Wind Rises in North America 1625

Chapter 325 "The Art of Lightness and Heavyness"

Alonso Pablo Garça stood on the deck of the "Rosary Our Lady," the sea breeze ruffling his dark brown curly hair, the silver sword at his waist gently tapping against his thigh as the ship rocked.

He squinted, gazing at the gradually clearer outline of the island in the distance. The black rock walls gleamed coldly in the sunlight, like a natural barrier guarding the island's unknown secrets.

The salty sea breeze, carrying its distinctive fishy smell, rushed towards him. He took a deep breath, the lingering aroma of last night's tequila still filling his nostrils.

He turned to his companion, a slight smile unconsciously playing on his lips: "Juan, can you smell it?... That's the scent of wealth!"

Juan Hernandez de la Torre grinned, revealing a few yellow teeth: "Yes, I can smell those lovely silver coins, Alonso. God help us, this time we'll fill the 'Our Lady of the Rose' to the brim, leaving not a single gap!"

"Haha..." Alonso burst into laughter upon hearing this, "If we want to fill the Rose Our Lady, we'll have to see if the Xinhua warehouse has enough goods!"

“Alonso, don’t worry, the warehouses of the new Chinese are definitely full,” Juan said with great certainty. “They have everything we need. Yes, I can guarantee that the island is well stocked with goods, including not only expensive Ming Dynasty products, but also a large quantity of their own manufactured goods.”

"Oh, it's hard to imagine that the wool, ironware, hardware, glass, paper, soap, candles and other everyday goods produced by Xinhua are so cheap. I think the dozens of wool workshops in Mexico City can close down, because their products are simply not price-competitive with Xinhua wool."

“Yes, the prices of the everyday goods provided by Xinhua are indeed astonishingly low,” Alonso sighed. “Not only woolen fabrics, but even the most common items like candles and paper, Mexican workshops have no cost advantage whatsoever.”

He recalled that during the last transaction, the candles produced by Xinhua were priced at only half the price of those locally produced candles, yet their quality was superior.

"I really don't know how the New Chinese managed to do it. Sometimes I even suspect that the New Chinese are selling at a loss in order to defeat or destroy the handicraft industry in our region of Mexico."

“How could that be!” Juan shook his head and said dismissively, “In this world, all businessmen consider profits. No one is stupid enough to lose money to gain publicity, and no one would destroy the manufacturing industry of a region in such a self-destructive way.”

"I believe that the new Chinese must have mastered some unknown method to save costs and reduce consumption to the greatest extent possible in the production and manufacturing process, so that their products can have a great price advantage."

"Two years ago, I accompanied the Speaker to Xinhua to bring back those poor captured soldiers. I saw that their factories used water-powered windmills on a large scale and manufactured many ingenious and efficient auxiliary production tools."

"I suspect this may be one of the main reasons why they were able to reduce costs during the production process."

“Oh, really?” Alonso asked in surprise, “If introducing water-powered windmills can reduce production costs accordingly, why don’t the factories and workshops in Mexico do the same?”

“Uh…” Juan was speechless for a moment, scratched his head, and said uncertainly, “Maybe there is no water source near those factories and workshops? Of course, it is also possible that the cost of building a water turbine is too high, which is beyond the financial capacity of those factory owners who only have a dozen or so employees.”

"Then the factories and workshops of the new Chinese didn't have the same problems?" Alonso pressed, his eyes filled with doubt.

“It is said that the factories and workshops of the new Chinese are all invested in by their government, and the government plays a leading role in their operation,” Juan said. “Therefore, their factories and workshops may not have the problem of insufficient investment, and can spare no effort to manufacture a large number of water turbines, thereby helping their workers to produce goods more efficiently and with less effort.”

"Moreover, I also learned from those captured Spanish officers that the factories of the new Chinese were very large. Whether it was their ironworks or their woolen workshops, there were at least dozens or hundreds of workers gathered in huge factory buildings. Hmm, the scene was probably similar to that of working in the Zacatecas mines."

"Oh, right, there are also many mines in Xinhua. Those poor captured soldiers were forced to do hard labor there, day and night, torturing them to the point of being almost unrecognizable. More than ten of them were even permanently buried under the mines..."

“Juan…” Alonso interrupted him, his expression slightly grave, and pointed ahead, “Look to our right front, there are two ships.”

"..." Juan leaned forward, resting his head on the gunwale, and looked in the direction the man was pointing. "They're probably... merchant ships with the same purpose as us. Long before us, it seems the Chinese in Xinjiang were already involved in... smuggling with the Alamo family in Peru. Could these two ships be theirs?"

“No, Juan,” Alonso shook his head and said, “Look at the shape of those two ships. They look a bit like Dutch Frut ships, but their sterncastles are a bit higher, quite different from our Spanish merchant ships. More importantly, they have…gun ports on both sides of their hulls.”

"...Pirate ship!" Juan was shocked. "They robbed that Xinhua Island?"

"No, they may also be involved in smuggling activities with the new Chinese."

The two ships had clearly seen the "Our Lady of the Roses" as well, but instead of heading straight for it, they adjusted their course and veered slightly south, seemingly to avoid them.

It should be noted that although the "Our Lady of the Rosary" was a traditional Spanish galleon with a displacement of 350 tons, all its cannons were removed in order to maximize cargo loading, making it essentially a merchant ship without any armament.

The opposing side not only outnumbered their own forces, but also had cannons clearly deployed on their gun decks. Yet, as if they didn't want to cause trouble, they turned away as soon as they saw their "Rose Mary".

Therefore, the only explanation is that these two suspected pirate ships were also heading to Xinhua Island for smuggling.

At this point, their ship must have been fully loaded with cargo—well, you could tell from the waterline that it was fully loaded—so to avoid any complications, they disregarded the "Our Lady of the Roses" and sailed away.

"Xinhua's customer base is very broad!"

As the distant sails gradually shrank into two black dots, Alonso and Juan exchanged a glance, a hint of surprise flashing in their eyes.
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"Director Lin, why did we only grant those two English merchants a three-year exclusive trading agency right?"

Inside the Black Shark Island government building, the afternoon sun shone through the stained glass, casting dappled shadows on the blue brick floor.

Lou Wenhe, senior executive of the Americas Trading Company and head of Black Shark Island, hesitated for a long time, holding a folding fan, before finally unable to resist asking the question on his mind to the middle-aged man who was lying in a chair with his eyes closed. "Then do you think we should grant those two English businessmen an exclusive agency for a few years?" Lin Afu, head of the Channel Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, still had his eyes closed, enjoying the warmth and leisure of the afternoon sun.

“Uh…” Lou Wenhe paused for a moment, then said in a low voice, “In my opinion, in order to attract more European barbarians to trade on Black Shark Island, we should actually… we shouldn’t grant any merchant exclusive trading rights. That would create an unnecessary barrier between us and the European barbarians, and we might be at their mercy in the future.”

"Little Lou, let me ask you something." Lin Afu opened his eyes, looking at him with a half-smile, "Do you think that with the current strength of Xinhua, we are capable of sending merchant ships to Europe?"

"...No." Lou Wenhe opened his mouth, then honestly admitted, "Most of our current maritime transport capacity is devoted to immigration operations. At present, we simply cannot spare any ships to go to Europe for trade."

“Here you go!” Lin Afu picked up a palm-leaf fan from beside the chair and gently fanned himself. “Since Xinhua is currently unable to transport its goods to Europe for sale and profit, why not use the power of the barbarians to indirectly extend our trade channels to Europe?”

"You are an old man who has received international trade training, so you should know how the overseas sales channels of Ming Dynasty goods, which are so popular with foreigners, are structured."

"After obtaining goods from the Ming Dynasty, the Dutch in Batavia and the Portuguese in Oyster Bay sailed across the Indian Ocean, crossed the Cape of Good Hope, and traveled north along the African continent, covering tens of thousands of miles before returning to their homeland in Europe. The entire voyage took as little as 5-6 months (with favorable winds and short stops along the way), and as long as 8-10 months, or even up to a year."

"On this side, with the Dutch becoming increasingly powerful, they have basically monopolized the trade and hold the largest share of the market. The Portuguese and English are left with only scraps and are living a miserable life."

"On the other side, there was the Spanish. The trans-Pacific trade route they had previously established, taking advantage of Luzon's unique geographical location, acquired a considerable amount of goods from the Ming Dynasty. Apart from some being consumed in the Americas, a significant portion was transported back to their homeland and the European continent with the Spanish treasure fleet for sale and profit."

"However, as our new China gradually gained momentum, it transported a large number of Ming Dynasty goods to the Americas every year through immigrant fleets, squeezing out the Spanish to the point that they could hardly conduct trans-Pacific trade anymore."

"But, because this stuff is so abundant, the price has naturally dropped. Look at those porcelains, silks, raw silks, and cotton fabrics; compared to ten years ago, their selling prices in the American market have fallen by about 20% to 30%."

"Moreover, the Native Americans in the Americas have been exploited too much by the Spanish and have basically no purchasing power, which makes the market space in the region very small. Therefore, we must sell the surplus Ming goods to Europe, where there are at least nearly 100 million people."

"Although there is still war there and chaos ensues, they can still absorb a lot of Ming Dynasty goods, right? However, we are too far away from the European continent, and we can't reach them in the short term."

"Therefore, we have to rely on the channels of the barbarians. The Spanish take the goods from us, then transport them by land to ports on the other side of the Atlantic, then load them onto ships, and finally import them into Europe."

"In order to avoid being controlled by a single client, in addition to cooperating with the Alamobo family in the Viceroyalty of Peru, we also established smuggling channels with the Garza family in Mexico."

"Of course, we can't hand over all the end-sales to the Spanish. Those two English businessmen who want to make a fortune have become our most ideal alternative channels. Granting them a three-year exclusive trading agency right is a reward and support for their wise choice."

"As for what you said, it's best not to grant them exclusive agency rights to avoid being controlled by them. But do we have any better options now? After all, there aren't many European merchants who know that Xinhua has a source of goods from the Ming Dynasty and can find this place."

"Giving those two English merchants a three-year exclusive right is both a sweet treat and bait. Merchants who see them making a fortune by selling Ming Dynasty goods will surely investigate the secrets behind it and eventually come to us. At that time, not only will more English merchants flock here, but many French, Portuguese, Swedes, and Germans will also come to us to cooperate."

"At that time, all the merchants who cooperate with us will no longer have exclusive trading agency rights, but will all be our equal trading partners. In time, we may be able to monopolize the sales channels of Ming Dynasty goods here, just like the Dutch, and earn hundreds of thousands of taels of silver every year."

"First, use the exclusive agency rights to fatten up a few businessmen, and then wait for the hungry wolves of Europe to come knocking on our door." Lou Wenhe was mesmerized by what he heard, and it took him a long time to come to his senses before he bowed deeply: "Director Lin, your vision is truly remarkable, and I admire you greatly!"

"How could I have such foresight!" Lin Afu laughed and waved his hand, sitting up from the recliner. "The words I'm showing off to you are nothing more than parroting the opinions of the committee members and ministers. Think about it, we Xinhua immigrants spend a lot of money every year. If it weren't for the huge profits from trade and smuggling, how could we support these activities?"

"Yes, Director Lin is quite right," Lou Wenhe echoed. "Under the leadership of the committee members and ministers, our Americas Trading Company's annual trade volume exceeds one million, which not only provides strong financial support for immigration activities, but also imports various urgently needed materials into Xinhua, promoting the development of local industry and agriculture."

Then, he frowned, a hint of doubt in his eyes, and cautiously asked, "However, Director Lin, I have a slight question about the pricing of smuggling trade. I wonder if I should ask?"

"Hmm, do you have any questions?"

"Director Lin, the prices of all kinds of goods produced in Xinhua have been reduced by an average of 20% this year. As a result, our profits will likely decrease even further. We're afraid that this is somewhat... somewhat..."

"Are you trying to say that we're losing money to gain publicity?" Lin Afu glanced at him.

"..." Lou Wenhe bowed respectfully. "In my humble opinion, selling goods to the Western barbarians at such low prices is truly a losing proposition. Even if the prices of our Xinhua goods are only 10% lower than those of the Western barbarians, we still have a significant market advantage. Lowering prices again and again has already resulted in little profit, but it has actually benefited the Western barbarians who are buying our goods."

Have you ever read the story of Guan Zhong's strategy in Lu during the Spring and Autumn Period?

"...Qi bought Lu silk at a high price, causing its farmers to abandon grain and plant mulberry trees. Several years later, Qi banned the transport of grain from Qi to Lu, which led to Lu signing a treaty under duress due to a grain shortage."

"Yes, doing it this way achieves the same effect!"

Lou Wenhe was stunned upon hearing this.

"This... is the art of weighing the heavy and the light!"

Lou Wenhe's brows immediately relaxed, and an expression of admiration appeared on his face.
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(End of this chapter)