Nanyang Storm 1864

Chapter 270 An Announcement

September 3th, 2025

An iron cargo ship named "Macado Glory" sailed into Zamboanga City. The British captain Robert, smoking a heather pipe, skillfully directed the crew to dock.

As soon as the ship docked at the pier, the white sailors on the ship burst into suppressed cheers. It had been a week since the last stop in Singapore, and the sailors had been looking forward to this port call for supplies.

Zamboanga has beautiful tropical scenery, a variety of delicious snacks, exotic women, fine wine and gambling dens. It has everything you want.

After arranging the sailors' shifts, Captain Robert and First Mate Sean took the ship registration book information and went to the customs hall at the dock to complete the routine port registration procedures.

His cargo ship, the Machado Glory, set sail from the port of Kolkata, India, stopping at Singapore and Zamboanga along the way, where it would unload more than 380 tons of cotton, more than 230 tons of rosewood and some ramie, as well as more than 2 feet of cotton cloth.

A total of more than 150 tons of iron farm tools, including iron plows, hammers, iron chisels, iron pickaxes, axes, iron pallasons, etc., as well as more than 200 tons of coarse hemp ropes, tons of canned fruits, various needles and thread daily necessities, glassware and porcelain, etc., were loaded at the Port of Zamboanga. The final destination was the Port of Melbourne.

Over the years
The State of Chu developed into a production base for a large number of daily industrial products. Relying on its high quality, low price and large quantity, it quickly occupied the industrial and daily necessities market in the surrounding areas of Southeast Asia, and had no worries about loading goods after arriving at the port.

This is also an important reason why ships from all over the world must dock at the port, because the goods here are not only diverse in colors and varieties, but also large in quantity and high in quality, and are very popular in markets everywhere.

The ship market registration system originated from international practices developed in Europe. It was originally intended to combat rampant piracy and regulate law-abiding navigation order.

It was later discovered that this registration system, as an important certificate for ships entering and leaving the port, is of irreplaceable importance in maintaining customs tax revenue.

Therefore, it has become widely popular in countries around the world.

The ship's registration book, captain's log and port tax certificates paid along the way on the cargo ship "Makado Glory" are important bases for tracing its sailing route.

When leaving the port of Kolkata, the registered destination port was Melbourne.

Inside the Zamboanga Customs Hall

When the first mate Sean provided the ship registration book, ownership certificate and other documents to the local customs officials, the customs officer took it, looked through it carefully and his face changed.

"Now please answer my questions truthfully. Answer exactly what I ask and don't hide anything. OK?"

"We are a legitimate merchant ship, there is no problem at all, sir."

"What's the name of your ship?"

"It's the 'Makado Glorious'. It's a name that comes from an indigenous Pacific tribe and is very commemorative."

"The home port is Sydney?"

"Yes, sir."

"What's the ship's information?"

"Sir, it's all written here. This ship was built in Los Angeles, North America in 1866. It has a displacement of 2350 tons, a beam of 16.2 meters, a length of 62.5 meters, a draft of 4.8 meters, and two sail masts, one fore and one aft, and two steam engines. It's all in the ship's registry."

“Who owns the property?”

"Oh, God! It's on here too. This ship belongs to the Murphys Shipping Company in New South Wales. Our boss is a bearded American immigrant who owns a lot of property on the west coast of North America. He has a wife and many mistresses in Sydney. He's a real big shot. What kind of questions are these? It's really crazy."

The first mate, Sean, was a typical white British sailor, arrogant and a little impatient. He obviously lost his composure when questioned by the customs officers.

Captain Robert was chatting with some familiar captains in the hall. When he heard the noise, he came over with a frown and asked;
"Whatever happened to Sean, don't give me any trouble here, man."

"You handle them, Captain. This feels like an interrogation to me, and it's terrible."

"Okay, okay, is there any problem with my information, sir?" Captain Robert had to take over from Sean and asked in a dissatisfied tone.

The customs officer sneered, pointed to a large notice on the wall, and said to Captain Robert, "There is indeed a problem. I suggest you read the notice first and then prepare the money to pay. This is not enough."

After saying this, he placed the documents submitted by the "Makado Glory" in the drawer and pushed back the 50 silver dollars he was going to pay.

what's the situation?
Captain Robert looked back at the large notice with a bewildered expression. Then his face changed and he let out a sound of disbelief. "Oh, damn it... How could it turn out like this?"

Captain Robert, who frequently traveled to Australia, naturally knew what was stated in the announcement, but he never took it to heart. Instead, he was happy to transport Chinese gold diggers to the Australian continent.

As long as there is money to be made and there is space on the ship, it is the most wonderful thing to take one or two hundred Chinese immigrants along to earn some extra money.

Australia has never opened a passenger route with mainland China. So many Chinese gold diggers who arrived in Australia basically took a ride on a cargo ship, which was the only channel to enter Australia.

According to Queensland's restrictive laws, cargo ships could only carry one Chinese worker for every 10 deadweight tons.

The "Makado Glorious" has a carrying capacity of 2350 tons and can legally carry 235 Chinese workers at a time. After deducting the corresponding expenses, each person can earn 20 silver dollars, which is 4700 silver dollars at a time.

The forty or so sailors on the ship shared the profits, with each receiving an average of hundreds of silver dollars, equivalent to 25 pounds.

Sadly, such a good thing will never happen again.

The announcement made it clear that in view of the fact that the Australian colonial authorities were unable to fulfill their obligations to protect the rights of overseas Chinese and that repeated negotiations had been fruitless, the Chu State had decided to suspend the import of immigrants to the British and Australian authorities.

Any Chinese immigrants are prohibited from boarding cargo ships and traveling to Australia illegally.

Goods from the British and Australian authorities that do not enjoy the preferential tax rates agreed upon with the Channel Governor-General will be subject to high tariffs, mainly wool, with a tax rate of 80%.

In other words, don't ship this stuff. You won't even earn enough to pay the tax.

This move was extremely cruel, as it completely cut off the livelihoods of the British and Australian authorities.

Why do you say that?

Australia is a purely agricultural economy. The wool it produces needs to be used in Indian wool mills to be processed into combed and carded wool tops, and then shipped back to the UK as raw materials to be processed into various pure wool products and woolen cloths for sale in Europe and other markets.

Wool is Australia's only and largest export commodity, accounting for more than 90% of its economy.

Cutting off Australia's wool trade is like cutting off Australia's main artery, and it must be a very ugly death. Isn't it said that Melbourne has rich gold mines?
This is just for fun. The real riches from the abundant gold resources are those big white gold mine owners. Whether they are ordinary Chinese gold diggers or white gold diggers, the gold they dig up is eventually exchanged for currency.

Then buy houses, fields, ranches, daily necessities, decent clothes and live a rich life in Melbourne.

The gold mining economy contributed to the prosperity and development of the city, and made some gold diggers rich, but the number was small after all.

The entire Australian population was close to 1867 million at the end of 179. In Melbourne and Queensland, where gold was discovered, less than one-tenth of the population depended on gold mining for their livelihood, which was only about 20 people at most.

The vast majority of the rest of the population relies on wool exports from the pasture economy for their livelihood.

In the announcement
Indicating the failure of diplomatic negotiations from March to June, the Chu State imposed additional punitive taxes on Australian ships and sailors every time they entered the port.

Each cargo ship entering the port will be charged an additional 1000 silver dollars, and each sailor entering the port will be charged 40 silver dollars. There are a total of 43 sailors on the "Makado Glory", so a total of 1720 silver dollars will be collected.

Compared with the original fee of 50 silver dollars per voyage into the port, now the fee is 2720 silver dollars, which is a 54-fold increase.

No additional taxes are required for exported goods, but if the "Macadore Glory" carries 2000 tons of wool into the port on the return journey, the 80% tax alone will be enough to bankrupt the Murphys Shipping Company.

This shows the serious impact that a single announcement has had on the entire British and Australian authorities.

If you execute it

In less than a month, prices across Australia would skyrocket. It would not be uncommon for the prices of ordinary daily necessities to double or triple. The sheared wool would pile up like mountains, and no one would bother to transport it anymore.

These high port customs taxes have already sentenced Australian wool to death.

As for exporting to North America, haha, just think about it and forget about it. It is not feasible at all.

The islands along the entire Pacific route were occupied by the Chu State. As long as one passed through the Pacific route, one had to enter and exit the customs of each island.

Unless the freighter carries an army with it and fights its way through, or forces its way through, it will never be able to take the Pacific route again.

Once such a blacklisted ship is discovered, it will inevitably be detained. The subsequent punitive tariffs and trials against the captain and crew will be a long diplomatic tug-of-war.

During this period
The detained captains and sailors could only suffer in prison, hoping that the colonial power would rescue them.

Captain Robert, who has sailed to ports around the world for many years, is very experienced and knows where to be unrestrained and where not to be.

For example, in the northern Shenzhou, the Fuso Kingdom, the Ryukyu Kingdom, in Hong Kong, in Malacca, in the kingdoms of Indochina, in the Kingdom of Siam, and in the British Indian colonies, they could act with impunity, and these countries had no way to stop them if they broke the law.

Because of the existence of something called "extraterritoriality", these countries have no right to try citizens of powers such as Britain and France, nor do they have the right to detain trading ships of powers such as Britain and France.

But this is not allowed in some places, such as British colonies, French colonies, Dutch colonies and the State of Chu. Crimes committed in these places will be punished and will cause diplomatic disputes.

"Hey, Robert, you don't look well, how can I help you?"

"Shit, I'm in big trouble."

"Hahaha... I guess your port of registry isn't registered in Australia, right? Congratulations on winning the lottery. Believe me, man, you're going to love this feeling."

"I have to say, this Eastern King is quite tough. I can only wish him good luck."

"How about a bet? How about 1 to 5? Or to ? Dear Robert, we don't mean to laugh. When we get to the pub, I can buy you a drink."

Several white captains laughed heartily without sympathy, including British captains whose ports of registry were in the Straits Settlements and India, none of whom were subject to the additional taxes levied in this announcement.

The announcement is clear in its target, targeting only Australian citizens, ships and cargo.

Captain Robert was very angry, but he did not argue with the customs officer for too long, as it was pointless.

The local customs enforced the imperial edict issued by the kingdom. Anyone who dared to abuse their power for personal gain would be guilty of a capital crime, no matter how much they were told.

Captain Robert pinched his nose and finally scraped together the money to pay the high tax. The more he thought about it, the angrier he became, so he went straight to the telegraph office with his first mate Ron.

He wanted to send a telegram of protest to the British Minister to Chu, to the Governor-General's Office of British India, to the Australian colonial authorities, and at the same time send a telegram to the Murphys Shipping Company in Sydney to inform them of the situation here.

The "Makado Glory" is now in the port of Zamboanga, and it has to unload and load cargo. It will take at least a week to complete the process, and it will not set sail until next week at the latest.

The ship plans to dock at Donggang City to load and unload some cargo, including some goods brought to Donggang, such as farm tools and daily necessities, as well as hundreds of tons of grain and fuel.

Then, several hundred tons of sugar and feed were loaded from Donggang, and after stopping in Sydney, it finally arrived in Melbourne.

It took two months to complete the journey and arrive in Melbourne.

Therefore, Captain Robert had to send a telegram to the company headquarters in Sydney to report the new customs situation here and the new content of the announcement so that the company could be prepared internally.

If it is impossible to transport smelly wool from Australia, then this route will be largely useless.

In the future, cargo ships loaded with daily necessities and industrial products heading to the Australian mainland will basically have to return empty. Just for logistics and shipping costs, the prices of all industrial products and daily necessities will double.

Coupled with the increased port entry fees from the Chu State, the prices of these materials are likely to skyrocket.

No matter how much gold you have, it’s useless because you can neither eat it nor drink it.

If the Chu State's announcement of sanctions continues, within a year the entire Australian farm wool industry will suffer a devastating blow and will be completely ruined.

Don’t think that wool will not go bad if left there. If the sheared wool cannot be transported out and is not processed deeply, it will soon rot and deteriorate, and eventually turn into a large pile of smelly poop.

Captain Robert truly realized that the biggest crisis facing Australia had arrived.

If this crisis cannot be resolved, the Australian colony will be doomed. No matter how much gold is produced, it will be useless. It will only become a stinking and rotten continent that no one will care about anymore.

Just think about it
If your neck is being strangled and you can't breathe, how long can you live?

(End of this chapter)