Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 1144 Hejian ([-])

In later generations of Argentina, the territory surrounded between the Parana River and the Uruguay River was called "Mesopotamia" (meaning the land of two rivers) by them - of course the east bank at this time People call it the "Riverside" region - thanks to these two rivers, the Riverside region is very clearly separated from the adjacent areas.But from another point of view, these two big rivers and their tributaries also provide extremely convenient transportation conditions for the inter-river area.

The area of ​​the river is vast, especially long between the north and the south, spanning as much as eight degrees of latitude. The northern part is a platform-like terrain with the characteristics of the Brazilian massif. The south is dominated by hills and deltas, so the area can actually be divided into four parts: the northern plateau, the plain of Corrientes, the southern hills and the delta of the Paraná River.

In view of the fact that the Spaniards have loosened their grip on the issue of allowing foreign "east bank expatriates" to enter their territory for development (although they have not had time to get King Philip's approval), the southern hilly area just across the river from Daxing Port has poured in a few Many people from the east bank—in fact, whether the Spaniards approve or not is just a formality. Gein, as early as a few years ago, many people from the east bank crossed the river and entered this area to cut down the forests with rich local resources and high value. to export to the country.At present, a settlement has gradually and spontaneously formed here. People in Daxing County across the river like to call it Acacia Township. As the name suggests, there is a vast area of ​​acacia forest in the area.

And after the construction of railways and highways (three-level national highways) in the east coast of China entered its heyday, this kind of hard tree has been paid more and more attention, and the market demand has begun to rise sharply, which has led to more people coming here to log. —The two sons of Cai Huaze (Cai Ming and Cai Jue), who are developing in the southern Patagonia region, came to Xiangsi Township under such circumstances. They hired some Italian and Scottish laborers in Caijiazhai Township, Then some Kelandi people were recruited in Xiangsi Township, and the logging team officially opened.

At this time, in Xiangsi Township, which can be called a place outside of transformation, the order can be described as extremely chaotic. Everything here is respected by strength and spoken by fists.The two brothers Cai Ming and Cai Jue, who lived in Ming Dynasty since they were young, are not uncomfortable with this. There are one or two hundred people in their team, and the equipment is quite sufficient—even the Cai brothers and some management personnel are still wearing armor. , a sharp knife hanging from the waist-it is definitely not comparable to those bumpkins in the countryside, so they grabbed a large area of ​​woods.

This forest is located in the later city of Concordia, not far from the riverside pier, and Duandi is a good place.Moreover, the scenery is beautiful, picturesque, and varied (the city scenery along the Uruguay River is probably the same), which makes people intoxicated.On the felled bare ground, the roots of the trees were slowly dug out, and the stones in the ground were picked up and thrown aside. The farmers on the east bank of the river came to the river with the tree-cutting army. They bought citrus (the citrus here is very famous in later generations), melons, fruits and vegetables and rice - the latter is a relatively expensive grain in the east coast.

In addition to these farmers, there are also some handicraftsmen in the east bank who crossed the river from Daxing County to Xiangsi Township under the government's explicit or covert instigation, and settled here.Even the well-known Northwest Reclamation Bank has quietly set up a branch here to handle daily financial affairs for the residents-don't think this is a big deal. In today's east coast, with the deepening of economic activity, Banks have become more and more deeply involved in the industrial and agricultural economic system, and ordinary people (not only the rich) are increasingly dependent on the banking financial system (farmers and small shop operators who have recently become accustomed to using bank services The number of those who have already increased several times), you can see some clues from Xiangsi Township, which can be said to be a backward area:

For example, in Xiangsi Township, there are some farm owners who only pay tens of yuan in taxes every year (breeding chickens, ducks and geese to supply local residents nearby), and they have also opened current accounts in the Northwest Reclamation Bank; chicken and vegetable vendors And butchers often write small checks for business purposes, often less than 20 yuan or 30 yuan, and it is not difficult to get the approval of customers, which makes people have to lament the in-depth banking services.

Speaking of this, I have to say one more thing. As the country has been established for a long time, many people on the east coast who are the first to get rich now have more and more deposits, which has produced checks, and checks are now increasingly replacing money orders. A trend towards a means of payment--this is actually normal, considering that in the old days someone had put "a surety of the drawer, an acceptor, and perhaps more than twenty endorsements (which in itself implies liquidity)" The bills of exchange are passed around among the crowd, and as long as there is an error in one link (such as the endorsement is unclear or something), it may cause the bank to reject it and cause losses to the holders of the bill. After getting up, checks began to become popular, which greatly squeezed the circulation share of money orders.

However, relatively large checks became popular, but small bills never really caught on on the East Coast.Once upon a time, the East Bank government issued a large number of small-amount acceptance bills every year (one-yuan, two-yuan, five-yuan types, with a term of one or two years, but they are also being issued continuously now, but the amount is reduced), as an implementation Testing the waters and warming up the paper currency system.It's just that this attempt was not very successful. Residents often went to the bank to withdraw cash as soon as the acceptance bill was paid, and even some uneasy residents would go to the discount merchant to discount the acceptance bill before it expired. Even if you lose some money, you will not hesitate. This shows the extent to which the people do not trust small notes.

Considering this situation, the east bank government is now gradually reducing the issuance ratio of small-amount acceptance bills and increasing the issuance ratio of a new gold reserve-based voucher. On the one hand, it is to avoid the exchange rate risk between gold and silver, and on the other hand On the one hand, it is to increase the trust of the people in this paper currency.After all, the Tieling Gold Mine on the east coast is actually there. It is not for nothing to produce 220 kilograms of gold per year. In addition, the Shandan trade carried out by the Far East Blackwater Pioneering Team can also transport back [-] kilograms of gold every year. If the vouchers (the unit is "circle" and guaranteed by the treasury's gold reserves) are not issued too seriously, then the people's trust can still be gained to a certain extent.

Of course, this alone is not enough, because the people's habits are conservative, and they naturally like to collect gold and silver at home instead of holding a bunch of vouchers in their hands.Therefore, in order to increase the number of such vouchers in circulation, the taxation departments of Dongfang County, the capital of the east coast, and Qingdao County, the financial center, have required a certain percentage of vouchers to be collected for certain types of taxes in order to increase their market demand and stabilize the currency value. Just how effective this measure will be remains to be seen.

Today, the brothers Cai Ming and Cai Jue went to the bank to withdraw 1000 silver dollars as wages for workers and daily expenses for the next period of time.There are many lumberjacks under them, and each of them pays five yuan per month (but two yuan for food and accommodation expenses are deducted, which is one yuan more than the salary in the east coast, and they have the opportunity to apply for a job after working here for five years. become a national of the East Coast), all are paid in silver dollars, because these foreign laborers have always been resistant to banknotes. The Cai brothers have always insisted on giving them cash to protect their interests.

Besides, they are from the conservative inland countryside of Ming Dynasty, and they have never been used to writing checks for their personal payments—whether they are large or small—if one day he will have twenty If the money needed to be paid, he would go to the bank early in the morning and withdraw a sum sufficient to cover it all.

Those who receive wages include Italians and Scots, as well as many Kelandi and Guarani.Some of these Kelandi people are local aborigines, and some of them took refuge from the La Plata grassland after the Second East-West War. I started to feel sad—especially after the second outbreak of the Kelandi uprising, which was quite powerful a few years ago, was brutally suppressed. A large number of Kelandi tribes poured into the river with complex terrain and dense forests from the west and south (Occasionally received assistance from the East Coast National Intelligence Agency), which aroused the hostility of the Spanish colonial authorities to the aboriginal tribes in the river area, and blockade and suppression were commonplace.So their life is really not easy now, they can't even plant the land well, so they can only go to the east bank to make a living, because under the protection of the people on the east bank, the Spaniards will be cautious and dare not do too much. Therefore, the number of Kelandi people who came to work in Xiangsi Township is increasing day by day. Of course, this has undoubtedly lowered everyone's wages and aroused the hatred of many laborers in the old continent...

However, what does this matter to "capitalists" like the Cai brothers?As far as they are concerned, they wish that the competition among workers would be as fierce as possible, because they can lower wages and reduce expenditures better. As for the living conditions of workers, they don’t care too much, they only care about whether the quality and quantity can be guaranteed They cut down enough trees and shipped them back to the east bank to sell.Now that the construction of the East Coast Railway is in full swing, acacia trees, a quality sleeper material, are very popular, and their price is quite competitive compared with the sleepers shipped by Xinhua—this forest is a part of their Cai family brothers. A cash machine, but don't let anything go wrong.

(End of this chapter)