Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 1083 New thinking about the West ([-])

"Agricultural labor productivity that exceeds the individual needs of laborers is the foundation of all societies, and first of all the foundation of capitalist production." Marx's words really spelled out the essence of human social change, and the status quo of the development of the East Coast is also true. Tell the traversers in power the extreme correctness of this sentence-agriculture has always absorbed the largest number of employed people, and its output determines the cost of running the entire east coast society. There is no doubt about its importance.

……

In mid-October, the land on the east coast has entered the most critical stage of preparation before spring sowing. On many newly opened lands last year, the deep furrows plowed by steam plows stretched to the far horizon; Next to the field, the ears of wheat in the small field that has been cultivated for many years are already heavy. In another month, it is basically possible to organize the harvest by hand.

"Mr. Balboa, how about it? We have farms like this all over the East Coast Republic, and I'm not afraid to tell you that this state-run farm has only 250 Polish prisoners of war indentured slaves, plus some livestock and agricultural machinery, but the output is nothing but feeding them. There is still a lot of surplus available for export. Since the Spanish friends need grain from the east coast, then just take it, hehe, it is all high-quality wheat, which is enough to satisfy you. "Reminiscing about the past", on the bank of the Noya River tens of kilometers away, Li Wenchang, a retired army major (adding a rank when he retired), who had served in the Far East for many years, was introducing the East to Secretary Balboa who came from Spain. The agricultural fruits of the shore.

"The East Bank has indeed done a good job in agriculture, which is very admirable. After all, you are opening up wasteland, and I know the difficulties." Secretary Balboa nodded and said, "Don't look at it with that kind of eyes. Look at me, Mr. Lee, I'm not one of those 'hidalgos' who are ashamed to talk about agricultural production or manual labor. Agriculture is the foundation of a society, and if it doesn't work well, the society has no future , The Kingdom of Spain is really wrong in this respect..."

Many years ago—well, 100 years ago—Spain had a fairly high level of agriculture, but in those frenzied years of the 16th century, with the expulsion of the Moors from Andalusia, Granada, In , Catalonia and other places, the agricultural level of Iberia began to decline rapidly.

The Moors were clever farmers. They mastered superb agricultural technology and the way to deal with severe droughts, turning dry Andalusia into a region with rich products.You must know that Castile is not a good place with abundant precipitation. Farming on this relatively dry and barren land requires patience and technology. The Moors obviously have enough patience to tend the land, and agricultural technology Quite superb - the Moors established a complete reservoir and irrigation system that was very advanced in Europe at that time, and often repaired it, so that some areas that are extremely barren in today's Spain also produced a large amount of agricultural products in that era, enough to make Today's increasingly vain and lazy Spaniards feel ashamed.

However, under the harsh religious atmosphere, after the Moors who were pagans were driven away, Spain's agricultural productivity began to regress day by day, which was in stark contrast to the rapid progress of other countries at this time-although there were Moors left The extremely perfect infrastructure heritage, but the Spanish agricultural harvest is still irretrievably declining year by year, and the orchards that were once densely covered along the Guadalavia Canal (opened by the Moors, the use of river water is very frugal and economical) also due to drought Gradually barren, a large amount of arable land degenerated into pastures, and the whole country had to rely on imported grains to live.

It’s not that the Spanish government has made some adjustments to this. For example, in 1626, the king issued a decree stating that there is nothing shameful for nobles to engage in business or agriculture, as long as he does not personally participate in the business, or do business or farm in his own home. What.But it is conceivable that this has no effect. The "Hidalgo" feel that it is detrimental to their dignity to work with their hands or invest in business, because that is what the prostitutes and Jews who were driven out by them used to do.Moreover, they have no economic knowledge at all, despise all manual labor, despise almost all industrial and commercial activities, and only care about the commodities that maintain their luxurious life, such as how much is a piece of fine cloth, the value of high-end candles, etc. (Spanish nobles fix the prices of these high-end commodities And export is banned from time to time, one can imagine how much trouble it caused to the handicraftsmen, so that Spain's own handicraft industry completely collapsed); in addition, the only thing they pursue is military honor and religious expansion. The practice of consuming national power undoubtedly made Spain's disaster even deeper, and finally fell from the peak and never got up again.

In the current Kingdom of Spain, not only is the industry and commerce in decline, but even agricultural production is on the verge of collapse—years of foreign wars, heavy tax burdens, local riots one after another, and the invasion of agriculture by the sheep farming organization "Mesta" , causing Spain's grain production to fail year after year, to the point of being seriously unable to make ends meet. This is a bit unbelievable in the eyes of England, Germany and other regions where agricultural production has recovered from the war.

To make matters worse, Poland, a traditional major grain exporter (mainly sold by the Netherlands, mainly exporting rye and wheat), was mired in the quagmire of war, and the order of agricultural production was greatly affected, which made the situation of the Spaniards even worse. Wonderful.Now if it weren't for them being able to squeeze Naples, Sicily and other Italian territories desperately, the peninsula people might have broken out in revolution in hunger.

But it is obviously not a long-term solution to blindly squeeze the Italians. Therefore, after careful consideration, the Spaniards sent Secretary Balboa and others who had close ties with the people on the East Bank to the New World. Together with Baron Lavaux, discuss the matter of purchasing food from the East Bank—of course, they did not spend real money to buy it. They just wanted to slightly adjust the proportion of materials that the East Bank granted them with loans. It is a wise idea to reduce luxury goods (the Spanish royal family now spends as much as 300 million silver dollars on the east coast every year, and the degree of extravagance and waste is shocking), and turn to get more food to alleviate the domestic plight. practice.

After receiving the request from the Spaniards, the Executive Committee of the East Coast Republic of China held a closed-door meeting for half a day, and then agreed with an absolute majority to the Spaniards’ request to adjust the ratio of loan materials, reducing a large number of whale oil candles, soaps, etc. , high-grade fur, printed cloth, dyed cloth, silk, knitted lace and other luxury goods, and then increased the quota of 200 tons (about 60 million yuan) of grain, paid in four years to ease the plight of Spain .As for the transportation of these grains, since it was the Spaniards who made the change request, they will also bear part of the transportation cost, accounting for about [-]%.

Seeing that Spain is actually fighting fiercely with Portugal, France, and England, the people on the east coast also agreed, and said that before the end of this year, a batch of wheat (old wheat from the national grain reserve) will be sent to Canada in Spain. In Si Port, the quantity is about [-] tons—of course, if the Spaniards are willing to provide some ships and bear the cost, they can even transport [-] tons more. Food reserves are never a problem. Just not enough capacity.

Fortunately, the Spaniard was lucky, and Li Wenchang, who was showing Balboa around, gave him an idea.

"Mr. Balboa, maybe you are worrying about how to ship more food back to the old continent, then I think you don't have to. In our country's Qingdao port, a large number of Dutch ships from the old continent are berthing at this time Yup, they are all helping our government to transport immigrants from the Old Continent. I think if you can give a relatively reasonable price, then these captains from the United Provinces should not mind helping you transport some of the food back. I think you can send someone to try it out. If the captains don’t trust you, our bank may issue a guarantee for you and pay part of the freight in advance. It’s fine to deduct it from the total loan amount. It’s not a big problem. How? ?” Li Wenchang, who had followed the will of the executive committee, really thought about the Spaniards sincerely at this moment, so he made a suggestion to him.

"Very good advice, Mr. Li. At such a difficult time, the friendship shown by your country is enough to make King Philip change his view of your country. The Lord's people are not necessarily friends, and the heathen are not necessarily enemies , The world is like this, thank you for your selfless help, this is a wise decision, and you will gain unexpected huge benefits by making good friends with the great Spanish Kingdom, because this country is the messenger of civilization chosen by God." Balbo Secretary Asia said reservedly, "The heretics from England have secretly colluded with the traitor France and officially provoked a war against our country. The great Kingdom of Spain must face up to the provocation and fight back until all enemies lie on their knees. Under King Philip's throne, they will fail!"

"Yes." Li Wenchang responded noncommittally, and then said hesitantly: "Your Excellency the Secretary, please forgive me, if the Kingdom of Spain wants to defeat these three enemies at the same time, if the economic and military system of your country- ——especially the economic system—I’m afraid it will be extremely difficult to reform to a certain extent. After all, the enemy’s strength is also very strong. The Kingdom of France has a population of 2200 million, which is almost three times that of your country. Now it’s time to win Time to make some changes, isn't it, Mr. Balboa?"

(End of this chapter)