Chapter 1011: The Head Manager of the United States (Please Subscribe)

"Marie, do you know what the special products of the Americas are?"

Zhu Cilang seemed not to know what the special products of the Americas were, so he tossed the question to his little foreign filly, Marie Mancini.

The little foreign filly giggled: "Your Majesty, do you truly not know what the special products of the Americas are? The special products of the Americas are gold and silver!"

Zhu Cilang stared wide-eyed at Zheng Zhilong again and asked, "Old Father-in-law, what do you think about shipping some gold, silver, and treasure back? Would it cover the freight?"

Gold, silver, and treasure — Zheng Zhilong stared at the Zhu Emperor in astonishment. "Your Majesty, are we going to seize the Spaniards' gold and silver mines? Those are the very lifeblood of the Kingdom of Spain!

Moreover, of the gold and silver the Spaniards get from the Americas, only a small portion ends up staying in their own hands. The overwhelming majority is earned away through trade by us, the Dutch, the English, the French, the Italians, and the various German states. If we seize the gold and silver mines of New Spain, I fear we would incur the wrath of everyone!"

Spain was the "scatterer of wealth" of the Age of Exploration. With utter ruthlessness, and at the cost of blood and sweat, they plundered gold and silver in New Spain, then braved shipwreck, robbery, and the risk of scurvy to ship that gold and silver out of the Americas — and in the end it all went to benefit the manufacturing powers of Holland, England, France, Germany, and Italy. Even China got a little advantage from it.

And Holland, England, France, Germany, and the rest completed their primitive accumulation of capital almost entirely on the back of the wealth the Spaniards scattered.

If the Great Ming truly seized the gold and silver mines of New Spain, they could just wait to be gang-beaten by every great power in Europe!

Of course, if the fight came into the Celestial Empire's own sphere, the Zhu Emperor was not afraid. But if the battlefield shifted to Central America, the Europeans were much closer!

And how many men could the Great Ming send over there?

Zhu Cilang smiled: "We know, We know — how could We not know? We have no intention of seizing the gold and silver mines of New Spain. We only want the west coast of North America north of San Diego."

That was roughly where the California gold deposits lay, the homeland of the North American ferret, and also the site of the world's largest open-pit copper mine and abundant oil resources.

But none of these things had been discovered yet, let alone developed, and Zhu Cilang had no intention of playing the prophet in front of Zheng Zhilong, so he would not mention any of it.

"Old Father-in-law," Zhu Cilang went on, "since We have no intention of digging at Spain's lifeblood, We naturally intend to negotiate peace with Spain. The fighting now is for the sake of the negotiating later. And the negotiating later must, of course, produce freedom of navigation on the Pacific!"

"Freedom of navigation on the Pacific?" Zheng Zhilong frowned. In all his life he had never heard of any such thing as freedom of navigation.

Zhu Cilang said: "Yes, freedom of navigation! The Pacific is so vast — by what right do they monopolize it and bar others from passing? The Spaniards are too overbearing! Marie, wouldn't you say so?"

"Right! They are too overbearing!" Marie Mancini nodded repeatedly.

Zhu Cilang smiled and continued: "Once we have freedom of navigation, we can use silk, porcelain, lacquerware, and other goods to bring gold and silver back from New Spain. That way, the Pacific route can turn over. As long as the route can turn over, our transoceanic passenger ships will not have to return empty, and costs can be spread thin."

Zheng Zhilong's brow was still slightly furrowed, because he knew that using ships carrying people, porcelain, silk, and lacquerware to haul gold and silver back could never balance out. To balance shipping on the Pacific in both directions, they would have to find more commodities.

Leaving aside whether those commodities could even be dug out, even if they could be found, building up sufficient output would hardly be the work of a day!

Seeing that Zheng Zhilong still hesitated somewhat, Zhu Cilang said to him: "Old Father-in-law, our war in the Americas has a long way to go. Although the Spaniards were defeated in Japan, they are still a world empire, and the gold and silver mines of the Americas are their lifeblood — they will not give them up easily.

Moreover, Spain has been colonizing the Americas for over a hundred years. The white and mixed-race population of New Spain now numbers in the hundreds of thousands, and there are even more native Indians to make use of. So Spain can organize an army of tens of thousands in the Americas!

And we have only a few dozen people in the Americas — nowhere near enough. Nor can we count on the navy. The South Seas Fleet has to support the Siam campaign and also haul rice back. The East Seas Fleet has only a handful of ships altogether, and it still has to watch the waters around Japan. If the campaign against Doni breaks out, it will also have to split its forces to blockade the seas off the passes and Joseon. At most it could spare two or three eight-hundred-ton ships for the Americas. How many men could those carry? We have thought it over and over, and We can only rely on merchant shipping.

Old Father-in-law, We will have the Royal Trading Company put up one million taels, your Yiguan Hong put up one million, and the sand-ship guild put up one million as well. Together we will establish a Pacific Shipping Company, purchase one or two hundred dedicated ten-thousand-bushel passenger ships, and ship troops and settlers to the Americas. What do you think?"

"How will the freight be calculated?" Zheng Zhilong asked.

"By the head," Zhu Cilang said. "Calculated by each head delivered to the New World! Would fifty taels per person be enough?"

The cost of colonizing the Americas certainly could not all fall on the court, because the court could not afford it. Fifty taels was only the passage. For settlers to establish homes on the far shore of the ocean, at least another fifty taels of investment would be needed. One hundred taels per person; one million people would be one hundred million. This money was not beyond raising — historically, the Qing dynasty spent seventy million just fighting the Jinchuan campaigns, and fought the Dzungars for decades or even a century, with total spending certainly no less than one hundred million.

Spending roughly what the Jinchuan campaigns cost to take the dozen or so future states of the western Chosen Land, plus a province of British Columbia — that would be worth it no matter how you reckoned, wouldn't it?

Those territories all looked bigger than Jinchuan!

But the problem was that Jinchuan lay within the Celestial Empire's own borders, so no matter how much money was spent on replacing native chieftains with regular administration, it was correct. The west coast of North America, however, lay on the far side of the ocean. Keeping it permanently within the Celestial Empire's borders would be difficult!

In the future, that place might well become an independent country and live next door to the Chosen United States.

So Zhu Cilang could not endlessly pour court money into the New World. He could only find a way to turn the colonization of the Americas into a profitable business.

Of course, a business as large as colonizing the Americas could not be without capital — this was a "heavy-asset" business!

So the initial investment was indispensable!

But who would put up that investment?

"Your Majesty," Zheng Zhilong thought again, "who will pay the passage?"

This question had to be made absolutely clear!

Zheng Zhilong himself was Minister of the Ministry of Revenue, and the Ministry of Revenue had no "North American colonization budget." Moreover, in the past two years, because of the war with Spain, a host of construction projects, and the fact that the recovered northern provinces were still in their "tax-free period," the Great Ming court's finances were tight. It could not produce millions or tens of millions to invest in the Americas!

"That..." Zhu Cilang thought for a moment. "Whoever benefits, invests! The passage will be paid by the investors!"

"Investors?" Zheng Zhilong's frown deepened. He was a great capitalist, the richest man in the Great Ming, wealthy as a nation, and his business acumen ranked absolutely second in the Great Ming! Yet even he could not figure out how colonizing the Americas had become a business.

"Your Majesty, who will invest?"

Zhu Cilang patted his chest. "We will invest! We will invest in a — a United States of North America!"

"A United States? What kind of country is that?"

"A United States is — is a joint-stock country!" Zhu Cilang explained. "Do you know what a joint-stock company is?"

"I know, I know — it is in the Commercial Code."

Zhu Cilang smiled and nodded: "It is roughly the same idea — just turn a commercial firm into a country. We will put in a bit more and become the senior partner of the United States. Those who put in less will be junior partners. The manager elected by the shareholders according to their shares will be called the Head Manager!"

Could that work?

Zheng Zhilong sat there stunned, not knowing what to say for a moment. The little foreign filly Marie Mancini, who was keeping them company at his side, spoke up with a grin: "My Emperor, will the leader of this country you describe have to be called the Head Manager of the United States of America from now on?"

(End of Chapter)