Cartagena is an "old city".▲∴▲∴,

This port city, built in the early 16th century, has a history of more than 120 years. It is proof that it is surrounded by water on three sides because of its outstanding geographical location. It has become one of the core ports of the Western Land, a team of treasure fleets that dock here every year for trade.

Cartagena is affiliated to the Santo Domingo Trial Court District. Today, when the Spanish Caribbean has gradually declined, more and more Caribbean Spaniards have begun to immigrate to Caracas, Cartagena and other places, which has promoted the prosperity of the Spanish land economy. Especially after the rise of the plantation economy, the Spanish are increasingly fond of establishing plantations in relatively safe land coastal areas. Among them, the Western land part of the Lima, Bogota Trial Court District and the Santo Domingo Trial Court District are the biggest beneficiaries.

The city is very different from the irregular Spanish towns in the old continent. It is rectangular in its entirety, with a wide, solid administrative and religious center as its core. It is surrounded by a large number of unplanned and chaotic houses, crowded, fortified marinas, and even more messy rural huts. Obviously, compared with the local local rules and neat chessboard-like towns in the East Coast, the cities under the Spanish have reason to review their poor planning.

The customs and shopping stations opened by the East Coast people are all located in the messy and crowded dock area. Originally, they wanted to build wide squares in the central square, which had a strong Catholic atmosphere, so as to facilitate religious activities to buy a piece of land to build a shop, but unfortunately they were flatly rejected by the Spanish town chief because it was said that local priests strongly opposed it.

On March 3, 1658, the "Swordfish" guard gunboat flying the East Coast flag sailed into the Port of Cartagena under the complex gaze of the Spanish, and then anchored near the dock in the bay. At this time, some Spanish merchants who heard the news rushed over and loaded with a large number of agricultural tools, printed cloths, dyed leather goods, medicines and silk and other east coast goods. It was very popular among the residents of Western America, so it attracted many local agents to come and buy them.

The way these Spanish people paid for the goods was obviously not gold and silver, or only part of it was gold and silver. Instead, they were special products such as cocoa, coffee, tobacco, pearls, sugar, etc., whether they were shipped back to China or resold to Europe. They all made a lot of money, and they made money twice by buying and selling. The profits of Ocean Trade were indeed quite rich. No wonder Nan Railway Company has developed so quickly over the years, and then built a bitter and cold place like Nanci. It seems that it is still a lot of money.

However, both Air Canada's supervisor Zhou and Anda Fifteen noticed that most of the merchants who came to negotiate procurement were small and medium-sized merchants, because their purchase volume was not very large and they were petty about prices. They were also in a hurry, for fear that more people would notice it after staying for a long time. This made the east coast feel a little helpless. The city is still hostile to the east coast. It seems that it will take a lot of energy to coordinate the interests of all parties in the future, especially the Hidalgos who suffered losses due to the smuggling trade. Otherwise, the East Coast people will probably be unable to move in the city in the future. As for the other major force in the city, besides the aristocrats, namely religious people, the East Coast people think it is better to give up and win over them, which is not realistic.

"The Hidalgos in the city have a relatively mixed industry, and the entire city and surrounding areas are mostly dominated by mixed economies. Many of the nobles' ancestors were honored to become nobles for the first time in the Americas. They were good at converting investments between business, agriculture and mining when their inherent economic activities were impacted. In general, these native white Hidalgos were much more enlightened than the Spanish aristocrats on the old continent. Therefore, I think our situation is not bad enough." An official from the State Intelligence Administration who came to do liaison work in the early stage to ask.

Manager Zhou reported, "So, although our arrival has greatly impacted the local inherent interest structure and caused great losses to many nobles who had fixed smuggling trade with the Old World, we can also give them a certain degree of commodity agency rights, which can somewhat alleviate their resentment. Even if some people come too late to the cake have been divided up, we can fully persuade them to use the capital originally invested in business to agriculture, and to sell the output of the plantation to the East Coast people to obtain enough profits."

"This is a method that can be tried. According to research by Nantec Corporation in Peru, even the Spanish business families in the New World rarely lasted for more than two generations. Most successful merchants often prefer the work of the church, army and government. The merchant class has never formed a stable solidified class in Western America. Therefore, many of the merchants we face at this time are likely to have risen in this generation, which is much more convenient than dealing with old families. I have to say that we are still very lucky." Manager Zhou obviously has done a certain degree of research on this, and of course this is mostly due to the ten-year Peruvian smuggling trade research by Nantec Corporation.

"In addition, although this city has a population of only a few thousand, it is a trading center for many villages and towns around it. Every month, a large number of carriages or mules and horses from inland villages enter and exit the city, transporting various goods, and buying all kinds of goods. Therefore, it is best for us to set up customs here. Well, one thing to note is that every summer and autumn, a team of treasure ships will come to the Port of Cartagena, which will generally transport a large number of old mainland goods and conduct a one-month trade gathering.

.I hope that our usual dumping of goods should be properly controlled so as not to greatly impact the sales of goods transported by the treasure fleet. We must know that all the owners behind these goods have great energy in the old continent. We should not provoke them for the time being. Of course, I think this does not seem to be a problem at least in the past ten years, because more than 80 of the goods on the market in Cartagena are smuggled goods, leaving us with a vast market space." The intelligence official added.

"Very good, young man, your recent work is excellent. I am very satisfied. I hope you can continue to maintain it." Director Zhou first praised the young intelligence officer, and then said to everyone in an encouraging tone: "According to the company's articles of association, in 1658, we will pay the local finance ministry a fixed tariff income of up to 200,000 yuan, and in the future, we will even increase by 10,000 yuan year by year until the payment is over twenty years. The Spanish borrowing bonds in the East Coast market are generally 20 years, which is a considerable burden for our company in the early stage. Therefore, we must open the situation as soon as possible.

Spread more goods through the window of Cartagena to the vast inland villages and towns, and try to purchase as many specialties as possible to transport them back to the local area. If it is really not possible, these specialties can also be resold to the Dutch and let them find ways to digest them. This is the only way to accumulate profits quickly. Of course, the superiors have this requirement for every commercial station in the port. Well, I won’t say much nonsense. I hope everyone will devote their energy to their work from now on. The first step is to start with counting the several ships parked on the dock. Major Anda, we may need your assistance at this time.”

"No problem, I know what to do." Anda Nobuyu nodded, then waved his hand to call Minamijiro, asking him to call several of his officers over and prepare to give orders to them.

Although Manager Zhou said something just now, Anda Fifteen understood what he meant: The Kingdom of Spain restricted its colonies from trading with the outside world, but why did there be a few ships openly parked in the port this time? And there were no signs hanging? What is this damn it?

Of course, since the Spanish King Philip approved the opening of a port, theories have not yet arrived on the American continent, the East Coast people have no right to control foreign smuggling ships at this time, but this is considered a bird in the eyes of the domineering East Coast people. For example, neither Superintendent Zhou nor Anda Fifteen thought this was a problem. In their opinion, since the Spanish Peru governor was eager to urge them to come to the Caribbean for defense, it naturally means that they can act in advance, such as helping the Spanish to make a mess of customs at all, and Cartagena did not even have police or cemetery systems at this time, let alone high-level functional units such as customs were managed.

Anda Fifteen summoned the officers and soldiers at a very fast speed. More than a hundred fully armed soldiers quickly gathered near the dock, which caused a small commotion among the Spaniards. However, Anda Fifteen ignored them, but ordered the officers of each company to take a small traffic boat to take a few foreign ships anchored in the harbor to see the draft of these ships. It was obvious that they were loading a large amount of cargo. This was definitely a smuggling, and it was so open that they really thought that others were dead. Do you have to detain them?

The sailors on the smuggling boat soon discovered the movements of the East Coast people, in fact, they noticed when the East Coast people first entered the port. After seeing a large number of men holding muskets leaning over in a small boat with malicious intentions, the people immediately panicked and shouted. While they were rushing to raise the sails, they shouted loudly. Soon, the sound of messy footsteps on the deck sounded, and a large group of messy sailors crawled out of the cabin with weapons, which was the rhythm of openly resisting arrest.
Chapter completed!