In April 1651 AD, a group of local tycoons from China suddenly appeared in Amsterdam, the capital of the Dutch Republic, namely the Ming Dynasty mission led by Ji Kun.
The Ming Dynasty Mission has now transformed into the Ming Dynasty Purchasing Group. On the way out of China, Ji Kun and others were relatively frugal and did not make large purchases. But once they arrived in Amsterdam, the center of international capitalism in the 17th century, Ji Kun and others finally stopped waiting and started spending money like water!
What a waste of money! An important task assigned by Zhu Cixiang to the Ji Kun mission was to go to Amsterdam, the Netherlands, for a large purchase!
This time they left Nanjing and came to Europe with 300,000 taels of gold!
These 300,000 taels of gold were all taken from the account of the Royal Chamber of Commerce. They were Emperor Zhu's private money.
In order to safely transport the 300,000 taels to the Netherlands, Zhu Cixang sent five large ships worth ten thousand stones (gold cannot be placed on one ship) and 500 escorting officers and soldiers (half of whom were navy).
In addition, there is a team specifically responsible for procurement, headed by Yun Shangqian, the chief steward of the "Old West Salt General" who took refuge with Emperor Zhu in Yangzhou. This Yun Shangqian has been in charge of business matters since he joined Emperor Zhu. He first worked at the Salt Merchant Bank, and later at the Maritime Merchant Bank. Before going abroad, he was the head office manager of the bank. Now he is responsible for the large purchase of 300,000 taels of gold!
The purchase list was drawn up by Zhu Cixiang himself, and it included everything. The biggest project is the boat! An 800-ton battleship or armed merchant ship produced by the Amsterdam Shipyard - the largest battleship of this era was the British Navy's "Lord of the Sea" battleship, with a load capacity of 1,683 tons and 102-104 cannons. It was built in 1637. However, battleships of this level are not for sale and cannot be placed on the shelves of Amsterdam merchants.
So a master craftsman named Sun Xing from the Nanjing Shipyard who followed Yun Shangqian chose a sailing battleship "Flying" that could be equipped with 44 guns. It was not a new ship, but a second-hand ship that was being repaired in the dock. , belonging to the Dutch Provincial Navy (there is no unified Dutch Navy now, only the Provincial Navy). Through Van Diemen as an intermediary, he won it for 25,000 taels of gold.
Of course, buying a ship also requires a captain and sailors. Ji Kun also hired a Dutch captain named David Jones and his dozens of crew members at a price of 5,000 taels of gold to be responsible for sailing the "Flying" ship. Return to Shanghai in the Ming Empire. In order to prevent the warship from "mutinying" on the way, Xie Xun, an officer from Liaodong who graduated from the Naval Academy, also brought 120 naval officers and soldiers of the Ming Dynasty on board.
In addition, Ji Kun also paid high prices to purchase several sets of drawings of battleships and armed merchant ships, as well as fifty-to-one simulation models from several shipyards in Amsterdam.
In addition to ships, artillery is also a key purchase target. Not including the 44 naval guns installed on the "Fly", the visiting mission to Europe also purchased a batch of cast-iron guns produced by Dutch capitalists in Sweden (the Netherlands does not have good iron ore). They are all field-type heavy guns, 8 24 pounder "half cannon" and eight 12 pounder "quarter cannon". According to the plan, each model will have 6 guns to form an artillery battery, and the remaining 2 guns will be used for testing and imitation.
If the 24-pound cast iron cannon and the 12-pound cast iron cannon can be successfully imitated (China's cast iron technology is not too bad, there are many self-produced iron cannons, but the yield rate is not ideal), then the Ming army's field troops can form a 3-pound bronze Legion artillery system consisting of 12-pound and 24-pound heavy cast iron cannons. The 3-pounder cannon is used to kill enemy infantry, the 12-pounder cannon is a suppressive artillery that can bombard the opponent's artillery position from a long distance, and the 24-pounder cannon is a siege artillery.
This is the field artillery system of Gustavus II. After the test of the Thirty Years War, it is the mainstream of Europe in this era.
In addition, the Ming Dynasty mission also purchased 5,000 flintlock guns produced in the Netherlands.
In Europe, flintlock guns have begun to replace matchlocks. In the Ming Dynasty, many workshops have begun to imitate flintlock guns, but the quality is still unsatisfactory.
Therefore, the mission sent by Zhu Cixiang placed large orders with several large arsenals in Amsterdam, and at the same time sent the master craftsmen and officers who accompanied the mission to "supervise the production" (steal the work).
Of course, the mission will also ask the manufacturer to provide formal drawings, and will also kidnap a few Dutch craftsmen.
However, even if you get the drawings and recruit craftsmen, it will be difficult to produce enough flintlock guns in a short period of time. Therefore, these 5,000 "Made in the Netherlands" are used to equip 8 fusilier battalions (will be equipped with sleeve bayonets) for conducting exercises and exploring new tactics.
Besides ships and guns, the third major purchase item is books, whether they are religious, philosophical, technical, literary, geographical, or historical. Buy a set of all the books you can buy in Amsterdam. After they were shipped back to China, Song Yingxing and Zhu Cixiang, the directors of the Tongwen Library, decided which books should be translated and published immediately, and which books should not be published for the time being.
Machinery and equipment is also a major purchase item, but the era of the machine industry has not yet arrived these days. In Europe, there are all kinds of water conservancy machinery. Ji Kun doesn't care whether those things are available in China? Anyway, I buy it when I see it. I buy a few sets for various purposes, but I don’t buy second-hand ones. They are all first-hand ones. The prices are easy to talk about, but the requirements for after-sales service are very high. There must be three-guaranteed services including installation, maintenance, and teaching of operating skills. Therefore, Dutch manufacturers had to send engineers and technicians to China, and the cost was of course paid by Zhu Cihong.
Moreover, Ji Kun was ordered to request that the engineers and technicians sent to China should be as young and unmarried as possible...
Perch horses produced in France were also purchased by Ji Kun in large quantities. This is a heavy-duty draft horse. Although it is not as huge as a Shire horse, its shoulder height is between five feet three inches and five feet five inches. Although its body is It is large, but flexible and has a gentle temperament, making it very suitable for use as a military draft horse. And because there are many noble estates in France, the Percheron horse population is large and easy to purchase. So Ji Kun asked Fouquet for help, bought more than 400 Perch horses, and sent them all to Amsterdam.
In addition, Ji Kun also purchased many miscellaneous things according to the list given by Zhu Cixiang, from stationery to experimental equipment, to daily necessities, clocks and toys, and woolen clothing.
Because there were too many things purchased, one "Flying" could not hold them at all, so we had to hire three additional armed merchant ships of 700 to 800 tons to return to China with the "Flying".
However, the "Flying" and the other three sailing ships have not set off yet, because the route from Europe around Africa and then through the Strait of Malacca to the East is not only far away, but also very dangerous. Even with four armed sailing ships, there was no guarantee, so Ji Kun planned to take the ship of the British delegation to China and return together, so that everything would be safe.
Lord Gray, the representative of British Chairman Cromwell, arrived in Amsterdam, which was hostile to them, with Thomas Brown, the governor of the British East India Company, in early May.
The conflict between Britain and the Netherlands has been going on for a long time. Although they have not turned against each other now, both sides are sharpening their knives. Ji Kun introduced Britain to Nanyang at this juncture. I really don't know whether it was for "peace" and "free trade" or to ignite war in Nanyang?
Although the war between Britain and the Netherlands was about to break out, the negotiations between China, the Netherlands, Britain, and Portugal (represented by John IV) in Amsterdam were relatively pleasant. Because the negotiation did not involve any core interests, it was only determined that the Governor of the British East India Company, the Governor of the Dutch East India Company in Batavia, the Portuguese Governor of Macau and other important officials would go to Nanjing to discuss with the Ming Emperor himself how to make a reasonable allocation. Interests in the South Sea Islands and their waters...
