Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 1450 Hejian ([-])

"There are more and more people. Of course, this is also our most powerful weapon!" Chen Ke, wearing heavy whale leather boots, just came out of a swamp, holding two alive and kicking fish in his hands. It was caught in the swamp, and now I threw it to my secretary, and asked him to clean up and stew a pot of fish soup for everyone to beat teeth at noon.

This is the middle area north of Xinji Township and south of Posadas Township, which is commonly known as Xinji Plain.According to the division of people on the east bank, the rare plain in the northern half of this river area belongs to Shan Tra County. Even on some internal maps, even the military fortress Posadas established by the Spaniards was assigned to Shan Tra County. The counties within the county are also speechless.Naturally, the farmers on the east bank who came along the Xinji Plain all the way to open up wasteland and reclaim land are naturally from Shancha County.

As of the end of July 1666, the population of Shancha County had reached nearly 7, which can be called a "surge" compared to the extremely slow growth rate before.The reason for this is mainly because in the past few years after the official establishment of Shancha County, the local people consciously allocated more immigrants and dispatched cadres here, which made the county's population growth rate faster than the national average.

In addition to some of the newly arrived pioneer farmers being resettled in the original five major settlements to live with the old citizens, there is also a considerable number of them who were moved to the outskirts with the second-generation citizens who immigrated from the mainland. Currently, Chen Ke This is how the village near the small town of Posadas came about—more than 300 old and new nationals mixed together, led by a few veterans, planted land less than [-] kilometers away from the Spaniards. , Herding cattle and sheep, the Spaniards on the opposite side have nothing to do except stare blankly, because the soldiers of the garrison led by Captain Fu Lei often come here to hang around, and the Spaniards who are afraid of revenge really don’t have the courage to come here Smooth the beard.

Of course, from the point of view of the Spanish soldiers, they have not received their wages for more than fifteen months, so why should King Philip—oh, yes, the current king has become a poor boy— — What about allegiance?You know, the sky is big and the earth is big, and the belly is big. Although it is not enough to eat in the Hejian area, it is true that life is hard and there is no money in the pocket. Then who would risk fighting with the people on the east bank? What about the pioneer settlers who risk deporting them?Not to mention, the people on the nearby east coast pay their poor soldiers a lot of flour, butter, cheese, wine, tobacco, sugar, coffee and other commodities as "relief" every year, and they are also hired from time to time to guard caravans, The rewards for cleaning up the native forces were quite generous at that time, which was nothing compared to the stingy Spanish king.

So what else is there to say?Mercenaries work for money. Even though most of the people on the east coast are pagans, it doesn't prevent them from working for pagans under the pressure of reality. This is understandable.

And it is precisely because of seeing through the psychology of the Spanish mercenaries that the people on the east bank reclaimed wasteland and farmed land in the Hejian area so recklessly, turning large areas of grassland into fertile fields and large areas of hills into pastures and orchards. Binjianqi and third-class national highways slowly extended on the grasslands, and the volume of commodity circulation began to increase. The entire Hejian area was more and more deeply integrated into the economic system of the East Bank itself, and it was no longer a little dissociated from the whole as before. outside.

"When we have people, we can emigrate better and occupy every piece of land better. What do the Spaniards have? Some mercenaries! Immigrants? There were some in the early years, but there were too few in these years, because the financial Difficult! Besides, more than 6000 peninsula people immigrate to the New World every year. How many of them will come to this newly established Buenos Aires Prosecutor’s Court District? The area of ​​the Buenos Aires Prosecutor’s Court is a remote area, so they can only let us develop and watch us develop, there is no other way!” Chen Ke sat down on a poorly made Sitting on the pine chair, he sighed and said after taking a sip of strong wine to drive away the cold.

To be honest, the development work in Shancha County has been going well in recent years, especially the light industry represented by rough tea processing, wood processing, livestock slaughter, leather tanning, fruit deep processing, fish pickling and other industries. After the influx of workers, it has developed very rapidly.

Chen Ke once divided the entire river area into four sub-regions, of which the central part-the Corrientes River and the Mirinhay River in the south, and the Chilimai River in the north (both strange Guaraní languages name...) - called by him the Swamp Sub-District.There are many swamps, rivers, and lakes in this sub-region. Subtropical agriculture is the basis for maintaining the economy here, and production is mainly developed on wide open land without stagnant water.

The village in front of me relies on grain planting and cattle herding as its main source of income, and the breed of cattle it grazes is also the "Wujiang cattle" specially bred by experts in the agricultural department, a fine breed of cattle following the bighorn goats and Wujiang sheep.During the original development of the upper reaches of the Wu River, farmers found that the relatively severe livestock plagues (generally distributed in tropical and subtropical regions) here seriously hindered the expansion of cattle herds, so they urgently needed a cattle that could adapt to the local environment. grazing.Under such circumstances, Wujiang cattle, which have been cultivated for many years, came into being.

This kind of cowhide is thick and has a long tail, which can resist the invasion of vector animals such as lice and mosquitoes. It is also resistant to rough feeding and fast fattening, which has initially met the requirements of the Ministry of Agriculture.Of course, the current genetic traits of this kind of river cattle may not be stable enough, and they still need to continue to be cultivated and improved, but this is a matter for the Ministry of Agriculture.

"Deputy Commissioner Chen said that the Spanish soldiers in Fort Pedro, Fort Sauce, and Posadas have all been used by me, and they really can't make any waves." Chen Ke followed There are also many businessmen from the eight counties on the opposite bank of the Wujiang River (Houqiu County was established in July this year, and it is the 7th county-level administrative unit in the country. , about 64 people), Chen Kela came to investigate the local investment environment. After listening to Chen Ke's sigh, some people echoed it.

Chen Ke smiled and saw that the person who spoke was a young businessman. Chen Ke also had some impressions of him. He seemed to be the son of Cai Huaze, the deputy commissioner of Northern Patagonia, named Cai Qian.This [-]-year-old young man is different from his brothers—such as Cai Hao and Cai Jue who run forest farms in Xiangsi Township, Cai Zu and Cai Dao who run orchards in Chubut River—he is mainly a commodity Mainly trading, a trading company was registered in Houqiu County on the other side of the Wujiang River. It brought in more than a dozen descendants of the Cai family, hired dozens of Russian serfs, and operated leather and tallow business all year round in the swamp area. Small, but the upward trend is quite obvious. It is said that several competing companies have been squeezed out (no matter what means are used), and the volume of purchases in the entire swamp area is increasing, which is eye-catching.

This time, Chen Ke brought this guy to the swamp to persuade him to spend money, that is, to invest in pastures in this vast sub-region of the swamp for development, instead of the instability of wandering around to receive goods like before. model.Even, in order to persuade Cai Qian to invest in the Hejian area (of course, it does not mean that he has a good relationship with his father Cai Huaze, anyway, everything is self-evident...), Chen Ke had communicated with him in private before, and planned to Contract a large swamp here to Cai Qian, and issue a license so that he can hunt some valuable economic animals here.The two are tied together, that is, once Cai Qian agrees to recruit laborers to open a ranch here, he can contract some swamp lakes, raise fish, grow aquatic crops, and even kill crocodiles. Licenses issued by the government) to subsidize the ranch's possible losses in the early stage; of course, once he does not agree to invest in the establishment of the ranch, the above-mentioned benefits will be lost.

Judging from the current situation, Cai Qian himself is already a little moved, because in the leather trade he operates, the skins of crocodiles, vipers, pythons and other animals have always been expensive (this has also attracted local licensed Hunters seek furs because of profit factors), which are treasures in the animal skin trade and have always been loved by dignitaries.It's a pity that due to the limited number of licensed hunters, the supply of this kind of goods has never been very sufficient. Every time some of this kind of precious skins appear, traders will bid for each other, which shows the degree of tightness.This time, in order to attract him to invest, Chen Ke actually promised such a rare condition, which indeed shows that his sincerity is quite sufficient. Cai Qian has already faintly agreed to come to invest—of course, what condition did Chen Ke promise to give? Some other businessmen, this is not what Cai Qian can know, but obviously, other people have more or less got some promises from him, Chen, otherwise they would not agree to come here to have a look, after all, in In these days of economic boom brought on by the war in the Old World, everyone's time is too precious to run around.

"Cai Qian, what you said is very good. The Spaniards really can't make any waves. Moreover, I heard that the French in the Old Continent took advantage of the unfavorable moment when the old King Philip passed away and Madrid was in charge of the young country. The Netherlands and other fertile lands, the relationship between the two countries has suddenly become tense, and the war is about to break out. In the next period of time, I am afraid that we will not have the heart to manage our cultivation here, so there is no doubt that the Hejian area will usher in a new era. A wave of development." Chen Ke handed the flagon in his hand to the secretary, and then said with a smile: "It's okay to tell you something, anyway, it's not a state secret. The latest national population statistics this year came out, breaking through 180 million, everyone here knows it well, right? Hehe, the above has already said that the [-] immigrants promised to us have been delayed for so many years, and the shortfall will be made up slowly. Well, there is still a shortfall of [-]. The appearance of people, haha, once these people come and settle down, the scene in the Hejian area will be different..."

According to the latest data from the Ministry of Immigration, as of the end of July, the number of citizens of the East Coast Republic of China has reached a record high of more than 7 million (the Ministry of Immigration uses population statistics + estimates, and it is said that the accuracy rate is over 182.2%). The population reached 95, accounting for 83%; the proportion of second-generation nationals continued to rise, reaching 45.54%; the number of whites dropped by another percentage point, adding up to only 37.2%.

As an important part of social production on the East Coast, the huge non-national team continues to grow, and its total number is close to 23. Blacks continue to rank first with 31.8%, followed by Indians (30.4%), whites (26.1%) and Malays (11.7%). This shows how eager the east coast economy is for low-cost and cheap labor, and how the prosperity of the east coast is based on the squeeze of non-nationals. This may be from another perspective It explains why the business of the three major labor brokerage companies is so prosperous.

And it is precisely because of these relatively large manpower that the Executive Committee was able to finally agree to make up for the immigrants they had promised many years ago under the "stalking" from all over the Hejian area.Of course, perhaps the biggest factor is not the efforts of Hejian officials, but the resurgence of disputes between the West and France over the legacy of the old King Philip. At that time, the 19.6-square-kilometer Hejian area will be officially handed over to the East Coast Republic soon. This is why the executive committee has accelerated the development of the Hejian area. However, due to Chen Ke's low rank, he cannot Just know this secret.

"Last year, the counties of Shancha and Ganyi, as well as some affiliated townships managed by them, exported a total of 20 yuan worth of various commodities to the mainland, of which yerba mate tea and wood accounted for the majority, and others such as leather, wool, pickled Meat, salted fish, and fruits are not outstanding, and we face fierce competition from other regions for similar products, and many times we cannot compete with others." Chen Ke continued: "There are not only backward production technology, insufficient investment, and management Factors that are not advanced enough, and moreover, scarcity of manpower leads to scale failure and high cost. This time, the native country promised to send us a large number of immigrants to settle down, and Goshkin and Batino have also sent people around in the Old Continent. Activities, recruiting non-national laborers, the manpower gap will be greatly alleviated in the next few years, at this time you need your investment. Without investment, there will be no new technology and large-scale production, of course there will be no profit, and the happiness of the people There is no way to talk about life. Now it seems that all of this needs to be realized by you, everyone, the Hejian area is about to usher in a fast lane of development, I hope everyone seizes this opportunity and get rich together!"

(End of this chapter)