The Doge's questioning of Anthony van Diemen immediately made Hendrik Brauwer very dissatisfied.

As an aristocratic member of the East India Company, Hendrik Brower was dissatisfied with the Doge's proximity to a bankrupt merchant and his disregard for his dedication to the company.

Although this Anthony Van Diemen seems to be a good person, he has played a lot of credit for the establishment of Batavia City and the company's strategy for the Spice Islands, and has won the trust of most of the company's civilian staff in Southeast Asia.

But for Hendrik Brower, these are the things that Anthony van Diemen is not happy with.

As a new commercial republic founded on commerce and established Protestantism as the state religion. The insurmountable gulf between the great merchants and the aristocracy had become a shallow trench.

But the nobility of the United Dutch provinces, in order to resist the oppression of the Spanish Empire, had to raise the banner of Protestantism, recognizing that the merchants had the same power as the aristocracy.

However, in the hearts of many nobles, they still firmly believe that the nobility is still the natural ruler, and that both merchants and commoners should obey the leadership of the nobility, which is the country approved by God.

Hendrik Blauwer was one of the nobles who embraced this faith, and the Grand Governor of the East Indies was supposed to be in his possession.

However, it is clear that Governor Yan Petersson Kun did not think so, and preferred Anthony van Diemen, who was in line with his own philosophy, to take over the position of Archgovernor of the East Indies.

And Anthony Van Diemen also relied on the trust of the governor to buy the hearts and minds of the middle and lower ranks of the company.

Despite his success in maritime exploration and colonial warfare, Hendrik Brouwer lacked a systematic idea of how to run the Eastern Colonies, which was why Governor Quint was reluctant to let him take his place.

Hendrik Brouwer, who could not obtain the approval of the governor, came up with the idea of having Peternats levy a commercial tax on Japanese merchants to find a new profit growth point for the company, so as to gain the approval of the company's 17-member board of directors.

What he did not expect was that the reaction of Japanese merchants was completely different from that of the natives of Southeast Asia, and that the Japanese government supported merchants differently than other Asian countries.

He had Peternat's instructions to Japanese merchants collect taxes turned into a head-on conflict between the company and the Japanese government, which was obviously not his responsibility, and he was even ready to abandon Peternats.

However, the Sino-Dutch commercial trade agreement brought back by Peternatz brought him a turn for the better, and Hendrik Brouwer immediately realized that this agreement would not only eliminate the bad influence of the Hamada Yabei incident, but also improve his standing in the hearts of the company's 17-member board of directors.

But now the Governor was not happy to see this agreement, but wanted his confidant Anthony van Diemen to deny this precious trade agreement, which really made him want to protest.

However, Peternats, who was standing beside him, quietly tugged at the placket of his shirt to prevent him from interrupting Anthony van Diemen's speech, and Brouwer turned his head to Peternats with some confusion, and finally held back his speech and listened to Dimmen's opinion on the agreement.

Anthony van Diemen did not notice Brower's expression, he thought carefully for a long time before he said to Governor Kun: "Your Excellency, I thought that this agreement was not an unexpected surprise for the company, because it did not meet the company's expectations at all.

The Ming-Dutch trade model expected by the company is to completely monopolize the entrepot trade of Mingguo goods. In other words, Mingguo can only become a production workshop of the company, and the company enjoys the pricing power of Mingguo's goods overseas.

But in this agreement, the company is just one of many trading partners of the Ming Kingdom. In addition, the company will also give up the construction of the city of Geranza, and the company will not be allowed to expand the colonial area in Taiwan and exercise various ruling rights.

What is even more unbearable is that the Ming State demanded that we release all Chinese slaves, and promised not to attack the Ming merchant ships or plunder the Ming population.

Your Excellency the Governor, with all due respect, the relinquishment of the construction of the city of Geranza in exchange for the right to trade with the Ming is quite a tolerable condition.

However, the article on the release of Chinese slaves and the purchase of Chinese slaves was prohibited. This is clearly detrimental to the interests of the company in Asia and to the implementation of your company's development plans for Southeast Asia, Your Excellency the Governor. ”

Hendrik Brouwer was depressed when he heard this, and finally couldn't help but retort: "What you said is really getting more and more ridiculous, since a trade agreement has been reached, isn't it a matter of course for the company to maintain friendly relations with the Ming Kingdom?"

Could it be that Mr. Natts signed the trade deal back for the company, but instead became a sin? Director General Van Diemen, are you trying to deliberately belittle Mr. Natz for your own selfish interests? I don't believe that the 17-member board of directors of the company would have such a stupid opinion..."

Seeing that Brouwer's face was red and his spit was flying, Governor Kun finally stopped him with a voice: "Okay, Mr. Brouwer, I think I understand what you mean enough, I will think carefully about this trade deal, and I will tell you my decision tomorrow morning." ”

After sending Hendrik Brouwer and Peternats out of the door, Governor Quinn said to Anthony van Diemen, who closed the door: "How do you think that the release of Chinese slaves and the ban on the purchase of Chinese slaves will damage my plans for the development of the company in Southeast Asia?" ”

After closing the door, Van Diemen walked back to the Governor, bowed his head and said respectfully to him: "Your Excellency the Governor wants to build Batavia into a distribution center for goods from Southeast Asia back to Europe, and you need a group of skilled craftsmen and a mature agricultural base.

The local natives were ignorant and aggressive, they did not like to engage in agricultural production, could not generate wealth for companies, and could not even tolerate the simple physical activities of building cities and digging canals.

Worst of all, these indigenous peoples are uncivilized infidels and hostile to corporations. Except for whips and swords, we simply cannot drive these natives to volunteer for us.

If we want to build Batavia into a great city like Amsterdam and a hub for companies in Asia, we need a massive, reliable and capable workforce.

Although recruiting from Europe was the best option, the number of immigrants of more than 4,000 a year would not meet the plans of His Excellency the Governor. And more than half of these people don't live for more than a year because they don't adapt to the local climate.

Most of the surviving immigrants were not happy to engage in the arduous agricultural activities and handicrafts in the East, but preferred to find a legendary treasure in the land, so that they could become rich overnight, and then return to Europe to squander these unexpected riches.

Therefore, in comparison, these Chinese with docile personalities, hard-working and no firm religious beliefs are the most suitable for the company to develop the entire Southeast Asian islands.

These Chinese can build cities, build weapons, repair ships, dig canals, and cultivate fields, and we can use them to isolate the local aborigines from the white people.

To put it more bluntly, we can transfer the resentment of the local aborigines towards the white people to these Chinese, as long as the company always has the power in its hands, it can establish the company's rule over the entire Southeast Asian archipelago through the contradictions between the local aborigines and the foreign Chinese. ”

Governor Kun did not immediately respond to Van Diemen's opinion, he crossed his hands in front of his chest, stared at the text of the agreement on the desk in front of him for a long time, and then said calmly: "Then according to your thoughts, how should we treat this agreement?" ”

Van Diemen looked up into the governor's eyes and said in a firm tone: "The spice trade in Southeast Asia and the silk and tea trade in China are gold mines that the company cannot give up.

But now for the company, the monopoly of the spice trade in the whole spice archipelago is in sight, and for the Chinese silk and tea trade, we have only just begun.

In this situation, the company should focus on the strategy of the Spice Islands first. As for the trade relations with the Ming Kingdom, first make them feel that the company intends to abide by this agreement for the time being, and then send capable people to find out the political, geographical and military intelligence of the Ming Kingdom, so as to prepare for the company's monopoly on Ming trade in the future.

I thought His Excellency the Governor should not have signed the agreement, and at the same time wrote to the 17-member board of directors to convince the directors not to approve of the agreement.

As for the Ming side, the text of the agreement needs to be sent back to Europe for signature, because the sea route between Europe and Asia is difficult and it is impossible to reply immediately, delaying the time. However, we can temporarily trade in accordance with the text of the agreement until we receive instructions from the company.

Then wait until we occupy the entire Spice Islands, and then judge whether to recognize the legally binding force of this agreement based on intelligence. After all, with Mr. Peternatz's status, there is no substitute for the company to sign such an important agreement, not to mention that he has not been authorized by the company to negotiate a trade agreement with the Ming Kingdom. ”

Governor Kun was silent for a long time, and after picking up the silver cup and drinking the wine in the glass, he said to his first advisor: "Your idea is very interesting, I will consider it..."

Hendrik Brower, who had been kicked out of the room by the Governor, was still angry, and he said to Peternats with a red face: "Why did you just say nothing and let that lowly merchant slander this agreement? ”

Peter Natz smiled at Brouwer and said, "My dear Excellency, during my days in Peking, I have collected some fine porcelain for you as a gift, and I will have someone send it to your residence in a moment..."

Brouwer, who had been angry, suddenly forgot his dissatisfaction with Dimmen and began to inquire about the patterns and colors of the porcelain.