Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 2382 Greater Bay Area

"Stand at attention! Hats off!" On the bank of the muddy Mobile River, a group of prisoners in prison uniforms hurriedly saluted.

This is a group of poor people, hunched over, frowning, subconsciously took off their hats and saluted fifty steps away, because two officers in navy lieutenant uniforms passed by.While saluting, they carefully peeked at the two heroic officers, as if they were afraid that they would be beaten with sticks if they showed the slightest disrespect.

Prison abuse is nothing new in Air Canada territory on the banks of the Mobile River.Beating with sticks is a common occurrence, and it is not uncommon for them to be hung up without food. The lives of the prisoners are far from as easy as those in the Chilean exile.However, the "murderers" who abused the prisoners were mainly the security personnel of Air Canada, and the naval officers and soldiers rarely participated, although an infantry company of the Landing Battalion was stationed in the city at the mouth of the Mobile River all the year round.

The prison is located on the east bank of the Mobile River and holds hundreds of prisoners. The conditions are not very good because it is a private prison of Air Canada.Many of Air Canada's security personnel are recruited pirates. The prisoners are very clear about the virtues of these people.They opened up a large amount of farmland around the prison to grow cash crops such as cotton and sugar cane in exchange for various resources to survive.

As for how these prisoners came here, it is actually very simple. There are captured pirates, company employees who are dereliction of duty and embezzlement, and captured spies or other criminals. In short, there are many kinds.Like the Southern Railway Company's road guards, railway courts and other institutions, Air Canada also has an armed force authorized by the government (several retired old warships) and judicial power. It is an independent kingdom that sentences no less than a hundred prisoners every year.

The location where the prison is located also belongs to the city of Mobile.The city currently has two areas under its jurisdiction. West City is the core area. It is located in the future Mobile City. Air Canada headquarters is also here. A large number of commercial and industrial enterprises are also located here, with a population of about 2.East City is the area that was later colonized. After driving away the local Indians, the Air Canada Company cut down forests and planted cash crops here. Currently, there are timber processing factories, building material factories, rice mills, flour mills, and oil mills. There are more than ten enterprises and spinning mills, with a total of more than 7000 industrial and agricultural populations.

It can be said that more than 5000 square kilometers in the east and west districts of Mobile City is the essence of Air Canada's territory.Every year, Air Canada can harvest a large amount of grain, timber, building materials, cotton yarn and in-demand tropical commodities here.Food, timber, and building materials are basically used for their own use, and they are not even enough. They need to be imported from the Free State. After all, it is impossible for Air Canada to invest a lot of valuable manpower in these projects with low profit margins.Air Canada's main self-produced products are actually tropical products such as cane sugar, copra, palm oil, and tobacco. Most of them are sold to the East Coast, and a small part is sold to Europe.

Of course, we can't forget the exclusive right to trade in the Caribbean Sea owned by Air Canada.The company purchases a large number of daily necessities, hardware products, mechanical equipment, and chemical products from the east coast, ships them to the territories of Spanish America, the Free State, and Sioux City pirate forces for sale, and then purchases coffee, cocoa, sugar, etc. locally The goods are shipped back to the country, and another sum of money is made.

This back-and-forth trade has brought huge profits to Air Canada over the years and supported their farming activities on the North American continent.However, since ten years ago, many people in the east coast who are jealous of the profits of Air Canada have expressed great dissatisfaction with the large amount of tropical products dumped into the country. The market share of similar products poses a serious threat to national economic security.

The tandem of these people is just like the businessmen in England united to start the East India Company. The energy is still very large, because it involves many places and departments, and it is related to the livelihood of hundreds of thousands of people.Therefore, even though the Navy has repeatedly endorsed Air Canada, it is still a bit overwhelming.In the end, a compromise had to be reached that limited import quotas for tropical goods from the Caribbean, which undoubtedly had a negative impact on Air Canada's bottom line.

In view of this situation, Air Canada is now paying more and more attention to overseas markets.They tried to recruit agents from Europe and tried to sell tropical goods through their channels, competing with the British, Portuguese, Dutch, French, Italians and even the Courlandians.

It should be said that their efforts have produced certain effects, and the company’s profits have rebounded to a certain extent, and they have spare power to go deep into the inland along the Mobile River and establish two colonial towns. Baywater City near the town of Bacchus, and the second is Rhododendron City near the town of Calvert in later generations.

Each of these two colonial towns currently has thousands of permanent residents, about half of whom are from the east coast, a quarter are from conquered Indian tribes, and a quarter are South African Black Banners secretly intercepted by Air Canada.Among these people, the people on the east coast are free people who operate their own industries in the form of family farms. Some of them are even the second generation living in the North American continent. They moved all the way from Mobile City and rely on planting Tobacco, cotton, fruits and vegetables for a living, life is not bad.The lives of Indians and blacks are not so easy. They basically rely on working for the plantations and forest farms run by Air Canada. They have limited freedom and the standard of living. I have to admit that the life of fishing and hunting after a full meal has indeed improved a lot.

In fact, as far as Air Canada itself is concerned, it is unwilling to spend money on the construction of new settlements, because it involves a series of issues such as initial infrastructure investment and later defense costs.Moreover, these new colonial settlements will not be able to make profits in the short term, and the poor tax revenue alone is not enough to offset the huge investment, and it is completely a black hole that swallows funds.On the other hand, there is still a large amount of open space that can be developed near the east and west districts of Mobile City. They can obtain new land by cutting down forests and draining swamp water. This is not difficult at all, and the cost is cheaper than going inland to expand The soil is much lower.

But there is no way.Due to the collective criticism of some businessmen in the country, Air Canada had to reluctantly build new settlements to please some high-level leaders who focused on the situation in the North American continent and reduce the pressure of being attacked.Air Canada’s back office, the Admiralty, also acquiesced to this, and adjusted the deployment, sending a considerable number of marine battalion officers and non-commissioned officers to help the residents of Wanshui and Dujuan to form a security team system with certain combat capabilities.

It should be said that Air Canada’s move has achieved certain results, allowing them to finally get rid of the voices of opposition in the country and retain the exclusive right to trade in the Caribbean Sea—this exclusive right to pay off the loan from the Spanish government (in the form of tariffs) As a mortgage), it should actually be terminated, but because of the efforts of the Navy, it has continued to this day, and to some extent, it is indeed quite hated-it can continue to make huge profits.

However, some independent commentators in China (suspected to be sponsored by the Army) pointed out that it is unrealistic to expect Air Canada to continue to colonize the north.Since this is a profit-oriented colonial trading enterprise, why do the thankless hard colonial work when they can make a lot of money through trade?Taking a step back, even if it colonizes, it should rely on Mobile, the pearl city of the North American continent, for development.There are many primary processing companies here, so the most reasonable choice is to develop new land nearby and build new plantations instead of going to the north to spend money.He predicted that Air Canada will not choose to expand geographically for a long period of time, but will vigorously build the Mobile region to increase the population density and industrial scale here.After all, only when industries are concentrated can costs be effectively reduced; when infrastructure utilization increases, investors can recover costs faster.This has nothing to do with other things, but the laws of market economy.

Here is an extra word.Because Air Canada is headquartered in Mobile, and it has gradually developed into a regional economic center, in recent years it has attracted many native white families from Florida to the neighboring city of Pensacola to operate various plantations. And sent the harvested products to the east and west districts of Mobile for processing, which made a lot of money.Because of this, the population of Pensacola has grown steadily in the past 20 years. At present, more than 5000 whites have settled here, and tens of thousands of mestizos live in manors or rural areas on the outskirts of the city.Pensacola has become the second largest city in the entire Florida colony after St. Augustine, and it is even a city that can be counted on the North American continent.

At present, the Spaniards in Pensacola are even discussing joining hands with Air Canada to open up the territories of both parties, and then build a railway with a mileage of about [-] kilometers to connect the eastern part of Mobile and Pensacola. , to better develop the economy of the areas along the route.

Air Canada is noncommittal, or more precisely, they don't have much interest in it.More of their attention is still betting on trade. Farming is not their specialty, but a trick that the hated army likes to play.If it weren't for the fact that there were too many criticisms and too much pressure, they even only planned to build a city, and they didn't want to carry out extremely risky colonial activities at the cost of reducing shareholder dividends.

The Spaniards in Pensacola were disappointed.They even increased their persuasion on the grounds that the English and French are accelerating the colonization of the North American continent, but in the eyes of Air Canada's leadership, who are always looking at the next quarter's financial statements, this is not an optimal choice.They made it clear that they could lend to the Spaniards at an annual interest rate of 8% to build the railway, and the right to operate the railway must remain in the hands of Air Canada. After weighing the pros and cons, the Spaniards finally gave up on this proposal. The first railway in the North American continent Naturally, the proposal to build the building died down.

But in any case, the deep economic integration of Pensacola and Mobile in the future has become inevitable.A Greater Bay Area economy centered on Mobile, including Wanshui, Dujuan, Pensacola, Xinjing, Fengtian, Rehe, etc., has taken shape.What will happen in the future depends on the prospects of the leading company, Air Canada.

(End of this chapter)