New Shun 1730

At the port of Batavia, the Chinese representatives who are well-known in Batavia are looking forward to it.

The necessary things to welcome the imperial envoy, such as the incense burner, the incense table, and the incense car, have been prepared.

However, most of the people here can only be said to be indifferent to the imperial envoy sent by the court. They are neither excited nor resistant. The imagined scene of crying and crying when seeing the royal army coming with food and drink will not appear at least now.

It is said that the Chinese in Southeast Asia are rich, which is both right and wrong.

Yes, it means that there are 21 types of tax farming in Batavia, and the Chinese are responsible for 18 types; there are more than 200 sugar mills in Batavia, and the Chinese own 195; Batavia, from rice to fish and shrimp, from tobacco to alcohol, from soy sauce to needles and thread, from casinos to brothels, almost all are in the hands of the Chinese.

As long as the Chinese outside Batavia are not considered human beings, then this sentence is correct.

But if the Chinese working as slaves in sugarcane and spice gardens outside the city are also considered human beings, and if the Wushan Party and Wuku Han are also considered Chinese, this is not quite right.

This time, the court took the money and paid the head tax for three years for the Chinese who could not pay the head tax.

Now, the Chinese outside the city are loyal to the court, but the Chinese outside the city are not qualified to welcome the imperial envoy.

As for the Chinese in the city, the court neither helped them pay the head tax nor had the ability to predict the future. Of course, they did not know that Liu Yu had turned a massacre into nothingness, so they did not have deep feelings for the court.

There is a saying in Dashun, that the county magistrate is changing, but the master is iron. This saying is right in Dashun, money comes from land, and the land controlled is iron.

But in Batavia, this saying is not quite right. At least, the court did not say that if the court went to Southeast Asia, it would still adopt the old Dutch system, and the system would remain unchanged for a hundred years.

Without this statement, the attitude of the upper-class Chinese who farm taxes towards Dashun can be imagined. Dashun's tax system is not a tax farming system, and as a traditional Celestial Empire, local tyrants have always been severely suppressed.

Dashun really can't afford to offend Dashun's landlords, which are the economic foundation of the dynasty, but businessmen can definitely afford to offend.

The same imperial envoys, within Dashun, are qualified to welcome the gentry. They are landlords, families with imperial examination talents, or retired officials, but they must have hundreds of hectares of land.

In Batavia, those who are qualified to welcome are wealthy merchants, tax farmers, money lenders, seafarers, and those who run sugar factories and plantations.

This is the difference, the difference in the economic foundation of the two sides.

At the dock, Lian Fuguang and other Kapitan, Lei Zhenlan, looked at the sea in the distance, and their hearts were also uneasy.

The last time Shi Shiyong and others came to Batavia, they left a very bad impression on these upper-class Chinese. For example, they defined the uprising of slave workers outside the city as fishing and killing their families, and officials forcing the people to rebel.

This made Kapitan and Lei Zhenlan have to murmur.

The court said that this time they would come to comfort the Chinese and protect the rights of the Chinese.

So, is it the rights of the Chinese that the Chinese use the right to farm taxes to oppress the Chinese? Is it the rights of the Chinese that the Chinese use the loopholes in the head tax to smuggle Chinese slaves, oppress Chinese slaves, and tell the Batavia government to arrest Chinese if they dare to make trouble?

Is it the rights of the Chinese that the Chinese are eager to pay less taxes to the Chinese Kapitan because they are overly exploited by the Chinese who farm taxes? Is it the rights of the Chinese that the Chinese slaves are dissatisfied with the Chinese sugar factory owners who exploit them, and smash the sugarcane plantations to force them to pay wages in order to get real money instead of lead coins?

If the former is, then the latter is not; if the latter is, then the former is not.

In the final analysis, which group of Chinese did the court want to comfort?

Are they tax farmers and money lenders?

Are they small handicraftsmen, vendors, and small traders?

Or are they the black-shirted party and the trouserless people who can't even pay the head tax and can't even eat outside the city?

If the Hongxi Massacre in history happened, then when Dashun comforted the Chinese, the Chinese would be a whole, and the contradiction between the Chinese and the Dutch would be the main contradiction.

But now, the Hongxi Massacre did not happen, and only Liu Yu knew that he had eliminated a disaster, and those upper-class Chinese who would have died in the tragedy did not know. At this time, the Chinese were not a whole.

Now the court came up with a sentence "Comforting the people who make a living overseas in the Celestial Empire, they are all my children, and going to sea to survive is really helpless", and coupled with the attitude of Shi Shiyong and others towards the slave uprising last time, "the politically correct praise of the characteristics of Dashun who started from rebellion", it is really no wonder that these Chinese who came to greet them are full of worries about the imperial envoys of China.

After all, Dashun was a dynasty that started as a rebellion. It also shouted the slogan of equal distribution of land and exemption of grain, which was really scary.

When the mast of the Dashun fleet finally appeared on the vast sea, Lian Fuguang tidied his clothes, took a deep breath, and said to Lei Zhenlan and others around him: "Everyone, it is hard to predict whether the imperial envoy of the Celestial Empire is coming this time. It is a blessing or a curse. We need to be united and not have our own thoughts."

"We have all heard of the name of the lord who came this time. He is a ruthless man and a general who conquered the northeast and northwest Japan. I heard that this person implemented a benevolent and righteous policy in Japan, which is not good news for us."

"The words benevolence and righteousness are the most profound."

As he spoke, the mast that was exposed first gradually became longer and finally floated out of the hull. The huge hull of the battleship split the waves and headed towards the port.

Compared with the big merchant ship that Mantou took to Stockholm last time, this battleship brought a greater shock.

These Chinese Kapitans such as Lei Zhenlan, who had witnessed the Dutch's invincibility, saw for the first time that there were warships in the world that were more terrifying than the Dutch armed merchant ships.

They didn't know the specific difference between the battleship and the standard armed merchant ship of seven provinces produced by War of Man, but they could intuitively feel the size.

The huge ship completely outshined the Dutch ships flying the VOC flags around it, with a sense of panic.

Lian Fuguang sighed and signaled the gongs and drums to prepare for the welcome.

Amid the sound of gongs and drums, Lian Fuguang said to the people around him: "Now that the imperial envoy of the Celestial Empire has come, we should know what is going on in Nanyang. As long as the situation is clear, we can make some preparations. We need to know what to do in the future."

"You and I are now grasshoppers on the same rope. At this time, don't think about pitting each other. Some things, if we really talk about it, we will all be in big trouble."

The few people also nodded.

They may not have a lot of scientific and economic knowledge, but they still have some experience. Although it is not systematic, they can also foresee a situation.

Batavia is a city that developed against the laws of nature.

As the "capital" of the East India Company, this city carried the prosperity that it was not entitled to.

Even Ceylon cinnamon, it is much closer to Europe by sailing directly from Ceylon than by going back to Batavia.

But under the game between the local government and the central government, Ceylon cinnamon must first go to Batavia before it can be packaged and sent to Europe.

Or even though the seventeen gentlemen had already established a special trade committee with China, the local government of Batavia still forcibly obtained the conditions that some ships could not go back directly and had to dock in Batavia.

This prosperity that violates the laws of nature means fragility.

These Kapitans and Lei Zhenlan may not understand the truth here. But Dashun has a living example: Macau.

They witnessed the whole process of decline from prosperity.

From the prosperity of monopolizing trade with Europe during the previous dynasty's ban on sea trade, to the current Dashun allowing shore trade, which led to the northward movement of the export port, and now it has become a city relying on smuggling of people and slave labor, this cannot but make these upper-class Chinese rooted in Batavia worried.

If the imperial court went to Southeast Asia, the Old Port Xuanwei Office or Malacca would undoubtedly be the most suitable capital of the Southeast Asia province.

Batavia might repeat the mistakes of Macau and gradually decline.

These people have real estate and properties in Batavia, and various industries are closely related to the prosperity of Batavia.

Even from this point of view, they do not want the actions of the imperial court to lead to any changes in Southeast Asia.

In addition to this worry, there is another more terrible hidden worry.

"Brother Fuguang, I think the court still hopes that everything in Nanyang will remain the same. But in my opinion, this is difficult. Since the first year of Tianqi, Batavia's policy towards the Chinese has changed again and again in the past hundred years."

"From the beginning, 'all ships that come here with Chinese immigrants are tax-free'; to now, too many people are considered a burden. In the past hundred and twenty years, it has changed more than ten times."

"Sugar prices have been low in recent years, so it is redundant. After a few years, sugar prices will be high again. Wouldn't it be necessary to encourage Tang people to move here again? Or if they don't grow sugar in the future and change to something else... Hey, the Javanese and Balinese are all lazy people, how can they do their jobs?"

Although they think they are inferior to the Dutch, they still have some pride of being superior Chinese. At least they are quite discriminatory against the Balinese and Javanese. They flatter their superiors and are arrogant to their subordinates, but they like to worship Guan Gong, who is arrogant to the superiors but not to the subordinates. It is also a strange thing.

But this statement did hit the nail on the head. Batavia's policy on Chinese immigration has indeed been repeated. It has been changed countless times in more than a hundred years.

There would have been a massacre this time, but Liu Yu eliminated it, which made this time's investigation of Chinese residence permits seem to be just an ordinary event of repeated changes in Chinese immigration policy.

Encourage today, oppose tomorrow; immigrants are tax-free today, and Chinese are taxed tomorrow. They have seen it a lot.

Over the years, the Chinese have become accustomed to it. They all think that in a few days, when the sugar price goes up again, they will have to encourage Chinese to come here to work.

Lian Fuguang knew what Lei Zhenlan meant. This was not about the status of Chinese in Batavia, but about a very critical legal issue-does Dashun's law apply to Batavia? If there are more Chinese in Batavia in the future and something happens again, does Dashun have the right to manage it? What can be managed and what can't be managed?

The Governor of Batavia came and went, and left and came again.

A policy is made on a whim, recruiting Chinese today and retiring Chinese tomorrow.

But they have taken root here.

This matter must be clarified.

The middle and upper class communities of Chinese are very closed, with their own legal system, council and court.

After the massacre that did not happen this time was temporarily stabilized, the Dutch side asked the Chinese to form their own Chinese council in their own community.

Among the Chinese, it is called a court.

The Dutch are very smart. They adopt the policy of using Chinese to control Chinese, which is to divide the Chinese.

To prevent the concept of "I don't know who I am, but I know who I am not" that Liu Yu has been instilling in the Weihai Navy.

Let the high-level Chinese act as agents to govern the Chinese, and let the direct operators of various exploitations be Chinese, so as to achieve the purpose of divide and rule.

In addition, there is another important reason: the Celestial Empire is a civilization system with its own set of values ​​and morals. Many of them are incompatible with the Dutch side.

The Netherlands has tried many ways to disintegrate the Chinese civilization system.

As Valknier once joked, he was more like the Batavian Sultan, who collected taxes from pagans. In fact, he was like that, because in Batavia, Chinese people who believed in religion did not have to pay head taxes. But apart from Islam, Chinese people still had to pay head taxes even if they believed in Catholicism or Protestantism.

However, a strange scene appeared. Many Chinese would rather pay head taxes than take advantage of this loophole.

How to say this? The inner psychology is more like an awkward desire to be better than others. The local Javanese and Balinese people, as indigenous people, believe in religions that the middle and upper class Chinese look down on, so it is impossible for them to believe in that thing. However, the Dutch are very powerful, so they can believe in the Christian religion that the Dutch believe in, which seems to be more advanced.

But in terms of missionary ability, the Dutch believe in Protestantism and Catholicism, and the missionary ability is very different.

This also leads to the fact that if the Chinese are encouraged to convert to religion, they will basically all go to Catholicism.

The Dutch came to do business, while the various Catholic orders, such as the Jesuits, were preaching everywhere, and they specialized in their professions.

So the Dutch would rather be the Sultan than want everyone in Batavia to believe in Catholicism. Because the Dutch were confident that they had the experience of being a "Sultan", but they did not want to make wedding clothes for Spain and Portugal in the future.

So while Valkner mocked himself as the Sultan of Batavia, the Chinese did not want to get in when they saw such a big loophole of not having to pay the pagans' Dingyin.

The closedness and exclusivity of the Chinese community, as well as the thousands of years of civilization behind it and the entire system under this civilization, led to a problem.

Using Dutch law to govern the Chinese would make the Chinese extremely uncomfortable and even seriously intensify the conflict.

Take the simplest right of inheritance as an example.

The Dashun side basically adopted the equal division inheritance law. Except for ancestral property and titles, in the folk, it was assumed that when the father died, the sons would share the property equally.

This is different from the Roman legal system of the Netherlands. The Dutch side is the best for wills.

But what if the will conflicts with the customary law of the Chinese?

For example, before a person dies, his will says that all his property will be given to the youngest son born by his favorite concubine, and no son will be given to the eldest son. According to the Roman law of the Netherlands, the will must be obeyed.

But according to the customary law of the Chinese, the county magistrate will directly rule that the will is invalid. Who dares to rule that the will is valid?

For example, in the issue of divorce, a Chinese woman drank a cup of coffee in a cafe in Batavia, showed her face, and communicated with people in the cafe, so she was divorced. According to the teachings of Neo-Confucianism, she can be divorced; but according to Dutch law, she cannot be divorced.

This is a conflict of civilizations, so a very strange situation has emerged: Chinese people live in Batavia, but after the conflict, the Chinese Council and the court used the "Dashun Law" and the clan customs of Fujian and Guangdong to solve the problem.

The Netherlands tried to require the Chinese to abide by the entire Western cultural system.

But the result was that when Lei Zhenlan, who faithfully implemented the policy, died, no one came forward to carry the coffin - there was no one to carry the coffin after death, so people were hired to carry it.

After death, no one except one's family members go to the funeral hall. What is the concept of this in the Chinese world? No need to elaborate.

In the words of later generations, this person has already died socially in the Chinese community. After all, direct relatives cannot carry the coffin, and paying someone to carry the coffin is absolutely a shameful thing.

In addition to these civil marriages and funerals, there is a more critical content that is directly related to the interests of these Kapitan Lei Zhenlan.

The "Dashun Law" clearly stipulates: it is not allowed to sell the people of the Celestial Empire to foreign countries as slaves; it is not allowed to privately mint coins; it is not allowed to bully employees; it is not allowed to control the market; it is not allowed to lend money at high interest rates exceeding twice the principal; it is not allowed...

Kapitan, Lei Zhenlan, etc. have done all these "not allowed".

Whether it can be enforced is one thing.

Whether it exists is another.

If they encounter a radical case, with the "Dashun Law", these people will be exiled to the border for 3,000 miles at the minimum. Many people are directly involved in the sale of slaves, and there are also those who mint lead coins and are directly beheaded in Dashun.

In the past, it was just a piece of shit. Anyway, the imperial court had no control over it. The Dashun Law was only used to manage trivial matters such as marriage, death, divorce, and property division in the Chinese community.

But now the imperial envoy of Dashun is coming, and it is even said that supervisors will be stationed in Nanyang to protect the rights and interests of the Chinese.

So, does Dashun have the right to manage the Chinese in Batavia?

Is the Dashun Law still valid for overseas Chinese?

Or is it only valid for civil issues, and other laws are invalid?

Is the emperor in the Forbidden City still the emperor of overseas Chinese?

What if the lower-class Chinese take the Dashun Law and go to the supervisor to complain?