Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 2049 Pampa (23)

And just as Oleg Naryshkin took the Star of La Plata train to Yancheng Port, Leon Wolfgang Wagner, the governor of the Principality of Courland in Jacobshavn, also took a boat from the north Metropolitan Ping'an County arrived at Nancun Port.

This time he came to the east coast with more than 20 entourages, originally to purchase some machinery and equipment to improve the productivity of the New Courland colony.Because of the influx of a large number of French Huguenots in the past few years, New Courland has many more craftsmen, scholars, accountants, businessmen, and navigators overnight, and the overall level has improved by more than one level, so it can go further. The development of the East Coast, that is, the introduction of a large number of East Coast machinery and equipment to improve the efficiency of industrial and agricultural production.

In the first half of last year, due to the turbulent situation in the Ottoman Empire, a large number of Jews also went to the southern New World through various channels.Most of them were rejected by the East Coast, and had no choice but to move to New Courland like those Huguenots, where they settled and lived.

These people, like those French Protestants, are relatively high-quality immigrants, bringing much-needed capital, technology and business knowledge to New Courland, which further strengthened Governor Wagner's self-confidence, and began to plan to introduce large quantities to the east coast Advanced steam engines and various traditional equipment have realized the mechanized production of a large number of mills, timber factories, building materials factories, seafood processing factories, leather factories and plantations in New Courland.

Before that, Governor Wagner did not dare to make such a delusion.Because of the low technical level of the country, there are limited places for study and training on the east coast. In recent years, they have only built a small-scale Jacob Arsenal to produce some supporting parts and ammunition, and supply them to local and foreign ships (in fact, they mainly supply the east coast. The navy, which can be regarded as a small logistics base for the people on the east coast in the Congo River Basin), is barely mechanized production.In addition, other workshops and factories are relatively backward. It is reluctant to say that they are semi-mechanized, and most of them are still produced by manpower, that is, they are mainly produced by enslaving cheap Congolese slaves.

Governor Wagner certainly knows that large companies on the east coast across the Atlantic Ocean use advanced mechanized production, which is far more efficient than the "small township workshops" in New Courland that enslaved black slaves, and even the production cost is lower.However, due to the lack of talents in New Courland, once the imported east coast machines are damaged due to various reasons, they cannot be repaired, and they often become a pile of broken copper and iron. The huge investment will not see benefits, so the introduction of advanced The equipment is not very aggressive.

But things seem to be a little different now.Among the newly arrived Huguenots and Jews, there are relatively high proportions of craftsmen, senior craftsmen, and even researchers in related industries. After the initial integration, the New Courland Colony already has the confidence to introduce advanced equipment in large quantities.At least, after simple training, these senior craftsmen can use imported East Coast machine tools to process many parts and repair some damaged equipment.Moreover, scholars who have done some research in mathematics, geometry, and mechanics can also try to deconstruct the East Coast machine in reverse. Although it may be difficult to imitate, a large group of reserve talents can be cultivated, and the daily maintenance and maintenance of the machine will be available.

You know, these talents are skilled craftsmen that even the British covet.The stupid French drove them out of the country, and the East Coast people picked and rejected them, so New Courland is not welcome.Governor Wagner reads newspapers and books on the east coast all the year round, and knows that gold, silver, copper, iron and coal are resources, and the experience and intelligence of these high-level talents are also resources, and they are even more in short supply. That's why they have introduced a large number of them in spite of the French trade sanctions. action.Now it seems that this is indeed a good deal!

Therefore, based on such considerations, Governor Wagner took stock of the 1688 financial statements and found that there was a large surplus in the accounts. He immediately moved his mind and planned to go to the east coast to purchase a large number of machinery and equipment (of course, exports are allowed. Part of it) brought back to Jakob Harbor to improve the local industrial production level.

Governor Wagner arrived on the east coast at the beginning of this year (1689).However, when he was buying machinery in Ping'an County, he suddenly contracted appendicitis and suffered from abdominal pain. He had to be admitted to the famous Ping'an Memorial Hospital urgently, and the doctor from Dong'an performed the operation, and the crisis was saved.

It was also the first time that Governor Wagner knew the name of his disease, and it was also the first time he saw the modern east coast hospital and advanced medical equipment.After he was anesthetized with ether gas and fell into a coma, the surgeons at Ping An Memorial Hospital quickly and swiftly helped her remove the lesion, and the operation was very successful.

Of course, Governor Wagner's luck seems to be very good.He has been exercising all the year round and often practiced fencing with the guards. His physical fitness is also very good. Even though he is not young, he still managed to survive the risky period after the operation. The wound was not infected, which is very lucky.

After experiencing this incident, Governor Wagner became more superstitious and adored everything on the east coast. He not only wrote his experience to many friends in the form of letters, bragging about everything on the east coast, but also became more determined to buy goods on the east coast. For advanced machinery and equipment, it is not hesitating to spend more money for this-of course, it must first be something that is allowed to be exported on the east coast.

Governor Wagner stayed in Ping'an County, Xihu County, and Zhen'an County for almost half a month.After leaving a few able-bodied men to sign the purchase agreement, he himself took the express ship of the South China Sea Liner Company to South La Plata, and arrived at Nancun Port, a major trading city, on February 2.He came here originally to purchase a batch of canned food and conveyor belts.There are some small factories opened by people from the east coast nearby to produce such war preparation materials and industrial supplies. The price is cheaper than that of the state-owned large factories. Although the quality is much worse, cheap price is everything.

However, as soon as Governor Wagner arrived here, he met an official from the East Coast Ministry of Foreign Affairs.This gentleman has just returned from Buenos Aires and sent a proposal to the Spanish trial judge on the "joint development" of the Pampa Plain west of the Yanbu Railway.Because they didn't get any reply, they returned to the mainland first, intending to report the situation to their superiors.Unexpectedly, I met Governor Wagner while waiting for the boat at Nancun Port, so I decided to stay for a while to chat with him.

The two of them are actually old acquaintances. They have met many times in Jakobshaven, and the cooperation is quite pleasant.This time, the diplomatic official named Director Zhao stopped Governor Wagner, in fact, it was also for the development of the area west of the Pampa Plain.He went to Jacob's Harbor many times for diplomatic activities, and knew the financial resources of the New Courland Colony, so he moved his mind and wanted to pull them into the chariot and contribute to the development of the Pampa Plain.After all, the government on the east bank has spread too much. Although the fiscal revenue is considerable, the speed of spending money is really scary. Therefore, in fact, they have not prepared much funds for the development of the area west of the Yanbu Railway.But the local officials below are eager to make contributions, and they are going crazy in their desire to make political achievements, so they focus on the money of foreign investors and want to borrow chickens to lay eggs.

You know, in the early days of the East Bank, a generation of local officials used private or foreign capital to engage in PPP projects, which was a slippery one!The original large-scale infrastructure projects such as the Grassland Railway (constructed with the capital of Re*Nai) and the Forest Railway (jointly built by the Northern Italian Consortium) are all successful products of this operation.And now, in order to develop the west of Yanbu Railway, in the case of insufficient national financial allocations, the third generation of local officials have thought of the omnipotent PPP method and want to use social capital or foreign capital for financing. Good build.

Especially now that the situation in Europe is very tense, the desire to pursue safe and safe capital flight is getting stronger and stronger. People on the east coast actually have considerable hopes of attracting some safe-haven capital.Especially the capitals from Northern Italy and the United Provinces. They are all shrouded in the threat of France, and have cooperated with the East Coast for many years. They know very well that the possibility of restarting cooperation is quite high.Therefore, in recent days, the officials of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs have been very busy, frequently visiting the offices of various countries and consortiums on the east coast to discuss cooperation matters.

Today, Director Wang just ran into Governor Wagner in South Village, and suddenly thought that New Courland, relying on the protection of the east coast, has accumulated a lot of money in tropical commodities over the years, and it is an excellent financing target, so he stopped. He wanted to see if there was any possibility of cooperation.

To be honest, Governor Wagner didn't have much interest in Director Zhao's proposal.He is now concentrating on how to buy machines and go back to develop production, especially the several companies started by his nephew and nephew. He wants to expand the production scale as soon as possible, improve production efficiency, and earn huge profits.But what are the people on the east coast doing?Is it possible to persuade him to spend extra money to build roads, build bridges and dig reservoirs on the pampa plain?Can this make money?Well, whether I make money or not, I don't want to get involved, I just want to live my own life.

But these words are not easy for Governor Wagner to express.After all, everything in New Courland is protected by the East Coast people. Without the East Coast people, they would not be able to get to where they are now. Therefore, it is quite embarrassing to refuse the request of the East Coast diplomats in person.Moreover, Governor Wagner thought that even if he managed to evade the past this time, after he returned to Port Jacobs, there would still be envoys from the east coast asking him to invest in the infrastructure of the Pampa Plain to maintain the relationship between the two countries.If this time really comes, Governor Wagner actually has no room for maneuver. He can only hold his nose and agree to pay for it—the east coast is now a lighthouse country. The international order is even more prey to the jungle. As a lighthouse country, shouldn’t someone honor the east coast?

Governor Wagner chatted with Director Zhao for a long time, but in the end he had no choice but to vaguely agree to visit the Pampa Plains and invest in some projects. Only then did Zhao return with satisfaction.But Governor Wagner is a little depressed. There are probably more pumas on the western half of the Pampa Plain than there are people. It will take years and months to recoup the investment in infrastructure projects?But there is not much to do about this matter. The people on the east bank want money, if they don't give it, don't tigers eat people?This person, sometimes you can’t be too fussy. There is a high probability that these investments will be in vain. Let’s treat it as a natural disaster. If you lose it, you will lose it.As long as the thighs of the people on the east coast are thick enough, they can earn money by relying on them in the future. Governor Wagner is absolutely sure of this.

The first two days are busy with work, and the sister-in-law of Kaobo came to stay at home for a few days. I don’t have much time to code and update, sorry.

(End of this chapter)