John. Hill fled into Jacobs Harbor aboard his ship, the Lark, the wolf Bèi.

The Courland soldiers guarding the fort outside the harbor looked nervously at the several armed Dutch merchant ships cruising on the surface of the open sea, and lamented in their hearts: the British ship had accidentally washed into the harbor just now, and now it seemed that it was a great trouble, and if these Dutch ships broke in regardless of the situation, the old bronze guns on the fort alone would not be able to stop these invaders.

Their luck seemed good, however, for several Dutch ships off the coast apparently hesitated for a long time before adjusting their booms and continuing southward—they were armed merchant ships of the East India Company bound for Batavia, and the pursuit of the Skylark seemed to be a matter of course. At this moment, seeing the "Skylark" hiding in Jacobs Harbor, knowing that they had no chance, they decisively flashed, and it was still important to do business.

Of course, this does not mean that they are afraid of this short-established Jacob Port, and the old small-caliber bronze artillery on the fort cannot stop them, what they really care about is the several large three-masted galleons that are berthing in the harbor at this moment -- three-masted galleons flying the flag of the Republic of China on the east coast of China, one of which is still a sail escort gunboat equipped with 24 guns. In order to avoid misunderstandings, the Dutch decided to spare the lucky British merchant ship and sailed for Cape Town instead.

Dressed in a sky-blue short-sleeved navy uniform and a tubular military cap, McKinley lay under a shady tree on the docks, looked at Captain Hill who was walking off the deck with a playful gaze, and said with a smile: "Good luck, British! You almost fell into the sea to feed the fish. ”

There was a good-natured laugh from the people around them. Most of them were sailors on the East Coast. At the moment, he is resting in the harbor. Several Latvian tavern hostesses from Courland looked at the giggling crowd in confusion. He slammed the beer in his hand on the wooden table, then twisted his ass and left.

"Lucky indeed." Captain Hill muttered in not very standard Chinese, and then said, "Seriously, gentlemen, can I move with your fleet?" Rest assured, I know the rules, and I'll give a tenth of my ship's cargo as a reward for following you, how about it? ”

"Looks like you're insecure." After a moment of silence. McKinley, an Irish East Coast officer, stood up, looked at the somewhat panicked Hill with proud eyes, and said, "The merciful East Coast Navy will allow you to follow us in the process, first mate, go to his ship to register the cargo on board, transfer one-tenth of the value of the goods to our ship now, and then unify them to Riga for sale, and the proceeds will be distributed among the men in proportion." ”

Captain Hill breathed a sigh of relief.

He had just returned home from a trade fair on the East Coast, and at the moment he was loaded with more than 4,000 horses of high-end dyed and calico, as well as some steel bars, hardware tools, metal farm tools and soda ash (whether it was the traditional British woolen industry or the new glass manufacturing industry). all require large quantities of soda ash), with a total value of more than £22,000. For the officers and sailors of the East Coast Navy. Everyone can always divide dozens of pieces, and it is not without a small supplement.

"Our fleet will depart in two days, so you can take the time to rest and recuperate in Jacobs Harbor and then buy some supplies." McKinley kindly reminded the English merchant in front of him, and then changed his tone abruptly, and asked, "I heard that your navy has fought against the Dutch?" Is it safe to pass through the Strait of Dover now? Will our ships be stopped? Will the goods be confiscated? ”

"No, war hasn't been officially declared yet." After taking a sip of the beer brought by the Latvian hostess (Westlake beer, imported from the East Coast), Captain Hill calmed down a little, and listened only to him say in Chinese mixed with English: "When I set out from Bristol at the end of last year, our navy was only intercepting Dutch merchant ships that did not obey the law in various places, and then confiscating their ships as punishment. Later, the Dutch also organized warships and armed merchant ships to escort them, and the struggle between the two sides was fierce, but they had not completely torn their faces and started a frontal battle. ”

"It's really a greedy Dutchman, who knows that the British have promulgated the Navigation Regulations, and there are so many merchants who run to do business, I really don't know whether to live or die. Now that the ship has been detained and the cargo has been confiscated, it's too late to cry, haha. Mackinley, who had spent his youth on the East Coast, mercilessly belittled a Dutch merchant who had been camping around, and then asked suspiciously: "But a considerable part of the goods in these confiscated Dutch merchant ships are actually owned by your English merchants, right?" Now it's also confiscated? ”

"Confiscated!" Captain Hill nodded, and said, "The Navigation Regulations make it clear that goods shipped from Europe for sale in England may only be transported by British ships or ships of the countries where the goods are produced; Goods shipped from outside Europe for sale in the UK can only be transported by UK vessels. The confiscated goods will be auctioned off in the London market along with the property of the royalists, and the proceeds will be used for naval expenses. ”

McKinley was silent. The Navigation Regulations, while clearly aimed at the Dutch merchants who acted as distributors of goods, similarly swept away the people of the East Coast, because the goods produced on the East Coast had to be transported by British ships in order to be sold in Britain and its colonies, which was tantamount to a loss of profit. Although the East Coast had little business to do in Britain - with the exception of the Dutch West India Company's consignment of goods to the British North American colonies - the British were always unaccustomed to their domineering style.

"Hehe, the Dutch probably hate you to death! In the past, the Languedoc wine business was almost completely monopolized by them, and their ships were constantly in and out of the Mediterranean, and then exported their wines and brandies, as well as Italian olive oil and cheese to England and Ireland, but now they were probably only allowed to ship by the French or Italians themselves. McKinley laughed and quipped, "The London market must be in mourning right now, with a shortage of goods and soaring prices, and the citizens must regret provoking this commercial dispute with the Dutch." ”

"No, it's not that strict, actually." Captain Hill hurriedly explained, "In fact, there are still a lot of idle transport ships on the docks in London, and with them, it is not difficult for goods from the Mediterranean to enter England." In the past, because the Dutch freight was extremely low (the Dutch merchant ships transported three times as much tonnage as the British at this time, and the largest gap in history was ten times), our ships had to be anchored in the harbor all day with nothing to do. But after the promulgation of the Navigation Regulations, this idle capacity was released in an instant, and many captains borrowed money from the London market and headed straight for Marseille, Livorno and Messina, and the private shipping industry in England suddenly developed......"

Along with the Navigation Regulations, two other decrees issued in 1615 and 1622 - which were reaffirmed by the British, were that "goods from the Mediterranean may only be brought into England by English ships" and "goods from the Baltic Sea may only be brought into England by English ships". After these two fucking laws were re-enforced and strictly enforced, merchants in the Baltic Sea and the Mediterranean Sea of origin of various commodities were basically unable to ship goods to Britain by themselves, and these two decrees undoubtedly greatly stimulated the development of the British shipbuilding and shipping industry from the side, and their impact should not be underestimated.

"It's not London, it's not Bristol or Portsmouth, it's Virginia and New England!" Captain Hill, who had invested in both places, said in a very complicated tone, "I thought that life would be better after driving out the Dutch black-hearted merchants who monopolized the trade in cotton, tobacco and grain, but the new London merchants were not things!" They bid for tobacco at a very low price, and sell the Old World goods at ridiculously high prices, which is really too much! ”

During the Civil War, in order to prevent the colonies from moving closer to the royal party, the British Parliament tried its best to win them over, not only giving them a lot of convenience, but also conniving at their collusion with foreign businessmen. But now that the dust of the civil war had settled, and Charles I had been beheaded, it seemed no longer necessary for the parliamentary government to be accustomed to the overseas colonies, the colonists who were now like Captain Hill and the like were all stupid - the good days were over!

"It's unfortunate." McKinley glanced at Captain Hill sympathetically and thanked him, "Well, I know a little bit about it, thank you for your bluntness." Rest for two days in Jakobshafen, a city that I may think is shit, but it's a city where you can drink good wine, eat fresh food, and spend a little money on a night out with the lovely Latvian girls. Enjoy it and we'll leave again in two days. ”

Captain Hill nodded, then glanced blankly at the slightly disheveled layout of the city. The port of Jacobs was dominated by tobacco cultivation and felling of high-quality timber (both of which were exported to the East Coast), as well as the slave trade, which often sold black Congolese slaves to the East Coasters at a surprisingly low price through various channels, which greatly supported the country's infrastructure development and made them a lot of money themselves.

There were now about 2,000 people in Jacobshafen, including about 1,200 Courland colonists (mostly Latvians), 200 German mercenaries, and 600 black servants. For example, they imported a large number of grains and salted fish from South Africa, weapons, bean cakes, farm tools, building materials, horse-drawn carriages, cloth, medicines and other commodities from the East Coast, and exported mainly tobacco, timber and slaves.

After two days of rest in Jacobs Harbor, on 12 June, the four East Coast Flutes and Captain Hill's Skylark headed north with McKinley's frigate, followed by the strong Benguela Current. (To be continued......) R1292