Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 578 The New Guest of Blackwater City

With a pipe dangling from his mouth, Wei Boqiu wandered slowly in the urban area of ​​Heishui City.As the most prosperous city under the Heishui Pioneering Team of the East Coast Republic of China, the permanent residents of Heishui Port are now close to 4000, of which: Ming people account for 30%, which is the largest ethnic group; natives (including Hezhe) , Ainu, Oroqen, Kiryak, etc.) accounted for 25%; Koreans accounted for 20%; Semu people (including Poles, Tatars and a small number of East Coast Army retired due to injuries and illnesses) accounted for 16%; Blacks accounted for 6%, and the rest were Japanese.

These people are all residents who have settled in the city for at least one year and plan to continue to live in the city for a long time.Some of them are craftsmen, engaged in various occupations such as coopers, carpenters, rattan weavers, masons, blacksmiths, and leather makers. It can be said that they are the cornerstone of the city's operation.In addition, there are a large number of hunters, fishermen, and farmers among them. These provide food sources for the city. Among them, the hunters also join the army to fight, mostly by the natives of Sakhalin Island, who are also called Shandan military households by the locals.

In addition, there are two quarries, a coal mine, and three logging camps outside the city, where more than 4000 Qing soldiers captured in previous battles will be undergoing labor reform.In particular, that coal mine produces more than 40 tons of clean coal in summer and autumn, and the average amount of coal used by the dozen or so steam-powered ships of the Navy is even less than 20 tons per day, so the coal mine still has a large amount of surplus coal The output is used by industry - mainly lime kilns, cement kilns, brick and tile wheel kilns, wood retort kilns.In addition, the washed coal ash and coal gangue are also made into civil fuel honeycomb, which together with the tin stove has become one of the best-selling goods in the local area.Even the Matsumae clan of Japan, which is far across the strait, has repeatedly sent people to purchase such materials.

"Last year, we exported 10 pieces of furs of various colors to the mainland, worth more than 15 yuan; exported medicinal materials, dried salted fish (salmon, saury), silk tea and porcelain, and received less than 25 yuan after settlement. In addition, some weapons and equipment, cotton cloth, shredded tobacco, cane sugar spirits, dyed leather goods, hardware products, pig iron and steel bars and other commodities shipped from the local area were re-exported, and the profit was about 50 yuan. 'Legal income'." A young man in a black uniform who followed Wei Boqiu looked at the city residents passing by on both sides of the road from time to time, and reported softly: "This income is really not low, 120 a year. , the main problem is that the expenditure here is too large. Especially the military expenditure. According to the data I have reviewed in the past few years, the average annual military expenditure is 150%-[-]% of the normal annual income. Such a huge military expenditure is actually It has lasted for four full years, and there is still a certain amount of financial surplus to feed back to the country, this... can only be said that Marshal Mo has a good way of making money."

"It's all unstable income, and this economic system is still too fragile." Wei Boqiu heard the problem immediately, "Except for fur seals (northern Sakhalin) and bearskin (Sakhalin, Iturup Island) are in the In addition to ours, the rest of the mink fur, fox fur, and the largest amount of wild sheep, moose, and reindeer skins are in the hands of those savage Jurchens, and the output should be very unstable. This part of the income may disappear someday. Yes. Except for bear bile and deer antler, which can be produced locally, the rest of the medicinal materials have to be purchased from North Korea. Not to mention the high price, the quality and quantity are not stable; the silk, porcelain and tea are all robbed, and the source is even more unstable. Dried salmon, saury, and salted fish are only used to meet the needs of a small number of domestic consumers who are curious, and the market is also very limited. After careful calculation, the economy in the Heishui area is simply a mess. There is a war. Well, to paraphrase a word, if there is an accident, the local national economy will be on the verge of collapse."

"We are needed at this time." The young man said confidently, "This time, we, the Mei Agency, have brought so many people here, so we can show our strengths. Heishui Port has coal, wood, There are fish, and the land on both sides of the Heishui River is considered fertile, and if it is cleaned up properly, it will definitely become the most prosperous city in the area."

At present, people on the east coast of Sakhalin Island have two strongholds. One is Heishui Port. The core urban area enclosed by the city wall (which has just begun to be built) covers an area of ​​0.5 square kilometers. There are piers, forts and some residential area.The buildings inside and outside the urban area are all big pointed brick houses with fireplaces—according to Wei Boqiu, it smells like a strong wool. The residents even wiped the kangs in the houses, and then bought some low-heat products such as coal gangue. It is worth heating with fuel, and of course some people will buy slightly more expensive charcoal as fuel.After four years of construction, this city has become relatively "livable" compared with the rest of the island, the Ezo land across the strait, and the Beiman area on the left, and the living conditions of the residents are far better than those places.And this is also the reason why Heishui Port can continue to attract people to settle here-who doesn't want to live a good life!

Another stronghold on the island is Dabo Port.To be honest, people on the east bank of this stronghold have never worked hard to manage it well. Currently, there are only a few masonry buildings, which are the township government, police station, grain depot, material depot, health center and other units.Other than that, there are all wooden houses, including the Dabo Exchange that trades with the Japanese and Shandan people, which are all houses with a mixed structure of brick and wood, which are very simple.In addition, along the edge of the forest and the river, there are a large number of neatly built single-storey log cabins. The ownership of these log cabins is in the hands of the township government, and they are usually used by immigrants who stay here to wait for boats.

These immigrants can reach more than 2 people at most. After April every year, they farm and graze here, and also hunt and fish in order to make a living.When the northeast wind blows in mid-to-late October, they will be chased like ducks to catch up with the Navy's transport ship, and then sail across the ocean to Australia.The floating population far exceeds the settled population, which is the uniqueness of Dabo Port.

There are only more than [-] local residents who are basically Ming people and Shandan people, and there are also a few Japanese.They are engaged in handicraft labor in the port, mainly weaving fishing nets, processing catches, and tanning leather in exchange for the rations they need to survive.Occasionally, a few quick-witted guys who escaped from Daming opened some small hotels and restaurants in the port area, which are considered to be one of the few commercial activities in the local area.They traveled over mountains and mountains on weekdays, bought some commodities from Shandan people at a low price, and then transported them to the market to sell to the Japanese. At the same time, they also rented out their hotels to Japanese businessmen, so they quickly saved a small amount of money.

In this port city full of primitive wildness, the most prosperous is naturally the Dabo Exchange, which bears the heavy responsibility for the Shandan trade (trade behavior permitted by the Japanese shogunate). The Japanese transport sulfur and grain here, and then buy A large number of metal products such as silk, tea, porcelain, east coast textiles, armor sabers and even pig iron and steel were returned.Although the amount is not very large, it has been growing rapidly over the years.The newcomer Wei Boqiu has the important task of revitalizing the local economy, so he will definitely make more fuss about this exchange.

Apart from the Dabo Exchange, the most famous thing in Dabo Port is the Women's Volunteer Team. Today, this kind of government-run brothel only exists in Yantai and Dabo.Except for a few women who came from North Korea in the early days, most of the women in it later came from captured Qing army officials, generals' wives and daughters, and a few were gentry wives and daughters who resisted the army on the east bank.Most of the patrons of such establishments come from soldiers of the Squad, South Africa's New Banners Army, as one of the few ways to recoup the cash they have on hand.In addition, some Shandan people, Japanese, and Ainu people who come to Dabo for business will also visit frequently.

"The finances in the Heishui area are extremely abnormal now." Wei Boqiu looked at the crowds hurrying on the street, and then said softly to his student Chen Shuo: "But the mainland will never allow such things as steel factories and textile factories to appear in the Heishui area. , machinery manufacturing plants, machinery processing plants and other enterprises, the only cement kiln, lime kiln, brick and tile wheel kiln and a small shipyard are the limit. If there are more, the Executive Committee will worry that this place will lose control and cause Intervene forcefully. Moreover, Marshal Mo will return to the local government next year, and at this time he will not risk making political mistakes to make wedding dresses for others. Therefore, it is not easy to develop the local economy—because the local They never thought about developing here, and they were even reluctant to see it grow and develop."

"However, the two trading ports opened by North Korea have not been fully utilized." Chen Shuo reminded, "Teacher, North Korea should have a population of about 600 million according to our estimation, and this market is still very broad."

"That's just 600 million serfs. Where did the market come from? Serfs have no consumption power." Wei Boqiu said disdainfully, "What can the North Koreans sell to us now? They procrastinate and push around to sell some grain every year, so they just sell it." Wild ginseng and a little Chinese herbal medicine are more refreshing. But when it comes to this, I remembered that the Dutch asked us to sell some population to them during routine negotiations last year. They wanted to develop the East Indies, but the population died The rate is too high, so there is an urgent need for a large number of people. It is a good business to traffic North Koreans to the East India, and we must find an opportunity to try it in the future.”

Upon hearing this, Chen Shuo immediately took out a pen and paper and wrote down Wei Boqiu's words.As the head of the Second Research Office (Economic Research Office) of the former Mei Agency, he will be Wei Boqiu's main assistant in managing the economic affairs of the Heishui area in the future.By the way, since Wei Boqiu was implicated in the burning of the barracks, he was demoted to serve as the deputy commander of the gendarmerie, and then he was kicked to the Far East, where he was in charge of supervising all affairs in the Far East.However, considering this gentleman's economic ability, he was also given the important task of revitalizing the local economy by the executive committee, and the first thing he has to do is to straighten out the bad debts that Marshal Mo Mingmo made.

And revitalizing the economy is nothing more than developing productivity and trade.The executive committee does not like the development of productivity in the Heishui area, so the only way to make money is to do more trade. At present, the only people who can do business with the people on the east coast are the Koreans and the Japanese.However, the scale of these two businesses is not large. The Koreans are unwilling and have little purchasing power; while the Japanese are limited to the shogunate's ban on the country, and the few transactions between the East Coast people and Matsumae are still approved by the shogunate. The name of the Shandan trade is going on, but in this way, the quantity of goods is greatly restricted, and the supply can only be increased by a small amount year by year, and the goods cannot be quickly entered into the Japanese market at once.

In addition to these two countries, the other trade partner is obviously the Dutch, and this is also an object that Wei Boqiu attaches great importance to. After all, the complementarity between the two parties is too strong.The local government has already paved the way for this side before, and the government packaged and sold some backward technologies that were on the verge of being eliminated (the sprouts of such technologies have also appeared in Europe), such as hydraulic planers, sawing machines, forging hammers, boring machines, etc. Dutch.According to the agreement, the Dutch will also pay for the technology purchase in October this year-[-] tons of rice.

And the Dutchman's movements are naturally not slow. On June 1647, 6, when Marshal Mo’s fleet was still sailing on the vast Yellow Sea, a huge Dutch fleet suddenly sailed outside Heishui Port. These were Dutch grain ships, loaded with 20 Tons of rice - this can be said to be the largest blood transfusion from the mainland to the Far East.

Although he didn't know why the Dutch changed the delivery location from Dabo Port to Heishui Port, Wei Boqiu was still very happy with their arrival. He still had many business cooperation projects to discuss with the Dutch.

(End of this chapter)