New Shun 1730

Now Dashun has the Swedish East India Company by the neck and wants to threaten it on tariffs and trade issues. The directors of the company are actually willing to accept it. They would rather make less money than go bankrupt.

But in terms of attitude, they still have to talk nonsense, saying that Dashun is using official power to hinder trade.

But just after saying this a few days ago, he was sprayed by people from Dashun, asking what kind of free trade is the East India Company with monopoly rights? Only your Congress is allowed to authorize monopoly, but my court is not allowed to order tariffs?

Cambill knew that he was in the wrong and could not argue with these Chinese people on reasonable matters.

At least, on the issue of free trade, Dashun can really accuse any European country of engaging in trade monopoly. No matter whether it is Britain, France, the Netherlands or Spain.

Dashun is not unwilling to open customs, but after opening, your goods cannot be sold in, so what can you do?

Don’t say that Dashun’s tariffs are already quite low now. Even if there are no tariffs, what else can be sold in addition to Dutch spices and French clock machinery?

Dashun did not issue a policy that Chinese people were not allowed to wear cotton cloth to prevent the impact of Indian cotton cloth; nor did it issue a policy that Chinese people were not allowed to wear woolen cloth to prevent European wool textiles from impacting the textile industry.

Free trade depends on one's ability. These Dashun officers influenced by Liu Yu all felt that Sweden had no face to accuse Dashun of affecting trade with government orders?

They could not win the debate, and they dared not dream of threatening with force. If the trade was really cut off, Dashun would not care, but the Swedish East India Company would have to go bankrupt.

A few short and unskilled negotiation words forced Kambir into a situation where he had nothing to say. In the face of absolute strength, negotiation skills are meaningless.

"Captain, if the trade business with China is divested, the East India Company will have very little business left. This condition..."

Mantou immediately said: "I am not a negotiator, nor a plenipotentiary representative. I am just bringing you a message on behalf of someone else. If there are any problems, you can go to the Celestial Empire to discuss them again."

That's what he said, but it would take at least a year and a half to go back and forth, and he had to come up with an acceptable bottom line before going.

Where should this bottom line be drawn?

Knowing clearly that such negotiations were meaningless, Cambill went to Gothenburg overnight.

In Gothenburg, he held an internal secret meeting with the East India Company shareholders waiting there.

When he talked about the conditions offered by Dashun, another initiator, Henrik Xueping, slammed the table and roared.

"This is blackmail! This is taking advantage of the fire! This is shameless, comparable to pirate behavior!"

"The whole of Europe is saying that the Chinese are polite and a country of gentlemen. Gentlemen, it seems that these rumors are wrong. They are simply a group of robbers, swindlers, and blackmailing bandits!"

"Only Montesquieu is right. The Chinese are a group of swindlers and have no credibility! The reason why European countries cannot trade with Japan is because they have hired Chinese as crew members, which makes the Japanese disgusted!"

"Let them eat shit! We will not give them any trade share."

His excited shouting attracted the support of several people, who howled and applauded. Those who were more clear-headed thought, if we can't trade with Japan, what does it have to do with Chinese sailors? In addition to the Netherlands, only China can trade with Japan. Where did this idiotic statement of Montesquieu come from?

After several people's excited carnival, Cambill said calmly: "Gentlemen, such accusations and venting are meaningless. Are you little girls? How can a nation that knows how to do business be a polite nation? The truly polite nations are those who can exchange a glass ball for half a dozen furs on the islands. The Chinese are obviously not like this."

"Now, if we don't agree to the conditions of the Shun Empire, they will raise tariffs. Gentlemen, I think you know very well that our main profit lies in trade with China. Without their raw silk and tea, we have customers but can't make even half a copper coin."

A basin of cold water was poured down to calm people down, and the major shareholders who clamored for Dashun to eat shit fell silent.

This was beyond their understanding.

According to their understanding, Dashun didn't understand what tariffs were, let alone what monopoly was. They just sold their goods stupidly.

Although officials accepted bribes and had to use the ridiculous oriental kneeling ceremony to meet officials, the overall tax rate was still the lowest in the world, and the business environment was the best.

In the eyes of all of them, Dashun's free trade was natural.

It seemed to be like this from the beginning and would always be like this in the future.

When one day they found that Dashun would also use tariffs and trade as weapons, they all found it hard to accept.

They were shocked.

Henrik, who gradually calmed down, said with regret: "I used to work for the Ostend Company and have been to Guangdong and Songjiang. The merchants there only wanted to send the goods to our ship, but never thought about shipping the goods to Europe."

"The root of all this can be heard from the officers of the Free Trade, all because of that son of a bitch Liu Yu. His policies bewitched the emperor of the empire and made their emperor and merchants greedy. This is no longer the country of etiquette."

After scolding Liu Yu, he said: "And the prisoners of war they sent back this time, those old guys, should have died of old age in the hands of the Mongols instead of coming back. They came back and brought the greed of the Orientals."

"Those captured idiots should have dug potatoes in Siberia! Why did they come back?"

The scolding was not enough, especially when he thought of his experience in the Ostend Company. Guangdong at that time was really a paradise.

But now, those Chinese are waving the big stick of tariffs, trying to take away part of his interests. Henrik is furious.

However...

"It's meaningless."

Cambier calmly pointed out that Henrik's words were nonsense.

"Insults can't solve the problem. God won't punish them. We have to make one thing clear now. Trade with China cannot be stopped, and they can't be allowed to raise tariffs."

"Gentlemen, if they raise tariffs, we will have no advantage over the Dutch and British East India Companies. Our advantage is that we can smuggle. The price of smuggling is too high. Why do they take the risk of buying smuggled goods? Why not just auction the tea brought back by the Dutch or British?"

This most realistic question was finally put bluntly in front of this group of incompetent and angry shareholders: If Dashun raised tariffs, why didn't customers buy "legal" Dutch or British goods?

After the shareholders calmed down, Cambile talked about his future prospects.

"Gentlemen, although letting Chinese merchants intervene will harm our interests, we must be clear that if we do not allow it, we will have no benefits."

"Let me do the math for you. A ship going to China requires about 900,000 Spanish silver dollars in payment. The cycle is one and a half years. We now send about six ships on average every year. This is about 6 million silver dollars."

"If they go to China and find that no one dares to sell them goods. Not counting the loss, how much is the interest on this 6 million silver dollars in one and a half years? As long as they make a little obstruction and miss the monsoon, we will lose about 1 million silver dollars in interest. And you all know that the company still owes the bankers a sum of money. Although we don't have to repay the principal for the time being, we have to pay interest."

"This is still under the premise that the Chinese court only uses administrative means to hinder. And if If they really implement the policy, we will go bankrupt. "

"Gentlemen, gentlemen! I think you should know that the Eastern Empire is an absolute monarchy. They don't even have nobles. Even the dukes are just officials under the emperor. They will execute the emperor's orders in an attitude that we can't understand, without any discounts. "

"Believe me, I went to China three times before 31 years ago, and once again in 31 years. I know too well what kind of efficient bureaucratic country it is. The words of their emperor are the law. "

Some shareholders have never been to China, especially some shareholders who have witnessed with their own eyes how the Swedish Parliament forced the Queen to sign an order to abandon the absolute monarchy; they have not seen the perfect bureaucratic system under the real imperial examination system, a bureaucratic machine that completely and thoroughly executes the emperor's orders.

But Kambir has seen it, and Henrik, who worked at the Ostend Company, has also seen it.

Henrik, who was very happy to insult just now, was silent. He knew that what Kambir said was true.

A governor of Fujian can prevent Swedish merchant ships from getting a load of Wuyi tea.

As they have no ability to smuggle, the Dutch and the British will report to the Dashun officials immediately that they are engaging in illegal smuggling activities, thus giving the Dutch and the British a golden opportunity to squeeze them out. The last time they got rid of the same type of competitor, the Ostend Company, they took advantage of the "State Rescript" of Austria to change the inheritance law and used support for women to ascend the throne in exchange for abolishing the Ostend Company. If Dashun really does not allow trade with Sweden this time, and there are Dashun merchants smuggling, the Dutch and the British will be happy to set off fireworks.

The "Pingshan Changchen Incident" of the Dutch and the British in Japan that year was enough to prove that they were bold enough, smart enough, and willing to use the officials of the Eastern Empire to achieve their goal of squeezing out competitors.

For Dashun producers, Sweden is just an optional choice. Portugal, Spain, the Netherlands, Britain, France... can all bear their cargo gaps.

Dashun may be the only major country in the world at this time that dares to "give up some exports" and will not have even a ripple effect on the empire.

After explaining the powerful bureaucracy of the Eastern Empire to these shareholders, Kambir talked about his prospects.

"I think that we will not lose too much profit by cooperating with Chinese merchants. First of all, we are short of silver coins, and the purchase volume is limited each time. Moreover, we have been there for a short time, and we cannot compete with the Dutch and the British in terms of supply. After the Ostend Tea Incident, Britain and the Netherlands sent professional trade personnel to China, and always kept a large amount of cash to ensure that similar competition would not occur."

"If Chinese merchants can participate in the shares, gentlemen, just like this time we got the porcelain order, we can get better goods than the Netherlands, Britain, Portugal and Spain, and the supply is absolutely guaranteed."

"Our customers need more tea, more silk and cotton mixed cloth, and more porcelain. We want to expand trade, and we must build new ships. The Gothenburg under construction has consumed a lot of our profits this year. If Chinese merchants can ship and ship goods, we can talk to them on the premise of guaranteeing our original share capital."

"We can set a quota. But we must not let them cut off trade."

"In fact, gentlemen, the company's greatest guarantee to Congress is only one thing: that is, these goods will not be sold in Sweden, but smuggled to third countries. As long as the bottom line of this guarantee is not crossed, Congress can accept our conditions - patriots will consider the antagonistic relationship between China and Russia; shareholders will consider whether the East India Company will go bankrupt."

"And this is exactly the direction in which we can incite Congress to attack opponents: whoever does not allow cooperation with Chinese merchants is unpatriotic."