Chapter 55: Imperialism (3)
The Dutch Indian Company was a purely profit-oriented joint-stock company, and all its activities revolved around profits, including massacres, extermination of island populations, and planned destruction of local production capacity, with the aim of obtaining high profits.
The board of directors of the company is based in Amsterdam, so in the end all the aim is to be able to exchange all kinds of goods for silver coins in the European market.
Because of the emergence of the Republic and the beginning of trade with Europe by the Nanyang Company led by Chen Jian, the interests of the Dutch Indian Company were greatly threatened.
What they monopolized was the exclusive right to operate from the ends of the earth to the Pacific region, porcelain, tea, and raw silk of the Ming Empire; copper in Japan; Spice of the Spice Islands, this is the direction of the company's profits.
But with Chen Jian intervening in Taiwan, cutting off the possibility of the Dutch Indian Company reaching out to the Ming Empire's trade, and pit the Dutch in Japan again, the board of directors of the Dutch Indian Company had to make corresponding changes.
Goods such as raw silk, copper, tea, and cotton cloth were operated by the Nanyang Company, which was closer and cheaper, and the profits of transshipment of these goods from the Ming Empire and India were no longer high.
As a result, the Dutch Indian Company wanted to obtain higher profits, and was left with a monopoly on the spice trade, which was a verbal promise made by Chen Jian and them that they would not get involved in the spice trade with Europe.
But if you want to get cheaper spices, you can only exchange them for spices in the Spice Islands with handicrafts, and if you buy them with precious metals silver and gold, the low profit margin will drive the board crazy, unless it is monopolized by force.
As a result of this change, the competition with the British Indian Company has become even more important.
Without Jian Chen's circumnavigation of the world, the Dutch Indian Company would have had to compromise with the British in order to deal with Spain together.
Without Chen Jian's circumnavigation of the world, he would have been able to expel Chinese merchants in Thailand and Pattani, establish trading houses in Japan to fight against Catholics to lure Japan to exclusive European trade, and smuggle raw silk porcelain from middlemen along the coast of Fujian...... In the form of the small triangular trade, it was not necessary to bring in large quantities of silver from the mainland every year, so that perhaps a brief compromise with the British would be possible, because it would still be profitable, and it would not be so urgent.
But now, the history of this what ifs has changed.
Compared to silver, the Dutch were no match for the wealthy Spanish Luzon, and it was impossible for the Chinese merchants to risk 100 percent of the profits and not make 50 percent of the profits of the Dutch.
By nurturing pirates, the Chinese merchants were cut off from the trade routes between the Chinese merchants and the Spaniards by force, increasing the cost of risk, so that some merchants would choose a safer but less profitable trade with the Dutch, and the Dutch would trade with Japan in exchange for silver...... However, the Dutch Indian company is now unable to provoke the armed groups in Wangbeicheng, especially the armed groups in Wangbeicheng are not simply "Yidi", and a large number of Fujian maritime merchants have been encircled in the company, and the remaining businessmen have no strength even if they want to fight with each other.
Coupled with Morris's political considerations, he hoped that the board of directors of Dutch India would not try to have friction with Chen Jian, and there was only one way forward before the board.
Can and can only tear the face with the British, monopolize the right to monopolize the spice trade, and Wangbei City to establish a trade in exchange for spices for handicrafts, and get the assurance that Chen Jian Yingying will not reach out to the Indian Company to start a war, and put all the company's focus on the Spice Islands, and no longer try to open up the trade rights of the Ming Empire.
It was too difficult to obtain the trade rights of the Ming Empire, and the Portuguese did not say that under the premise that Chen Jian had obtained the legal trade rights, if he wanted to get involved in the affairs of the Ming Empire at this time, it would be to anger the Fujian merchant group of the Ming Empire and the forces of Wangbei City.
The Dutch Indian Company was more eager for the spice trade than ever before, and as long as a monopoly could be established, the shareholders would still pay substantial annual dividends. But if the British were to get a piece of the pie, the profits would be ridiculous.
The directors of the Indian Company also knew that some of the goods of the Nanyang Company had forced their profits to a negative return, except for spices, and that it was impossible for the Nanyang Company to abandon trade at this time, and that some merchants in the Netherlands were already dissatisfied with the monopoly of the Dutch Indian Company, and that there was another entrepot trade route at this time, and it was impossible to allow the trade with the Chinese Republic to be cut off even at home.
For this reason, it is obvious what this part of the ruling class in the Netherlands wants Jian Chen to promise.
The first is to recognize the unequal treaties that have been criticized and attacked as equal treaties of the new world system, that is, the legitimacy of treaties is only on paper, regardless of whether there is a conspiracy or threat of force in the process of signing. Moreover, the parties to the treaty are the sovereign rights of the state, not the private rights of the monarch and the prince, and any individual or group that inherits the sovereignty must abide by the previous treaties, otherwise the "civilized countries" will not recognize the legitimacy of the continuation of the regime.
The concept of the second territorial sea was extended to colonies and treaty-signed areas, and the concept of the high seas proposed by British philosophers and jurists was not recognized, and it was hoped that Chen Jian would exert influence in the Huaxia Republic and let the Republic speak out to recognize the contribution of the Netherlands in the confrontation against the Meridian European papal world system, thereby obtaining the legitimacy of the monopoly of trade in the Spice Islands colonies. We in the Netherlands have helped, so we want to gain a place in the New World Order, and we want you to recognize our contributions. After all, there is no contribution, no privilege.
Thirdly, in the Spice Islands area, it is hoped that Chen Jian will not interfere in the conflict between the Anglo-Dutch Indian Company. In return, the Dutch Indian Company gave up the trading rights of Japan and the Ming Empire, but also asked Chen Jian not to get involved in the spice trade. The Dutch Indian Company hoped to use Jian Chen's leadership to trade handicrafts for spices in the Dutch-controlled areas of the Spice Islands.
The fourth and most crucial point is that Chen Jian will come forward to help the Dutch Indian company organize a group of Chinese to emigrate to the Dutch-controlled colony. In order to allow the Dutch to achieve checks and balances between the Chinese and the local natives, divert the direction of the contradictions and struggles of the local aborigines, and facilitate the control of the Spice Islands and the creation of a class of catharsis of contradictions. It is somewhat difficult to control a single ethnic group, and it can only support the privileged class to rule by class, and it is difficult to transfer the contradictions, but if a third-party ethnic group participates, it is easy to transfer the class contradictions to ethnic contradictions, and it is easy to control them with their tricks - the main reason is that the local princes of the Spice Islands have no connotation and cultural depth, and it is difficult to support a group of second-class citizens divided into classes.
These four points are in the interests of the board of directors of Dutch India, the first two are nominal and the latter two are actual interests.
If the first two can be achieved, it means that the Chinese Republic acquiesces to the privileges of the Netherlands in the colonies and the unreasonable demands of the British, so that the Chinese Republic will at least be on the side of the Netherlands in overseas trade, otherwise it will be a self-defeating shame and lose the legal rationality of becoming the initiator of the world order.
It can be seen that although the Netherlands is not a real state, the ruling class can still reach some agreement in the general direction when it comes to the interests of all parties.
For the bourgeoisie in the ruling class, excluded from the trade monopoly of Indian companies, and mainly engaged in the European entrepot trade, their demands were simpler.
Dutch capital flowed into commerce in large quantities, and industrial and handicraft capital could not be compared with commercial capital at all, and it was difficult to develop at all.
As the lowest-lying region most affected by the price revolution, the labor cost of the Netherlands is higher than that of other countries when money wages are the mainstay.
Since the same capital invested in commerce, navigation, and even the interest on loans yielded a higher return than handicrafts, capital naturally flowed spontaneously to these places, fleeing from handicrafts.
The two realities of rising money wages and the spontaneous pursuit of profits by capital have led to the fact that the representatives of the bourgeoisie in the Netherlands can only be the commercial bourgeoisie, and the commercial bourgeoisie is the most bottomless. It is even more ridiculous to talk to them about a super-class motherland than to play the harp to a cow, especially since the Netherlands is fashionable and has not yet become a real nation.
These representatives represent the interests of the lower bourgeoisie in the Netherlands, who benefit from the re-export trade of the Nanyang Company in Europe, so they want the Netherlands to reduce import tariffs and crush the country's handicraft industry, so as to obtain higher profits, and also to obtain higher profits in the entrepot trade.
At the same time, they hoped that the Huaxia Republic would open up to external investment, so that the Dutch could make industrial investments in Mincheng and other places, and take advantage of the fact that the silver price revolution in the Huaxia Republic had not yet occurred, and obtain higher profits than domestic handicraft investment. It is not profitable to invest in handicrafts or industry in the country, but it is very profitable to invest in factory handicrafts in Mincheng.
The same silver coin earns the same interest in Amsterdam as it does in Mincheng. But the same silver coin, because of different prices, different grain production, different ways of cultivating the land, can buy different labor.
When the profit of investing in factory handicrafts in Mincheng is higher than the profit of lending in Europe, it is possible that the capital that would have been lent will become the industrial capital of Mincheng, as long as Mincheng remains stable and given a clear policy.
The only thing this class was angry with Chen Jian, or the Nanyang Company and the Huaxia Republic, was that it had a monopoly on the Spanish colonies and participated in some of the slave trade, which made the dream of the Dutch merchants dissatisfied with the Indian company to form the "West" India Company and the dream of the slave traders.
There are still the corpses of several Dutch pirates hanging from the oil port, and it is not easy to be a pirate, and the Netherlands must have a sea power advantage in Europe, but it is impossible to fight against the "Anti-Piracy Convention" signed by China and Spain here.
If they wanted to sever trade between the Chinese Republic and the Netherlands as a threat, and whether the bourgeoisie in the Netherlands would agree or hang the proposer in The Hague, even if it was decided, it was probably possible that the British side would beat the gongs and drums and run to Mincheng to kneel and lick it.
Similarly, in Min County, a large amount of profits from the Moxican Party's party property and some of Chen Jian's monopoly factories were invested overseas, in Wangbei City, and in Dahuang City, which were meaningful but could not enter the world market for the time being. This also led to the fact that the capital in Minjun's desire to move freely into the high-profit factory handicraft industry was not too sufficient, let alone infrastructure, so Chen Jiancai wanted to come to the capital to pull the capital south.
Even if the Dutch did not participate in the investment in the factory handicrafts, but when the profit was higher than the interest, some people in Minjun would consider borrowing money to develop the factory industry, and of course they would also want to borrow money from the Dutch, as long as the surplus value could be higher than the interest, which was an inevitable trend.
That is, whether the Dutch invest in industry or not, it will inevitably lead to a shift of Dutch capital in this direction. There is so much capital, business accounts for a part, monopoly companies account for a part, and Min County has a need for borrowing and has broad prospects.
In Asia, Chen Jian cut off the axis of the small triangle trade for spices, and the directors of the company in Amsterdam had to come up with enough precious metals to ship to Asia to buy goods, rather than bartering these precious metals investment.
As a result, some capital that should have flowed to the rest of the country may be diverted.
For example, northern Sweden, which is in dire need of loans, investments, weapons and equipment, and payment of salaries to mercenaries, has been greatly affected.