Chapter 2418: Trade Friction

Chen Lin thought for a moment and said: "My Second Uncle, as the Chief knows, is a man who doesn't stay home. Being alone, he had no way to raise a girl."

Li Yao'er thought: Your words are quite diplomatically complete. Clearly the suspicion between this uncle and nephew ran deep.

Though this kind of internal conflict was troublesome for work, it also presented an advantage. At least they wouldn't form an alliance against her.

When Li Yao'er first went out to do agricultural cooperative work, what she worried most about was her native collaborators being "disunited" and "causing friction." However, after several years of practical experience, she had come to realize that native collaborators being too united was actually the headache. A bit of contradiction was absolutely not a bad thing.

I've become quite the "scheming girl" now, she thought.

Through these years of work dealing with local natives, she had come to understand the hearts and human nature of people on this land more thoroughly and clearly.

The afternoon cooperation meeting went very smoothly. The families Chen Lin selected were all poor clansmen of the Chen family, with situations similar to Chen Ji's. Li Yao'er's conditions were generous. As the first batch of demonstration households participating in the cooperative, they would receive technical guidance, produce according to the cooperative's instructions, and all required production materials and living supplies would be provided as interest-free loans. At the end of the production year, the cooperative would purchase all products at contract-agreed prices; after clearing loans, all remaining profits would belong to the households.

The condition they had to accept was that in the future, they would serve the cooperative as technology promotion personnel.

The families of Chen Ji and the others couldn't parse all these terms, but when they heard that production and living materials could all be supplied interest-free, they agreed immediately.

Farmers weren't resistant to loans, especially farming households engaged in breeding industries, who depended heavily on the turnover of credit. Now that the Senate was willing to provide interest-free loans, it was practically a windfall for farming households.

In the past, this matter couldn't have been handled so smoothly—the clan above managed things, and some matters couldn't proceed without clan approval. Now Nansha was under Chen Xuan's power, and he "firmly supported" whatever the Australians did, so everything went smoothly.

Li Yao'er was in excellent spirits after wrapping things up. On the way back, she praised Chen Lin again, calling him "promising despite his youth." She also said that since he was now staying at Chen Ji's house, he should help them more, and if there were any difficulties, he should report to her immediately.

Work began as soon as it was decided upon. Within two days, various materials for raising silkworms arrived from Guangzhou, including silkworm seeds and mulberry tree cuttings. Chen Lin followed Shen Su handling affairs, feeling dazzled—these Australians had all kinds of tricks for raising silkworms too.

He harbored a "learning" intention, naturally "not ashamed to ask those below," and Shen Su "taught everything she knew," instructing him on all the key points.

Speaking of it, Australian silkworm-raising methods weren't particularly rare, but they were meticulous in controlling details. Every step had standards, relying not on experience or intuition. Do this when reaching this standard. And these standards weren't based on eyes seeing, noses smelling, or fingers rubbing, but on all kinds of instruments providing measurements. Whatever was measured was definitive. Just for how to ventilate the silkworm room each day, they relied on thermometers, hygrometers, and anemometers providing accurate information to make decisions. Chen Lin first followed Shen Su learning how to use and read various instruments, how to make daily inspection records...

Busy day after day like this, he was truly overwhelmed. But Chen Lin had never felt so fulfilled. Raising silkworms and reeling silk—this was an industry he had been familiar with since childhood, but doing these things under Australian methods was a completely different experience. He saw that the Australians not only possessed rich knowledge but also made decisive decisions. When difficulties arose, everyone sat down to discuss. His favorable impression of the Australians rose by several degrees. Originally he had made up his mind to muddle through here for a few days, then find an opportunity to return to Guangzhou and seek out his cousin-uncle. But now that Li Yao'er valued him so much and he could learn so much, he wanted to stay and follow this Australian woman to make things succeed.

Yet his cousin-uncle was still anxiously waiting for news. After much deliberation, he decided to write a letter explaining his current situation, expressing that opportunities were rare and he planned to learn well from the Australians. He temporarily couldn't work with his cousin-uncle on the cotton textile industry in Nansha, but he remained interested and willing to continue pursuing it. Additionally, he asked his cousin-uncle to inquire whether Third Uncle had gone to Guangzhou—Third Uncle was not a man content to stay idle at his in-laws' house eating and waiting to die. He most likely went to Guangzhou to seek friends and relatives, looking for another way out.

After finishing the letter, he instructed Chen Qing to deliver it with an admonition: "Be careful on the road. After delivering the letter, hurry back."

This winter in Lingao was different from previous years; the north wind brought more chill. Some even claimed to have seen snowflakes. Whether there were actual snowflakes was hard to say, but frost did appear in Lingao—that was real.

The sentries of the 1st Guard Battalion, who normally wore at most a thin tweed coat in winter, had already changed into newly made British-style gray tweed greatcoats. The cylindrical sheepskin military caps made them look somewhat like soldiers from Tsarist Russian times.

The sentries were dressed warmly, but at this moment the Dutchman pacing constantly at his post, waving his arms in rage and expressing dissatisfaction to the guard, was red-faced with steam rising from his head.

Wang Kai smiled and put down the telescope in his hand, walked back from the window to his office desk, and picked up the telephone.

"Connect to the guard room." A small pause. "Almost done. Let him up."

In less than a minute, Van de Lantron, Special Trade Representative of the Dutch East India Company, arrived at Fatty Wang's door. After Fatty Wang's aide-de-camp and interpreter announced him, Fatty Wang signaled for both to enter.

Originally, the VOC's representative stationed in Lingao had been the Italian Mr. Leb Trini. However, the current situation had made the Council of Batavia feel that Mr. Trini's rank was no longer sufficient for this mission, so they had dispatched senior merchant De Lantron to negotiate.

"Esteemed Senator, I must express in the strongest possible terms the adverse effects of restricting diplomatic personnel's movements, especially when I carry a letter from the new Governor-General of Batavia, Antonio van Diemen, and some regrettable incidents have occurred between our two sides in Japanese waters. The tightening of communication channels, the simplification of ceremonies, and unnecessary malice—once these issues become normalized, they will inevitably cause shrinkage of exchanges, paralysis of management between both sides, and further extinguish the continuity of commerce, weakening the influence of both parties in the Far East..."

"Are you saying you have a letter for me?" Wang Kai interrupted De Lantron's tirade.

"Er... yes." Mr. De Lantron stuttered for a moment, as if he'd swallowed a fly. "I had hoped to read this letter in a more solemn setting."

"No, what you need is a friendlier environment. Let's discuss the two incidents that happened in Japan."

"Oh, I agree. Don't worry, we'll be very tolerant, as long as we can remain friendly on the Japan route in the future."

"I think you've misunderstood." Fatty Wang signaled De Lantron to sit. "We haven't yet determined rights and responsibilities."

"We were on the port entry route and your ship was traveling parallel to the coast. According to the regulations we agreed upon..."

"But our ship was performing an armed patrol mission, flying the Maritime Police flag. It belonged to official vessels. You should have yielded."

"But we recognized the 'Oriental Express'—she had been to Batavia as a merchant vessel. This..."

"A vessel's status depends on its flag, not impressions. Of course, we also intend to handle this with a tolerant attitude and aren't prepared to ask you for compensation."

De Lantron's expression wasn't pleasant, but from his earlier words, he didn't seem to intend dwelling much on this matter. "Alright, I hope this doesn't affect relations between our two parties. Speaking of which, why were your vessels patrolling near Japanese ports?"

"Because a merchant vessel closely connected to you was robbed nearby." Fatty Wang smiled wickedly. "Of course, also because the Japan trade route has long been our sphere of influence. Our persuasion of the locals has made some progress. Arranging patrols is reasonable. You have no objections to this, right?"

"Of course not, of course not. We are glad to see our partner establish a stable commercial order in the East Asian region. This is good for everyone."

Mr. De Lantron chose his words carefully. "East Asian region" was meant to avoid the trade treaty clause prohibiting resale of "bulk goods purchased from Great Song" in the "Greater China area"; while "commercial order" served to avoid and postpone confirming Great Song's increasingly strong control over East Asia.

Trade with Japan, represented by sugar and raw silk, was extremely profitable but limited in scale. Given Great Song's position and shipping capacity, there was absolutely no reason to hand it over to others. Of course, the Dutch hadn't dared enter the field personally but had sent Chinese agent merchants to secretly earn some precious metals. When these covert activities were small in scale, Great Song could tolerate them—after all, the Dutch having a bit more liquidity would just be spent buying goods from Great Song anyway.

But recently the situation had changed—Dutch appetites were growing ever larger. The reason was easy to analyze. Historically, before 1641, Dutch Asian-European trade had been unstable, feast or famine. Even at its best, it couldn't compare to the average level of the Lingao timeline. Thanks to Great Song, their business was thriving and expanding, but their capital reserves had hardly increased compared to the old timeline. The wealthy Spanish could ship boatloads of silver to the Philippines to maintain their distant rule, but the VOC shareholders, famous for their stinginess, would never do this. Their goal was silver. If a VOC Far East trade specialist suggested to his superiors shipping an entire boat of silver from the Netherlands to Batavia, he probably wouldn't live to see the next day.

(End of Chapter)