Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 1699 Large infrastructure ([-])

The sound of "ding ding dong dong" continued to come, just like the chaotic drumbeats on the battlefield.The limping Gao Jinzhong came to this section of the construction site with [-] truckloads of flour, and was making deliveries with the captain of a construction team in the First Bureau of the Ministry of Communications.

This is a big business, even if the business has been extended to the entire former Nanyazihu ​​area - this area has been officially withdrawn at the end of 1674, the regional administrative office was recalled, and the office staff were diverted to the counties for resettlement. For the Rabbit Hole Flour Mill, which has as many as 24 counties directly under its jurisdiction and a population of more than 120 million, this is still a big deal, because this project may last for a long time.

What is the name of the project? In the middle of 1674, Tuancheng Township, namely Qiu Township, Gaiye Township and Zhuanyu Township, were under its jurisdiction. There were four settlements in total, with a population of almost 1. It was the 106th county in the country; Langya Township, Anyuan Township, Anping Township and Langya County of Chengyang Township (the 107th county); under the jurisdiction of Pingyi Township, Daibei Township, Dongwu Township, Macun Township (located near the later Vidella Township) and Pingyi County (the 108th county) with five settlements in Haoyi Township (located near the small town of Curidibanus in later generations); under the jurisdiction of Tumen Town (located near the small town of Lages in later generations), Longde Township, Qiao Tumen County (the 109th county) with five settlements including Gou Township (located near the later town of San Joaquim), Shuiquan Township (located near the later town of Bangredirou) and Nanhe Township (located near the later Nanhe Township) ); Lintan County (the 110th county) under the jurisdiction of Lintan Town, Tangquan Township, Anci Township, Yiquan Township and Shilong Township; Wude County under the jurisdiction of Wude Town, Liangxiang Township and Huairong Township ( 111st County); under the jurisdiction of Ningbian Township, Anbian Township, Lingqiu Township, Pingshu Township and Guangchang Township five settlements Ningbian County (112th County); under the jurisdiction of Changhua Township, Dingchuan Township, Changhua County (113rd County) including Zhouluo Township, Longchi Township and Chunliang Township.

Eight counties were established in one go, involving two regions (the four counties of Lintan, Wude, Ningbian, and Changhua are under the management of the newly established Ningchang District Administrative Office), which is considered a rare masterpiece in recent years.Although this is related to the fact that the above-mentioned settlements have been established for a long time and the population is increasing, the determination of the Executive Committee to invest huge sums of money in local construction is also quite obvious. This can be seen from the large number of government projects received by the above-mentioned two regional administrative offices and eight counties. It turns out that the Northern Extension of the Northern Railway is one of them.

Speaking of the Northern Railway, it was built during the East-Portuguese War. At that time, it was built for the transfer of materials and personnel in the Dingjun Mountains. The starting point was located in Ping'an County, the rich northern industrial center, and the end point was located in today's Dingjun County and Shenglong County. , played no small role during the war.

After the signing of the "Palermo Peace Treaty" aimed at ending the hostility between the two countries, the railway received less and less investment, so that it finally approached nothing.However, the Ministry of War and the local government were not reconciled. With the help of the Central Railway Company, they struggled to extend the railway northward to Xingguo Town, and there was nothing they could do after that.

In this way, due to the ebb of railway investment, the northern railway has been standing still, slowly transshipping materials from Baoding area and the south of Dingjun mountain range, and almost losing a lot every year-in fact, the domestic railways on the east coast Not many are profitable. Except for the two golden lines of the Southern Cone Railway and the Qingmei Railway, the Northwest Railway was only able to get rid of the quagmire of losses a few years ago. With some profits, it can be regarded as embarking on a benign track of blood circulation. .But apart from them, Southwest Railway, Northern Railway, and Yinan Railway are all loss-making, and the annual freight income is simply not enough to support the maintenance of locomotives and lines, and the salaries of personnel.If it weren't for a little subsidy from the cable telegraph system, these three railways would probably have filed for bankruptcy, because it is really meaningless to make ends meet all the year round.

That is to say, over the years, the east coast government has drastically reduced its investment in railways. Apart from the shortage of funds and the rapid upgrading of technology, the most important factor is that it has lost money on investment!But today, when demand in foreign markets has plummeted due to political factors, the East Coast government has to cheer up and deal with the disturbing economic difficulties that may come.

Needless to say, the leadership of this East Coast government is very mediocre in governance, and it can even be said that they are not very qualified.But at least they come from later generations, and they know what methods to use in the face of sluggish exports and overproduction. After many meetings and discussions, these people plan to adopt an expansionary fiscal policy and start large-scale infrastructure construction one after another in the country. projects to drive economic development.

These projects have various names, including the expansion of the Hailing Port military base reported by the Ministry of the Navy and the unified repair and reconstruction of coastal forts, as well as the second-phase investment in the inter-river flood control embankment and water conservancy irrigation system reported by the Ministry of Agriculture ( It is not as good as the original 50-year investment plan conflict), and of course there are a lot of projects reported by the Ministry of Communications, a major infrastructure player.

If these projects are left in the past, and some are arguing with the above, the possibility of approval is not very high.However, in this special situation, the Executive Committee and the Government Affairs Council seem to be very "bold" and basically approve all of them, as long as your plan is not too bad or has obvious loopholes.

It is against this background that the Northern Railway Project came into being.The Ministry of Finance publicly issued 70-year Northern Railway Construction Bonds in the West Lake bond market, raising funds of [-] yuan, and then used part of the treasury’s gold reserves and part of the funds from the transportation lottery to invest in the construction of the Northern Railway.And this kind of investment behavior has naturally been welcomed by the original shareholders of the Northern Railway, the Ministry of the Army, the Central Railway Company, the Baoding District Administrative Office, Dingjun County, and Shenglong County, because the extension of this railway is very long, and it is also very beneficial to them. It's good, and someone will help share the risk of loss, so why not do it?

In this way, the extension of the Northern Railway was officially started in the first half of this year. The northern part is planned to extend to the bank of the Wujiang River, and the southern part is planned to run through the six counties in the South and North Yazihu ​​areas. , the required funds are also quite a few, it is reported that it is still in the process of raising money, but the preliminary work can already be done.

In order to build these railways (including temporary roads built for the transportation of building materials, rails, food and other materials), in addition to the necessary funds, the east bank government also found a way to mobilize a large number of labor to participate in the construction.These laborers include residents of the railway route and some nearby counties and townships, but a large number of non-national laborers are brought in. Thanks to the Polish-Turkish War, people on the east coast have paid a relatively low price in the past two years. A large number of Polish men, women and children were bought.These Poles, mainly from the Podolia region in the southeast, were basically family-based. Driven by a large number of militiamen on the east coast, they overcame all kinds of hardships and started leveling the railway foundation with their tools. .

The unfamiliar environment, heavy labor, and rough management all made Polish laborers feel very depressed. People who were injured or died due to work could hear many stories almost every day. Some captured escaped laborers died, and the atmosphere on the entire railway construction site was very solemn, like a silent volcano that did not erupt.In order to reduce the dissatisfaction in the hearts of Polish laborers and improve their labor efficiency, the higher-ups also tried every means to improve their treatment, that is, purchased a lot of corned beef, salted fish, flour and beer and distributed them to them. While people were greatly surprised, their attitude was indeed a little more positive.

The Rabbit Hole Flour Mill run by Gao Jinzhong, Agnelli and others is now a well-known national enterprise. In Zhenhai, Ping’an, Changhua, Dongfang, Tieling, Daxing and other counties, we cooperated with some powerful local investors to open There are many machine mills in order to produce flour nearby and seize the market.

The flour they sent to Xingguo County this time was produced in the joint venture branch factory in the outskirts of Ping'an County, and then transported to Xingguo County Station by the La Plata Star train running on the Northern Railway, and finally hired The cart was sent to the ground and handed over to the project management here.

The captain of a certain construction team who is now handing over to him is also Gao Jinzhong's comrade-in-arms. He once served in a company, but later Gao retired due to injury, and this gentleman continued to hang out for a few more days. In [-], he was assigned to the First Bureau of Communications Construction as the captain of the construction team.

Therefore, with this "incense and affection", the business will naturally be much easier.No, after delivering the batch of flour, Gao Jinzhong and the captain surnamed Liu hid aside to smoke and chat for a while.

"After I left the army, I went to work in the construction team under the Ministry of Communications." Captain Liu took a puff of imported New Courland tobacco and said with a satisfied face: "At that time, there were still many Indians and black laborers in the team. Well, but now there are really not a few left, counting a hundred or ten people, less than one-fifth of the original. The Indians are impatient with heavy work, and they are basically exhausted, especially those Tupi people from Brazil; black people The adaptability is very strong, and the work is not bad, but limited by the policy, these people can't work for long, ranging from five years to seven years, and they must be sent to the Free State of North America, which is annoying gone."

"Now these Polish people who are divided are also losers. Like those blacks, they can be free after five years of service. The difference is that blacks can only go to the free state, and the Poles can apply for citizenship on the east coast after they become regulars. The premise is that they can speak some simple daily Chinese.” Captain Liu said: “That is to say, if there are no accidents, these people in my team may become regular citizens in the future, which means that construction There's still a lot of turnover on the team, which is really bad."

"Poles, I heard that they are all obtained at low prices. You can have as many as you want. Tiger and wolf countries such as the Crimean Khanate and the Ottoman Empire will not let go of any opportunity to loot their population, so these people It is really inexhaustible and inexhaustible. Since it is a pity that they will leave in the future, then it is enough to arrange work for them now, this kind of serf in the old continent like livestock is not worthy of pity." Gao Jinzhong said nonchalantly .He who reads newspapers all the year round is naturally very clear about the Polish-Turkish war that is taking place now, and he can also guess that the Poles he bought didn't cost much, after all, the quantity is large and the price is cheap.

However, the executive committee's generosity still shocked him a little.I heard that not only the northern railway line is being carried out, but also various projects are being launched in many places, and they are basically infrastructure projects. The sources of funds are the central, regional and county governments, of which the central government accounts for the majority. It can be seen from batches of construction bonds in the market.

In other words, this time the central government borrowed heavily to complete the construction of these railways, highways, docks, bases, and water conservancy facilities. The amount is unimaginably large, which shows the courage of the government.Gao Jinzhong has been a businessman for many years. He has keenly observed that since the government's infrastructure projects have been implemented one after another, the economy of coastal industrial counties, which were originally difficult due to the suspension of trade with the Netherlands, has reappeared. A gratifying turning point—the demand for a large number of labor tools, daily necessities, food, and medicines has been generated, and the workshops that had been shut down or half shut down suddenly became busy again, and began to produce various commodities and put them into the market to earn money. profit.

However, Gao Jinzhong also has some hidden worries about this. He feels that this kind of behavior of borrowing money for construction seems inappropriate. First, it may push up the price level that has been stable for many years-this has already shown some signs. Some construction-related The price of commodities has risen slightly, and it has begun to spread to other areas. Second, it may also lead to many half-baked projects due to insufficient investment, wasting the previous investment in vain.

And, is this economic model really sustainable?Gao Jinzhong shook his head. The stock of capital in the domestic market is limited. Over the years, many people have invested money in overseas colonies, the Free State, New Courland and the Chilean Valley on the Pacific side. Industrial products returned a considerable part of the funds, but it is also true that a large amount of money has flowed out, so how much money the government can borrow is also a question.

In addition, Gao Jinzhong is a little worried, is it really worth it to carry a heavy debt burden for these projects?How will these debts be repaid in the future?Maybe the current government doesn’t need to worry (most bonds are 15-year, 20-year, [-]-year), but is it really good to dig a hole for the next, next and next government?

Of course, the above high-level issues are left to high-level people to solve. Gao Jinzhong is just a partner in a food company, and he is not qualified to worry about these national affairs.The most realistic thing for him is to take advantage of the current infrastructure frenzy to manage his own business well, and see if he can take advantage of this east wind to take it to a higher level.

(End of this chapter)