A Spanish galleon flying a red cross flag (Burgundy cross flag) slowly sailed into Wusongkou. Shanghai's commercial port, which only started construction four years ago, is now quite large.
On the west bank of the Wusong River, wharves are lined up one after another. Western-style human-powered wheel cranes are densely arranged on the wharves. There are warehouses and warehouses everywhere on the shore. Chinese dock workers with buns on their heads and sweat towels hanging around their necks were either pushing wheelbarrows, carrying them on their shoulders, or using a slender pole to transport them from the ship. Unloaded cargo.
Sailboats from all over the world are moored at the berths of the pier. There are all kinds of styles, including Spanish-style galenic ships with four masts and high sterns, light and medium-sized small and medium-sized galenic ships from the Netherlands or England, Chinese-style fu ships, Guangzhou ships, bird ships and sand ships. Arab-style sailing ships with triangular sails and old lock ships with Western-style hulls and Chinese-style hard sails, with numerous masts and connected boats and boats, crowded half of the Wusong River.
Traditional Chinese buildings and Portuguese or Dutch-style buildings are mixed together, densely arranged, and many buildings are in the middle of construction, with scaffolding erected, and workers can be seen busy there in the distance.
The east bank of Wusong River is an emerging handicraft industry area. The docks and slipways for building ships are arranged densely on the river bank near Wusongkou. You can also see wood stacked like hills near the docks and slipways. Both the dock and the slipway were busy. I don't know how many ships were being built at the same time.
Justice Sebastian Caballero of Manila stood on the high stern platform of the Spanish galleon, curiously looking at this most popular port of the ancient empire that seemed to suddenly wake up and start to catch up with the trend of the Age of Discovery. commercial port.
Shanghai, which has only been open for four years, has already shown extraordinary development momentum. Perhaps only in England and the Netherlands can we see similar booming development scenes, right?
Anyway, Caballero could not imagine any city in the Spanish world empire that would grow up in the blink of an eye like Shanghai, as if by magic.
He stared blankly at everything in front of him, and suddenly the face of the Governor of the Philippines, full of sorrow and fear, appeared in his mind.
Maybe he was right to worry!
The dragon in the east has awakened!
It will definitely challenge the Spanish world empire’s hegemony in the Pacific!
Looking at the vigorous and fiery scene in front of him, and thinking about the stagnation of the Spanish Empire for more than a hundred years, he felt a sense of urgency that he had never experienced before.
Spain, the empire that "owned the world", always invested the wealth plundered from the New World into the Habsburg dynasty's war for hegemony. Countless gold and silver disappeared, and Spain gained nothing except heavy debts and countless orphans and widows...
While thoughts were surging, the Spanish sailing ship with the red cross flag flying had already docked at a pier under the guidance of a whistle ship used for piloting. There were already some people waiting on the pier, led by a Ming Dynasty official wearing a crimson official uniform and a black gauze hat. Standing with him were two men wearing Western clothes. The three of them were talking and laughing, looking very lively. There were also some soldiers wearing plate armor, helmets, and holding spears or matchlocks who stood upright and lined up in a row, on alert as if they were facing a powerful enemy.
Looking at their queue and military appearance, they seem to be slightly stronger than the Spanish soldiers in Manila!
De Velasco, the captain of the Spanish Galen ship Manila on which Caballero was riding, walked over quickly and said, "Your Excellency, the person who came to greet us is the mayor of Shanghai. He is also responsible for diplomacy and Minister of Commerce and Industry.”
When the Manila entered Wusongkou, a sentry ship from the Shanghai Customs went to be responsible for piloting and registration. If the Manila was a merchant ship, it would be taken to an empty commercial dock to berth, or near the commercial dock. Wait in line.
After the merchant ship has docked, tax officials from the Shanghai Customs will come to collect taxes based on the size of the ship (calculated according to length and width) - the customs tax in the Ming Dynasty now adopts the method of collecting from the ship and levying it upon entry into the port. The tax rate is not high, but it will be taxed twice. Merchant ships can pay gold, silver, copper and other precious metals, as well as rice or wheat. Because rice and wheat have a high discount (we use the grain prices at various ports in the Ming Dynasty as a reference, but the prices are definitely much more expensive than those in grain-producing areas in Nanyang), so ordinary merchant ships will load rice into customs to pay customs duties.
However, the Manila is not a merchant ship, but a warship performing diplomatic missions. Therefore, there is no need to pay customs duties (and large-scale commercial transactions are not allowed), and you cannot dock at commercial berths at will. Instead, you must dock at the berth dedicated to the Shanghai Naval Academy.
Those soldiers wearing military uniforms and armor who serve as a guard of honor are the students of the Naval Academy.
While the Manila docked at the Naval Academy Pier, an official from the Shanghai Customs informed the Songjiang prefect and Shanghai Overseas Communications Ambassador Luo Grand Duke of the visit of the Spanish envoy.
The current Ming Empire still does not have a Ministry of Foreign Affairs, but divides foreign affairs into foreign affairs and foreign affairs. Among them, foreign affairs are managed by the Host and Guest Department of the Ministry of Rites, while foreign affairs are managed by the Foreign Communications and Commerce Department of the Ministry of Household Affairs.
The Shanghai Foreign Trade and Foreign Affairs Ambassador is one of the five trade and diplomatic ambassadors under the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade of the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Affairs - the other four are the Guangzhou Trade and Diplomatic Ambassador, Quanzhou Trade and Foreign Affairs Ambassador, Ningbo Trade and Foreign Affairs Ambassador and Lushun Foreign and Trade Ambassador.
The diplomatic and commercial ambassadors can serve full-time, or they can be held concurrently by the chief officials of the five major commercial ports. Grand Duke Luo's diplomatic and commercial ambassador is a part-time job. His current job is to know the affairs of Songjiang Prefecture-Shanghai Commercial Port was originally managed by Shanghai County. However, the mall has developed rapidly in the past three or four years. It almost looks the same every day. It has changed drastically in three years. A small Shanghai County can no longer control this large Shanghai commercial port. Therefore, the commercial port was transferred to the direct management of Songjiang Prefecture, and Grand Duke Luo's job was changed from the Shanghai County Magistrate to the one who knew the affairs of Songjiang Prefecture.
After being promoted to prefect, Grand Duke Luo petitioned the imperial court for approval to move the Songjiang Prefecture from Huating County to the Shanghai Commercial Port, located on the Bund Street, not too far from the Naval Academy Pier.
So after receiving the notification, Archduke Luo immediately called the two foreign advisors (general officers) of Songjiang Prefecture, the Portuguese Mardimo and the Dutch Bas Brink, and went to the dock to greet the Spanish envoy.
And Zheng Jiangong, who had just finished his trip to Champa and returned to the Naval Academy, also brought a hundred or dozens of students from the navy crash course to show off the majesty of the Ming Dynasty's army and navy on the dock!
The sailboat with the red cross flag of Spain stopped. The sailors on the ship had skillfully dropped the anchor and lowered the cable, and the springboard was quickly lowered. A group of Spanish guards wearing plate armor and helmets disembarked from the ship and lined up in two lines under the gangplank. Then the fat Justice Caballero and the captain of the Manila, de Velasco, walked one behind the other. Got off the sailboat.
"Welcome, Mr. Justice!" The Portuguese Mardimo was sent to Shanghai by the Macau Council and was a Portuguese nobleman loyal to John IV.
However, the Portuguese’s enemy in the east was not Spain, but their ally in Europe, the Netherlands. In this era, the overseas colonial authorities of European powers were highly autonomous, and the military and foreign policies adopted were not necessarily consistent with the mother country. .
"Mr. Justice, this is Ambassador Luo who represents His Majesty the Ming Emperor." Brink, a Dutchman, is a retired captain. He owes a lot of debt because of his failed tulip speculation, so he did not dare to return to the Netherlands, so he bought a house in Shanghai. After settling down, he also found a job at the Naval Academy, and was hired by Grand Duke Luo as a consultant.
He also showed a friendly enough attitude towards the visiting Spanish justice. He introduced Duke Luo to the Spanish with a smile, and then said with a smile: "The Ming Emperor has been waiting for a reply from New Spain. You are representing New Spain this time." Did you come here?"
