"Can the Chinese hard sailing ships come to the New World? Impossible...can such a ship cross the Pacific Ocean?"
Marquis Spinola looked at Garcia in surprise. This news surprised him even more than the defeat of the Spanish Eastern Armada, because after losing the fleet, the only thing that could stop thousands of Chinese from coming to the New World was the vast Pacific Ocean.
The Marquis still knows a little about the situation in China - the Philippines is also under his jurisdiction, so he can often see reports sent from Manila. We know that the Chinese have a sailing system that is completely different from Western soft sails, and we also know that ships using Chinese hard sails are suitable for offshore activities with changeable wind directions, and are not suitable for entering the open ocean. Therefore, their sailboats were also designed for offshore sailing. They were not large enough, not strong enough, and had poor seaworthiness.
Although the Chinese have worked hard to introduce Western-style soft sailing boats in the past decade or so, the scale of their soft sailing fleet is still very limited.
Moreover, there are very few sailors who can operate soft sailing boats. The lack of suitable sailors has in turn become a factor restricting the rapid expansion of China's soft sailing fleet.
So after hearing about the fiasco of the Eastern Armada, the Marquis of Spinola could quickly regain his composure... As long as the Chinese do not have enough soft sailing ships, even if they have a population of more than 100 million, they will not be able to quickly Some of them were sent to the New World.
So Spain still has time...
Garcia sighed: "Marquis, what you know is outdated. In the past few decades, the Chinese have been tirelessly absorbing technology from Europe.
Great progress has been made in all aspects. Their hard sails have also been improved with European technology. They have a stronger structure, better seaworthiness, and faster sailing speeds. Because of the use of hard sails, the number of sailors required is reduced. Very few and a very economical boat type. "
Transporting people to the other side of the Pacific Ocean is actually a mathematical problem - speed, crew size, and deadweight must be taken into consideration.
The faster the ship, the shorter the time it took to cross the Pacific, and the fewer supplies needed to be prepared, so of course the more crew members and immigrants the ship could carry.
Therefore, a soft sailing ship with the same deadweight tonnage can definitely carry more people across the Pacific than a hard sailing ship!
But a soft sailboat requires more sailors than a hard sailboat! With more sailors, not only are they paid more wages, but they also carry fewer passengers - just a small load! Of course, more sailors will mean less passengers.
And it takes a year to travel around the Pacific Ocean route!
This means that a boat can only run once a year, and even a soft sailing boat cannot run twice.
Therefore, ships transporting immigrants must reduce the number of crew members as much as possible to reduce costs... The greater the ratio of passengers to crew, the greater the ship's profit margin.
Likewise, the price of the transport ship itself is also important. If the ship is cheap and high-quality, uses a small crew, and the speed and safety are guaranteed, even if it is a little slower, it can still make a profit.
And profit is the key to the sustainability of the immigration wave!
The Marquis of Spinola has already thought of sending privateers to kill people in the Pacific! No matter how hard sailing ships are improved, their speed on the ocean will definitely be slower than that of soft sailing ships.
So the New Spanish navy could deter Chinese immigrants by sinking ships and killing passengers.
Just as he was about to talk to Garcia about this, the Spanish admiral sighed again: "What's even more troublesome is that the Chinese have also improved the shells and invented the shell holder and the wooden tube fuse, which greatly improved the performance of the shells. It has strong actual combat capabilities. My fleet was defeated by these explosive bombs..."
"Admiral Garcia, are you saying that the Chinese put explosive bombs on the warships? Are they crazy?" Cold sweat broke out on Marquis Spinola's forehead. There are also explosive bombs in Spain - this thing is very harmful to our own people. It's more dangerous than the enemy. Just use it on land, get on the boat... and blow up a whole boat of people!
Garcia shook his head: "They are not crazy...don't you understand? A military revolution at sea has begun! Battleships equipped with dozens or hundreds of cannons are no longer the absolute overlord of the sea! What if? Let a Chinese hard-sailed wooden ship with only a few 24-pounder guns approach, and it may suffer a devastating blow!"
Marquis Spinola exclaimed: "God, you mean, even if we send privateers, it will be difficult to stop the Chinese transport fleet?"
The captain and sailors on the privateer ship also need to survive. You have to know that they have explosive shells and can kill all the people on your ship with one shot. Who would dare to eat this bowl of decapitated rice?
Garcia shed tears: "Yes, Marquis... We need to design new battleships, design new cannons that can fire wooden-propelled shells, and we also need to imitate the Chinese's new shells.
Before all this is completed, even if all the local fleets are transferred to the Pacific, it will be difficult to stop the arrival of the Chinese! "
Marquis Spinola's voice trembled, "They are coming! Thousands of them are coming... What should we do?"
In fact, Zhu Cixiang did not want to touch the core territory of New Spain. He only wanted the future of the United States and western Canada, and had no intention of seizing Mexico and Peru.
But how did the Marquis of Spinola know this? He always felt that the silver and gold mines in Mexico and Peru were the most important reasons for attracting Chinese people to come across the ocean.
The loss of the silver and gold mines in Mexico and Peru also meant the collapse of the Spanish world empire...
"Marquis," Garcia took a deep breath and said, "I think it is time for Spain to choose between the Old World and the New World!"
"What did you say? What to choose?"
"Of course it is to choose the country's development focus!" Garcia said solemnly, "Spain's territories in the New World are in danger of being completely lost! Therefore, the country must make a choice between maintaining European hegemony and defending the New World.
If the kingdom chooses Europe, then...then we can only make peace with the Chinese, cede some land, let them continue to enter the New World, watch them establish the United States, and finally..."
"No, that's impossible!" Marquis Spinola immediately interrupted Garcia, "There is no such possibility. Without the New World, there would be no empire! We let them in now, and within twenty years, they will be in the New World The population will greatly exceed ours...then we will lose everything!"
No matter how hard the whites and mixed-race whites in New Spain tried to have children, no matter how hard the poor people in Spain worked to save money to buy ship tickets. It would also be difficult to raise New Spain's white, mestizo white population to one million within twenty years.
For the Chinese, one million immigrants in twenty years would be no more than 50,000 a year. Just 200 immigration ships running back and forth on the Pacific Ocean would be enough. Moreover, the immigrants themselves will reproduce... Considering that the new immigrants are all young men and women, the birth rate of the population must be very high. In twenty years, two million people will not be able to stop it!
"Then," Garcia paused, "we can only focus on the New World, escape from the chaos in Europe, and march into the Americas with all our strength. We can even...use Mexico City as the center of the Spanish world empire. capital!"
"You mean...the whole country will be moved?" Marquis Spinola looked straight at Garcia.
Garcia said: "Marquis, do you remember what Duke Olivaresbo said?"
"you mean......"
"King Philip should not be the King of Portugal, Aragon and Valencia, nor should he be the Count of Barcelona. Philip should just be the King of Spain!"
The Marquis was silent.
Admiral Garcia continued: "This ideal will never be realized in Spain itself... But here in New Spain, there are no Aragonese, no Castilians, no Catalans Asians, not even Dutch, not Italians, just whites, mulattoes, Indians, blacks. Whites from Europe, no matter who they were in Europe, when they got to New Spain, they were King Philip The most loyal subjects.
Marquis, our new Spain is at least twenty times larger than the old Spain!
If His Majesty the King can bring more European whites to New Spain, then Spain in the future will be a unified, united, vast, wealthy, and great American country! "
