Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 1004 Commercial ([-])

Mall Harbor has been silent for many years.

Since the outbreak of the Second East-West War, with the withdrawal of the most important merchants, Spanish merchants, this place is doomed to fail.After the war, perhaps because they had lost confidence in this place, most of the Spaniards who left never returned. They sold the buildings here at a low price through various channels, and then disappeared, even if they were very popular back then. The same is true for the current Rodriguez family—of course, their family has not withdrawn from the trade with the East Bank. Their family has now moved to Qingdao Port, and opened a large-scale business there, setting up a grandiose business. Import and export trade, it is said that the business is not bad.

But in any case, the once bustling Shangcheng Port is completely bustling.

Qiang Quansheng and Zhou Shenwo sat in a spacious open carriage, escorted by guards, and headed from the pier all the way to the city.The construction of the wharf is a bit messy. There are wooden wharfs built by Spanish and Portuguese merchants, and brick-wood wharves built by people on the east coast. Of course, in recent years, local officials have organized many times to repair these The similar wharf has been repaired and expanded, and a large number of construction materials such as steel rods and cement have been used.Therefore, the wharf of the Shangcheng Port is like a history of technological progress on the east coast, which made Qiang Quansheng quite emotional after seeing it.

From the pier to the city is a wide sandy road, which looks a little potholed.Many roads have traces of repairs. It can be seen that the local township government may not have been very well-off in finances. It has never had the money to purchase more expensive asphalt on the east coast to improve the roads. Logonia) roads are patched and patched, and nobody comes here anyway, is there?

The buildings in the urban area are also somewhat mottled, and they were generally built more than ten or twenty years ago.Qiang Quansheng looked around and saw that the cement or lime painted on the exterior walls of most houses showed signs of cracking, but this did not seem to hinder the use.Of course, there are only a few people who are willing to paint their houses with lime and cement. The walls of most people’s homes are exposed like this. Red bricks and blue bricks complement each other. It does seem to have such a unique flavor.

"There are so many fruit trees here." Zhou Shenwo looked at both sides of the street, whether it was residential houses, shops, or departments, there were basically many fruit trees planted in their yards.Among them are peach trees, orange trees, pear trees, and loquat trees. I have long heard that the fruits in these places are particularly sweet, and now it seems that they are really worthy of the name.

There are occasional stone buildings on both sides of the street, but they are all in typical European style, as you can see from the simple reliefs full of religious styles carved on the walls.This was built by the rich and powerful La Plata businessmen back then. At that time, it was jointly managed by the East and the West. Whether it was out of investment, enjoyment or the idea of ​​cunning rabbit caves, many Spanish businessmen invested huge sums of money to build a large number of buildings here. Private villas have different styles and are quite beautiful, and they are quite comfortable to live in.Nowadays, these villas are sold to people on the east coast for nothing. The Spaniards who lived here all the year round don’t know where they went. Maybe they died in the war or the Klandi riots?Whatever, who cares!

There are many pedestrians on the street, and the business is not bad.Qiang Quansheng has long heard people say that Shangcheng Port is considered a large settlement on the east coast, and it has actually exceeded the red line of 6000 people, reaching as many as 600 people, of which the proportion of Europeans is quite high. To some extent, it is probably the highest in the east coast.Because during the prosperous period of business, merchants from various countries brought many servants from the Old World, most of whom were Spaniards and Italians. These people were controlled by the East Coasters during the war, and most of them chose to join the East Coast nationality after the war. They didn't return to La Plata, and they tried every means to bring relatives and friends from the old continent. The population of these places suddenly increased, and the streets were full of Europeans.

After Shangcheng Port returned from a commercial port to an agricultural township, the per capita income of residents has dropped significantly, and many people have gone through this painful transformation process.Fortunately, with the decline in business activity, local prices have also dropped, so everyone's living standards will not drop too much.Today's Shangcheng Port is like most of the agricultural towns on the east coast. The common people can eat and wear warm clothes, but there is no doubt that they are relatively "poor" because they lack sufficient cash-earning channels-especially At the current stage when agricultural products are not very prosperous-the so-called "no work, no wealth" is a true portrayal of the vast rural areas of the East Coast Republic.

The township government will arrive soon.This sturdy and beautiful building was built in the prosperous trade period. It is hidden in a beautiful grove. There are large grape trellises in the courtyard of the township government. It can be imagined that when the grapes are ripe, this place should be a place to enjoy the shade in summer. ideas.

Most of the officials of the township government were in their offices, and they were very excited to hear that the central officials had arrived—maybe they had already heard about certain things from other channels, such as the reopening of the Shangcheng Port.Qiang Quansheng knew that many of them had served here during the boom in trade, and they should have been members of the representative office on the east coast of Colonia City at that time.After the East Bank completely occupied the place, some of them returned to the Capital Trade Department, but most of the middle and low-level representatives stayed and transferred to officials of the Shangcheng Township Government on the spot.

"It's too difficult for the village now." The head of the township cried out bitterly when he came up, "There are more than 6000 people in the township, and there are so many white-well, Italian and Hispanic residents, it's really hard to manage. In the past few years, the weather here has been smooth, and there have been no illnesses or disasters. Many people have given birth to babies one after another. The burden on the village is too heavy. The two items of language evening school and universal primary education cost most of the village's funds every year. Last time, if the Ministry of Education hadn't seen us poorly allocated a little money, I'm afraid we wouldn't even be able to build the only two-year junior high school in our village, so the children would have to go home and farm after five years of elementary school. How can we, parents and officials, bear it? In addition, there are medical expenses, the training of part-time village doctors in various villages; the construction of rural water conservancy facilities, the maintenance of existing irrigation canals, and the construction of new water pumping stations; The transformation of urban sewage facilities is a huge sum of money. The General Railway Bureau has a little conscience and pulled up the wired telegraph for us in advance. It has already reached Jingjiang County, but what is the use of that? Anyway, here we are Usually no one sends and receives telegrams, you see how busy the telegraph operator is all day long..."

Qiang Quansheng's head began to ache again.To be honest, he and some other "big cadres" in the capital are really afraid of going to the countryside now. Every time they go to the countryside, they will inevitably face the common complaints from grassroots officials.In particular, the monetization policy that became popular across the country more than ten years ago (that is, grassroots officials can no longer drive ordinary people to do this or that outside of the 15-day corvée period each year unless they are paid), has lost the incentive to pay for nothing. After the people in the jurisdiction have the right to work, the energy of the township government is greatly reduced, and the funds are also in short supply. This is almost a common occurrence in the whole country, even in those counties that are known to be rich.Because the central government takes away the financial power and then allocates it uniformly across the country, the so-called national game of chess is true, so even the township governments in wealthy areas may not be much richer than Shangcheng Township, everyone is very difficult!

"Minister Qiang, I heard that the central government is going to re-open the Port of Shangcheng this time. Everyone is very excited to hear that. We are still making plans. After a while, we will ask someone to contact the La Plata and the people who did business here. Brazilian businessmen, start the import and export trade at the mall port, then our life will be much easier." An official shouted immediately.Most of these people are veterans, and they carried guns with the time-traveling people back then, so their relationship is different, so everyone's relationship is more easy-going, and they dare to say anything.

"Who is spreading the rumor..." Qiang Quansheng's head was full of black lines when he heard this.This matter has not yet been settled by the executive committee, so why is there such a commotion in the city?

"Commissioner Qiang, I heard that after the opening of the mall, there will be a train here, right? Everyone will be able to travel by train in the future?" Some officials looked forward to it.

"Last time, people from the Development Bureau came to the north to measure the land. They said they were going to build a few towns in the hinterland. These towns will serve us in the future. Well, they will farm the land for us, and we will engage in import and export trade. "

"I have a comrade-in-arms in the Ministry of the Army. He told me last time that the Ministry of the Army intends to set up a battalion number in our place. In the future, many people here will be able to serve as soldiers and eat the royal rations."

……

The cadres of the Shangcheng and Township Government were very enthusiastic, almost throwing questions one after another to Qiang Quansheng and Zhou Shenwo, leaving them in a panic, unable to answer at all, and could only talk about him.Faced with such a predicament, the two did not dare to stay any longer. After a symbolic visit to Shangcheng Township and a military horse farm attached to it, the two hurriedly left here by boat, and then on October 10th. Arrived at Qingdao Port one day, and finally got rid of the embarrassing state before.

At this time, Qiang Quansheng's secretary also brought him the news that Mr. Lopez from Bank of La Plata asked to see him.Qiang Quansheng, who was about to return to the capital, Dongfang Port, immediately decided to postpone his return trip for two days. He planned to meet this Lopez first, and see what was going on with him.

(End of this chapter)