Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 2400 Ishii Wei and Han Yangcheng

There has been a saying in Fujian since ancient times that "seven mountains, two rivers, one field".On the land of Bamin, there are steep peaks and continuous hills. Except for a few intermountain basins and valleys washed out by rivers, there are not many flat lands.

Such a situation is undoubtedly very insufficient for food production.Even with the introduction of new crops such as potatoes and sweet potatoes that can be grown on sloping land, the whole of Fujian still cannot feed the millions of people.With no choice but to turn to commerce as much as possible, Fujian people can only vigorously develop the cultivation of mountain and forest cash crops to obtain profits, and then import food from the outside world.

Quanzhou and Mawei are the two largest grain import ports in Fujian. A large number of grains from Beiyang (mainly North Korea) and Nanyang (mainly Dutch East Indies and Siam) are traded here, and various special products of Fujian are transported away. Commodities, the most important ones are tea, dried fruit, porcelain, and silk.

However, even with such a boom in foreign trade, life is still difficult for the 400 million people in Fujian.People from the East Coast have carefully inspected the social conditions in the eight prefectures of Fujian and pointed out that the nutritional status of local children is very worrying. Not to mention protein such as fish, meat, and milk, even the intake of grains is seriously insufficient.The health status of them, who depend on corn, sweet potatoes, and potatoes for food, is not at the same level as that of children in Denglai, Ningshao and other east bank ruled areas.Children are like this, and the situation of adults is not too different, all kinds of chronic malnutrition.

The lack of nutrition will undoubtedly cause the degeneration of the human race, and the problem will be very serious in the long run.People in the Zheng Kezang regime in Fujian have also read the books of the Dong'an people and know the truth of this.Their solution is to immigrate out, export the population, reduce the intensity of competition among the eight prefectures of Fujian, and allow everyone to obtain as much resources as possible.

In the early days, they had no choice but to colonize Taiwan with the support of people on the east coast.After years of hard work, the counties in Taipei Prefecture now have a population of 9, and the level of economic and social development has also advanced by leaps and bounds. In one fell swoop, it has leapt from the ignorant era of the natives to the civilized era with a few modern industrial facilities.Among them, the investment and technical assistance from the people on the east coast, and the population and financial assistance from Fuzhou are indispensable and important factors—after all, it is Zheng Kezang's "Land of Prosperity", and it is impossible to justify not throwing money and people. !

However, Taiwan's environment is undoubtedly harsh.The incidence of malaria, which is much higher than that in the general tropical areas, and the complex terrain have brought great troubles to the colonists.It can be said that the first Fujian immigrants who colonized Taiwan were not one in ten, and the subsequent batches of immigrants also had extremely high mortality rates.That is to say, due to the poor living conditions in Fujian and the persistence of the people on the east coast, the Zheng family of Fujian persevered in colonial activities on Taiwan Island, and finally established Taipei Prefecture, which made the power of the Zheng family group truly jump out of the mainland for the first time. into a wider area.

Now, Taiwan’s colonial activities are still in-depth. The successive establishment of Lanyang County (roughly located within the scope of the later Yilan County, named after the Lanyang River in the territory) and Nantun County (roughly located in today’s Taichung City) has made Taipei The government has jurisdiction over six counties including Taipei, Zhuchi, Keelung, Pingnan, Lanyang, and Nantun, with a total population of more than 20.At present, Zheng Kezang also pays more attention to Taipei Prefecture, and keeps giving money and goods to people. At the same time, he transferred a division of the new army from Fuzhou to Nantun to fight against the natives of the Dadu Kingdom, further consolidating his control over Nantun County. Occupation (now there are still a large number of indigenous people resisting in the Four Fields).Zheng Kezang once made it clear to the people on the east coast that he was confident that he would develop the six counties of Taipei Prefecture within ten years and expand the local settled population to more than [-] people, which shows his determination.

The Bank of Taiwan representative who was in charge of the liaison appreciated this.They have considerable economic interests in Taiwan, so they naturally hope that Zheng Kezang will invest more resources in his "land of dragon prosperity" and obtain greater output.For this reason, they will do everything possible to help the Zheng Group avoid the pressure from the Dutch East India Company, so that they can develop and digest Taipei with peace of mind, and build it into their own rear base - Fujian Bafu on the mainland is not very safe , Facing the threat of Dashun's soldiers at all times, as the so-called cunning rabbit has three caves, it is impossible not to find a way out.

Of course, Zheng Kezang's escape route was not limited to Taipei Prefecture, but also in Ishiiwei, located at the southern tip of Mindanao Island.To a certain extent, the development speed of Ishiiwei (under the jurisdiction of Yiweicheng and Sanshou Yuqianhusuo) even surpassed that of Taipei.At least in terms of population size, the population of Ishiiwei in the four large and small cities already has about 9. Although there is a gap compared with the [-] people in Taipei, the growth rate is fast enough, and there is no hope of catching up in the future.

However, Ishiiwei's side is not a good place to develop.Although the terrain is more gentle than Taiwan, there are many plains, which are conducive to the cultivation of food and other crops.But in the final analysis, here is still the tropics, and there is no shortage of obstacles in the way of tropical reclamation, but they are not as serious as Taiwan.After Zheng's established one guard and three guards in one breath, it should not expand in a short time.They are like a boa constrictor that has just swallowed its prey, lying there unable to move. The most important thing now is to digest and consolidate the existing places, lay a solid foundation, increase the population, and develop the economy.

Zheng Kezang and Ishii Guard Commander Zheng Sandao listened to the opinions of the consultants on the East Coast. They are trying their best to recruit immigrants from all over Fujian to go to sea to seek a living. Each household will be given a subsidy. He gave a subsidy of [-] taels of silver. In short, he put in a lot of effort and was full of sincerity.

Ishiiwei currently has a fairly modern port - don't doubt, this port was contracted to the Heishui County Transportation Bureau for upgrading, and the required funds also came from a loan from the Bank of Taiwan - and has begun to export some timber through this port, This is also the only commodity Ishii Wei can offer at this stage.

It was against this background that the three ships including the "Hawthorn" came to Ishiiwei.After the captain Lin Xiaoqi identified himself and paid the entry fee, he led people to investigate the economic and social conditions of the entire Acropolis for several days.The results of the inspection were very disappointing. This place is really poor and empty, and there is nothing to do.

Well, there is indeed timber here that can be exported, and it has been made into standard panels according to the requirements of the people on the east coast, and the timber provided by Ishii Wei is a tropical giant tree with excellent density, flexibility, and corrosion resistance. There is no small demand for this.But the problem is, they can't do this business!For things like wood, you have to go in large quantities to make enough money.How stupid would a passing ship like them berth temporarily to transport a whole pile of wood to Ningbo?This business can only be done by Taiwan banks with deep pockets and sufficient shipping tonnage, and no one else can do it!

But it's not all good news in Ishii Wei.No, after accepting bribes from Lin Xiaoqi, a small local businessman mysteriously told them that in Hanyang Port, which is a few days' voyage to the northeast, there is crude copper for sale locally, and the price is quite cheap. It's a big deal.

Copper is really scarce in mainland China, and the demand on the east coast is also very large, and a large sum of money is spent on importing it every year.Especially since the electric power industry is about to develop slowly, the price of this thing may rise sharply-in fact, the price of copper in Europe has risen several times. After all, the cloud of war hangs over everyone's heads. It is not surprising that the price of copper, an important raw material, has risen at all-if you can catch the local people's line, it will be a good business.

Lin Xiaoqi and the others deeply agreed with this.Therefore, after Ishii Wei purchased some grain, fresh water and live poultry, the three ships immediately pulled anchor and sailed towards Hanyang Port, and arrived at Hanyang at the mouth of the Xinhan River on July 1700, 7. Hong Kong, a colonial city under the rule of Chaozhou general Li Yuanyin.

Because Li Yuanyin only has the territory of Chaozhou Prefecture, Hanyang Port has a population of only a few thousand, and it is scattered in the Xinzhu City at the mouth of the sea (the city is still under construction and is only a prototype at present) and the opposite island.That island was named Haidong Island by Li Yuanyin. It has a large area and many plains. A part of it has been developed, mainly for logging and agriculture.

Hanyang City also has some cultivated land, mostly located near the city.Because of the irrigation of the river, these are high-quality rice fields, which were distributed to the soldiers and their families who came to cultivate.The colonists were very happy to be able to come to Hanyang from Guangdong, which has many mountains and few fields.

Of course, people on the east coast are not interested in their rice fields. What they are interested in is actually the copper mine found nearby, which is the most valuable thing.Li Yuanyin has little ambition and does not intend to monopolize the copper mines. He has already negotiated with the Bank of Taiwan to package the several small copper mines discovered so far to form a joint venture company. The Bank of Taiwan will hold 60% of the shares and the Li family will hold 20%. , and the remaining 20% ​​is open to the public (generally for Chaozhou and Hanyang locals), in exchange for a loan of 30 yuan provided by the Bank of Taiwan to build Hanyang's port terminal, port highway, coastal defense fort and Important highways inside and outside the city.

In the future, the company will also form a large-scale prospecting team to conduct a careful exploration of the surrounding area.The Bank of Taiwan is convinced that there must be a large-scale copper mine in the local area. Although the natives have not discovered it, it does not mean that the people on the east coast cannot find it. The technological gap lies here.

Naturally, the mining right for the discovered copper mine will also belong to this company.And according to regulations, this company named Hanyang Mining Company must only sell the blister copper mined and smelted to enterprises or individuals on the east coast. When selling to foreigners, it needs to submit an application, and the transaction can only be carried out after approval.

After the "Shanzha" arrived at Hanyang Port, the captain Lin Xiaoqi quickly inquired about the news.He found that there is actually not much crude copper circulating in the market, and most of the copper has been supplied to a few powerful traders at negotiated prices.However, he was not discouraged, because the local people were also trying to find ways to explore, and occasionally new copper mines were discovered (but the reserves were not very large). These copper mines were not under the control of Hanyang Mining Company, and some business was still done.

Lin Xiaoqi stayed here for about a week.After procuring as much crude copper as possible on the market, he put the copper as ballast stones on the bottom of the boat, and then had a drink with several clan chiefs who immigrated from Chaozhou Prefecture—obviously, private The mining must be organized by the clans in these places——after contacting the relationship, Shi Shiran set off to leave the port and head for Jiaozhou Port.

(End of this chapter)