December 18, 1656, sunny.△￠,

Even on the Mediterranean coast, the coldest year of the Little Ice Age, there were fine snowflakes floating on the sky of the Republic of Genoa, but this could not stop everyone's interest. On the narrow and narrow pier of Genoa, several merchant ships rented from Portugal were ready to go, and they were waiting for the employers who were bidding farewell to their relatives on the shore and then got off their anchor.

They were naturally Genoese, or to be precise, Genoa's rich class represented by the Doria family. These people either joined the New China Expedition Group more than two years ago, or got some information about New China Island from the words they reposted. Therefore, after repeated planning and discussion for a year and a half to two years, these Italians finally reached an agreement and decided to form a company called "Genoa African Company" (the registered capital is 20 million bank lira) to invest in the New China Island colony in the East Coast Republic of China. The company's main business is plantation businesses such as logging, sugarcane planting, tobacco planting, pepper planting, sisal planting, and other plantation businesses. In addition, they also have the qualifications to sell all specialties such as New China's high-quality leather, tropical dried fruits, essences, sugar sugar, and sugar. Of course, the scope is limited to the Italian and Spanish markets.

Genoa African Company is the third company in the country to invest in the East Coast and its overseas colonies after the Grassland Railway Company and Forest Development Company. The country's third company to jointly invest in the East Coast and its overseas colonies was a loss. Many Genoese business families invested in that year, and obtained good investment returns. Now, the Genoese, with increasingly overcapacity in domestic capital, prefer a new market like the East Coast. Therefore, in more than tens of millions of bank lira (mainly converted by materials and manpower) funds have been poured into the East Coast market for more than ten years. As for whether these investments are worth it, it depends on your opinion. Judging from the attitude of the merchants, it is at least much more cost-effective than investing in Morocco, Algiers and even Spanish American colonies.

According to the agreement with the East Coast government, most of the 20 million lira of Genoa's funds will be used to recruit people, hire ships, purchase tools and food in Europe. The remaining insufficient parts can be purchased from the East Coast or the New China Colony. At this time, the six ships were clamoring on the Genoa dock, four of which were filled with immigrants and livestock, men, women, young and old, and two ships were filled with tools and a small amount of food.

The reason why these ships only had a little food, which didn't look like they had to voyage for a long distance is mainly because the route they took was different this time, that is, these six ships hired by the Genoese would not go south along the west coast of Africa and cross the Cape of Good Hope to enter New China. Their route was very simple. They took a boat to Alexandria, the important Ottoman North African town, and then went ashore to Suez Port on the other side of the Red Sea, and finally found a way to arrive at New China by boat.

There is no doubt that this route is much closer than the traditional route near the coast of Africa (almost half the flight), and the mortality rate of immigration and livestock will be greatly reduced. However, accordingly, this transportation route that almost runs across Egypt is not something that anyone can do. After all, this is a Muslim territory, otherwise Portugal would not have thought of heading south along the African coast to find a new route to the Far East.

However, perhaps other Christians are not easy to pass here, but there are no obstacles here for the Genoese and the East Coast people. Needless to say, the relationship between the East Coast Republic of China and the Ottoman Empire is a traditional friendship accumulated over many years. It has reached the level of mutual ambassadors. The East Coast has come forward to coordinate some stakes to allow these Christians to immigrate and materials to transit the Ottoman Empire to Africa. It is not too difficult.

What's more, the Republic of Genoa itself has a bad relationship with the Ottomans. Just when Sultan Murad IV was reigning, Ottomans and Genoa sent missions to each other to conduct diplomatic activities. As long as they were given some benefits and transit fees, the Ottomans did not mind letting them pass through their North African territory.

So, after a two-pronged approach, whether it was the Ottoman central government, Pasha, Egypt, or the lake water Mamluk that actually controlled Egypt (with the East Coast for many years), they agreed to the request of these immigrants from Italy to the Port of Suez by land after they made their way to the Port of Suez by land after they were approached by Alexander.

At about nine o'clock, the last group of Italians also boarded the ship. The Portuguese captain ordered the anchor to leave the Genoa Pier. Recently, Muslim pirates in North Africa were hit by the British navy and suffered heavy losses. These six ships should be very safe. At this point, the British finally did a good thing!

"Enterprise Zheng. It has been several months since its establishment. This is the first batch of laborers sent there. I hope your government can properly resettle them so that they can settle down as soon as possible. We all know that it is a tropical island, with diseases raging and indigenous people stubborn. I hope they can all start production as soon as possible." Alesandro from the Doria family suddenly said to Zheng Yong beside him, "and this is only the first batch of people. Next month, five of our own ships (offshore galleys) will transport a batch of immigrants to Alexandria and return from Nara. We expect that without a major change in the situation, we will transport at least 800 people to Egypt every month until it ends six months later."

"It's enough for the time being! Mr. Doria." Zheng Yong turned around and smiled, "As long as more than 5,000 immigrants arrived in New China Island safely, the preliminary work can be done. Of course, the loss of personnel in this process may be quite large. Please prepare yourself and your friends. However, once the plantation is completed and successfully connected to our irrigation, transportation and safety systems (these systems have huge investment in the early stage, which is equivalent to providing them for free, which is an initiative to encourage them), then profits can be generated soon, just like many cotton and sugar plantations opened by our government on the west coast. Moreover, the land rent we collected is not high, and we will give you 60 years of tenant rights at one time. This is quite sincere. Believe me, the prospects of Genoa and African companies are very good. If your fundraising activities have not ended, I would have wanted to pay a share."

"Haha, Genoa has never been money. Just look at the surging funds in the government bond and annuity market." Alesandro said in a slightly proud tone: "What we lack is the investment market after all. Now the Dutch excludes us, and the Jewish gangs in Portugal (who replaced the Genoese to lend to the Kingdom of Spain) have even fought with us forever, so that many of our plantations in Peru and New Spain have been forced to sell. It's really hateful! The British are not authentic. They are now trying to get involved in the Mediterranean shipping business, and at the same time they bring ships of American goods to Italy and Austria for sale, which has almost destroyed our marketing system that has been operating for more than a hundred years. It's hateful!"

Zheng Yong was silent after hearing this. Alesandro was not afraid of revealing his shortcomings, but this was not a secret. If you were interested, you would know after collecting it for a few months. However, what did this important member of the Doria family suddenly mean?

"Envoy Zheng, we also opened many tropical plantations in Brazil, Peru and New Spain, and we gained a lot. You also know that my family was the first Genoa commercial family to open a warehouse in the Port of Cadiz to sell American specialties, and it has continued to this day. However, since 1627, our overseas plantations have been in a recession, especially after the damn Portuguese Jews gained power, our plantations in America have been shrinking in a state of shrinking size. Now we have been forced to sell nearly half of them, and it is unknown whether the remaining half can be saved." Alesandro said this and finally got to the point: "Now, what I want to know is whether your government will confiscate or forcibly acquire our plantations in the future, just like those two countries on the Iberian Peninsula?"

"Mr. Doria, I dare not say much about anything else, but during the validity period of the contract signed by your businessman with your government, such as thirty years, fifty years or sixty years, the government will never confiscate or force purchase the plantation opened by the other party at will. Please relax. Our government is not so limited. We respect the validity of the contract and contract. I think that in the matter of Luoqia Textile Factory, a company with an annual dividend of more than one million lira, the government has accumulated enough credibility, right? Alesandro, I thought you would not question this point..."

"I'm sorry, I just want to confirm it, and there is no intention to question it." Alesandro immediately said when he heard this. "Envoy Zheng, I am actually invited by many families in my country to come forward to confirm it with you. That is, if after the Genoa-African company is running stably, we will buy guns, ammunition, food, ships and other profits in your country, and then go to the African coast to conduct adventures or trades or even start a permanent merchant station without directly contacting your country's interests, will this be permitted?"

"This..." Zheng Yong, who didn't expect the other party to ask this question, was speechless when he heard this, so he could only say perfunctorily: "I have to ask about this matter in China before I can give an answer, but this does not affect the operation of Genoa-African companies, right?"
Chapter completed!