Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 1382 The new owner of Xinhua Island ([-])

September is probably the last relatively dry month before the rainy season.Huang Yihuang, who was recently appointed as the captain of the New China Pioneering Team, a very popular position, came to the northwest of New China Island, which was not long after it was conquered, to inspect the fertile land that he was about to rule in the next few years. What does it look like.

By the end of 1663, the trade volume between Xinhua Island and the mainland was 330.4 million yuan, of which about 139 million yuan was imported from the mainland and 191.4 million yuan was exported to the mainland. The trade surplus reached an unprecedented 60 yuan. , can be called the first treasure island and the jewel in the crown of the Republic of China on the east coast, and it is not an exaggeration to elevate its economic status on the east coast.

Among the commodities exported to the mainland, cotton is naturally ranked first, with a total of 48.9 yuan. No.2 is the "big player" sucrose that has sprung up in recent years, which has reached 35.6 yuan. No.3 is The timber of previous champions was 27.6 yuan, almost no increase compared with previous years.

去掉这三大项后，剩下的就比较零碎了，分别是胡椒12.2万元（近六年增长了11倍）、剑麻12.1万元、咖啡10.2万元（近六年增长了5倍）、精煤10万元（因为运力和价格因素，下降了20%）、可可9.5万元（增长了3.5倍）、橡胶8.7万元（增长了3倍）、香草7.1万元（增长了3倍）、海产品4万元、干果2.5万元、其他合计约3万元。

It can be seen from the data that the economic structure of Xinhuaxia Island has changed rapidly in recent years. The export economy dominated by timber, cotton and clean coal six years ago has gradually been replaced by sugar, pepper, etc. in recent years. Instead, the export value of some emerging commodities has grown very rapidly, and there is a tendency to replace traditional commodities.According to the research and estimation of the New China Development Team government, in the next five years, with the gradual development of the market, the export figures of New China timber, clean coal and other commodities will decline, and the growth rate of cocoa and coffee exports will slow down. Products will grow steadily, vanilla, rubber, pepper and other commodities will continue to grow at a rapid pace, until there is a new change in the home market - the colonial market is always subordinate to the motherland market, and this will never change of.

Of course, even though the trade between the mainland and New China Island is so prosperous, Huang Yi, who has been in charge of commercial affairs in the Far East for many years, also understands it very well. Most of the businesses of coffee, cocoa, pepper, sugar and other commodities are registered in the east coast, so a lot of profits and taxes are kept in the mainland.Over time, this undoubtedly led to widespread dissatisfaction with the local government of Xinhua Island and all walks of life, and for this reason, they wrote to the Executive Committee many times, requesting to change the current unreasonable wealth distribution method and open up more opportunities for the government of the New China Development Team. financial resources in order to better build the place.

It is said that the mainland has initially agreed to make some concessions, that is, the relevant provisions of the "Company Law" will be tightened in the future, such as those who have only a few employees in the mainland, and there may be hundreds of employees in Xinhua Island, but the place of registration is the local company. Some enterprises may have to set up branch offices in Xinhua Island to transfer some business tax, export duties and other taxes here to appease the dissatisfaction of the lords of Xinhua Island—of course, if they invoke the law of profit transfer There is no way, after all, these are all legal means within a legal framework.

On September 1664, 9, Huang Yi, the new official, came to the port of Mahajanga on a ship to inspect the city that had been occupied by the people on the east coast for two and a half years.After two and a half years, Mahajanga, a city that has changed hands many times in recent years, has been deeply imprinted by people from the east coast. A large number of soldiers, businessmen, officials, and religious people have poured into the city. The whole city has been arranged around the ground, where government offices, forts, warehouses, docks, Taoist temples and markets have been built. The relatively messy layout of Mahajanga City has also changed little by little under their transformation—— A large number of messy and unaesthetic wooden buildings were directly bulldozed, and the Sakarawa people living in them were either sent to the mainland, Australia, South Africa, and Djibouti, or were stuffed into a large number of state-run plantations on the island for various reasons In the park, it just alleviated the difficulties caused by the shortage of black labor force, and created its own value for the government of the East Coast Republic of China.

There are still some buildings left over from the Arab era in the city of Mahajanga, including public buildings including mosques, bathhouses, and hospitals, as well as private buildings such as merchant houses. Built of bricks and stones, it is relatively solid. After years of reconstruction and repairs, it has become a part of the city style. It is much better than the messy shacks that the Sakarawa people later made. Differences in the level of civilization between Arabs and Persians.

However, compared with the buildings they left behind, there are very few descendants of Arabs and Persians in the city today. They had already lost a large number of people when they were destroyed by the Boyla Kingdom. In the process of leading the army to conquer the city of Marenjia, many people were killed and injured. After several tosses, only a few hundred people survived in the city. What about self-preservation force?In the era of the 17th century, insufficient force was the greatest original sin.

Naturally, hundreds of prostitutes in the area cannot prevent people from the east coast from taking a large number of buildings such as mosques into their own hands, not to mention their status has not yet been determined-it is estimated that they will be scattered and exiled to Australia, Blackwater and South Africa are submerged in the vast sea of ​​people - so I dare not have any objection to the Taoist Association on the East Coast taking the mosque as its own and renovating it. The officers who were confiscated and distributed to the military officers who made military exploits did not dare to have an opinion. After all, in the face of a power like the East Bank who likes to talk with bayonets, they are all a group of poor people who cannot effectively protect their own poor people.

Surrounded by his entourage and guards, Huang Yi spent half a day taking a good tour of the whole city, and then was invited by the Taoist Association to attend a grand dinner in the Mahajanga Mosque. The city’s upstarts—officials, Taoist priests, businessmen, and military officers—cooked toasts, got drunk, and had a great time with the host and guests. The Yangzhou chefs who followed Huang Yi from Daming to Xinhua Island did their best. The gunpowder factory urgently transported a few big fat pigs, slaughtered and cooked them on the spot, and many delicacies, including braised lion heads, were unanimously praised by everyone.

The next day, Huang Yi and others went deep into some villages in the inland—all of which were established successively in the past two or three years—to conduct inspections.In the vast hinterland of Mahajanga City, except for some mangroves or bright forests along the coast and along the river, the characteristics of the surface vegetation have basically given way to the savannah.A small number of colonists on the east bank settled here in a "shy" way. They had some understanding of the local climate and agricultural characteristics. The obvious dry season here forced them to build irrigation facilities, but it was obviously not They can complete it independently, so each of them lives a relatively unsatisfactory life.But if you want them to give up the land here and go out to work in the city, they will not be willing. After all, this is the land they bought through life and death on the battlefield, and they will never give up easily.

"The population density here is too low." Huang Yi said at a glance, "Didn't some new immigrants arrive this year, some of them will be intercepted first, and more will be resettled here. The wide alluvial soil plain near the river mouth does not send people to reclaim it. What does this sound like? Our Xinhua Island is not all plantations, right? There are so many self-cultivated farmers, and their interests cannot be ignored. When the population increases, irrigation and water storage facilities will be built here to benefit the residents. and agricultural production."

However, the estuary plain near Mahajanga was obviously not Huang Yi's final destination. At his insistence, the people went up the Bezibuka River by boat, and finally stopped at the later Maruwuai Plain.Strictly speaking, the ownership of this land is currently ambiguous, because there are also a large number of Melina and Tsimieti living here. In fact, there have always been great doubts about whether the people on the east bank, who claim to be the heritage of the kingdom, have jurisdiction over this land.

But what kind of people are the people on the east coast? They never regard the Melina people and the Zimieti people as civilized people. Naturally, they cannot tolerate such a crucial piece of land as the Maruwuai Plain not being in their own hands. , so soon hundreds of officers and soldiers from the Xinhua County Security Corps landed here. After a few less intense battles, they expelled the local aborigines and firmly assigned this piece of land to their own name. Next—of course, it also caused hostility from the Melina people, but who cares about it, the left and right are just some natives!

The Maruwuai Plain was a dense forest in ancient times, but later due to wildfires, the forest gradually degenerated into nomadic pastures, where livestock can find fresher and juicier pastures than dry grasslands; later, as humans ( The settlement of immigrants from the Malay Peninsula and Indonesia), the rice cultivation industry has been greatly developed, and the local area has become a relatively wealthy area.

Huang Yi saw through her own eyes that after the endlessly flowing Bezibuka River flows out of the Ankara Fonzika Mountains, before it divides into many ports and flows into the Mahajanga Bay (Bengbetoka Bay), the Bezibuka River The Ka River and its many small tributaries (including the Maluwuai River) create a wide alluvial plain—there are many natural lakes on the plain, which are very good reservoirs during the rainy season and regulate the flooding of the entire plain; In this state, this swamp provides fertile soil. Gein has brought some loamy soil every flood for hundreds of years. Over time, it has added countless nutrients to the Maruwuai Plain. This is due to the vigorous growth of local natural herbs. It can be seen in the .

Undoubtedly, such fertile land will not remain unknown in later generations.In fact, the Maruwuai Plain has always been one of Madagascar's granaries in later generations. After excavating a main irrigation canal network (using rivers and lakes) about 100 kilometers long, in Madagascar without any good seeds, chemical fertilizers, and pesticides, local people Relying on the traditional and backward agricultural production methods, it has also created an average rice yield of 4.2 tons per hectare per season. It has become a well-known grain-producing area in the country-this can be seen from the large and flat rice fields in the local area.

If the people on the east coast want to develop this fertile plain at this time, what they need to do is actually the same as that of later Madagascar, that is, first use the local rivers and lakes to build a series of water conservancy facilities to make full use of the rushing downhill during the rainy season. River water, and adjust the water levels of various rivers and irrigation canals through lakes during the dry season, so that they can have a stable flow during the dry season, and help agricultural production to the greatest extent.

Needless to say, this is not a small project, requiring a lot of money and manpower.There may not be a shortage of manpower for the time being. The Sakaravas, Tsimierti, and Melinas all over Gein haven't taken care of it yet. It doesn't matter if they all grab work if necessary; the question of funds used to be a bit of a hindrance , but after the mainland is about to transfer part of the import and export enterprise taxes to the government of the Xinhua Development Team, the problem may not be too big, not to mention that Xinhua County itself has considerable production of lime, cement and bricks and tiles, and the transportation capacity is sufficient. Ai Pingyuan doesn't seem to be impossible, it depends on whether you have the determination.

"I heard that rice is grown here three times a year, and it can be grown anywhere?" Huang Yi stood on the soft grass and asked herself: "After the flood recedes, the rice on the floodplain, the rain on the terraced fields Rice, irrigated rice in the dry season, look, how diverse it is, and the production cost is also very low, which undoubtedly guarantees a high profit in cultivation.”

"I've made up my mind!" After a while, Huang Yi swung her right hand and said in an unquestionable tone: "The rice farming area in the Maruwuai Plain must be developed as soon as possible, and more aboriginal laborers can be brought over in advance to help them Weeding, clearing stones, digging ditches, but cutting down trees is not allowed! Plant food where it is suitable for food crops, and don’t force it where it is not suitable. Peanuts, tobacco, sisal, Brahma, oil palm, cotton, and tree Economic crops such as (cashew trees) can be planted, so don’t limit your thinking and use your brains.”

Of course, after talking about the above, Huang Yi did not forget to station a part of the Xinhua County Security Regiment here for a long time to resist the possible counterattack of the Melina people on the plateau at any time. They have always been very jealous. There are no such excellent rice-growing plains on the plateau.The whole of Madagascar is comparable to it and is called a granary. There is only one lake in Alautra. It also belongs to the people on the east coast. It was purchased from the natives at a negligible price. It's too profitable!

(End of this chapter)