spice in English is "Spice", which comes from "Species" in Latin , to describe expensive and rare items. In medieval Europe, spices were noble luxury goods. The spices mentioned here include ginger and pepper, as well as cloves, cinnamon , pepper, fennel , nutmeg and sweet rosin, which can remove the fishy sandalwood , camphor and vermouth . In ancient Europe, spices were very versatile and could not only be used in witchcraft rituals, spells, purification, antiseptics, makeup, perfumes, healing, poisons, but also for cooking, food storage and seasoning. Because of its scarcity, people even believe that spices are something between this life and the afterlife, heaven and mortal world. With the blessing of this concept, spices are not only a necessity for food, but also a symbol of status and glory. So, how expensive were the spices at that time?
records that one pound of saffron can be exchanged equally with a horse, one pound of ginger is worth a sheep, and two pounds of nutmeg can be exchanged for a cow. If people mock a humble and down-and-out little person, the common catchphrase is: he doesn't even have pepper. European history records are very clear, and the earliest discovery of spice value was Arab . From a macro perspective, the reason why the Arabs controlled the spice trade was also very simple, that is, the rise of the Arab Empire .
Around the 12th century, the Arabs controlled the only intermodal transport location for water and land transportation at that time. The water city of Venice saw huge profits in the spice business. They first bribed the rulers of Egypt , and then reached a trade agreement with the rulers of the Arab world, successfully occupying the waterway between Mediterranean and Alexandria , and monopolizing the spice business for three hundred years. This is also the reason why many people are confused about why Venice is still in a small place. Later, the Arab Empire was replaced by the Ottoman Empire, especially the fall of Constantinople, which completely blocked the spice trade line between Europe and the outside world. Spain, the emerging business empire, began to explore new routes to the East.
Columbus is a pioneer in plain text records in European history. The land of America he discovered stimulated the desire to explore in other countries. The Portuguese followed closely behind and began their own voyage. They were more lucky than Columbus. Led by the navigator Da Gama , the Portuguese successfully bypassed the Cape of Good Hope in Africa and arrived in India. There, they obtained goods worth 60 times the cost of the expedition. From then on, Eastern goods will no longer have to pass through West Asia, North Africa and the Mediterranean when they arrive in Europe.
511, the Portuguese's Oriental Expedition achieved new success. They seized Malacca, now Singapore, and completely controlled the path of spices, causing the spice trade in Venice to decline rapidly. According to records, after the Portuguese controlled Malacca, the annual pepper consumption in Europe increased by more than 300 times, while the spice trade in Venice plummeted by 75% in 13 years. As an old trading powerhouse, Venice is not willing to give up easily. For a time, the trade war between the two sides was very lively. The snipe and the clam fight, and the fisherman gains profit. The commercial competition between the Portuguese and Venice gave the Dutch people who also coveted the spice trade.
This country has been famous for its superb shipbuilding technology since the Rome era, and ocean sailing is also their ancient tradition. When the Portuguese were criticized for shipping spices of low quality to Europe for competing with Venice, the Dutchman showed his unique business wisdom. According to historical consumption data in the European market, the Dutch no longer blindly purchases spices, but instead focused on several expensive spices: star anise, fennel, cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves, and started to plant them accurately. According to records, in order to control the production of these four spices to achieve the purpose of rare things, the Dutch strictly ordered that only one spice be produced per island.
For example, in Ambon , the Dutch only requires that this island produce star anise and anise, Banda produce nutmeg, and Ceylon produce cinnamon.In the Malugu Islands, in order to control lilac production, the Dutch paid huge sums of money to remove all the lilac tree from other islands. In fact, the commercial competition between Portugal and the Netherlands not only exists in Southeast Asia, but also often flashes their figures in the distant East Asia area. Ming Dynasty silk, ceramics, lacquerware , these bulk commodities , which Europeans have strong purchasing power, are their key targets for competition. In addition, because Toyotomi Hideyoshi sent troops to North Korea, the trade with the Ming Empire was completely cut off, and there was a big gap in the Japanese market's urgently needed products such as porcelain, silk, paper and animal skin. Such a large market also prompted the Dutch to speed up their pace to East Asia to seize commercial benefits.
At the beginning, when the Dutch and the Portuguese were competing in Southeast Asia, in order to mobilize their manpower and financial resources in a timely manner, the Netherlands established a stronghold called the East India Company, which benefited a lot from commercial competition. Therefore, when they went to East Asia to open a commercial area, they used their usual skills and planned to seize a piece of area along the coast of China. Like the strategies the Portuguese used when competing in Southeast Asia, this time they were also targeting the Grapes' control area: Macau.
They believe that if they seize Macau, they will replace the Portuguese and become the new trading partner of the Ming Dynasty. However, what the Dutch did not know was that the Portuguese, who were not favored by the Ming people earlier, established a very harmonious relationship with the Ming government by helping the Ming Dynasty cast red-clothed cannons and cultivating military talents to resist the Eight Banners Army of Liaodong . Therefore, with the support of the Ming government and secretly, the Dutch attacked Macau several times but failed to get a bargain. However, driven by the huge profit of and , the Dutch did not give up. They adjusted their thinking and started from the outside. Because Chinese officials repeatedly refused to trade with the Netherlands, the Dutch simply bypassed the bureaucracy of the Ming Empire and directly established cooperative relations with the China Maritime Merchant Group.
At that time, the Chinese maritime business leader, who took Japan's Hirado as the base, controlled the smuggling trade in the entire southeastern coast of China, was the leader of Chinese maritime businessmen, and from Quanzhou, Fujian, Li Dan . This person was involved in Philippine in his early years, and was familiar with Spanish and Portuguese . Previously, due to a trade dispute, Li Dan was detained by the Spanish as a hard laborer. Therefore, he was quite hostile to the Spanish, so when the Dutch made a request for cooperation, Li Dan agreed very simply. In 1619, the Dutch controlled Jakarta, Indonesia and built a city to defend it here as the place where the governor garrisoned. With this foothold, the Netherlands invaded Taiwan and Penghu soon after, causing Hirado, Taiwan, and Jakarta to form three points and one line. The trade line was frequently plundered by the Dutch and felt unprecedented competitive pressure. What about the Ming Dynasty? Because dealing with the Liaodong war and the peasant uprisings initiated by Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong , they consumed a lot of manpower and material resources, and they were also powerless to harass the Dutch coastal harassment. At this moment, a folk maritime armed force named Zheng Zhilong suddenly rose in 1625, curbing the Dutch army for the Ming Empire.
Because Zheng Zhilong rose too suddenly, he had the powerful armed force to defeat the regular army of the Ming Dynasty in just over a year of development, which led to many people who believed that the Yan Siqi , which was mentioned above, the sea merchant Li Dan and Zheng Zhilong, who had served as one person. It is precisely because Zheng Zhilong had the strength to defeat the regular army of the Ming Dynasty and his kindness to the captured officers and soldiers that the Ming government was willing to recruit them to achieve the effect of "using theft to control the barbarians". Therefore, in 1628, after repeated admonitions by the Fujian Governor Xiong Wencan, Zheng Zhilong officially surrendered to the court in September of that year.
Historical records show that in order to please Fujian officials and nobles in the court, Zheng Zhilong bribed them with the money robbed at sea, gained their favor and gained a firm foothold in the officialdom. Afterwards, Zheng Zhilong proved his military strength by trying to combat other pirates. In order to protect themselves, the remaining pirate groups moved closer to the Dutch, and the Dutch also wanted to wipe out the Zheng Zhilong group. The two sides then launched a decisive battle in Kinmen Liuluo Bay.As a result, the Dutch ended in a crushing defeat, and Liu Xiang, the last more powerful armed group of the Pirate Group, was also eliminated by Zheng Zhilong. From then on, Zheng Zhilong completely controlled the navigation rights in the areas around the Taiwan Strait and monopolized maritime trade such as raw silk and porcelain in the mainland. If a sea ship wants to trade, it must pay 3,000 taels of bank payment. Without the Zheng family's banner, it cannot be exchanged. With this business alone, Zheng Zhilong can earn tens of millions per year. The Netherlands' Taiwan Strait trade line was greatly hit, so it settled for the second best, and instead exploited the plantation economy of Taiwanese and Pengerang people and Han immigrants, causing anti-Dutch uprisings in Taiwan and Pengerang.
661, the anti-Dutch cause of Taiwan and Penghu had a turning point because they ushered in a strong helping hand: Zheng Zhilong's son Zheng Chenggong .
Historical records show that shortly after Zheng Zhilong defeated the Dutch invading army and dominated the trade in the Taiwan Strait, the pattern was also reshaped in mainland China. In 1644, the Ming general stationed in Shanhaiguan, Wu Sangui, surrendered to the Qing Dynasty and assisted the Eight Banners Army who entered the pass to defeat Li Zicheng. In 1645, the Qing army, which had gained a foothold in the North China region, was divided into two parts, and fought a strategic war against Li Zicheng of Guanzhong and Hongguang regime, which established the country's founding of Nanjing. With the great enemy in front of him, the Southern Ming regime still struggled, and finally allowed the Qing army to easily break through Nanjing City. When the central government collapsed, local tyrants and powerful people in the Ming Dynasty held their own troops. Zheng Zhi had many soldiers and was rich enough to compete with the country, so of course he would not be at a disadvantage. Therefore, he supported Emperor Longwu, a clan of the Ming Dynasty, in Fujian. Judging from the fact that Zheng Zhilong was not prepared for his defense and deliberately put the Qing army into Fujian, he supported Emperor Longwu more to hold the emperor to respect himself.
In short: if the Qing army does not come for a day, Zheng Zhilong can use the name of support to respect the power and be rich and noble; if the Qing army is in a big way, he can abandon Emperor Longwu and surrender himself, and not lose the reward of being a marquis, and preserve his status and power in the Fujian. Unfortunately, Zheng Zhilong misjudged the sincerity of , the Qing Dynasty . In 1648, Zheng Zhilong believed in the lies of Boluo, the general commander of the Qing army, and only brought a small number of guards to surrender to the Qing army camp. He was immediately detained by the Qing army and then rushed to Beijing. The Zheng group had no leader and fell into division. It was not until 1650 that Zheng Chenggong merged with the divisions of Zheng Lian and Zheng Cai of Kinmen and Xiamen that he gradually controlled the Zheng group.
At that time, Nanming 's anti-Qing armed forces were the strongest, one was Zheng Chenggong on the southeast coast, and the other was in the southwest region . The two forces echoed each other, which once put a lot of pressure on the Qing government. However, in 1657, an emergency broke the embarrassment of the Eight Banners Army: Sun Kewang, a powerful minister who knew the truth and falsehood of the Yongli regime, defected to the Qing Dynasty. Taking this as an opportunity, the Qing army mobilized heavy troops and launched an unprecedented military attack on the Yongli regime. In the first month of 1659, the Qing army successfully captured Kunming, the capital of the Yongli regime, and the Yongli regime retreated to Myanmar. In other words, Zheng Chenggong became the only remaining large-scale anti-Qing army. However, because the main forces of the Qing army were all in the area of southwest , Zheng Chenggong still had a chance to turn the tables. Therefore, he mobilized heavy troops to launch the battle to capture Nanjing. Unfortunately, due to misjudgment, Zheng Jun's training methods and living habits, and the weapons equipped with were not very suitable for land warfare, the Northern Expedition ended in failure.
Looking at Zheng Chenggong's anti-Qing struggle, it was basically in the three provinces of Zhejiang, Fujian and Guangdong. On such a narrow coastal plain, it is extremely difficult to continuously obtain food and fodder for nearly 100,000 Zheng's army. According to Yang Ying, who is in charge of Zheng Jun’s finances, Zheng Chenggong has conducted many military operations, all of which were launched to seize food. Judging from his records, from 1649 to 1661, Zheng Chenggong sent a total of 44 food-catching battles in thirteen years, and the frequency was quite amazing. Through the surrendered Zheng army generals, the Qing Dynasty quickly realized Zheng Chenggong's fatal weakness and adopted a maritime ban strategy: prohibiting coastal officials and civilians from trading privately with the Zheng family. In the face of such a high-pressure policy, Zheng Jun, who suffered the defeat in Nanjing, was once quite embarrassed. He had to find a place to rest, so Zheng Chenggong then turned his attention to the Tai Peng area on the other side of the strait.The matter has been decided, and a problem arises. Zheng Chenggong is not familiar with the Dutch troops deployed in Taiwan and Penghu and the hydrological data of various ports. Fortunately, when Zheng Chenggong negotiated with the Dutch, he had already arranged an insider to solve the problem for Zheng Chenggong.
On April 21, 661, Zheng Chenggong selected 25,000 soldiers and drove to the Taiwan-Peng region on 400 warships. On April 30, with the help of the tide, the Zheng army's tall warship crossed Luermen Port and pointed directly at Chicing Tower. The Dutch chief officer who was in charge of Taiwan and Penghu at that time was Kiyi . As a senior manager of East India Company in more than Far East , Kuiichi's response was very simple, which was to send two warships far larger than Zheng's army, an armed merchant ship and an speedboat to counterattack the Zheng army. In addition, Kuiyi also sent troops to attack Zheng Chenggong by using north-south attack. The reason why Kuiyi used such a weak armed force to attack Zheng Chenggong's absolute superior force was nothing more than a misunderstanding of the combat effectiveness of the Chinese army. He believes that the Zheng group is no different from the local ethnic minorities in Taiwan. In the face of his strong ships and powerful guns, the warships under Zheng Chenggong were unable to resist. Little did he know that Zheng Chenggong had already figured out how to deal with Dutch warships.
Historical records show that within the narrow Taijiang Strait, the Zheng Group quickly defeated the Dutch warships in the form of fire attack. One Dutch warship was burned, the other three, two were so scared that they ran to the distant Japan, and the remaining one ran towards Jakarta. Where are the Dutch mercenaries attacking on land? They were first shot by Zheng Jun, who had been through the battlefield for a long time, and then they were attacked by Zheng Chenggong's elite troops and fled in scattered areas. Faced with the powerful army of Zheng's army, the Dutch soldiers in Chicanglou could no longer bear it and surrendered first on May 11. Kuiichi, who was defending Relanzha City, was unwilling to stop and still insisted on not surrendering. He was hoping that the Dutch in Jakarta would send troops to rescue him. As he thought, the Dutch army in Jakarta really sent reinforcements, but in front of the Zheng army with rich combat experience, it ended up losing troops and losing generals. It is undeniable that the Dutch weapon manufacturing level at that time was indeed higher than that of the Zheng army. Coupled with the Dutch army's terrain advantages and the Zheng army's strengths in water battles are shorter than attacks, the Zheng army did not have a good solution to the city of Jelanzha, and in the end they had to choose to launch a long-term siege on it.
1 On January 25, 201662, after a long siege, Zheng Chenggong adopted the advice of the Dutch surrendered army to capture the highlands near the city of Jelanzha, and then set up guns to bombard the city of Jelanzha here. Seeing this, Kui knew that the situation was hopeless, so he surrendered to the Zheng army on February 1 and signed a surrender agreement. At this point, the 38-year colonial rule of the Dutch in the Taiwan-Peng region ended. Of course, the Dutch were unwilling to accept the failure of the Far East. Therefore, when Emperor Kangxi was determined to recover Tai Peng, the Dutch also joined the Qing army. However, due to the strict "sea ban" issued by the Qing government, Dutch companies can no longer sell Chinese goods with high quality and low price to Japan or Europe. In other words, the Taiwan-Peng region at this time had no trade value to them. In July 1668, the Dutch voluntarily gave up Jilong Port, which had just occupied four years, and ended their Far East trade.
What about Zheng Chenggong? After he recovered Taiwan and Penghu, he planned to use Taiwan and Penghu as a springboard to develop island trade, gain more marginal islands on Southeast Asia like the Philippines, build a powerful maritime force, and then compete with the Qing court. In addition, compared with the lonely ending of the Dutch and the scolding of later generations, Zheng Chenggong, who was worshipped by later generations as "national heroes", is much better than them. The only shortcoming is that his life span is not long, only 39 years old. In other words, the year when Taiwan was regained was also the last year of his life. Disagreement with Taiwan's environment, recurrence of old injuries caused by years of war, and overwork caused by the desire to operate after the first time of defeat in Pengyang are all important factors. But if we look into it in depth, the main reasons that made Zheng Chenggong unable to afford illness.Especially the last thing is the chain reaction between various parties caused by the affair between Zheng Chenggong's eldest son Zheng Jing and Zheng Jing's fourth brother's wet nurse Chen's .
Historical records show that when Zheng Chenggong learned about Zheng Jing's scandal, he immediately sent someone to Xiamen with arrows in his hand, hoping to kill Zheng Jing's mother Dong, Zheng Jing's fourth brother Chen and his son for the crime of lax management of the family. However, after learning the orders from the Jinxia generals, they not only disobeyed the orders, but instead detained the envoy. Immediately afterwards, in order to prevent Zheng Chenggong from returning to the army to fight, the generals dispatched troops to strengthen the defenses between Jin and Xiamen. For a time, there was almost a momentum of water and fire between Taiwan, Penghu and Jinxia. The unfaithfulness and unfilial piety of relatives and generals finally became the last straw that broke the camel's back. On June 23, 1662, Zheng Chenggong, who was terminally ill, passed away with the regret of not succeeding in the fight against the Qing Dynasty.
