New Shun 1730

The officer, who went by the pseudonym Wang Wu, followed Liu Yu's instructions and directly stated that he wanted to buy military equipment.

Sure enough, Fazaklai did not ask more about "selling or not", but directly asked how much he wanted to buy.

The British East India Company had guns and cannons. At that time, India was still strong and looked quite scary.

Britain and France were fighting in India. The French took the lead in arming the local soldiers, and the British followed suit.

The princes of the Indian states also fought all day and bought arms. The East India Company stored a lot of guns and cannons, which were high-profit goods and stored a lot in the warehouse.

"How much do you want?"

"One thousand two hundred brown bass and matching bayonets. Three hundred to five hundred Indian scimitars for cavalry. Six three-pound cannons and four twelve-pound cannons. And some gunpowder and lead. Money is not a problem. We used to do business in Batavia, run sugar factories, and work in spice plantations."

The quantity is not too much. Britain and France gave gifts to the princes of the Indian princely states, and also gave gifts of thirty to fifty cannons. Whether it is guns or cannons, they are all in stock.

Since the other side has money, it is best.

It is easier to get things done with money. If he doesn't have money, even if he wants to help people here, he needs permission from the company headquarters.

Giving and buying are not the same thing. If he wants to buy, he can directly discuss with the local person in charge.

"These equipment are not a problem. But do you know how to use them?"

"Don't worry about that. We have Bugis in our team, and they can play cavalry. We can also shoot. As for cannons, we also have people who can operate them. Some brothers have served as artillery in the Sultanate of Matalan, and some have served in the army of the Celestial Empire."

There are many hidden talents among the Chinese who went to Southeast Asia. No matter what their status is, as long as they are not officials, they can be trusted.

Fazakley calculated the price and quoted a price of 33,000 taels of silver. This price is still relatively conscientious. If the subsequent gunpowder is included, the price will be more, but that can be negotiated.

"The price is about this. We can sell it to you, but the Dutch patrol very strictly in Southeast Asia, and I'm afraid it will be difficult for us to deliver the goods to the shore. After all, you use our guns and cannons, which is no problem. When the French and the Dutch fought, many French also used Dutch guns. However, if we are detained for directly transporting the goods, the Dutch will protest."

"We pick up the goods ourselves. The transaction location is at Fort Marlboro in your Bengkulu. Once we leave the shore, even if the delivery is completed, it has nothing to do with you. We will load a large amount of gunpowder on the loading ship, and if it is inspected by the Dutch, we will ignite the gunpowder. It will not implicate you. After all, as long as the Dutch do not know about the transaction between us and you, there will be a chance next time."

Wang Wu knew that the cooperation time arranged by Liu Yu was relatively generous.

From Bengkulu, it only takes one day to reach the coast on the south bank of the volcano if the wind direction is good across the Sunda Strait.

Fazaklai was also very satisfied with this. It was not difficult to deliver it to Bengkulu.

Wang Wu urged again, saying: "It would be best to get the goods in Bengkulu before the storm in the Indian Ocean comes. If the storm season comes, I'm afraid your transportation will be difficult, so we will have to wait until next year to get the goods."

"Don't worry about this. As long as the deal is reached, I can contact people to deliver the goods immediately. Of course, we also have to consider the transportation difficulties during the storm season. But before the deal is reached, there is something I must ask clearly."

"Please speak?"

"In fact, I think you should also know that it is impossible to drive the Dutch away with your strength. The Dutch will send soldiers continuously, and they can also directly arm the Javanese soldiers. And a thousand guns are not enough to capture Batavia."

Fazaklay did not choose euphemisms, but went straight to the point.

Although he believed in his own inference: once these people succeeded, they would neither choose to stand with the Celestial Empire, nor make peace with the Dutch, nor cooperate with the local Javanese Sultan.

There are economic reasons and religious factors. In short, the main force of these people is still Chinese, and the Chinese circle is relatively closed. This is also related to the fact that as long as they are Chinese, they have the opportunity to seize the Mandate of Heaven. Therefore, neither the Netherlands nor the Celestial Empire can tolerate Batavia being occupied by the Chinese and establishing an independent country, and the Sudan is even less likely or incapable of making these "pagans" surrender.

However, Fazakle hopes to get a definite answer from the other party to confirm his judgment.

As long as these people do not capture Batavia, the British side can mediate to ensure that they can become an independent separatist regime.

But if these people have illusions and even want to capture Batavia, there is no possibility of compromise between them and the Netherlands.

In this case, these people are only worth selling arms, not worth the subsequent in-depth cooperation.

Wang Wu nodded and said, "We were originally planning to develop northward. There are more Chinese there. However, the imperial court paid a head tax to the Dutch and settled most of the Chinese in Ceylon. We really can't take over the whole of Java, so we plan to occupy the south. As long as we make sure that the Dutch spend more money on the attack than the profits they get, I don't think the Dutch East India Company will invest money in this bottomless pit."

"Our program and demands will not change. This is what we must do. Abolish the Dutch forced planting system, abolish forced labor, abolish the head tax policy, and equalize the land."

Fazaklai nodded in approval, picked up the written demand plan and program document again, read it carefully, and calculated the interests of the British East India Company if the other party was separatist in the south.

This written planning and program document is relatively in line with British colonial policy.

I have to say that the British did a thorough research on colonization.

The Dutch had ruled Java for two hundred years, but no one had written an inspection report on Java. The Committee of Seventeen and the Governor of Batavia often made many decisions on the head.

After the Fourth Anglo-Dutch War in history, the British briefly ruled Java. The following year, the McKinsey Investigation Committee was established and sent people to the rural areas of Java to write detailed investigation reports, class inspections, and land systems.

Generally speaking, the "Lifanyuan" in the 18th century when Britain was at its peak was not even a little bit better than the official Lifanyuan in China.

In the words of British people, "Land is the source of all wealth in Java, and there are not many people in Britain engaged in agriculture." Only by fully understanding Java’s land system and village community structure can we formulate scientific development directions for the characteristics, customs, economy, and systems of Javanese society].

It's just that the butt determines the head. No matter how detailed the inspection report is and how clear the inspection is, the direction is wrong. The more you know, the more reactionary you will be.

It's like the dragon-slaying technique. Once you learn it, you can reverse it and become the strongest dragon.

To put it simply, the British wanted to carry out land reform in Java. To be more clear, it was to "break down the well fields, open up roads, exempt from military service, and develop young crops."

[Our goal is to inspire the hard work of Javanese people. Let them share the fruits of their labor rather than separate the fruits of their labor from their personal interests. Let them connect labor with personal wealth].

Here's how to do it:

Reform the village land ownership system, divide land among individuals, give it to small farmers, and collect land tax from the colonial government.

The forced planting system in the Netherlands was abolished, and the feudal corvee system was abolished.

The village land ownership system was abolished and the land was returned to the colonial government. A lease contract was implemented between the government and farmers to specify the land lease period and set a specific amount of land rent based on the fertility of the land.

Abolish all kinds of compulsory labor and obligations and reduce the burden on farmers.

Loans were issued to small farmers by colonial policy to ensure that small farmers had the capital to produce, at low interest rates, to be repaid after harvest.

This was basically the program of the Batavia Chinese insurrectionists on land policy. In fact, it is the idealized "ideal minefield in which monetary and physical land rent replaces labor rent", the "Service Exemption Law", the "Green Crop Law", and the "Fangtian Equalization Tax Law".

The problem is, the British say this, but they know where they sit. Defeating the Netherlands to rule Java is not to serve the Javanese people and the Chinese.

Therefore, a pilot labor system reform was announced in January, but the reform failed in June.

The company wrote directly to the governor in charge of land reform, telling him that the company's purpose was to make a profit. And you abolished the feudal labor system and abolished compulsory labor and obligations. You have to spend money to hire people to work. Who pays for it? The company fought a bloody battle with the Dutch, but are they here to serve the people of Java?

This reform can be regarded as a change from "feudal labor service" to "exemption from service law".

The problem is that from the Song Dynasty's exemption law, to the Ming Dynasty's Zhang Juzheng reform, and then to Dashun's completion of Zhang Juzheng's reform, collecting taxes and hiring people to work to reduce corvee, the reason why all of this can be implemented is that the imperial court is not a company.

The imperial court has no shareholders and does not need to read profit statements.

But the East India Company was not good enough. It announced reforms in January and discovered in June that hiring people to work still costs money, which is far less economical than the feudal labor system. So it issued a patch: "The previous policy of exempting from corvee should be based on specific circumstances. Certainly."

As long as there is a "depending on the circumstances" patch in any policy, it means nothing.

The patch was released in June, and in October it was announced that the reform would not include the Bandung and Batavia regions.

Because Britain took over the Dutch, the only places it could really control were Bandung and Batavia.

There are still a large number of feudal princes in the remaining places, and they have no control at all, and the entire reform has become a joke.

Subsequently, the British also continued the Dutch forced cultivation system, but "changed its appearance."

The original village community cultivation was changed to individual forced cultivation, and the land rent for each farmer assigned to land was 240 pounds of coffee.

The system of forced labor was reinstated, with each farmer expected to work 28 days per year for the company.

After the British Council made an inspection report, it believed that the land policy in Java should be a two-tier structure of government and farmers, which would be more profitable.

Instead, we should adopt a three-tier structure of government-landowners-peasants. This three-tier structure is not conducive to the long-term interests of the company.

This is a typical wrong direction, and the more knowledge you have, the more reactionary you become.

Because of this, the British colonial rule was indeed more efficient than the Dutch tax middlemen.

There is no middleman to earn the price difference, and the profit is doubled that year. A large amount of Javanese specialty agricultural products are used as land rent, which becomes the company's profit statement.

The company is not accountable to the people of Java, only to its shareholders.

But now, Britain is not fighting the Fourth Anglo-Dutch War, nor is it actually ruling Java. Therefore, we showed strong interest and appreciation for such a clear programmatic document.

Of course, this is not out of ideals and beliefs, but because if this is done, these crops, tropical cash crops, can be sold to the East India Company in London.

The Dutch are hostile, and Dashun has no shortage of them. So it is obvious that productivity has increased after such reforms. Such adjustments in production relations are very suitable for the productivity of the Iron Age of ox-drawn plows. The extra products must be sold.

Who to sell to?

The only buyer left in the surrounding area is the London East India Company. Doesn't this mean breaking the Dutch monopoly on Southeast Asian goods?