"If the situation is like this, Mr. Bravo, you should make the final decision now." In the conference room on the third floor of the Oriental Hotel, Zhou Shenwo sat aside without saying a word. Mo San acted as the main force of the negotiations: "I think the noble King Philip must have given you the latest decree, right? Because you must have noticed the movements of the British..."

In fact, the British were initially informed by the Dutch of the East Coast, and of course they also secretly informed Spain, which made the Spanish quickly realize that a large fleet left London and headed for the Caribbean Sea, and its targets were nothing more than the Leeward Islands, Jamaica, Spanish Santo Domingo and other places.

As for the source of the news, it is very simple, because this fleet funded by British merchants had raised financing to Dutch bankers through some channels before leaving (weird, right? The two countries had not officially ended the war at that time), and planned to expand the scale of sugarcane plantations in the Caribbean. Although these bankers were not very loyal, some people reported it secretly to the third-level parliament in The Hague. The Dutch learned about the British's plans and general trends, and at a reasonable time it spread to the East Coast and Spain.

Of course, it is hard to say what the Dutch informed the East Coast was, but they informed Spain not of any "righteous act", but had real interests in it. Simply put, although the British mostly went straight to the Spanish overseas colonies, they did indeed threaten the Dutch commercial interests, such as the sucrose trade, which was profitable at this time.

As we all know, due to the Dutch's monopoly on commercial hegemony for many years, the tropical commodities in the New World were mostly controlled by the Dutch, especially the Caribbean islands where sugarcane plantations are the most dense. Whether it is the Spanish islands and land, the British Antilles islands or the small islands occupied by the French, their specialties (sucrose, indigo, tobacco, cotton, Brazilian mahogany) are basically shrouded under the Dutch's commercial hegemony. In fact, local planters are also happy to do so, because the purchase price given by the Dutch is the most reasonable. For example, British planters are willing to trade with Dutch merchants instead of the treacherous and greedy London merchants.

However, with the development of mercantilist thought in other European countries, the Dutch's commercial hegemony began to be eroded over the years. The British-Dutch War broke out in 1652 is the most intense manifestation of this trend of development. In the British-Dutch War, the British captured nearly 2,000 Dutch merchant ships (historical researchers later believed that Britain captured transport ships equivalent to the total tonnage of its country's pre-war ships), greatly expanding its strength. Now it is believed that the total tonnage of ships serving British overseas colonies has reached 80,000 to 100,000 tons. It greatly impacted the Dutch's commercial monopoly hegemony. How can this not make them anxious? Especially when seeing the British plan to grab Spanish territory, the Netherlands would not openly stop it, but a brief disclosure (the Dutch believed that the target of British ships was probably Jamaica Island) was normal for the Spanish. Who told the British merchants to grab their business all over the world?

"We will not let the British succeed. The Wind Fleet is ready to face the English fleet at any time." Baron Raul Bravo obviously understood what Mo San said, but even he felt that what he said was not very credible. He knew very well what the Wind Fleet was, because it was a local fleet that was not even easy to deal with pirates. There were two or three kittens, and their strength was extremely limited, and they could not stop the attack of the fierce British. However, now in front of the East Coast people, this momentum could not be lost.

"That's great, Mr. Baron." Mo San laughed. He didn't worry about this issue too much with Baron Bravo. After looking at Zhou Shenwo, he brought the topic back to the topic: "So, Mr. Bravo, in the morning, you said that your king has granted you full rights and has in principle agreed to the mortgage loan agreement in the area south of 42 degrees in the South Cone. Is that true? Does this mean we can sign the contract now?"

"That's right, but there's a small problem," Bravo said.

Mo San's face suddenly felt a little bad: "The agreement we reached before took countless time, energy and hard work to negotiate. I especially don't want it to be overturned or undergo major changes. I will be disappointed, and the consequences will be borne by your country. You know. Some people in our country have always wanted to use a rough means to solve this problem, but we know it is not suitable, so we suppressed it, but anyone's good temper is limited..."

"You misunderstood. Minister Mo." Baron Raul Bravo immediately said: "In fact, King Philip hopes to add a piece to this agreement that in the next ten years, the ships of the Kingdom of Spain and its colonies will have the right to free navigation in the Strait of Magellan, and can also dock freely at your ports in the Strait of Magellan and Cape Horn, shelter from wind, supply and trade. Your government must not obstruct any of it. In addition, King Philip personally hopes that before his birthday next year, your country can pay an additional 2,000 high-quality leather and a hundred thousand pesos of cash. This money is paid directly to the royal family, not the kingdom. Please do not make any confusion."

"To be honest, Mr. Bravo, you really make me embarrassed." Mo San sighed and said, "The right to free navigation is nothing. I can promise you, but two thousand high-quality leather and 100,000 pesos of cash are no longer a small amount. Let's do this, we need to discuss it. If you are not in a hurry to leave, you can wait for my reply in this hotel. Of course, you don't have to pay for the fees incurred during the period."

After obtaining the consent of Baron Bravo, in the afternoon of the same day, Mo San rushed back to the administrative building for a brief discussion with the executive committee members. Finally, early the next morning, he announced the final decision to the slightly uneasy Baron Bravo. The Executive Committee of the East Coast Republic of China agreed to pay no more than 30,000 pesos of cash (about 25,000 East Coast silver dollars) and 2,500 high-quality seal skins (about 25,000 yuan). This amount is a gift to the Spanish king and is not included in the total loan amount. In addition, this is the final offer, and there will be no further changes. If the Spanish cannot accept it, the negotiations will be terminated.

Of course, the Spanish would not let the negotiations end! Therefore, Baron Raul Bravo accepted the final offer given by Mo San at that time, which made everyone feel relieved. Then he invited more than 20 negotiators from both sides to hold a brief cocktail party to celebrate. After the celebration, Shuangwen began the tense clause drafting process, and at the same time, the final consultation on some details was held. This process was still accompanied by a lot of debate, but it was no longer hindered the overall situation.

On May 10, 1655, just as the Qingdao Autumn Commodity Expo was in full swing, in the Oriental Hotel, Baron Raul Bravo and Mo San signed the land mortgage loan agreement south of 42 degrees in the southern cone respectively on behalf of the Kingdom of Spain and the East Coast Republic of China. At this point, the two-year-old negotiation of "super-large real estate transaction negotiation" was finally settled.

According to the agreement, the East Coast Republic will pay the Kingdom of Spain worth up to RMB 6.3 million in batches in the next three years (see the attached table for details on the category and quantity of materials). In addition, it will pay the Spanish King a total of approximately RMB 50,000 (this payment should be completed before King Philip's birthday in 1656).

Of this loan of 6.3 million yuan, the East Coast people will pay 00,000 yuan in cash, and the rest will be paid for grains, arms, textiles, agricultural tools, medicines, food, metal utensils and other materials. The delivery location is an arbitrary port designated by the Kingdom of Spain. The transportation or loss costs incurred shall be borne by the East Coast, but the loading, unloading, inventory and inspection costs after arrival at the port shall be borne by the Spanish side. The term of the entire loan is ten years, with an annual interest rate of 12.5%. The principal and interest will be paid in one lump sum after ten years of maturity. The Spanish will not be allowed to repay in advance without the consent of the East Coast people.

After the agreement was signed, the East Coast people immediately paid a first batch of cash loan of about 400,000 yuan. The money was paid by the New World Friendly Mutual Aid Bank, and the source was the currencies of various countries stored in the First Prison of the Army in Dongfang County and the Qingdao Commercial Clearing Bank (acquired through naval privateing and foreign trade surplus, usually Dutch guilds, riyals, shillings, liver and other coins, which were about 550,000 yuan).

In addition, there are Ming Guo treasury silver worth 650,000 yuan sent back by Shao Shude from the Far East, as well as Tieling gold mine smelting in recent years (the annual output of Tieling gold mine fluctuates greatly, but generally between 100 and 200 kilograms), foreign trade surplus (the East Coast gave a gold and silver consideration of 1:15, while Europe was generally 1:14.5, to encourage customers to use gold to pay for the goods) and the total income of more than 2.1 tons of reserve gold (theoretically worth 1.05 million yuan, but if it was minted into coins, it would definitely be more than that). These are all combined, which is almost enough to pay part of the cash loan promised to the Spaniards. Of course, this has to be paid one after another within three years. There is no need to be so anxious now. Mo San and Zhou Shenwo have reason to believe that the fiscal revenue of the East Coast Republic government will inevitably be greatly improved in the next three years.
Chapter completed!