Chapter 753: Buy! Buy! Buy!

In April 1651, a group of Chinese nouveaux riches suddenly appeared in Amsterdam, the capital of the Dutch Republic — the Ming embassy led by Ji Kun.

The Ming embassy had now transformed into a Ming purchasing mission. On the journey out from China, Ji Kun and his party had been relatively frugal and had not bought much. But the moment they reached Amsterdam, the center of seventeenth-century international capitalism, Ji Kun and his men finally stopped holding back and began spending money like water!

Truly spending money like water! One of the important tasks Zhu Cilang had assigned to Ji Kun's embassy was to go on a massive shopping spree in Amsterdam, Holland!

This time they had left Nanjing for Europe carrying 100,000 taels of gold!

All of this 100,000 taels of gold had been drawn from the accounts of the Royal Trading Company — it was the Emperor's private savings.

To transport these 100,000 taels safely to Holland, Zhu Cilang had dispatched five 10,000-dan great ships (the gold could not all be placed on one ship), along with 500 escorting officers and soldiers (half of whom were navy).

In addition, there was a team specifically responsible for purchasing, headed by Yun Shangqian, the chief steward of the "Old West Salt Syndicate" who had gone over to the Emperor in Yangzhou. After joining the Emperor, this Yun Shangqian had been in charge of commercial affairs — first serving at the Salt Merchants' Bank, then moving to the Maritime Merchants' Bank, and before leaving the country he had been the bank's head office manager. Now he was responsible for the great purchasing mission with 100,000 taels of gold!

The shopping list had been drawn up personally by Zhu Cilang, and it was a motley assortment covering everything. The biggest item was ships! He wanted 800-ton warships or armed merchantmen produced by the Amsterdam shipyards — the largest ship of the line of this era was the English navy's "Sovereign of the Seas," with a burden of 1,683 tons and 102–104 guns, built in 1637. But a ship of the line of that class was not for sale; it could never be placed on the shelves of Amsterdam's merchants.

So Sun Xing, a master shipwright from the Nanjing shipyard who accompanied Yun Shangqian, selected a sailing warship capable of mounting 44 guns, the "Flying" — not a new ship, but a second-hand vessel laid up in drydock for repairs, belonging to the Admiralty of Holland (there was no unified Dutch navy now, only provincial admiralties). Through Van Diemen acting as intermediary, it was secured at a cost of 5,000 taels of gold.

Having bought the ship, they naturally needed a captain and sailors. Ji Kun also hired, at a cost of 2,000 taels of gold, a Dutch captain named Davy Jones and several dozen crewmen under him (not for one year, but for four), to sail the "Flying" back to Shanghai in the Great Ming Empire. To prevent the warship from "mutinying" en route, Xie Xun, a Liaodong-born officer who had graduated from the Naval Academy, also came aboard with 120 Ming naval officers and men.

In addition, Ji Kun paid high prices to several Amsterdam shipyards for sets of blueprints for warships and armed merchantmen, as well as 1:50 scale models.

Besides ships, cannon were also a key purchase. Not counting the 44 naval guns mounted on the "Flying," the embassy to Europe also bought a batch of cast-iron cannon produced in Sweden by Dutch capitalists (Holland had no good iron ore) — all heavy field pieces: eight 24-pounder "demi-cannon" and eight 12-pounder "quarter-cannon." According to plan, six of each model would form an artillery battery, and the remaining two of each would be used for testing and reverse-engineering.

If the 24-pounder and 12-pounder cast-iron cannon could be successfully copied (China's cast-iron technology was not too poor; it produced many iron cannon of its own, but the rate of good pieces was not ideal), then the Ming field army could form an artillery system composed of 3-pounder bronze regimental guns, 12-pounder and 24-pounder heavy cast-iron cannon. The 3-pounders would be used to kill enemy infantry, the 12-pounders were suppressive artillery that could bombard enemy artillery positions at long range, and the 24-pounders were siege artillery.

This was Gustavus Adolphus's field artillery system, tested in the Thirty Years' War and the European mainstream of this era.

In addition, the Ming embassy also purchased 5,000 Dutch-made flintlock muskets.

In Europe, flintlocks had already begun to replace matchlocks, and in the Ming realm quite a few workshops had also begun copying flintlocks, but the quality was still unsatisfactory.

So the embassy sent by Zhu Cilang placed large orders with several major arms factories in Amsterdam, while also sending along master craftsmen and officers to "supervise production" (steal the craft).

Of course, the embassy would also require the manufacturers to provide proper blueprints, and would conveniently lure away a few Dutch craftsmen as well.

But even with the blueprints in hand and craftsmen lured away, it would still be difficult to produce enough flintlocks in a short time. So these 5,000 "Dutch-made" pieces would be used to equip eight flintlock battalions (fitted with socket bayonets), for drills and for developing new tactics.

The third major purchasing category besides ships and firearms was books — whether religious, philosophical, technical, literary, geographical, or historical, one counted as one: every book that could be bought in Amsterdam was to be bought, one copy of each. After being shipped back to China, Bureau Secretary Song Yingxing of the Tongwen Institute and Zhu Cilang himself would decide which books should be immediately translated and published, and which need not be published for the time being.

Machinery and equipment was also a major purchasing category, though the age of machine industry had not yet arrived, and in Europe there were only various kinds of water-powered machinery. Ji Kun did not care whether those things were useful in China or not; he simply bought whatever he saw, several sets for each use — but no second-hand goods, all brand new. Prices were negotiable, but the demands for after-sales service were very high. There had to be a "three guarantees" service: guaranteed installation, guaranteed repair, and guaranteed instruction in operating skills. So the Dutch manufacturers had to send engineers and technicians to China, with expenses naturally paid by Zhu Cilang.

Moreover, Ji Kun was under orders to demand that the engineers and technicians sent to China be as young and unmarried as possible.

Percheron horses bred in France were also purchased in large numbers by Ji Kun. This was a heavy draft horse; though not as enormous as the Shire, its shoulder height was still between five chi three cun and five chi five cun. Large in body, it was nevertheless nimble and agile in movement, gentle in temperament, and extremely well suited for use as a military draft horse. Moreover, because there were many noble estates in France, the Percheron population was large and they were easy to buy. So Ji Kun asked Fouquet for help and bought more than 400 Percherons, all delivered to Amsterdam.

In addition, following the list given by Zhu Cilang, Ji Kun purchased many miscellaneous things — from stationery to laboratory equipment, to daily necessities, clocks and curios, woolen clothing — everything one could want.

Because there was so much to buy, the single "Flying" simply could not hold it all, so they had no choice but to hire three additional armed merchantmen of seven or eight hundred tons to return to China together with the "Flying."

But for now the "Flying" and the other three sailing ships had not yet set sail, because the route from Europe around Africa and through the Strait of Malacca to the East was not only long but extremely dangerous. Even with four armed sailing ships it was not entirely safe, so Ji Kun planned to join up with the ships carrying the English embassy to China and return together — that way it would be absolutely secure.

Lord Grey, the representative of England's Lord Protector Cromwell, arrived in hostile Amsterdam in early May, together with Thomas Browne, Governor of the British East India Company.

The conflict between England and Holland was long-standing; though they had not yet fallen out openly, both sides were sharpening their knives. For Ji Kun to bring England into the Southern Seas at this juncture — who knew whether it was for "peace" and "free trade," or to ignite the flames of war in the Southern Seas?

Although war between England and Holland was about to break out, the negotiations in Amsterdam among China, Holland, England, and Portugal (represented by João IV's envoy) were still relatively pleasant. For the talks did not touch on any core interests; they merely confirmed that the Governor of the British East India Company, the Governor of the Dutch East India Company at Batavia, the Portuguese Governor of Macau, and other dignitaries would go together to Nanjing to discuss with the Ming Emperor himself how to reasonably divide the interests in the islands of the Southern Seas and their waters.

(End of Chapter)