"On the fourth day of the trip, we took a boat from Guangzhou to a bustling city called Dongguan in the east.

This is Huang's hometown, and it seems that he is very prestigious here, and many people who are gorgeously dressed have a lot of respect for him.

Someone saw my blond hair and blue eyes and sued the local government, but when the officials here knew that I was a friend of Huang, there was no disrespectful behavior or words.

Huang has many families, and he has six formal wives, one of whom is real and the other five are not. It is said that he also had two lovers who were kept in other homes, and it seems that this was common among the gentry.

But unlike the French, the lovers of the Ming gentlemen were often from brothels or poor families, and they would never be other people's wives. ”

"I met Huang's two sons, who were studying at the same school as Huang's nephews and younger brothers, which was the school that Huang built.

He had an even better son, who was at this time the governor of a small state in a province to the north called Kiangsi, with 170,000 men in charge.

Huang also has several daughters, and it seems that the excellence of the daughters lies not in their knowledge and beauty, but in her husband. Huang liked his second daughter the most, who was married to a local military aristocrat.

The inheritance of this nobleman has been nine generations, and theoretically Huang's son-in-law can command more than 4,000 soldiers, but in reality he only has more than 20 guards, and I saw those guards, to be honest, more like servants, some are simply slaves.

The reason for this is because of the more than 4,000 soldiers who have eleven noble officials like Huang's son-in-law.

But Huang's son-in-law still has a lot of wealth, he has more than a thousand acres of good land, which originally belonged to the army, but already belongs to him. ”

"Huang also has a manor outside Dongguan where you can ride horses.

But Huang just took me here for a hearty lunch, and then took me to a village closer to the mountains.

The largest building in the village is very beautiful, and there are many small wooden plaques with people's names written on them, some of them are Huang's ancestors, and the rest are his ancestors' brothers. Everyone in this village has the surname Huang, and through those wooden signs, they can find their relationship with my friend.

Some of the old people here are very respected, and Huang is a jinshi, but he still has to salute them. I also saw Huang saluting a child in a cradle, who had no honorable status, but through the wooden plaque, it was determined that the child was Huang's uncle. ”

"Standing on the mountain, we saw a lot of fields, all of which were said to belong to Huang and his kindred. Huang told me that if we reached a cooperation with Li, he could plant mulberry trees in all the rice fields in front of him, and let the women and men in the fields raise silkworms and make raw silk, and then sell the raw silk to us, or send it to his factory in Guangzhou to dye and weave silk.

The trade-off is that people here will only be able to eat rice from Annam in the future.

If we hadn't reached an agreement, there wouldn't have been that, and people here would still be able to eat their own rice. ”

"Huang is just a microcosm of my trip to Guangzhou, in fact, every shareholder of Guangdong Commerce Bank is the same as him, maybe they don't have so much land of their own, but they have people of the same clan and surname, enough interests can make these people obey their command.

These gentlemen seemed to be the link, they could handle everything in Canton, and the officials did not dare to provoke them, because as soon as they united to write a piece of paper and send it to the emperor, the officials would lose their jobs. The officers here are all related to them, all the commerce of Canton is related to them, and the gentlemen dominate them.

I now understand why Li wants to do business with these people and build a bank, because if you get them, you can get Guangdong.

They call this phenomenon, the status of a gentleman is like a cast of steel, but the officials sent by the emperor are like water in a river, always fresh. ”

Matsolko's trip to Guangzhou lasted twelve days, and it was his unforgettable twelve days, and the impact on him was strong.

When he returned to Hong Kong, he was more eager to cooperate with the Oriental Trading Company than before. Therefore, although Lee Zhaoji lived a life of training while negotiating and was forced to spend the New Year in Hong Kong, there is no doubt that the sincerity of both sides is sufficient.

Matt Solko brought with him various gold and silver coins and copper worth 120,000 silver, which he was going to spend in Hong Kong and Tamsui. Matsolko was worried that the long-term negotiations would affect the Easter fleet, after all, when the fleet returned at Christmas, he had already sent the news of the Oriental Trading Company back to the mainland, and it would be a sin if the cowhide was blown out, and the Easter fleet would not have enough cargo.

Lee, on the other hand, said that trade could be carried out now, and that he was only proposing a condition that seemed trivial to Matsolko.

Matsolko brought four brigs and a Yahat ship moored in Tamsui, a total of five ships, and Matsolko thought to leave two schooners in Hong Kong, and the rest to transport the first cargo to Batavia, to ensure that the hold of the Easter fleet could be filled with Ming goods.

Li Zhaoji changed his way and asked Matsolko to sell all four ships to himself, while the Oriental Trading Company exchanged two Migratory Bird-class Yahat ships, and where it was not enough, it was offset with goods.

In addition, the Oriental Trading Company will also send two other Migratory Bird-class Yahat ships south with the fleet, so that five light Yahat ships will go south to Batavia. Although the Ahat ship was inferior to a schooner in terms of speed and ability to take advantage of the wind, its large cargo capacity was an advantage.

And in April next year, two ships of the Oriental Trading Company will depart for Hong Kong with the Dutch fleet heading north.

Matsolko agreed, and the Oriental Trading Company managed to get four brigs.

The four brigs ranged in tonnage from one hundred and forty to two hundred tons, and were each armed with six or eight guns, some four-pounder and most six-pounder. Schooners were the hounds of the Dutch ruling the eastern seas, and were often used for patrolling, capture, and low-intensity warfare.

There was no gun deck, and all the guns were deployed on the open deck, but because it was a schooner, it was very convenient to sail in the wind, and because of its slenderness, it was also fast, and when the wind was right, it could exceed ten knots.

Today's trading companies are in great need of such ships, especially with Sado Island, where freshwater can form a fixed route between Tamsui and Sado instead of just following the monsoon, which is good news for the soldiers stationed in Sado.

Because the sincerity of the two parties was sufficient, the terms were reached one by one, and Matsolko had full authority to sign the treaty on behalf of the Dutch East India Company, and this treaty was called the "Hong Kong Treaty" because it was concluded in Hong Kong.

The treaty stipulates the interests, responsibilities and obligations of both parties in the political, military and trade fields.

First of all, the Hong Kong Treaty is valid for five years, after which the Treaty will automatically continue for five years if neither of the two parties proposes to amend or repeal it.

Secondly, the Dutch East India Company and the Oriental Trading Company recognize each other as equal political entities and respect each other's interests and laws.

In the political sphere, the parties agreed on the following terms:

During the period of validity of the treaty, the two parties shall not commit acts of armed aggression or attack against each other, either alone or in association with other political entities, or in support of other political entities.

The Contracting Parties shall not participate in groups of States or allied organizations that directly oppose each other.

The above two clauses do not include Japan, and in view of the hostile relationship between Oriental Trading Company and Japan, and the trade relationship between Toin and Japan Company, the two sides shall properly resolve the issue without prejudice to the interests of the other party.

All disputes that arise between States parties should be resolved peacefully.

Envoys were sent to each other, with Dutch envoys stationed in Tamsui and Hong Kong, and the Oriental Trading Company stationed envoys in Batavia and Malacca.

During the validity period of the treaty, the Oriental Trading Company and Li Zhaoji himself could not accept the appeasement of the Ming State and obtain the title and official position of the Ming State, and the political ownership of the land owned by the Oriental Trading Company should remain as it is and should not be changed.

The two sides are not allowed to carry out missionary and political activities in each other's territory, but they may carry out religious activities in private facilities in the other territory.

In the field of military security, the parties agreed on the following terms:

The Oriental Trading Company promised not to build ships with double artillery decks, whether merchant or armed.

The Dutch East India Company promised not to send powerful armed ships such as repatriated galleons and cruisers to the waters north of the Philippines. In the case of dispatches, Dongfang Trading Company should be notified in advance and understood and supervised.

On the island of Taiwan, the two sides do not seek to wipe out the indigenous tribal power of the Potbelly Kingdom, and use the land they own as a buffer zone for both sides.

Merchant ships entering each other's waters may be armed, but not more than six pounds of artillery.

The Oriental Trading Company recognized the East India and Du Islands as the Dutch sphere of influence, and did not conduct military operations and expansion in the East India and Du Islands. The Dutch East India Company did not expand into new colonies in the seas north of the Philippines.

In terms of political and military terms, the Oriental Trading Company valued more than the Eastern Indian and Du degrees, and the same was true for Van Dimen. Matt Solko is more focused on terms of trade.

In the field of trade, the parties agreed on the following terms:

The two sides respect each other's tariff and security policies on trade management and grant preferential treatment within the space that can be decided.

The Oriental Trading Company shall not interfere with the trade of the Dutch East India and Du Company in Japan, and shall not prevent the East India and Du Company from opening up trade in the territory of the Ming Kingdom and the DPRK north of Guangdong.

In exchange, the Dutch East India Company did not interfere with and prevent the trade of the Oriental Trading Company on the Indochina Peninsula and had the right to trade in the waters west of the Strait of Malacca.

In addition to mutual respect for trade within their territory, both sides are to use all possible means to reach terms of trade with each other.

In principle, the Oriental Trading Company was to supply the Dutch Toyin Company with no less than 1,500 quintals of raw silk, 3.5 million pounds of sugar, and a prescribed share of silk, porcelain, and other goods every year.

Thirty-five percent of the total value of all goods could be offset by the Dutch East India Company, mainly spices, sumac, timber, grain, tin, etc., and the rest was purchased by precious metals, but only silver and copper.

The price of all goods must refer to the market price of the port where the money is transferred, and in principle, it cannot be higher or lower than 2% of the market price.

In the field of precious metals, the Oriental Trading Company has to exchange the gold obtained from the delivery of the Dutch East India and Du Company in Hong Kong every year, and the exchange rate is one tael of gold for 12 taels of silver, but the Dutch East India and Du Company can use copper instead of silver, and the exchange rate is set according to the market ratio, but in principle does not exceed 30 percent of the total exchange.

For this business, the Dutch East India company is the only partner.

All ships heading west of Malacca are required to anchor at the Port of Malacca and pay a special tax of five per cent.

The Dutch Toindo Company does not restrict the cooperation between the Oriental Trading Company and the United Kingdom and Portugal, but the Toindo and Du Company will not change their policies towards the two countries because of this. The goods of the Oriental Trading Company on the ships of the two countries will not be protected.

The Treaty of Hong Kong was finally signed on January 4 of the 17th year of Chongzhen, and on this day, good news came from Tamsui that Lee Zhaoji's first and eldest son was born.

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