Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 1604 Pampa ([-])

The urban area of ​​Niuzhuang Port has recently expanded again.

The ever-increasing population (currently more than 3200 people), the mushrooming workshops, and the new houses built by the cattle catchers after earning money, all these make the originally narrow old town of Niuzhuang Port unbearable. Overwhelmed, we had to expand outwards to find new space.

The Rabbit Hole Flour Mill jointly operated by Agnelli and others is located next to the old pier in the city this time. They have acquired a new piece of land and plan to turn it into their own exclusive pier. In the future, the wheat and flour mills produced by their own plantations The barreled flour produced will be shipped out to the sea from here, and exported to the mainland and even overseas, which is indeed quite impressive.

This kind of large-scale investment naturally took up a considerable amount of funds from the Rabbit Hole Flour Mill. It also showed the firm determination of the leadership of the mill to develop grain planting and deep processing industries in the Pampa area, although it is still unclear where they plan to get it. come enough labor.

And when it comes to the problem of labor force, I have to ask, is the east coast still facing an extremely serious labor shortage problem even with the population increasing year by year?How does the huge industrial and commercial scale of the United Provinces survive with its population of more than 220 million?

It is true that the east coast is extremely short of people, but generally speaking, it should not be so short that it is now so "crazy".The reason for this is, to put it bluntly, because of the East Coast Policy, that is, the members of the Executive Committee artificially created a large number of peasants with land, houses, and cattle and sheep.These people don’t have to worry about food and drink, and can live well by selling surplus agricultural products. They can also go to construction sites everywhere during the slack season (even without going too far) to do odd jobs to earn some cash to spend. Life should not be too happy.

Although the income of farmers has gradually declined and the income of workers has gradually increased in recent years, at least for now, not many farmers are willing to abandon their fields to work in factories, and even their children are somewhat influenced by their parents. Influenced by the influence, he is more willing to go to the frontier to receive a share of land to open up wasteland, rather than to be a worker.

Under such circumstances, it is conceivable how depressed business owners and workshop owners will be. Except for some second-generation citizens who are greedy for the prosperous life of the city and are unwilling to go to the frontier to open up wasteland, it is difficult for them to grab enough labor resources.In order to compete for the existing labor force, they dare not desperately lower wages, which leads to an increase in labor costs.I believe that if the people on the east coast still have an advantage in production efficiency, they would have been unable to compete with relatively cheap foreign goods, just like the Spanish handicraftsmen who have been in a state of inflation all year round have gone bankrupt.

Therefore, business owners like Agnelli do not know how much they are envious of the intensified land enclosure movement in the UK today. The nobles and big landowners have enclosed large tracts of arable land as pastures due to the rise in wool prices, and driven out redundant farmers. One's own territory (running a ranch obviously requires far fewer hands than running a farm) and let it wander.And the booming manual/semi-mechanical factories all over the UK took the opportunity to accept these homeless, hungry and cold, and turned them into hired workers in their own factories who lived on wages.

Undoubtedly, the wages of employment can only barely support his family (even his spouse has to work), which is far less leisurely and comfortable than in the days of being a tenant farmer, but what can be done?The nobles and landowners don’t want them anymore, because it’s not very profitable to rent the land to them to grow food. It’s better to run a ranch and shear sheep. Therefore, they are destined to be unable to return to the countryside. They can only live in cities or places with workshops. Wandering between towns and villages, without belonging, impoverished (the unique vagabond culture in later generations of Britain also began at this time), under the pressure of reality, in the end, they could only work for the emerging bourgeoisie in order to feed themselves.

But this "perfect" model doesn't work on the East Coast.This weird system established by the time-traversing people, and the complex of opening up territories in the minds of many time-traveling people made them "drive" a large number of immigrants and second-generation domestic-born to the undeveloped land in China, and then Become a farmer who relies on planting for a living, which naturally squeezes the demand for labor in industry and commerce, which also leads to the repeated expansion of the group of non-national laborers on the east coast. These non-citizens from Europe, Africa and America can be seen everywhere in brick kilns, lime factories, cement factories, plantations, mines and other places, filling the huge demand gap for labor in the domestic non-agricultural industries on the east coast.

But all this is not enough!Because now the domestic industry on the East Coast is also developing in depth, and the domestic market is also gradually growing—the policy of the Executive Committee has created a huge middle-class group of farmers in the country, and they have a lot of consumption power, which has also promoted from the side. Industrial developments – such as Agnelli’s Rabbit Hole Flour Mill – have set their sights on the Pampa region.However, new production lines and new factories obviously need workers, otherwise it’s just a joke. Therefore, although the export-oriented industries on the east coast have gradually become saturated and have grown slowly in recent years, the domestic demand market has been growing steadily, so the demand for labor It will never decrease, and Agnelli is also worried about where to find workers, saying that he can only find a way to "buy" non-national laborers.

Otherwise, they will soon be left behind in the fierce market competition. Don’t you see Linhu Flour Factory has sprung up in Hejian, Dafeng Food Factory has firmly occupied the densely populated Beiyazihu ​​area, and Nantie Flour Factory has also recently started Moving to the Central Valley of Chile, if the Rabbit Hole Factory does not stand up, it will be doomed in the future, so Agnelli came to Niuzhuang Port this time.

And while Agnelli and the others were busy in Niuzhuang area, Lao Siji and Inigo, who had just assembled their manpower, also led the team ashore at Niuzhuang Port.They were a little surprised by the bustling Niuzhuang Port. The wharf was full of businessmen and brokers, who cared about the quality of each cow, the price of each bundle of leather, and the quality of each barrel of tallow. The ground is red and red; customs officials and tax collectors are walking around, constantly putting bags of silver coins into the cash box, and in a short while they have completed today's tax quota; Cattle catchers, their faces are flushed and full of ambition, they wear fine silk and satin on their bodies, with huge South African diamonds on their fingers (this is what they learned from the traversers), they have the breath of nouveau riche, and they are no longer There is not a trace of the shabby past to be found.

Seeing such a situation, Lao Siji, Inigo and others were a little excited, and then they were automatically substituted into those lucky people who became rich overnight because of the discovery of cattle, and felt that the mountains of gold and silver in the distance seemed to be beckoning to themselves.I didn't realize at all that behind these lucky people were more impoverished guys who had never been able to find the herds, and even poor people who died because of fighting for the herds. Anyway, people like to subconsciously think about the good Well.

Soon, with the help of a wretched intermediary, they rented some adobe houses in a corner of the city as temporary residences.The living conditions are naturally extremely poor, with dim lighting, bad smell, and many parasites and rats, but the advantage is that the rent is cheap. For those who are eager to make a fortune, it is indeed the best early-stage residence .

In the evening, everyone ate some cheap roast beef casually, drank some bad wine, and then fell asleep on the broken wooden planks covered with thatch.A dozen people slept soundly, except for the leader, Lao Siji, because not long ago he lived in a mansion built with a huge sum of tens of thousands of yuan, but now he lives in a damp, cold and strange environment In reality, this gap is indeed a bit big, but fortunately, the dream of getting rich still dominates him, so he tried his best to endure it.

In the morning, Lao Siji woke up from the cold.It will already be winter, because of the lack of heating fuel, it is very cold in the room, under the quilt, and outside.Lao Siji went out, and there was still light sleet outside, and the strong wind bent a few young trees that no one knew who had transplanted; Shots lashed people's faces, knocked on eaves and doors.

In the harbor not far ahead, the masts of Ru Lin's ships were looming in the rain and fog. In this bad weather, generally no one would venture out.Lao Siji strolled up the street in front of the residence, but saw that the bluestone slabs had been washed extremely clean by the rain, the weeds on both sides were covered with a layer of water droplets, and the dry branches were continuously dripping water.

"It's really a place where people love and hate..." Lao Siji said this sentence spontaneously, and then shook his head with a self-conscious smile. Niuzhuang Port is not here for enjoyment! In fact, it’s okay to be in the city, at least there is a place to shelter from the wind and rain, and at least there is hot food to eat, but once you go to the wild to chase the herds, you can eat ice cream. Snow is a common occurrence, and it is indeed not something ordinary people can persevere. However, for the sake of one's own career, what's the point of suffering?"

The 17 people in Rausji's group ate breakfast in a dirty and air-leaky small restaurant, beef soup and roast beef. The hired workers from Russia ate very happily, but the faces of other diners in the store were not. It's a constipated look, obviously don't think it's such a wonderful thing to eat beef every day, but they obviously don't have a lot of money, so they can only come here to make do with it.

"Recently, the local officials and gentlemen don't know what kind of nerves they have, and they actually sent some exiled prisoners here." A diner said to the man sitting opposite him while drinking beef soup with spices: "Probably There are about a hundred of them. I heard that they came here to farm, because the grain output here is extremely low, and almost no one is good at farming. The spring and winter seeds can be mixed in one bag. What a harvest! Is it okay? I hope these exiles who know how to farm can help. The price of flour here is too expensive. I don’t remember how long I haven’t eaten noodles. Maybe a week, maybe two weeks, it’s a long time. "

"I have seen those poor people, and I am sure that the local officials will exile sinners here day after day to enrich the population here." The man who was also eating a bowl of beef soup continued: "To put it bluntly, the master is still looking at the endless Pampa Plain. To be honest, I rarely see such a large and flat land, especially the soil here seems to be able to squeeze out oil. It’s normal for the masters to distribute prisoners who can farm here, and sooner or later this place will be eaten up and wiped out by our Great East Bank just like the Hejian area.”

"In addition, why do I say that the masters attach great importance to Pampa? It is actually very simple, that is, the masters have formulated a preferential policy for working and serving sentences here to encourage the enthusiasm of the prisoners and better build the cattle farm." Nian diner gulped down all the soup in the bowl, leaving only some water-insoluble seasonings at the bottom of the bowl. He licked and licked the bottom of the bowl, and finally said with satisfaction: "I and those exiled prisoners I have chatted with some of them, and I heard that the labor camp prisoners sent here, like the prisoners serving sentences in local mines and forest farms, are classified as a type of hard labor prisoner, that is, ten months of labor reform here can be counted as one year. It is obviously very cost-effective to settle down on the spot after serving the sentence."

In fact, ten months of labor reform can be worth one year, and one year in prison can be worth one and a half years. It is not very common in China. It is usually concentrated in Changshan Iron Mine, Pingan Coal Mine and other places.But there is no doubt that although there are various preferential terms for serving sentences in reform-through-labour, due to heavy work tasks, they generally age faster than normal prisoners. Whether there is collapse, whether there is labor or the ability to open up wasteland is indeed a very serious problem.

Therefore, being able to seize the opportunity to be exiled to open up wasteland on the Pampa Plain is simply a bargain for many criminals.Gein has a preferential sentence here, but the environment and conditions are much better than mines and mines, and the workload seems to be far less heavy than that there, which is definitely a profit.

Lao Siji, Inigo and the others naturally also heard the conversation between these two diners, and also understood the meaning of it. Is it true that co-authoring the local area also has the meaning of developing here?It's just that it seems a little inconvenient to come forward at the moment, so it's really interesting to use some exiled prisoners to come over and test the Spaniard's bottom line.And since the first batch of more than a hundred exiled prisoners came to grow food, there must be a second and third batch. The arrival of these people is also to some extent for cattle catchers like Lao Siji. For those who serve, it is out-and-out good news for them.

(End of this chapter)