Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 2077 Hunting Country ([-])

April 1689, 9, sunny.

It's the end of the month again, and Hexi Township once again ushered in a two-day market day.

"Wild vegetables fill the food with Gan Changhuo, and the fallen leaves add fuel to the ancient locust tree. Master, this word is written well, and the spirit is even better, which is admirable." A three-story restaurant just opened at the east end of the market Inside, a Qing guest in a long gown watched Xu Hao put down the writing brush in his hand, and admired him sincerely.

The restaurant is called Cantonese Restaurant, and it is Xu Hao's eighth Cantonese restaurant in the east bank.At the same time, he also opened eleven Penglai restaurants and three Huaiyang restaurants, and owns 22 catering companies across the country, making him a real catering tycoon.This time he came to Hexi Township to invest in the catering industry, not to make money, at least not now.He, Xu, mainly took a fancy to the key geographical location of Hexi Township and the status of Hexi Township as a core city in the future Hexi area, so he arranged the card slots in advance to prepare for the future.

The location where the restaurant is located was originally a piece of saline-alkali land where no crops could be grown, so it was used as land for residences, warehouses or other commercial facilities.Although the east coast is vast and sparsely populated, it attaches great importance to high-quality land. The land used for construction is generally saline-alkali land, sandy land, rocky beach or relatively barren wasteland. Try not to occupy good fertile land.And this undoubtedly needs to be planned from the beginning. The old continent does not have this condition, but the east coast can!

Xu Hao is also a travel enthusiast. He climbed the Andes Mountains, went fishing in Chile, and experienced the thrill of galloping horses in Patagonia.This time he set off from Hexi Township, went west to hunt deep into the hinterland of the Chaco Plain, and finally captured three pumas, which can be said to be a rewarding experience.

While hunting and playing, Xu Hao also accepted the commission of the army to help draw a simple map of some areas, laying the foundation for future advancement and development.Therefore, this greatly extended his journey, and made him stay in the wild for at least fifteen days, and his life became much harder, so the scene of writing the two lines of the poem at the beginning appeared.

"The country of hunting really deserves its reputation. I have been there for more than a month, and I have seen so many magnificent scenery, which opened my heart and mind. It is indeed a worthwhile trip, a worthwhile trip." Xu Hao put it down. With the brush in his hand, he washed his hands in the washbasin next to him, and then said with a smile: "The horse lost by the Spaniards on the prairie has become a wild horse and has adapted to the local environment. I met a wild horse on the road The scene of thousands of horses galloping is really spectacular."

"I also yearn for such a magnificent scenery." Qingke said as he followed Xu Hao, walked slowly to the window facing the street, and said, watching the gradually dense crowd downstairs.

Most of these people who came to the market were farmers from the nearby ten miles and eight villages.Although the Hexi area is not a legal territory on the east coast, the management agency that exists under a different name actually grants land to all the normal cross-border reclamation pioneers in accordance with local practices, and registers it for archival management.

It has been more than 20 years since the implementation of the [-]-acre land grant policy on the east bank.It institutionally guarantees that every farmer can own a piece of land and have an income, which in turn becomes the cornerstone of national stability.Although in the past [-] years, with the rapid development of industry and commerce, and the surplus of food production—strictly speaking, the surplus of grain is not very serious, the main reason is the surplus of almost inexhaustible supply of cheap beef and seafood, which has greatly reduced the population. The demand for grain intake-the downward pressure on the income of farmers is relatively large, which has led to the gradual decline and disintegration of this once the largest middle class group in the country.But in the final analysis, their life is only a little worse than before. As long as the family members are healthy and not disabled, and the husband and wife manage a [-]-acre farmland, if they join an agricultural cooperative (this is almost inevitable), then The lower limit of their income can be guaranteed, that is, even if they can't get rich, they can at least maintain the living standard of a lower middle class, which is quite good.

Of course, we should also notice that in recent years, in order to reduce huge financial consumption, the country has canceled the minimum grain purchase price, and the income of a large number of farmers in the East Coast Republic who mainly focus on grain cultivation has suffered a severe setback. The income of people has generally dropped by 10%-20%. Many people can hardly maintain the income level of the lower middle class and slip into the low-income class.

The army, which has always regarded farmers as its base, was furious.While appealing to the executive committee, they asked them to introduce measures to protect the interests of the farmers. At the same time, through organizations such as the military association in the village, they tried every means to reduce the cost of agricultural production and improve labor efficiency, so as to increase the income level of farmers.

However, their efforts seem to have had little effect.The overall decline of the peasant class is not their own problem, but an inevitable phenomenon after the social and economic development reaches a certain stage.The profits of industry and commerce far exceed that of agriculture, mainly represented by food production, and the income of its practitioners is naturally higher than that of traditional agriculture practitioners.

What can really solve this phenomenon is to reduce the number of agricultural employees, increase the per capita production efficiency of agriculture, and impose huge import tariffs on foreign food. Only by doing so can it be possible to truly increase the income of farmers. There is no other way.

But the problem is that this is contrary to the policy of expanding the territory formulated by the East Bank government, and there is a lot of resistance.You can see from the difficulty of renting land to run a large farm. The local agricultural department will strictly review your qualifications to ensure that you have certain technology, capital, and management level. Basically, the approval is very difficult. And there are several licenses every year.

Under such circumstances, it is difficult to greatly increase the per capita work efficiency of agriculture, because the country needs to invest a large number of people in agriculture, and needs to maintain the small peasant production class in a relatively decent living condition.Although this state has been shaken by shocks over the years, no matter what, at least in the short term, we still cannot see the possibility that the government will change its policy. Sweat changes the local environment bit by bit, making it suitable for human habitation and carrying out various production and business activities.

Local governments are also one of the direct beneficiaries in this kind of frontier development activities.They attract pioneers across the country to purchase through a large number of additional public land development indicators allocated by the central government, thereby obtaining huge financial revenue.In other words, the foothold of their "land finance" is that there are a large number of immigrants to open up wasteland and cultivate land, not anything else.In this way, you can well understand why from the central government to the local government, they are still very fond of the small peasant class and tend to maintain a large peasant middle class.

The pioneer immigrants in the Hexi region were mainly from native immigrants.Especially young people born in inland counties, because there is not enough public land development indicators in the local area, and industry and commerce cannot absorb enough people, so they can only pack their bags and come to Hexi to be the first generation of pioneers. Lay the groundwork for future generations.

Many people who come to the market are women, which is relatively rare in other places.The society of the Eastern Republic is undoubtedly a patriarchal society, and the social culture attaches great importance to the role of patriarchy in society and family management.

However, due to the complexity of real life and the impact of some later ideas, the social culture of the East Coast is more or less more female-oriented than other countries in the Old World.For example, in family life, fathers and parents don’t actually do everything by themselves. They focus more on grasping the family’s macroeconomics, that is, how to manage the industry, purchase real estate, weddings and funerals, etc., which are related to major family income and expenditure items. Decisions are made in matters, and other daily economic expenditures are basically managed by women.

These women are usually in charge of the keys of the house, and even the keys of the safe (if there is one). They are responsible for the purchase of various daily necessities and all kinds of items required for sideline business operations. The degree of social and economic participation is very high. .Whether it is family rearing, hand-weaving, or assisting parents in arranging the expenses of family property, women's unique budgeting and meticulous management have played a great role, which reflects that women's lives on the East Coast are different from women's roles in traditional culture. place.

Even, I heard that the government intends to further improve the social status of women recently, allowing women to become heads of households with agricultural household registration, and as heads of households, sign contracts, buy and sell houses, invest in financial markets, and so on.In the past, it was hard to imagine, because in the East Coast society rooted in traditional Chinese culture, women can basically only handle private property in their private capacity, and cannot handle family property as the head of the household.This reform can be said to be a huge progress, and its impact on the social level cannot be underestimated.

Weaving by hand, buying and selling houses, borrowing food, pawning pledges, buying stocks, signing contracts, etc. It is conceivable that in the near future, women in the east coast society will be deeply involved in economic activities, which is very different from the traditional Chinese society in ancient times. In stark contrast, women are less likely to go out and less involved in economic activities.Among them, there are not only the influencing factors of the concept of future generations brought by the traversers, but also the factors of the vast land and sparse population on the east coast, the extremely difficult work of land reclamation, and the heavy participation of women. The two work together to form the unique culture of the east coast.

The market in Hexi Township only opens two days a month, usually at the end of the month.During these two days, not only local people came to trade with various goods, but also many foreign businessmen came to trade.They often come from the east bank control area on the other side of the river, and the goods are farther away, mostly from the east bank prairie east of the river, which is the most developed area of ​​industry and commerce in the country, producing all kinds of goods. kind of goods.Among the various commodities imported from there, the most popular among the local people in Hexi is undoubtedly a wide variety of farm tools.

The farmers in Hexi are generally skeptical and cautious about expanding the production area, which is determined by their simple economic thinking and traditional living habits. Therefore, they attach great importance to high-quality metal farm tools, high-quality seeds, fertilizers and other things that can greatly increase the yield, rather than rashly expanding the scale of production and bringing unpredictable risks to themselves.

Prudent management, thrifty housekeeping, and women’s greater participation in social and economic activities are the typical characteristics of the pioneers in the Hexi region—to some extent, this is also the common characteristic of the vast number of pioneer farmers on the east coast—and it is precisely It is their tenacity and tenacity of such difficult and bleak management that makes the actual control of the East Coast Republic of China extend tenaciously forward bit by bit.Across mountains, through forests, and across rivers, no one or anything can stop them from pioneering. They have burned their youth and devoted their efforts to transforming piece after piece of land into a prosperous and peaceful country.The original frontier has become the hinterland, the former barren hills have become orchards, and the old grassland has become an endless and regular farmland. The living space under the sun is thus opened up, and future generations will benefit from it.

The pioneer farmers of the East Coast Republic of China are so great!

(End of this chapter)