Zhou Peigong was still too kind. He never thought that his enemy would be so despicable and would poison the Mexican blankets and mink skins he gave to King Shang Fang first!
So when the boxes filled with fur fabrics were opened one after another and placed in the hall of his Xibohou Mansion, he pretended to check them out for himself...it looked a little dirty!
However, the leather is still good, and the blanket is finely woven, and it is carmine red in color, very eye-catching. It should be washed later, and it should be in good condition.
Thinking of this, Zhou Peigong put down a carmine-red alpaca wool blanket that was stained with smallpox virus, nodded with a smile, and turned his attention to Alfonso Garcia and Raul Torres, but saw He had a weird smile—how could he look like he was succeeding in his evil plot?
He frowned slightly and said slowly: "Since you just want to conduct trade with the Ming Dynasty through Shangfang Kingdom, then... just build a market on the Seagrass Beach. There is already a market on the Seagrass Beach. The port allows Ming’s ships and your ships to stay there. However, we merchants cannot provide the place for free, we must collect taxes!”
"Yes, no problem, we can pay taxes in silver." Alfonso Garcia is the adjutant of the Count of San Cristo, the deputy king of New Spain, and is now also the deputy king's representative. Although his main mission in coming to Xin Chaoge was to spread poison and spy on Shang Fang, he still had the right to discuss trade issues with Shang Fang - what if Shang Fang's country was full of pockmarks? Therefore, the Deputy King still gave the authorization.
"The tax law of our Shang country levies taxes based on the length and width of the sailing ship," Zhou Peigong added. "Even if there is no empty ship loaded with goods, you still have to pay taxes."
The tax laws of Shangfang Country are very simple. One is the gold mine commission, the other is the vehicle and boat tax, the other is the shop tax in Chaoge Commercial Port and the East and West cities, and the other is the household tax - pay for grain, pay for cured meat, and pay for livestock. Either way.
What he is talking about with Alfonso Garcia now is the vehicle and boat tax.
"No problem," Alfonso Garcia said without hesitation, "We Spaniards are the most disciplined and willing to pay taxes according to the requirements of the merchant country."
Zhou Peigong nodded and said: "In addition, we will build a special market for you and the Ming people. Outside the market, we will build a wooden fence and dig earth for a trench... You and the Ming people are not allowed to leave the wooden fence and the The area defined by the trench.”
"Okay!" Alfonso Garcia agreed again, with an expression of joy on his face, "I hope you can build the market as soon as possible, because we have not conducted direct trade with the Ming Dynasty for three years. And we The silk weaving factory in Mexico City is in urgent need of white silk from the Ming Dynasty. Because there is no way to buy white silk through direct trade, we have to let Dutch profiteers buy the white silk... This is more expensive than buying it directly from the Ming Dynasty. Thirty percent!”
Contrary to the imagination of later generations, the Spanish colonies in America had no industry (handicrafts), but were different from the European raw material production areas and goods dumping places. In fact, the handicraft industry in New Spain was quite developed, even surpassing that of mainland Spain. New Spain produced a dye called cochineal, which was the best red dye of the era. Relying on carmine and white silk shipped via the galleon trade, Mexico developed a sizable silk weaving industry, and its products were also very popular in the European market.
In addition, New Spain's sugar production, brewing, shipbuilding and other industries are all developing very well, making it a perfect candidate for the country of choice!
Hearing what Alfonso Garcia said, Zhou Peigong was relieved. He smiled and said: "Isn't it just a market... It will definitely be completed before the end of January next year!"
...
Late 1688 AD, New Spain, Mexico City.
This first city in America seems to be ushering in a new era now! News just came from Europe that surprised and excited most of the smart citizens. Their city will soon become the residence of the Spanish Emperor!
This is a double benefit!
The first thing is that Spain is going to have an emperor! The so-called New Spanish Empire has actually been around for many years, even earlier than the Kingdom of Spain - in Spain, there has always been an empire that created Spain. This means that the Spanish colonial empire fed back and created the Kingdom of Spain.
The concept of empire is used in Europe to describe countries with strong national power, and is not limited to monarchies. Therefore, this empire does not necessarily have an emperor, or even a truly sovereign country... This thing is quite brain-burning.
In short, after the discovery of the New World, some monarchs in Europe who were not qualified to claim the title of emperor came up with the concept of colonial empire - which roughly means that my country is not particularly powerful in Europe and has no ability to claim the title of emperor. Righteousness. However, my country has large colonies outside of Europe and is powerful and glorious. Not calling it an empire would be a bit too modest.
Therefore, Spain, France, England, and even Portugal, a country that is not even qualified to be a kingdom in Europe (Portugal is strictly speaking only a county), can still be called the Portuguese colonial empire because they have large colonies overseas.
However, these colonial empires are just bragging rights, and no king has claimed to be the emperor of the colonial empire. Even the monarch of the Spanish colonial empire, known as the Empire on which the sun never sets, could only be called the King of Spain rather than the Emperor of Spain.
And the original Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I is likely to become the first colonial emperor... According to news from Europe, the Electoral House of the Holy Roman Empire Parliament has elected a new The emperor was Louis XIV, King of France. Louis XIV was now renamed Louis I, and announced that the Holy Roman Empire of the Germans would be changed to the Holy Roman Empire of all Franks!
At the same time, Louis I issued a pardon, allowing the abdicated Leopold I to continue to retain the title of "Emperor". And this became the legal basis for Leopeter to jump to Spain and become emperor.
The Queen Mother Maria Anna who is in power in Spain is the biological sister and mother-in-law of Leopold I (this relationship is really rare). When her son is destined not to give birth to an heir, she naturally hopes that her son-in-law and brother can Succession to the throne of Spain. Therefore, she also strongly supported Leopold I as the emperor of the Spanish colonial empire, going to Mexico to ascend the throne, and then being responsible for ruling the Spanish colonies in the New World. When Carlos II dies in the future, Leopold or Leopold's son will inherit the Spanish throne.
And Leopold I will go to Mexico City to ascend the throne and proclaim himself emperor, which is of course good news... at least for the Mexican people, it is very good news. Although everyone knows that Leopold I was a somewhat stupid emperor, no matter how weak his brain was, he was still better than Carlos II! Moreover, Leopold will also bring a group of highly capable German nobles and civilians. Although this group of people are all outsiders, having them is better than not having them. Besides, they will really integrate the Viceroyalty of New Spain and the Viceroyalty of Peru into a real country!
For the Viceroyalty of New Spain and the Viceroyalty of Peru, becoming a real country...even if they have to send a large amount of gold and silver to Spain every year is better than continuing to be two poorly managed colonies. !
The situation in the Viceroyalty of New Spain and the Viceroyalty of Peru in the past hundred years or so has been that no one cares, no one loves, and no one cares about them!
The Spanish king was beyond his reach, and the governor he sent just took a handful and left... No one really cared about the development of the colony. So much so that the smuggled trade in the colonies was ten times greater than the legal trade!
This not only caused a large loss of tax revenue from the colonies, but also allowed smuggled European goods to impact the market of the New World - New Spain plus Peru had a population of at least more than 10 million, and because of the existence of mountains of gold, silver, tobacco, sugar, and dyes, Because of these big-money commodities, the purchasing power of New Spain and Peru was so strong that even France and the Ottoman Empire could not compare.
If these two colonies could have a real government, adopt some tariff protection, encourage the development of industry and commerce, and attract European immigrants to join, there would really be nothing wrong with the United States in the future.
The citizens of Mexico City in this era don’t know that it is too close to the United States and they can just sneak there to work or something, let alone hope that American soldiers can come and annex their country... They only know their city now It is the center of the New World. Once it becomes the capital of the emperor, it will always become the darling of the New World. The wealth of the entire continent will be gathered in Mexico City. As long as time is given, this city will become a real city on a hill!
By then, no European city will be able to compete with Mexico City. Perhaps only Lahore in the Indian Empire and Nanjing in the Ming Empire can keep pace with Mexico City...
While the citizens of Mexico City were waiting with excitement for the arrival of their emperor, the rulers of the city, the Count of San Cristo, the Vice-King of New Spain, and the Archbishop de Zumarraga also waited for something exciting that made them excited. News - the poisoning was successful, the business side is about to be finished!
"Thank God! We are about to win again. The glory belongs to God!"
In the sitting room of the Governor's Palace in Mexico City, Archbishop Desumarraga couldn't restrain his excitement after listening to the reports of Alfonso Garcia and Raul Torres, and crossed himself on his chest.
Next to him, Count San Cristóbal, the deputy king of New Spain, seemed a little worried about going to hell. He also made the sign of the cross, and then asked the old cardinal, but his eyes were still full of determination: "Your Highness, you will die this time." A lot of people… we’re not going to hell, right?”
The cardinal glanced at Count St. Chris and said in a positive tone: "People have souls. After death, the soul may ascend to heaven or fall into hell. But the Shang people do not believe in God, so they have no soul and cannot Count people... if you kill them, you won’t go to hell!”
The process of colonizing America resulted in the deaths of at least tens of millions of Indians! And it's not just invisible viruses and bacteria that take away those lives...it's also swords, guns, and deliberately created famines!
This is no longer genocide, but the annihilation of one civilization after another!
And the person who committed such evil deeds thought that he was doing the right thing... Extermination was right! Good for extinction! And it will continue to be extinct! Because the civilizations and races they exterminated have no souls and deserve to be exterminated!
It was the Indians who had no souls before, but now it is the Shang people who have no souls.
"They really haven't had smallpox?" The cardinal seemed a little worried, so he asked again.
"No, absolutely not!"
"We stayed in Xinchaoge for ten days, during which time we left the embassy area and went to the merchant's commercial area to sell blankets... not only to merchants, but also to Indians. And every face there There are no scars left by the healing smallpox!”
"Yeah, the people there hadn't even heard of smallpox...so they didn't take any precautions!"
These two people are right!
Even a traitor like Zhou Peigong would not have thought that someone would weaponize smallpox... This kind of thing is simply extremely wicked in the eyes of the Han people. Even when the Ming Dynasty and the Manchu Qing Dynasty were fighting fiercely, they never thought of weaponizing smallpox. Considering that the Han people had already mastered the method of vaccinating people with pox, they should have the ability to spread the poison. Historically, Europeans did not believe in the effectiveness of variolation until the 18th century. In the 16th century, they did not know about variolation at all, but this did not prevent them from poisoning their opponents.
"We have also obtained the right to trade with the merchants at the port of the City of Angels," Raul Torres said. "This way we can continue to release smallpox and at the same time obtain information about whether smallpox is epidemic in the merchant country."
Count St. Chris, who had already determined that he could not go to hell, became more energetic and analyzed with a smile: "When the Spaniards first arrived in America, those Indians who did not believe in God and had never had smallpox were infected and became Thousands died. Many densely populated cities often lost half to seventy-eight percent of their population in a short period of time... Coupled with other infectious diseases and secondary outbreaks of smallpox, within a few years It can even wipe out more than 90% of the population. If we can kill so many Shang people, we will definitely win."
"Your Highness the Vice-King," Garcia suggested, "In fact, our army can take a large sailing ship and march directly to the commercial port of the City of Angels by sea...Those stupid merchants will build fences and dig there. The trenches are used to isolate us and the merchants of the Ming Dynasty from communicating with their people. The fences and trenches they built themselves are fortifications that we can use, and the commercial ports they built are just for us to station troops!"
"When will their trading port be built?" asked Count St. Chris.
"Next January," Garcia replied.
