The Role of Hong Kong
Gonzales frowned at the sight of Van der Lanton, who was sprawled on the bed, dead drunk and snoring loudly. A pungent stench of alcohol filled the room, making it impossible to sleep.
“A lightweight who still insists on binge drinking,” Gonzales muttered, stroking his mustache. He had drunk a fair amount himself. In a godforsaken place like Batavia, wine was scarce, of poor quality, and expensive. The most common drink was Dutch beer, which Southern Europeans like him, accustomed to wine, despised and called “piss.”
At the reception, they had served rum and various fruit wines brewed by Schezer and other alcohol enthusiasts at the Demonstration Farm. Although Lingao couldn’t grow proper wine grapes, the farm and various communes had promoted planting fruit trees in “ten-side” plots and courtyard gardens. Besides supplying the military, students, and workers, the surplus fruit was often used for winemaking. Schezer had been an amateur brewer back in the US, complete with his own small-scale fermentation equipment, so he was familiar with the process.
These small-scale wineries produced a wide variety of fruit wines in limited quantities, mostly for the consumption of the transmigrators and for banquets. A small amount was sold as special-supply items to the upper echelses of the naturalized citizens.
Of course, Gonzales hadn’t passed up this rare opportunity for a good drink; Spanish soldiers were second to none when it came to drinking. He had downed several bottles of apple wine, jackfruit wine, and wild berry wine before moving on to a great deal of rum. Unfazed, he then went to chat with Miss Mendoza, who was acting as an interpreter. He hadn’t seen a “woman from the motherland” in a long time. Although the charming woman spoke Spanish with many words he didn’t understand and a noticeable accent, Gonzales guessed she was a criollo from the American colonies and immediately showered her with attention. He could tell she had a favorable impression of him, but she always sidestepped whenever he got too close, which puzzled him.
While Miss Mendoza felt a sense of kinship seeing a fellow Spanish-speaking European, the stench emanating from the Spanish soldier was nauseating. In terms of hygiene, Gonzales was actually better than most of his contemporaries—serving in a place like Batavia, one wouldn’t survive long without bathing regularly. Upon arriving in Lingao, he had been forced to bathe at the Sailors’ Hostel.
After the reception, he and Trini returned to their room. Although the trading post offered single rooms, Van der Lanton, fearing he would spend too much of the company’s money, had insisted on a three-person room. By 17th-century standards, this room was luxurious and comfortable. But with a drunkard in it, the atmosphere became somewhat unbearable. The Italian, too, found the Dutchman’s odor hard to stomach.
“How about we go out for another drink?” Gonzales asked in Italian. As a soldier of the Spanish King, he had served in Italy and had many Italian comrades.
“Of course. I’d be delighted.” Trini’s job was to make drawings, so walking around and observing was part of his mission. He thought for a moment. “But we don’t have an interpreter.”
“We don’t need one,” Gonzales said, pulling out a real. “This is our interpreter.”
“What if we get lost?”
“They’ll find us,” Gonzales said nonchalantly. “And aren’t you hoping to find a woman?”
“The Dutch seem even happier about the outcome of these negotiations than we are,” Hong Shuiyin, the Hong Kong business representative temporarily recalled for the talks, remarked. After the reception, the key figures of the Colonial and Trade Department gathered in a conference room in the office building. He had been brought back because Xu Tianqi, the best German speaker among the transmigrator, had already gone to the mainland, leaving Hong as the only one who could communicate fluently in German.
“Of course they are. Zheng Zhilong has been giving them a hard time. They’re bound to be happy to finally meet some honest folk like us,” Si Kaide said cheerfully. The trade agreement signed with the Dutch East India Company a few days ago had passed its third reading in the Senate and been approved. Although no one was particularly fond of the Dutch, the agreement was incredibly advantageous for the Lingao regime.
“I still propose listing Hong Kong as a transshipment port,” Hong Shuiyin said, reintroducing his idea.
The large quantity of Ming goods the Dutch needed was currently sourced through the Zhangzhou Bay trade, meaning the goods were shipped mainly from Fujian, a trade route controlled by Zheng Zhilong. It wasn’t that the Dutch were unwilling to trade in Guangdong; it was that trade there was monopolized by the Portuguese. In terms of supply convenience, Guangdong was actually a better source for export products than Fujian.
The mainland goods sold to the Dutch, including raw silk, silk fabrics, general merchandise, and medicinal herbs, could all be traded directly in Hong Kong. This would eliminate a step of intermediate transport and storage, freeing up shipping capacity between the mainland and Lingao that was currently used for Dutch trade goods. The spices the Dutch were eager to sell could also be traded in Hong Kong, purchased by the Hong Kong station, and then sold locally or through the Guangzhou station for a profit.
Through trade with the Dutch, Hong Kong could become a transshipment port, just as in the original timeline. This would expand its influence as a trading port on the mainland and help build momentum for the Empire’s control over the Chinese merchant shipping routes to Batavia.
“Furthermore, we can utilize the Dutch ships’ empty cargo space. We’ve currently designated half of the cargo volume. Assuming the Dutch ships carry rice in one half and spices in the other, after unloading the rice in Lingao, they still have to go to Hong Kong to unload the spices. We can fully utilize the half of the cargo hold that’s been emptied to transport our own goods to Hong Kong and Guangzhou.”
This proposal greatly appealed to Si Kaide. The most significant headache for the Colonial and Trade Department was the lack of shipping capacity. Hong Shuiyin’s suggestion not only saved their own capacity but also leveraged the Dutch’s. It was a very attractive idea.
Si Kaide nodded repeatedly. “Hmm, that’s an excellent line of thought.”
“In fact, there’s no rush to open Sanya,” Hong Shuiyin continued. “Apart from slaves, most of the goods the Dutch would bring there can’t be consumed locally. We’d have to transport them back to Lingao or Hong Kong ourselves. And the goods we’d sell to the Dutch in Sanya would also have to be shipped from Lingao. It just adds an unnecessary step.”
Si Kaide was swayed. Turning Sanya into an international trading port was part of the Senate’s long-term plan, but now that an international merchant had arrived, rejecting the idea seemed inappropriate. He considered it and decided that since the Sanya plan was “long-term,” focusing on Hong Kong for now wasn’t a major issue.
“But Hong Kong is still under construction. Can you handle it if we really open it up?”
“The Dutch won’t be sending ships right away. I reckon the first batch won’t arrive until the second half of the year at the earliest. By then, our basic infrastructure will be mostly complete, and the Guangzhou station will be back in operation. The Dutch will send two or three ships at most. We can handle that.”
Si Kaide nodded. He thought that this would require discussing with Ji An, the head of customs, about establishing a new customs office in Hong Kong to handle clearance locally and simplify procedures.
“This will give you a grand stage to perform on,” he said.
“Exactly. Otherwise, what’s a business representative like me supposed to do in Hong Kong?” Hong Shuiyin said candidly. “The development potential of Hong Kong is still a bit limited, but it’s excellent as an outer port for Guangzhou.”
Consequently, Hong Kong was added to the list of open trading ports in the final draft of the trade agreement.
However, among the various open ports, only Lingao was permitted to host a consul. The question of whom to send to Batavia as a consul became a new problem.
Hong Shuiyin flatly refused the opportunity, even though he was currently the best German speaker among the transmigrators. Not wanting to go, he argued that someone who knew Spanish or another language could do the job in Batavia, pointing out that the Dutch delegation itself included Spaniards and Italians.
The Senate was hesitant about sending a transmigrator to be a consul on Dutch soil. With so few transmigrator, each one’s knowledge and skills were precious. The potential benefits of placing a transmigrator thousands of kilometers away on the territory of a potential enemy were unclear. The person sent couldn’t be of low caliber; they needed to speak a foreign language to communicate with the Dutch, possess considerable diplomatic skills, and be in good health. If anything went wrong, the Senate would be completely unable to help.
The Foreign Intelligence Bureau was the most interested in sending a consul—it was a perfect opportunity to openly deploy an intelligence officer. However, the risks were even greater than sending someone to the Ming Dynasty, and Batavia was not currently a primary target for conquest, so the bureau didn’t show excessive enthusiasm.
But not sending a consul seemed like a waste, especially since the other side was allowed to have one in Lingao. Sending a consul could also spread the influence of the Australians among the Chinese population in Batavia. After some discussion, Wang Yan from the Foreign Intelligence Bureau proposed a compromise: send a consul to Fort Zeelandia (Dayuan) in Taiwan.
Compared to Batavia, the conquest of Taiwan was planned for the next few years. An intelligence officer in Dayuan would be much more useful than one in Batavia. And if something went wrong, the distance from Hainan to Taiwan was much shorter.
“But that doesn’t make sense,” Si Kaide objected during the meeting. “Our trade agreement is with the authorities in Batavia. Unless they transfer jurisdiction for trade with us to the council in Dayuan, it will be difficult for us to justify stationing a consul permanently in an unrelated port.”