Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 1050 God-given Land ([-])

As soon as October comes, Xinhua has undoubtedly entered the continuous rainy season, but this has not stopped a group of Italians from visiting.Although they had already inspected the big island hastily before, this time Ma Wanpeng, the highest officer of the island, personally took them to visit the land that might be allocated to everyone, which undoubtedly made the group extremely happy.

Ma Wanpeng took them to visit the delta area of ​​the Sambirano River in the northwest of the island. It is across the sea from the Isle of Be in the east (you can see the outline of Isle of Be when you stand on the shore). The climate is humid and the precipitation is abundant. There is no disturbance from the natives, and Duandi is the best land to be developed.

The distribution of forests in the Sambirano Delta is very interesting. On the highlands such as the Chalatanana Mountains, dense dark forests can still be seen everywhere. There are many types of large trees with dense crowns (generally between 25- 30 meters) tower above the middle trees covered with epiphytes, and the middle trees protrude from the lower trees composed of kudzu, ferns, bamboos, orchids, etc.This is a dark, dense, inaccessible world, but on the lowlands and hills, the degraded Savoca landform (short grass grasslands with a few trees such as traveler's bananas) dominates, but in the east coast people plan to develop In the Sambirano Delta, amphibious mangroves are widely distributed because of abundant water sources, and the southeast crab wood and raffia trees are the main ones.

"What a beautiful forest, I don't even have the heart to destroy it." Wearing a raincoat coated with rubber liquid, Ma Wanpeng joked in an exaggerated tone: "You are all friends, and I don't want to deceive you. Nishuihe (that is, Sang In the area around the delta of the Birano River), the land is more fertile due to the sediment carried from the upper reaches, and various crops including tobacco and sugarcane can be planted; and slightly upstream, due to various reasons, some limestone formations are exposed on the ground ——Of course, this is not terrible, because the limestone formation is often covered with a layer of 'rose soil', which is a kind of clay that can be used, and it is not a problem to grow some economic crops..."

"In addition, these floodplains are full of impacted mica. Of course, there are more mica on the mountains. As long as you can pay a fee and have the ability to mine normally, it will be yours." Ma Wanpeng suddenly bent down and picked up a piece. Playing with the object in his hand, he said: "I know that the price of this thing is not cheap in the Old Continent, but I don't mind transferring some of the benefits to you, as long as you can develop this place well."

The Genoese felt a little satisfied after listening to the translated words, and some interested people had already noted it down, because it was obviously one of the important factors that attracted them.The fact that they did not meet any natives along the way made the visiting Genoese feel complicated. The reason for the complexity is simple: the natives on the island are very fierce, and you are likely to be attacked when you come to develop them. Said that there are no natives here, so all the labor force has to be transported from the old continent, which is undoubtedly a lot of expenses.Calculated at one hundred bank lire per person, the transportation cost will be at least 50 lire, and if you are transporting indentured slaves, you will have to double this expense-of course, this money is just a small amount for the Genoese. What cares more is the rare investment opportunity.

Of course, the Genoese didn’t see any natives here, that’s because the people from the east coast on the opposite bank of Bei Island came to the vicinity every three days to catch slaves (sold to the Daqing Basin in the south).The level of civilization of the local natives is extremely low, not even as good as the nomadic Sakaravas. For example, these barbarians do not select or take care of rice when planting rice, and rely entirely on the sky for food; breeding hump cattle is even more It was a mess, with no stables, no pastures, and very little meat and milk production.Facing the barbarians whose civilization is so low, don't expect the low-spirited slave catchers in Lobster Harbor to have any compassion. They have already captured all the barbarians in the estuary delta, and then sold them Go to the Hun River and Xinlai River area, and exchange various agricultural products from there-mainly grain (many local farmers mainly make a living by planting double-cropping rice).

"In addition, I know that sugarcane is undoubtedly the cash crop that you are most interested in." Ma Wanpeng shrugged pretentiously in the heavy rain, and then said: "From here--the Nishui River goes north until it penetrates the dense forest. The vast land in the middle of the Mahawawi River that flows into the sea can be used to plant sugar cane. You can open up countless sugar cane plantations here and reap your wealth to your heart's content. Of course, it is best to transport all sugar cane to The lobster port on the island of Be is refined and then exported to outside areas. The reason for this is simple. Neither the Mudwater River nor the Mahawawi River can build a large harbor nearby, so we can only use Offshore boats transport the products to Lobster Port, where ocean-going ships can berth. Anyway, Isle of Bei is less than [-] kilometers away from the mainland, which is very close, and there is no trouble at all.”

Although the people on the east coast have been circling on the Isle of Bei in recent years, in fact they have never stopped exploring and investigating in the delta area on the other side.And almost every expedition team sent was full of praise for the conditions of the valley at the mouth of the Sambirano River. It is located in a valley that has expanded due to the subsidence of the earth's crust. The paddock-shaped highlands surrounded by forests make it immune to the harsh rainy season. The influence of weather (mainly typhoon) and keeping it moist all the year round brings excellent agricultural management conditions to the local area - rare or weak cyclones, the constantly renewed volcanic rock soil and the organic matter carried by the river water make the land fertile and can be It is said that in addition to the heat and humidity common in the tropics, the river valley has almost all the factors that attract immigrants, such as sugar cane, tobacco, coffee, cocoa, vanilla, pepper, aromatic plants, oil palm, sisal, rice, corn, cassava , almost anything can be grown, just like the Isle of Be across the sea (Isle of Be is fertile volcanic rock soil), not to mention there are also a large number of trees of great economic value (suitable for furniture, suitable for shipbuilding, suitable for House repair, suitable for making musical instruments, all kinds of trees) and rich fishery resources, it is not an exaggeration to say that this area is a land of abundance.

Ma Wanpeng paid attention to the expressions of these Italians while explaining, and kept exchanging opinions with them.During the conversation, he was delighted to find that some Genoese businessmen asked questions very carefully, which meant that they had a certain investment potential.And based on the idea that seeing is believing, in the afternoon, Ma Wanpeng simply took everyone to the Lobster Port on Isle of Bey, which was only three hours away by boat, and let the investors from the old continent visit the east coast. The development results of the shore people on the island (the environment of the island is very similar to that of the opposite shore) - the local rich and beautiful natural landscapes, plantations everywhere (most of which are still in the initial stage) have opened the eyes of the Genoese, dense forests, and checkerboard rice fields The green corridor composed of coffee, Vanilla, Rafia and other small tree species is distributed on both sides of the only gravel road, which makes investors almost intoxicated.

……

After the visit, of course, there will be endless negotiations and quarrels.By this time, Ma Wanpeng was not often involved in the process. He was only responsible for superficial checks. As for the specific details of the negotiations, the officials below would naturally handle them.In fact, they are doing well. Among the 22 Italian investors who are still alive, 14 have confirmed that they will invest in the vast area between the Nishui River and the Mahawawi River, and the other 3 need to go back to their country for consultation before doing so. After making a decision, only five people made it clear that they would not invest here—perhaps they were frightened by the unbearable hot and humid climate and the frequent occurrence of diseases a while ago.

Negotiations finally came up with a preliminary plan at the end of October. In this plan, investors from Italy will follow the local practice and jointly form a development company called Delta Company.This company will be responsible for opening up plantations and setting up settlements in this area. Similarly, the company's personnel and finances will be fully supervised by the East Coast people, but the East Coast government will provide them with a certain degree of credit support.Ma Wanpeng agreed to this condition, and said that the United Industrial Credit Bank and the Bank of La Plata (for the convenience of transferring money with Europe) will respectively open a branch office in the Lobster Port of Isle of Be, to provide financial services for this plantation area in the future, and Facilitate the daily operation of the investor's plantation.

At the beginning of November, after hearing the report from his subordinates, Ma Wanpeng signed a cooperation agreement with 11 Italian businessmen who were willing to invest, and then ordered Xinhua County to squeeze out valuable manpower and materials immediately, and sail to the muddy water as soon as there was no strong wind at sea. At the mouth of the river, explore the terrain in the rain, and make preparations for the construction of simple docks and gravel roads as soon as the rainy season ends.After all, the Italians paid people and money to develop this place. In addition to ensuring their safety, the people on the east coast must also try their best to ensure that the local infrastructure is complete. Otherwise, how can they make people willing to come to do business?

After sending off the group of Italian merchants in mid-November (they took their own chartered boat back to the old continent, and the boat back was filled with tropical commodities such as cane sugar, coffee, cocoa, pepper), Ma Wanpeng went south to Daqing In the Basin area, he conducted a careful inspection of the dry farming area in the Mang River Basin. After learning that the local production of corn, wheat, peanuts, and soybeans was so-so, he was really relieved—at least in the future There is no need to import food from other places here, which saves a lot of transportation capacity.

At the end of November, Ma Wanpeng arrived at Mianhe Port by land, condolences to the wounded and sick officers and soldiers in the battle against the natives, and learned about the latest battle situation.At this time, the northern part of Xinhua Island is also entering the stage of the most violent rainy season, and the tropical epidemics in densely populated areas such as Xinhua County have also entered a relatively active period at this time.

(End of this chapter)