Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 2284 South African Trivia ([-])

"Fire trees and silver flowers close, star bridge iron locks open. The dark dust follows the horses, and the bright moon follows people. The playwrights are full of plums, and the songs are full of plum blossoms. Jinwu can't help the night, and the jade leaks don't remind each other." In August 1695, the South African Open Cape Town Harbour, sunny.

As the largest city in Southern Africa, Freeport Cape Town has always been synonymous with prosperity.A large number of ships call here, and countless merchants trade here. As long as you don't break the law or conspire to overthrow the government on the east coast, then you can do anything here, and no one will care about you.The loose environment and almost no tax rate have made this place a holy place for free trade. Money flows in the streets and alleys of Cape Town, making the whole city seem to be coated even at night. gold.

Of course, today is the Lantern Festival night, and the bustling is even better than in the past.As said in this Tang Dynasty poem, the streets and alleys are brightly lit all night, gas lamps, arc lamps, even bonfires lit by people on the seashore, lanterns hung in gardens, and salutes fired from forts are all Brighten up the night of the city.

On this grand night, no one will walk in brocade clothes. Everyone puts on brightly colored, gorgeous and beautiful clothes, and goes to the streets in small groups with family or friends.The shops and merchants also did not close their doors. They seized the rare opportunity of the year to tidy up the inside and outside of the shop, and at the same time, they prepared tea and gave some small gifts to the customers who entered the shop to make them feel happy.

The hotels and hotels in the city were also full, full of suburban residents who went to the city for fun. They were not going to go home in the dark at night. They planned to have a good day in the city and then go home with the purchased goods.Of course, there are also some foreign businessmen who bought goods living in the hotel, and they joined in actively or passively.Some businessmen even specially arrived in Cape Town half a month before the Lantern Festival, in order to celebrate two important festivals for people on the east coast, which shows the strength of cultural export.

According to the data from the East Coast Ministry of Civil Affairs, after reviewing household registration statistics and analyzing the consumption of various living materials, they concluded that the total population of the country has reached 918.2 million.Among them, the proportion of native-born citizens has exceeded two-thirds, and they are the well-deserved backbone.Among the more than 900 million people, there are about 166 people living in the 167 counties of the Hezhong area, which can be said to be a very important area. After a period of debate and games, the Government Council finally decided to Part of the townships originally managed by the Hezhong area were merged into counties and officially confirmed to be under its jurisdiction. Among them, Zhongshan Township, Manjusri Township, Tuobei Township, and Pioneer Township were merged into Zhongshan County, which is the [-]th county-level administrative unit in the country. Si Town, Liangting Township, Huang'an Township, Hutaopu Township, and Lukou Township were merged into Si County, which is the [-]th county-level administrative unit in the country.

In addition, I heard that the Government Affairs Council is about to formally release the six districts under the new capital Luoyang Prefecture into the national economic control, so that there will be six more county-level administrative units in the country, reaching 173, which is far from the original set The red line for 200 counties to establish a province is not far away, and may be seen within ten years.

As the largest city in South Africa that has surpassed Hezhong County, the total population of Cape County has exceeded [-], of which more than [-] live in Cape Town.Even in the mainland, this is one of the largest cities, which shows that the prosperity of business has brought about almost all-round changes in the city.

However, it is said that the [-] counties in the Hezhong area are also facing the pressure of population outflow.To put it more bluntly, the Yicheng area constitutes a fatal attraction for the population in the river.The Yicheng Port in the Yicheng area is constantly expanding, intending to challenge Dayuan Port’s status as the largest port in Africa; after the Yicheng Railway was put into operation at full capacity, it is now starting to change due to a large number of immigrants going north to the yellow-black dividing line. For the Chengxing Railway, a large amount of funds from the local area has been poured down, and the construction industry has accelerated development; Chenggao Coal Mine, Yicheng Iron and Steel Plant and other enterprises have also developed very well in recent years, and gradually have signs of becoming a heavy industry base in southern Africa; in addition, Yicheng In the wilderness of the western hinterland, the number of gold diggers with the dream of getting rich is also increasing day by day, and the related service industry has also developed accordingly.

Therefore, to sum up, the Nghe Seng area has been developing steadily in all aspects over the years, creating a large number of jobs.Moreover, the salaries of these positions are not bad, and there is also a lot of room for development. Therefore, a strong siphon effect has been created in the eleven counties of the Hezhong area, making local funds, talents, and technology irresistibly attracted to them, boosting the The economic development of the Ue Seng area has also weakened the Qianli of the Hezhong area, which is very distressing.

However, after all, the Hezhong region has a relatively solid foundation. Even though its industrial development is relatively weak and it cannot create too many high-paying jobs, it still relies on its first-mover advantage to steadily overtake the Nghe Seng region.Although it is hard to say which of the two will be better in the future, for now, the lives of the people in Hezhong are still acceptable, although they are being approached rapidly.

The Administrative Office of Hezhong District has studied that if the region wants to develop, it still has to fall on the word "business", that is, to make full use of its geographical advantages and develop a business network that communicates with various places.For example, the mature commercial network leading to Portuguese Angola and New Courland is a good example. They resell local industrial products, local food, and building materials (the food processing industry and building material industry are really not many in the Hezhong area. industry) to the above two places, and then purchase local specialty products and then sell them to the local area, and then purchase industrial products from the local area and return them to South Africa, thus completing a cycle.

It should be said that although this kind of trade cannot make the people in the river rich, it is also a considerable benefit.In particular, New Courland, dominated by the Latvians, now has a population of tens of thousands, and seven or eight colonial cities have been built. The processing companies targeting tropical commodities are one after another, and they are still relatively wealthy overall. .In addition, the local management basically has the experience of studying in the East Coast, and the people at the bottom also know who the buyers of their products are, so they are very obsessed with all kinds of East Coast products on the whole, and they are slowly getting closer culturally. A very solid market.

Of course, people don't necessarily have to go through the Hezhong area to buy things.Now local all-steam-powered ships are beginning to emerge. The largest shipping company, Nanhai Shipping Company, has ordered many such ships and used them to open many new regular liner routes.In the future, this trade route may change. If you don’t want to lose profits in the Hezhong area, it’s better to plan it carefully. At the same time, increase investment in infrastructure, clean up the port, expand the capacity of the coal water station, and maintain it. It is even more necessary to keep up with the ability, so that we can continue to use the geographical advantage to play the role of the middleman.

In addition, the man in the river did not hang himself on a tree.Now the Port of Cape Town has also opened a regular trade route to Australia, starting a new attempt.In the past, most of the trade between the mainland and Australia was goods carried by immigrant ships. The quantity was small and the restrictions were quite large, which seemed very inappropriate.Now, with the gradual development of Australian society, its population and economic scale have reached a new stage, and the desire for foreign trade has greatly increased, which has given opportunities to the people of Hezhong.

At present, the terminal point of the route from Cape Town to Australia is Lonely Mountain Port, which is also a strategic location, which can communicate with Eastern Australia and the East Indies in the north, and is of great value.It is a pity that there are mostly vast oceans in the middle, and there are no other cities that can be traded, which makes the rate of return of the entire route unable to increase.The company operating the route is the East African Shipping Company, but the River Central region wants to establish its own shipping company (namely, the West African Shipping Company) to replace the East African Company that has slowly shifted its business focus to the Indian subcontinent.Officials of the Central River District Administrative Office insisted that, as the River Central region with the "great free port" Cape Town, it is indeed necessary to establish an ocean shipping company under its own control to better protect its own interests. In its heyday, it had a large fleet, but it was a pity that it could not continue to develop.

The money earned from trade, in addition to continuing to expand the fleet and renovate the port, will naturally be invested in the development of inland areas, especially the development of inland arid areas, which urgently need to invest a lot of money.In fact, in the past ten years, the Hezhong District Administrative Office has done some development work in the local area and established some new settlements, such as Shengxi Township (located near the later Sutherland Township), Fuyuan Township (located in Later Fraserburg), Shengzhong Township (located near the later town of Williston), Shengbei Township (located near the later town of Bland Fry), Shengnan Township (located near the later town of West Beaufort) ), Hanhai Township (located near the later Prince Albert Town), Shengdong Township (located near the later Krastrom Township), a seven settlements, which housed about 6000 people.

These new settlements, or herding towns, provide raw materials for the local textile industry in the middle of the river, which has always been struggling, or mining towns, mining some small-scale coal or metal mines, supplying ports, ships, etc. Repairs provide raw materials, and in short, they are indispensable resources to maintain the operation of the local economy.

In fact, according to the original intention of the river area, they would like to continue eastward and develop the wet coastal area.But the mainland has already drawn a line, and those places belong to the Yicheng area. They can't cross the line, so they can only manage the arid inland hinterland.In addition, the local National Development Bureau also suggested that they "actually control" the inland areas as soon as possible. After all, the yellow-black dividing line in the north is in full swing. The railway network that reaches the yellow-black dividing line urgently needs them to start local construction first.

Therefore, there is no other way, and the Hezhong area can only march inland.Using the wealth he has accumulated in business, despite the unfavorable situation of continuous outflow of talents and funds, he bit the bullet and extended his tentacles to the arid inland hinterland, and started his own arduous development work.

(End of this chapter)