"Rumors are in every ......corner of the streets," said Contin, who had been transferred to the head of the Florentine trading station, with a bitter expression on his forehead, to Gao Wengang, who had just arrived here with the ship. While Gawain's flute was anchored in the port of Livorno, he arrived in a horse-drawn carriage to Florence to deliver the tobacco they had brought with him to Contin, the head of the local trading post on the east coast.

Kangding is also an old man from the East Coast who has been stationed in Europe, and is a close confidant of Xu Xin, the current member of the Central Executive Committee and the former leader of the Ministry of Trade and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He was the head of the Bordeaux trading station, and after the Bordeaux trading station was forced to close due to the French civil war - even the trading station building is now occupied by a rebellious army - Condin withdrew to Florence with the original crew of the trading station. After this, some of the manpower was diverted to the four new trading posts to be opened, including Tirana (the shortage was partly selected locally and some recruited locally), and some remained in the port of Livorno, where the Genoese secretly assisted in the smuggling of goods against France.

As for Condin himself, he is currently the head of the Florence trading station, and is fully responsible for the affairs of the trading station. Originally, the stationmaster and several managers of this commercial station had been dismissed by Mo San because of poor sales performance, and all of them boarded an east coast merchant ship to return to China, ready to accept a new assignment from the Ministry of Trade.

However, since Florence was transferred to Conding and others, the performance of the trading station has indeed improved a lot, and the secret lies in the smuggling of goods from the east coast in the southern part of France. At present, it is basically sold by the Florentine Merchant Station (Livorno, the port of departure). The development of this new business has naturally improved the performance of the Florentine trading station a lot, as for the original sales performance of the trading station. It is still miserable, and this year is expected to be only a net profit of more than 16,000 yuan, which is really pitiful. This amount of money is enough to recruit a few local craftsmen or some scientists who have been suppressed by the church to go to the east coast, and as for other activities such as bribing local officials and cultivating spies to spy on intelligence, I am sorry, but it cannot be effectively carried out without additional investment from the superiors.

"French ships sailing from La Rochelle, Nantes, Bordeaux have a high rate of wrecks in the open sea. In particular, a third of the merchant ships destined for the Caribbean did not return. The merchants suffered heavy losses and complained. They complained that the nobility at home knew only about the civil war and did not care about the fate of French merchants abroad, and they called for a truce on both sides of the civil war and to concentrate on the outside world. That is, the Spanish troops who had re-entered France were first expelled, and then warships were sent to the Caribbean Sea to defend the interests of French merchant ships. Fortunately, however, neither the royal party led by Mazaran nor the rebel party led by the brothers of the Prince of Condé, the Duke of Languville, the Duke of Nemours, and the Duke of La Rochefoucauld could not spare the energy to deal with these things. Their priority now is to fight for the dominance of France. Condin drank a cup of tea, and the bitter smile on his face did not diminish, and he continued: "But rumors have recently appeared in France against us. That is, there are Spanish and British businessmen who insist that they have seen ships on the east coast wandering around the Caribbean for a long time, and their movements are suspicious. It seems that it is a privateering activity, and the frequent accidents of merchant ships of various countries (of which French merchant ships account for the vast majority) in recent days are probably the work of these ships on the east coast......"

As soon as Gao Wen heard this, he immediately felt that this matter was troublesome. Because in today's Europe, the words piracy and privateer are quite sensitive, not so far ago. At that time, European ships rushed to carry out privateering activities, and international trade was severely attacked. As a result, tariff revenues plummeted, domestic prices soared, and monarchs and big businessmen of various countries gradually could not sit still. For this reason, after years of repeated consultations between Western countries, they finally restrained each other's behavior, so that the almost semi-open naval privateering disappeared.

At the same time, they also began to vigorously crack down on and wanted pirates, and they were not merciless in punishing them, for example, in history, there were British pirates who attacked Spanish ships, and were later sued by the bitter lord to London, and the London court publicly hanged the accused pirates after verification, which shows that at this time, the punishment of pirates by various countries is not just for show.

However, it is precisely this iron-blooded method that has curbed the arrogance of pirates and created a good environment for maritime trade between countries. Because of this, as soon as rumors of privateering activities under the guise of pirates of the East Coast Navy spread in Europe, the blow to the image of the East Coast would be disastrous, because after reaching an unwritten tacit understanding, no country would dare to openly associate with a country called a pirate. What's more, this country is still a yellow-skinned pagan country, and it has original sin in itself, and now that there is such a thing, there will naturally be a lot of trouble.

"Envoy Moore instructed the merchant stations to immediately set aside a portion of the profits to be used exclusively for 'washing the floor'—well, this is his exact words, perhaps the meaning of public relations?" Kangding's face was a little solemn, obviously he also knew that these rumors were still very lethal, and if they were ignored and allowed to ferment and spread, they would sooner or later cause big trouble to the people of the East Coast.

"Floor scrubbing is a must." Gao Wengang agreed, "Our local agents also have some blood for this matter." They usually make a lot of money from us, and it's time for them to step in. Besides, they have a close relationship with us, they have cooperated for many years, and their appearance has long been labeled on us, and now they can't get rid of it even if they want to, and if they don't come out to wash the floor at this time, sooner or later they will be accused of fornicating with pirates, which they can't afford. Therefore, it is reasonable for us to consult with these people more, and at present, everyone is a grasshopper on a rope. ”

"Well, the Baron de Toulouse, the Pasquier family, the Lorris family and the Adrian family in Paris have been partners for many years. In addition, there are many families who dominate the Republic of Genoa who have a good opinion of us, especially the Doria family, who now sell cheap and high-quality goods from the east coast throughout the Greater Spanish market. These people have been operating in France, Italy, and Greater Spain for at least 100 years and have deep roots, and they should have some way to dispel the rumors that are not good for us. However, this is often only a temporary emergency...... "Condin said.

Kang Ding's words were not finished, but Gao Wengang, a young man, was relatively smart, and after a little thought, he understood his subconscious meaning, that is, these local agents do have a certain amount of connections and energy, and they can indeed help the people of the East Coast solve some troubles, but their ability is not unlimited. In particular, this kind of rumor, which has been spread with noses and eyes, is bound to be taken seriously by the French merchants and nobles, who have suffered greatly losses in the previous privateering operations, and if there is any more unfavorable news from the Caribbeans in the Caribbean, the matter may be complicated by the fact that the ships of the Easterners have indeed stayed there for a long time, and that there are still ships operating there, which cannot be erased. What the? You say they can't catch tangible evidence? Don't be funny, when did they need evidence? For a yellow-skinned pagan nation like yours with natural original sin, do you need proof?

The key now is that Navy ships should be withdrawn from the Caribbean Sea in time, and then tossed elsewhere. Gao Wengang was a little worried about this, although the navy currently had only one battleship and two or three auxiliary ships in the Caribbean - and his ship had even just sent them some supplies on the island of Tobago - but there was no guarantee that something would go wrong. Although their deposit has greatly dealt a blow to the smuggling trade in the Caribbean, and the Peruvian smuggling trade led by the Southern Railroad Company has become more and more prosperous, it is time to accept it as soon as it is good, otherwise it is likely that these European countries will be able to seize the handle and suddenly start a crisis - even if they cannot get away from dealing with the people on the east coast for a short time for various reasons, as long as they write down this account, then sooner or later they will take revenge on themselves, which must be prevented.

"Forget it, I won't complain to you just when you came." Seeing that the atmosphere was a little silent, Kang Ding, as a senior, laughed, stood up and opened the curtains, turned around and said, "Don't delay here too much, go to the Ottoman Empire early." The envoy should be in Smyrna by now, and you should have talked to him in the past, he is very kind, and he also likes to promote junior young people - well, your father is a veteran of the diplomatic circles, he should have told you about this, but I have said more, hehe. But seriously, this shipment of Virginia tobacco that you brought to the port of Livorno this time is really good. Now that the French civil war is gradually escalating, Mazarin was forced to release the Prince of Condé and others from prison, but these big nobles did not buy it at all, and openly colluded with the Spanish army to invade France. As soon as this war started, there was a shortage of supplies, and coupled with the tossing of naval ships in the Caribbean, France's current trade situation was very serious. These Virginia tobacco shreds can be sold for 70,000 or 80,000 yuan, which is enough for our trading station to collect more craftsmen or scholars to send to the mainland this year. ”

"Since you say so, I won't delay here." Gao Wengang nodded and said, "I still have some policy guidance documents from the local government affairs that need to be handed over to Mo San's special envoy, and this matter has to be hurried." By the way, how is the shape of the Ottoman Empire now, is it chaotic? ”

"Well, isn't it just a mess that can be described?" Konding shook his head and said: "You will know when you go, this country is now in internal and external difficulties, it is almost about to collapse, I think the government should make an emergency plan, after all, the Ottoman Empire is our country's largest market in Europe." If this market collapses, the consequences will be catastrophic......" (To be continued)