Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 1658 Influence and Change ([-])

On December 1673, 12, Changshun Port in Beining area, the sky was high and the clouds were light.

With a piercing sound of friction, a sailing fishing boat with a tonnage of more than [-] tons slowly leaned against the pier bridge, which unsurprisingly caused a burst of whistles from the dock workers on the shore.Although there is a little friction between the hull and the trestle, this is still a perfect port call, no doubt!

The docker's whistle represents respect, admiration, for the superb skills of the sailors who steer the ship.After all, not everyone can dock accurately without the assistance of a steam propulsion system and a steam ship, because this requires extensive experience and superb skills, and of course a little bit of luck.Otherwise, you'd be better off just anchoring a little farther down the water and relying on boats to haul it back and forth, as most other sailing ships do.

"Hake, horse mackerel, as much as you want, all of which are good products off the coast of South Africa and the Namib Desert. First of all, I don't accept acceptances, checks, and all other commercial papers, only cash. We will have more later Repairing ships, purchasing supplies, and paying wages to crew members, I don’t want to run to find other people for discounts.” The tall and tall Ximen Xiao jumped off the deck lightly, shouting at the top of his voice.

Both hake and horse mackerel are caught around South Africa.Because of the agitation and exchange between the surface seawater and the bottom seawater brought by the Benguela cold current, a large amount of nutrients are brought up from the bottom of the sea, nurturing countless plankton, and the bait is particularly rich, so it has always been a fishing resort for people on the east coast.In recent years, more and more people have left the increasingly competitive offshore Patagonia to fish in Chile or South Africa, and Ximen Xiao obviously fished in South Africa and the Namib Desert. people.

There are many types of fish in this place, but the ones that can really form a fishing season and catch large-scale fishing are actually only two categories, namely hake and horse mackerel.According to the division method of people on the east coast, hake is divided into three types, of which cape hake is the most productive, followed by deep-sea hake, and Benguela hake is the last; horse mackerel is only divided into two types, the output The largest is the common horse mackerel, followed by the black horse mackerel.

Of course, there is also a seafood resource in the coast of the Namib Desert that is extremely rich and can always be sold at a high price in the country, that is, seal skin and seal oil. The prospects are very good, and it has always been a very hot industry.It's just that in recent years, people from the Oceanic Bureau have set up two sites in the Namib Desert to control the increasingly lawless seal hunting industry in the area. They set the number of hunts every year, issue licenses, and reduce the industry at once. The temperature has made the market no longer as hot as before, but it is obviously much more orderly.

The seafood caught off the coast of South Africa and the Namib Desert has never been marketed in the nearby river areas, but in the local area.The reason is actually easy to understand. There are only a few people in South Africa, and the economy is such a bird-like one. The consumption capacity is low, and naturally it cannot eat too much seafood. Therefore, the local fishing boats are basically full of catches across the Atlantic Ocean. Selling them in Hue, Bac Ninh, and Duck Lake is very profitable, just like those European fishermen who crossed the Atlantic Ocean to fish in the coastal waters of Canada and returned to their home countries to sell.

Ximenxiao's fishing boat also belongs to this category.He has been doing seafood business between local and South Africa for many years, and now he owns five fishing boats. He is already an important businessman on both sides of the strait, and he has begun to lock the sales market in Hue, which has been developing more and more in recent years. , Beining, because a large number of plantations, logging camps, farms and shops are concentrated here, and the population is relatively dense, which naturally gave birth to a huge consumer market.

Ximen Xiao has now converted several of his boats into shares of his good friend Zhu Chengdong's Chengxin Fishery Company, and holds a certain share in it, becoming a partner and manager of the company. Of course, this does not prevent him from keeping up with the company from time to time This is not only to track the situation of the fishing ground at any time, and to monitor whether the hired sailors are guarding against themselves, but also to return to the mainland from time to time to buy some supplies and understand some market conditions.

This time he followed the fishing boat with the largest tonnage under his banner—a 50-ton fishing boat can no longer be called a small boat. Don’t you see that Europeans are still using 100-[-]-ton boats to cross the Atlantic Ocean to Newfoundland? Fishing - I came to Changshun Port, which belongs to the Beining area, a prosperous seaport city, and also the only window to the outside world in this vast northern plateau area.

Cod and horse mackerel are the top two best-selling species among the three traditional edible fish on the east coast (the other is smooth fish classified as cephalopods), and the market in Brazil is still very broad.Therefore, as soon as Ximenxiao's cargo arrived at the port, most of it was immediately bought by large and small wholesalers who had been watching here for a long time, and the remaining few were bought by ordinary residents who were quicker. , because it is obviously cheaper than buying from vendors later.

Ximen Xiao knew many of the vendors, and greeted them one by one.He knew that many of them were fishmongers from inland areas, that is, they usually lived in counties such as Beining, Rongcheng, and Jingsai on the other side of the Brazilian shield, but they picked up goods at the wharf of Changshun Port, and then transported them via mules and horses. The fastest way to transport the pickled and sealed salted fish back to the highlands of Brazil for sale is to make a profit. It is hard money to say the least.

It is worth mentioning that as the total population of the East Coast Republic of China has gradually increased to more than 300 million people - as of the end of July 1673, the total population of the country has reached a historical high of 7, and the proportion of immigrants from the Ming Dynasty has already increased. It is infinitely close to 310.69%; the proportion of second-generation nationals continues to rise, reaching 40%; the number of white men has narrowed, and still accounts for 44.8%, while the number of white women has rebounded significantly, reaching 6.7%. Benefited from the outbreak of the Polish-Turkish War; finally, the number of non-citizens changed the trend of gradual decline in recent years and began to increase sharply, reaching a scale of 8.4. There are not a few regions, so in this inland area with fertile soil and suitable climate, various economies have gradually developed, and gradually developed into a slightly closed independent economic circle. The only window for communication with the outside world is Chang Shun Hong.

Another point worth mentioning is that some immigrants from the European continent have recently come to the mainland, mainly from the United Provinces, and the number is about 2000.These people were collected by the Amsterdam Mercantile Station with great effort. They are basically handicraftsmen, businessmen, scholars, etc., and there are some powerful businessmen among them, and they can be regarded as the glory of the French-Dutch War. Find some of the best of Holland.

Li Qing, special envoy to Europe, believes that these people may have skills or capital. After they come to the East Bank, instead of sharing the resources of the East Bank, they can create wealth on the contrary. This batch can be called an alternative "war immigrant".

Because Dutch immigrants are all Protestants, considering that they will continue to attract new immigrants, after some consultations, the Executive Committee instructed the Religious Affairs Bureau (formerly the Religious Affairs Management Office) to build a new church in the country. , and invited several people from the French Huguenots to preside over the church.Speaking of which, this is also the first time that the East Coast Republic of China has recognized Protestantism as a legal religion. Before, people on the East Coast only recognized Catholicism.

The Religious Affairs Bureau chose to avoid many sensitive areas and counties and townships with local resistance, and finally chose to build a new church in Beining County to hold religious ceremonies for Protestants from the Netherlands. It is still up to the believers to find a way to raise funds, and the state will no longer allocate funds.

Therefore, since the church was built in Beining County, the new Dutch immigrants basically lived in the regional capital city of Beining County, which undoubtedly greatly promoted the development of the local economy.In particular, the Beining area has been committed to building an independent economic circle because of its special geographical and transportation conditions. Therefore, it is naturally very eager for these handicraftsmen, businessmen, and scholars, so they quickly snatched them over with preferential terms.

Of course, the above total of one or two thousand Dutch immigrants and their families is almost the largest number that people from the east coast can collect.In the future, it cannot be said that no one will come to the east bank, but at least the number will be much smaller. Two or three hundred a year will be enough, and most of them may not be so many.The one who really gained the most in the Dutch-French War, don't believe it, is the Kingdom of England, which is in a state of hostility with the United Provinces.This isolated island country has absorbed a considerable number of Dutch immigrants through the constant and chaotic relationship between the two countries, and the number far exceeds that of the east coast, greatly enhancing the strength of England.

Especially in the winter and spring seasons when sea battles between Britain and the Netherlands basically ceased—the North Sea was very windy and rough, which was not conducive to ship operations. At the same time, the King of England also needed to take the opportunity to raise money because the parliament refused to allocate funds—the Dutch envoy went to London At the time of the event, many Dutch people who felt that the United Provinces were no longer safe because of the invasion of the French army and the flooding of the country began to immigrate to England on a small scale.To tell the truth, these people are all rich people or technical talents. Their departure is a huge loss to the United Provinces, and it is a great supplement to England, which is very beneficial to its future development.

What's even more frightening is that once the Dutch really win England to abandon their alliance with France and stand by them, then it is conceivable that more Dutch will immigrate to the UK by then, and the British will take advantage But it’s even bigger—according to historical records, during the Franco-Dutch War, more than 500 Dutch immigrants immigrated to England. England's development has injected a shot in the arm.Later, when King Louis XIV of France overthrew the "Edict of Nantes" and oppressed the Huguenots in the country, these people (often handicraftsmen and businessmen) immigrated to the UK with their families and funds. More than [-] people have once again injected new impetus into the development of England and put its economy on the fast track of development.

It can be seen that the immigration economy can really bring leaps and bounds to the development of the country.Otherwise, why do you think Amsterdam could replace Genoa* and Antwerp as the economic center of Europe? Isn’t it because a large number of Italian businessmen immigrated to the United Provinces?In the same way, London replaced Amsterdam as the economic center of Europe in history, and it was also based on the continuous blood-sucking of the United Provinces. Without a large number of Dutch capitalists, technical personnel, and scholars immigrating to England, it would be impossible for London to seize power so quickly. As for the late 18th century, it became the undisputed economic center of Europe.

The East Coast competes with England for relatively high-quality and wealthy Dutch immigrants. The efficiency is definitely not as good as others, and it is much worse!After all, they belong to the same Protestant country, they are close to each other, and their living habits are also somewhat similar. Compared with the East Coast, I don't know how great the advantage is.People on the east coast can only rely on some old relationships accumulated in the past, and the academic influence that is well-known throughout Europe, to eat away at a small number of immigrants, which is completely different from England's swallowing.

However, even if there are only so many people, the Beining area seems to be completely satisfied. It may be because their body is not big enough and their digestion ability is not strong enough!Ximen Xiao stood on the pier for more than an hour. Basically, all the salted fish in the boat had been sold, and the rest was the details of the delivery between the buyers and sellers. There was no need for him to look at it, so he decided to go to the pier Having a drink at the restaurant, I haven't tasted the famous local Xiangshan dry red for a long time, and I miss it very much.

And when he went back to the boat and changed his clothes, and then Shi Shiran went to the commercial area of ​​the pier, seven or eight Dutch-speaking businessmen walked up to him and passed him by.Ximen Xiao asked someone for a while, and he knew that this was a businessman from the Dutch West India Company, belonging to the famous Bicker family, and the leader of them was Cornelis Bicker, who had been to the east bank several times. you.

Ximen Xiao had heard of this person vaguely, because he had lived in the east bank for a long time, and he had a lot of business dealings, and he knew quite a few people.It is said that he once wanted to marry his youngest daughter to the son of a certain big man on the east coast, but he gave up because the young man was unwilling to convert to Christianity, but it is enough to explain the personal connections he has managed over the years.

However, what was he going to do in such a hurry?Could it be that something happened to the business?Ximen Xiao secretly guessed in his heart.

(End of this chapter)