Chapter 307: Revitalizing Circulation
Liu Deshan immediately bought several hundred shi of Fujian sugar. After the money and goods were exchanged, the Zheng family sent a few more people on board to ask Liu Deshan and Chen Huamin about what they had seen and heard of the Australians. Following the Australians’ instructions, Liu Deshan told them a great deal, omitting only the matter of his own inspection. He was inclined to exaggerate the Australians’ strength, adding some embellishments, which made the faces of the several Zheng family members grow even more grave.
The Zheng family’s manager then asked about the origin of the Dongshanju. Hearing that it was bought from a shipyard in Hong Kong, they became even more disheartened. Although the Dongshanju had no artillery, its tonnage and wide double decks indicated that the ship had great combat potential. In Zheng Zhifeng’s fleet, it would be a first-rate main battleship. The several European-style large ships currently under construction on Kinmen Island, although much larger in size and tonnage than the Dongshanju, even a layman could see that the Dongshanju had a smooth hull and was fast.
For the Australians to be able to sell such a large ship as a merchant vessel showed to what extent their fleet had expanded! At this thought, the few of them couldn’t help but feel disheartened.
After loading the sugar, the Dongshanju weighed anchor and set sail. Weitou Bay was now a place of trouble, and it was best to linger as little as possible. The Dongshanju sailed west, heading for Tayouan.
As a trading port between the Dutch East India Company and Lingao, Tayouan immediately shed its previous lifeless state after the signing of the trade agreement between the two parties. Compared to the Zheng Zhilong clique, which was constantly changing its orders and making new demands, the Australians’ “spirit of contract” was very much in place, and they were meticulous in executing contracts. Of course, they also consistently demanded strict execution of contracts from others. Hans Putmans had originally lacked confidence in opening up the situation in Tayouan: in his view, Chinese merchants were too cunning and consistently treacherous, and it would be difficult to achieve a major breakthrough without using force to protect trade. And unfortunately, the situation on the Chinese coast was so chaotic, and the company’s disposable force in East Asia was too weak.
After signing the trade agreement with the Australians, the situation in Tayouan changed immediately. Australian ships entered Tayouan port in a steady stream, bringing countless Chinese goods that the company had once dreamed of.
Among them were a large number of increasingly popular Australian goods. Hans Putmans’ performance was soaring, and the company praised him highly. Naturally, his personal benefits also rolled in. In particular, the Australians were not as obsessed with silver as the Chinese merchants and had a good appetite for various goods, which greatly alleviated the “silver famine” in the Dutch East India Company’s trade with China.
Less than half a year after the agreement was signed, Tayouan had transformed from a trading post that was almost about to be abandoned into a “pearl” of the Dutch East India Company.
Since the opening of Kaohsiung, the Australians’ supply cycle had been continuously shortened. Hans Putmans soon discovered that the Australians had established a transit warehouse in Kaohsiung and had accumulated a large amount of goods. He had once thought that if he could seize Kaohsiung through a surprise attack, he could not only obtain rich spoils but also add a brilliant pearl to the company: compared to Tayouan, which only had one castle and a few batteries, Kaohsiung was becoming more and more like a real city.
When he personally witnessed Lingao’s fleet stationing in Kaohsiung, this arrogant idea immediately disappeared. When the news of Zheng Zhilong’s demise was brought back to Tayouan by the commercial agent stationed in Zhangzhou Bay, Troddenius, he immediately began to consider how to preserve Tayouan for the company, and certainly not through force.
Although Fort Zeelandia was still under construction—after all, the company had invested a large amount of money in the castle, and it was impossible to abandon it halfway, and overseeing construction projects was always a lucrative affair—His Excellency the Governor-General was completely uninterested in strengthening Tayouan’s defenses, basically doing whatever the company instructed him to do. And the natives who had originally been a great threat to Tayouan, often “headhunting” and “hunting” outside the city, now rarely appeared near Tayouan after several conflicts with the Australians. The result was that the land route from Tayouan to Kaohsiung also became safe. The Australians even began to build a road between the two places without a care in the world.
At a party where he had drunk too much of the Australians’ rum, he shouted at the commander of the Tayouan garrison, Captain Heinrich Weidenfeller, “Do you think Tayouan is still in the company’s hands because of your four hundred consumptive wretches with matchlocks? No, we are still here purely because of the Australians’ mercy!”
Indeed, from the interaction between the two sides, the Australians had no ill will towards the Dutch in Tayouan, and could even be said to be full of goodwill: the Dutch could not only go to Kaohsiung to purchase various fresh foods to supplement their scarce supplies, but also buy various recreational items: cigars, alcohol, and beverages. If they were willing to pay a high price, they could even buy ice to cool off. As a result, Batavia believed that there was no longer any need to send supplies to Tayouan—apart from gunpowder and firearms, “everything could be bought” in Kaohsiung. The freed-up hold space could be used to transport more trade goods for exchange.
The result was that the Dutch became more and more dependent on the supply of goods from Kaohsiung. Gradually, the Dutch in Tayouan began to wear undershirts, shirts, and trousers made in the Kaohsiung clothing factory from imported Dutch linen, wore Lingao-made rattan sandals, and wore rattan pith helmets, which were more suitable for the climate of Formosa than the cumbersome and stuffy clothes of the Dutch. The Dutch also began to drink large quantities of Lingao-produced rum, salt-and-soda water, and kvass.
Not only were most of their supplies purchased from Kaohsiung, but even ship repairs were done at the shipyard in Kaohsiung—which had a large dry dock and heavy cranes. Maintaining a few Dutch round ships was no problem.
As for the sailors and soldiers of Tayouan, as long as they could follow the rules, they could freely enter and leave the commercial district of Kaohsiung for recreation. Compared to the simple commercial district under Fort Zeelandia, there were undoubtedly more choices in Kaohsiung’s commercial district. If they fell ill, as long as they were willing, they could also receive treatment from Chinese doctors there. Compared to the smelly German doctors, the medicine and acupuncture of the Chinese doctors in Kaohsiung were more effective.
Even among the workers building Fort Zeelandia and the batteries, many were Australian slaves. Hans Putmans could not describe the people who were transported by the boatload and housed in huge bamboo shed camps with any other word. When the Dutch were suffering from a shortage of workers and slow progress, the Australians immediately offered to provide labor and subcontract the project.
Putmans had no choice. The results proved that the Chinese slave laborers under Australian management were hardworking and highly efficient. With their participation in the construction, the castle was changing day by day.
Hans Putmans was a shrewd and capable merchant. Amidst this great situation of “Sino-Dutch harmony,” he did not believe that the Australians “loved peace.” Their actions in Weitou Bay fully demonstrated that they would not hesitate to act when necessary, and could even be called cruel.
It was obvious that the Australians did not touch Tayouan simply because they still needed to trade with the company. If one day this trade became insignificant to them, they would come to occupy Tayouan, and then the entire island of Formosa.
How could the company’s continued existence in Formosa be guaranteed? Governor-General Hans Putmans had been considering this question recently. To this end, he had specially sent a group of spies to Kaohsiung to inquire about the Australians’ situation, especially the types and quantities of ships entering and leaving the port and trade goods.
It was in this atmosphere that the Dongshanju sailed into Taijiang.
This was not the first time Chen Huamin and Liu Deshan had come to Tayouan, but this time it still gave them a small surprise: Tayouan was much more prosperous than before. Because the trade volume with the Australians had risen sharply, the Dutch East India Company had sent several times more ships here than before. As a result, the market in Tayouan also prospered, and facilities were added accordingly.
Fort Zeelandia, which had been in a state of start-and-stop construction and had never completed its first-level platform, had now risen from the ground. The brick and stone walls were lined with scaffolding, and a tower had already been erected. The other towers were also half-completed. It was clear that it would not be long before it was finished. And on the other side of the harbor, to the east of Taijiang, the originally small and simple stockade had now become a small but very sturdy star fort. A new fortress was also being built on the island of Beixianwei in the harbor. Ships transporting building materials and workers flowed endlessly in the harbor.
Apart from the Australian trading ships, after the fall of Zheng Zhilong, the trade monopoly from Fujian to Taiwan was completely broken, and many more Ming merchants came to Tayouan to trade. Many ships of various sizes were anchored around the pier. Apart from a few Dutch ships, most were Chinese ships such as Guangdong junks and Fujian junks. Therefore, many new buildings had been built on the pier in front of Fort Zeelandia, and rows of new warehouses and storage yards had been constructed. Goods waiting to be shipped were piled up like mountains.
“I didn’t expect the business in Tayouan to be so prosperous!” Liu Deshan nodded. “I originally thought it would be very depressed here.”
“Cousin, what are you talking about? The business in Tayouan was monopolized by Zheng Zhilong. How could ordinary merchants dare to trade here? Now that the Zheng family has been utterly defeated, and everyone is not a fool, they will naturally come here to make a fortune.”
Compared to the Zheng family’s two-thousand-tael-a-year command flag, the Class B permit issued by the Australians for coastal trade now only cost one hundred taels a year. Many small and medium-sized merchants who only ran coastal routes could also afford it. The number of merchant ships going to Taiwan also increased, and the traded goods were no longer limited to the foreign goods of the past such as porcelain, silk products, and sugar. The trade activity had risen sharply.
The clearing out of the coastal sea lords was not just for monopolizing trade—for the Senate, only by promoting commercial circulation could a better foundation be provided for the next step of social reform. Although the Senate could have monopolized the trade with the Dutch on the island of Taiwan, it did not do so.