Mr. Lopez gently got off the carriage with four well-dressed entouragers. Perhaps because he was too tired recently, or because he was old, he staggered when he got off the carriage. Fortunately, he was helped by the quick-eyed entourage, so he barely stood firm.

The driver of Qingdao Street Car Company who saw him get off the bus was also startled. It seemed that he had never encountered such a thing as "strike-up" in his career. Now that he saw that the other party was fine, he breathed a sigh of relief, then roared the bell, carried the remaining five or six passengers in the car, and drove steadily along the track toward the next stop.

"I'm so old." Mr. Lopez, who was already covered in white hair, sighed indifferently and said softly: "I have been working for the families of *******'s consortiums on the East Coast for thirteen years. This is a wonderful thirteen years, and it is also the thirteen years that I feel most moved. I hope that before being inspired by the Lord, I can see some major events that are destined to be remembered by history."

In front of me is an inconspicuous two-story building - well, inconspicuous is just the opposite. The Expo Street is full of these two- or three-story buildings - but the area covers a wide area. There are large grasslands in the low wall in front of the building. The grassland is divided into multiple blocks by many newly planted trees. There are small paths paved with stone slabs, leading to the innermost main building.

After negotiating with several gun-carrying guards, Lopez and others were guided by an internal staff member and successfully entered the gate of the State Administration of Precious Metals. At the end of the stone road, there were several young people who looked like students carefully measuring something. Mr. Lopez guessed that they were all students who were established in March 1659 and were affiliated to the Ministry of Construction, specializing in training construction talents. They came here to prepare for the change of the architectural layout.

"Mr. Lopez, I haven't seen you here for a long time." Hai Dafu, who had just returned from the north for a few days, came to the gate and welcomed the group of La Plata Bank led by Lopez.

"Director Hai, you'd better not expect me to come every day, because that would be fine for you." Lopez looked at Hai Dafu, who was also old, and said in Spanish: "Unless you are ready to fill a ship with gold and silver."

"No one can provide such a boat except Spain." Hai Dafu smiled and brought everyone into his office, and then said: "How about it, after the General Administration of Precious Metals Management moved to Qingdao County, I have an independent office. Is the decoration good?"

"Not really." Lopez shook his head as he looked at the walls full of paintings produced by the Luke Guild in the Netherlands, and said, "Director Hai, I have to say that your taste has not improved much over the years."

"You are still the stubborn old man who is unforgivable." Hai Dafu smiled helplessly, and then called the servant to bring everyone matte tea, green tea and coffee.

"It can be seen that after changing office space, your office funds are relatively sufficient." Hai Dafu looked at the Hejian Matte Tea, Ningbo Green Tea and New Huaxia Coffee in front of him, and then gave up the idea of ​​further teasing Hai Dafu and said directly: "Director Hai, today I have brought you good news. Your request to loan 5,000 gold marks last year has been approved by investors. Sorry, because the bill of exchange needs to be issued from St. George's Trading Company, the cycle is relatively long, but it is finally in place. If you have no problem, then this loan can be issued to the account you opened, and you can freely dispose of it. Please rest assured that this bill of exchange of 10,000 gold marks is jointly guaranteed by our bank, St. George's Bank, St. Paul's Bank, Palermo Bank, Venetian Circulation Bank, and will be connected to the entire Mediterranean, South Germany and even some Ottoman areas."

The gold mark is a accounting currency unit popular in the Western Mediterranean and South Germany. Local merchants talk about business in the trade fairs. A mark is equivalent to 28 ounces of gold in later generations. Because it is linked to gold, it is called the gold mark. The five thousand gold mark, equivalent to about 1.985 million East Coast silver dollars, is also a huge sum of money. Italian bankers and consortiums are willing to lend this money to the East Coast for ten years at an annual interest rate of 6.5%.

The government of the East Coast Republic of China has always had a good financial reputation. After all, the first 10 million bank lira loan in 1648, the East Coast people had returned the principal and interest in full two years ago, showing strong repayment ability. They would not fail to see it. Of course, if it was a Spanish banker who would be stolen at any time, the annual interest rate was 20%-30%. Anyway, those people would stop paying interest at any time, so if the interest rate was low, the risk would be too great.

After the five thousand gold marks were deposited into the special account opened by the Ministry of Finance at the Bank of La Plata, more than half (one million yuan) of which will be paid to the ********** in a few months together with the three million yuan funds prepared by the Ministry of Finance, as the first period of the Southwest Railway repurchase. As for the second period, the two sides have basically reached an agreement. Because of the firm attitude of the East Coast people and the temptation of the New Spanish market, the Italians finally agreed to the East Coast people to offset the 20-year trade concession of the New Spanish market at a price of 3 million yuan; the third and the last final payment will be paid before the end of 1662, in the form of a recharge of goods stipulated by the *******, with a total value of 3 million yuan.

The Southwest Railway repurchase case with a total amount of 10 million yuan came to an end after two years of repeated negotiations between the two parties. If the investment of ********** is included in all costs, the annual income is about 3.2%. For those who have serious overcapacity, it cannot be said to be a loss. After all, it is better than the government annuity with an annual income of only 1.2%. You should know that ********** many people in China don’t know where to invest their money. They dare not lend it to the Spanish King, and do not have enough investment channels. In the end, they can only invest in government bonds or annuities in a frustrated manner. The income cannot even beat the inflation brought by the Spanish "quantitative easing" (referring to the American gold and silver returning to Europe to invest in the market). Therefore, if you can have an annual income of 3.2%, you will just make do with it for large funds. Don’t ask too much.

After borrowing this money, the total amount of debts on the East Coast government will currently exceed 5 million yuan. Fortunately, most of the debts are long-term debts, so there is no need to worry about repaying them in a short time. But even so, the pressure to repay principal and interest every year is still extremely high, especially when there are still a large number of immigrants that need to be resettled, a large number of projects in China need to be built, and the long-term primary school popularization plan requires money, the heavy financial burden can almost drag anyone down.

Haven't you seen that the construction of new settlements - also new villages that also include old settlements - is simply a mess. The number of loan brick houses that used to be one of the benefits has dropped sharply. The villagers had to build shacks on their own and overthrew thatched houses. After they had enough money, they built their own houses. Compared with the past, they were simply one in the sky and one underground. In fact, not only residential buildings are like this. The urban water supply and drainage facilities that once flourished for a while have been popular, but now they are only slowly being carried out in some counties with financial surplus. Other areas that can only be funded by superiors have all such projects have been cut off. This shows the financial tension.

In the face of such a tight finance, the army was still "crazy" to fight. How can this not make the civil servant system, especially the people in the financial voyeurism? Don't you know that when the war begins, only the Tianzun knows? If the Portuguese firmly refuses to surrender, will the war take several years? Then the cost will be too high? You must know that tens of thousands of people will be dispatched this time. Can the military expenditure be reduced by less than 3 million yuan this year? Don't even think about it, there will only be more! I can only hope to find some repairs from the Brazilians, otherwise I will never be able to live this day!

"Thanks to the Doria family and the Bank of La Plata for their kindness." Hai Dafu said with a smile, "In order to give back to the friendship of *******'s friends, is your country interested in buying some New World goods? Such as sugar, wood, tobacco, leather and grain? The prices may be very cheap..."

Lopez pondered a little when he heard this. In fact, he knew very well what Hai Dafu was thinking, and he knew very well that the person in front of him must have been instructed by higher authorities to discuss the matter with him. Isn’t it just the seized items of the war? Who doesn’t know? As the president of the Bank of La Plata, who has extensive relations on the East Coast, Mr. Lopez was very knowledgeable. When the news of the war was about to break out was passed between some middle and lower-level officials, it would be less difficult for him to obtain the news.

In Mr. Lopez's opinion, it is not difficult for the East Coast people to attack Brazil this time. The only difference lies in whether the war is profitable. Mr. Lopez is not very good at military affairs and cannot accurately evaluate the comparison of the power of the two sides. However, based on his understanding of the Portuguese, he mostly thinks that they will not give up Brazil easily, because this tropical colony is becoming more and more important to them now, and its importance has even exceeded the Eastern trade, which adds a lot of difficulty to the East Coast people's victory. Once the war lasts for two or three years, can the East Coast people really gain benefits from this war? Anyway, Mr. Lopez cannot believe that after spending tens of millions of bank lira, the East Coast people can still find money to fill this hole from Brazil. This is too difficult and too difficult in his opinion!

However, the East Coast people now invite him and the Italian capital behind them to buy the spoils they seized - not directly involved in the war - for them, it is not a bad thing. It is conceivable that the spoils are definitely extremely cheap to deal with due to a large backlog of money, so it is not a must to get a piece of the pie. Anyway, most East Coast people also found other foreign merchants to help "sell the stolen goods" (after all, their domestic market is not enough, and the merchants are very average, and they cannot digest a huge amount of spoils. Of course, it is not ruled out that there are also some elements of showing favor). Everyone makes money together. Could it be that they are still afraid that the Portuguese will be dissatisfied? Haha, who cares about their thoughts at that time!

Therefore, after discussing with Hai Dafu, Mr. Lopez agreed in principle to the invitation of the East Coast people, saying that he would notify the old continent as soon as possible and ask them to send ships (both fleets established in recent years) to the East Coast. Before that, he and Siligu would go out to buy some scarce materials, and the price would be discussed at that time, as it would not be too expensive anyway.

It is worth mentioning that the ******* people were pioneers of navigation in history. They began voyages in the 15th and 16th centuries. They were the earliest Europeans to arrive in West Africa and discover the Azores after the Middle Ages. Their history was even earlier than that of the Portuguese. The sugarcane plantations they operated in the Canary Islands at that time were proof of. However, later this country was too successful in business and finance, and the rich profits continued to enter their pockets through various channels. In the 16th century, **** once replaced Antwerp as a European financial center for a period of time (about 20 years) until it was finally replaced by Amsterdam, which shows its success.

However, if business and finance succeed, naturally no one is willing to sail to death. Therefore, the navigation industry of ******* quickly declined, and most of its talents flowed into foreign countries. However, after the East Coast people made their fortune in the New World in the Southern World thirty years ago and had more and more intersections with the ******* people, **** people either actively or passively participated in international trade affairs. It happened that at this time they had just recovered from the Spanish financial earthquake in 1627 and had a strong desire for foreign investment. The rise of the East Coast people was just right. They began to set up plantations in other places and participated in overseas investments.

In recent years, they have begun to order large quantities of ocean-going transport ships in shipyards on the East Coast, Spain and England, and at the same time recruiting sailors to start their own shipping business. It is reported that the total tonnage of merchant ships that can run ocean-going has exceeded 10,000 tons, with a very fast growth rate.

Last year, the East Coast people tentatively proposed to let the ******* people participate more in the Old Continent-East Coast route, and use their advantages to expand the ocean-going merchant fleet to make up for the shortcomings of the East Coast transportation power. Mario Doria had agreed to this matter on behalf of many consortiums and families of ******* people at that time, and placed orders for ten flute-type transport ships in one go at the three major shipyards of the East Coast people, which was extremely profitable. In fact, the **** people's ideas were also very clear. Since the Mediterranean shipping business at the doorstep was monopolized by the Netherlands, it might as well specialize in the operation of this route from the East Coast to the Old Continent. Anyway, its profits will definitely not be small, and its development prospects are also very optimistic. This time, Mr. Lopez promised to send more ships from the local area to the East Coast to pick up goods, which was due to the huge expansion of the scale of his ocean-going fleet over the years.

After the meeting with the La Plata Bank and his group, Hai Dafu, who got his satisfactory answer, followed the instructions of his superiors and went to the famous Tulip Store in the dock area - a store opened by a West Indian company. In addition to importing and exporting goods, he also assumed a liaison function - intending to discuss the digestion of the trophy with the Dutch. The West Indian company in the Netherlands is currently in a financial crisis. I believe that they will never let go of the opportunity to sweep cheap goods, and this is also

It is the purpose of the East Coast people. The Dutch tried their best to tie the ******* people and the Dutch people to their own chariots (it was just a little bonus anyway). If there is any change in the war in the future, the East Coast people can also have friends who can speak in Europe. In addition, if they plan to truce the Portuguese in the future, then these two countries are also excellent mediation candidates. They have rich connections and resources to travel between the two countries, and everything will be much easier. There is no doubt about this.

Compared with the ******* people, the Dutch West India Company was indeed very happy with this kind of "free money". After thinking for a while, their representatives fully agreed to the East Coast people's request. Recife caused a sharp reduction in sugar production due to the war, and Amsterdam's sugar factory was forced to close too much. Once the East Coast people plundered huge amounts of sugar from Brazil (it seemed almost certain in their opinion), then if the West India Company ate and shipped back to Amsterdam, they would definitely make a big profit and reverse the company's extremely poor financial situation.
Chapter completed!