Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 2419 Unity River ([-])

A burst of heavy rain drifted across the sky, making everyone who was walking on the forest path panic for a while.They hurriedly took out rain gear, not to cover themselves, but to protect the goods tightly.What is a little rain for yourself compared to those commodities on horseback that can earn a lot of money?

A small village appeared ahead.The house at the head of the village, which is only on the road, looks like a typical east bank house with red bricks and black tiles. This makes the group feel excited that they finally have a place to shelter from the rain.

"Take care of the goods, I don't want to see any loss." Serginho ordered coldly.Because some laden mules and horses died on the road, and they were reluctant to throw away any package of goods, so Serginio himself would not have a riding tool at this time. What a bunch of greedy people.

"Also, don't do any impolite behavior after passing by. Maybe there are patrolmen passing by here, and most of the villagers also have guns, so put away your little thoughts, we are just passing guests." Serginho He added.

Because there were many ex-slave catchers in the team, Serginho was very worried that they would mess things up, so he had to speak out to remind them.Of course, the members of the slave hunting team were not fools. Although they were vicious when they faced the Indians, the people on the east bank had a "violent reputation" in the Tuanjie River Basin, and they were never good.Even those seemingly harmless land reclamation farmers have received basic militia training, and may have followed county and township security teams into Brazil to search for fugitives, so they are not objects of contempt.

Of course, the main reason is that their rifles have been confiscated by the East Coast police when they passed the border post, and they can only be retrieved when they leave.Although they hid some knives and pistols in private, they might not be safe, and they might be weaker than those villagers in terms of force.

"Jose, I'm thirsty, can I have some wine?" A middle-aged man who seemed to be of some status asked.He followed a horse, looked at the package dangling on the horse's back, and licked his chapped lips, as if it was difficult to resist the temptation.

"You'd better not do that, Michelle, or I will deduct your due share." Serginho said coldly.

"You are a cursed villain." Michelle said angrily, but he seemed to care about the money, so he didn't touch the wine bottles after all.

The village is soon there.Sure enough, there was a pergola at the door, and two young men who were sheltering from the rain were carrying rifles. When they saw someone approaching, they immediately stood up, held their rifles, and watched Serginho and his group warily.

"We are envoys sent by the governor of Bahia. We are here to discuss affairs in your country. Please relax, young man. It is impolite to point a gun at a guest." Under Serginho's signal, a entourage who is proficient in Chinese came up said before.

"What is the purpose of your coming to our village?" the militiaman asked.

"Take shelter from the rain and purchase some additional food, if any," said the translator.

"Take a rest under the shelter on the opposite side of the road. Leave after the rain stops, this kind of thunderstorm will not last for too long." The militiaman said vigilantly: "As for food, of course we have it, but the price is not cheap , Food in Tuanjiehe has never been so abundant. If you need it, we can prepare it. By the way, only gold coupons or gold are accepted, we don’t want silver coins.”

In view of the fact that silver coins have been officially excluded from the scope of legal tender, the circulation of silver coins has been legally prohibited in the entire east coast.The government gave the citizens two years to exchange the new currency at the bank—gold exchange certificates were paid at a ratio of 1:1.1—in the future, the silver stored in the East Coast will either be collected by the citizens for jewelry and utensils, or used In the industrial way, it is either collected by the government and used to pay for the foreign trade of state-owned enterprises and to issue foreign loans.

By the way, silver currency will not disappear from overseas colonies just yet.New China, Australia, Rabaul, Diu, Tahiti and the Far Eastern feudal vassals can still use silver coins minted by local mint bureaus.But local people of insight should understand that the circulation of silver coins has entered a countdown. If they are smart enough, they can use more gold coupons from now on, which will help maintain their economic interests.

The group of Portuguese in front of them obviously had never heard of such a thing, and they stared for a while.Most of the food they carried with them has been consumed and needs to be replenished urgently, but they only have some silver coins minted by the Bahia authorities and the silver coins originally circulated on the east coast.Serginho was sure that these east bank villagers could still accept the silver coins on them, but most of them would be slaughtered, which made him hesitate.Moreover, before he came here, he had heard that food prices in the Tuanjie River Basin were significantly higher than other places on the east bank. The prices of wheat, rice, potatoes, and corn were all very high, and even the extremely cheap cured meat was very high. I can't bear it-I can't even afford tea eggs. Is this still the east coast known for its abundance?Sure enough, all gold diggers should be damned!

Of course it would be unfair to blame all the problems on the gold diggers.In fact, in the past two or three years, the large number of gold coupons printed by the East Coast government is also one of the culprits.At the very beginning, the government handed over to the military department, promising to provide 5000 million won in war funds.Of this money, more than [-] million yuan has been printed and spent, and it is basically used to purchase ordnance, food, medicine, tools, build new ships, and recruit recruits (involving the expansion of the army and navy). Intelligence expenditures, diplomatic expenditures, and additional expenditures for troops sent overseas in advance, not to mention the countless money spent in the Moroccan war (what? The reparations were taken away by the Ministry of Finance? Aren’t the white shirts afraid of heaven’s punishment? ?), in short, the cost is still very large.

Of the expenditure of 5000 million won, it can be said that more than two-thirds were spent domestically, which will undoubtedly cause a considerable degree of inflation.As a bulk commodity, food is naturally also affected.According to the latest commodity price list released by the Ministry of Industry and Commerce, the price of beef has increased by 8.5% compared with the same period last year, the price of mutton has increased by 3%, the price of pork has increased by 1.4%, the price of seafood has increased by 4.2%, and the price of barley has increased by 12%. Up 15.4 percent, oats rose 14.3 percent, wheat 7.8 percent, rice 6.3 percent, potatoes 4.9 percent and corn [-] percent.

Except for foods such as sweet potatoes, cassava, and rye, which are not consumed by people on the east coast, the price curves of most foods are on the rise.Such an increase in the price of agricultural products is undoubtedly a great boon for agricultural operators. The East Coast government seems to be trying to make up for the money lost to farmers due to the long-term low food prices in the past 20 years. This time, it did not use administrative means to intervene. Even the National Grain Reserve, which has hoarded a large amount of food, did not sell it on the market to stabilize the price of food. The agriculture of the whole country is thriving, and the number of people willing to go to the frontier to open up wasteland has skyrocketed. This is a surprise.

In the first half of this year, there was more rain in the entire Brazilian plateau region than in previous years. The negative impact of the rainy season was especially serious during the harvest of summer grain, which caused a large-scale reduction in grain production in dozens of counties in Brazil.As the Unity River Basin, which still relies on the food supply in Brazil, it is not surprising that the price of food has soared—the poor gold diggers, the little gold they earned through their hard work, was basically sent to the farmers. This has to be said to be a huge irony, but it also seems to have a positive educational significance.

Serginho and his party became a little speechless after asking a little about the price of grain sold in the village.If the East Coast government hadn't taken strict measures to restrict the entry and sale of foreign farmers' products, they might all want to sell food from Brazil, although the food in Bahia, Pernambuco and other places is not very abundant.

Serginho and others do not plan to buy food in the village.He calculated the food reserves, and decided to hunt for some prey along the way, and if it was not enough, he would go to other villages to buy it.Anyway, the farther south you get, the closer you are to the bustling area, and the food prices are relatively cheaper.

And he also found some other meanings from the high local food prices.People on the east coast have discovered so many gold mines in the Tuanjie River Basin, so many unproductive gold diggers, businessmen, artisans, transporters and even prostitutes rushed over, pushing up the price of food to a brand new level. realm.

"It's a pity for this rich land." Serginho's glasses were full of greed at the moment.On the way, they met an East Coast gem merchant who had sold them emeralds he had collected.It's a pity that there are many armed guards around the businessman, otherwise Serginho would order someone to go up and snatch it, what a pity.

Over the past few years, the Tuanjie River Basin did not know how many gemstones flowed out to the east bank market. Serginho did not make a careful count, but as far as the east bank government has specially established a state-owned jewelry company to process these gemstones, there must be a lot of them. , the total value may even reach millions of dollars.This money, in Europe, is enough for two countries to fight a war to decide where it belongs. As a result, there is no competition from the people on the east coast here, and it is easy to pocket it.

However, he also heard that people on the east coast seem to prefer jade from the east, and they don't like all kinds of rubies, emeralds, sapphires, emeralds, etc., so that emeralds, the top goods, can't show their due value. .If this was in Europe, he would have been robbed of his mother's mind a long time ago!

Of course, Serginho did not intend to sell gems back to Europe from the east coast.One is that he does not have the capital and channels, and the other is that even if people on the east coast love jade, under the guidance of the long-term government, there must be a lot more people who like gems and jade jewelry, and the price is no longer at a low point. The timing is wrong.

"Forget it, what are you thinking about so much? Let's hurry to the military management office of the people on the east coast and protest to their highest officials in the most serious way, asking them not to cross the border to set up settlements, especially in such a fertile Tuanjie River Basin " Serginho quickly adjusted his mood and thought: "We must draw a line for the people on the east coast in advance. In the future, they will definitely fight the Spaniards. Once they occupy the entire Peru and the Viceroyalty of New Spain, What will they think of Brazil, which is wedged into their country? They will definitely make territorial claims? Instead of having conflicts at that time, it is better to reach an agreement in advance now to dispel the ambitions of the people on the east coast and ensure that King Pedro is in the New World Interests."

(End of this chapter)