Xinshun 1730

Chapter 248 Chains
The person in charge of immigration heard Liu Yu tell the story of the British colonies getting rich from tobacco leaves.

But this story is really difficult to replicate here.

The beet seeds bought from Europe are still in the improvement stage, and the sugar content is not very high.Local sales are okay, even if it is shipped to Japan, it will be more expensive than the sugar sold from Fujian and Guangdong to Japan, and it is not profitable at all.

The entire Vladivostok has almost become a dead end for trade.

As long as the government stops immigrant investment, the plantation agriculture that has just developed here will soon degenerate into a self-sufficient small-scale farming economy.

For the time being, the grain output has nowhere to sell and can only be digested by the official immigrant population to ensure the local logging industry to ensure the supply of oak for the Weihai Shipyard.

This time, the person in charge of immigration has another task besides transporting people here.

Organize a group of [-] people from Shandong and [-] people with planting experience from Vladivostok to immigrate to Ezo, which is the future Hokkaido of Japan.

Although the people in charge of the immigration were quite puzzled by this, Liu Yu's orders to the sea of ​​whales, these people could only obey and there was no room for bargaining.

During the few days of waiting for supplies, we must quickly gather people together and go to Ezo with the expedition ship.

The first batch of [-] immigrants wanted to build houses there, and they had to rely on grain from the Vladivostok granary as supplies in the early stage, and they might have to wait until next year or the year after to ensure self-sufficiency in grain.

In addition to the population, the ship also transported a large number of muskets, and once they arrived in Ezo, they would all be distributed.

First build a small village with a simple bastion structure. The cost of emigration this time is too high. If you have the money to emigrate to Vladivostok, the size of the 600 people can be moved by about three times.

When there is an order, the next will obey.

After a brief repair and supply, a hundred farmers recruited from local government-run farms with planting experience at the same latitude boarded the boat together.

Not long after, we arrived in Ezo, where there are almost no human habitation.The climate here is fairly warm, similar to that of Vladivostok.

A few knowledgeable people looked at the nearby plants and determined that the climate here can fully support the cultivation of cold-resistant rice and wheat.

They chose a estuary to land, cut down trees, built warehouses, and first transported the grain to store it.

"Eagle Sobo has a hobby of expanding land. The money spent...isn't worth it."

"If you ask me to say that the Northeast is not yet full of people, it is really a loss to put people here. You can't grow cotton, indigo, and tobacco here, you can only grow food. If you grow food, you can't transport it to the capital where there is a shortage of food. Selling, because you can’t make any money, what is this for?”

The leading official was very puzzled, and neither did the rest.If it is to alleviate the contradiction between the large population and the small land, the population of Henan and Shandong should be transported to the northeast instead of going to such places.

If we talk about guarding the border, there is no border to guard in this place.

They can only grow food and lose money.This grain bypasses North Korea and is transported to Weihai, which is much more expensive than buying grain from Siam.

Puzzled in my heart, this matter still needs to be done.Fortunately, these people organized immigrants to Vladivostok and Heilongjiang Estuary, and have rich experience in immigration at the same latitude.

After inspecting the local soil quality, it can be regarded as relatively fertile.

This place is suitable for raising horses, but also for raising cattle and sheep. Liu Yu told them that in the future, Whale Sea agriculture will not be a small farmer with men farming and women weaving, but a farm with half-cultivation and herding.

Rely on large animals to cultivate the land, and also rely on the manure of large animals to fertilize the field.

As for who to sell the food to after they develop, that's not what they have to consider.One by one, maybe seven or eight years later, better sugar beet varieties can be bred, and more cold-resistant tobacco can also be bred, and maybe this place can also make money.

But now, they can only be stationed here in the form of military settlements.

A short time later, a grain ship arrived from Vladivostok, accompanied by a small boat that disembarked fifty Marines.

This is the product of playing a side ball, and it does not belong to the army that Liu Yu, a Jiedu envoy, cannot touch, but this side ball is allowed by the emperor.

The leading officer was a lieutenant. After getting off the ship, he handed over to the person in charge who had already built a wooden house and simple defense here, and unloaded four eight-pound guns from the ship.

The person in charge of the reclamation was a little confused, touched the barrel of the cannon, and asked, "What does this mean? Eagle Sobo wouldn't think that the people here need cannons to defend them? I have also seen the savages here these days , the beard and hair are longer, but it is not much different from those people on Sakhalin Island. They still use bows and arrows, and bows and arrows are not very good. I will have muskets, so what are you afraid of?"

The lieutenant called the person in charge of the reclamation into the wooden house and talked about the complicated situation here.

At this time, there is still a problem with immigration, that is, in the southern part of Hokkaido, there is also the Matsumae Domain.

Although the scope of control is not too large, and the scope of actual control is also very limited, Japanese businessmen have activities in Hokkaido.

Using a monopoly system similar to the East India Company, merchants are allowed to pay a sum of money, and then they can monopolize trade with the Ainu within a certain range, and the rest are not allowed to participate.

This is called the site-responsibility system, which can be regarded as a trade monopoly system, or it can also be regarded as a tax-subsidy system in a certain sense.

The local Ainu people have conflicts with the Japanese. These muskets and cannons are not for the Ainu people, but for the Matsumae domain.

Before the lieutenant arrived, he was given a good lesson.

The strength of the Matsumae clan was not strong, and it was ten thousand shi in name. In fact, the Japanese did not know how to grow cold-resistant rice at this time, and this ten thousand shi was false.

Fukuyama Castle in the Matsumae Domain has a population of 6000 at this time. This is not 6000 or [-] households, but a population of [-] or [-].

The war against Japan is still in the period of strategic secrecy, so Liu Yu asked the lieutenant stationed here to keep his attitude as low as possible.

If Matsumae-fan is willing to talk, then we can talk.

Well, the tax package system, who is not the package?The merchant will give you 400 taels, and I will give you 600 taels. It means that the merchant ship has sunk and you are here to rest temporarily.

If you disagree, stay here.If the other party comes to attack, beat them away and talk again.

"Eagle Sabo said that you will continue to immigrate here in the past few years. Your task this year is not to cultivate more land, but to rely on the grain of Vladivostok to build a defensive city first."

"I will continue to immigrate here next year, and start large-scale farming next year. The troops stationed will also increase."

"When we gain a firm foothold, merchants will come to do business with the barbarians here."

The person in charge of reclamation thought for a while and said with a smile: "This is a big price. The barbarians here can sell buckskins and bear skins, or some mountain products. How much can they earn? Three and five thousand taels of silver a year is as much as the sky. Yes. Although mosquitoes are meat no matter how small they are, if there are 5000 troops stationed in this place, the salary will be three to five thousand a year. Is this place worth it?"

The lieutenant shook his head and said, "I don't care if it's worth it or not? I just obey orders. Eagle Sobo must have deep meaning when spending money. Just do it."

Such an arrangement, Liu Yu has deep meaning.

The driving force of the first industrial revolution was coal and iron.

The coal mine most suitable for development in Japan is in Hokkaido.The rest are distributed in Kyushu Island, which is within the control range of the Dashun Navy and is within the attack range at any time.

Spending a lot of money to immigrate to Hokkaido is not for making money, but just to lock up Japan and form a tight chain to lock up any possibility of Japan's development.

In the pre-coal and iron era, shipbuilding required large timber.

There is no teak and cypress in Japan, and the native Japanese oak is not suitable for shipbuilding, and there is not enough age.

France and the United Kingdom have North American oak; the Netherlands has Southeast Asian teak; Spain has Central American wood; Dashun has Northeast and Whale Sea wood.

As long as the sea route is blocked in Hokkaido, even if Japan wakes up and wants to build ships, it will not be able to catch up overnight.

In order to join the navy, Liu Yu prepared many years in advance. The drying of these timbers in advance and the opening of the Vladivostok route gave Dashun a reserve of raw materials for making dumplings.

As for the possible first industrial revolution, occupying Hokkaido will lock up the best open-pit coal mine in Japan, making it impossible for him to develop even if he wants to.

As long as they want to develop, they have to go to war against Dashun, and seize the coal mines in Hokkaido and the iron mines in North Korea. There is no chance to rely on their own control of the resources in the land to develop blindly.

This is a dilemma.

No war, no resources.

When a war starts, lack of resources leads to lack of development and failure to fight.

With two iron chains locked together, there is no chance of being chased and surpassed for at least a hundred years.

First, the land circle should be lowered, and the grain should be planted first. As long as the hydraulic boring machine in Weihai is completed and the steam engine is improved, the Hokkaido area can be used as a heavy industry base in the Jinghai area, forming an east coast of North Korea, northern Japan, and Jinghai. The trade circle from the sea to the Heilongjiang estuary.

At this time, the first garrison and emigration is just to stockpile food for future wars, get familiar with the terrain, and get in touch with the local Ainu in advance.

In the war against Japan, the emperor was told that there would be no garrison and no direct control, but after the real fight, a place near Nagasaki must be leased, and Hokkaido must also be obtained.

Just like the Western Regions, now it only calculates economic accounts, and it must lose money.

Reclamation in such a baseless place is much more expensive than Vladivostok.Vladivostok's reclamation, at least at the beginning, still had some local population and could provide a little food.Starting from scratch here will cost a lot of money.

Fortunately, Hokkaido is one of the four largest fishing grounds in the world. It is quite simple based on the standard of not dying of hunger.However, in order to lay an agricultural foundation as a heavy industrial hub in Jinghai, the east coast of North Korea, and northern Japan in the future, the money to be invested cannot be based on starving to death.

As expected, less than two months after the first batch of immigrants landed, some Japanese businessmen who were doing business here discovered something unusual.

Returning to Fukuyama Castle in a hurry, he reported what he had encountered, and the lord of the Matsumae Domain, Matsumae Sukihiro, was at a loss for what to do.

According to the system, the Matsumae Fan enfeoffed these lands of Ezo to the jurisdiction of the retainers, as the knowledge and practice of the retainers.

Hokkaido does not produce food at this time, and the ten thousand stones of the Matsumae domain are empty, and they are basically supported by trade.The Matsumae family had a keen sense of smell, they first sided with Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and then they sided with Tokugawa Ieyasu. The team was accurate, and they always monopolized the Ezo trade.

In theory, only the retainers of Matsumae were allowed to trade with the Ainu people.

However, the retainers were not good at this, so they subcontracted it to the businessman.

Now that such a situation has occurred in the jurisdiction of the subcontracted merchant, the Matsumae Domain must take care of it, but how to manage it has become a problem.

(End of this chapter)