Xinshun 1730

Chapter 1164 Preparations for War ([-])

Zhao Liben, who came to Ceylon with Quan Zheshen to look for his younger brother, of course, his younger brother could not be among the rebels who granted land.

Because... Dashun has no money, nor does it have enough state-owned land, playing the Tang Dynasty's system of equal land for soldiers.

Most of the rebels were people who were forcibly relocated to Ceylon in the early stage. Because Dashun drove away the Dutch, these relocated Chinese must be treated well to gain their support and love for the court.

Those who participated in the uprising in Batavia were basically dispersed and dispersed into professional field troops.

Zhao Liben's younger brother is a contracted "long-term worker" sent by a "labor dispatch company", so he has no chance to participate in the granting of land.

However, Liu Yu's policy here is to force the Chinese capital investing here to hire Chinese as long-term workers through the state-owned system of land and the exclusive monopoly authorization of gemstones, betel nuts, and cinnamon pearls.

Although the capital prefers cheap Tamils, under the monopoly authorization, they have to accept the conditions offered by Liu Yu.

Without him, really make money.

If you don't want to do it, there are people rushing to do it.

As for those short-term jobs, there is really no way.Seasonal agriculture is destined to have a busy season. When it is busy, it is too busy not to hire part-time workers; but when it is not busy, if a large number of Dashun people come here, what do they do when they are not busy?
This place is different from Songjiang.

The "idle people" in the Songjiang area stagger the seasons.

Plant cotton, pick cotton, and mow grass; when the monsoon comes, they carry and transport work on the pier; in winter, they can repair rivers.

Idlers, in general, cannot dig rivers at the turn of winter and spring; but during the period when the monsoon does not arrive and the cargo ships do not arrive, it is easy to starve to death without work.

The rest of the time, it's generally fine.Cliques formed wars on the wharf. If they lost, they went to dig the river. If they won, they monopolized the work on the wharf in the off-season.Overall, it's okay, and the intensity of gang fights and underground religious fights is not too high, after all, there are other things to do.

But this requires a high amount of capital operation and spread of industries, and Ceylon does not have such vitality.

Quan Zheshen was destined to see Zhao Liben again, and wanted to follow Zhao Liben to see what Ceylon looked like, so he naturally followed Zhao Liben on a journey to find his younger brother.

According to the toothbrush, of course, it is better to call it the files of the labor dispatch company, which can be found here. First, the fortress was built for half a year, and then it was arranged to be sent to the plantation.

Quan Zhe then followed Zhao Liben to a privately run plantation.

On the way to Ceylon, he had already seen many plantations, and he really believed Liu Yu's words: In fact, there is enough food in the world.

Compared with the plantations elsewhere in Southeast Asia, the plantations in Ceylon are relatively monotonous.

It is strictly forbidden to plant tea in Ceylon in Dashun, and once discovered, they will be punished.

Planting sugar cane is actually not enough. Sugar in Bangladesh is cheap enough, and it is not profitable to grow sugar cane here.

Also grow some coffee, coconut, rice and so on.

Coconuts are mainly used to extract oil, and to maintain the protein needs of some of the island's population with coco protein.

The rice is not prepared for the Dashun market, because the journey is far away, and there is no market for Ceylon rice in Dashun, it is mainly prepared for the island.

Because of the previous hundred years of colonization, wars, and religious terror, Ceylon's agricultural economy was basically destroyed.

This has become an important reason for restricting the development of the Netherlands in Ceylon.

After Dashun arrived here, Emperor Dashun really didn't expect land tax from Ceylon, mainly cinnamon, betel nuts, gemstones, and pearls.

Therefore, to develop these industries, a lack of population is definitely not enough.

People who do these non-agricultural productions need to eat.

Therefore, the rice planting industry is also profitable here, and the profit is really not low.

As for coconuts and coffee, there is really nothing to grow.Fortunately, some of Dashun's plantations in Nanyang have planted a lot of oil crops, so Dashun's oil extraction industry is considered to be unique in the world at this time. After the coconut is planted, the oil is pressed, the oil residue is fermented to fertilize the field, and coconut protein is used as feed, etc. It is also a relatively suitable industry.

Because the saponification value of coconut oil is relatively high, the coconut oil here is used as raw material for industrial products.

Dashun now monopolizes the high-end cosmetics market in Europe. There is an army song in Europe that goes, "French King Moss pays the army, unlike ours." Now men in Europe are popular with oily heads, and women are wearing Dashun's straw hats in North China. , Dashun coconut oil and hair oil with spices are also a kind of cosmetics. It cannot be said that only women use them as cosmetics.

And derived glycerin skin care products, coconut oil soft soap, etc. - mainly with some small porcelain bottles, so it looks high-end, because porcelain itself is high-end in Europe.

The market is very easy to open, such as Mrs. Pompadour, if you give her thirty or fifty catties first, she will naturally drive those women in the aristocratic circle to wipe.

The industrial level of Dashun reflected in this is that the soda industry, which is closely related to the glass manufacturing industry, has made a breakthrough and realized primary industrial production.

Although the method of breaking the urn and breaking the vat is shabby, it cannot be said that this is not the initial industrial production.The initial production of acid is the only way to make alkali, which can drive the glass manufacturing industry to take off. By the way, industries such as soap and glycerin have also developed together, because the flour alkali can be rubbed out, and the place where there is a poem "Lime Yin" will not even use flour alkali. It can't even be rubbed into caustic soda.

These industries, in turn, led to the development of oil extraction industry and oil plantation.

The by-products of soda production have stimulated Dashun's printing and dyeing, textile and other industries, because the by-products of this old and stupid soda production can be bleached.

In short, the technology is crude, it seems ridiculous, the means are primitive, and the local method is launched, but this is what it looked like in the early days of industrialization.

The technology is crude, but profits can be made, and then the industry can be upgraded to maintain technological advantages.

And these early industrialization, as well as the overseas markets that Dashun actively explored, made Ceylon have the value of being invested by capital.

Otherwise, since Dashun is not allowed to grow tea, capital will not invest here except gems and cinnamon.

If capital is not invested, there will be no money to immigrate. The imperial court is reluctant to give up the money, and in the end it must foolishly choose to let the Tamils ​​settle and mix sand with the Sinhalese because it is cheap.

The current situation is more favorable to the Chinese as a whole.The development of plantations, in turn, has promoted agriculture. Over the years, intermittently, the number of Han Chinese who have taken root in Ceylon has reached more than 20 and close to [-]—although if Dashun relaxes the restrictions on tea and allows overseas planting of tea, the number of people can double, but Dashun As long as Shun is not stupid, he will not do this.

It's like the Dutch who are tearful about the past of the nation and do not welcome the Dutch to the Dutch colonies.The Dashun Export Group, who loves the motherland, and His Majesty the emperor, who is so expensive to collect tea export taxes for the Emperor Dashun, will never allow a single tea to go to Ceylon, which they cannot control. It is better that the number of Han people in Ceylon does not increase so fast. .

But in any case, under equilibrium, the number of Han Chinese in Ceylon is still increasing.

Among them, the coconut plantation industry is profitable and has made great contributions.A large number of indentured "long-term workers" were sent here. After all, there are no slaves in Dashun, so they cannot be called indentured slaves.

The entire industrial chain of coconut oil seems to be a "high-end industry" at this time, and it is a high-profit industry.A broken porcelain bottle, add some coconut oil soft soap and plant flower essence in it, and buy coconuts in exchange for francs, which is estimated to fill a thatched cottage.

However, the high-end industry at this time is often presented in a very low-end appearance.

For example, when Quan Zheshen and Zhao Liben entered the plantation, they saw a group of dirty and dark people sitting on the ground with bare feet.

With a knife in his hand, there was a thick layer of coconut meat piled up next to him, and a handful of coconut meat was thrown over from time to time, which immediately caused a buzzing sound of flies.

Several hired workers threw the dug out coconut meat into a series of tumbling cauldrons next to it, and a few sweaty people stood by and stirred it with big sticks, and some people used some weird tools to skim oil on it .

Those who work here include both Han Chinese and what Quan Zhe sees as Southern barbarians, and he can't tell who these Southern barbarians are.

In fact, as far as this plantation is concerned, many non-Han people who work are Sinhalese.

The reason is actually very simple, due to the invasion of Dashun commercial capital.

Originally, these Sinhalese lived a good life. They used to make coconut flower wine - coconut milk can't make wine, there is oil in it, and it is easy to be poisoned to death if it is not brewed properly - the juice in coconut flower can be made into wine of.

Before Dashun arrived, it was considered a special product of Ceylon, and it was selling well and living well.

With the arrival of Dashun's commercial capital, three things changed.

The first thing is: Coconut blossoms are kneaded into wine, and coconuts cannot be formed. Coconuts with high saponification value are important raw materials for Dashun’s cosmetics exports to Europe because of their special oil color. Also high.

The second thing: a large amount of Javanese cachaça, poured into Ceylon.

The third thing: the Ceylon Governor's Mansion imposes taxes on coconut flower wine, and Java sugar cane wine is exempt from tax.

Three simple things.

Very simple ending.Within a few years, Ceylon’s characteristic coconut flower wine industry collapsed, and a large number of small wine producers went bankrupt. The original coconut flower wine brewers had to go to the plantations in Dashun to pick coconuts and squeeze coconut oil.

Coconut flower wine is just the epitome of Dashun's series of activities in Ceylon.

Of course, Quan Zheshen can't understand this dynamic world. Looking at this busy scene, he thought to himself: "Xingguo is sincere, and slaves and maidservants can be converted into hired workers and idlers. As long as industry and commerce develop, they can get enough Rice is not necessarily a bad thing. These plantations do not grow rice, just like cotton in northern Jiangsu, but they are not without food."

"As long as there is enough official land, it is absolutely possible for those good people to follow the example of the government and frontier military system here, and abolish the low status of slaves and maidservants to turn them into hired workers and idlers. So far, it seems that it is feasible."

(End of this chapter)