The Imperial Age with the Resurgence of Han Style

Chapter 405 "Cow"

No one knows why, more than seventy years ago, after the State of Qi seized Mumbai from the Kingdom of England, the then Emperor Taizu named it Shanghai in a joking tone, which has the same name as Shanghai, a small coastal county under the jurisdiction of Songjiang Prefecture of the Qin State.

No one knows why Emperor Taizu attached so much importance to Shanghai and required the Indian trading companies at that time to focus on its operation and continuous development in an effort to turn it into an economic pearl in India.

At that time, Indian trading companies controlled Anfeng (now Cochin), Yongning (now Alleppey, a southwestern coastal city in India), and Jinmen (now Karachi) on the west coast of India, and Ningyang (now Pondicherry, India, also translated as local governance) and Fengyuan (now Chennai, India, also known as Madras) on the east coast. All of them were important coastal ports, and were much better than Shanghai in terms of both geographical location and population size.

You should know that Shanghai does not border the mainland, but a string of seven unknown small islands scattered in the open sea, namely Colaba Island, Little Colaba Island (also known as Old Woman Island), Mumbai Island, Mazagon Island, Parel Island, Mahim Island and Worli Island.

There seem to be a lot of islands, but in fact their total area is less than 50 square kilometers. Not only are they far away from the west coast of India, they are also far apart from each other. Transportation can only be done by ferry, and there are not many indigenous people on the islands.

For Indian trading companies, such land has no economic value.

Otherwise, King Charles II of England would not have thought much of the dowry after receiving it. A few years later, he lent it to the East India Company for a symbolic rent of 10 pounds per year, and the East India Company was responsible for its operation.

At that time, the British East India Company did not have a decent foothold on the west coast of India, so it treated these seven small islands as treasures. Not only did it use them as the main transit point for trade with the East, but later it moved the company's headquarters (East) to the islands.

However, the British East India Company encountered a new problem when developing and building Mumbai.

Although these islands have excellent conditions in the context of South Asian trade, they are full of small islands and have inconvenient transportation. If the British East India Company wants to develop Mumbai into an important trading base on the west coast of India, it must expand inland and increase the land area.

However, the British East India Company had limited strength. It was unable to seize the coastal colonial outposts of the Netherlands, Portugal and Qi, nor did it dare to rashly provoke the Mughal Empire, which was at the peak of its national strength.

then what should we do?

If we can’t get land, then we can only create land.

Therefore, the English planned to reclaim land on the seven islands of Mumbai to expand the land area.

Land reclamation was not a sudden idea of ​​the East India Company. In fact, in Europe at that time, land reclamation was a very popular and mature technology. The pioneers were the Dutch and the English, but there were some differences in their technical routes.

The Dutch are good at reclaiming the sea. They build dams at key points to block the sea water, use windmills to discharge the blocked sea water back into the sea, and then use running water to wash the enclosed land, and then fill it with a large amount of soil. Finally, fertile land suitable for cultivation appears.

Land reclamation is a way to get rich for the English, but it is a way to survive for the Dutch. Nearly one-fifth of the Netherlands' land area is reclaimed from the sea.

The English were good at land reclamation and had carried out large-scale sand and gravel reclamation projects in eastern England, using piles of earth to create land on the shallows near the coast.

The geographical conditions of the seven islands of Mumbai just fit the land reclamation model that the English are good at. At low tide, the seven islands are connected by shallow beaches, and the Portuguese, who first colonized the area, have built some long embankments to verify the feasibility of earth piling.

In addition, these small islands are all mountainous. Blowing up the mountains and throwing them directly into the water can not only save the cost of transporting raw materials but also flatten the terrain to facilitate further development of the city.

However, before the English land reclamation project was implemented for long, the people of Qi drove them out of India and occupied the seven islands of Mumbai.

Because Emperor Taizu ordered Indian trading companies to focus on the development and construction of Mumbai, after expelling the English, the people of Qi kept all the English technicians who implemented the reclamation project and continued to build long dikes and reclaim land from the sea.

In the eighteenth year of Shaoning, when Emperor Taizu passed away, except for the large dam between the northwest corner of Mumbai Island and Walli Island, long embankments had been built between the other six small islands, thus initially connecting the islands together.

However, after the death of Emperor Taizu, the Indian trading company stopped land reclamation in order to save operating costs, so that only the long embankment was completed on the six small islands, and the land reclamation project in the middle of the embankment was inevitably left unfinished.

However, the port of Shanghai Island (i.e. Mumbai Island), the main island, is a rare deep-water port that can berth ocean-going ships of thousands to tens of thousands of tons. This is why Indian trading companies did not abandon this place, but instead built a large number of storage facilities as an important cargo transit point.

However, after more than 30 years of development, with the increasing population and buildings on the island, Shanghai's land area has become insufficient, and even affected normal port trade activities and residents' lives.

Three years ago, the local civil affairs officials of Shanghai applied to Governor-General Guangwei to fill in the large shoals and swamps surrounded by islands and long embankments to create land to meet the development and construction needs of the entire city.

As of last year, the population of Shanghai had reached 45, of which were Qi people and Qi-Indian people. It was a bit cramped to have so many people crowded on a few small islands (about square kilometers in total).

Governor Guangwei had jurisdiction over an area of ​​more than 100,000 square kilometers, bordering Gujarat to the north, the Maratha Empire to the east, and the territory of the Kingdom of Cochin, a vassal state of Qi, to the south. The former Portuguese Goa was also an important territory within the jurisdiction, with a population of more than five million controlled within the territory. The taxes collected each year alone amounted to more than 800,000 yuan, which was considered to be quite powerful.

In response to the Shanghai local government's application to reclaim land to expand urban land, the Governor-General's Office of Guangwei agreed to their request after a brief discussion and evaluation. After allocating an initial fund of 100,000 yuan, it began to conscript Indian indigenous laborers in the jurisdiction in turn to carry out the land reclamation project in the form of corvée.

On November 1737, 11, when Li Yanliang arrived at Shanghai Port by boat, he saw that the entire city seemed to be a huge construction site. Violent explosions could be heard from time to time on several hills on the island, like bursts of artillery fire.

Except for a dozen European-style buildings left over from the Portuguese and British periods, most of the buildings in Shanghai are traditional oriental houses and modern Hanzhou buildings. If it were not for the large number of Indian natives on the streets, you would not feel like you have come to a foreign country.

Qi had colonized India for more than 80 years, and through one colonial war after another, it had established absolute dominance in the region. Although Qi had not yet completely conquered and annexed the entire Indian subcontinent, it was definitely in a dominant position in the region, and the people of Qi had become the upper class.

The coachman was an Indian native born in Shanghai who spoke fluent Chinese. When he met Li Yanliang and his party, he behaved extremely humble and respectful. He was even considerate enough to wipe the pedals vigorously with his sleeves before Li Yanliang and Cao Xuan got on the carriage, for fear of neglecting the distinguished guests.

Li Yanliang was dressed in the uniform of a senior military officer, which made him feel awe and respect from the bottom of his heart, so much so that when he greeted the other party to get on the car, he bent his back lower and spoke more humbly.

He is a big shot from Qi State, we must not treat him lightly!
"After arriving in Shanghai, find a place to settle down first." Li Yanliang turned his head to see his uncle and several cousins ​​squeezed into another carriage, then smiled and said to Cao Xuan: "I still need to go to the garrison headquarters, the Guangwei Governor's Office and the Shanghai local government to meet, and by the way, hand over the many military affairs I am in office. I am afraid I will not be able to take care of you in the short term."

"It's okay, Yanliang just focus on his military affairs." Cao Xuan waved his hand and said politely: "In the next few days, I will take a few guys to investigate the business situation in Shanghai and Guangwei, and think about where to start. When Yanliang is free, I will tell you the information I got, and help me to study it." "How can I, a soldier, study trade for my second brother?"

"Yanliang is too modest." Cao Xuan said with a smile: "In the empire, there are many business tycoons who are military men. For example, the most famous Mingshengxing was founded by Tu Shaolie, a retired military officer. In just over 20 years, it has grown to such a scale. It is really admirable! With Yanliang's talent, if he had not worked in the army, he would have made great achievements in the business world."

"Brother, you are too kind!" Li Yan said with a wry smile, "I only know how to fight and kill the enemy, so I can only stay in the army for the rest of my life. If I venture into the business world, I'm afraid I will lose everything and let Xiaoxi and her son suffer with me."

"Haha..." Cao Xuan couldn't help but laugh when he heard this, and patted his shoulder warmly, "With Yanliang's current military experience and your Majesty's favor, even if he does business without doing anything, he will make a lot of money and make a lot of money. How can he lose everything?"

After hearing this, Li Yanliang just smiled and did not refute.

Compared to doing business and making huge profits, he prefers to be proficient on the battlefield, leading his troops to capture cities and conquer one powerful enemy after another.

This is the most satisfying thing for a man!
Indeed, even if he had no personal relationship with Your Majesty, his military seniority as a colonel would have attracted him to many trading companies and factories if he had not continued to serve in the army, and he would have been able to obtain a very well-paid position.

There is no other reason. Just based on his more than ten years of service in various places and the personal connections he has accumulated in the military, he is a valuable asset that can bring a lot of business to trading companies or factory owners.

In fact, in Li Yanliang's view, if one does not seek huge profits in India's import and export trade, he does not need his connections and relationships at all. As long as he has a certain amount of capital, can get a stable supply of goods locally, and transport them to India smoothly, he can earn considerable trade profits.

After decades of colonial conquest, Qi had occupied or controlled all trade ports on the east and west coasts of India. Coupled with its absolute superiority in naval power, the import and export trade of the entire Indian region was under the control of Qi.

During the reign of Aurangzeb, India was one of the richest regions in the world, with its trade volume accounting for 27 percent of the world's total trade, and it was the world's largest exporter of cotton textiles.

However, as Qi increased its colonial activities in India, the economic situation in the entire Indian region has become increasingly "depressed", and it has almost become a dumping ground for Qi's industrial products and a production base for raw materials.

Through war after war, trade containment policies time and time again, and a huge trade gap, the State of Qi frantically plundered the wealth of India that had accumulated over hundreds of years.

In order to expand the export scale of domestic cotton textiles and reduce international competitors, Qi State continuously suppressed and weakened the textile industry in India, artificially set up various trade barriers, gradually destroyed its textile industry, and caused millions of textile workers to lose their means of livelihood.

Since the 1980s, the capital forces in Qi State have been trying hard to expand the production of cotton and jute, and gradually transferred the cotton and flax imported from Qin State to the Indian colony for production.

In the 1697th year of Shaoning (), the Department of Colonial Affairs, the Department of Foreign Trade Affairs and the Department of Immigration of Qi State jointly issued a notice allowing the people of Qi to occupy land in India and directly operate plantations.

As a result, many Qi people came to India to invest directly in plantations, planting cash crops such as cotton, jute, indigo, coffee, rubber, etc. From then on, the raw materials exported from India began to increase significantly.

Between 1710 and 1735, cotton exports increased from tons to tons.

In the ten years from 1715 to 1725, jute exports increased from less than yuan to yuan, and the total value of grain exports such as rice and wheat increased from less than million yuan to million yuan. According to rough estimates, the number of plantation workers engaged in non-grain crops such as cotton, jute, indigo, and coffee in India reached million.

India was originally a self-sufficient closed economy based on the combination of agriculture and family handicrafts. Indian handmade cotton textiles were once exported to Persia, Southeast Asia, Europe and other countries and regions, and enjoyed a high reputation in the world. As a result, after Qi controlled and monopolized India's trade import and export rights, Qi's industrial products flooded into India like a flood. Although it increased the trade volume between the two places to a certain extent, it inevitably destroyed the fragile local handicraft industry.

The customs controlled by the Qi people exempted goods imported from the mainland of Hanzhou to India from tax or imposed a very low import tax rate (no more than 2%), while goods exported from India to Qi and its overseas territories were subject to high tariffs of up to 50-70%.

Textiles produced locally in India and sold in the Indian-controlled areas of Qi were also subject to a 20% inland turnover tax, which was several times higher than the tax on cotton textiles imported into India by Qi.

Under such trade policies, the amount of Qi products, including textiles, imported into India increased year by year. Qi's various commodities, especially textiles, were not only dumped in major cities in India, but also sold near seaports, in the Ganges region, and in many rural markets in Bengal.

During this period, India has become the main sales market for Qi's industrial products, accounting for 32% of the total export volume. Before the s, India was still an export-oriented region, but now it has become an import-oriented region.

India, which was known as the world's cotton factory since ancient times, became a big market for Qi's cotton yarn and cotton fabrics. Bengal, known as the world's cotton textile center, once had millions of weavers and produced millions of pieces of cotton cloth. However, by the first year of Yonglong, there were only more than 8,000 weavers left in the whole of Bengal, and the output of cotton cloth was less than 100,000 pieces.

Qi's steam engine replaced India's primitive and backward spinning wheels and looms.

The same situation also occurred in other industries in India. Industrial products such as glass, paper, ironware, hardware, pottery, and farm tools from Qi also flooded into India, and Indian handicraft factories closed down and went bankrupt one after another.

Merchants from Qi even monopolized the sales rights of daily necessities such as salt, wine, and tea in India, and frantically plundered India's wealth.

In other words, as long as you can bring a shipload of industrial products from Hanzhou, you don't need to spend time and effort looking for potential customers. You can directly transfer them to local Indian comprador merchants at the port and easily earn a lucrative income.

Then, with the help of the powerful Indian merchants, they could load a ship with raw cotton, indigo, jute, saltpeter and various gems and transport them back to their homeland, making a huge profit.

Of course, if you have a strong background and can move the sales of industrial products and the purchase of raw materials to the inland hinterland, the profits will be doubled.

Obviously, Cao Xuan, with a huge sum of money and several trusted associates, took the trouble to follow his brother-in-law Li Yanliang to India, just to obtain the military background behind him, so as to maximize the profits of the Indian trade in the shortest time and make a few years of quick money.

Otherwise, when Li Yanliang is transferred to another position, he will no longer have such advantageous resources.

India is like a plump cow. We should suck as much as we can from it while its "milk" is still abundant.

(End of this chapter)