Chapter 1028: The Immigration Race (Please Subscribe)

"Upgrade New Spain into a kingdom?"

King Philip truly could not understand what upgrading New Spain into a kingdom had to do with resisting an invasion by the Great Ming Empire.

"Jose," Philip asked, "if New Spain were a kingdom, could we conjure up people and pesos?"

"Of course!" Don Juan Jose nodded emphatically. "Father, it is obvious! If New Spain is a colony of the Kingdom of Spain, then two governor-generalships (the Governor-General of New Spain and the Governor-General of Peru) plus a few commissioners-in-chief are enough to govern it, and there are not many noble posts to hand out. Moreover, there is no precedent for enfeoffing knights and lords in the colonies.

But once New Spain becomes a kingdom, it must be fitted out with a government to the standard of a state, an army must be organized, knights and lords great and small enfeoffed, and a parliament can even be formed.

In this way we can recruit from Spain proper, the Netherlands, Naples, Milan, and even from Germany or other parts of Europe, warriors willing to become nobles of New Spain and have them emigrate there. These men are warriors already; the moment they arrive in New Spain they can be formed into an army to fight the United States of the New Continent backed by the Great Ming Empire.

I imagine there must be many people here in Europe who wish to become nobles?"

That seemed to make some sense.

"But," King Philip frowned, "the people we recruit may not be devout Catholics! And they may not necessarily be Spaniards. If we let them into New Spain, will it not become a second Netherlands?"

"No, no, it will not." Don Juan Jose said. "The Kingdom of New Spain will never become a second Netherlands, because we can require the Europeans who settle there to profess Catholicism and learn to speak Spanish! And the reason the Netherlands slipped out of control was not immigration, but that the people originally living there were not Spaniards. They did not speak Spanish, did not identify with the Spanish state, and did not believe in Catholicism."

"Right!" King Philip nodded. "They were heretics from the start, damnable heretics!"

Don Juan Jose said: "And the Kingdom of New Spain will be a nation of settlers. As king of that nation, you naturally have the right to require the settlers to become Spaniards!"

In the seventeenth century, such a demand was taken for granted!

When in a place, one should follow its customs — unless one is the conqueror!

That is why in Britain itself, even into the twenty-first century, the English, Scots, and Irish remained clearly distinct, and most of Ireland even said goodbye to Britain.

But in America across the ocean, English, Scots, Irish, Germans, French, Russians, Italians, and so on all became Americans once they arrived. They were all required to speak English, to identify with America, and most also converted to Protestant Christianity.

In the former colonies of Spain and Portugal, the situation was much the same. Immigrants from all over continental Europe adopted Catholicism and spoke Spanish and Portuguese.

The only exception, perhaps, was the French-speaking region of Quebec in British Canada, which could never be assimilated.

But on the whole, the nations founded by these settlers in the New World were easier to unite than the old nations of continental Europe.

Seeing that his foolish father was somewhat moved, Don Juan Jose pressed on: "Father, there are only two choices before us now: either sit and wait for the Chinese to take all of New Spain, or make New Spain a kingdom subordinate to Spain and use that kingdom to attract Europeans willing to fight for her!

Father, you must make a choice!"

Philip IV fell silent again, then slowly nodded. "Jose, we cannot sit and wait for the fall of New Spain. Very well, I can raise New Spain to a kingdom, but before formally issuing the decree, I still need to consult with the queen, the cardinal, and the pope."

"Of course, that is necessary!" Don Juan Jose knew the matter was already more than half won. As long as the Great Ming's establishment of a United States on the New Continent was confirmed, Spain would have to do something!

If the Kingdom of Spain itself could not give New Spain more help, then upgrading it into a kingdom and letting that kingdom attract immigrants from all over Europe was the only way.

And as long as Don Juan Jose became prime minister of the Kingdom of New Spain, taking the further step to become king would only be a matter of time!

While the great enterprise of establishing the Kingdom of New Spain was unfolding step by step in Europe under the impetus of Don Juan Jose and a group of far-sighted men of the Kingdom of Spain, on the other side of the globe, the second batch of immigrant transport ships bound for the United States of the New Continent had already successfully crossed the boundless ocean and reached their destination, America Bay.

The first batch of immigrant transport ships had consisted of only one vessel, the Henan.

The second batch consisted of ten ships in all, including two Flying-class ships, two bombardment gunboats called the Dongning-class, and six ordinary ten-thousand-bushel great bird ships.

The ten ships carried a total of 1,000 soldiers and 1,000 immigrants. The soldiers were the "Iron Men Army" of the Dongning Army. The immigrants comprised more than 400 households, plus some women purchased from Japan, which had fallen into civil war. The more than 400 immigrant households had all been recruited through family connections by eight wastrel second-generation or Nth-generation heirs without inheritance rights: Zheng Xi, Li Shaohua, Zhu Ruqin, Kong Yinwen, Zu Yongzhong, Gao Yuanjue, and Liu Guozhong. Each household was a small family of one man and one woman, all young people around twenty years of age.

In this immigration race, although the Great Ming had started late — a full hundred years late — and although the distance across the Pacific was greater than that across the Atlantic, the Great Ming still held considerable advantages over Europe.

First, its population was simply too large!

Second, its scale of production was simply too great!

A large population meant that many people were willing, or could be made willing, to emigrate. With a huge base, the United States of the New Continent could pick and choose, could plan comprehensively, and did not have to take whatever came its way, as the Kingdom of New Spain did.

Therefore, the immigrants currently heading to the United States of the New Continent all had to meet certain conditions.

They had to be young and strong, paired man and woman, and possess sufficient survival skills — the men good at farming, the women good at weaving.

As for what religion they believed in or what language they spoke, that was not a problem at all.

The advantage of enormous production scale was even more obvious.

The one hundred million taels of silver raised by the Zhu Emperor was, first, a figure on paper; second, that paper figure would not turn into real gold and silver flowing out; third, that paper figure would be converted, through the Great Ming's financial system and the vast handicraft industry of the southeast, into industrial and commercial output value!

In other words, what the Great Ming spent was not one hundred million taels of silver, but the creation of at least one hundred million in GDP.

So Don Juan Jose's policy of turning New Spain into the Kingdom of New Spain was entirely correct, because Spain simply could not compete with the Great Ming on the question of immigration to the New World. Only all of Europe together could roughly do so — and all of Europe together would still have the advantage!

After all, the east coast of North America, close to Europe, was the true chosen land!

Of course, these relative advantages and disadvantages would not become apparent in a short time. In the short term, neither the immigrants the Great Ming nor Europe could send to the New World needed to worry about living space.

Because the New World was too vast and too rich!

"Too, too big!"

"It doesn't seem very cold! Both banks are green."

"It really isn't cold! How strange. Is this the north?"

"Yes, it's already December, and it's still lush and green. We can surely grow two crops of wheat!"

"There doesn't seem to be anyone living here. No sign of cultivation."

"Such fine land, lying empty — what a sin!"

The immigrants from the Great Ming, before they had even gone ashore, were already stunned by the lush greenery along the shores of America Bay and the vast, magnificent scenery.

They had thought they would be dumped in a world of ice and snow, but to their surprise, in winter they beheld a stretch of green.

This was no northern land at all, but rich territory just like Jiangnan!

(End of Chapter)