Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 2254 Central Plateau ([-])

"The stocks of the East African Transportation Company have been fired crazy these days!" On September 1694, 9, in a coffee shop in Xinhua Port, Man Xiaofeng, who had returned from the Far East for some time, was chatting with someone.

Because Xinhua Island is an important coffee producing area, people in this island generally like coffee as a drink (and sometimes soup made with cocoa powder). teahouse.Xinhua Port is the largest port on the island, and it is also the seat of the development team government. Every month, it receives a large number of foreign tourists, businessmen, and government officials on official business. Therefore, some teahouses can appear, but the scale is not very large.

Man Xiaofeng actually doesn't care what kind of drink he drinks.Because this teahouse is the closest to the port, and at the same time the terrain is high, you can see his fleet (a total of three large and small ships) sitting here, so every afternoon for many days, he would come here to drink a pot of tea, come and go I got acquainted with the boss.

"I heard that the East African transportation company wants to monopolize the trade with India. The newspapers are blowing all day long, saying how much profit they will make this year and how much they will make next year. I can't remember the exact figure, but it's just scary. Many people are moved, and some Some people even invested all their own money in it, they are simply crazy." The owner of the teahouse sat down and said in a slightly exaggerated tone.

It is raining with the characteristics of Xinhua Island—thunderstorm outside.Man Xiaofeng looked at the large number of ships moored in the dark harbor, and at the small boats that braved the heavy rain to shuttle and sell goods on the sea, and suddenly felt that he seemed to understand why the residents of Xinhua Island were so angry with the East African Transportation Company. The stocks are flocking to them, and they are really seizing every opportunity to make money!

However, Man Xiaofeng will not go to the market to snap up stocks with those excited ordinary citizens, because he has already subscribed a lot of the company's stocks through private channels, with a total investment of more than [-] yuan, which is already serious. Shareholders of the East African Company.

Man Xiaofeng is actually quite optimistic about this commercial company integrating transportation and trade.The East Coast is now fascinated by Indian products, and the demand is huge. Coupled with the promotion and publicity of some "unscrupulous merchants", the sales of products from India have skyrocketed year after year, and in the foreseeable future for a long time , this growth will continue.In short Indian trade is a treasure trove and everyone wants to break in and get a piece of it!

The East African Transportation Company is the sole supplier of Indian goods designated by the state - it is not impossible for others to import goods from India, but you first need to be the agent of the East African Company, which is not without cost - it requires a lot of investment in Northwest India resources, and at the same time meet some requirements of the Diu Management Committee, all of which will cost a lot of money.Of course, the most important thing is that in order to maintain its monopoly position, the East African transportation company needs to pay a large sum of money to the Ministry of Finance every year.Adding in the cost of ordering new ships, recruiting sailors, and expanding warehousing and logistics facilities, it is understandable how short of money the East African transportation company is.Therefore, they decided to issue shares to the whole society, some privately issued additional shares to large investors, and some publicly sold to retail investors, so as to quickly raise the required funds.

As the "Land of Longxing" of the East African transportation company, the residents of Xinhua Island have always had a good impression of this company.As long as they can remember, many people have realized that it was the East African transportation company that brought them chocolates, candies, biscuits and beautiful clothes. When you get older and become the backbone of society, you will find that more labor tools are also transported by East African transport companies.Therefore, for such a company that can be said to have "nurtured" them, many people are still very friendly and willing to buy its stocks. It seems that this can bring the distance between the two parties closer, and at the same time share dividends.

In this way, the East African Transportation Company easily raised several 10 yuan of funds, placed many orders for steam ships to the three major local shipyards, and at the same time recruited and trained sailors aggressively, and expanded the storage and logistics base overseas. The appearance of the field.

Man Xiaofeng has already planned to become a secondary agent of the East African Transportation Company.He owns four boats (one is still being repaired locally), and his strength is not bad.Although they are all powered by sails, if you just run a fixed route at a fixed time, there is basically no problem.

Of course, this does not mean that he will give up the interests of other routes.For example, his ideal state is that his fleet departs from the coast of China every winter, carrying some local specialties and many immigrants, via Brunei, Malacca, Galle, Salalah, Mogadishu, and finally arrives Xinhua Island.Then take a short rest (this is also the time for repairing ships and preparing goods), wait for the arrival of the southwest monsoon, and then go north along the Indian Ocean, passing through the islands and Mogadishu-if there is enough time and profits, He wouldn't mind a trip to Djibouti—Salalah, Shallow Island, and eventually Diu.

Such a route can basically maximize his interests. The disadvantage is that the time is relatively tight, and the time for purchasing materials is not enough, which may affect the final profit to some extent.But no matter what, this is a very profitable route, and many people are trying to grab it.

Man Xiaofeng reckoned that after he had worked steadily on these two routes for a few years, he would be able to save some money.At that time, he will not hesitate to order steamships from the three major local shipyards—well, this will require a long and cumbersome qualification review, but he will not give up his efforts—then his time will be much freer up.

Man Xiaofeng knew very well that the future would definitely be dominated by steamships.Whether it is speed, cargo capacity, safety, or the ability to sail regardless of ocean currents and wind directions, it is far superior to traditional sailing ships.And this kind of ship requires fewer crew members, which means that you can pay a lot less salary and water expenses, and there will be a lot less disputes on board (sea sailors are not good babies).The small cost of coal and machine maintenance pales in comparison to this benefit.

Moreover, the east coast government is also vigorously planning a series of coal water stations along the way, so that passing steamships can add coal, water, and repair ships. Although it seems that the cost is not small, this belongs to infrastructure construction. Determined to perfect them one by one.And only at this time, you have to admire how wise the founding sages on the east bank are!Let’s spread out the map and have a look. People on the east coast have a series of mid-way supplies like a pearl chain, such as Cape Town, Yicheng, Xinhua, Pueba Island, Djibouti, Diu, and Brunei on the sea route leading to China. port.The distance between these ports is moderate, and coal and fresh water can be replenished at any time, so that each ship can free up a lot of space to transport goods and personnel, which means economic benefits.

"Didn't you buy stocks? In fact, this is a good project. In the future, the annual income should be more than 10%, or even 20%. It all depends on how to operate it." Man Xiaofeng asked with a smile.

"Humph, I don't trust those officials. Those people from the East Africa Company are still paying thousands of dollars in my teahouse. If they don't say they won't pay it back, they just give me a white note and don't pay it. If they are in a hurry, they will give you a hundred and two hundred. You see, these grandchildren are so poor that they are still going to India to make a fool of themselves. Wouldn’t it be better to pay me back my tea money earlier?” The owner of the teahouse was a little angry when he said this, and he continued: “ Just this has already cheated me thousands of dollars, and you still want to trick me into buying its stocks? Hmph, go dreaming!"

"Uh..." Man Xiaofeng didn't know what to say at this time, he could only smile awkwardly, speechless.

After sitting for a while, Man Xiaofeng bid farewell to the boss after the rain subsided, then held up his umbrella and returned to the house he rented in the city.He was also idle recently, so he took a government order to transport a group of Melinas to the mainland on the other side.

These Melinas were all captured by the East Coasters in the recent war to conquer the Central Plateau. The total number reached tens of thousands. Man Xiaofeng took the order of 2000 of them and planned to transport them to Zambezi near the mouth of the river.The New China Pioneering Team set up a concentration camp there, which was specially used to house these captives, including a large number of men, women and children.

According to the agreement reached between the East Bank government and the Portuguese, there may be up to [-] Melinas moving along the Zambezi River Basin in the future, moving towards the yellow-black dividing line.The Portuguese asked the east bank government, so naturally they dare not set up obstacles in this matter.Not to mention, how happy the Portuguese manor owners who colonized the Zambezi River Valley were about this!They export all kinds of agricultural products to Xinhua Island on weekdays, and have been thinking hard about how to expand the total export volume for many years. Now there is a door-to-door business, and it is a super big business. How can this not make them ecstatic? ?

What an astonishing number should 10 people eat and drink?Even if it's just passing by for a short time, the amount of food consumed every day is a huge amount!According to gossip circulating privately, the manor owners who operate fields near the mouth of the Zambezi River have received a deposit of 1 yuan in advance from the people on the east coast, which shows how attractive this business is!

Therefore, even if Lisbon and Goa disagree (of course, this possibility is very small), the Portuguese manor owners along the Zambezi River will not agree!No one can force them to give up the pursuit of money, not even the king!

Man Xiaofeng also heard about these things, but he was too lazy to care about the messy things about the Portuguese.All he needed to do was deliver the group of Melinas to the camp near the mouth of the Zambezi River on time, and the task would be complete.This is a short-term business, and nothing is profitable.As for the concern about the progress of the yellow-black dividing line set by the people on the east coast?Sorry, he doesn't care, it's too far from the East Coast mainland.Well, maybe South Africa is also defined as native in official government documents, but so what?He has never regarded the place that is separated by an ocean from the mainland as the mainland, let alone a place farther than South Africa?

Captain Man felt that those were things that big shots should consider.For a small person like him, it is important to honestly focus more on the East African Transportation Company and chase after the wealth he deserves.Although the society on the East Coast does not classify a person's class according to the amount of wealth, if the assets under your name can reach a level that no one can ignore, then you think you can jump to a class.These are what Man Xiaofeng cares more about at this stage, rather than those illusory things!

(End of this chapter)