Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 2232 Trade and Transportation

"The train we have invented facilitates the movement of goods from one part of the country to another. But the long-distance train is probably not so superior to the two-wheeled and four-wheeled wagons drawn by the draft horse as the first-class steamship as a means of transportation. The speed of a good sailing ship. In recent years the sea freight of many goods, especially coal, has been falling repeatedly relative to the land freight, partly because the cost of building and running ships has fallen much faster than the cost of building and running railroads. At the same time , the comprehensive popularization of steam equipment for loading and unloading bulky goods has also reduced the loading and unloading costs of sea transportation more than land transportation.” On January 1694, 1, in the classroom of the former Qingdao Finance and Accounting Specialized School, which had been upgraded to Qingdao Finance and Economics College, strong Liang Qiangdong, the boss of East Trading Company, can't remember how many times he came to the school to give voluntary lectures.

However, as a well-known person in the business world, Liang Qiangdong enjoys this kind of behavior very much.The young and lovely female students in the school always reminded him of the good times when he was young.It's a pity that time is not forgiving, even though he pays great attention to maintenance, Liang Qiangdong's temples still have some gray hair uncontrollably, which made him very melancholy for a while.

Of course he still has confidence in his body.In addition to being able to gallop across the polo field, he can also charge forward on the battlefield of men and women without resorting to any mysterious drugs from the East or Peru, which makes him very proud.Cough cough, well, that's enough, let's continue the lecture.

"Money orders and other rudimentary instruments in the world's financial markets have long facilitated long-distance trade. The advent of the wire telegraph about a few decades ago has further developed the role of these instruments. Post office wire transfers are familiar to everyone, right? ?This is only a legend in other parts of the world, but it has become popular on the East Coast. There is no doubt that the improvement of such tools has a huge effect on trade, but generally speaking, it is more important for long-distance trade. It is more important for short-distance trade. Now our country has built wired telegraphy in the mainland and some overseas colonies, but due to the barrier of the sea, a perfect network has not yet been formed. Maybe one day in the future, when our submarine cable is successfully laid, In this way, the network can play a greater role, of course, this first requires the electrical industry to make great progress."

"All in all, the rapid development of transportation and communication facilities such as railways, ships, and telegraphs has greatly contributed to trade. In 200, 1486 years ago, the Portuguese Collier Ham carried very little cash. , driving a few small boats of more than 100 tons, we arrived in India. Now, we have opened regular steamer flights on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean, adding fire to the large-scale maritime trade between the American continent and other continents. .Students, don’t underestimate the role of steam ships. It is much superior to sailboats or motor sailboats. It ignores ocean currents and wind directions and is fast. It is an ideal means of transportation for sailing between oceans. Now our country has more than [-] This type of steamship has already greatly stimulated foreign export trade, and these flourishing trade has in turn affected those large-scale production industries in China that are already very strong and further developed with huge capital. Students, do you It has been observed that in the past two years, domestic jobs have increased infinitely. Although the wage level has not increased significantly due to the impact of foreign labor, the package price has dropped slightly. Full employment is the result of large-scale industrial production. benefit."

"The improvement of transportation tools has also greatly improved our quality of life. Now even a non-national laborer is buying tea, sugar, tobacco and other consumer goods from far away. Their clothing materials come from the distant Southern Cone , even Xinhua Island in the Indian Ocean. Building materials and furniture have also experienced this transformation. In the past, many building materials and furniture materials came from the forests in the Duck Lake Basin. But after the great development of the shipping industry, Brazil, Peru, New Zealand Courland and even the free state in North America are supplying us with wood for various purposes. They provide us with high-quality wood for making furniture such as tables and chairs. In some big cities, even some non-national labor carpenters pay great attention to wood Whether it is light, whether it is hard, whether it is durable and whether it is cheap. They select the most suitable part of the wood shipped from all over the world. Large furniture factories use more than [-] types of wood grown in different latitudes and different environments. species, and they also use many types of high-quality wool or leather for their furniture.”

"The thriving industry and transportation industry regard the whole world as their market, so all trade routes with solid foundations will be expanded. Our country is currently doing its best to maintain the trade routes to the United Provinces and Genoa*. They are the two pillars of China's foreign trade. As for the Far East, in the past, because of the long distance, bad sea conditions, ocean currents and wind direction, etc., the transportation cost in the age of sail was too high, and many commodities had to be produced and sold locally, which gave birth to the first batch of Heishui area. The development of early industry. But after steamships became popular, the unfavorable factors of maritime transportation will gradually weaken. When we can manufacture steamships with an all-steel structure of more than [-] tons, all transportation difficulties will be solved. Native The industrial system will have the urge to sell all industrial products, which may be a kind of damage to the weak industry of Blackwater."

After talking eloquently, Liang Qiangdong felt that he spoke quite happily.He didn't have too detailed lesson plans in class, and often went off topic and went to other places.For example, this class was supposed to talk about the development of transportation tools, but Liang Qiangdong also mentioned cable telegrams, post office remittances, and the benefits brought by the development of transportation. There was no point at all, but the students listened It's quite enjoyable - anyway, this is not a compulsory course, just treat it as listening to songs and stories to increase your knowledge.

In fact, Liang Qiangdong himself is most impressed by the development of the transportation industry.As a well-known domestic trade expert on the east coast, Liang Qiangdong transports countless kinds of goods to and from the sea every year.In the previous era of sailing ships, he often bought road goods in order to hedge against the price risk caused by long-term sea transportation.Now Qingdao Port has also opened a steamship flight to Xinjing Port in the Free State, and the transportation time has been greatly shortened, so he rarely appears in the road goods trading center on Expo Avenue.Of course, he is also slowly transforming into the industry. In order to offset the risk of purchasing raw materials, he may still have to go to the trading center to operate in the future, but this is all for later.

After the lecture, there was a free question and answer session.The students asked all kinds of questions, including industry, trade, finance, tax law, and even Liang Qiangdong's personal life.For example, a student asked Liang Qiangdong why he always liked to invite female students to dinner, which caused a burst of laughter in the classroom.

Liang Qiangdong did not answer this question with a dark face.His original wife died of a sudden illness at the beginning of last year, and his father-in-law, who was born in the army, has passed away for several years, so now he is completely in a state where no one controls him, and he doesn't know how chic he is.After being asked about this by the students, he didn't know how to answer. After a few perfunctory words, he announced that get out of class was over, and then hurriedly got into the carriage and went home.

On the way home, Liang Qiangdong's thoughts quickly calmed down.He seriously thought about the direction and policies of the East Coast Republic in the next few years.In his view, the biggest uncertainty or risk in the future is war, that is, a war that may break out between the East Coast and Spain.

In Liang Qiangdong's view, this war is basically inevitable, because many interested people in the East Bank have been waiting for a long time.To some extent, these people actually hope that Carlos II will give up the Spanish throne to the French Bourbon family before his death.Louis XIV is very greedy, and he will definitely not give up the Governor-General of Peru and New Spain, and it will definitely harm the interests of the people on the east coast, so there will be an excuse to send troops at that time.Even, even if Louis XIV was sober enough, the people on the east bank would join the war under the banner of supporting the Habsburg family and try their best to send troops.

Of course, the main targets of the East Coast troops were Peru and the Governor-General of New Spain.People in the Ministry of the Army agreed that this is a golden opportunity that must be grasped, otherwise it may be reviled by future generations in the future.Those warriors wished they could swallow the two governorships in one gulp, regardless of whether they would have indigestion or not, it was really a headache.

Liang Qiangdong faintly felt that the executive committee was actually inclined to war, which can be seen from Chairman Shao Yaoguang's frequent visits to the shipyard for inspections.On the one hand, he wanted to see how the technical research of the "Bianliang" class iron-clad warship was going. On the other hand, he urged the major shipyards to speed up the production of all steam-powered ships. Fast shipping available.

"This Chairman Shao, since I was a child, I felt that he was a hidden war madman, and now it seems to be as expected." After leaning comfortably on the refined Turkish blanket hanging in the carriage, Liang Qiangdong thought silently.He is not very interested in war, but he is very concerned about the rapid development of transportation tools, and this is actually a necessary quality for a qualified sea trader.

War is undoubtedly the catalyst for many technologies, even on the East Coast.A steel steamship with a load capacity of [-] tons or more, if it is left in the past, I am afraid that it will take a lot of time to slowly develop it, and it will be finally completed after several delays.But under the urging of the war, everyone has no right to waste time, so it won't take too long to develop this big guy.

The 3000-5000-ton full-steam iron ship, Tianzun is on top, this is something that can change the rules of maritime trade. Liang Qiangdong feels that he must make a good plan for the company's future development.

(End of this chapter)