New Shun 1730

People like Velendri are the candidates for the Dragon and Tiger Generals that Dashun wants to focus on "taking care of".

He has a French military rank, and his father also received the Order of St. Louis. With this medal, he is not considered a serious noble, but a knight directly under the king. Not a French noble, but an honorary knight of the order directly under the king.

Historically, the British also knew the importance of these people to France's possible return to North America in the future, so they did something similar to what Dashun did in India: after the war, they brought 121 explorers from French North America, Diplomats, border troops, and Indian tribal liaisons were loaded onto the ship and sent to France. As a result, the ship "accidentally sank" and sent away all the people in France who knew the most about North America, including this Villendry.

For Dashun, the 100 people "sent away" by the British in history are Dashun's best potential allies in North America.

Because there is no need to worry about conflicts between them and Dashun. The interests of the two sides are completely different. This is a group of people who dig ginseng, rub fur, and collect pearls.

As long as they live and integrate France's power in North America, they can block the westward expansion of the Thirteen States externally, and internally they can hinder French immigration here for the purpose of colonization.

Of course, the explorers on Dashun's side did not know the above strategy at this time, but they were still very happy with the situation in front of them.

When the game reaches this level, some things can be easily thought of by smart people.

The Indians and the French, who relied on digging ginseng, hunting, and taking skins, had fighting ability, especially in the forest.

What is the main problem for France in maintaining their dominance in the north and forest areas?

food.

As long as there was enough food, France's advantage in forest areas would continue to expand.

But French farmers are not very interested in growing food here.

As for Dashun, of course, there is no economic benefit at all from growing grain.

Not to mention that the Pacific Ocean is too wide, with the transportation capacity at this time, transporting grain from the other side of the Pacific Ocean to Dashun would really cost us money. Even if you don't go to Nanyang to buy rice, it is more suitable to buy rice in India and ship it back than to ship it back from the west coast of North America.

Just talking about the Rocky Mountains that lie between the grassland area and the port, it is a hurdle that is simply impossible to get over. If Dashun can solve this problem, then the large plain north of the Songliao watershed can now be used as a commercial grain base. Obviously this problem cannot be solved at this time.

However, Dashun can produce grain, forming a perfect business of ginseng - silver from the Songsu area of ​​Dashun - silver flowing back to the fur-producing area - and then using the silver to buy grain and liquor from the Dashun immigration area and sending it down the river. cycle.

The key to its perfection is that silver is the world's currency and can be transferred directly through trade between the East and the West; grain is heavy and can be transported down the river, which saves most manpower.

Even so, Dashun's purpose is not to produce food, and it only recognizes gold and silver as the economic value of the west coast of North America.

However, the extremely acute contradiction between people and land in Dashun makes immigration itself an urgent need in Dashun.

And immigrants grow food...this is an extra thing. As for the immigrants in Dashun, it is impossible not to grow food. Moreover, as long as it can be sold, it is impossible not to grow more food.

The young people on the expedition team were well aware of the immigration on the west coast of North America and why. They knew very well the principle of "gold mines set the stage and immigrants performed the show."

So, easily, they derived a possibility by analogy.

Is it true that this method can also be used in the plains west of the Rocky Mountains?

However, the platform is not gold and silver dug out of gold and silver mines, but gold and silver turned into ginseng and mink skins and other trade goods?

If the Dashun court mobilized the whole country, regardless of costs, profit returns, and economic orientation, then it would indeed be possible to complete the immigration by any means necessary.

But obviously, it seems that the court does not have this intention now. The radicals in the Department of Practical Studies are all young people with little influence, and they talk softly. Because the older generation in the Practical School climbed up, they talk little and have become the driving force behind this wave of expansion in Dashun. The beneficiaries, of course, are not very radical, but are evaluated as being mixed into conservatives like Liu Yu.

Most of the radicals are young people, and they have little power, at least not enough influence within the court.

Considering the reality, it might not be an option to settle for second best and consider economic interests to promote immigration.

Thinking of this, the young man from the Dashun expedition tried to ask Virendri in a circumstantial way.

"During the previous dynasty, the Donglu were also engaged in the trade of ginseng, mink, and dongzhu. They were always short of food. They had to trade grain, spirits, salt, ironware, silk, cloth, etc."

"You are also engaged in this trade to make money now. There is a saying in the Celestial Empire that rivers have flowed eastward since ancient times, and the same is true here. I think these people mostly use small boats to trade. I think it will be very troublesome to transport food and other goods from the east coast to here. ?”

This immediately brought up Villandry's itchy spot.

Because not only was food trouble here, but also when the war with Britain started, even coastal places such as Louisburg had trouble getting food.

In this fortress, he can basically be regarded as the commander of the guards "guarding one side". The area under his jurisdiction is as large as one million square kilometers. Although the total number of guardsmen under him is only a few dozen.

His predecessor, the Knight of Korn, had been transferred to the east to organize the Acadian militia to fight against the Protestants.

The two were successors and had close communication, so he was very clear about the plight of France's lack of food here. Not only were there too few people farming, but even fewer people were willing to come from France. Louis XIV tried his best to get people, but he didn't get many.

Those who came were basically engaged in transportation, privateering, fur, ginseng digging, etc., which were easier to make money than farming.

No one wanted to spend their whole life in a bitter and cold place, so why not make some money, return home in glory, and settle down in France?

This was different from the group of people in the Thirteen States. The group of people in the Thirteen States were persecuted Protestants at the beginning, and there was an established church in Britain. And it was precisely because Protestants believed that the group of people in the established church had "reformed" and could not tolerate things like the established church and the church, which "did not conform to the fundamentalist Bible at all, and which Bible said that there was such a thing as the church", that they chose to separate and run away, and "Exodus" to this promised land.

If the French could come here, they must be Catholics, because the French government did not trust Protestants and Huguenots and did not allow them to come to the French American colonies. Therefore, there is no religious discrimination problem for immigrants in France. Making money and returning home in glory is still the mainstream. Unless they really can't make money, they can only farm here honestly.

Therefore, France's military operations here have always faced an embarrassing "food shortage" problem.

In addition to food shortages, there is also a serious lack of goods to trade with Indians, especially alcohol.

Indians love alcohol. Alcohol can be exchanged for a lot of fur.

And France faces a dilemma of "protecting the domestic grape planting industry chain" or "expanding the trade of rum and ginseng mink fur."

The result is known to everyone. The French chose to protect the domestic wine industry.

In fact, it is also a choice of addition and subtraction. Indeed, the ginseng, mink and rum industries are very profitable, but millions of people in the country are engaged in grape planting, fruit picking, brewing, barreling, transportation, etc., and France has been vigorously developing labor to build roads in recent years, and the roads have also prospered due to the domestic wine industry.

The French still decided to protect the so-called "millions of canal workers' food and clothing". It is not impossible not to protect them. Like Dashun, they can organize an army with the capital power of the southeast coast and suppress them. But France obviously does not have this ability, because France is too fully involved in world trade, and lacks a stable and self-sufficient group of small farmers on the Dashun side. These people can be stabilized because they participate in trade and trade changes. The uprising caused by changes can be suppressed, and the population ratio is there.

This makes France's trade in North America very awkward.

Some things cannot be prevented by hatred, army, and patrols.

For example, those Irish shepherds took their own whiskey, that is, grain wine, to exchange fur and ginseng. What is the price?

France relied on strict trade control to take the domestic brandy and transport it to this lake along the river to exchange for fur ginseng. What is the price?

How can we prevent smuggling by relying on human defense and patrols?

After telling about the difficulties they encountered, the young people of the Dashun expedition team put forward an idea at the right time.

"What if we grow food and make wine upstream and provide them to you?"

"The imperial court will organize food plantations and wine workshops, and rely on the manpower of the Celestial Empire to provide commercial food and wine. You pay in silver."

"Or, the Celestial Empire's treasure ships will directly transport them back."

"Or, directly transfer the money to the bank in Songsu to redeem the bills of exchange, and directly settle the accounts when trading ginseng, sable fur and pearls."

"After the imperial court gets the silver for the bills of exchange in Songsu, it will use it as an immigration fund and funds to migrate the population here. Form a trade cycle to make up for your lack of food and wine here."

"Is this feasible?"

"You should think that if there is really a sunset sea, a sunset bay, or a navigable river leading to the Pacific Ocean, then I think you should have seen our people come here to explore and look for fur ten years ago."

The final truth is very simple and very real. It is the case after it is pointed out. If there really was a sunset sea and a navigable river flowing from east to west, I'm afraid that Dashun's expedition team would have been seen here often ten years ago.

And the reason behind this is more about the fur trade structure on both sides.

For Dashun, cowhide and deerskin have insufficient profit margins and basically can't make any money. But the fur on the grassland has a market and market in Europe.

After a simple thought, Vérendry felt that this seemed to be a good idea.

Who is the best at farming? Europe is experiencing an agricultural revolution, from plows to curved plows, a bunch of agricultural tools from the East, which one do you think is the best?

When it comes to animal husbandry, Dashun is definitely not as good as France at this time, there is no need to hide this. But when it comes to simple farming, the French are very clear about the Chinese's farming skills. At least at this time, before experiencing two hundred years of correct memory shaping, people at this time are still very clear whether the agricultural revolution is "Eastern learning and Western learning".

Dashun's per mu yield is the world's first at this time. What constrained Dashun's agriculture at this time was not technology, but simply insufficient means of production, which meant that each agricultural population could theoretically feed three non-agricultural populations if they worked hard, but there was no place to work hard.

So, can Dashun make wine?

This is obviously not a meaningful question either.

So, would Dashun's liquor, which flows down the river and is traded at the trading post, be cheaper than the whiskey smuggled over the mountains by Irish shepherds?