Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 2250 New Era ([-])

On July 1694, 7, in an office of the Heishui Management Committee of Heishui County, the atmosphere was filled with smoke and solemn.

A very important meeting is taking place here.All the leaders of the Heishui Management Committee participated in the meeting, mainly including the director of the Heishui Management Committee, the commander of the Whale Sea Squadron of the Navy’s Third Fleet (formerly the Okhotsk Sea Squadron), the general manager of the East Coast Japan Company, and the head of the Heishui County The chief, the deputy commander of the Gendarmerie Command, the commissioner of the Sakhalin District Administrative Office, and the commissioner of the Hokkaido District Administrative Office happen to be the seven members of the Black Water Management Committee.

In addition, the director of Heishui Iron and Steel Works, the director of Heishui Shipyard, the director of Heishui Gun (Assembly) Factory, the general manager of Heishui Fishery Company, the director of Heishui Machinery Factory, the director of Dongan Japan Company, and The manager, the director of the Dabo Botanical Garden, the dean of the Heishui Transportation College, etc., are basically powerful figures in the Heishui area.

It's not easy to be honest with so many great people in one place.Because of the special traffic conditions in the area under the jurisdiction of the Blackwater Management Committee, these top leaders who are usually scattered in various places have to get together, and they can only wait for the port to thaw in mid-to-late May, when the spring is warm and the flowers are blooming.Therefore, the annual working meeting of the cadres of the whole management committee is almost scheduled to be held in late July, the most suitable time of the year.

The 1694 regional cadre work conference has been going on for three days.In the first three days, the next year's budget, the appointment and removal of cadres, and the production of agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry and fishery were discussed. The agenda was relatively simple, and basically all of them had been communicated in advance, so they were approved one after another.

This morning (July 7) the next stage of foreign policy was discussed. Although there were occasional debates during the period, it was generally relatively peaceful. In the end, everyone reached a consensus and the agenda was passed smoothly.However, after lunch, the atmosphere suddenly became serious, because the discussion on production capacity transfer proposed by the director of the management committee Bai Yutang was strongly questioned by the participants, and the scene was very embarrassing for a while.

In fact, Bai Yutang had already communicated with the two local committee members, the head of Heishui County and the commissioner of the Sakhalin District Administrative Office.He pointed out that Denglai and Ningshao have repeatedly proposed to aid in the construction of heavy industry facilities including steel plants to help them develop rapidly. For this reason, they are even willing to provide financial subsidies, and it does not matter if the factories are wholly owned by the Heishui area .

Bai Yutang believes that there is a serious brain drain in the Heishui area.Many skilled workers were poached by the Denglai and Ningshao regions in the south. As a result, the quality of products produced by many factories in the region deteriorated and the delivery period was extended, causing many troubles.Moreover, the two major ports in the Heishui area, Heishui and Dabo, were frozen at the end of October for more than five months, seriously affecting foreign trade.In winter, Denglai, Ningshao and other places had to urgently purchase locally due to shortage of goods, and lost many customers in vain.

In the long run, the local basic industry will develop even if it does not develop, and it will gradually become stronger over time, knocking down the heavy industry that the Heishui area was once proud of, and causing large-scale bankruptcy of the local economy.Instead of sitting still like this, it is better to take the initiative to attack. Taking advantage of the many advantages now, take the initiative to set up factories in Denglai, Ningshao and other places. The majority of the shares are in your own hands, so as to avoid the black water steel plant, Heishui Shipyard, etc. The decline of large backbone enterprises.

Unsurprisingly, Bai Yutang's move aroused doubts from other members of the management committee, and the top leaders of several major state-owned enterprises who attended the meeting also talked a lot, and there was a lot of dissatisfaction in their words.Bai Yutang was also very helpless about this. He had communicated with some committee members and factory directors beforehand, but he did not get their support—this was predictable—but he still wanted to make one last effort at the meeting to persuade Everyone accepted his proposal, but now it seems that the effect is obviously not good.

"Director Bai, these factories are the lifeblood of our Heishui. If we move them out, what will our Heishui people eat? Yes, if we set up factories in Denglai and Ningshao, the profits can be guaranteed, and there may be more than before. , but what about jobs? Unfortunately, they have all disappeared! Our companies can’t just talk about profits, but also social responsibility. Sorry, I don’t agree with this kind of deindustrialization. Local companies have the responsibility to provide locals with reasonable wages. This is the basis for the people of Heishui to continue to maintain their current standard of living." The commissioner of the Sakhalin Regional Administration originally did not want to offend Bai Yutang, but the matter involved the survival of the local industry, so he had to speak out. Otherwise, how many people will scold me in the future.

"There is actually no need to worry too much about the decline of Blackwater Enterprises. It is true that a large number of outstanding workers have left their jobs to go south in recent years, either because of the temptation of high salaries, or because they yearn for a warmer climate, or because of other reasons, which eventually lead to the decline of enterprise production. There are certain problems, but this is by no means a reason for us to give up the local production of products.” At this time, the Heishui county magistrate also had to bite the bullet and come out to object, only to hear him continue: “Based on the Heishui iron and steel plant I am familiar with As an example, I can say in charge that Denglai and Ningshao areas lack the corresponding technology, and it is impossible to establish a mature large-scale steel production enterprise in the short term. I have been to Denglai once before, and I heard that they have built a Iron is smelted in a small furnace, but the technology is very backward, and the molten iron produced is a big problem, which has not been effectively improved. Because, I think the situation of the Heishui Iron and Steel Plant is very good, so there is no need to worry for the time being. The Heishui Machinery Plant may have some troubles In recent years, the machinery processing industry in Denglai and other places has risen rapidly. It is mainly invested by the South Railway Company. Now, what will happen to their livelihood? I really can’t imagine. I think that the management committee and the regional administrative office should increase the allocation of funds to the factory, because they are in a fiercely competitive industry and must increase research and development efforts to launch their own The flagship product of the core technology, otherwise it will always produce some high-end goods, and I am afraid that it will collapse sooner or later. As for the Heishui Shipyard and the Heishui Gun Factory, there are currently only a few ship and weapon repair institutions in Denglai and Ningshao, and they are limited. It is quite big, and we still have considerable advantages. I dare not say what will happen in the future. Maybe they will overtake them, and then our factory will be penniless and turned into a pile of scrap metal. Maybe we can persist and continue to suppress them Related industries. From a financial point of view, it may be the best choice to buy these ship repair yards now and carry out technical transformation, but this will lose a lot of jobs, so Director Bai should think twice."

The speeches of the commissioner of the Sakhalin Regional Administrative Office and the head of Heishui County made Bai Yutang feel a little annoyed.He considered it from a long-term perspective. The weather in the Heishui area is cold and the living environment is not very friendly. It is normal for capable employees to yearn for warmer places, which will inevitably weaken the production level of local enterprises.In addition, the cost of keeping the factory warm and antifreezing must be taken into account. The freezing of the port for a few months in winter is also a big trouble. These delays in business opportunities are fatal and will have a very negative impact on the company in the long run.

The last point is very important, that is, the population of the area under the jurisdiction of the Blackwater Management Committee is relatively small, so the chances of producing talents are naturally not as good as those in the south.In the long-term industrial competition, this is a very huge disadvantage, enough to slowly smooth out all the current technical advantages of the Blackwater Factory.

Combining these factors, Bai Yutang is very pessimistic about the future of the black water industry.He can't just sit back and watch these large, high-quality businesses slowly decay until they're worth nothing.Therefore, it is better to take advantage of the advantages in technology and production and gradually transfer production capacity to the warmer regions in the south.Anyway, the local government also agreed, the company is still controlled by them, and most of the profits belong to them, which greatly protects the interests of Heishui.After all, compared with the so-called taxes, the profits created by enterprises are the bulk.

However, this kind of production capacity transfer or de-industrialization can guarantee the income of the enterprise owner (that is, the Blackwater government) and even make it a higher level, but it is not so friendly to the local workers.There is no doubt that they will lose their jobs slowly, and then they will not be able to maintain the current standard of living, which will eventually lead to the dilapidation and decline of the entire region's economy, which is unacceptable to many local cadres.

Look at the factory directors and managers who attended the meeting. Many of them are from the east coast. Before they came, they didn't even know where Heishui was, let alone their feelings for this land.But after living for a long time and getting married and having children, their buttocks involuntarily tilted here, and they began to seriously think about the future of the Heishui area.

Similar to them are many local cadres in Denglai and Ningshao. They were all Bingtuanbao students who were born in the local area. They strictly followed the will of the central government and carried out their work meticulously. They were the most powerful weapon for the locals to control these feudal towns.However, after a long time, they are still inevitably localized. When thinking about problems, they no longer put local interests as the first priority, and start to consider local and their own interests more.This is human nature, there is no way around it, so it is quite normal that Bai Yutang's move has attracted opposition from many people.The ass decides. There is always a market for local protectionism.

By this point in the meeting, the meeting had actually become a little frozen.The head of Heishui County and the commissioner of the Sakhalin District Administrative Office directly objected. The general manager of the East Coast Japan Company and the commissioner of the Hokkaido District Administrative Office expressed ambiguous attitudes, but the Deputy Commander of the Military Police in charge of the Far East clearly expressed opposition on the grounds that the technology had spread to Qing and Shun countries. risks of.In the end, the navy also expressed its opposition, and the reason was the same as that of the military police, which was worried about the proliferation of technology. The opinions of the army and the navy on this matter were surprisingly unanimous.

So far, there is basically no suspense, and the issue of transferring industrial production capacity has been rejected.While Bai Yutang felt that his authority was being challenged, he was also fully vigilant against these local interest groups.This kind of situation must not only exist in the Heishui family, the local cadres of Denglai and Ningshao must also have their own ideas, and over time, the local will will be formed.The native white nobles in the Spanish American colonies were able to resist Madrid's orders, so don't the officials in the overseas colonies on the east coast have their own interests?Maybe in a few decades, they will become more and more dissatisfied with the restrictions and shackles from the local people, and demand that the local people loosen more policies on them, which is almost inevitable.

At that time, it is estimated that there will still be a series of games and compromises between the mainland and the Far East.It's a very clear truth that people don't kill heaven and earth for themselves.

(End of this chapter)