Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 2088 Pampa (27)

On November 1689, 11, after a long journey, the convoy of Li Zheng and others finally arrived at Zhongxing Township (located near the later General Acha Township), where Li Zheng's family of four settled down.And Zhongxing Township is obviously not the end of their convoy. In fact, there are still about 15 people going on to Yongchun Township (located near the later town of Bernasconi), where there is a military outpost , and it is also a newly established township. At this time, Jin Dalai, the deputy director-level inspector of the Ministry of Agriculture, is conducting inspections here.

Joining him on the investigation here is the knight Lucas Zweig from the Principality of Courland.This person is a close assistant of Governor Wagner, the former judge of Jacob Port, the capital of the New Courland colony, and now a commercial commissioner, who is responsible for purchasing various commodities from the east coast.

Knight Zweig received a certain degree of education since he was a child (even though his father's economic situation was not optimistic at that time), he was able to use German and Latvian proficiently, and once joined the army of the Principality of Courland to serve in the capital Mitau.After being dispatched to serve in New Courland, he was appointed by Governor Wagner as a judge of the Jakobshaven Court because of his repeated meritorious service in the battle against the Congolese, and has since entered the ranks of the middle class.

After working as a judge for several years, he was quickly rewarded for helping Governor Wagner handle some secret affairs, and he was fully responsible for purchasing goods from the East Coast Republic. He was one of the two commercial commissioners of Port Jacob one.The commercial commissioner does not have to go out to sea with the ship every time. He can sit in the office in Jacobsport to handle affairs. At most, he can go to the dock warehouse to check regularly to see if the accounts are correct. It is very easy and there is still a lot of extra money to be earned. , can be described as relaxed and happy.

However, as a newly appointed official, Zweig still decided to go out to sea with the ship to familiarize himself with the process, and at the same time take a look at the East Coast Republic of China, which he yearns for and admires very much.He has been studying Chinese for a long time with an official who once studied in the east coast, and he can make do with the conversation. Writing is definitely not good, but this is not a big problem.

Governor Wagner went to the east bank at the beginning of the year and bought a large amount of equipment and returned. At the same time, he was forced to invest a considerable amount of money in the Yanbu Railway of the people on the east bank.Governor Wagner told Zweig with a wry smile that it is impossible for the Yanbu Railway to pay dividends in the short term. The money is basically equivalent to being lent to people on the east coast free of charge, and he does not know when he will get it back.Regarding this matter, he will explain it to the local side. I hope the Grand Duke can understand.

The boat led by Knight Zweig set off in July, and it took more than a month to arrive at Jiaohe Port, an important town in the north of the east coast, and then went south along the coastline to the east coast prairie and the Duck Lake basin.Because of the monsoon and ocean currents, they tossed and tossed their way for about a month before finally arriving at the port of Qingdao, a metropolis of trade, and sold out all the goods on board a total of four ships: mainly standard-sized planks, ship masts, tobacco leaves, Cane sugar, dried tropical fruits, herbs, furs, and Congolese slaves.

These commodities are in relatively large demand in the East Coast Republic, some of which can be produced by themselves, and some of which cannot.However, in order to support related industries in New Courland, the Ministry of Industry and Commerce will still force the import of a batch of goods every year, which makes the Courlandians very grateful.They also enjoy the same treatment as the Free State Kingdom in the Caribbean Sea. This black-dominated country exports a large amount of oak, cotton, dried fruits and furs to the east coast, and imports various industrial products. The annual trade volume is very large. To put it bluntly In fact, it is economic support so that they can gain a stronger foothold in the Mo River (Mississippi River) basin.

In fact, is there no domestic substitute for things like oak?How can it be!Brazil is rich in forest resources, what do you want?However, there are restrictions on policy, and this is the only way to increase influence through the economy.

In fact, this time Zweig fully loaded the standard plates and masts of two ships to the east bank, part of which was delivered to Zhenhai Shipyard at Zhenhai Port, and part of it was delivered to Dayuhe Naval Shipyard at Dongfang Port.At the request of the people on the east bank, the remaining shipment of timber was transported to the Yancheng Port wharf and handed over to officials of the local State Development Bureau.

These timbers are all used to build houses on the Pampa Plain. "Pampa" means "forestless plain" in the language of the aborigines. It can be seen that the forest resources on this plain have been scarce to a certain extent, which has caused considerable trouble to the people's production and life.Take the early east coast prairie as an example. There were also not many trees there, and the people did not have enough firewood for cooking, and there was even a lack of fuel for industrial production. They had to cut down a large area of ​​forest in the Duck Lake Basin to come to the rescue.

The current situation facing the Pampa Plain is actually the same.Especially in Yancheng County, there is a shortage of wood, and it can only be imported from home and abroad.This time, Yancheng County cooperated with the National Development Bureau to carry out large-scale colonial development activities in the dry Pampa area, and purchased a lot of wood from outside, including standard-sized planks from the Free State and New Courland, which were used to build Housing, supplementing the shortage of building materials such as masonry.

In fact, Zweig's wood was sold for a good price in Yancheng Port, but he was unable to leave in time, but was semi-forced by officials on the east coast to invite him to Yongchun Township to discuss the feasibility of investing here.To be honest, Knight Zweig had a bit of a headache about this. Before he came, he didn't think about being beaten by the people on the east coast.In fact, Governor Wagner had already bought some stocks and bonds of the Yanbu Railway when he was here at the beginning of the year. It is reasonable to say that the money has been paid. Why was he held back this time?It's a bit too much for people from the east coast to do this, although they have no way to refuse.

Jin Dalai, an official of the Ministry of Agriculture on the East Coast, "suggested" that the Kurlanders invest in farms.Inspector Jin believes that Yongchun Township and other places will be on important transportation lines in the future, and the land has great potential for appreciation and is of great investment value.In other words, these places are currently in a low-value area, and if you take the first step, you will be able to make a fortune in the future.Jindal even introduced the classic case of Russian investor Oleg Naryshkin, pointing out that the stock of the Yanbu railway held by Naryshkin has risen a lot, and the wasteland he bought that year also The value has increased a lot, and the Naryshkin Building has become one of the landmark buildings in Nancun Port. The series of investments made by the Naryshkin family really made a lot of money, which is extremely enviable.

Jindalee believes that it is time for a second Naryshkin miracle.Although the East Coast government is currently making every effort to build a special railway for wool transportation (the progress of the Great Northern Railway has basically stalled after entering Jinglong County), the newly planned Yanke Railway (Yancheng-Cordoba) has been put on the agenda.In the future, once the plan is completed and submitted to the Government Council by the State Administration of Railways, the railway may enter the substantive construction stage.When that time really comes, it may be too late to think about investing along the line.Therefore, while the plan is still being circulated within the government, and the project has not yet been formally approved (the possibility of being rejected is not small), you might as well take a chance and see how your life will turn out.

Knight Zweig actually understood a little when he heard this.He analyzed from the many information he has, the possibility of building this railway is not small, and even if it is rejected for a while, it will continue to be approved in the future, because he has heard vaguely from different channels that the people on the east coast are interested in the current situation. Dongfang County, the capital, is not very satisfied, thinking that it does not meet the needs of the country in the future, and at the same time, its carrying capacity is quite limited (otherwise, a large number of financial and financial departments would not be moved to Qingdao County in the south), and the future relocation of the capital is almost inevitable. .

But now it seems that the capital they decided should be in Cordoba. This place is connected to Chile in the west, Chaco in the north, and Pampa in the south. The geographical location is still quite good.The value of a railway that connects the capital with the southern port and traverses the most important area of ​​the country (Pampa Plain) is naturally self-evident.Zweig actually felt that it was a good intention for Jindal and others to invite him to invest in the agriculture along this railway line, because it was indeed profitable.He can even take the opportunity to buy some wasteland, build some logistics storage facilities, and collect money when the railway is completed in the future.But this requires accurate railway route information, which is not something that can be done now.

Under the persecution of the people on the east coast, Knight Zweig couldn't bear the pressure, and finally nodded and agreed to invest in some farms, but the scale would not be too large, because the Duchy of Courland only had more than [-] people, and there was not enough manpower to go there. Develop overseas.At present, a new Courland colony has exhausted them, and they have to try their best to recruit people in Livonia, Poland and other places. Now it is really difficult to invest in farms on the Pampa Plain of the people on the east coast. It can only make a few hundred people think about it.As for the matter of buying land and investing in railways, it is not urgent for the time being, and we can slowly find a way.

In addition, Zweig actually asked Jindal to report to the relevant higher-level departments on the east coast. Recently, South Africa has greatly reduced the export of grain, cured meat, seafood and alcohol to New Courland. The price of food in the local market has skyrocketed, seriously affecting the normal economic order.Therefore, he asked the East Coast government to re-examine its policies, increase grain exports to New Courland, and stabilize local food prices.

He believes that New Courland is an important helper for the East Coast Republic to control Southwest Africa, and the economic complementarity between the two countries is also very strong. Therefore, the East Coast government should take care of their interests at critical moments and stabilize the situation of their staunch allies.

Jin Dalai was a little stunned when he heard the news.In fact, he didn't know what happened, why South Africa reduced its food exports to New Courland.He felt that he had to go back and check the information. After all, he hadn't paid attention to the grain production in South Africa for a long time. Maybe the local area was affected by bad weather?Perhaps because of the need for war or massive construction?Or was it a combination of both, which led to a reduction in food exports?

Jin Dalai is not very sure about this, he needs more detailed information to understand all this.But based on his past experience, this matter is not simple, and something must have happened in South Africa.Could it be that a super-large gold mining area or coal storage belt has been discovered?Jindalee guessed.

(End of this chapter)