Wind Rises in North America 1625

Chapter 327 "Nobody Cares About All This"

Mexico City is situated on a plateau in the Anawac Valley at an altitude of over 2,000 meters. It has a mild and dry climate with plenty of sunshine, but there is a significant temperature difference between day and night.

Because the entire city is built on reclaimed land from Lake Texcoco, localized flooding often occurs during the rainy season (May to October) each year, and some low-lying neighborhoods become muddy.

In late July, in the height of summer, the weather turned hot, and the city air was filled with the hustle and bustle of the market, the incense of the church, and the stench of stagnant water emanating from the canals and drainage ditches.

At seven o'clock in the evening, the heat of the day began to slowly subside, and a pleasant breeze blew in, bringing a rare tranquility and peace to this sweltering city.

A grand engagement dinner is being held in a luxurious mansion in the San Francisco district (near Alameda Park).

The owner of this mansion is Lázaro de la Garza, a Creole nobleman who made his fortune in the Zacatecas silver mine and is now the viceroy of New Spain, one of the few Creole nobles to have entered the core of power.

The wide and heavy gate of the mansion is inlaid with iron coat of arms, and above the Moorish-style archway hang several bronze oil lamps, illuminating the family motto carved on the lintel: Glory and Silver Forever.

Pushing open the copper-clad doors, guests first step into the foyer, which is paved with Puebla glazed tiles.

Two Native American servants in blue and white uniforms stood with their heads bowed, holding silver basins and rose water for the guests to wash their hands.

Passing through an ornate arcade, you enter the central courtyard of the mansion, surrounded by a double-layered colonnade. Corinthian columns are entwined with New Spanish vines, while a marble fountain in the center of the courtyard gurgles, with tropical fish brought from Veracruz swimming in its pool.

Beside the fountain, a musician from Spain gently plays the vivira, the melody a blend of Spanish court dance and Native American rhythms.

Amidst the music, the Murillo-style Madonna statue and the Ming Dynasty lacquer screen create a wondrous interplay—the former's soft light painted with egg tempera and the latter's golden-red flames of the phoenix on the lacquerware intertwine in the candlelight to form a luxurious totem of transoceanic civilization.

On the cypress ceiling of the banquet hall, the Habsburg double-headed eagle emblem was inlaid with gold leaf, a symbol of the host's loyalty to the Spanish royal family.

The long table was covered with a Flemish lace tablecloth and was filled with Mexican silverware and oriental porcelain plates, which were filled with a variety of mouthwatering delicacies.

A tequila larvae pie was placed in front of the governor's aide, who was struggling to swallow it amidst the laughter of the surrounding Creole nobles, barely suppressing his nausea.

After the two lovers completed their sacred engagement ceremony, the banquet entered a free phase.

Many officials and nobles stationed in various regions also had a valuable opportunity to gather together to reminisce and chat, discussing their political interests and exchanging their commercial interests.

"Speaker, what is your opinion on the newly established Woolen Production and Sales Oversight Committee of the Governor's Office?" Lord Don Gaspar de Aguayo of Encomida took a sip of his tequila and asked with a smile.

“Tang, look at the fountain in the courtyard. The surface water flows gently, but the bottom of the pool is full of hidden channels. The committee’s charter states that it regulates wool, but what truly flows is the salty smell of the Pacific Ocean and the luster of silver.” Garza gestured for the servant to fill the other’s glass with wine, the amber liquid rippling in the luminous glass. “Just like this tequila, the distillation process requires careful control of the heat. Too high and it loses its flavor; too low and it won’t become a good spirit.”

Aguayo's gaze swept over the Habsburg coat of arms hanging in the hall, and he lowered his voice: "But the woolen guild mob has already blocked the city hall twice, and last time they even burned down a shop selling Xinhua woolen fabrics in the Santo Domingo district."

"They have only brought shame upon themselves."

"..." Aguayo paused for a moment, then asked cautiously, "Speaker, I would like to ask if this committee is responsible for cracking down on the smuggling of woolen fabrics in the market?"

"Combating smuggling is the responsibility of the tax inspectors," Garza smiled slightly. "Of course, our kingdom's naval fleet also bears the heavy responsibility of combating smuggling. This committee only reviews and supervises woolen products produced and sold in the market to ensure the healthy and orderly development of this industry."

"..." Aguayo gave a wry smile, leaned forward slightly, and said seriously, "Galsa, you know what I'm talking about. What exactly is the Governor's attitude towards Xinhua wool? Oh, I mean, what kind of reaction will the authorities take towards all Xinhua smuggled goods?"

We're already so close, is it really necessary to beat around the bush like this?

Besides, isn't your Garza family the biggest wool smuggler in Mexico?

“Heh…” Garza blinked. “My dear Don, don’t you know that rampant smuggling in the Viceroyalty of New Spain is nothing new? From the Madeira court to the Mexican Viceroyalty, there have been repeated orders to crack down on smuggling. But after all these years, has smuggling been completely eradicated?”

"what do you mean……"

“No, that’s not what I meant.” Garza shook his head and said, “The tacit approval of rampant smuggling is the wish of the vast majority of people, and even many people on the peninsula are happy to see it happen.”

“Oh…” Aguayo nodded slightly, his expression becoming more relaxed. “In other words, in response to the proliferation of Xinhua woolen fabrics, the Governor’s Office will not issue any more drastic orders, but rather, like before with the numerous European smuggled goods, make a lot of noise but little action, without taking any substantial prohibition measures.”

"No, His Excellency the Governor will issue a series of strict anti-smuggling orders and will also instruct local municipal authorities and tax inspectors to thoroughly investigate the smuggling of Xinhua goods."

"Huh?" Aguayo was taken aback.

"However, whether the officials and agencies specifically carrying out the anti-smuggling orders will fulfill their duties and thoroughly seize Xinhua's smuggled goods, none of us can guarantee that. What do you say, Mr. Aguayo?"

“Haha…” Aguayo immediately understood, raised his glass and gently clinked it with Garza’s, then drank it all in one gulp. “I knew it would end up like this.”

“Isn’t this the best outcome for each of us?” Garza said with a smile.

"Yes, apart from those poor woolen workshop owners, everyone can profit greatly from Xinhua's smuggling trade. For us, it is indeed the best outcome."

The Aguayo family were an early colonial elite in the province of Nuevo Santander (now Tamaulipas, Mexico, and southern Texas, USA), whose rise to prominence can be traced back to the late 20th century.

The family's founder, Don Álvaro de Aguayo, was originally a down-on-his-luck nobleman from Extremadura. In 1582, he arrived in New Spain with an expedition and was granted land for his participation in suppressing the Chicmec rebellion, becoming the Lord of Encomíndá.

The family business had been passed down to him for three generations. Through a marriage alliance, he married the daughter of the Veracruz municipal official, extending his business reach into the Caribbean.

However, the Aguayo family's largest businesses are plantations and livestock farming, and they control almost the entire Panuco River basin.

Within this vast territory, 100,000 hectares of pastures were established, mainly raising Merino sheep and Creole cattle introduced from Spain, with a livestock population of 160,000 (of which 150,000 were sheep).

He also partnered with the Garza family to mine silver and lead in the Tamaulipas mountains, reaping huge profits annually. Of course, as a local tycoon, it was impossible for him not to be involved in the lucrative smuggling trade.

The Aguayo family had a private dock in Matamoros, where they smuggled wool, leather, and livestock produced within their territory to Hispaniola, an island controlled by Caribbean pirates, in exchange for weapons from France and the Netherlands (needed to deal with local rebellious Indian tribes) and luxury goods.

Two years ago, with the help of the Garza family, they obtained the exclusive trading agency rights (smuggling) for Xinhua goods in the New Santander province, and at the same time successfully introduced wool, leather (cowhocks) and livestock from their territory into the Xinhua market.

In the past two years, the Aguayo family has made a lot of money by smuggling Xinhua goods.

What made him even more gratified was that, with the continuous expansion of Xinhua Woolen Industry, their wool sales prices were gradually raised to a high level, and their profits increased by more than 10% compared to before.

In fact, the Aguayo family also had a woolen workshop in their territory, using their abundant wool resources to produce large quantities of coarse wool to meet the needs of the lower and middle classes in the region and even the mining areas.

However, after operating and selling smuggled Xinhua woolen fabrics, he discovered that the woolen fabrics produced by others were not only of much better quality and color than his own coarse woolen fabrics, but also not much more expensive. So he closed the woolen fabric workshop and started purchasing Xinhua woolen fabrics on a large scale.

According to his business philosophy, even if Xinhua woolen fabrics are priced slightly higher, the market demand will be very large, and they can at least completely replace imported European woolen fabrics.

Unexpectedly, in April of this year, the smuggling price of Xinhua woolen fabrics dropped by about 10% compared to last year, bringing the price close to the local selling price of woolen fabrics in Mexico.

Judging from this momentum, after two years of rapid development, Xinhua's wool industry has begun to show its ferocious face, aiming not only to replace imported European wool but also to seize the local coarse wool market.

Although Aguayo did not know how the Xinhua Woolen Mill had managed to drive down the cost of woolen fabrics so low, he immediately realized that under the impact of Xinhua Woolen Mills, the local woolen fabric industry, which had developed for decades, might decline or even disappear.

However, he didn't express much emotion about it.

In his view, the Mexican wool industry was originally a product of the distorted economic development of the colony. If it weren't for the wide Atlantic Ocean separating them, smuggled European wool products would incur additional high transportation costs, making them relatively expensive and unable to shake the local wool market for the time being.

It's important to know that during this period, in addition to the Netherlands having numerous technologically advanced and large-scale woolen factories, countries such as England, France, and Portugal were also vigorously developing their woolen industries, whose costs and technologies far surpassed those of Mexico's local woolen factories.

If these countries could further reduce the cost of their wool products, they might have already wiped out their weak local wool industry.

In Mexico, and indeed throughout Spanish America, apart from agriculture, animal husbandry, and mining, which have a slight industrial advantage (due to the existence of the contract system, many plantations have almost free Indian laborers), other types of handicraft industries have no market competitiveness whatsoever.

Of course, this phenomenon was also a result of the Spanish government's deliberate weakening and restriction of industrial development in its colonies.

If a colony becomes too powerful, it will be difficult to control.

The problem was that the industrial development of the colonies was extremely backward, and the industrial situation in Spain itself was not much better, so they were simply unable to meet the needs of the Americas for industrial products.

Therefore, despite the Spanish Kingdom's best efforts to create an "internal circulation" system, hoping that the American colonies would only trade with the mainland and keep all the profits in one pot, the reality was that merchants from all over Europe flocked to Spain to engage in smuggling and fleece the country.

Smuggling has never been eradicated throughout the Americas, nor has it ever been thoroughly combated.

Foreign merchants, royalty, local officials, colonial natives, plantation owners, and even diocesan bishops—almost every link and every class was happily engaged in smuggling.

As for the workshop owners who are harmed by rampant smuggling, no one pays any attention to them, let alone shows them any sympathy.

The overwhelming trend is something that no individual can stop.

In the eyes of the Spanish colonial authorities, the foundation of their rule over the Americas was primarily the plantation owners and mine owners, rather than the scattered workshop owners.

Numerous plantation owners and mine owners were generally closely politically aligned with the Spanish colonial authorities, forming an important political foundation for the monarchy and government's rule over the colonies.

Both groups possess substantial land, wealth, and labor, and enjoy high social status and influence in their respective localities.

In order to protect their own interests, they would generally be very active in supporting the rule of the monarchy, becoming the political pillar of Spain in the colonies.

The Spanish royal family also granted plantation owners and mine owners various privileges and titles in exchange for their loyalty and support; the two sides could be said to have a mutually dependent relationship.

The Aguayo family was granted the title of Count of Encomienda, while the Garza family was granted the title of Count of Igoda, becoming local de facto feudal lords.

As for the owners of handicraft workshops, their political influence was negligible, and they were frequently discriminated against and exploited by the colonial authorities, making it impossible for them to form a political force that could rival plantation owners and mine owners.

In this situation, the governor, representing His Majesty the King, naturally knew which side he should side with.

Whether it was participating in the smuggling of Xinhua goods or selling wool and livestock produced on plantations, the Creoles, mainly represented by Aguayo and Garza, made huge profits and reaped extremely rich rewards.

When the Mexico City Woolen Guild petitioned the municipal authorities and even met with the governor, demanding a ban on the sale of Xinhua woolen fabrics in the market and a crackdown on such smuggling, vested interests like Garza naturally would not allow such a thing to happen.

After some negotiation, the Governor's Office established the Woolen Production and Sales Supervision Committee to "standardize" and regulate the Xinhua Woolen fabrics sold in the market.

Garza, as the vice-chairman of the committee, assisted the governor-general's district prosecutor in managing and guiding the agency's operation, and continued to control the direction of the situation in this power struggle.

At midnight, the drunken guests departed in silver-inlaid carriages.

Garza stood on the terrace, overlooking the lights of Mexico City, where the shadows of the cathedral, the sparks of the favela, and the glimmer of the Blood Silver Mine further away.

Meanwhile, in the mud of Plaza de Socalo, a protest letter from a woolen workshop owner, whose business was suffering from market disruptions, was being trampled into the dust by the patrol's boots.

Nobody cares about any of this.
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(End of this chapter)