Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 1347 Rio ([-])

"Fortunately, the weather is cooler than I expected." Sergio Rivera from Tuscany jumped onto the old wooden pier in Hue Port, and then kicked a piece of wood on the floor with his feet. The rotten wood said: "The dock facilities are too old. I have been to Qingdao Port before. It is the largest commercial port on the east coast, right? The trestle bridge built with large bricks and stones is left for me." It is very impressive, unlike here, it is full of a damp, rotten wood smell."

"The situation should be much better after the high-quality timber shipped from Seguro and Ilheus in the north arrives at Hue Port in a few days." Mario Doria, who was traveling with him, took off his top hat, Looking at the scorching sun hanging in the sky, he said resentfully: "I hope they can finish this pier as soon as possible. To be honest, I don't want to see such a perfect bay restricted by her backward and outdated infrastructure. Here It should have grown into a super port with great potential."

Mario Doria is not young anymore, but he is not in bad health after dealing with people on the east coast for many years, and his spirit is relatively healthy, so this time, for the benefit of the family's future, he will accompany the merchant family in Tuscany— - Sergio, a rising star of the Rivera family - came to Hue Port together to inspect the investment situation here.But in any case, at the age of fifty, he is no longer suitable for ocean voyages, and with his hard work over the years, he has already occupied a relatively favorable position in the huge family circle. Fighting on the front line again, so it is natural to gradually retreat to the remote control behind the scenes and give up the front stage to the younger generation.

Therefore, coming to Hue Port this time is likely to be the last voyage in Mario's life, so he plans to stay here as long as possible, meet more friends, and take a closer look at the environment here.On the return trip, I will go to New Courland on the Congo River to see if there are any investment opportunities - the local Governor Hewitt de Beveren has invited him several times, and he has always used various excuses in the past Rejected, but this time he decided to check it out.

"To what extent will Brazil's cane sugar production drop this year?" The two and their entourage chatted as they walked along the pier trestle.Both sides of the trestle bridge are crystal clear sea water, sometimes you can even see swimming fish in it. Words of hot, humid, annoying weather.

"Who knows?" Mario shook his head and said with a smile: "The Jewish merchants in Lisbon always keep their goods tight, and no one knows how much they sold. But according to some evidence Based on available export tariffs and transportation data, the situation is not optimistic. Comparing with the "rumors" about the Brazilian sugar market circulating in the market, I boldly guess that the amount of sugar exported by Brazil in 1662 was probably less than a quarter of the previous one. One, if converted into the weight unit of the people on the east coast, it is less than [-] tons. Hehe, this data is really bad. The production of land as large as Bahia and Pernambuco is far behind that of small Barbados Island, Jamaica, just before the spring in the sugar market, the Brazilians just go down because of a ridiculous war."

"Actually, it's not just sucrose that's been affected." Sergio Rivera also picked up the words at this time, only to hear him say: "The production of Brazilian tobacco has also shrunk extremely, and its total output is not even as good as that of St. Kitts Island. The sum of the three small islands of Tobago, Tobago, and St. Christopher's Island, the cotton production is not as good as that of Haiti, which is really ridiculous. It can also be seen that the cultivation of sugar, tobacco, cotton and other crops in Brazil Fortunately, they still have some cassava, banana, wheat, and corn plantations, so they will not starve to death. Otherwise, these hundreds of thousands of Brazilians may be trapped in famine. "

"Actually, the production of these crops in Brazil should not have been fatally affected-well, well, to be precise, although a considerable amount of production capacity has been lost due to the war with the people on the east coast, it will never shrink to such an extent The reason why they are so miserable now is mainly related to the fact that the coastal areas of Bahia, Pernambuco and other general areas were raided and blocked by ships from the east coast. It has been blocked all year round, and it is impossible to block every port. Therefore, some small merchant ships have transported a considerable amount of cane sugar, tobacco and cotton, and at the same time brought in some supplies and supplementary soldiers, otherwise their life will be even worse. " Mario said the truth in one sentence, and he waved his arm exaggeratedly, saying: "But I still have to say, they are a bunch of idiots, idiots! What are the benefits of not ending the war? What we should do now is to quickly recognize the reality, admit our failure, and then decisively end the war with the people on the east coast, and quickly resume production and trade. Instead of holding unrealistic illusions and The inexplicable sense of superiority, expecting other countries to support themselves, and retreating from the people on the east coast, how is this possible?"

"They may have to suffer even greater losses." Sergio commented.

"This is inevitable and irreversible." Mario said, "But their stupidity also gave others a chance, didn't they? The tobacco from New Courland flowed into Genoa*a and Tuscany in large quantities through our operation. , Milan, Parma, Naples, Urbino and Sicily, let the Portuguese go to hell, the money should be earned by us and the Courlandians. And now the sugarcane plantations on the Nishui River in Xinhua Island are also increasingly poor It is on the right track, and the output has also begun to increase steadily. At this favorable time when sugar prices in major markets such as Amsterdam, Antwerp, London, Hamburg, Bordeaux, and Cadiz have risen across the board, we should take advantage of the golden opportunity when the Portuguese are absent to seize the market. Increase shipments—not to mention, grab the entire Apennines market first, this is the goal we are currently working on.”

"Yes, this is a very good time. Xinhua Island is also very suitable for operating sugar cane plantations. And to be honest, the sugar cane varieties provided by the people on the east coast may also have a higher sugar yield, although I have never been to Bei Island to make sugar. The workshop survey data of the factory (of course he does not have the power), but my intuition told me that this is very unusual. So last year I had someone bring a batch of this kind of sugarcane back to Italy, and it was planted on the island of Malta. I want to see Is it true that the sugar yield of this sugarcane is much higher than that of others? If so, this is definitely explosive news." Sergio looked around, then said softly to Mario.

"Keep it secret, young man, although it's no big deal if people on the east coast know about it." Mario was startled when he heard that, and then he said seriously to Sergio who was following him: "New Huaxia Island is currently It is still our main investment place, where the environment is suitable for sugarcane production, and the transportation is convenient enough, and there is a sugar factory from the east coast on the opposite island, where the technology is advanced and the cost is not high, in short, it is a perfect industry Base. If it is true as you said, the sugar cane yield rate of people on the east coast is relatively high, then this alone can make up for the extra cost we incurred due to the long transportation distance. Of course, if you have the opportunity to go to If sugarcane plantations are set up in other places—such as Rio de Janeiro and New Courland, which are closer to the Old World—then you might as well investigate and make a tentative investment.”

The two walked into the city of Hue, which was being renovated while chatting. At this time, Lieutenant Zhou Yafu also came to greet him with a group of entourage. He actually welcomed the investment of these Italians.Without him, there is a lot of vacant land in the hinterland of the Hue area, and someone has come to help with the construction, so what is there to complain about?You know, the people on the east coast only leased the land to them at a low rent for 50 years, and they were also responsible for repairing some roads, docks and other infrastructure. People from the old continent were brought here to open up wasteland and build towns, and the people from the east coast also sent people to manage it. What a wonderful thing!Anyway, the Italians just grow cash crops to make money, and the people on the east coast want the developed land.

At present, enterprises such as the Luocha Textile Mill, a joint venture between the Genoese and the East Bank, the forest development company operating at the southern foot of Dingjun Mountain, and the disbanded Grassland Railway Company have all achieved fairly good returns—well , the income of some companies is not satisfactory, but at least it is much better than the treasury bonds and annuities with extremely low yields-and for the delta company with higher profit margins (the company was founded by more than a dozen Italian investors, registered The capital is 1600 million lire in the bank, among which there are even shares of Cosimo of the Medici family), the Genoa Africa Company, so there is no need to mention it. Today, when the country’s sugar price is soaring, everyone knows these How profitable the company is.

Although the cane sugar produced in their plantations will be scraped off by the Beidao Sugar Factory, the rest is still extremely rich, which makes many people very jealous.Of course, investors are also very excited. The poor people who are currently flickering in Italy and rural areas of Germany are being transported to Alexandria, Egypt, and then to the Port of Suez by land, and finally via the Red Sea. —The Indian Ocean arrived at Xinhuaxia Island and put it into the development and production of plantations to obtain greater profits in the future——According to some gossip, Grand Duke Ferdinand, who has ruled the Grand Duchy of Tuscany for 42 years, has agreed The request of his eldest son, Cosimo, together with some other Italian businessmen, will increase the capital and share of Delta Company this year. At present, this motion has been submitted to the East Bank government for approval. I believe it is not difficult to pass it. After all, the East Bank is now More and more people's goods have entered the Tuscan market, and the relationship between the two countries has gradually warmed up. People from the east coast will not embarrass them in such trivial matters, because it is unnecessary.

These companies have made a lot of money investing in the east coast, and it is surprising that the Republic of Genoa, which has gradually declined since the outbreak of the financial earthquake in 1627, has a tendency to rise again.Many people can't imagine that this country with a population of only 60 million and a narrow land can make such a way overseas.And what is even more surprising is that they have regained their influence and returned to the Mediterranean from overseas. They hold a large number of East Coast industrial products, New Courland Tobacco, and New China Sugar. Being able to obtain profits of up to millions of bank liras in these trades may not be comparable to the huge profits of investing in the financial industry back then, but it is sure and the growth potential is extremely promising. There is nothing better than this!

Today, the Republic of Genoa has even entered the markets of the Ottoman and Crimean Khanates under the introduction of people from the east coast, and the country has imported a large amount of wheat, rye and other grains from Syria and Crimea. Selling to food-deficient Italy and Spain has made a lot of money, and more importantly, it has enhanced its influence, which is even more commendable.In addition, according to some unreliable rumors, Genoa seems to be considering importing a large number of Slavic slaves from the Crimean Khanate and reselling them to Chinese African companies for their use in Xinhua Island of plantation consumption required.It's just that the Genoese seem to be concerned about some reputation and moral considerations, so they haven't taken full action for the time being (although the people on the east coast are trying their best), but it seems that it will be a matter of time, after all, the Western European buyers have always been Ottoman slaves As for the important customers in the market, as long as they have a thick skin and are afraid of hair, they can just push them to the Genoa * Africa Company anyway.

With so many great examples of making money in front of the Italians, and merchants from Genoa, Lucca, Parma, Tuscany, Sicily and Milan all involved in one way or another, what else So hesitant?It is enough to spend money on investment. Now the bull market in the sugar market has just begun, and it is a good time to step on the layout.You must know that when overseas colonists engage in plantations of sugar cane and spices, the first important thing is to have strong force to ensure security, followed by sufficient labor force, and finally capital and markets.Now the people on the east coast have helped everyone avoid investment in security, and promised to build some infrastructure. Secondly, the indigenous labor force on Xinhua Island is also very sufficient (more than 100 million descendants of Malays), and the Italian region itself is overpopulated. , a large labor force, so the first choice for overseas investment is definitely the East Coast Republic of China, especially for the Italian state with abundant funds but weak military force.

It is normal for Genoa to start first, and then other Italians who are inextricably linked with them to invest!

(End of this chapter)