I

The new industrial development idea is to relax the use of urban industrial land.

This policy will definitely be exploited by some people to annex land in disguised form near towns and villages. This is true of any policy, and it cannot be avoided at all. We can only strengthen supervision from relevant aspects, although supervision will definitely not be possible.

Cities and towns with location advantages will sooner or later stand out under the influence of objective laws.

Location advantages include transportation, resources, manpower, etc.

Just like Jiangning Town in the west of Nanjing, the specific address is probably between the urban areas of Nanjing and Ma'anshan in later generations. It seems to be inseparable, but it is backed by the Yangtze River and a small river flows from Jilong Mountain. At present, Nanjing has taken over the remaining textile industry. As long as the land grant is opened, the textile industry will flourish rapidly and a large textile industry town will be formed.

It will compete with Nanjing for various industrial resources and will definitely interfere with each other at first. But when the technology is sufficient, resources are surplus, and transportation develops, it will be connected with Nanjing and jointly form a textile industry belt around Nanjing.

It is even more obvious in Jiangnan, such as Gaoqiao Town in Wuxi. It's still just a water town, but it's located at the intersection of two canals. One canal connects Jiaxing, Wujiang, Suzhou, Wuxi, Changzhou, Danyang, and Zhenjiang, and the other connects Jiangyin and joins the Yangtze River. There are also two rivers that connect to Taihu Lake, and the surrounding areas are all cotton-producing areas. Once the land is released, the industrial location advantage will come immediately.

There are many small towns like this in the south of the Yangtze River. They are blooming all over the place and competing with each other, stimulating the progress of textile technology. In the end, the winner will be determined like a beetle. The market and capital will automatically adjust and form industrial supporting facilities. For example, some small towns are mainly engaged in spinning; some small towns are mainly engaged in weaving; some small towns are mainly engaged in dyeing. When small towns unite, the conditions for large-scale industrial production will be created.

So far, only Jiangnan has reached this level. What is lacking is technological progress.

The six prefectures of Su, Song, Chang, Hu, Hang, and Jia are probably the most densely populated areas in the world today. Cities and towns are clustered all over the place, and they all have a handicraft industry foundation and are connected by complex water networks.

…

Mughal Empire, India, Bay of Bengal, Hooghly Port.

The accelerated prosperity of China's cotton textile industry has clearly affected this area.

Decades ago, Hooghly was not under the direct control of the Mughal emperors. People of all ethnic groups in India who fled the war gathered here to form many communities. The Portuguese also formed two communities that eventually merged into one city and even built the Portuguese Wall.

This is not a colony, but a leased territory, similar in nature to Macau.

Because Portugal paid generous taxes, local officials were happy to see the results, and the two sides lived in peace for decades.

More than twenty years ago, in the early years of Chongzhen.

Chongzhen, who had just succeeded to the throne, was facing a severe drought in Shaanxi. Shah Jahan, who succeeded to the throne at that time, was faced with a severe Mughal drought. The Ming Dynasty and the Mughal Empire experienced widespread severe drought almost at the same time - the Little Ice Age had an abnormal climate. No one was spared. Japan and Korea were also suffering from famine at that time.

The Mughal Empire suffered from years of famine, people cannibalized each other, and many villages were exterminated collectively.

Internal troubles were also accompanied by foreign troubles. Shah Jahan, who had just ascended the throne, got the same script as Chongzhen. Rebels appeared in the west of the empire, the Sultanate on the Deccan Plateau was also in trouble, and there was still war with the Persian Empire further west.

As a result, the prosperous port of Hooghly was targeted, and Portugal, the fat pig, could be slaughtered.

Of course, a teacher must be famous, and Shah Jahan also accused the Portuguese of slave trading and proselytizing!

In fact, the Mughal Empire itself traded slaves and had long ago agreed to Portuguese missionary work. This time Portugal was really criticized for no reason.

Ten thousand troops, four hundred warships, a large number of war elephants and artillery, marched towards Hooghly Port in a mighty manner. The Portuguese in the city had less than 300 soldiers and more than 1,500 civilians and missionaries.

With such a disparity in strength, the Mughal army was still unable to break through the city wall and surrounded it until the Portuguese ran out of ammunition and food.

Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan achieved a "splendid victory", but he did not seem very happy. In the past year alone, the Mughals took the initiative to show goodwill to Portugal. Not only did they release all captives, they also granted a large amount of land to the Portuguese to rebuild communities, and even granted the Portuguese 17 commercial and religious privileges.

Why is this?

Because the Portuguese were driven away, not a grain of food was captured, and the spoils were not enough to cover the war expenses. Moreover, domestic goods could not be transported from the Bay of Bengal, which not only lost the commercial taxes paid by the Portuguese, but also caused a large number of domestic craftsmen to lose their jobs. A big victory made the Mughal economy even worse.

After three years of inviting the Portuguese back, the recovery of Hooghly Port was too slow. Shah Jahan was very angry and drove the Portuguese away again and contracted all the relevant land to the Dutch.

The Dutch had run the port for twenty years, and now it was finally prospering again.

But the Dutch were too arrogant and domineering. Shah Jahan felt that the British were good, so he agreed to the British establishment of a trade point in Hooghly.

Cotton weaving was one of the most important industries in the Mughal Empire!

The Portuguese, British and Dutch bought cotton cloth at Hooghly Port and sold it to Southeast Asia for pepper, or purchased Chinese goods.

Nowadays, as China has improved spinning machines and looms, a few even use primitive steam engines. The production efficiency of cotton textiles has increased rapidly and the cost has continued to decrease. Although it will not impact the Indian market, it has completely occupied the Southeast Asian market of Indian cotton cloth!

Indian cotton cloth cannot be sold in Southeast Asia.

At the same time, China's cotton textile industry continues to experience a shortage of raw materials. As a result, Portugal, Britain and the Netherlands began to purchase cotton or cotton yarn in large quantities in Bangladesh and southeastern India. They transported cotton and cotton yarn to Banten and Batavia, and then the Han merchants there shipped it to Jiangsu and Zhejiang for sale.

In the past two years, due to the occupation of Malacca by China, Guangdong maritime merchants began to think about Indian cotton.

Guangdong maritime merchants set up a station in Malacca, first going to Hooghly Port to buy cotton. The maritime trade business here was jointly dominated by the Netherlands and Britain (the Netherlands was the main force, but the British had a faction of the Mughal emperor). Local officials accepted bribes and refused to contact Chinese businessmen, so Guangdong maritime merchants had no choice but to continue southward.

Finally, in the country of Tanjore on the southeast coast, through the Portuguese, businessmen from Guangdong successfully bought the first batch of Indian cotton.

With the Chinese mission to the Mughals, the Mughal emperor also agreed to Sino-Indian trade. Only then did Guangdong merchants successfully enter Hooghly Port, but their share of cotton was still small, mainly because it was robbed by Dutch merchants.

"Why has the price of cotton increased again?"

Port Hooghly, a Chinese businessman, was complaining to his translator.

The translator explained: "Cotton sales are in short supply, and the British and Dutch are also competing for it. Mughal merchants have no worries about selling, so they just raise prices, and the Dutch are also angry about it."

The Chinese businessman's name is Chen Liangxi, from Xiangshan, Guangdong. He was only responsible for buying Indian cotton and occasionally cotton yarn. He would unload the goods when they arrived in Guangzhou, and then transfer them to Jiangsu and Zhejiang by other merchants.

Chen Liangxi said angrily: "Even if the price increases, it cannot go up so much. It has suddenly increased by 50%. When I ship it back to China, where will I still make a profit?"

The translator said: "Businessmen here never care about credibility. As long as they get something cheap, they will make it to death."

After several days of repeated negotiations, Chen Liangxi finally bought cotton, but the price was so outrageous that the profit was negligible.

Neither Chinese nor British businessmen could accept the high cotton prices, but the Dutch actually agreed.

The Netherlands has a large number of ships going to Batavia from the Bay of Bengal every year. There are not many goods that can be trafficked, so as long as there is a small profit, it is better than running on an empty ship. Moreover, they can also engage in price wars to drive away the British and Chinese who trade here. It’s not too late to lower prices after forming a monopoly!

The businessmen of the British East India Company took the initiative to find Chen Liangxi: "Chen, China is so powerful, Chinese businessmen should go to see the emperor. Ask the Chinese emperor to send troops to drive the Dutch out of Batavia. In that way, you can fight in India By buying cheap cotton, we can also buy more spices in Java.”

Chen Liangxi lamented: "His Majesty, the Emperor of China, has many things to do and is busy with government affairs. How can he raise troops because of us businessmen?"

The British businessman said: "The monarch of a country should open up markets for merchants. I heard that the Chinese emperor is very wise and intelligent, and he will definitely help drive away the Dutch. Didn't China and the Netherlands fight several wars in the past few years? You have occupied Malacca."

Chen Liangxi was thoughtful.

Returning to Guangzhou with the cotton, Chen Liangxi went to find his employer. He is just an errand boy, the real boss, and it is impossible for him to go to India to purchase goods in person.

"The boss, the Dutch, colluded with Mughal officials and merchants at Hooghly Port to raise prices for cotton and cotton yarn," Chen Liangxi said. "The Dutch are ambitious and want to monopolize the cotton trade. They will lower the prices after they force us out. Let them By doing this, Hugli’s business will no longer need to be run, and he won’t be able to make much even though he works so hard.”

The owner's name was Chen Chong and asked: "What do you think?"

Chen Liangxi said: "Let's work together with the merchants from the south of the Yangtze River to help His Majesty. Please send troops to capture Batavia in one fell swoop. As long as the Netherlands loses Batavia, the Dutch will not be able to gain a foothold and will no longer be able to compete with us for business."

Chen Chong frowned and said, "This matter is not easy to handle. Firstly, the Jiangnan merchants may not be willing to join forces with us; secondly, the imperial court will probably not send troops because of this."

Chen Liangxi said: "Textile merchants in Jiangnan are often short of cotton. Especially after the recovery of Shandong, Shandong is also building textile factories. Shandong's cotton is sold to Jiangnan less and less. We help Jiangnan merchants buy Indian cotton. The most beneficial thing is They, why don't they want to help? As for the court, let's see what your Majesty does."

Chen Chong thought about it, clapped his fists and said, "Then give it a try!"