New Shun 1730

The British often do such things, and they have a long criminal record, so it is reasonable for them to be suspected by the Governor of Batavia.

Before being transferred from Amsterdam, Valkner had worked in Ceylon and India, and often dealt with the London East India Company.

Especially the current general representative of the London East India Company in Guangdong, Fazak Clay, who is always thinking about squeezing the Dutch trade with China.

For Britain, it may not be necessary to rule the whole of Southeast Asia, but it is enough to disrupt the Netherlands and break the Dutch monopoly.

Valkner is very clear about the East India Company's trick to make money, that is, monopoly and scarcity.

For example, cloves and nutmeg are produced in huge quantities in Ambon and Banda. The Dutch couldn't eat all of them themselves, so the British secretly went to buy them, thereby competing with the Netherlands and lowering prices.

The Dutch's approach was also simple and crude.

Kill all the people on Banda Island, set fire to all the cloves and cut them. Any tribes, chiefs, and villages that dared to trade privately with Britain were all slaughtered, leaving no one alive.

Whole ships of cloves and cardamoms were thrown directly into the sea. In this way, the output was reduced and the price naturally went up. The British wanted to continue buying, but unfortunately all the people on Banda Island died and there was nothing to buy. In this way, the Dutch East India Company naturally made a profit.

The same ship of goods, selling one pound for 100 silver coins and one pound for 10 silver coins, the profit must be different. There are only so many ships and the market is so big, so of course the less the better.

Spice, to put it bluntly, is a kind of tree. As long as the climate is right, how can there be no output?

So the British don't need to occupy Southeast Asia. On the one hand, Britain and the Netherlands are still allies now, and on the other hand, the cost of occupying and ruling is not low.

It only needs to make the Dutch internal chaos and unable to control Southeast Asia, so that the British East India Company can bypass the Dutch and trade privately, which is enough.

Valknier has almost guessed it in his heart, but the current priority is not to settle accounts with the British. If there is no evidence, the British will not admit it.

It is useless to have evidence. The Netherlands has fought three wars with Britain to abolish the British "Navigation Acts" that closed the country. What they could not get on the battlefield, they could not get at the negotiation table.

The key disgusting thing is that the British can disgust the Netherlands so much, but the Netherlands cannot disgust Britain with similar means.

Because all the means that can be used have been used long ago. Smugglers have been smuggling to the British colonies in North America. If they are caught by the British, they will be hanged for piracy, but this is the limit. Now there is no chance to incite the independence of the British North American colonies. At least now there is no sign of any opposition from the locals.

The most urgent task is to put out the flames of these uprisings first.

Don't let them burn. Once they burn, those sultanates that temporarily surrender to the Netherlands will definitely take the opportunity to rebel.

At this time, all the Dutch officials in Batavia have arrived. The people of the Batavia City Council immediately suggested to Valkner that since it is the Chinese who are making trouble, they must be careful of the Chinese with residence permits in the city who are working together.

Now we should use thunderbolts to tie all the Chinese who were arrested in the prison without residence permits to stones and throw them into the sea to prevent riots.

At the same time, all the Chinese in the city should be put under guard, or the Javanese in the city should be incited by the dissatisfaction caused by the Chinese tax farmers to massacre all the Chinese in the city.

The Chinese Kapitan and Lei Zhenlan, although they hold the rank of captain and lieutenant, are not qualified to attend such a meeting and can only wait outside.

The real core Dutch think what they think and say what they think.

However, Valkner immediately rejected this terrible idea. Although when he first came, he thought it was even more bloody than this, thinking that most of them should be killed and the rest should be transported to Ceylon and Cape Town to be sold as debt slaves.

But now, with the victory of Dashun over Japan and the battleship sailors being led by Liu Yu to beat the Dutch envoy Phillips in Tianjin, the simplest and most practical method that Valkner thought before has now become a "terrible and unkind" idea.

"Gentlemen, your idea is terrible. Looking at their proclamation documents, it is obvious that this is not a rebellion of the Chinese, but an uprising of the Wushan Party and the Sans-trousers."

"Kapitan Lian Fuguang has already reported those dangerous elements among the Chinese. The current uprising is likely to be manipulated by the British."

"Obviously, the British hope to use China's hand to attack our influence in Southeast Asia. You know what the British have done. They allied with the Netherlands to fight Spain, allied with France to fight the Netherlands, and allied with Austria to fight France... They are on the island, and many times they don't need to do it themselves, they just need to instigate war."

"If we indiscriminately slaughter the Chinese now, it will inevitably cause China to retaliate. Gentlemen, at least two 74-gun battleships and 15 level 5 cruisers, as well as an army that can easily defeat the Mongolian cavalry... I hope you will seriously consider the consequences when giving advice."

"Especially when their 'Secretary of the Navy' is a fanatical patriot. The British can go to war with Spain for 'Jenkins's ears', so why won't China go to war because of our indiscriminate slaughter of the Chinese?"

Valkniel did not think that Dashun had any interest in Southeast Asia, but now Dashun might go to war because of the massacre, especially in the context of Britain going to war because of Jenkins' ear, public opinion would ferment into a different flavor - barbarians know that those who offend the mighty Han will be punished no matter how far away they are, and it was just a broken ear. The Dutch slaughtered tens of thousands of people, and our Celestial Empire did not care?

Valkniel was worried that this incident would lead to armed intervention and gunboat diplomacy from Dashun.

In the absence of absolute victory, the Dutch like to quote Grotius's Law of the Sea Convention and oppose any form of gunboat diplomacy; and more than a hundred years ago in Penghu, Zhoushan and Macau, the Dutch had great confidence and naturally supported any form of gunboat diplomacy.

When the Governor-General was against the massacre, someone said: "Governor-General, even if the Chinese have a few warships, their training may not be qualified. In fact, it is not impossible for a level 5 ship to defeat a 74-gun battleship with experience."

The person who spoke told a joke that was not funny. Several people with naval service experience thought it was nonsense. What kind of captain could lead a level 5 ship to defeat a tripolar ship? Unless all the ships in Southeast Asia are assembled now, and the seven provinces' navy's signature skills are used to raid Weihai Port.

The confident man continued: "If we don't slaughter them at this time, if they attack Batavia from inside and outside, it will be a huge loss for the company!"

It's called the company, but it's not just the company.

If Batavia is breached, it will not only be a huge loss for the company, but also a huge loss for every employee here.

The dispute over the canal shipping in Dashun is the livelihood of millions of canal workers; the Netherlands established a trade committee with China, but still had to go around in Batavia for transit, which is the same reason of "the livelihood of millions of canal workers".

All the people who come to Batavia are here to make money. If they don't want to make money, who would want to come to such a ghost place? Without Batavia, the income of these people will drop sharply. No one would want to come to Batavia with only the income of the company.

The governor can allow 20,000 silver coins of "legal additional income" per year. In addition to this legal additional income, the governor will also auction some garbage.

For example, if you randomly find a broken bottle and say you want to auction it, those who want to get the tax farming right will think it is a treasure. A broken bottle worth five copper coins can be auctioned for a high price of several thousand silver coins, and this can be reasonably accounted for. It does not belong to corruption and bribery, nor is it included in the "legal additional income"; and the tax farming right tax farming must be paid from the public account, which has nothing to do with the governor's pocket.

200 silver coins tax farming is paid from the public account, and 1,000 silver coins are paid for the governor's broken bottle. It's good for everyone, and the accountant at the company headquarters can't find any problems.

The governor is like this, and it is conceivable that everyone will have their own customary income.

In addition, there are many wealthy Chinese in Batavia, and some people have been jealous for a long time. If we kill a group of people, like Kapitan Lian Fuguang, whose manor is more luxurious than the Governor's Mansion, we can easily find a crime and earn hundreds of thousands of silver coins. Wouldn't it be great if we could share it with everyone?

There are 7,000 to 8,000 Chinese with residence permits in the city. Each person can afford a head tax of 2 silver coins per year. The total assets of each person, not counting the wealthy merchants such as Kapitan Lei Zhenlan, are an average of 100 to 200 silver coins.

7,000 to 8,000 people, an average of 200 silver coins per person, and nearly 2 million after killing them all. If we share it with everyone, we can leave this hellhole and return to the Netherlands. As for what will happen to Batavia in the future and what will happen to the East India Company in the future, what does it have to do with us?

Liu Zongyuan talked about similar issues in "On Feudalism". Some people say that feudal hereditary system can make feudal lords love the people, at least they will not squeeze the people so hard that they can't live, and they know how to make steady progress; while officials may do a one-time deal, anyway, they will leave after the work is done, and it has nothing to do with them in the future.

But as the governor, Valkner must take full responsibility for this matter. The people on the board of directors have judicial power. If they really dare to touch the interests of the seventeen gentlemen, he will be dead soon.

Moreover, the governor is in charge, and the people under him can only make suggestions at most. In the end, he still makes the final decision, and he will also be responsible for the future.

Considering the threat of Dashun gunboat diplomacy and the possibility that Britain will instigate the war between China and the Netherlands behind the scenes and Britain will reap the benefits, Valkner strongly opposes this idea.

"Gentlemen, as the governor appointed by the board of directors, I am responsible to the seventeen gentlemen and all shareholders."

"You should know that the company's finances are already very difficult now."

"Since our silly compatriot discovered a smaller world with a microscope, the theory of four liquids in the human body has been abandoned by many people. The "dry and hot" spices produced in tropical areas no longer have medicinal value for expelling cold and dampness, and people consume very little of them. Moreover, we cannot promote rhubarb like the Russians, because rhubarb can really relieve constipation; and once the "dry and hot" spices do not use the theory of four liquids in the human body, it is difficult to see the effect."

"Spices are no longer used as medicines, prices and sales are falling, and the company is losing money in many places in Southeast Asia. Japan's trade has been banned by the Chinese. If we annoy China, they will immediately impose an embargo on us."

"Even if China does not send troops, as long as the embargo is imposed, the company's capital turnover will be a big problem. How will the board of directors explain to shareholders when the year-end dividends are distributed? Moreover, you also know that many idiots in China who cannot eat grapes and say that grapes are sour are also opposed to monopoly trade, and believe that all Dutch people should be allowed to trade, not just company employees. There are many such remarks, which can also bewitch those idiots."

"Have you thought about the consequences if the year-end dividends cannot be distributed?"