Chapter 473: The Unequal Treaties Are All Ready

The Dutchman Fan Damen was in fact a truly great figure. If his laughable name were translated more accurately, it should be Anthony van Diemen. He was born at Christmas in 1593, in the city of Culemborg in the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands. When he grew up he worked as a sailor and a merchant, and once even owned his own merchant ship. In the end, however, bad luck ruined his business, and he was forced to take a job with the Dutch East India Company.

Yet within the Dutch East India Company he was like a fish in water, and pulled off a good many large deals. From 1618 onward, the Company posted him to the East, stationed permanently at Batavia, the Company's headquarters in the Dutch East Indies. He rose from ship's captain all the way to commander of the Dutch East Indies fleet, and even received the rank of admiral.

By 1636, his official fortunes rose still higher: he became Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies!

Two years after he assumed the governor-generalship, he provoked a war against Portugal's colonial power in the East, and in 1641 seized Portugal's colony on the island of Ceylon, and in 1644 seized Portugal's colony at Malacca, and forced the Portuguese Governor-General at Goa to sue for peace with the Dutch East India Company.

And at the same time he was fighting the Portuguese, Anthony van Diemen also opened war against the Dutch people's mortal enemy, Spain — the war between the Dutch and the Spanish began in 1568 and did not end until 1648, lasting eighty years in all, known to history as the "Eighty Years' War." The present era is precisely the final stage of the Eighty Years' War. The Spanish Empire was gradually declining, while the Dutch Republic was at the height of its power! Thus the Dutch also won their war against the Spanish in the Far East, and the stronghold on the island of Taiwan was seized by the Dutch from Spanish hands.

In addition, during Anthony van Diemen's tenure he also opened trade between the Netherlands and two Eastern countries, Vietnam and Japan.

Yet the Eastern adventures of so successful a European colonizer had also met with major setbacks.

The present era is not the nineteenth century, when a great empire ruled the Eastern world. Although China has already reached a time of troubles within and without, it is precisely the weakening of the central dynasty that has allowed the formerly suppressed Chinese sea merchants (pirates) to flourish greatly. And the most powerful among them, the "Eighteen Zhis," went a step further and became the Ming's "lords of the sea," and even built up a powerful coastal navy whose main strength lay in great bird ships and half-Chinese, half-Western junks.

And in 1633, at the great naval battle of Liaoluo Bay, they defeated the navy of the Dutch East India Company!

After that battle, the Dutch lost the right to trade along the Chinese coast, which amounted to shutting the Dutch East India Company out of the vast Chinese market!

Although the Dutch East India Company was carrying out the business of a state, its essence was still that of a company whose purpose was to make money. Losing the Chinese market meant losing enormous profits!

Therefore, after Anthony van Diemen assumed the post of Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies, his first and greatest priority was to reopen the door to the Chinese market. But he could not use the means he was best at — namely, war — against China.

Because he could not defeat Zheng Zhilong's enormous coastal fleet. Even if a huge fleet were summoned from the Dutch homeland, it would not be enough to destroy Zheng Zhilong's navy completely and force the central dynasty to submit.

And so long as the central dynasty did not submit, Zheng Zhilong could quickly rebuild his fleet. Even if he could not defeat the Dutch in a decisive fleet battle, he could use pirate tactics to keep raiding Dutch merchant ships, thereby cutting the Dutch East India Company's trade route to Japan.

Losing both the Chinese and Japanese markets at once would be nothing short of a disaster for the Dutch East India Company's financial statements — what the company's shareholders wanted was profit and dividends, not how many Chinese pirate ships the company's fleet had sunk.

Therefore, during the dozen or so years of Anthony van Diemen's tenure, the Dutch East India Company could only circle around the outskirts of the Chinese market, helpless. Of course, it was not entirely without recourse: launching a war of invasion on land might perhaps force the central dynasty to submit.

But the only troops Anthony van Diemen had available were a little over 1,000 soldiers on Taiwan. With that many men, he could not even be certain of driving out the Zheng family's enforcers on the island of Taiwan!

And more soldiers meant more investment and greater uncertainty. The Company's finances simply could not sustain such a reckless gamble — never mind losing, even if the war dragged on, the Company would go bankrupt!

Just when Anthony van Diemen had completely given up on the Chinese market and turned instead to planning a full-scale conquest of the island of Java, his nephew — who was also the Company's trade representative posted to Japan — Bruce van Diemen suddenly arrived in Batavia, bringing with him a piece of shocking news.

The Crown Prince of the central dynasty, who was also Prince Regent, hoped the Dutch East India Company could send a high-level delegation to visit Nanjing. Because the central dynasty was facing an unprecedented crisis: the empire's northern territories had been occupied by the Tartars, and in order to recover the lost lands, His Highness the Crown Prince was seeking help from Westerners, and especially hoped to obtain the help of the mighty Republic of the Seven United Netherlands!

For Anthony van Diemen, this was simply a pie falling from the sky, because arms and mercenaries were already within the Company's scope of business.

Now that China's Crown Prince had come knocking, why should the East India Company stand on ceremony? Naturally they would sharpen their cleaver again and again, preparing to carve off a good thick slice.

Opening trade was no longer even a question — without opening up, how could they sell arms and provide mercenaries?

Anthony van Diemen wanted more! For example, a leased territory like Macau, and free trade monopolized by the East India Company, and of course freedom of navigation for East India Company ships along China's coast and inland rivers.

So Anthony van Diemen could not even wait for the plague that in history would take his life to begin spreading through Batavia. He boarded a galleon, loaded it with a cargo of guns and gunpowder, and sailed north. During the voyage, he and his brother Bruce impatiently prepared a thick stack of unequal treaties for Zhu Cilang!

All they were waiting for was the Crown Prince of China — the man who had the northern Tartars trembling in terror — to sign and seal them.

By the autumn of 1645, he finally arrived at the "Free City of Shanghai," which was still under construction, and was warmly received by its "mayor," Luo Dagong.

The harbor and streets of the "Free City of Shanghai" under construction, the surprisingly high efficiency of the Chinese officials, and the prosperous cities, the developed network of water and land transport, the flourishing commerce and industry, and the lax military preparations he saw all along the road from Shanghai to Nanjing — all of it gave Anthony van Diemen hope of luring the Crown Prince of China into signing a treaty favorable to the Dutch East India Company!

"That is impossible. Your Excellency the Governor-General, I can assure you that you will certainly return from China laden with gains and become a hero of the United Provinces. But the Crown Prince of China will not sign this treaty. It is utterly impossible. Your demands are too absurd. How could he agree to lease Shanghai to the Dutch East India Company? Do you intend to start a war with the Great Ming Empire? Have you brought the United Provinces' entire army to Taiwan?"

On the morning of the first day of the eighth month of the eighteenth year of Chongzhen of the Great Ming, atop the Yifeng Gate tower in Nanjing, a group of Westerners, accompanied by Ming officials such as Han Lin, Luo Dagong, and Xu Ermo, were waiting to watch the triumphant Ming New Army display its awe-inspiring martial splendor. Among them was Johann Adam Schall von Bell, who was both a Westerner and a Ming official.

At that moment Johann Adam Schall von Bell was standing beside Anthony van Diemen, speaking with him in French about the treaty — Anthony van Diemen had arrived in Nanjing the day before, and Schall, who held the post of Instructor at the Tongwen Bureau of the Ministry of Rites, was responsible for entertaining Van Diemen's party. Van Diemen had taken the opportunity to slip Schall a consulting fee, and then handed over the unequal treaty he had prepared in advance for Schall to study.

"Why is so large an army needed?" Van Diemen was rather puzzled.

Schall merely smiled: "You will know very soon. Very soon!"

(End of Chapter)