The executive committee meeting room was packed with people - except for the executive committee, almost all the heads of ministries and commissions were here - this was a typical enlarged meeting. The superficial reason was of course that this matter was of great importance.
It is a "national policy" level action. In fact, everyone knows that it carries the "pirate dream" of many people when they were young.
Even several people from the finance department came - their reason was to evaluate the costs and benefits of the operation, including what impact this large sum of silver would have on the Senate's financial situation.
The Ministry of Finance is planning to start promoting circulation certificates in "yellow zones" such as Guangzhou at the end of 1632. In this way, a certain amount of precious metal reserves will inevitably be needed. The original precious metal circulation volume that can roughly meet the import demand appears to be insufficient. This
This silver income has become quite important.
There are large wooden basins placed at the four corners of the conference room and in the open space in the middle. The huge ice cubes are emitting white cool air. Even so, the room is still a little hot.
The Executive Committee meeting room was originally designed to accommodate twenty-five people, but now there are nearly forty people crammed into it. The excessive heat emitted by the human body makes everyone sweat. However, the atmosphere in the room is warm.
, no one cared.
Wen Desi, as the chairman of the executive committee, announced the start of the meeting. Qian Shuiting carried a briefcase of materials he had carefully prepared to the podium and signaled to close the curtains - not for confidentiality, but because he wanted to use a projector.
"Comrades, I will now make a brief report on the robbery of the Manila Galleon." As he spoke, he turned on his laptop and projector.
He first explained the origin of the Manila Galen. The Manila Galen departs from New Spain (Spanish American Colony) every February and March. It arrives in Manila between May and July every year. Two Galen ships are dispatched each time.
The Manila Galen is a royal ship, and its main purpose of sailing to Manila is to carry subsidies for the Governor of the Philippines - that is, the administrative expenses of the Spanish colonial government in Manila. The amount of this money changes every year, usually between 200,000 and 200,000.
300,000 pesos.
The largest part of the Philippine colonial fiscal revenue comes from the silver shipped from the Americas. The second largest part is the taxes and license fees collected from the local Chinese. However, compared with the huge expenses and poor income of the colonial government, without royal subsidies,
The Philippine government cannot be sustained. In his letters to the king, the Philippine Governor laments poverty every time and asks for more subsidies.
"I found out the detailed amount of royal subsidies that the Philippine colonies received from the Americas from 1630 to 1634. Last year it was 203,915 pesos and this year it was 232,569 pesos. We know that the weight of each peso is about 37 grams. Calculated in this way, it is eight
Tons of silver.”
This number is not particularly attractive, so Qian Shuiting has more to add.
"Although the royal subsidy is not very large, there are other non-royal properties on Manila Galen, such as the payment for goods purchased by the Governor of New Spain and merchants in the Philippines, and the payment for goods sold by Filipino merchants in the Americas. The latter two amounts are
The smuggling trade between the two colonies of New Spain and the Philippines is very large - including the governor himself - and a large amount of Chinese goods are transported to the Americas through this route. Although we cannot
It is known how much silver was loaded on each ship. But in history, Manila Galen was robbed four times. Once, one million pesos of coins were obtained. Twice, the goods were worth about two million pesos, and the other time was not done well.
So, we also got hard currency worth 400,000 to 800,000 pesos. Therefore, the silver coins and goods carried each time may be worth about 1 million pesos. If we do it once, we can get at least 500,000 pesos as long as we capture a ship -
―Probably far more than that. We know that most of the silver flowing in at the end of the Ming Dynasty came from American silver in the Manila trade—so it is impossible for Manila Galen to only transport these silver coins every time.”
This data made everyone present excited. This trophy is too tempting.
"How armed are these ships?" Chen Haiyang, Chief of Naval Command, asked. He was more concerned about this issue.
"According to the information we have, there were two Manila galleons in 1632: the flagship San Luis and San Raimundo. However, there is no detailed record of the tonnage of the ships in the information." Qian Shuiting said and pressed the button.
After pressing the keyboard, the next slide was displayed - a side cross-sectional structural diagram of the Spanish Galen.
"However, according to the existing information, these ships must be Galenic ships. Please see, this is the typical structure of a Galenic ship." He pointed to the slide. "I found out the composition of the Spanish Far East Fleet in 1627.
We can use the largest ship among them to estimate the equipment and personnel of these ships."
The flagship of the Far East Fleet: galleon sanildefonso, 1400 tons, 41 guns, 651 men, the slightly smaller galleon santateresadejesus, 1150 tons, 39 guns, 495 men, galleon peadefrancia, 1000 tons, 34 guns, 437 men
.
"Because this fleet is also responsible for the task of transporting troops for land operations, nearly half of the personnel on the ship are army soldiers and artillery. The Manila Galen will not carry so many troops. So we can estimate that the two ships should be around 1,000 tons
Left and right, 40 guns, 400 soldiers and sailors."
"In addition to gold and silver, the dozens of light and heavy artillery and dozens of tons of copper on the ship are also a big fortune. If the ship can be towed back, the wood and sails on it will also be very useful." Wu De showed it as soon as he opened his mouth.
It shows the true nature of the Planning Institute.
"That's it." Qian Shuiting nodded, "As Defoe said: a ship is a floating treasure house - especially this kind of regular ship that travels between two colonies, carrying all kinds of things.
The goods are also an asset to us."
"According to your information, our navy can defeat the silver ship relatively easily. After all, the effective range, rate of fire and penetrating power of our front-mounted rifled guns are much stronger than the Spaniards' big snake gun and half snake gun."
Yes." Lin Shenhe, who attended the meeting, said.
"Your original impact fuse cannot be used. What we want is to capture, not sink. The Spaniards can use all kinds of artillery shells without any scruples. But they don't have explosive shells anyway, so there is no point in pulling 901 out to hit them.
Question. When the British attacked the Armada, the typical artillery range was only 100 meters." Mr. Wen concluded with confidence.
Generally speaking, the veterans are very confident in their own naval ships, and so far, both 854 and 901 are lonely masters at sea. They have never really sailed on ships. Only a few 901s have performed cross-shore firepower in Shandong.
Support missions.
"However, the main problem is actually search and discovery." Qian Shuiting used a projector to show a map of the Philippines. "According to known information, the silver ship came from the Philippine Sea in the east and passed through Luzon Island and Salvador.
It passes through the San Bernardino Strait between the Falklands, enters the Sibuyan Sea, and then passes through the strait north of Mindoro Island to reach Manila.”
"Isn't this almost the opposite of coward Kurita's route?"
"I think we can choose the strait north of Mindoro Island, the Sibuyan Sea or the San Bernardino Strait for interception."
Someone immediately came out to criticize: "Don't even think about the first two interception points. There are so many islands and straits in the Philippines, how can we get such detailed hydrological data? If we are stranded, we will really lose everything. Nimi
I was stranded there when I was driving a small DD in the 20th century - and I was forgiven because the hydrological data there was so complicated."
"I think we might as well just take Manila and take over the colonies directly. The Philippines is rich in natural resources..."
"It's not difficult to capture Manila. The Spanish don't have many troops in the Philippines."
Seeing that the topic was about to turn to the Manila strategy, Ma Qianzhu began to speak: "Let me express my opinion first: I do not agree with taking over the Philippines - it is too distracting of resources. Secondly, although I don't know much about naval technology
Question. However, there are some important impacts that need to be considered first: We now regard Zheng Yiguan as the current main opponent and target of attack. Attacking the Spanish silver ship may create an additional enemy - although we are defending the Bopu
The war has already been fought, but it is not an open act. And we all know that at this time, Spanish silver flows into China in large quantities. If we enter a state of hostility with the Spaniards, will this source be lost?"
Wen Desi glanced at the attendees: "I think Lao Ma's idea makes sense. I personally think it's better not to make too many enemies for the time being. Even if we can occupy Manila, we don't have that many manpower to occupy and develop the Philippines.
This time it’s just a vote, there’s never too much money. As for how to prevent hostility from the Spaniards, I think it’s nothing more than a confidentiality issue. You might as well talk about this issue in detail. Of course, if that doesn’t work,
It would be easiest to silence them all. Old Qian, what do you think?"
"Killing the silver ship will cause a serious economic blow to Zheng Zhilong - we have discussed this before." Qian Shuiting said, "As for complete confidentiality, it is difficult to implement. Our guns and ships are very special.
, and there is no guarantee that every sailor will keep it secret - it will be even more difficult to keep it secret if the ship is towed back to the port for dismantling," Qian Shuiting said.