Chapter 64 The role of Hong Kong

Gonzalez looked at him lying on the bed, drunken and snoring loudly, and couldn't help but frown. A strong smell of alcohol emanated from the room, which made people unable to fall asleep.

"If you don't have enough alcohol, you have to drink too much." Gonzalez wiped his beard and drank a lot. In this ghost place in Batavia, there is little wine and bad price, and the price is very expensive. The most popular drink is that the Dutch often drinks beer. This thing is not liked by Southern Europeans who are used to wine, and it is called "piss".

At the reception, the supply of rum wine was provided, and several other wine lovers such as Xue Ziliang made their own fruit wine in the demonstration farm. Although the grapes for winemaking cannot be grown here in Linggao, the farm and communes promoted the planting of "Ten-side" and the courtyard economy, they still planted a lot of fruits. In addition to supplying these fruits to the army, students and workers, most of the remaining ones were used to make wine. When Xue Ziliang was in the United States, brewing wine by himself was a hobby, and he also had small fermentation equipment at home, and was very familiar with the process.

This kind of fruit wine produced by the winemaking workshop is of a wide variety of types and small quantity, basically used by veterans and banquets, and a few are sold to the high class of naturalized people as special supplies.

Of course, Gonzalez did not give up this rare opportunity to drink: the Spanish soldiers were no less than anyone in drinking. He killed several bottles of cider, jackfruit and wild fruit wine one after another, and then drank a lot of rum in one breath, and still kept talking to Miss Mendoza as a translator - he had not seen "the woman from the motherland" for a long time. Although this charming woman spoke a lot of Spanish, he could not understand words and had an accent. Gonzalez guessed that she should be from the American colony and was born in Spanish. He immediately showed great enthusiasm. Although it was obvious that the other party also had a good impression of him, he would always avoid him when he got too close. This made Gonzalez very puzzled.

Although Miss Mendoza was close to seeing a European who also spoke Spanish, the stench emitting a Spanish soldier made him sick. Gonzalez was actually better than most of his contemporaries in terms of hygiene habits - serving in a place like Batavia, it was difficult to survive without taking a bath. After reaching Linggao, he was forced to take a bath after staying in the Sailors' Hotel.

After the cocktail party, he and Trini returned to the room they stayed at - although the store had single rooms available, Van der Lantraron was afraid that it would cost too much to spend the company to get public funds, so he insisted on staying in a three-person room. According to the standards of the 17th Century Hotel, these three-person rooms were luxurious and comfortable. However, with such a drunk guy in the room, the room became a little unbearable. Italians could not stand the Dutch smell.

"How about we go outside and have another drink?" Gonzalez asked in Italian. As a soldier from the Spanish king, he once served in Italy, and many of them were Italians.

"Of course. I'm very happy." Trinid's task was to draw, and walking more and looking more is his task. He thought about it, "But we don't have a translation."

"There is no need for translation." Gonzalez took out a riyal, "This is the translation."

"What if we get lost?"

"They will get us back." Gonzalez said indifferently, "Don't you just want to find a woman?"

"The Dutch seem to be happier with the outcome of this negotiation than we did." After the cocktail party, a group of people from the Ministry of Colonial and Trade gathered in the conference room of the office building. Hong Shuiyin, a business representative in Hong Kong, was temporarily transferred from Hong Kong to participate in the negotiations. He was transferred back because the veterans were the best in Chinese and German, so Xu Tianqi had already gone to the mainland, and he was the only one who could communicate fluently in German.

"Of course. The Dutch made a frustrated Zheng Zhilong. How could he be unhappy after finally meeting someone who is honest like us?" Skeard was very happy. The trade agreement signed with the Dutch East India Company a few days ago was approved in the Senate after a third reading. Although everyone was not very interested in the Dutch, this agreement was really beneficial to the Lingao regime.

"I still propose to include Hong Kong as a re-export port." Hong Shuiyin once again proposed his idea.

The large amount of Ming commodities needed by the Dutch were currently mainly carried out through the Zhangzhou Bay trade, which means that the goods were mainly shipped from Fujian, and this trade channel was currently controlled by Zheng Zhilong. It was not that the Dutch were unwilling to come to Guangdong to trade, and Guangdong's trade was mainly monopolized by the Portuguese. In fact, in terms of the convenience of supply, Guangdong's supply location as an export product is better than Fujian.

Mainland goods sold to the Dutch, including raw silk, silk, groceries, medicinal materials, etc., can actually be traded directly with the Netherlands at the Hong Kong station to reduce the transfer and storage links in the middle, so as to liberate the transportation capacity between the mainland and Linggao that was originally used to load mainland goods traded with the Netherlands. The spices that the Dutch tried hard to sell can also be traded in Hong Kong, purchased from the Hong Kong station and sold directly locally or handed over to the Guangzhou station to earn the difference

Through trade with the Dutch, Hong Kong became a re-export port just like the old time and space, expanding Hong Kong's influence as a trading port in the mainland, and building momentum for the imperial control of Chinese merchants to Batavia trade routes.

"In addition, we can also use the Dutch's empty cabin. We currently specify half of the cargo volume. Suppose that half of the Dutch's ships transported rice and half of the spices. After their ships unloaded rice in Linggao, they have to go to Hong Kong to unload spices. We can use the half of the unloaded cabins and hand over the cargo we need to transport to Hong Kong and Guangzhou to Dutch ships for transportation."

This proposal made Sikai very moved - you should know that the biggest thing about the Ministry of Colonial and Trade is the problem of insufficient transportation capacity. Now it can not only save transportation capacity, but also use the Dutch's transportation capacity. Hong Shuiyin's suggestions are attractive enough.

Sikede nodded repeatedly: "Well, this idea is very good."

"In fact, Sanya is not in a hurry to open up." Hong Shuiyin said, "Except for slaves, most of the goods transported by the Dutch are indivisible locally and have to be transported back to Lingao or Hong Kong by ourselves. The goods sold to the Dutch in Sanya are mainly transported by Lingao. This is equivalent to having more tricks and more."

Sikede was moved by his words. It was the plan of building Sanya into an international trade port. Now that international merchants have come, it seems inappropriate to reject it. He thought about it and decided that Sanya's plan is "long-term" anyway, and there is no big problem to focus on Hong Kong now.

"However, Hong Kong is still under construction. Can you really open it up?"

"The Dutch will not send ships immediately. I think it will be possible to send the first batch of ships in the second half of the year. By the second half of the year, our basic construction has been completed, and the work at the Guangzhou station has also been restored. The Dutch have a maximum of 2 to 3 ships, which can be handled."

Sikede nodded. He thought about it. In this way, he had to discuss with the customs chief Ji An to build a new customs in Hong Kong. Customs clearance is directly locally to simplify procedures.

"That way you can achieve great things," he said.

"Yes, otherwise what will I do as a business representative in Hong Kong?" Hong Shuiyin said without any concealment. "The development potential of Hong Kong is still a little limited. But it is still good as an external port in Guangzhou."

Therefore, in the final draft of the trade agreement, Hong Kong was added to the open trade ports.

However, among the open ports, consuls are only allowed to be dispatched in Lingao. And who to send to Batavia to serve as consul has become a new question.

Hong Shuiyin firmly refused this opportunity - although he is the best person in Chinese and German in the current veteran, he didn't want to go, so he suggested that people who know Spanish or other languages ​​could also go to Batavia to do this job. Without seeing the Dutch entourage, there were Spanish and Italians.

The Senate was hesitant to send a senator to the Dutch territory to be a consul. Because there were few senators, each senator had very valuable knowledge and skills, and it was hard to explain what benefits would be for a senator to the territory of potential enemies thousands of kilometers away. The sentencing veterans should not be low. He must know a foreign language that can communicate with the Dutch people, have considerable negotiating ability and good health. In case of any problem, the Senate would be completely out of reach for him.

The one who is most interested in sending consuls is the Foreign Intelligence Agency - this is an opportunity to openly send intelligence personnel. However, the risk is greater than being sent to the Ming Dynasty, and Batavia is not the main target at present, so the Intelligence Agency has not shown much enthusiasm for this.

But it seems like a loss not to send consuls. After all, the other party can send consuls in Lingao, and sending consuls can also spread the influence of Australians to Chinese in Batavia. After some discussion, Wang Yan of the Foreign Intelligence Agency proposed a compromise plan. Send consuls to Taiwan's senior officials.

Compared to Batavia, Taiwan's strategy has been happening in recent years. An intelligence officer is much more useful in the senior staff than in Batavia, and if something happens, the distance from Hainan to Taiwan is much closer.

"But that doesn't make sense." At the meeting, Scaid raised questions. "Our trade agreement was signed with the Batavian authorities. Unless they transfer the jurisdiction of trade with us to the Council of the High Commissioners, it will be difficult for us to propose to send a consulate to an irrelevant port to stay."
Chapter completed!