the cost of goods, and the high selling prices quickly lost market share.

Businessmen go bankrupt and workers lose their jobs.

Agriculture was also dealt a heavy blow, and the peasants were subjected to the four oppressions of the government, the tax collectors, the clergy, and the feudal aristocracy. The land was abandoned, and the peasants fled.

They even deliberately forced the peasants to flee so that they could take advantage of the opportunity to enclose their land, convert their arable land into pasture, and sell their wool to the Dutch at a high price.

"Your Majesty, the Dutch West India Company, I heard that it has gone bankrupt. Cotton mills in the Netherlands have also closed down in large numbers, and there will be no market for American cotton in the future...... The reason for all this is the smuggling of Chinese in the Americas. If we don't crack down on smuggling, Your Majesty may not go bankrupt, but we, the members of the Seville Chamber of Commerce, will certainly go bankrupt. ”

The Union of Chambers of Commerce of Seville, for the fourth time, came to the King of Spain to petition.

Philip IV, the "King of the Earth", is dying, he has witnessed the last glory of Spain, and he has also stepped on the accelerator for Spain's decline.

At the beginning of his succession, he faced the Thirty Years' War, frantically expanded his army to 300,000 people, and declared the country bankrupt after only two years in power.

"Your Majesty......"

Philip IV seemed to be asleep, but suddenly opened his eyes: "You don't need to say it, I will send a messenger to Mexico to bring all the officials involved in smuggling to justice." As long as the Chinese fleet dares to go to Mexico, it will sink one when it comes! ”

"Praise you in the name of the Lord, Great Your Majesty!" The merchants were finally happy.

The men were sent away, but Philip IV sat still.

Where does he dare to go to war with China?

Even the Neapolitan uprising in Italy, which Philip IV was unable to suppress, could not afford to recruit mercenaries.

……

London, United Kingdom.

The Second Anglo-Dutch War broke out two years earlier than in history.

Hearing of the bankruptcy of the Dutch West India Company, Charles II felt that the time was ripe and asked his brother to lead the navy to Amsterdam.

"This war, we will win!"

Charles II came to the port, drew his sword and shouted to the admirals: "The old Holland is no longer good, the whole sea of Europe is ours." Long live England! ”

"Long live England!"

"Long live Your Majesty!"

Charles II, who was constantly centralized, had a personal prestige far beyond another time and space. If this continues, he will be able to establish a complete dictatorship if he defeats the Dutch.

The British naval fleet went to the Netherlands.

The Dutch navy was in serious arrears of wages, so they retreated without a fight, allowing the British to blockade Armstrong, and then they sailed their ships to Belgium to make a fuss.