On December 31, 1671, the last day of the year, a grand departure ceremony had just ended. The Dutch merchant ship with a total of 12 ships pulled out its anchor and left the port of Batavia, sailed into the vast sea, and set off for the return home.

These ships are loaded with East Indies spices, Japanese copper slices, Taiwanese cane sugar, and tea, raw silk, whale products and other commodities imported from Taiwan banks. They will arrive in Amsterdam in almost six months, and then rest until Christmas before they set off for East India again. In this era, merchant ships departing to the East Indies each year will probably look like nearly thirty ships, but most of them are concentrated in three time periods, namely the so-called "trade fair fleet" (the trade fair held in Amsterdam in September every year), "Christmas fleet" and "Easter fleet". On the Dutch chart, these ships will cross the Atlantic Ocean from the Cape Verde Islands occupied by the East and Portugal countries to South America, and will be docked for a while at the port of the East Coast for a while, and then set off again to use ocean currents and the wind on the nearshore South America to turn a big detour to Cape Town, where they provide necessary food replenishment.

Due to prevailing winds and storms, the shortest route to the East Indies is often not the fastest and safest. In fact, the Dutch East Indies Company mandated that all its ships sail along the route summarized by Hendrick Browell in 1610, that is, the ships sail eastward along the constant west wind at 40 degrees south latitude, and then use the southwest monsoon to reach the Sunda Strait. Of course, there are ships that did not find the monsoon due to various accidents, so they could only sail to the west coast of Australia and head north. Before that, they might be able to obtain some supplies at Gushan Port on the east coast and repair the ships.

Hawks Clifford's ship encountered this large Dutch fleet in the Sunda Strait. Perhaps because of the close to Wandan here, these Dutch people were still worried about their faces, so they did not engage in any hostilities against them, and of course they did not show any kindness.

Clifford's "Squid" made a dexterous turn, slightly distanced from the Dutch merchant fleet, and then headed northwest. Following him were two British merchant ships, but the tonnage was small, about 200 tons, full of all kinds of Eastern cargo, and planned to go to India to replenish supplies together.

In this way, several British merchant ships started at the end of 1671, and passed through the Malabar coast of India, Mozambique, Bengra, Recife, Barbados, New York and other places, and finally arrived at the Thames estuary in mid-May 1672. If we counted the departure time from China, the whole journey lasted for more than half a year, which was a long and difficult journey.

During this trip, the fate of the three ships that originally sailed together was different: the "Green Lotus" sank due to bad weather when it first crossed the Atlantic Ocean; the "Black Sheep" was separated from Clifford and others because it was hiding from the storm near the Carolina Colony. It is currently unknown whether it has arrived safely at Bristol, its final destination; the "Squid" was not without any loss during the six-month voyage. The mast and deck were damaged many times. The leaking ship cost nearly a thousand pounds to repair the ship along the way, not to mention the cargo damaged by the soaking and tide of sea water. In short, the losses are also very large, and of course, it seems to be nothing compared to profits.

After spending half a day paying the import tariffs on goods, Clifford instructed the first mate Martin to take people to clean up and deliver accounts with officials of the East India Company. He changed his clothes and then visited Mr. Josiah Child, a senior official of the East India Company and an official who was specialized in second-level agents such as Clifford.

"Mr. Hawks Clifford, I'm glad to see you alive." Child put down the lens on his right eye, then asked the servant to bring a cup of coffee, and said, "Taste the coffee from Jamaican. It tastes very good and the price is no worse than the tea you brought back from Xiangshui."

"It's a very good coffee. Clifford took a sip patiently, and then asked impatiently: "Mr. Child, about this trip, I..."

"Don't talk about this for now." Josiah Child waved his hand, then picked up another cup of coffee, and took a sip, then slowly said: "Do you know, Mr. Clifford, the United Provinces and France are likely to go to war, and this is definitely a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for England."

"Why is France and United Provinces going to war so quickly?" Clifford was also a little shocked when he heard this. Before he sailed to leave London, the two countries had just signed a peace agreement. Unexpectedly, in just two years, they were on the verge of reopening the war, which always gave people a ridiculous feeling.

"Of course, there has not been a formal declaration of war yet. Many of me generally believe that perhaps by the end of this year, at the latest in the first half of next year, these two countries will declare war on each other and then launch a large-scale war. At that time, the commerce of the United Provinces will inevitably be greatly affected, and industry and agriculture will become extremely declining. This is very beneficial to our country, because it is a good opportunity to make money from a large amount of exports. Everyone will make a fortune in this war feast, provided that we cannot be involved in this war." Josiah Child said in a somewhat excited tone: "This war is huge in scale and there is no doubt about the role of promoting our business. But what you are right is that our country remains neutral. Well, as long as the Congress does not allocate funds to the king, how can His Majesty have any money to support the war now?"

"It is best to pause the subsidy paid by the East India Company to His Majesty the King, so as to avoid being used on the Navy. You must know that those sea dogs can support them at sea for a long time as long as they have a little money to use. I know them very well." Hawks Clifford reminded.

"That's natural. This time, unless His Majesty the King can borrow funds, he will not be able to send a fleet to join the war." Child nodded and said, "Think about the two wars we had with the United Provinces, the French, the Portuguese, the Germans, the Italians and the East Coast pagans earned? God, this time we can't join in one go, and then miss the opportunity again. Instead, we must try to compete with the Germans, the Italians and the East Coast people for the commodity market, and if possible, expel them all!"

In fact, the senior executives of the East India Company had held a meeting before, mainly discussing how the company would deal with the war that would inevitably break out. In that meeting, all the senior executives in London quarreled for two days, and finally reached an agreement: First, they decided to increase the purchase of specialty goods such as saltpeter, sulfur, axian medicine, cotton cloth, etc., and then take advantage of the outbreak of the war to give them high prices to both sides; second, they strongly prevent the influx of similar foreign competing goods into the Netherlands and France, especially East Coast cotton cloth, one of the important trading products of the East India Company, which has a strong competitive relationship with Indian cotton cloth. If possible, the East India Company intends to take some extraordinary measures to enhance the competitiveness of Indian cotton cloth.

"So, Mr. Child, you still haven't told me why the two countries of France had a war breaking out? How likely is it to start a war in the short term?" After talking for a long time, Clifford found that the question he had just arrived had not been solved, so he asked.

"Oh, that's the matter!" Speaking of this, Josiah Child couldn't help but curl up, because it was so dramatic.

Here's the story: Conrad Van Boyningen, who had just stepped down from his position as Ambassador of the United Provinces to the East Coast, had been ordered by the third-level parliament to cast a large gold medal that recorded the brilliant achievements that the United Republic was proud of. The front of the medal was a pattern composed of a human figure (Mayor of Amsterdam) and a radiant sun, the former above the latter. The outer edge of the pattern was engraved with an inscription: "The guardian of the law, the defender of faith, the savior of the kings, the victory of the avenger, and the arbiter of Europe."

At first glance, this medal seems to be fine. It is like the Dutch forged something that boasts about his achievements. In fact, it is not a boast. Because the mediation and post-war peace talks in most of the wars in Europe in the 17th century were carried out in the Netherlands, but the matter was bad. The Dutch added a circle of small inscriptions around the sun pattern as if they were dying. The content was: "I stopped as soon as the sun saw it."

This pattern and this inscription made the French Privy Council "**". They pointed out angrily that the French "people" used the badge engraved with the inscription "above all" as the symbol of King Louis XIV. You, the Dutch, did this, obviously insulting our great king. If this matter cannot be given an explanation that satisfies both the French people and the king, then you can only fight and fight.

When the Third-level Parliament of the United Provinces heard the French's reaction, they were a little surprised, and then panicked. During this period, they had tolerated and compromised the French in many aspects, but they did not expect to still provoke this behemoth because they were greatly depressed.

In order to calm the anger of the French, Mr. John Dewit, the Speaker of the Third-level Parliament of the United Provinces, personally recalled the French ambassador to the Hague, apologized to him, and ordered the destruction of the medal, its mold, and all designs and documents. However, the Dutch's solemn expression did not seem to have returned to the goodwill of the French. On the contrary, the situation seemed to be developing in a worse direction, which made the Dutch frightened. According to their investigation, the French had already assembled more than 110,000 elite troops in the army, and led famous generals such as Daconde, Tirena, and Butwell. In contrast, the Dutch were only one of the weak and sick Prince Orange, who was inexperienced in both siege and field offensive and defense, as well as nearly 25,000 soldiers with low quality and low morale, as well as Amsterdam officials and merchants who were blinded by greed.

Nowadays, although France has not yet declared war on the United Provinces, anyone with a discerning eye can see that unless one of the parties makes a major concession, a war is inevitable. For this war that is likely to affect the situation in the continental region, all forces are also nervously planning to see if they can gain some benefits from it. The British East India Company is obviously one of them.

"Will the East Coast pagans in the New World join the war?" Hawks Clifford seemed to suddenly remember something, so he immediately asked, "Their strength is actually not weak. Are they planning to join this war?"

"There is no sign yet, but this possibility is not ruled out." Josiah Child seemed to have considered this question for a long time, so he answered very quickly, only to hear him say: "Their navy might have been quite deterrent five years ago, but now it is no longer a powerful fleet. Therefore, it is really hard to say whether they will come to Europe to participate in the war, especially when their national coastline still needs to be guarded. In addition, it is the army. According to the news we have received from The Hague, the Dutch seemed to have always wanted to hire more than 10,000 officers and soldiers of the East Coast standing army to guard the United Provinces, but it seems that the East Coast people did not agree very much, so things have been dragged down and they don't know what's going on now. Maybe they are waiting for the Dutch to hire them at a higher price."

In fact, the English are still very understanding of the Dutch's behavior of looking for Army mercenaries all over the world, because their own combat power is too bad. However, does the East Coast Army, which is far away in the New World in the South, have combat power that is more than the continental average? The British are a little suspicious of this, and they are eager to accept the Dutch's employment as a whole, because then they can observe the combat power of the Lower Coast Army at close range. But now it seems that all this is still unknown, which makes people feel quite regretful. Maybe they can only find another opportunity in the future.

"In short, Mr. Clifford, given the subtle political situation in Europe today, starting next year, the company will gradually increase its investment in India and strive to obtain more commodities, especially items that are urgently needed by the war, and bring them back to the domestic or international markets. Of course, you can continue to focus on the trade of the Qing Dynasty in the Far East, but you may not be able to obtain more support from the company." Josiah Child said slowly: "I have read the letter you sent this morning. You can try to increase the price of artillery, but there is no need to deliberately, because the upcoming war breaks the prices of all kinds of war-related materials at a cyclical high point. The artillery for the Qing Dynasty was going to increase the price!"

"Now you go back and have some rest. Take stock of the supplies. After the delivery is completed, I will send someone to deliver the documents to your house. I still want to study the latest information of the Lower East Coast Army and Navy. This country composed of pagans is one of the forces that the company needs to pay attention to the most." Josiah Child said again.
Chapter completed!