Xinshun 1730

Chapter 536 Why Ceylon

The Chinese are very capable.

The ability to work is really much better than that of Tamil slaves and Sinhalese. This is the consensus of the previous governors of Batavia.

The Dutch actually lack two types of people in Ceylon.

One is technical jobs, such as those who can build houses and repair canals.

Ceylon has a tradition of water conservancy construction since ancient times.

During the Portuguese rule, the middle caste, which was the basis of small farmers, fled to the highlands because the Portuguese forced them to preach. This made the Netherlands have a lot of unowned land in the lowland coastal areas after the Portuguese were driven out.

Food crops are grown on these lands, and water conservancy foundations are needed.

The Netherlands needs to build various forts and houses. Batavia was basically built with slave labor captured from Zhoushan and Penghu. This time, it also hopes to let the Chinese work.

The other is cheap workers.

For example, those who pick cinnamon bark and rub cinnamon in handicraft factories, after the uprising a few years ago, also need people to fill the vacancies.

The two types of people that are most lacking, I searched around, and the most suitable ones are Chinese.

Moreover, the situation in Ceylon is different from that in Batavia.

In Ceylon, the Netherlands is not worried that the increase in the number of Chinese may rebel, because the rule of the Dutch in Ceylon is quite stable.

Of course capital is evil, but capital has a dual mission.

In order to gain as much profit as possible, capital will transform the old world according to what capital wants.It is not to transform according to the appearance of the West, but to make it more profitable.

I have to say that although the Dutch system is brutal, bloody, and sinful, it is still a bit higher than the caste system.

After the Dutch arrived in Ceylon, they gradually shattered the Ceylon caste system that affected their interests in the areas they ruled, especially supporting a large number of middle and low caste people to enter the company as grassroots managers.

The old serf village system was broken, and the Roman law inherited from the Netherlands was properly used to determine private ownership.This is of course for better profit, and in the early stage, it is to restore the ruins after Portugal retreated.

But it has to be admitted that some middle caste people have a channel to rise in class.The middle castes who remained in the lowland areas, especially the small farmers and fishermen who accounted for the majority, still supported the rule of the Dutch.

Because the most bastard things are done by the Portuguese.Such as forced conversion and so on.

After the Dutch came, these people were basically the descendants of those who did not run away and were forced to convert. They felt that they were Christians from birth.As for the Catholicism or the authenticity, it is estimated that they will not see any difference.

The only difference may be that November 11th is the day when the Netherlands defeated Portugal.The Dutch stipulated that this day is Ceylon's "Thanksgiving Day", requiring all Ceylon people to gather, give thanks, and celebrate on this day, and fined 20 silver coins if they did not go.When the Portuguese were there, it was not Thanksgiving.

The Dutch are relatively looser here, and they are not as fanatical as Spain and Portugal.Seeing the Sinhalese who converted to Christianity, they went to worship the Buddhist temple when they saw it, and they basically didn't care much about it.

Relying on this policy of differentiation, and the fact that I am bad, but the caste system next to me is worse than me, the Dutch still have self-confidence.

Relying on Ceylon's middle and low castes and self-cultivated farmers as the basic base to suppress the large number of Chinese who immigrated in the past, there is absolutely no problem.

Immigration to Ceylon, of course, is also related to the company's high-level decision-making.

The company judged that the sugar trade was over.

The quality of sugar factories in Batavia is not as good as Taiwan, and the price is not as good as that of Bangladesh. As for Cuban sugar and Haitian sugar, it is even worse.

But cinnamon was originally only produced in Ceylon. Even though the Portuguese took it to Brazil, half of the European market is half-half, and the Asian market can still be monopolized by the Netherlands.

Therefore, the situation of Batavia's sucrose should not have caused such a big mess.

Besides cinnamon, Ceylon also has betel nuts.

It doesn't matter if you eat it, it's definitely not as good as the emerging hobbies, such as tobacco and coffee.

But Indians use this thing to dye cloth, and reddish-brown cotton cloth is very popular in India, so betel nut is used as a dye, and it can also make a fortune selling it to India.

At this time, the world's top two cotton textile powerhouses are China and India.

The 17-member gentleman group judged that Indian cotton cloth will always be strong, and Europeans will never be able to match it.The Netherlands itself has no textile industry, and all capital has flowed to usury, bonds and commerce. I wish that Indian cotton cloth will be strong and dry British and French woolen fabrics.

Cinnamon West Indies has not yet been planted, Brazil has grown some but is understaffed, and unlike cane sugar, Cuban Haitian sugar can beat Batavian sugar in the European market.

Betel nuts may be grown in the Caribbean, but they are too far away from India, the largest consumer market of betel nuts, so there is no substitute.

The senior executives of the company deeply analyzed the lessons of the failure of the sugar industry, considered issues such as market and origin matching, freight, substitutability, etc., and reached the above conclusions with the minds of the top economists of this era.

Therefore, the company's 17-member gentleman group hopes to build Ceylon into an important profit growth point for the company in the future and a stronghold to occupy India in the future.

It can be said that the fate of the Chinese in Batavia is actually doomed.

Dashun did not allow them to die, but he also did not allow them to return to Fujian, hoping that they would all go to Ceylon.

The top management of the East India Company did not dare to slaughter them, nor could they be sent back to Fujian, and they did not want them to stay in Batavia. They also hoped that they would go to Ceylon.

The Batavia local government does not want so many unemployed Chinese to be near Bacheng, especially if they are likely to defect to the rebels, and also hopes to send them to Ceylon.

In this case, the struggle at the bottom is meaningless.Even the Celestial Dynasty behind them thinks so. With joint efforts, the only difference is what capacity they go to Ceylon.

The closed-door meeting of the Governor's Mansion lasted for two full days. People in Batavia generally agreed with the idea of ​​shipping to Ceylon. After analysis, they believed that such a solution could be used.

Some people can be assigned to work in cinnamon factories to replace the shortage of cinnamon workers.

But at the same time, pressure continued to be placed on the kingdom of Kandy to repatriate the cinnamon workers who had fled from the lowlands.

Once the pressure is successful, these Chinese can be allowed to contract land and grow rice.

You can even promise that after working in the cinnamon factory for a few years, you can allocate a piece of land to grow it yourself, and you only need to pay a certain amount of land tax every year.

Given how much the Chinese love the land, and with the guarantee from the Dashun court, there should be no problem.

When the Portuguese came, a large number of people from the high and middle castes fled the lowland areas because of forced conversion, and a large amount of land is still barren.

The other part can be used as some technical talents who are allowed to stay in Colombo, such as bricklayers, stonemasons, carpenters and so on.

As long as these people can accept the authenticity and convert to the faith, they can engage in some higher-paying jobs such as trading and craftsmen.

However, it is no longer possible to allow the Chinese in Batavia to have tax-contracting rights, etc.

Now that the identity and status have changed, the middle ruling class in Ceylon are those Sinhalese of middle and lower castes.

The role of the Batavian Chinese was assumed by the "Bulgs" in Ceylon.

For example, hawkers, restaurants, hotels, small businesses, etc. These Bulgers are all Eurasian.

Burger, burgher, and the word bourgeois have a cognate origin.It means "small businessmen who are not aristocrats or tenants". The word itself also shows the economic status of these mixed races. The economic status of those Chinese.

Even so, once the Chinese migrated to Ceylon on a large scale, the role of the Chinese in Ceylon society can also be adjusted appropriately.

Batavia is too close to Dashun, and the Chinese have a tradition of going to Nanyang, so the Chinese must not be allowed to serve as soldiers here.

Once the Chinese are allowed to serve as soldiers, the tide of Chinese going to Nanyang will one day replace them.And the Chinese still have money.

However, Ceylon is so far away from Dashun, and it is impossible for Chinese to go to Nanyang to travel so far.The size of the population has always been mastered and controlled by the East India Company.

The growth of Chinese in Batavia is also partly due to the fact that Chinese capital can contract industries, and rich Chinese businessmen also prefer to hire Chinese.

In Ceylon, rich Chinese businessmen are not allowed to contract, nor are they allowed to participate in the betel nut and cinnamon industries, so unless the company takes the initiative to transport people, it is impossible for the Chinese to go there.

So, can the Chinese be sent to Ceylon as cannon fodder?
Incorporate the Chinese into the army, save some expenses, and balance the Sinhalese and Tamils?

After all, Dashun's successive wars in the past few years have completely changed the impression that the Chinese are not good at war.It seems that the Chinese can be used as good soldiers.

Introducing Chinese to serve as soldiers in Ceylon can be used not only as cannon fodder, but also to instigate the relationship between the Chinese and the Sinhalese.

The Chinese are a minority in the local area, so once there are a few battles with the Sinhalese, the Chinese must be the most loyal soldiers to the Netherlands.

If there is an uprising, it will face the joint strangulation of the Dutch and the Sinhalese.

After leaving the Netherlands, the Sinhalese commented on the advantage of numbers, and they could kill all the Chinese.

So when the time comes, the only way to follow the Netherlands is to follow this path.

In this way, there are other benefits.

Part of the Dutch garrison in Ceylon can be mobilized to go to Batavia to suppress the uprising of the Chinese and Javanese in Batavia, so that the troops will not be stretched.

Let the Chinese soldiers fill the vacancies left by the Dutch soldiers in Ceylon to maintain the rule of the Netherlands in Ceylon.

In this way, 1000 people can be conscripted as soldiers; [-] can be accommodated by those who enter the cinnamon factory to replace jobs; instead of Tamil slaves, as castle builders and city builders, they promise to give land in the future and don’t need to pay money for the time being. Still similar to contract slaves, it can accommodate seven or eight thousand people.

This is about 5000 people, which should basically absorb all the unemployed Chinese around Batavia.

Afterwards, more Chinese can be sent there slowly to reclaim wasteland.

Quietly played a flower gun, and in name he was no longer a debt slave.

But in fact, after going there, the houses to be built, the land to be reclaimed, and divided must be wasteland. Without the supplies and tools given by the Dutch, it is difficult to survive.

The land promised to be distributed may not be given until five or six years later. In fact, they are still free people in name and indentured slaves in reality.

At least for five or six years, the cost of use is similar to that of Tamil slaves.

Also, food in Ceylon is cheap.

Don't give the Chinese people to eat rice, so that they can eat jackfruit every day during their indentured slaves.

They are large in quantity, cheap, and produced in Ceylon in large quantities, but they cannot be exported as commodities, and it does not feel bad to feed them to others.

After the two-day meeting, the Dutch have basically unified their opinions, and now they only need to use some language skills to get Dashun's special envoy to approve this "essentially a contract slave" immigration plan.

However, the Dutch didn't know that Dashun didn't really care whether they were contracted slaves or not.

The reason why the Dutch are forced is just to force the Dutch to transport people to Ceylon, not to really care about the quality of life of these Chinese.

Including the matter of the emperor's payment of money, he said "all my children" and his heart is kind.

In fact, the starting point of consideration is only: if you spend 6 silver coins now, you can have one more Han Chinese in the [Anxi Four Towns] in the future; if you don’t spend 6 silver coins now, you may have to spend 60 silver coins to move one person in the future.

Now spend 6 silver coins, the Nanyang Chinese all call long live, the emperor is benevolent, and they all have their hearts towards the heaven; in the future, if you spend 60 silver coins to force immigration, the people will scold their mothers, their wives will be separated, and maybe there will be foxes screaming at night just after walking to the beach; If you eat a fish, you may be able to eat a silk book; as soon as you arrive in Ceylon, you may dig out a one-eyed man.

Dashun only needs a result of [the Chinese go to Ceylon, survive, and live three to five years later].

As for whether they are contract slaves... Dashun Jinghai still has a lot of people with similar identities, and a bunch of tenants in Huanghuai District live worse than contract slaves. The hinterland still doesn't understand, how could they really care.

(End of this chapter)