The warm and moist Indian Ocean monsoon hits the towering Himalayas head-on.
Created the moist and rainy Ganges Plain.
The river delta area with dense river network in Bangladesh has abundant water and sufficient sunshine to create this rich and densely populated estuary delta.
Calcutta, the notification center of the British Empire in British India, was located in this area.
The British Empire at this time did not fully occupy the entire India.
In later generations, the Indian colonies of the British Empire eventually included India, Bangladesh, the northwest part of Myanmar, Pakistan, etc., almost encompassing the entire South Asian subcontinent.
But now the core of the British Empire's rule in India is the Bengal region, and then it follows the coastline from north to south, occupying the entire east coast of India and part of the southern section of the west coast.
In the northwest of India, there are the Mughal Empire established by the degenerated Mongols and the Maratha Federation, the last Hindu country. These two major powers in the Indian region are resisting British colonial aggression.
Among them, the Mughal Empire was established by Babur, a descendant of Genghis Khan and Timur, who invaded India from Afghanistan.
"Mughal" means "Mongolia". In the heyday of the empire, its territory included almost the entire Indian subcontinent, as well as Afghanistan and other places in Central Asia. The official language of the empire is Persian, but its rulers are Mongols who believe in Christianity, have noble ancestry from the Chagatai Khanate, and are Persianized. Their rulers belong to the Timurid dynasty.
After Babur's death, his son Humayun was defeated by Sher Shah of the Sur Dynasty in 1540 and was expelled from India. However, he immediately reorganized his forces and took advantage of the civil strife in the Sur Dynasty to come back in 1555 and restore the empire. .
After the decline of the Mughal Empire, colonial empires such as the British Empire, the French Colonial Empire, the Dutch Colonial Empire and the Portuguese Colonial Empire competed for colonies in India. In the end, the British won, and the Mughal Emperor became a puppet.
In 1858, Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom was awarded the title of Queen of India and British India was established. The Mughal Dynasty was completely destroyed.
And the Maratha Federation.
It was once known as the Maratha Empire.
It is a modern political power on the Indian subcontinent and the last Hindu empire in Indian history. It started in 1674 and ended in 1818. At its peak, its territory once covered the entire northern India. After the death of Mughal emperor Aurangzeb in 1707, it greatly expanded its territory, only to be defeated at the Third Battle of Panipat in 1761. Subsequently, the empire was converted into a confederation until its defeat to the British in the Maratha War of 1818 and its demise.
Without the rise of Ming Dynasty.
The British expansion in India will gradually bring the entire South Asian subcontinent under British colonial rule.
Eventually the entire South Asian subcontinent was brought under its control.
And now.
The British Governor-General of Calcutta had no time to look west at this time, but withdrew the British troops to Bengal.
This was because the new Governor-General of India, Richard Wellesley, arrived in India and brought more than 7,000 British troops and a huge Eastern Intervention Fleet.
Britain's main strategic direction changed from expanding towards West India to becoming wary of the Ming vassal state in the east, the Burmese Konbaung Dynasty, and the increasing number of Ming merchants who bypassed the southern tip of the South Asian subcontinent and launched large-scale trade with the northwest states of India. .
The trade brought by these Ming merchants not only impacted the market of British goods in India.
It also objectively strengthened the strength of the northwest states of India, especially the Maratha Federation and the Mughal Empire.
This made the British Indian authorities even more intolerable.
therefore.
On the third day of the arrival of the new governor.
The moment that made many British merchants who came all the way to trade in India shout long live finally arrived.
The Governor-General of India issued a privateering order!
As long as any British merchant spent money to purchase a privateering license, he could freely attack and plunder all merchant ships flying the sun and moon flag in the Indian Ocean.
"John! John! Get rid of that batch of cotton! The big deal is coming!"
David Klein rushed in holding up an official document stamped by the Governor's Palace in Calcutta.
This is a pub in Calcutta.
There are many British businessmen who have lost their money gathered here.
Many merchants discovered after shipping cotton cloth to India that the price of cotton cloth in the Indian market had dropped to the point where they were completely intolerable.
If sold at that price, almost all cotton merchants would go bankrupt!
The reason for all this was entirely the influx of ridiculously cheap Chinese cotton cloth—even though the Governor-General of British India prohibited Chinese merchant ships from docking on their territory.
But this is of no use at all.
on the one hand.
The merchant ships of the Ming Dynasty could trade with Maratha Indian merchants and import cotton cloth into the Indian market in large quantities.
on the other hand.
The British ruled in India through compradors.
That is to say.
Smuggling cannot be eliminated at all.
Why do those compradors put away the high-quality and cheap Chinese cotton cloth to buy the expensive British cotton cloth?
Price has always been the only magic weapon for dumping.
So in this case.
The only way to prevent Chinese cotton cloth from entering the Indian market seems to be one - violence!
Issuing privateering licenses has been done in many European countries.
Since the profession of privateer appeared in the Age of Discovery.
"Legal use of piracy" is a method that many European countries are very interested in.
Among them, the originator is undoubtedly the great British who lacked great virtue.
In 1243, King Henry III of England first issued a "warrant", allowing private ships to attack and rob enemy ships. In return, the privateers were required to turn over a portion of their loot to the state.
in the next few hundred years.
Although European countries are trying to sign various treaties to abolish this immoral behavior of "legal robbery".
But helpless.
The cost of privateering is too low, the profit is high, and it is easy to operate.
Therefore, these signed contracts have no effect at all.
Repeatedly banned.
Now in terms of legal trade, Britain can no longer even keep its Indian colonial market.
Therefore, it is natural and logical to sacrifice this ancestral magic weapon again.
David Klein was not tall and had served in the Royal Navy, but because he had no money to buy an official position, he did not go further.
After getting out of the army.
Together with John Klein, he borrowed a sum of money and rented an armed merchant ship to transport a batch of cotton cloth to India in exchange for local Indian spices, gems, ivory and other local specialties.
Make a serious profit.
However, it took them almost half a year (mainly because their ship was too old) to arrive in India, and then they discovered that the British cotton on their ship was no longer in demand in India.
Because the price is too expensive, no one is willing to trade at a loss.
So this trip came down.
Klein Brothers went bankrupt.
If they go back to the UK, all their property will be mortgaged and it won't be enough to compensate them.
Like most British people, the Klein brothers, who could not return to England, had to wait for the opportunity here in Calcutta and drink to drown their sorrows.
"Privateering! Privateering! A privateering license is going to be issued! We are going to attack the Chinese merchant ships!"
Hear the words of David Klein.
The frustrated tavern where the quasi-bankrupt British businessmen gathered suddenly became a sensation.
"Damn it! This should have happened a long time ago!"
"Kill them!"
"Grab! Grab!"
“Praise God!”
"Go to hell! Chinese!"
John Klein hurriedly stood up and pulled David aside.
'what happened? Going to war with the Chinese? '
"It's most likely yes. Otherwise, what would the Eastern Intervention Fleet be doing here?"
David Klein lowered his voice.
"You only need a thousand pounds to buy a privateering license, and you only need to hand over 30% of the loot to the Governor's Mansion! We need Nan to sell all those cotton cloths as soon as possible, and let's lose money! Let's recruit a group of adventurers, This is the real big business with high profits!”
Is it robbery? Can the profit not be high?
Government House, Calcutta.
Richard Wellesley and Nelson sat opposite each other, and Richard poured Nelson a cup of black tea.
Nelson frowned after taking a sip.
"The best Chinese tea leaves, but it's a pity that we still can't get any tea species."
"Both the Qing Empire and the Ming Empire strictly controlled the outflow of tea seedlings and tea seeds, and we had nothing to do about it." Nelson said, "Hundreds of privateering licenses have been issued. The merchant ships of the Ming Empire are very They will be driven out of this area soon.”
"So, how will the Ming Empire react to this? Will they organize an expeditionary force or send a fleet to escort it?"
"Expeditionary Force?" Nelson shook his head. He never believed that the Ming Empire would send its army to India.
"They might send a naval fleet to escort them," Nelson said.
"In this case, won't our opportunity come?"
"Attack their escort fleet?" Richard Wellesley nodded slightly, and then said with a solemn expression: "This needs to be controlled. Our purpose is only to force the Ming Empire to surrender, not to start a full-scale war!"
War is about to break out in the Indian Ocean.
At this time, it was at the mouth of the Yangtze River.
The busy Yangtze River route has resumed full operation.
The Port of Suzhou at the mouth of the Yangtze River was perhaps the busiest port in the world at this time.
Ships traveling from north to south meet here.
Zhu Daohua was standing at the edge of Suzhou Port with Sun Shiyi, who was about to take a boat south.
The Ming and Qing dynasties had recently ceased war, and both sides were engaged in internal affairs. The Qing court was busy sending Green Flag soldiers to block Tongguan.
On the other hand, practice the Eight Banners.
And with the unhappiness on Daming's side, they broke up.
British, Spanish, and Russian missions headed north along the canal in an attempt to contact the Qing Empire.
"Your Majesty, aren't you worried at all about these Western barbarians going north?"
Sun Shiyi couldn't help but ask.
Zhu Daohua shook his head and said: "There is nothing to worry about. The world is so big, how can I block the way for the Qing Dynasty to contact the Western Yi people?"
The Qing Dynasty in later generations had very smooth channels of contact with the West, but they did not have any contact with it.
Right now.
A dilapidated Dafu ship creaked and prepared to dock.
There were waiting comprador merchants on the shore.
But soon there were sighs of disappointment.
"It's rice, it's still rice!"
“Why is rice from Nanyang so cheap?”
"Farmers in Jiangnan no longer grow rice."
"You're losing money by growing rice."
Discussions arose one after another.
Sun Shiyi looked at Zhu Daohua and hesitated to speak.
(End of chapter)
