The carriage that Conrad Van Boyningen was riding slowly in Hai'an County.

Because of the bumpy road surface, he seemed a little tired, but he didn't complain, because even this so-called second-class national highway, which is relatively not easy to walk on (of course, after long-term overload and insufficient maintenance, it has actually been reduced to third-class national highway), compared with the roads between most European cities at this time, it has exceeded the average level. At least, it is much better than those roads in the countryside of Germany, Italy, and France that are cheating and undisclosed, isn't it?

Several East Coast Internal Affairs police officers who were guarding the carriage looked calm and looked around from time to time. For them, they were not able to often get such a task. This was the first time they came to the Patagonia Taiwan area, so everything looked very fresh.

The group has slowly entered the territory of Hai'an Town. Because it is close to the Chubut River, a series of villages along the river have begun to appear. Perhaps because it is the outer edge, the villages do not look very good, and with the majority of thatched huts, it indicates that the economic situation here is not very good.

Van Boyningen looked out from the carriage and saw large areas of flat fields on the lush river bank, and a group of neatly planned farmhouses stand on the ground. It can be seen that the place to build farmhouses is not a good place. It can be seen from the sand and rocks all over the ground that the land suitable for farmland is limited in the Gobi desert such as Patagonia platform, and it must be used in sluggishly. Therefore, it is extremely unsuitable to build houses on the ground suitable for farmland. Therefore, the location of the village is mostly on saline-alkali land, gravel land or other rotten land.

The construction of these farmhouses can be seen as spontaneous, rather than by a construction team, so they look very rough. Van Boyningen found that these houses are mostly mud walls (mixed with soil, branches and thatch), rather than bricks and stones. These houses are generally very simple, often without window frames or window shafts, and only some old window doors that look very broken in the mud walls. If you have time to walk in and take a look, you will find that there are mostly only some scattered chairs and stools in the house, nailed to serve as broken wooden boards for tables and chairs, floors made of gravel (or floors that are simply paved with nothing), and some very simple and ragged beds for people to wear every day. In short, in the Patagonia area, which is not very wealthy, life for new residents is always very difficult.

Van Boyningen has lived on the prairie of the east coast for a long time and has seen the red brick and green tiles of the east coast houses, usually a living room, a bedroom and a storage room with glass windows. The walls of the houses in many places are also covered with ivy. When they first saw this building representing poverty, they were a little lost for a moment. At the same time, they were relieved: It turns out that there are such poor and simple houses on the east coast, just like the comparison between the wealthy Netherlands and the poor Friesland, Drente, Upper Essel and other places in the United Provinces, there are always many ugly unknown corners under their bright appearance.

"The Patagonia platform is generally pastoral, but the source of the river is generally the ice and snow melting water between the Andes, but the best rivers form an oasis. The temperature is suitable and the water is sufficient. The number of sunshine in the year is far greater than that in other places. The sun is unparalleled, and the fruits, grains and grass are abundant. It is not worse than the agricultural areas of the old continent. It is just that the area is too small, and of course this is also relative." The carriage continued to stagger forward staggeringly.

Then, Van Boyningen was slowly recalling the impression that had been around for a week: "Of course, although the pastoral environment far away from the rivers does not seem so comfortable and is very different from the old continent, it has to be admitted that this is a good place to grazle sheep. Just like the arid inland Spanish region, the best quality, largest quantity and most variety of wool are produced in this place. No wonder the wool industry of the East Coast people has gradually emerged in recent years."

In fact, Van Boyningen's words come from. In the early days, when people from the East Coast had not received the Patagonia platform or used it as a key support as a sheep area, they only raised some sheep in China on a large scale, and produced some woolen cloths with very limited output. The Dayuhe Machine Textile Factory often only takes half a month to digest the full year of wool production. It is conceivable how much it can produce each year. Most of them are self-produced and sold, and a small number are sold to overseas colonies or the old continent. In terms of fame, they are far inferior to all kinds of cotton textiles and silk fabrics produced by people from the East Coast.

However, after getting it and developing in Patagonia Platform for so many years, even though the Executive Committee and the State Council no longer pay attention to it, relying on their own years of accumulation and a little fund and policy support, the wool textile industry in the entire Taiwan region has finally gradually developed steadily in the past few years, and is marked by the large wool textile factory established in Huangyang Port.

This textile company with complex equity and many related stakeholders can now produce more than 20,000 pieces of thick wool every year, and there are two or three thousand other fabrics with fine workmanship. The raw materials may not necessarily use wool, but they are not mainstream. Although more than 20,000 pieces of thick wool cloth per year are not too much compared to the consumption of the international market, it must not be underestimated. After all, it is also a production value of hundreds of thousands of yuan. If used well, it is also a powerful weapon. This is actually the reason why Van Boyningen came to the Patagonia Taiwan area for inspection this time.

Once upon a time, the wool textile industry of the United Province (in fact, not only the United Province, but also the neighboring Spanish Netherlands) was also quite powerful. Every year, the Ottoman imported a large amount of high-quality wool from Spain and Ottoman, and a large amount of semi-finished wool cloth from England, and then processed into various colors of wool velvet that meets market demand, and sold throughout the North Sea and the Baltic Sea region.

At that time, the only colleagues from the Apennine Peninsula were able to compete with the Dutch, except for the wool textile factory owners of the South Netherlands, which belonged to the same lowlands (later, with the United Province forcing Spain to close trade in the Schelder River, the wool textile industry in the South Netherlands plummeted and could no longer be called an opponent). It should be admitted that the Italians also did a very good job in the textile industry, and the Netherlands could never completely defeat them, and basically ended up evenly in the market.

In that golden age of the wool textile industry in United Province, even England, which had the advantages of raw materials and had good textile technology, could not compete with the Dutch, so it had to export a large amount of semi-finished wool fabrics and wool to the Dutch every year, achieving the final glory of the Dutch wool textile industry.

However, the good times did not last long. After the daily growth of the British bourgeois power, the Dutch wool textile industry was challenged strongly. Especially after the First British-Dutch War, the British took advantage of the victory to grab the market, and once pushed the sales of woolen to the highest peak of 150,000 pieces per year, with a value of more than one million pounds, almost becoming England's most important single export commodity. Later, even though sales declined, they remained at a high of 100,000 to 120,000 pieces per year, which was very stable, and many Dutch wool textile factories were squeezed to death.

The Dutch have fought. They have imported some textile machinery (hydraulic and wind) from the east coast, and strictly controlled sales channels, trying every means to block the smuggling of British wool products into their traditional markets, but the results are still not good. Their market continues to disappear bit by bit. The wool produced by the British began to seize the market, continuously providing England with countless profits, supporting the country's ambitions in Europe and even the world.

Originally, if things were only a stop to this, then nothing was wrong. The Dutch lost many commodity markets over the years. Although wool velvet is a commodity that people consume every day, over the years, many Dutch merchants have long recognized the reality. Many of them have even become agents of British wool velvet and helped the British sell textiles openly. However, the British-Dutch war a few years ago made the Dutch war a little vigilant and planned to limit the strength of the British so that they would not always cause trouble for themselves. This wool velvet seems to be a good breakthrough.

What further prompted the Dutch to make up their minds was the serious incident of Louis XIV parade in the South Netherlands last year (1670): After a brief peace time, King Louis of France sent envoys to various countries to engage in activities in an attempt to isolate the United Provinces, and at the same time began a patrol on the land of his newly conquered South Netherlands, of course, "inspection" with soldiers. Some people even said that this was a rehearsal of a simulated advancing to the United Provinces.

Louis's inspection was also a grand festival. From Saint-Germain near Paris to Lille near the South Netherlands, a large number of troops and logistics service personnel were arranged. According to a French official who personally participated in the operation, the luxury and grand performance of the ancient Asian kings when they traveled were far behind Louis's: the advance team responsible for opening roads and building fortifications, the garrison troops who strengthened security and security work in the conquered areas, the entourage serving the royal family, and many other officials and chores, the total number of mobilized people was between 200,000 and 300,000, which was indeed comparable to the ancient Asian kings' recruitment of manpower, and it was unique in Europe.

The Dutch felt a huge threat to this, because the French's goal was already obvious, that is, to conquer the United Provinces. Although the Dutch tried every means to avoid being involved in the war with the French and were making difficult efforts for peace, this does not mean that they did not make the possibility of facing the worst, such as the plan for England.

In the Dutch plan, England, which is now entangled with the French, is indeed a target worthy of serious guard against, because their naval fleet is not small in size and combat effectiveness. If the financial allocation is in place, it will be a strong enemy of the United Provincial Navy. Therefore, it is always an important direction of efforts of the United Provincial Government to win over the British. Of course, it is natural that it is not possible to pull the British over without any means. The Dutch thought carefully and decided to start from an economic perspective, put pressure on England, so that they can understand the situation and stand on the side of the United Provincial Province. This is the most direct reason why Van Boyningen worked tirelessly to specifically inspect the production of East Coast woolen. To put it bluntly, the Dutch planned to temporarily reduce the import of England and replace it with East Coast goods, so that the English felt a pain, otherwise they might not really listen to what the Dutch said.

Of course, what the Dutch didn't know was that it seemed that the effect of hitting the English with wool at this time might not be very good, because the collusion between Britain and France was deeper than anyone imagined. For example, when Louis led his army to inspect the South Netherlands last year, the 26-year-old Princess Anriet, as the plenipotent representative of King Louis XIV of France, went to Canterbury secretly to Calais to meet his brother Charles II, and focused on discussing the alliance between Britain and France. With Princess Anriet's persuasion and the sponsorship of Louis' promised large sums of money, King Charles II of England agreed to Louis XIV of Louis after he knew the reply, and said proudly to his close ministers that this was to put the last rope for the United Provinces that were already on the gallows.

Therefore, the Dutch's plan to hit England and try to pull it into their own camp is probably going to be ruined. But no matter what, this is a good thing for the East Coast people. The East Coast woolen, which could only be sold in domestic and a few overseas markets, can now be sold to Germany and the Baltic through the Dutch channels. How can this not be exciting? Although the Dutch may have recovered its cooperation with the East Coast people for various reasons in two years, at least before they terminate the cooperation, the East Coast people can successfully sell tens of thousands of woolen pieces, right? You know, this is a big business worth more than one million yuan, and the profit is not too young! As for what will happen in the future, let's talk about it, maybe the Dutch people will not terminate the cooperation, which is difficult to say.
Chapter completed!