Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 597 Winter ([-])

The river construction site is in full swing.

Although the temperature was already close to five degrees, these Ming immigrants still only wore thin shirts and rain boots and stood by the muddy river, digging up the soil on both sides of the river with a shovel inch by inch, and then its shipped away.

The technicians sent by the Ministry of Communications kept flipping through the drawings, and then instructing the river workers where to dig, where not to dig, where to dig deeper, and where to dig shallower. They were also very busy.All in all, it's a lively scene here.

Zheng Bin watched from a distance by the river, shaking hands with the cadres of the Corps who were personally participating in the river digging project from time to time, and encouraged them to continue to work hard. The government will never treat them badly.And he also noticed that the number of river workers digging the river was far more than the 500 he had imagined, but more than 1000, maybe close to [-].

Where did this come from so many people?He was a little puzzled, but after some more careful observation, he came to the conclusion that these people were all Mamelucos from the mountains, and there were even a few Scots and Irish.His secretary also brought him the same conclusion. He just asked the local person in charge, and the person in charge told him that these were Brazilians who came to the east coast to do odd jobs while they had time.

People on the east coast charged them a high price of two cents a day, and they took care of food (bread, salted fish, cheese), shelter (reed huts), and drinking wine every five days, which made those who have nothing to do every winter How can the Mamelucos not be heartbroken?Nowadays, it is getting harder to catch slaves, and the Guarani people are getting stronger and stronger, and if they don't make it, they will be killed by the Japanese instead.That being the case, why not come to the people on the east coast to do odd jobs, and the salary is not low, and the part-time job during the slack is quite good.

It’s just that the way these people on the East Coast pay their wages is a little tricky. It’s not the rials, East Coast Dollars or other coins they are familiar with, but thin pieces of “paper”.People on the east coast call this a one-year bank acceptance bill. It is said that it was issued by the Northwest Reclamation Bank, which is well-known even in the Gerard Mountains. It can be used to directly buy goods from the people on the east coast. It can be exchanged for silver dollars.

Although the Mameluco people strongly protested, the attitude of the people on the east coast was very firm: if you like it, do it or not!I only pay the bank acceptance, if you are not satisfied, you can leave!

Some Mameluco left indignantly, but some chose to stay.After working for a full month, they tried to use this kind of "paper" to buy some cotton cloth in the state-owned store opened by the people on the east bank in Baoan Township, and they found that it could be used as silver dollars!And to be precise, it may be better than silver dollars, because many times the coins you use to buy things are strangely shaped, the color is often very suspicious, and the weight is quite different from the face value. At this time, the clerk will often reject or ask you Discount calculation.But there is no such problem when using bank acceptance bills, because this kind of "paper" will not depreciate due to wear and tear like silver coins, and there is no problem with the color, and it is quite convenient to use.

Now that bank acceptances have successfully established credibility, more and more Mamelucos have come to the East Coast to do odd jobs, and this month reached a peak: 1525 people were employed at the construction site of the Sinos River Mamelucos and 281 Britons played a huge role in the timely completion of the river widening and dredging project.And on a more positive note, the banknotes on the east coast have also successfully pried open a gap in the door of neighboring countries, making their audience wider.

"I really hope that the Portuguese will build more settlements and move more people over in the Gerard Mountains. Hehe, they actually colonized and expanded west of the Pope's meridian stipulated in the Treaty of Tordesillas. This is the Spanish. Oh, when will it be your Portuguese turn? When no one cares about this land, there is no problem, but if you are targeted, you will suffer." Zheng Bin rubbed his chin with his right hand, eyes Looking at the widening dry river, the thoughts in my mind have drifted to other places: "When we end the war with the Spaniards and redefine the border, if this piece of land that nominally belongs to the Spaniards is also included in the East What about the territory of Bianxin? Hehe, it must be very interesting then."

These Portuguese settlements were built one after another in the past ten years and developed rapidly relying on trade, and the development speed far exceeded other Portuguese towns in the interior.However, Portugal’s Brazilian colonial authorities had a negative attitude towards these settlements—especially civilian settlements—because the residents of these settlements provided convenience for indentured slaves who fled to the east coast, and they always Taxes were evaded where the officials did not notice, so the officials tried several times to outlaw these settlements and relocate their entire population to the slave town, Captain Ricardo's town.However, the local Brazilian local officials provided them with protection, which temporarily dispelled the idea of ​​the big shots in the General Sao Paulo area.

Of course, although these local residents provided convenience for the white indentured slaves who fled to the east bank, it did not mean that they themselves were willing to flee to the east bank.They are all devout believers of the Lord, and they are full of instinctive fear of going to a strange country of pagans. If they are not contracted slaves who are completely desperate for the rest of their lives, then who would abandon their homes and careers and join the devil so that their souls cannot be redeemed? Woolen cloth?

Although there are some Catholic churches on the east coast, most of them are so-called Taoist temples.I heard that their government assigned a highly respected "real person" to preach in Ping'an County a few months ago. As soon as this real person named Wang Bao arrived in Ping'an County, he broke ground and started construction on one of the most prosperous streets. A majestic religious building - a three-story Taoist temple.In addition, Wang Zhenren also sent some Taoists and Taoists to the countryside to preach, and at the same time looked for land to build Taoist temples.Surviving in such a country completely shrouded in the shadow of the devil, these people of God who have been bathed in the light of the Lord all their lives, their legs are already weak just thinking about it, let alone fleeing to live in that country, this is absolutely impossible of.

Just because they don't want to live on the east bank doesn't mean they don't want to do business with the east bank.They grow wheat and corn here, graze cattle and sheep, breed chickens and ducks, and at the same time make a large number of handicrafts and sell them to the people on the east bank, and then buy good iron farm tools, durable guns, high-quality and cheap cotton cloth, Standard hardware tools, salted fish (now extinct), and some mechanical parts - Brazilians are now also learning to use machinery.

The scale of this business is so great that so many people gather around the Gerard Mountains.You must know that there were only 18 Portuguese whites in Portuguese Brazil at this time. They were either plantation owners or ranchers, or colonial officials, soldiers and their families, or farm managers and factory technicians. What.These people are mainly scattered in the countryside, and the urban population is relatively small. There were only 2500 white residents in Rio de Janeiro in the [-]th century.

There are only [-] civilized people in the rest of Brazil, and here is a population comparable to one-twentieth of them. No matter how you look at it, it is an astonishing number.But what is even more surprising is the completely different social structure here from the hinterland of Brazil. The hinterland of Brazil is a backward social form full of slave manors. The feudal and capitalist civilizations of Western Europe have completely regressed here. Slavery prevailed—just as their neighbors, the Spaniards, did.

But the small towns in the Gerard Mountains are different. They are full of vigor and vitality, and they are full of the atmosphere that a town with a thriving handicraft industry that is common in Northwest Europe (Netherlands, England, France and northern Germany) in the Old World.In short, the Gerard Mountains and the hinterland of Brazil are completely two worlds. This is the favorite place of businessmen and factory owners, but not the favorite place of manor owners and slave owners.

In addition, the Portuguese government's restrictions on the development of colonial industries are not as strict as the Spanish government, so some Portuguese businessmen have set up workshops here, and continue to use their connections to recruit various craftsmen from the Old World, and then deceive them Come to the New World and produce all kinds of small commodities for them to sell to the east coast.At the same time, they also resell some industrial products purchased from the east coast to the rest of Brazil, making a lot of money.Under such circumstances, it is no wonder that the population density here is far higher than other places in Brazil. After all, the organized social structure of industrialization is always somewhat different from the serf society.

"After all, these towns have created a lot of value for our East Coast Republic. At least it is their credit that the food shortage in Ping'an County can be filled. This saves us from spending precious transportation capacity to transport food from other places to Ping'an County. In addition Some handmade products that are necessary for production and life but that we cannot or are inconvenient to manufacture are all provided by them. The one or two thousand craftsmen and their apprentices are really a coveted wealth. It would be great if we could find a way to take them back. Yes." Although Zheng Bin is from the agricultural port, he is a high-ranking official after all, so he has a good understanding of some situations in the country.

Not to mention anything else, the craftsmen in these Portuguese towns are enough to make people on the east coast greedy.If they are all swallowed up, it will inevitably solve the shortage of a large part of domestic commodities.However, doing so also has considerable negative effects, that is, it will cause bad relations with the Portuguese, and at the same time, it will completely destroy these handicraft towns that have been formed with great difficulty.After all, these towns are just ordinary towns in the hands of the people on the east coast, but in the hands of the Portuguese, they are industrial and commercial towns that constantly attract new immigrants (craftsmen).Therefore, how to operate at that time really needs a long-term plan.

(End of this chapter)