On July 31, 1652, after waiting for a long time on the coast of Taesel Island, the "Mackerel" guard gunboat finally obtained the permission of the Dutch, and together with four east coast flute-shaped transport ships, they struggled to cross the Sea of ​​Sudd along the prescribed route, and finally docked on the dock in Amsterdam. ⊙

The atmosphere in Amsterdam port is now very solemn. In previous years, more than 2,000 ships were berthed here every day, but now this number is one quarter less. As the war progresses, this number may continue to decline. With the fewer ships entering and leaving the port, it is undoubtedly a fatal threat for Amsterdam, which makes a living by trade.

Now we can see this sign. As the British Navy continues to intercept Dutch ships in the Dover Strait and confiscate Dutch ships (these British people are now "crazy" to the point where even Dutch ships that did not violate the Navigation Ordinance have to be punished. For this reason, the Dutch Navy has had to send a large number of warships or armed merchant ships to participate in the escort mission, but this further disperses their unopposed maritime power), Amsterdam's prices have begun to rise sharply, with the prices of wheat, butter, cheese and cattle rising by 30% compared to a few months ago. Many poor people complained, and the municipalities of the Netherlands and Amsterdam were also worried about it.

You should know that among the seven provinces of the United Republic, one common (the Principality of Brabant) and one region (the Drente region), the Netherlands Province has the largest population and the most developed business, but in terms of agricultural output, it "cannot support one percent of its own population". Therefore, the wealthy Dutch province urgently needs the import of foreign daily necessities - especially food.

But now, under the interception of "Baby-raising British pirates" (actually the British Navy), a large number of Dutch transport ships were unable to enter even any port in the Netherlands - what is even more tragic is that many transport ships were kidnapped by the British - which immediately made the market in Amsterdam tense. Many supplies rose in the shortage.

Although the city of Amsterdam and the Dutch provincial government have made great efforts, the Hague's third-level parliament also requested the remaining provinces to import various daily necessities into the Netherlands - this requirement is not excessive, because the population of the Netherlands province accounts for half of the total population of 1.7-1.8 million in the United Republic of the Netherlands, accounting for 66% of the fiscal revenue, and also bears 60% of the military expenditure. If the Netherlands province is abolished, then the seven-provincial alliance, which has been quarreling for more than a hundred years and has been in constant conflict, will not be necessary to exist.

However, it is not easy to squeeze out agricultural products for the Netherlands province! Let’s talk about Zeland in the western region, the province with the best agricultural conditions in the seven provinces (at first it was a famous wheat production area with extremely high yields) and has not grown grain for many years due to highly developed commerce. They planted madder - a cash crop that can extract dyes - so it is unlikely to expect them to export grains to the Netherlands province.

There are a large number of peatlands in the Netherlands, Utrecht, Brabant, Uttar Eisel, and Friesland provinces. They have always been large-scale importers of grain. The current economy is mainly fishing, fishery processing, re-export trade and other businesses. It is naturally impossible to rely on them.

As for the eastern provinces such as Gelderland, Groningen, and Drente, these provinces mainly use sandy land and are not as good as those of Zeland, but are much better than those of the Netherlands. But the problem is that these provinces mainly plant rye and grass are not surplus materials, and their production capacity is limited, so they are unable to support the Netherlands on a large scale.

This led to the price of daily necessities such as flour, meat, oil, wine, vinegar, salt and other daily necessities on the market in Amsterdam. This obviously severely hit the morale of the Netherlands - people from the East Coast felt this indescribable depressing atmosphere as soon as they arrived at the dock.

"Get out of the way, you damn vampires!" Lieutenant McKinley pushed away several dock brokers chasing him. He complained to his first mate in Chinese: "How did these Dutch people know that we had a ship filled with refined flour? Damn it must have been leaked by those dock officials when they boarded the ship for inspection. We have to leave quickly, otherwise more Dutch merchants will come. They are the most shameful flour now!"

The first mate looked at the Dutch brokers or small merchants who were coming over like sharks with lingering fear, nodded with consent and said, "I'll urge Lao Zhang to quickly get the medicines, hemostasis bandages, knitted laces, and dyed leather goods ordered by the guests. Our ship of refined flour was recommended by Riga Trading Station to the Moscow Prince. It cannot be snatched away by these Dutch people here. Damn, we shouldn't have let all the ships enter the port to replenish supplies. Now the young men have disappeared in the pier and tavern, and we can find them all for a while!"

McKinley also realized this problem, which made his face look bad again. He is now increasingly worried that the ship of refined flour ordered by the Liga Trading Station will be intercepted by the Dutch halfway.

His bad premonition soon came into effect. After a while, a well-dressed Dutch man came to Lieutenant McKinley, looked at his face and said in Dutch, "I am Conrad Van Boyningen, the city speaker of Amsterdam (the highest official in charge of policing and law), and a provincial MP of the Netherlands. I just heard my servant say that something was going on here, so I came over and checked it out. Now, I think I am very clear about what is going on here. I heard that one of your Frute ships is full of the best refined flour. Is this a fact?"

McKinley looked at Van Boyningen in a daze. He couldn't understand Dutch and didn't know what the other party was saying, but he could guess some of it. However, he felt that it would be better to pretend to be stupid at this time, hoping to get away with it. Unfortunately, his plan soon went bankrupt. A scholar wearing glasses behind Van Boyningen took a step forward and repeated his original words in French, English, Portuguese and Spanish, so he felt that he couldn't pretend anymore. He had indeed learned Spanish.

"Yes, we did bring a ship of refined flour over here. Your officials have checked it out, it's 520 metric tons in total, but someone has booked it. We don't mean to sell it publicly in the Amsterdam market. We just want to stay here for two days." Ensign McKinley said in stiff Spanish.

"Sell it to us," Van Boyningen said in a tone of request and command. "Amsterdam needs these flours, and I will find some decent buyers for them, not these small merchants on the dock, but Hendrick of the Tripp family, who was born from one of the most reputable merchant families in the Netherlands."

"This..." McKinley was a little hesitant. He could see that these Dutchmen were determined to buy his ship of flour - especially the flours were mainly special and first-class flour. Europe would definitely not find such white high-end goods at this time. In Amsterdam, where supplies are gradually short of supplies, it would be strange that this shortage of goods would not be targeted. However, this ship of goods must be transported to Port Riga to complete the task. If it was intercepted by the Dutch halfway, it would be the dereliction of duty by Lieutenant McKinley, which would definitely have an impact on his future, so he was still hesitating.

"Are you still hesitating, Captain?" Van Boyningen was a little impatient. He was from a prominent family, his grandfather had served as mayor of Amsterdam. He took office as secretary of the Amsterdam City Council at the age of 21 - a key position that many people envy - and now he is a senior official in charge of urban security and justice. In the past few years, he represented the Amsterdam City Council group to join the Dutch Provincial Council. He is a rising star in local politics. He can patiently say something to a pagan captain from the New World for such a long time and think he is already very polite, so he urgently needs the other party to give him a satisfactory answer.

But unexpectedly, the captain of the East Coast adhered to the principle and shook his head firmly.

"By the way, your plenipotentiary, Mr. Mo San, is currently in Amsterdam. Do you need him to give you an order?" Boyningen's face was already ugly, but he said patiently.

"Mr. Mo San is actually here too?" Second Lieutenant McKinley was a little surprised, and then quickly said in a stern manner: "Of course! Mr. Mo San is the special envoy to Europe appointed by our country. He has full military, commercial and diplomatic powers in Europe. If he is the one who gives orders, I cannot refuse according to the organization's regulations."

Mo San came soon. At that time, he was discussing certain businesses with some Dutch merchants, but was told what happened on the dock, so he quickly rushed over in a carriage.

"Sell it to them, the price they give is fair." Mo Sanyong first ordered in Spanish, then changed to Chinese, and praised Lieutenant McKinley: "Lieutenant, I appreciate your attitude of adhering to principles. Please continue to maintain that the country needs people like you. But now, we are discussing some business matters with the Dutch. Compared with these possible large-scale businesses, the affairs of the Principality of Moscow can be temporarily suspended, and there is no rush. This whole ship of refined flour was sold to the upper class gentleman in Amsterdam, which is a strong support for my actions to expand business here. Thank you, Lieutenant."
Chapter completed!