Go back in time and be a chaebol

Chapter 267 The Future of Borneo (Fourth update, please subscribe)

Borneo is unlike any other place.

At this time, the land was vast and the population was sparse.

If you want to develop, you must introduce a large number of immigrants. After all, whether it is a plantation economy or an industrial economy, you need a lot of manpower.

However, introducing immigrants can only solve temporary problems. If you want to fundamentally solve the problem, you still have to rely on self-reproduction.

How to reproduce a population?

This issue seems complicated, but in fact it is not complicated at all. It can even be said to be very simple. It is nothing more than a man and a woman forming a family and then having children.

It sounds simple, but in fact it is not that easy. Historically speaking, most of the Tang people who went to Nanyang were men, because the traditional thinking in Tangshan is that men travel around the world, and women educate their children at home, and this also means The immigrants introduced by Borneo are the same as in the past, and most of them are men.

Even if in order to ensure gender balance, two-thirds of the immigrants are married couples through salary increases for couples, there are still one-third singles.

So many bachelors are not only potential dangers, but will also affect the future of Borneo, because bachelors cannot reproduce. In the future, Borneo will definitely make great progress economically, and may even become a developed country. country, but if this problem cannot be solved, it is all empty talk.

Finally, when these immigrants grow old, Borneo is likely to fall into the dilemma of insufficient labor and population.

Insufficient population, compared to industry and agriculture, is the biggest crisis that Borneo faces now and in the future.

Population is directly related to the future of Borneo!

“How do you increase the population, how do you make sure that we have more and more people?”

In the conference room, Li Yian looked at several officials from the office present.

"This is the only topic on the agenda of today's meeting."

Attending the meeting were Cheng Jide, Director of the Labor Department, Tian Yongzhe from the Reclamation Department, Zhao Rui from the Education Department, and Ding En from the Security Bureau. Looking at them, Li Yi'an said.

"To increase the population, it's not just about immigration, it's not just about how many children a couple has, it's about ensuring that every worker can find a wife."

When it came to "every worker finds a daughter-in-law", Li Yian deliberately emphasized his tone and continued to ask.

"I have a figure here. Taking North Borneo as an example, in the past half century, about 24.5 Chinese workers were introduced. About 5 of them died of disease. There are about 19.5 left, and among these workers , only 5 people returned to the country, which means that at least 14 overseas Chinese stayed in Borneo. According to our statistics, there are currently only 5.6 households in North Borneo and 18.7 people. In addition to local births in recent years, In addition to the teenagers, there are about 8 indigenous women married to Chinese! So the question is, after deducting local births, there are less than first-generation immigrants, so where will the remaining go? Already?"

While talking, Li Yian took out several photos, which were photos of the cemetery. Each tombstone had square characters written on it, writing the place of origin and age of the deceased.

"They all had no heirs, and when they were old and out of work, they died of poverty and illness in the guild hall."

The guild halls in various places that are the roots of "hui party" are not without any role. They also have a role in providing for the elderly. In fact, many overseas Chinese join the party for another purpose. In order to provide for themselves in old age, when they were young, they would You pay a few cents or one yuan in membership fees to the guild hall. When you are old and weak and unable to work, you will live in the guild hall and take care of yourself in the guild hall. After your death, the guild hall will send the bones back to your hometown for burial. At this time, the guild hall plays the role of The role of nursing homes.

The reason for this is that not everyone has the opportunity to earn money and return home in fine clothes. Those who return home in fine clothes are always in the minority. Even the ashes cannot be transported back to the country. They can only be buried in a foreign land and buried in a cemetery set up by the association.

From this point of view, the guild hall has a positive role in allowing the elderly and frail overseas Chinese to have something to support them in their old age. This is why Li Yian strictly prohibited party formation while allowing the existence of guild halls.

Everyone here is no stranger to the "Comb of Righteousness". In fact, during the expansion of Sandakan, we encountered the problem of the "Comb of Righteousness" blocking the road. In the end, Li Yi'an made the decision to "not disturb the spirits of the ancestors." The decision was made and the plan was revised. Of course, this was only limited to the Overseas Chinese Cemetery.

"So, I invite you here today because I hope that everyone can work together and think about how to solve the problem of labor wives. If this problem is not solved, this kind of thing will still happen. We cannot continue to introduce immigrants from the country forever. In the end, we will You have to rely on yourself and the self-reproduction of immigrants.”

After throwing the question to everyone, Li Yian leaned back in his chair and waited for them to offer suggestions.

Why did he specifically mention the problem of Chinese laborers? Because the numbers are so shocking - almost half of the Chinese laborers have just disappeared in the long river of history. "If we cannot solve the problem of wives, then the number of "free graves" will only increase in the future." Big, and what about the population problem? It will become more and more serious!"

"Well, this problem is not easy to handle."

Cheng Jide said,

"After I took charge of the Labor Department, I once visited the club and learned from the club host and the old overseas Chinese that they had actually tried their best to solve women's problems, usually by buying, but buying... is always limited. It is a reality that there are more men than women in China. Unless women are desperate, who would be willing to sell themselves overseas."

In fact, there is one thing that Cheng Jide did not mention. Many of the women he bought turned into prostitutes. Compared with marrying Chinese laborers, the Hui Party was more willing to turn women into cash cows, and even robbed the wives of overseas Chinese. Brothels, this is another evil side of the party, which is why Li Yian strictly prohibited the presence of compatriots in the teahouse, just to fundamentally put an end to all this.

"Um,"

Nodding, Li Yian did not speak, but looked at them, waiting for the solution they gave.

Soon everyone started talking one by one.

"Hong Kong thought that we could set up factories such as textile factories and garment factories and recruit female workers from China to fundamentally alleviate the gender ratio. Our salaries are still very competitive in China!"

"Yes, this is a fundamental solution to the problem."

"It's difficult to recruit female workers, but it's better to find them than not to find them."

"Also, these factories or female workers' dormitories should not be too far away from male workers to create more opportunities for contact..."

Soon everyone's suggestions were adopted one by one. In fact, these tasks have always been done, but they were not included in the special topics. Now they have not only become the focus of everyone's discussion, but will also become the central task of labor in the future. In short, it is The sex ratio should be balanced as much as possible to ensure fertility.

After everyone's suggestions were almost finalized, Li Yi'an glanced at Ding En. He had always trusted Ding En very much, and even put him in the position of the director of the Security Bureau, and asked.

"Ding En, what do you think?"

Faced with Chief Li's inquiry, Ding En said.

"What everyone said is very good and can solve some problems. Maybe we can recruit a lot of female workers here. That's for sure. After all, people always have to eat. The income here is high, so there must be people who are willing to come here. Although there are not many, after all, women are different from men. They do not need to support their families, and the risk of a woman going to Southeast Asia is so high. How many people are willing to take the risk? Even if they are willing, they only need to wait at home for the men to arrive from Borneo. When you return home in fine clothes, just marry them. So, what if you still don’t have enough women?”

Ding En's question is to the point. In fact, even with high wages now, not all women are willing to leave their hometowns and come here, because for most women, as long as they marry a man, they don't think too far ahead.

The reason why a man is willing to leave his hometown is to give his family, including his future wife, a better life. Well, that means women only need to wait at home for these men to return home in fine clothes.

If that's the case, why bother leaving home?

The sharp answer made the atmosphere in the conference room a little dull.

This answer is really a bit too heartbreaking.

But everyone knew that he was telling the truth - women were indeed different from men.

Just then I heard him continue.

"I read in the newspaper a few days ago that recently, there are several weddings held at St. Michael and All Angels Church almost every day. Many nurses are married to company employees or soldiers..."

(End of this chapter)