Guide to Traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty.

Chapter 1136 1131 [Can agriculture and animal husbandry be developed overseas?]

In Changsheng Garden, several agricultural officials came to report.

The leader was called Jiao Derun, who was considered a disciple of Zhu Guoxiang. After paying respects, he asked his subordinates to open a map of Jiangnan agriculture.

Jiao Derun said: "During the Tang Dynasty, rice was the main crop in Jiangnan, supplemented by mulberry, tea and other crops. At that time, the rice field fallow method was popular, and some rice fields in Jiangnan were still fallow until the early Song Dynasty."

"But in the middle and late Tang Dynasty, most of the cultivated fields in Jiangnan were planted with rice, and the crops were harvested once a year, and they were no longer left fallow for fertilizer. It was also in the middle and late Tang Dynasty that the area of ​​rice and wheat double planting in Jiangnan expanded."

"This situation changed after the introduction of Champa rice in the Former Song Dynasty. Rice was grown twice a year in Jiangnan, or rice and rapeseed were grown twice a year, and the area of ​​rice and wheat double cropping gradually decreased."

"When cotton spread to Jiangnan, the situation changed again..."

Jiao Derun pointed at the map with a bamboo stick: "From Jiangyin along the river bank and the coast, all the way to the northern part of Hangzhou Bay. The soil in these prefectures and counties has a high sand content and high salinity, which is not suitable for growing rice, but suitable for growing cotton. Although there is rice-cotton rotation here, cotton is the main crop, reaching 70% cotton and 30% rice. This can be called a cotton area."

"The area from Yanguan County in the north of Hangzhou Bay to the northwest of Hangzhou is an agricultural transition zone. You can grow anything, but it's hard to say, so it can be called a transition zone."

"From the south of Taihu Lake to the north of Hangzhou, this area is low-lying and fertile, and rice is actually planted more often. On the slightly poorer land, mulberry trees are planted with other crops. The ratio is 30% mulberry and 70% rice. This place can be called a sericulture area."

"There are also hills in northwest Zhejiang, south of Jinling Prefecture, and west of Taihu Lake, where mulberry trees are mostly planted, and they can also be called sericulture areas."

"North of Taihu Lake, between Danyang, Jiangyin and Wuxi, rice is basically grown everywhere. This area can be called a rice region."

"The plains east of Taihu Lake also mainly grow rice, mixed with cotton and mulberry, and have a large number of textile factories. It can be called a rice and weaving area."

“There are also some places that can be called tea and bamboo areas.”

After a few simple explanations on the map, Zhu Guoxiang immediately understood it, much more clearly than those civil officials who talked for a long time.

Zhu Guoxiang asked: "Is this a natural result of farmers' cultivation, or is it guided by you agricultural promotion officials?"

Jiao Derun said: "It is a combination of both. In the early stage, the focus was on farmers, and in the later stage, the focus was on agricultural promotion officials. However, the real summary was only recently. This Jiangnan agricultural map was jointly drawn by agricultural promotion officials from Zhejiang Province and Jinling Prefecture."

"You did a great job." Zhu Guoxiang nodded and smiled.

Jiao Derun said: "In order to make more money, farmers often ignore us and rush to grow cotton. Even now, the division of this agricultural map is not absolute. Especially in rice-growing areas, there are still many farmers who rotate three crops of cotton and one crop of rice. This is fine, but it is a waste of fertile land."

Zhu Guoxiang asked: "Does the government need to intervene?"

"Generally, it is not necessary," Jiao Derun said, "but the government can persuade farmers in those places. Even if they insist on growing cotton, it is better to grow two crops of cotton and one rice, rather than three crops of cotton and one rice."

"We have done experiments. Taking into account the cost of fertilizers such as soybean meal, and deducting the yield reduction caused by pests and diseases in different planting methods, the overall income of farmers in pure rice areas with two cotton and one rice planting is higher than that of three cotton and one rice, one cotton and one rice, or only rice."

"In some areas, if rice and rapeseed are rotated, the income is higher than that of two crops of cotton and one crop of rice."

"All of the above are based on the current rice, cotton and oil prices. If the price of any of them fluctuates too much, the specific combination of planting that is most beneficial will change again."

Zhu Guoxiang was even more satisfied after hearing this, and nodded and smiled in approval.

Jiao Derun said: "In each region, we will carve a monument in the village, stating different planting combinations and listing the approximate yields of the upper, middle and lower fields. Farmers can read the contents of the monument and choose how to plant."

Zhu Guoxiang clapped his hands and praised: "You have done a great job. We should publish it in the Da Ming Monthly to commend you."

Hearing these words, all the agricultural officials present laughed happily.

These agricultural promotion officials at the beginning of the Ming Dynasty were all down-to-earth people. They would visit the countryside every now and then, and usually stayed in their own experimental fields.

Take the people in the south of the Yangtze River for example. At the beginning, they did not take the agricultural promotion officials seriously.

My ancestors have been farmers for generations. How could the farming methods passed down by my ancestors be wrong? Do I need you officials to teach me how to farm?

But year after year, the people became more and more convinced of the agricultural promotion officials.

Not only convinced, but also respectful.

When other officials went to the countryside, the people were on guard and extremely vigilant. But when the agricultural officials went to the countryside, the gentry and farmers rushed to receive them and took the initiative to bring out all the delicious food.

When some gentry celebrated their birthdays, they would even send people to entertain the agricultural officials.

If any mutant varieties appeared in the fields, the common people would remember the instructions of the agricultural officials, take good care of them and report to the agricultural promotion office immediately.

……

Zhu Guoxiang invited these agricultural promotion officials to have a meal at Changsheng Garden, and gave each of them 30 silver dollars as a reward before they left.

The next day, Wang Chongdu from the treasure hunting trio came again to ask for a meeting.

"Are you funded by the emperor?" Zhu Guoxiang asked.

Wang Chongdu said: "The initial ships, manpower and funds were all given by His Majesty. We set up a trading company, with the royal family owning 5%. Later, when we discovered Australia, His Majesty rewarded us with another 55% of the shares. Not only did the three of us have shares, but more than a dozen people in the trading company also got them. His Majesty said that after the five-year period in Australia is over, he will give us another 45%. At that time, the royal family will own % of the shares, and the senior staff of the trading company will own % of the shares." In fact, it doesn't matter how many shares are owned at this stage, the income and expenditure situation is a complete mess.

Fearing that this would dampen the enthusiasm of the sea exploration team, Zhu Ming did not even send supervisors. Even if those guys stuffed money into their own pockets, Zhu Ming would just pretend it never happened. After all, exploring unknown waters is extremely dangerous.

Historically, the same was true for explorers from Portugal and Spain. They were funded by the royal family to go on voyages, and although there were provisions for how much of the profits would be shared with the royal family, it was impossible to verify in practice.

Only after the explorers had completely opened up the situation did the royal families of Portugal and Spain send people to pick the peaches.

The Dutch East India Company was even more of a mess, with losses every year even during its heyday. Major shareholders and expatriate executives frantically made money by constantly attracting investors to raise the stock price, so small and medium-sized investors and retail investors made money by speculating in stocks.

Finally, it collapsed. Major shareholders, former senior executives, and investors who had already withdrawn made a fortune, but the rest of the investors who were unable to withdraw in time lost everything.

Zhu Guoxiang asked: "Are you coming back to Hangzhou to do business?"

Wang Chongdu said: "Reporting to the emperor, doing business is just a side job. The news that Australia is rich has spread all over Zhejiang. There are many people living in and around Hangzhou who are in difficult circumstances. They were reluctant to go to sea before, but now they are eager to sign up."

There are actually not many dual-income couples like Xu San and his wife in Hangzhou.

Men still mainly earn money, while women do odd jobs to earn family income, such as sewing, working as maids, etc.

At the end of the year, the family could only save two or three strings of money.

If they got seriously ill, they would immediately fall back into poverty and find it hard to survive. Even if they recovered, they would have to work twice as hard to pay off their debts.

Every year, some people become beggars, and welfare institutions such as orphanages are simply unable to accept all of them.

Since the imperial court encouraged immigration, local officials, including those in Hangzhou, liked to throw beggars to the immigration office and quickly send them to border areas where they could avoid seeing them.

Wang Chongdu has set his sights on these urban poor!

Zhu Guoxiang asked: "How many people are there in Australia?"

Wang Chongdu replied: "There were a few who died of illness. There were also many who were lucky enough to return home after panning for gold. Even if we deduct these, there are still more than 16,000 gold diggers in Australia."

"So many?" Zhu Guoxiang was extremely shocked.

Wang Chongdu said: "There was so much gold there that one person who brought gold back home could attract ten or even a hundred people to go out to sea. All the people who went there were rough men. We also transported two batches of indigenous women from Southeast Asia. There were more than 3,000 indigenous women there, and most of them married the gold diggers."

The brothel business is not easy to do in Australia.

Although there are many gold diggers, they are so tired every day that they can't even straighten their backs. How can they have the energy to find prostitutes for entertainment?
But there are many who are willing to spend money to buy Aboriginal women as wives, most of whom are bachelors who have no money to get married in their hometowns. They get married in Australia not entirely to meet physical needs, but more to meet spiritual needs.

First, those bachelors are desperate to get married. After making some money in the gold rush in Australia, they can’t wait to go back to their hometown to get married.

Second, after a hard day's work in the gold panning, the men would have their wives cook meals for them in the shacks, wash their dirty clothes, and mend their torn clothes. Such a simple life was envied by countless gold panners.

Zhu Guoxiang asked: "Is there enough food in Australia?"

Wang Chongdu said: "Some people have stopped panning for gold and started buying land to grow food. But most of the food is still shipped from Java."

Zhu Guoxiang asked again: "Are they willing to give up gold for food?"

"Gold mining is too tiring after all," Wang Chongdu said. "We captured many Australian aborigines to farm, but they were so stupid that we couldn't teach them no matter how hard we tried. So we thought of another way and asked them to do the hardest and most tiring work of land reclamation. We cut down trees, burned weeds, roughly removed tree roots, stones and other things, and dug a canal to divert the water. After doing all this, gold diggers were willing to buy land for farming."

Zhu Guoxiang nodded: "I see."

It is difficult for the natives to reclaim the land perfectly, but most of the hard work has been done.

When the gold diggers bought the land, they only needed to remove the stones and tree roots that the natives had not picked up, and then they could start the initial cultivation of the land. They even had simple water channels, and they planted beans in the first two or three years, and then slowly cultivated the land in the next few years.

Wang Chongdu said: "We also transported some oxen, and there were even more people willing to buy land and cattle. Another sailor who had been to the north suggested transporting some horses, donkeys and sheep. Australia has large grasslands where we can graze."

Zhu Guoxiang said: "Farming and grazing are great. Gold will eventually run out, but farming and grazing can be passed down to future generations."

Wang Chongdu said: "In addition to us, there are several other trading companies that are also bringing people to Australia. However, since we have occupied Jinshan, they can only occupy other places. Their small-scale operations are not enough. Even the price of rose gems has been driven down by those guys, and they can no longer be sold at the sky-high price at the beginning."

As he spoke, Wang Chongdu took out a large pile of opals and presented them to Zhu Guoxiang and his concubines and children.

Although the price of this thing has been falling again and again, it is still extremely valuable, it just cannot be sold at a sky-high price.

Zhu Guoxiang asked: "How many people do you think will be willing to stay after all the gold is mined there?"

Wang Chongdu shook his head: "It's hard to say. I estimate that 70% to 80% of the gold diggers want to go home, but those who have made a lot of money don't dare to go back. If more land is reclaimed over there and grazing can make money, more people may stay."

"I'll transfer a few agricultural promotion officials to you. Agriculture and animal husbandry can also be developed overseas," Zhu Guoxiang said in a joking tone. "Agricultural promotion officials are treasures. You have to give them more money."

(End of this chapter)