Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 237 The Spaniards in Dongfang Port ([-])

"Extraordinary! Extraordinary! The British East India Company intends to sell the Cape Town Colony. It is rumored that the Dutch East India Company intends to take over. The two parties have already started negotiations."

"The King of England formally demanded in June that the Scots withdraw unconditionally from their English holdings, or he would send his elite Royal Model Army to strike them down."

"Spain's navy and army have suffered consecutive defeats, and they are at a disadvantage in the contest with France."

"The large fleet of the Dutch navy is leaving port, ready to find the main force of the Spanish navy for a decisive battle!"

"After the Smolensk War, the Tsar publicly admitted for the first time that he would order a large number of weapons from the east bank and improve the Russians' armaments again!"

"The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth government is disturbed by Russia's irresponsible military expansion."

Outside the door of Rodriguez's shop, a ten-year-old newspaper boy shouted as he walked with a stack of freshly printed newspapers.This is the "Pravda" just published this week - the only legally published newspaper in the East Coast Republic. This newspaper is sponsored by the Ministry of Education and published once a week. It lists recent famous news at home and abroad.The newsboy in front of him shouted the headlines of each page of the new issue to attract the attention of passers-by.

In the middle of this year, Du Wen, the education committee member, proposed at the meeting of the executive committee that the Ministry of Education should host a national newspaper to guide domestic public opinion, purify the social atmosphere, unify thinking, and enhance national cohesion.The members of the Executive Committee approved this proposal after a little discussion, and issued a document to affiliate a new institution under the Ministry of Education—the Publishing Office.The Publishing Office is an organization that manages all kinds of books and periodicals issued in China. The first thing it did after its establishment was to approve the request of the Ministry of Education to bid for the "Pravda". (For example, Menghu's "National Geographic Magazine") became a full-time official, giving it the status of a legal publication.

After the establishment of the Publishing Office, anyone who wants to publish any publication in the future needs to obtain a license issued by the Publishing Office, otherwise it will be an illegal publication.Establishing illegal publications is the same crime as propagating cults, and depending on the severity of the circumstances, they will be punished with fines, imprisonment, exile or even hanging.Together with the Publishing Department, there is also a newly established news inspection system, that is, the Publishing Department will conduct random inspections of the contents of all publications under its jurisdiction at any time, and those who violate the regulations will be held accountable.

It can be seen from this that the East Coast Republic has very strict control over public opinion, and there are actually very realistic considerations in this.The people on the east coast come from all corners of the country, which is a melting pot of nationalities.Nowadays, relying on propaganda, brainwashing and high-pressure control to change customs, forcibly assimilate immigrants from various countries, and enhance the new immigrants' sense of identity with the country.During this process, if people with ulterior motives continue to advocate freedom of belief, freedom of national habits, etc., it will inevitably cause great confusion in the minds of the people and cause irreparable losses to the government's great cause of assimilation.Books, newspapers and other publications have always been the most effective way in the process of disseminating illegal ideas. Those who come from the 21st century across the world understand the importance of controlling the front line of public opinion, so there is today's news censorship system.

Alvarez yelled, and the newsboy rushed over with bright eyes and asked, "Sir, do you want to buy a newspaper? Today's new "Pravda" only costs five cents. It contains a lot of information. Informative, including the current situation in Europe, it is definitely worth buying a copy and reading carefully."

"You little kid also understands the situation in Europe?" Alvarez was a little amused, reaching into his pocket to take out money.

"Why don't I understand?" The child suddenly became a little annoyed, and said, "I'm already in the fourth grade this year, and I know most of the common words. The teacher said, it won't be too much effort to understand these articles."

The smile on Alvarez's face froze a bit.In Europe and the New World, where most of the adult population is now illiterate, there may never again be a country or region that places so much emphasis on national education as the Eastern Republic.Adult citizens of the East Coast Republic must regularly attend night school cram schools at night to learn cultural knowledge; and school-age children must receive compulsory primary education. Teachers and teaching materials are provided by the state. Families who send their children to school will also receive education. A small subsidy from the Ministry.Conversely, if a parent refuses to send his child to school, he will be punished to a certain extent.

With a multi-pronged approach, the literacy rate of the East Coast Republic is actually very high today.When the literacy rate rises, the sales of periodicals such as newspapers and foreign materials will increase.Of course, ordinary people are not willing to spend money to buy newspapers to read, they are more willing to listen to the anecdotes from various places dictated by the traveling preaching team.Moreover, a five-cent newspaper is by no means cheap, and it can even be said to be a bit expensive.However, most of the people who are willing to buy newspapers are concentrated in government departments, the military, and factories, and these people generally have relatively strong purchasing power.Spend a few cents a month to buy some newspapers and periodicals and come to read them. You can get a lot of useful information and look very fashionable. Therefore, the sales of "Pravda" are actually quite good.

Alvarez took out two nickels from his pocket, stuffed them to the little newsboy in front of him, and then took the newspaper.With the development of the East Coast economy, the circulation of commodities, and the gradual increase in the purchasing power of ordinary people, the demand for sub-coins such as cents in the market has gradually increased.In order not to hinder the development of commerce, the Mint began to mint several styles of cent coins in succession several years ago, with denominations of one cent, two cents and five cents.The shape is round and the material is copper, but it is doped with a lot of base metals such as tin and lead, and it is also very light in weight.

After the emergence of this currency, it is difficult to see dime or dime coins in the market.Without him, bad money drives out good money. Everyone keeps dimes at home and uses cents.Faced with this situation, the Ministry of Finance decided to replace all dime, [-] dime and [-] dime coins with silver coins after application, which slightly stopped the momentum of bad money driving out good money.

The topic is off topic.Due to the increasingly close contacts with people from the east coast in the past five or six years, as the eldest grandson of the Rodriguez family, Alvarez has worked hard to learn Chinese, and he can now read it without any major obstacles. Chinese documents.Therefore, after he took the newspaper, he looked through it carefully.

The first three pages are generally European news. Alvarez flipped through them at random and found that most of them were war news such as you fight me and fight you. It seems that there has been no interruption in these years. He has long been numb up.Only the fourth edition carried news from the New World, from Brazil, from Peru, from New Spain, from La Plata.On the contrary, there is not a lot of news about the East Bank, and even if there is, it is mostly editorials and other commentary articles written by upper-level people in the East Bank.

After flipping through the news, Alvarez found that there was a supplement in the newspaper.There is only one edition of the supplement, which is called "Special Issue for Businessmen", and it publishes some market supply and demand news.For example, someone wants to buy twenty cows, someone wants to sell ten barrels of wine, someone is looking for a number of orchard gardeners, etc. Alvarez naturally doesn't like these small businesses, but he still finds them very interesting.After all, newspapers are still a novelty these days, and the willingness to publish commercial information in newspapers is even more novel.

Only people from the east coast can always give people a sense of freshness!Alvarez smacked his lips, then put the newspaper under his arm, and walked quickly into the shop.

"Has Captain Leo gotten up?" Alvarez asked, taking off his top hat and handing it to the servant.

"Yes, he has finished his breakfast and is waiting for you in the room." The servant hung his hat on the hanger and said respectfully.

Alvarez nodded, then quickly walked through the living room and entered the inner room.Captain Leo was writing something on the table at this time. When he saw Alvarez coming in, he nodded slightly, and then asked, "Alvarez, did you hear anything?"

"No." Alvarez shook his head in frustration, and said, "My dear friend Wang, has been sent to the Northwest Region as a circuit judge, and the president of the local court has changed. Bai, who is a big shot, has lost his power now, and is now working as a scholar, so he basically can't help us much."

Captain Leo paused the pen in his hand, then frowned and said: "Then let's go directly to the military headquarters of the people on the east coast. If we want the people on the east coast to sell naval equipment to us, we must not bypass their military headquarters." .Unfortunately, the Shaw I know seems to have been dispatched to South Africa last year for beating his superiors—well, it seems that he beat Bai—or he can be asked for help.”

"My father also meant the same thing." Alvarez nodded in agreement, and said, "I'm still a little surprised that the bureaucrats of the West India Institute who have always been high above will turn to us one day. It’s all about us currying favor with them.”

"The situation is different." Captain Leo said with a sigh, "The Royal Navy has suffered a lot in the continuous battles with the French and the Dutch, and it is in urgent need of replenishment. The local shipyards lack timber and are underemployed; The shipyards of the New World have no time to replenish so many warships in a short period of time. There is no way, and now they can only turn to the people on the east coast. The shipbuilding technology of the people on the east coast was learned from the Flemish people, which is not bad, and more importantly, they The naval guns are quite outstanding, and this will definitely add a powerful combat capability to the Royal Navy."

Alvarez nodded in agreement.Although there are various dissatisfaction with the policies implemented by the kingdom, the attitudes of the La Plata people and the native peninsula people are always the same in their attitudes towards the Dutch and French.

(End of this chapter)