Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 1491

"Business in the past two years has been difficult to do. I have lost so much money. I really don't know how to explain to the board of directors and shareholders." In the headquarters of the Bank of Taiwan, which is located in the sea outside Zeelandia, the bank's general manager Shao Shuguang held several ledgers with a sad expression on his face, and said very dejectedly.

The four brothers of the Han family, Junnosuke Hashiguchi, Yuma Yamashita and other confidantes sat on the chairs on both sides, and they were all sweating profusely at the moment.The ghost weather in Taiwan Island is really too hot, and the degree of humidity is far higher than that of the mainland. In addition, the boss sits in front of the ledger and sighs, and each of them is under a lot of pressure, sweating profusely.

In fact, how come they don't know what Director Shao said?On weekdays, they run around in Haizhu Island Commercial Station, Ningbo Dinghai Port, Denglai Area, Amur Estuary, Okhotsk Sea and even Heixiazi Port. They are all too clear about today's business situation.Due to the severe drought that has lasted for many years, the number of victims from the four prefectures of eastern and western Shanxi Province gathered in the Denglai area is countless. It is naturally a huge expense for so many people to eat.But in the past few years, because of the special product trade with the Dutch East India Company, Ningbo Prefecture (including Occupy Tiantai, Ninghai and other counties), which was supposed to be an important grain-producing area in the Far East and San Francisco, was driven by economic interests. The scale of economic crops has been planted, so that the grain planting area has dropped sharply. In the end, it even has to import grain from the Dutch East India Company and the Kingdom of Korea to make up for it—of course, there are also Songjiang, Shaoxing, and Hangzhou prefectures in the Qing control area. Part of the inflow of food, but always sometimes a lot, sometimes little, sometimes even cut off the source, not stable.

Excessively pursuing economic interests while ignoring the evil consequences of food cultivation, in fact, the people on the east coast have seriously considered it, and they think they can afford it, because they have the leading maritime transport force in the Far East and relatively capable armed forces Once the troops are short of food, they will either pay for the purchase, or borrow from friendly forces, or directly send troops to loot, and they will not all starve to death at home.Based on this consideration, after the establishment of Bank of Taiwan, a large syndicate, the tea and raw silk trade between the people on the east coast and the Dutch East India Company reached its climax, and the Bank of Taiwan swept most of the profits. The gentry and businessmen of the stability maintenance associations in various counties also shared a lot of money, and the local grain production activities naturally fell into a low ebb.

It’s just that the Shandong drought that happened later caused all these deployments. Liang Xiangjian, the captain of the Denglai Pioneering Team, took a “political adventure” (of course, as a traveler, he is also qualified to play this kind of game, because he can afford to lose). Within a year and a half, more than 34 victims of disasters in Shandong have been brought to Denglai, Ningbo, Heishui, Yezodi, Liaodong, North Korea and other places for resettlement and reclamation—even the extremely remote Thousand Islands and Heixiazi Port. China, Rabaul, Australia and other places have diverted a small number of them a little bit-this kind of crazy behavior has exhausted the grain, cured meat, and salted fish that have been accumulated for many years in various places.

Not to mention, the livestock that have been raised for decades in Heishui, Ezodi, Jeju Island and other places have also been slaughtered in large numbers to supplement the food shortage.The money in the treasury, the war horses in the ranch, and various commodities in the warehouse, all that can be exchanged for money and food, have basically been emptied out, and in exchange for a boatload of food, in order to feed the desperately large number of disaster victims .

In the end, due to the continuous spread of the disaster, the San Francisco in the Far East was somewhat unable to support themselves, so they resorted to all kinds of means, such as robbing the coast of Japan (mainly Japanese companies on the east coast), squeezing North Korea (mainly landing Lai Kai Kai Team and Dongan North Korea Company are doing), borrowing money from domestic businessmen and gentry to distribute donations (mainly implemented in Ningbo Prefecture), drawing blood from Taiwan Bank (has not paid dividends for two consecutive years, and even owed money to Guangdong businessmen some money from the Dutch), crazy development of the Zhaoyuan gold mine (currently with an annual output of 240 kilograms of gold, which is mostly used to purchase food), increased fishing efforts for seafood (new whaling ships were built, and the Zhoushan fishing ground was newly opened), even to the Netherlands The East India Company borrowed heavily (the current total debt has climbed to [-] million rupiah, which is shocking), so that it barely fooled the huge food shortage, and resisted it with relatively good water conservancy facilities after the drought and locust plague in Shandong Floods, hailstorms (in some areas) have restored production to some extent.

It can be said that as long as Shandong does not have three consecutive years of drought and frequent locust outbreaks like before, the Denglai pioneer team will be relieved. The 34 victims may have died a lot in history, but this will basically be survived.Liang Xiangjian also passed the political test after the special commissioner sent by the Executive Committee had an admonishing talk with him, which can be described as a win-win situation.

Only after experiencing this incident did Liang Xiangjian understand how difficult it is to feed more than 30 people who have no food or clothing.Once upon a time, when reading a novel in the 21st century, I saw a certain protagonist travel back to the ancient times, and he could easily live hundreds of thousands of people. Liang Xiangjian didn't think so at the time, but he would do it himself, and he really felt that it was too difficult!This is still under the condition that people on the east coast can fully mobilize resources from various places (even foreign countries), can overdraft credit accounts, and have sufficient transportation capacity. If it is a famine in the ancient inland areas, the picture is unimaginable.

The drought in Shandong lasted for three years, and the plague of locusts lasted for a year and a half. The shogunate has repeatedly reaffirmed the lockdown, and the Satsuma clan, whose smuggling trade with the east coast has been booming, has also slipped away. Only the Date family, a strong clan in the northeast, is still doing its own thing, but the scale is also smaller than before, which is obviously scruples— —Finally managed to survive. What they have to do next is to further expand the production of all kinds of food, including grains, and strive to gradually reduce the amount of food imports within three to five years to achieve a balance of income and expenditure, and then slowly recover. Pay off your debt slowly.

Basically, it will take more than five years for the Denglai Pioneering Team to slowly digest the deficit and transform productivity.Regarding this point, all the cadres present at the Bank of Taiwan also know something about it.In other words, they may have a slightly better life in the next five years, but it may not be possible to deal with debts and restore the good old days with a lot of money.At least, the restoration of the tea gardens, mulberry fields, and cotton fields in the counties of Ningbo Prefecture that were destroyed and replanted with grain will not take place overnight.

And this is exactly what Shao Shuguang is worried about now.After all, he is the general manager of Bank of Taiwan (he is also a shareholder holding 10% of the shares). It is his natural responsibility to improve the company's business and earn more profits for shareholders, and he cannot shirk it. responsibilities, but the current reality makes him helpless. In 1667, it was an inevitable loss, and it is estimated that it will not be able to make a profit in 1668. The main loss point is that they need to support part of the grain and cash of Commander Liao Xiaoyao to support them in Udi. River-Zeya River colonization activities, then this is a joke!

"The [-] boxes of raw silk and tea that should be sent to the Dutch have been in arrears for some time, and the governor of Zeelandiaburg has even visited twice. Hand it over to the Dutch and stop them from talking. After all, we owe them a lot of money now, so there’s nothing we can do about it.” Shao Shuguang threw down the account book in his hand, stirred it in the coffee cup with a spoon, and said: “ However, these Dutch red hairs have bought so much tea and raw silk from us in the past few years, and how much money they have earned, they are still pushing each other every step of the way. It is really hateful! We must drive them out of this Ming Dynasty when we have a chance in the future Along the coast, let's see how much they can jump around then."

"The Dutch red hairs are indeed arrogant, but in fact, we don't need to do anything at all if we want to expel them from here. We can just let the people from Fujian Zheng Chenggong do the job." After sneaking a glance at his immediate boss, Han Jin cautiously said Jianyan said: "With the acquiescence of Zheng Chenggong in the past year, many people from Fujian have crossed the sea and come to Taiwan Island for reclamation, mostly in the central and northern regions. There has not been much development there, and the environment is harsh. Many people died. Listen. It is said that the representatives of the Zheng family here have set their sights on the wealthy Zeelandia Castle, intending to capture those natives who obey the orders of the Dutch to plant sugar cane, rice and other crops. However, the Zheng family is still hesitant at present, worried that once Turning against the Dutch, the trade route to Japan will be harassed by Dutch ships, and the loss will be relatively large. I am afraid that Taiwan’s output will not be able to make up for it in the short term, so we have never agreed. Therefore, as long as we hint to Zheng Chenggong, we can do it for Their Japanese route endorsement, and even selling them some artillery or old ships, may be able to persuade them to attack the Dutch red hair."

"Whimsical!" Shao Shuguang nodded Han Jin with his right index finger and said, "Selling artillery and ships to Zheng Damu, is this something you and I can decide? Even the captains of the three pioneering teams, I don’t even have the right to privately sell decommissioned warships, which would entail serious political responsibilities. My resentment towards the Dutch red hairs means that they are ugly and disrespectful, but leaving them aside at this stage is also It may not be a good thing. Except for the powerful businessmen of the United Provinces, who else can help us sell so much tea and raw silk to Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and the European continent? It is impossible on our own! So I asked Zheng Zheng Don’t bring it up again in the future, it won’t benefit us at all, on the contrary, it will lose some profits, what a fool!”

"Your Excellency the General Office is right. The Dutch East India Company is our largest agent at this stage, and there are many things to rely on. Before making sufficient preparations, you must not turn your face easily." Seeing no one speak for a while, sit down At the end, the Japanese mid-level cadre Yuma Yamashita said loudly: "If the company wants to rapidly expand its business and increase profits this year and next, the most realistic way is to follow His Excellency Liao Xiaoyao and work in the rich Amur River, The Udi River and the Zeya River Basin are developed. I have worked there for two or three years, and I know the richness of the local area, fur, gold, medicinal materials, livestock, and fish. Even the land is extremely fertile black soil. Vegetables, rye, oats, barley and other crops have a very high harvest. Except for the cold, everything in the local area is quite perfect, which is of great investment value. Please give me your advice!"

"It takes a lot of determination to invest in the Northeast." Shao Shuguang first took a sip of the fragrant Tacheng refined coffee, and then said: "It's not easy to say that there is a barren land. Cold, freezing, ignorant and ferocious natives, extremely bad traffic conditions, the initial investment may not be less. And Commander Liao was there to enclose the land, naturalize the natives, expel the Russians and the peeps of the Manchus, Taiwan Banks follow behind to invest and enjoy the blessings, and they have to say that this is another expense..."

Having said that, Shao Shuguang paused for a moment, and everyone focused their attention on him, listening attentively to what he would say next, because it was likely to be related to the development strategy of Bank of Taiwan in the next few years, which was extremely important.

"However, what Yuma Yamashita said is also reasonable. When Ningbo Mansion will not be able to recover for a while, the Outer Northeast can indeed be our investment focus for the next two or three years." After Shao Shuguang sold enough, he finally understood He cleared his throat and said, "Actually, Commander Liao Xiaoyao entrusted someone to deliver a letter to me a while ago, inviting our bank to invest in Humabao. I actually know a little about that place. There are probably hundreds of The settlers are very desolate, their food is not self-sufficient, and there are even aborigines harassing them around. The investment environment is very bad. What Commander Liao means is that the Bank of Taiwan should provide money, supplies, and hire people Go to Humabao to develop gold mines. After the mined gold is distributed to them in proportion to half, the rest will belong to us. Of course, we must also pay the taxes that should be paid. At the same time, we have to pay extra Qian Nong a group of immigrants to settle down and farm the land. After all, mining people also need to eat, so they can’t all be transported from other places. To be honest, this project is still a success, but the initial investment is a little bigger..."

"However, everyone has also seen that we will not make much headway in raw silk and tea in the next few years, so I have decided to invest in the Huma gold mine in order to build it into the company's next stable source of profit." Shao Shuguang Said: "It just so happens that the bank has made great progress in the deposit business recently, and some landlords and old fortunes in Ningbo are finally willing to take out some money and deposit it in the bank's account for interest (on the whole, there are still a small number of people, mainly because these businessmen After earning money from raw silk and tea, there are no other investment channels), so in terms of funds, it is still relatively abundant. It should not be a big problem to support the mining of the Huma Gold Mine. Everyone, now is the time for change The time has come, the business in Ningbo has collapsed, and the business in the Northeast has to be established for me. Those who should buy ships should buy ships, those who should hire people should hire people, those who should form security teams should form security teams, and those who should organize expeditions should organize expeditions Team, in short, the tough battle of the Huma Gold Mine must be fought well for me, and no one is allowed to be cowardly, understand?"

"Understood, general manager!" Han Jin, Yamashita Yuma and others leaned forward slightly at the same time, and replied loudly in unison, making this conference room like a mafia incense hall.

(End of this chapter)