Chapter 1022: Spain's Choice!

"Chinese junk-rigged ships can reach the New World? Impossible — can a ship like that even cross the Pacific?"

The Marquis of Spínola stared at García in astonishment. This news shocked him even more than the crushing defeat of the Spanish Armada of the East, because after losing the fleet, the only thing that could stop thousands upon thousands of Chinese from reaching the New World was the vast Pacific Ocean itself.

The Marquis did know a little about China — the Philippines also fell under his jurisdiction, so he often saw reports sent from Manila. He knew that the Chinese had a completely different sail system from Western square-rigged soft sails, and he also knew that ships using Chinese junk sails were suited for coastal waters with shifting winds, but not well suited for the open ocean. Their junks were therefore designed for coastal navigation — not large enough, not sturdy enough, and with poor seaworthiness.

Although the Chinese had worked hard over the past dozen or so years to introduce Western-style soft-sailed ships, the size of their soft-sail fleet was still very limited.

Moreover, there were very few sailors capable of handling soft-sailed ships, and the lack of suitable sailors in turn constrained the rapid expansion of China's soft-sail fleet.

So after hearing of the crushing defeat of the Armada of the East, the Marquis of Spínola had been able to recover his composure quickly. As long as the Chinese lacked enough soft-sailed ships, even with a population of over a hundred million, they would have no way to swiftly transport any portion of it to the New World.

Spain therefore still had plenty of time.

García sighed. "My Lord Marquis, the situation you understand is already outdated. Over the past few decades, the Chinese have been tirelessly absorbing technology from Europe.

They have made great progress in every field. Their junk-rigged ships have also been improved with European technology — sturdier hulls, better seaworthiness, faster speeds. And because they use junk sails, they require very few sailors. It is an extremely economical ship type."

Transporting people across the Pacific is, in the end, a word problem in arithmetic — one must weigh speed, crew size, and deadweight tonnage together.

The faster the ship, the shorter the Pacific crossing, the fewer provisions need to be prepared, and the more crew and settlers the ship can carry.

So for the same deadweight tonnage, a soft-sailed ship can certainly carry more people across the Pacific than a junk-rigged ship!

But a soft-sailed ship needs more sailors than a junk-rigged one! More sailors means not only higher wages but also fewer passengers — there's only so much tonnage, after all! Carry more sailors, and of course you carry fewer passengers.

And a round trip on the Pacific route takes a whole year!

That is to say, a ship can make only one voyage a year — even a soft-sailed ship cannot manage two.

So ships transporting settlers must reduce crew numbers as much as possible to cut costs. The greater the passenger-to-crew ratio, the greater the ship's profit margin.

Likewise, the price of the transport ship itself matters greatly. If the ship is cheap and good, uses very few crew, and has guaranteed speed and safety, then even if it is a little slower, it can still ensure a profit.

And profit is the key to sustaining a great wave of migration!

The Marquis of Spínola had already thought of sending privateers into the Pacific to kill! No matter how improved a junk-rigged ship might be, its speed on the open ocean would surely be slower than a soft-sailed ship's.

So the navy of New Spain could sink ships and kill passengers to deter Chinese settlers.

He was just about to raise this with García when the Spanish admiral sighed again. "What is even more troublesome is that the Chinese have also improved explosive shells — they invented wooden sabots and wooden-tube fuses for cannonballs, greatly increasing the shells' performance and giving them strong combat capability. My fleet was destroyed by those shells."

"Admiral García, are you saying the Chinese put explosive shells on their warships? Have they — have they gone mad?" Cold sweat broke out on the Marquis of Spínola's forehead. Spain had explosive shells too — the things were more dangerous to one's own side than to the enemy. Using them on land was one thing, but aboard ship — one blast and a whole ship's company was gone!

García shook his head. "They are not mad. Do you still not understand? A military revolution at sea has already begun! A ship of the line armed with dozens or even a hundred guns is no longer the absolute overlord of the seas! If a Chinese junk-rigged wooden ship carrying only a few 24-pounder carronades gets close, it could deal a devastating blow!"

The Marquis of Spínola cried out, "Good God — do you mean that even if we send privateers, it will be very difficult to stop the Chinese transport fleets?"

The captains and sailors on privateers also want to stay alive. Once they know the other side has explosive shells — one shot kills your whole ship's company — who would dare eat from that executioner's bowl?

Tears welled in García's eyes. "Yes, my Lord Marquis. We need to design new ships of the line, design new cannons capable of firing wooden-sabot explosive shells, and copy the Chinese new-style explosive shells.

Until all of that is accomplished, even if we bring the entire home fleet to the Pacific, it will be very difficult to stop the Chinese from coming!"

The Marquis of Spínola's voice trembled. "They are coming! Coming by the thousands and tens of thousands... what are we to do?"

In fact, Zhu Cilang had no intention of touching the core territories of New Spain. He wanted only the future western regions of the United States and Canada, and had no thought of seizing Mexico or Peru.

But how could the Marquis of Spínola know that? He kept thinking that the silver and gold mines of Mexico and Peru were the most important reason drawing the Chinese across the ocean.

And losing the silver and gold mines of Mexico and Peru would mean the collapse of the Spanish world empire.

"My Lord Marquis," García drew a deep breath and said, "I think the time has come for Spain to make a choice between the Old World and the New World!"

"What are you saying? Choose what?"

"Choose the focus of the nation's development, of course!" García said gravely. "Spain's territories in the New World are facing the danger of total loss! So the nation must choose between maintaining European hegemony and defending the New World.

If the Kingdom chooses Europe, then — then we can only make peace with the Chinese, cede some territory, and let them pour endlessly into the New World, watching them establish their United States, and in the end..."

"No, that is impossible!" The Marquis of Spínola immediately cut García off. "There is no such possibility. Without the New World there is no empire! If we let them in now, within twenty years their population in the New World will far exceed ours... by then we will lose everything!"

No matter how hard the whites and mixed-race whites of New Spain tried to reproduce, no matter how hard the poor of Spain proper tried to save money for ship tickets, it would be very difficult to raise the white and mixed-race white population of New Spain to one million within twenty years.

But for the Chinese, one million migrants in twenty years was only fifty thousand a year — two hundred migrant ships plying back and forth across the Pacific would suffice. And the migrants themselves would reproduce. Given that the new migrants were all young men and women, the birth rate would surely be very high — in twenty years, even two million would not be out of the question!

"In that case," García paused, "we can only place our focus on the New World, extricate ourselves from the chaos of Europe, and march into the Americas with full force — perhaps even... make Mexico City the capital of the Spanish world empire!"

"You mean a migration of the entire nation?" The Marquis of Spínola stared straight at García.

García said, "My Lord Marquis, do you still remember what the Count-Duke of Olivares said?"

"You mean—"

"King Philip should not be the King of Portugal, Aragon, and Valencia, nor should he be the Count of Barcelona. Philip should be only the King of Spain!"

The Marquis fell silent.

Admiral García continued, "That ideal can never be realized in Spain proper... but here in New Spain, there are no Aragonese, no Castilians, no Catalans, not even Netherlanders or Italians — only whites, mixed-race whites, Indians, and blacks. White people from Europe, no matter who they were in Europe, once they arrive in New Spain, all become the most loyal subjects of King Philip.

My Lord Marquis, our New Spain is at least twenty times larger than Old Spain!

If His Majesty the King can bring more European whites to New Spain, then the Spain of the future will be a unified, cohesive, vast, wealthy, and great American nation!"

(End of Chapter)