I

"One hundred and sixty miles southeast of Xindeng, there is a strait that enters through the gorge. It contains heaven and earth. There are big bays in the north and south, and you can park anywhere. San Francisco), or 'Aoxiang'."

"The newly arrived natives are short and stocky with reddish skin. The Oro natives are slightly slender and brownish-yellow. The customs of the two tribes are very different..."

"In the land of Xindeng, there are many towering redwoods. In the land of Oro, there are redwoods and oaks everywhere. The imperial court lacks a hundred-year-old oak ship. The number of oaks here is inexhaustible. People who are hundreds of years old can look up. Oro This place can be used as a good port and a dock can be built..."

The so-called "Oro people" are actually "Oloni people", and there are differences in translation.

Near San Francisco, in addition to the Oroni, there are Miwok people. The two tribes have the same customs, speak a relatively similar language, and belong to the same tribal alliance.

The Kashayans who traded land with Li Quan, although only a hundred miles away from San Francisco, spoke another language and belonged to another tribal alliance.

The two alliances are enemies of each other, and wars often occur.

Li Quan had just arrived and did not understand the language, so it was difficult to figure out the relationship between these aborigines.

When it becomes clear in the future, most of them will help one of them to attack the other.

Judging from the situation, Li Quan first made friends with the Kashayans, and then coveted the land of the Oronians (San Francisco). So most of them formed an alliance with the Kashayans, knocked down the vicinity of San Francisco, and acquired land to open up colonial strongholds.

The fleet continued southward, exploring bays and estuaries along the way, and found that these were all similar aborigines.

Spain has colonized the Americas for more than a hundred years, and it has been slow to contaminate the west coast of North America. One is because the road is too far and too remote, and the other is that there is not much oil to squeeze.

Like the Aztec Empire and the Inca Empire, agriculture and handicrafts were developed, and there was a lot of gold. If you capture a tribe or town, you can grab old nose money, but when you come to California, you can only grab the fresh fish of the natives.

Traveling southward for more than 2,000 kilometers from San Francisco, Li Quan and the others encountered a Spanish colonial port.

At this time it was called Banderas, and hundreds of years later it was called Vallarta.

At present, the silver mines here are only mined on a small scale, mainly as a supply port for the galleon trade.

Five Chinese ships docked, causing an instant sensation.

The Colonial Chief is called Reyes, and he personally greeted the Chinese at the port. He was a little dazed when he saw the Chinese, but he quickly came back to his senses: "Are you here for trade?"

Li Quan has learned Spanish by himself, and there is no need for translation at all: "We are here to explore the ocean. Of course, we also brought a small amount of goods. They are all expensive commodities, such as top-grade silk, top-grade brocade, and top-grade lacquerware."

This trip to America was not for profit. A large amount of cotton cloth was sold in Japan, and then the ship was filled with food and drinking water.

However, expensive goods are also kept, all light and space-saving goods.

"Everyone wait a moment."

Reyes returned to the port town and called the tax collector, supervisor and missionary to discuss.

The ports throughout Spanish America have strict trade restrictions: first, only official transactions are allowed, and private transactions are not allowed. Second, foreign ships are not allowed to enter the port at will without the permission of the governor.

Not only that, there are also restrictions in the Philippines. After Chinese merchant ships arrive in the Philippines, private transactions and retail sales are not allowed. Commodities that can only be shipped by whole ship are negotiated and traded with the Philippine government, and multiple commodities must be sold together, and individual commodities cannot be sold.

The Spanish royal family is not only wary of foreign merchants, but also their own people.

The annual trade quota for goods shipped from the Philippines to the Americas is only 250,000 pesos.

The cargo warehouse of the galleon is divided into several spaces, and each space has a permit, and only Spaniards who have settled in the Philippines all year round can obtain permits. There are also supporting restrictions, that is, Spaniards are not allowed to freely immigrate to the Philippines. If they want to immigrate to the Philippines, they must obtain the king's permission and live in the Philippines for eight years before they are eligible to obtain a trade license.

Today, the galleon trading license in the Philippines has become a financial security just like Yanyin in the Ming Dynasty.

There are a group of nobles who can easily obtain licenses, sell them, and earn a fortune without doing anything. The price of the license was getting higher and higher, and small Spanish businessmen couldn't afford it, so a few people pooled their money to buy one, and obtained a warehouse space for the galleon.

And the more powerful nobles, such as governors and fleet commanders, directly competed with the royal family to engage in smuggling. They used the space for storing ammunition, and even the space for storing food, to illegally store their own cargo, so that the crew was often in danger of food shortages.

At the same time, due to the small trade quota, the American colonies were also very annoyed, and the goods shipped from Asia could not meet the needs of the American market.

America and the Philippines are full of grievances because of the royal policy!

That being the case, why restrict trade?

Of course, according to the policies formulated by the big nobles and big merchants, Asian goods are too cheap, which has harmed the interests of some nobles and merchants. At the same time, the long-term trade deficit has also made the royal family unable to bear it.

Ports like Banderas are even worse. There are silver mines here, and they have no shortage of silver. Every year, there are galleons to replenish supplies, but they can't buy goods with money, and can only sell grain and fruits to the fleet. For in America there is only one legal port, which serves as a trading port for galleons.

"Chinese friends, we want to check the goods on board and guarantee to buy at a price higher than the market." Reyes said after discussing.

Li Quan smiled and said, "Of course."

A group of Spaniards rushed into the cabin, and Li Quan also displayed the goods to his heart's content.

The two sides bargained and the Spaniards bought some of the goods. As for the selling price, it is 15 to 25 times the purchase price in China!

No way, the Spaniards here are so poor that they only have money left.

Forty-three years ago, Montescolaros, an American colonial official, wrote to the King of Spain: "...Here, you pay 10 gold pesos for a bunch of paper, 100 gold pesos for a clock, and 100 gold pesos for a clock. 3,000 to 4,000 gold pesos for a horse..."

The reason is simple. Too much gold and silver have been mined in the Americas, but daily necessities are extremely scarce. The colonists could not buy anything with gold and silver.

Although with the rise of the galleon trade and the development of the American colonies, there was no longer a shortage of commodities in the Americas. However, the royal family set a quota for the trade of galleons, and many commodities were not allowed to be sold in America. At this time, America was still in a state of more money and less goods.

On the one hand, the Spanish royal family went bankrupt several times, and on the other hand, the colonies had money and could not buy anything. The root cause was the prohibition of private cross-sea trade.

Then there was a miraculous situation, the trade between Europe and Spanish America, the scale of smuggling far exceeded the official trade.

In order to prevent corruption and smuggling, the King of Spain set up various official positions. There are layers of supervision, cross-supervision, and various types of official positions, which are so complicated that even the governor can't make sense of them. But it’s useless. If everyone can control a matter, it will become a situation where everyone doesn’t care. Officials from all walks of life are involved in corruption and smuggling together.

This is the situation right now, and many officials at the port reached a consensus within half an hour.

They want to partner in an illegal transaction, let alone the Chinese, even if the devil comes.

Li Quan was very happy when he sold the goods, but frowned when he supplied the food.

The vegetables and fruits here are so expensive, the price is several times that of China. The five ships were damaged by the storm, and they were only repaired in Xindeng. They needed to be carefully repaired in the dock here. The labor cost was so expensive that it seemed like a money grab.

Buying vegetables and fruits and repairing ships cost thousands of taels of silver, which made Li Quan feel pained.

A food base must be established, a shipbuilding base must be established!

The ship has not yet been repaired, and there is another wave of shopping.

Nearby Spanish planters, with a large amount of agricultural products and silver, came to the port to buy Chinese goods. And the residents in the small town also organized groups to shop, and bought silk, brocade and other items in joint ventures, which could be shipped to other places to sell and make money.

All the Spaniards were moved to tears, they, the residents of the West Coast, could finally participate in smuggling!

Before that, only the east coast and various islands could be smuggled, and there were no European smugglers coming to the west coast. Thanks to the merciful Chinese, let them also enjoy smuggling, what a wonderful experience.

Reyes took Li Quan's hand excitedly and asked, "Dear Chinese friends, will you come again next year? If you still come, I will contact the nearby towns in advance to raise more gold and silver for the purchase of goods. We Not only silk, lacquerware, and brocade, but also cotton cloth, blankets, porcelain, dried fruits, iron pots... These commodities, no matter what kind of goods are shipped, we can eat them all!"

"Does the governor not care?" Li Quan asked doubtfully.

Reyes smiled and said: "Of course he will control it, but it's not to prohibit your trade, but to extract profits from it. According to friends on the east coast, there are smuggling everywhere. If the governor really wants to control it, how can he allow smuggling to exist? Of course, you can’t go to Acapulco, which is the only legal port for the galleon trade. Everyone there is the beneficiary of the galleon trade, and any smuggling will arouse their disgust.”

Li Quan asked: "How far is the port of Acapulco?"

"It's about 130 miles south," Reyes said.

130 Spanish miles, about 730 kilometers.

Reyes suggested: "There is a port in the middle called Manzanillo. Although there are no silver mines there and the residents are not as rich as ours, they can still eat some of your goods. The fishery is developed there and can provide you with salted fish and Fresh fish can also provide vegetables and fruits. Remember, once you reach Manzanillo, you can’t go any further, and there is a high possibility of being attacked by the fleet.”

Li Quan asked: "We can't go any further, how should we go?"

Reyes said: "Depart from Manzanillo and sail directly to the southwest into the ocean. I guess it will soon enter the sailing trade channel. Dear Chinese friends, you must come next year. Everyone here is right. You are looking forward to it."

Just want to kill people laughing!

Although the Spaniards here live in the supply port of the galleon trade, although they are sitting on a nearby silver mine, they see that Chinese goods cannot be purchased every year. If they want to buy Chinese products, they have to resell them second-hand through Acapulco merchants. Acapulco merchants, on the other hand, have to obtain a license at a high price in order to buy goods and sell them everywhere. Coupled with the high export tax, the retail price is simply deadly.

Li Quan said: "For the Spanish friends, I will come again next year."

Reyes was very considerate and continued to help out with ideas: "You smuggled goods this year. After these goods are sold, they will definitely attract the attention of the governor. After you dock here next year, it is best to send someone to Mexico City to use exquisite and expensive Chinese artworks, bribe the governor in private. The governor will help you deal with other officials, but those officials also need to pay bribes. These bribes are disguised tariffs, which is what the east coast does."

No wonder the Spanish royal family went bankrupt. The volume of smuggled trade in the Americas has far exceeded the official trade volume, and the customs duties have been earned by colonial officials.