Captain Kuait stood at the dock warehouse with satisfaction, watching the Chalua workers pull bags of wheat to the dock by horse-drawn track train, and then transport the precious grain onto the deck through pulley booms (there is no steam crane at the port of Luoqia). The purchase price of these grains is only 40 yuan/ton, which is really a big profit! Unfortunately, the West India Company asked itself to transport the grain to Amsterdam for delivery, and his employer also asked himself to transport the grain to Amsterdam first, and then subject to unified allocation by the employer's employer - perhaps one of the twelve largest grain wholesalers in Amsterdam - and centralized transportation to Nantes, France for delivery.

Captain Kuait is actually very puzzled about this method. Why don’t we transport these precious wheat to the West Indies, which are twice as expensive as Europe? You should know that many islands there are either sugarcane, tobacco, or coffee and cocoa. In short, they are all cash crops. The daily grains consumed are all imported from outside, so the prices are extremely high. The profits from selling there are at least twice as high as those of France, and the distance is still close, but it is difficult to understand that employers and West Indies unanimously require the transport of wheat to France for sale.

Maybe the superiors did not start from an economic perspective when considering the problem, or maybe there were political factors? Amsterdam controlled more than 70% of the grain transactions in Europe, and often had to do things that outsiders seemed difficult to understand to maintain their status. Captain Kuait could only comfort himself like this.

In fact, he was right. From the second half of the 16th century to the first half of the 17th century, the prices of grains in Europe experienced drastic fluctuations, more simply, they were soaring. Sometimes prices could be several times different in just one or two years. According to economics, a shortage of materials could cause a 30% increase in prices (and in turn, it is also true). If a certain year is due to a bad harvest (a common thing), war (Sweden blocks the Vistula River where Poland exports grain), and panic (Genoans buy grains all over the world to push up prices), then the price of grains will be on the rocket and start to rise in the rest of the year and even this year. When one or all factors that push up prices do not exist, the price will quickly fall back or even fall to an unreasonable low.

The Dutch controlled 70% of Europe's grain trade, 75% of salt trade, 60% of fishing products trade, and 90% of offshore shipping business. Amsterdam is also a financial center, commodity distribution center, the world's largest old ship market, beef cattle trading market, and dairy trading market. This status brought great benefits to the Dutch. But in many cases, in order to maintain this position, the Dutch had to pay some price.

For example, in order to control the very useful weapon of grain trade, the Dutch had to import a large amount of grain from the Baltic Sea every year. Many times, due to sudden factors (such as wars between Poland, Denmark, Sweden, Moscow and other countries), this kind of grain trade does not make money, but in order to maintain its status as a distribution center, the Netherlands still had to import a large amount of high-priced grain. At this time, they could only make money and subsidies when they went out (carried herring and salt from the Baltic countries), because the grain loaded in the cabin on their return journey was destined to have no profit.

The same goes for the other way around. When the herring trade is unprofitable in a certain year, it is because there is little profit in the outbound journey, so they can only rely on the food purchased on the return journey to make money. Of course, these situations are not very common. Most of the time, both trades are very profitable. More than 50% of the profits of the Netherlands come from the Baltic trade, so you know that the route is rich. Moreover, the Dutch sometimes attacks decisively and controls the situation. For example, a few years ago, they dispatched fleets to timely interfere in the armed conflict between Denmark and Sweden, forcibly ending a war that is about to break out, so as not to affect their trade.

Only by understanding the Dutch's desire for wheat and other commodities can you understand their desire for wheat on the east coast. Of course, the amount of wheat exported on the east coast is limited every year, but only a few thousand tons is not the same level as Poland, which exports more than 100,000 tons per year, but it is better because it has an additional source of grain, which is indeed a good thing for Europe, which is food shortage at this time.

Behind the warehouse of Luoqiagang Port is a large drying yard. The ground is extremely flat, paved with bricks and poured with cement. Some black workers are carrying large shovels to swell the wheat on the ground. These wheat must be dried regularly to avoid germination or spontaneous combustion. This year's summer grain has just been harvested, and nearly 6,000 tons of wheat prepared for export (including more than 2,000 tons of La Plata wheat) have been stored in the warehouse of the wharf, and it must be properly preserved at this time.

"If the price of 6,000 tons of wheat does not fall anymore, it will probably be able to recover more than 200,000 yuan in cash this year." Han Gang walked along the edge of the drying field, then pointed to the front and suddenly said: "Hey, look at the Dutch captain who actually used gold to pay for the purchase of goods. This is why our recent large amount of silver outflows has increased, right?"

The person he mentioned was Captain Kuait, who was using some gold coins such as Florin and Ducat to pay the bill, which is not common in ocean trade. Because no matter which of the above currencies is above, it is basically only popular in the Mediterranean region at this time, such as Ducat in the Eastern Mediterranean (in fact, its minters no longer use this currency very often, and silver Ducat is more common); while Florin is in more sense a accounting currency at this time, similar to the British pound, bank lira, imperial lira, Venetian lira, Dutch guild (also a circulating currency), and there are not many circulation links.

"There are some factors in this regard." Qiang Quansheng said affirmatively, "Our current gold-silver ratio is 1:15, while Amsterdam is between 1:14 and 1:14.5. The difference between this is still quite large. For European merchants, using gold on the East Coast will certainly be more cost-effective. However, silver depreciates every moment, and Europe's bad gold-silver replication system is full of loopholes, and the reaction is often very lagging. Although we are also a gold-silver replication system now, we will sooner or later reform it into a gold-sized standard, so it's nothing to collect more gold now."

In this era, with the increasing production of silver minerals in the Americas year by year, silver, as a world currency, experienced a long-term and huge depreciation. Not to mention the distance, just at the beginning of this century, the Spanish king just ordered the adjustment of the gold-silver ratio from 1:10.01 to 1:10.60. Then forty years later, the gold-silver ratio listed in Amsterdam had risen to around 1:14. The depreciation rate of this silver is amazing. In fact, silver in this era is equivalent to the US dollar in later generations.

Spain produces a huge amount of silver currency required for global economic growth every year in the Americas. This is as bad as the United States' random printing of money for quantitative easing. The consequence is that it caused hyperinflation in Europe and gradually spread to the world with the prevalence of ocean trade. Compared with silver, gold production has always been very limited, basically synchronized with economic growth, and is a relatively ideal local currency. Therefore, it is sooner or later for the East Coast to carry out monetary reforms to implement the gold standard, but of course it is not now.

"According to the plan, the navy's fleets escorted to Europe will return before the end of June. At that time, they will send some ships to escort silver ships to Port Suez, and deliver next year's female slaves with the Ottomans for purchase costs of 400,000 yuan." Qiang Quansheng grabbed a handful of wheat from the ground, looked carefully at the unfulfilled wheat grains, and said: "The money we have worked hard to get is spilled out in this way. Our country has been unable to even make a budget for more than ten years, and the finances are just a piece of shit. Military expenses will continue to rise significantly next year, but the trade volume will decline. If no strong measures are introduced, then fiscal bankruptcy is certain."

Han Gang was speechless. The so-called powerful measures are nothing more than the following: First, conscientiously implement the collection of taxes such as property tax, income tax, and business tax; Second, female slaves, houses and land allocated to farmers are no longer free, and can be provided with installment loans, such as slave mortgages, house mortgages, etc.; Third, plundering outward, that is, the army raised at a high price in the East Coast Flowers should overcome difficulties, attack the wealthy Paraguay area, and then tear off the mask of civilization and plunder all things that can be plundered. The navy that was raised at a higher price cannot be left behind. In addition to sending some main ships to escort fleets to Europe for trade, the remaining warships can go to the coast of Chile and Peru in batches, attack the Spanish villages and towns with weak defenses, cut off the Spanish maritime transportation lines, and then plunder resources to support the war.

These measures have been discussed within the Executive Committee for a long time, and everyone is basically inclined to implement them as soon as possible. I believe that the army will receive combat orders from the military headquarters. They have set up two large corps stations in Santa Fe and Correntes, and have hoarded a large amount of combat supplies and personnel. The next step is that the conditions are relatively mature, whether it is north or westward. Even though the Spaniards sent some troops from Lima to help with the war, the regular colonial army soldiers will not exceed one thousand. Facing the well-trained, well-equipped and experienced Changkaisheng Detachment (including Polish mercenaries), they basically have no chance of winning.

After the main force of the First Navy Fleet returns to the mainland at the end of June, it is likely that with the newly launched battleship of the "East Coast Magic" battleship and other ships, they will carry out tasks such as escort, breaking the diplomatic relations, and attacking ports in batches. Although the total number of ships of the Spaniards is far greater than that of the East Coast, they are scattered around the world. In terms of the number and quality of the maritime power of a place alone, it is far inferior to the East Coast. Therefore, it is necessary to give full play to the advantages of the East Coast and vigorously attack the Spaniards' maritime transportation lines and coastal ports to force them to discuss peace.
Chapter completed!