Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 2343 Trivia in South Africa ([-])

On May 1698, 5, Walvis Bay on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean.

In the headquarters of Ximen Fishery Company, the boss Ximen Xiao is having a headache with a pile of bills.Material purchase fee, ship maintenance fee, business tax, etc. are quite a lot, and recently a local tax city construction fee has been added, and the amount is still quite large, as high as 1500 yuan per year, which is collected according to the ship.There are 18 fishing boats under the name of Ximen Fishery Company, totaling more than 2 yuan a year, which is indeed a large expenditure.What's even more ridiculous is that the money was not used in the local area of ​​Walvis Bay, but in several newly established prison exile towns in the inland area, which really made people angry.

In the area of ​​the Namib Desert, there were originally only two port cities, Hailan and Walvis Bay. The former prospered because of diamond exports, while the latter thrived because of fishing. The population is not large. Hailan now has a population of more than 3000, and Walvis Bay has more than 4000 people. .The reason why the urban population is not increasing is mainly due to the lack of water, especially in Hailan Harbor, where the precipitation is very little, which is far from supporting agricultural planting activities.The local grains and fruits are mainly imported from the Hezhong area, and the meat is from the local area. Because of the climate, the coastal desert will have thick fog at night, and the humidity will become very high, which is very suitable for pasture growth. Therefore, animal husbandry is not bad. There are a lot of cattle and sheep.

Since the development of the East Coast Republic, various technologies have advanced by leaps and bounds, but it still cannot effectively solve the problem of drought and water shortage in these two areas.People on the east coast have studied seawater desalination technology, but the cost is too high to be economically feasible.In the end, we could only send staff from the Ministry of Geology to help find groundwater, and then dig wells in accurate places to solve the city's water supply problem.Therefore, in the Namib Desert, fresh water is valuable, and the price is not low. This difficult living condition may be the main reason why it cannot develop and grow.

However, the resources along the coast of Namib are really rich.Diamonds aside, they are far away from the lives of ordinary people after all, but the rich fishery and sea animal resources really make many people envious.The fishery catches the largest amount of cod. Half of the cod production in the East Coast Republic now comes from the coastal waters of the Namib Desert from Cape Town to the mouth of the Kunene River; sea animal resources are also very rich, as long as you have a license to hunt sea animals, then You can come here to make a fortune. The domestic demand for seal oil and leather is huge, and the price is very high. I don’t know how many rich legends have been created.

So, it's really a pity for the coast of the Namib Desert.The resources are very rich, but it is too dry, so we can only develop animal husbandry—if there is no dense fog at night, I am afraid that animal husbandry will be enough—planting industry has never been able to start, and if we can’t do it, what about the population? What might grow?The people who live in these two cities are basically serving related industries, or they are the left-behind personnel of the Navy coaling station, meteorological observers, etc., and there are very few idlers.

Of course, the East Coast government has not given up on this area.In fact, in recent decades, they have also built several settlements in the inland area by exiling prisoners, namely: Wubai Township (located near the later small town of Keetmanshoop), Zhongbao Township (Located near the small town of Marienthal in the later generations), Shiku Township (located near the city of Hobos in the later generations), Taishan Township (located near the later city of Windhoek), Beigu Township (located near the small town of Okahandja in the later generations) ), a total of five settlements have been established in the past 20 years, and currently each has 3000 to [-] people (including the family members of the prisoners who have settled down).Because the aborigines here are weak and low-civilized red people, it is not difficult for them to gain a foothold in the local area, and the security threat is very low, so their development is very good today.

These settlements basically have rivers or reservoirs (artificially built) nearby, so a batch of river oasis agriculture has been developed. The scale of grain and fruit planting is not small, enough to feed the local people and there is a surplus. This provides a solid foundation for the people on the east coast to continue to expand to the hinterland in the future.The people on the east coast will never dislike the lack of land, even in arid and semi-arid areas, they will not look down on it!Not to mention, this land is very "clean", and the number of red people is very rare. During the conquest of the people on the east coast, they died and fled, and there were basically no people.The value of such "clean" land is much stronger than that of the land dotted with black villages north of the Congo River, at least to some extent.

The above five settlements, together with the coastal Whale Bay and Hailan Harbor, will not be included in the jurisdiction of the Hezhong District Administrative Office, but will be under the jurisdiction of the newly dispatched Jingtai District Administrative Office.The urban construction fee that Ximen Xiao’s company needs to pay is also collected by the Jingtai Regional Administrative Office—this regional administrative office has regional legislative power that is rarely seen in the east coast—mainly for the expansion of the reservoir and the Taishan Township in the inland area. A group of residential buildings, these infrastructure projects are the key to maintaining the attractiveness of inland semi-arid areas, and they are all high-priority projects.Considering that the income of the township governments in these areas is very low, in addition to relying on the fixed allocation from the State Development Bureau, they can only be solved by collecting taxes in the two places where money flows, Walvis Bay and Hailan. The matter is as simple as that.

"This is also taxed, and that is also taxed. The Jingwan Township Government doesn't want to do it right?" After making himself a cup of coffee, Ximen Xiao sat in the comfortable wicker chair again, still complaining endlessly : "With such excessive taxation, aren't we afraid that we will all run away? What a bunch of bastards!"

However, Ximen Xiao also knew that basically he could only complain.Now Ximen Fishing Company’s income from sea animal hunting has exceeded fishing income. He also has a sea animal product processing factory in Walvis Bay, employing 50 workers, processing sea animal fur, refining oil products, and curing meat.In addition, he also jointly established a seafood processing factory with Chengxin Fishery Company, which specializes in processing cod and making it into cans of various flavors. The main customers are the navy and army stationed in South Africa, followed by Angola and New Cour Land colonists.Therefore, his belongings are basically here, and it is actually very difficult to move them away.As long as the money collected by the Jingtai District Administrative Office does not exceed his own bottom line, he basically can only hold his nose and continue working here.

In addition, with the raging wars and the spread of famine in Europe in recent years, quite a few people left the dangerous continent and went south to New Courland and Portuguese Angola to seek a living, probably adding up to more than 1 people every year.This is basically requested by the people on the east coast. The governments of Portugal and Courland are responsible for formulating plans, and businessmen pay for it. The main targets of immigration are the southern Netherlands and the Rhine River Basin, which have been hit hard. The second is the people who are still fleeing. French Huguenots.The new immigrants have greatly promoted the development of the local economy and enriched the local population. Naturally, this has also increased the local market's demand for goods on the east coast.In the past ten years, the canned food exported to Luanda and Port Jacob via Walvis Bay has shown a good trend of increasing year by year, which has made him a lot of money.Moreover, seeing the possibility of another war breaking out in Europe, there will inevitably be more war immigrants. This business has the potential to continue to grow, so he is even more reluctant to leave.

"I don't want to worry about these troubles anymore, damn it." After putting down the coffee cup in his hand, Ximen Xiao stood up and went to the window, looking at the Sun Chunyang South Store, which is the most famous department store chain on the east coast, which has already lit the gas lamp across the street. .

Only in such a deformed city where almost no daily necessities are produced can department stores obtain sufficient turnover.Ximen Xiao once held a lot of shares in Sun Chunyang Nanhuopu, but later sold them in order to develop new businesses on the Indian Ocean side.Now it seems that this transaction cannot be said to be a loss or a profit. The stock of Sun Chunyang Nanhuopu has been rising slowly in the past ten years, with an average annual increase of more than 10%, which is twice the return of most bonds, not to mention that there are still Dividends have been paid out for six years.But the canning factory opened by Ximenxiao in Yuejin Port is also doing well, making a lot of money. Generally speaking, it is correct to sell it.But I have to say that the development momentum of Sun Chunyang Nanhuo Store is really too strong. The chain stores not only spread all over the country, but also opened more than [-] branches overseas. In terms of turnover, it should be the largest in the world. There is no doubt that the chain department stores are far inferior to the state-run department stores on the east coast.

Like the Bank of Taiwan, Sun Chunyang Nanhuo Shop is the only two cases on the east coast that have counterattacked from overseas colonies and returned to the mainland, and developed into a large national enterprise. Ximenxiao still admires this very much.I believe that as the influence of the East Coast Republic continues to increase and its influence overseas is growing, if the management of Sun Chunyang South Store does not make any bad or stupid moves, there will still be a period of rapid development. Good news for all shareholders.

Ximen Fishery Company has to hurry up!Now the state-run South China Sea Fisheries Company has gone to the Cape Verde Islands to set up a seafood processing plant to use the local fishery resources and abundant salt to develop the canned food industry. Whether Ximen Fishery Company will follow up can be discussed. Ximenxiao himself still prefers Because of this - the national army goes out to expand its territory, and enterprises naturally have to keep up with making money. Otherwise, where will the taxes come to support the increasingly large army?

But the Indian Ocean can't fall behind either.With the stability of the situation in Xinhua Island, the rapid development of Yicheng area, and the in-depth implementation of the Misery March plan, the market demand for seafood has been on the rise.Considering that there is no large-scale fishing company with strong strength in the local area, it may be considered to take a loan from the bank, and then order five new fishing boats to develop new business there, as the so-called upstream and downstream.If it succeeds, Ximen Fishery Company will usher in a leap forward, surpassing old friend Zhu Chengdong's Chengxin Fishery Company is just around the corner.

Sometimes, people just have to gamble!

(End of this chapter)