Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 2168 Pampa (29)

The sky is blue and the air is fresh.On the boundless grassland, a straight road stretches into the distance and gradually disappears into the sky.

The grassland is beautiful, with delicious and juicy pastures, colorful wild flowers, and leisurely walking cattle and sheep, but that is just a distant view.In fact, if you look closely, you can see that there is also a lot of gray sand and uneven potholes among the pastures and wildflowers.The existence of these potholes is often a potential threat to the galloping riders.And if it happens to rain for a long time at this time, it will also cause irreversible damage to the carriage.The so-called flatness of the grassland is always relative, nothing more.

In order to better develop the already acquired La Plata Plain, the east bank government has planned several arterial roads in the Pampa area, one of which starts from Yancheng Port and goes westward all the way, finally arriving at Luoyi District in Luoyang Prefecture, the new capital. .The grade of this road is also very high, it is a first-class national road. Not only is the road surface wide and smooth, but also the roadside drainage ditches and street trees are all available, which vividly interprets the style of a first-class national road.

According to the current plan, asphalt will be laid on the road surface of this highway to adapt to the rapid development of traffic on the east coast.Part of the asphalt is self-produced, mainly from the by-products of the coal chemical industry, but the amount is not large, and most of them still rely on imports.As for the source of imports, it is actually very simple, mainly Huaiyuan Island (Trinidad).That island has a huge bitumen lake filled with a seemingly endless supply of sticky bitumen, and maybe some oil, but it shouldn't be worth much.

The activities of people from the east coast on Huaiyuan Island were originally limited to the coastline.Occasional expeditions or conquests into the inland jungle, but not many, and no intention of settlement.That is to say, in recent years, with the rapid development of fishing industry, logging industry, sugar industry, and tobacco planting industry, people on the east coast have begun to move inland, and the population here has become slightly larger—according to According to statistics at that time, the population of Huaiyuan County should be around 8000.

However, after a large amount of asphalt resources were brought into the east coast to build roads—thanks to the improvement of road standards by the Ministry of Communications, first-class national roads can only be paved with asphalt—the population of Huaiyuan Island experienced an explosion.A large number of businessmen, engineering and technical personnel, non-national laborers, soldiers, religious figures, etc. flocked here, and the asphalt mining industry flourished, bringing a lot of money to the local area.

The government of Huaiyuan County organized a rough population census in 1690, and it was estimated that the population of the whole island had exceeded 2, catching up with the size of some local counties, which shows the speed of economic development.Here is an additional note, this number does not include the native Indians of the island, but only includes people from the east coast and foreign non-national laborers. The number of Indians on the island is unknown, but it should be very small. They live scattered in the deepest jungle of the island. Future extinction is almost inevitable.

The bitumen is transported exclusively by ships of the South Sea Transportation Company.There were a dozen of these ships, and they were used almost exclusively to transport asphalt.The asphalt transported back was sent to various ports for unloading, and then scattered and sold. Most of them were used for road construction, and a small part was used as waterproof material, which played a huge role in the national economic construction of the east coast.

The first-class national road from Yancheng Port to Luoyang Mansion is a Sino-foreign joint venture.Among them, the east coast government will contribute 70%, and foreign capital from the Netherlands, Italy, and Courland will contribute 30%. In the future, toll stations will be set up at several necessary passes to return construction funds.To be honest, these foreigners are actually not very willing to invest in this road. They are more willing to invest in enterprises on the east coast and invest in various commercial facilities.But some things are not that simple, you want to buy land and build a store?Okay, come on, first spend money to invest in this national road, and then you are qualified to do other things.Just like Oleg Naryshkin at the beginning, he not only bought the stock of Yanbu Railway, but also built the Naryshkin Building, which is making a lot of money every day. Other foreign businessmen who are interested in the east coast market must also follow this principle. Follow the routine, or you won't even think about doing business.

Of course, some people complained that the East Coast government did not implement an equal trade policy for them. After all, the East Coast businessmen did not have these restrictions when they invested in Europe, but they had various requirements when they entered the East Coast, so they were very unconvinced, but What can I do?This is the way things are in the world. People on the east bank now hold a huge right to speak. At the same time, the common people in China are generally rich, and their enthusiasm for consumption has gradually been established through decades of continuous induction and cultivation. It is no longer the people who only knew how to save There are people - strong armed forces, thriving economic strength, coupled with the media's endless propaganda, people on the East Coast are now more inclined to consume than ever before.

What's interesting is that while complaining about the "unreasonable" policies of the East Coast government, these European businessmen finally opened their pockets and invested in infrastructure on the East Coast after making "painful choices".After all, in their view, the East Coast Republic has a stable political situation and a strong economy. Although the rate of return on infrastructure investment is low and the cycle is long, it will not lose money if it flows slowly.Roads, railways, docks and even more popular commercial real estate are all good places for safe-haven funds.Don’t you see a businessman called “Half City” in a certain island in later generations who likes to invest in infrastructure and keep doing business?For businessmen with huge assets, obtaining stable income is more important than anything else.

In addition to some officials from the East Coast Department of Transportation and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, there are also some foreign investors who came to watch the road construction today, and the most surprising ones are actually a few investors from London.Of course, it is not the rich people who pay the money themselves, but their family members or agents, who represent the Spencer family, Hicks family, Clifford family, Hampton family and so on in London's high society.

In addition, the veteran aristocratic families such as Chamberlain, Churchill, Montague, Montgomery, Salisbury, Thatcher and other families are also vaguely visible. Although they did not send people directly, they also secretly entrusted some representatives to come and check, All of this is done relatively secretly, and I don't want to be too high-profile.The reason is actually easy to understand. Their king William III did not have a good impression of the people on the east coast. After all, it was the army and navy of the people on the east coast who ruined his dream of concurrently serving as the heads of state of the United Kingdom and the Netherlands. Successfully sitting on the throne of the sole overlord of the anti-French alliance, he had to hold his nose and negotiate with Van Boyning in The Hague, negotiating and working together, which was a blow to his dignity.

As a country of Britain, the trade volume with the east coast is really not what it used to be.After the second-generation leadership of the East Bank took full power, their policies towards England also changed to a certain extent, and they began to focus on cultivating its strength, and then used it as the best tool for the East Bank to influence the situation in Europe.Just like the Anglo-Japanese alliance in later generations, Japan is a tool to deal with ambitious Russia, and England is naturally a dog watching the rise of continental European countries-England itself seems to be happy to play such a role, especially Louis XIV is now When you are crazy and expand your territory.

Of course, many of these families also invested heavily in the British North American colonies.With the rapid development of various industries in the UK, North American resources are becoming more and more important to the country.Especially in Virginia, Carolina and other places in the south, more and more people have poured in these years, and the production of cotton, tobacco, and grain has also been expanding day by day. England's annual income from them has already exceeded 100 million pounds. its development speed.

Similar to the UK is France.Because of the absolute dominance of the people on the east coast in the Indian Ocean, no rational decision-maker would bet on one place.And the vast North American colony has become the best place for the personnel and funds of the European countries. They have no choice but to do so.

At this time, I don't know if the Dutch and the Swedes will regret it. They easily gave up a large area of ​​​​North America back then. Now it will be even more difficult to get in again.If it doesn't work, in the future, we can only exchange interests with the upper echelons of these countries to see if we can gain a foothold, but it seems really difficult.

Of course, they can also choose to cooperate with people from the east coast.The well-known Caribbean shipping company on the southern coast of North America owns a large colony, which is currently slightly underdeveloped.If they can get people and money, they might get a piece of the pie, but that seems to require political obedience to the east coast first.

When Li Zheng and Shire were leveling the foundation of the road, they saw this group of well-dressed Englishmen.Li Zheng didn't understand where these big noses came from at the time, but Charles told him in a low voice that they were all from England, and he could "smell them out with his nose".

Although the two east bank farmers wielding shovels and shoveling soil did not participate in these investment projects, they saw many old mainlanders coming and going these days, and they knew in their hearts that they were probably here to invest again.Thinking of this, their subordinates became more motivated!Why are you guys so arrogant, no matter how powerful you are in the Old Continent, why don't you come over and give us money?In this country of ours, one hand can support you, hehe.

The highway continued to extend, the investors continued their absent-minded inspections, and ordinary laborers such as Li Zheng and Shire continued to work.Pampa, a godsend plain, will sooner or later become a huge economic hot spot under the connection of these traffic arteries.There is no doubt that this economic land will continuously provide the necessary nutrients for the East Coast Republic and maintain their unique advantages on this planet.

This point, whether it is ordinary people like Li Zheng or the big shots from London, seems to be convinced.

I'm so busy with the project these days, I haven't been home for three days.The editor kindly recommended this book, but I can't promise to update it every day. I'm really ashamed.

(End of this chapter)