Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 1772 New Policy, New Guidance

"Chairman Liao is going to create 400 million farmers! It's amazing, I admire it!" In the captain's room of the poop of the three-deck battleship "Liberator", Zhou Yu, the captain of the ship, a lieutenant commander and the commander of the South China Sea Squadron of the First Fleet, opened He poured a bottle of Xiangshan dry red wine for Chen Youcai, director of the State Administration of Railways who came to visit him, and then laughed and teased the drastic reforms made by the chairman of the executive committee, Liao Xiaoyao, after he took office.

There is no doubt that this reform has touched the interests of many people, especially the increasingly powerful naval groups.You must know that Brazil's tropical economic zone, which was forced to cool down by the state, is closely related to overseas trade, and has always been a "hardest hit area" for naval forces.Take a look at the new generation of admirals on the east coast, Major Zhou Yu, Commander of the South China Sea Squadron of the First Fleet, Major Ding Zhen, Commander of the Caribbean Sea Squadron of the First Fleet, Major Cai Anguo, Commander of the Cape Verde Squadron of the First Fleet, and Major Cai Anguo, Commander of the Cape Verde Squadron of the First Fleet. Major Liu Fubo, Commander of the Sea of ​​Okhotsk Squadron, Lieutenant Colonel Morie Eel, Commander of the Second Fleet, Lieutenant Colonel Li Zemin, Commander of the First Fleet, Major Zhou Yafu, Commander of the Marine Battalion, etc., which family did not get involved in it? Business?How many of the foreign trade companies and private transportation companies that have sprung up in China have not been invested by the families of the above-mentioned people?

Therefore, Liao Xiaoyao's various speeches and various measures after taking office have successfully aroused a sense of crisis in the naval system, so there are quite a few people in the military who slander him, and it is obvious that Major Zhou Yu is one of them There are rumors that their family bought two sugarcane plantations and a small sugar refining workshop in Hue Port at a low price after the war, which seems to be true now.

But now it seems that Liao Xiaoyao's decision is unstoppable. The chairman of the executive committee, who has quite good qualifications and prestige, has always hated the export of tropical specialties such as pepper, cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg, sucrose, and tobacco. Although the export of these things can earn a lot of profits, but it will ruin the country's atmosphere, which is of no benefit to the country or the people. Now the investment has been suspected of being overheated. As the international market continues to shrink, it is best to limit it to avoid future Something went wrong.

This argument by Liao Xiaoyao is undoubtedly not the first time someone has raised it in the East Coast. In fact, during the peak years of sugar export, this argument has been repeatedly mentioned.Some old people from the industrial field, such as Song Qiang, Wu Jun, Li Hongxing, Pan's father and son, etc., accused the overwhelming export of sucrose, which can be called huge profits, which will only withdraw a large amount of funds from the industrial field. In the industry, grab huge profits.And once these capitals have tasted the sweetness of the high profits of tropical commodities, then who is willing to continue to stick to the industrial fields with relatively low profits, hard work and dirty, huge R&D investment, and many uncertainties in the future?

You must know that 100 years ago, the United Provinces surpassed the English in the fields of textiles, papermaking, printing, and shipbuilding, but Amsterdam successively defeated cities such as Genoa*, Bruges, and became the well-deserved economic center of Western Europe. After the Dutch monopolized many trades, a large amount of money was invested in trade and navigation, and various domestic industries gradually withered.Take the wool textile industry as an example. The textile city of Leiden originally imported wool and rough wool from England, processed it into refined wool of various colors and then exported it to the Mediterranean Sea and the Baltic Sea. However, in the 17th century, the Dutch basically gave up their own production. The efforts of woolen textiles and the direct import of finished products from the UK undoubtedly made the British wool textile industry develop by leaps and bounds, becoming the first of the six major economic pillars in England.

The same is true of the British Empire in history. As a pioneer country of the industrial revolution, because of the existence of colonial ATMs—especially the ATM in India, which seems to have unlimited balance—its domestic industrial enterprises have no desire to improve industrial technology at all. Always make do.This is actually not their fault, because upgrading industrial technology is long and painful. If it is not that there is no other way to go, no one is willing to earn this hard money. Isn’t it because the Germans have no colonies that they can only immerse themselves in developing industry and improving technology? Is it level?

Now the east coast is gradually showing signs of this.The hot-selling coffee, cocoa, pepper, vanilla, and cane sugar in Xinhuaxia Island made a lot of profits in the last wave of market prices, attracting a lot of money, even foreign funds.This was actually a good thing in the first place, because the influx of funds into Xinhua Island has virtually increased the development of the island, but the disadvantage is also very obvious, that is, the investment in the industrial field has declined.You must know that the progress of industrial technology in this country on the east coast is not enough to rely solely on investment from the government and state-owned enterprises. Private capital must also quickly keep up. The upstream and downstream are often small private factories or even small workshops. If the technology of these supporting enterprises does not improve, it will greatly slow down the speed of industrial progress on the east coast. This is what many people do not want to see. Corruption" is the most direct cause.

What's more, in the past ten years, due to frequent outbreaks of various wars in Europe, Ottomans, Poland, Russia, and Crimea have fought back and forth in Ukraine, inheritance transfer wars, Anglo-Dutch naval battles, French-Dutch wars, etc., many countries Being involved has made Europe a mess, and the private sector has been exhausted. The number of imported tropical specialties has also dropped significantly, and the total market has continued to shrink.And it is this market that has been greatly shrunk. Driven by the trend of mercantilism, countries mostly leave it to their own merchants. For example, King Charles II of England ordered that the customs of major ports such as London and Bristol only allow imports. Cane sugar from Barbados or Jamaica.

This is the case in England, and Spain has waited quite a bit, and even cut imports even more because of the huge cost of the war. This can be seen from the landslide in the sales of the Isle of Bay cane sugar in the hands of the Italian merchant group. Old relationship, may not be able to sell a bag of candy.

Therefore, the international market for tropical specialties has gradually fallen into a low period. If there is no rectification at this time, the resistance will only be greater when the market rebounds in the future.In this regard, the East Bank Executive Committee still has a clear understanding, and this is the main reason why Liao Xiaoyao can resolutely implement the policy. He is not alone and helpless!

However, although this matter is beneficial to the country in the long run, not everyone can understand it, especially those groups whose interests have been violated, such as Captain Zhou Yu, who is complaining about this society.He doesn't want to work hard to open some shit factory, whether it's a mechanical processing factory or any other factory, he doesn't want to open it, because it's too troublesome, the management cost is high, and the competition is more intense, but the money he earns is far more than that of dumping sugar , Spices and so on are much less, only fools do it!

But now that the situation is like this, what can he do?The Brazilian Rural Financial Cooperative, the United Industrial Credit Bank, and the Northwest Reclamation Bank have stopped lending. The non-national laborers who used to work in their plantations have a better place to go. After getting paid, I started to look for the future on the Pampa Plain in the south.You know, road construction is also a salary of two yuan, but the working environment is much better than that of a tropical plantation, and the food is slightly better, so why not go there!

Therefore, when the government did this, the tropical plantation economy on the coast of Brazil in the north seemed to be poured with a basin of cold water, and began to cool down rapidly. A small number of them entered the local infrastructure projects, but most of them went south to the Pampa Plain, and began to build transportation projects such as the Yanbu Railway and the Dingyan Highway.

Chen Youcai is now the director of the State Administration of Railways. Logically speaking, he is quite happy about this situation, because the labor demand that was originally full of gaps has been effectively filled.However, considering the emotions of his friend Zhou Yu, he did not express it too bluntly at the moment, not to mention that their family actually also holds a lot of shares in a trading company established in Qingdao County. Cocoa, coffee, dried fruit, vanilla, sisal and other commodities are the main business.

"It's impossible to have 400 million farmers. Although the international market is not big now, it is not a big problem to feed hundreds of thousands of industrial and commercial employees in our country." Chen Youcai laughed, shook his head with a chuckle and said: "Now If the general situation is like this, you should not fight against it, or you will suffer. I heard that the current Minister of the Navy, Rear Admiral Sankai, has always followed the central government's policies, and he may not agree with some of your views."

"I don't know the current situation. It's just that our country is founded on seafaring and has huge interests overseas. If overseas trade is not booming, how will related industries develop? How will relevant talents be cultivated? Don't tell me about exporting industrial products, then we can How big is the marine industry? It’s too small!" Zhou Yu put the bottle on the table, sighed heavily, and said with an uncertain face: "Could it be that this country will turn to land again in the end, digging in the soil? Food? Hmph, people from the army have some problems with the overall situation after all. If there are more farmers, there will be more farmers. And only when there are more farmers, can their army fool more people, and the military leaders can better consolidate their power. But in this way, the country will be destroyed. Knowing that England's marine industry isn't too far behind us."

Indeed, as Zhou Yu said just now, Liao Xiaoyao's national strategy of focusing on the development of the Pampa Plain in the next few years was indeed at the expense of the marine industry, which touched the interests of many people.But the frustrating thing is that they now have natural excuses that are justified and irresistible.This kind of situation has actually happened several times in the 50-year history of the founding of the East Coast. Although this country generally focuses on sea power strategy, it does not mean that land power has no resistance at all. In fact, they also won He took the lead a few times, but for a short period of time. This time Liao Xiaoyao came to power (he is the most suitable person in terms of age and qualifications among the first generation of surviving elders, and there is almost no suspense about being selected), it seems that Lu Quan another victory, just hope that this is also a short-lived victory.

"We can't get involved with things that are too far-reaching, and there is no need to take care of them. Let's focus on the present. According to me, those trading companies of your brothers and sisters, why bother to compete with others for the sugar market? What? Now that the price of this thing has fallen sharply, although it can still make money, it is not much, and it is far from huge profits. Instead of this, it is better to retreat bravely and think of other ways. Someone mentioned it last time What do you think about going to India to do business? I know that the country does not approve of and encourages everyone to do short-term business, but we can try to export our industrial products to India. It will always be no problem, right? This will not only make your trade The company earns money and can continue to maintain the existing scale of the marine industry, why not do it?" Chen Youcai has actually been thinking about this issue for a long time, and has already discussed it with some people, and has a certain idea. Seeing Zhou Yu's dissatisfied and unhappy appearance, he was afraid that he would make some inappropriate remarks in public in the future, so he took the initiative to throw out the topic and divert his attention to other directions.

And Zhou Yu seems to be really interested in this.As a senior naval officer, he has systematically studied and understood the geography, climate, and customs of places like India, Ceylon, and the East Indies. Therefore, he and Chen Youcai focused on chatting with Chen Youcai about the geography, climate, and customs of places like India, Ceylon, and the East Indies. situation, and discussed the prospects of some industrial products such as military resources, medicines, hardware products, and steel bars in the local market.Chen Youcai did not hide his secrets, and he seemed to be interested in wooing Zhou Yu, a rising star in the navy—Minister of the Navy, Rear Admiral Sang Kai, Commander of the First Fleet, was over [-] years old, and it was obviously just a transition, and he would hand over power in a few years ——So we had a very careful discussion with him, and made an appointment to go to India to develop together in the future.

Time passed slowly during the discussion between the two. At around four o'clock that afternoon, the garrison commander of the Hailing Port military base reported to him that Mr. Sebastian, the ambassador of the Kingdom of Spain to the east coast, had arrived in Yancheng Bay by boat. , he came to negotiate with Liao Xiaoyao, chairman of the executive committee.As for whether Hidalgo, who was born in the peninsula, came to negotiate with the people on the east coast, that’s no nonsense, it must be the Pampa Plain, what else?

(End of this chapter)