Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 651 New Qingdao, New Life ([-])

There was the sound of the anchor falling into the water, and another 1200-ton clipper cargo ship docked at the Qingdao Port Wharf.Dozens of dockworkers in sky-blue denim overalls rushed out from under the rest shed as if they heard the firing of the starting gun. Driving a wagon (horse-drawn rail wagon), in short, it seems to be in good order.

The dozens of dockworkers were clearly divided into two factions. The smaller group consisted of curly-haired, black-eyed, Latin-faced Spaniards.They are the old residents of the former Montevideo outpost in Spain. After the East Bank occupied this place, they were forced to buy back the land in their hands. Each of them was only allowed to keep [-] acres of basic farmland, and they were also replaced to a place far away. Outskirts of the port area.Not only that, these Spanish settlers were also forcibly "naturalized" by the Immigration Department of the East Coast Ministry of Civil Affairs, and inexplicably became a member of the China East Coast Republic-of course they were not very willing.

But the situation is stronger than the people. Who has made Spain lose in a row in La Plata and other places? The recognition of these residents, mainly Catalans and Basques, to the Kingdom of Spain is just that. Since the east coast is powerful, let's be obedient citizens first.

Unlike the Spaniards who came to work on the pier during the slack season, another group of dockworkers with as many as 50 to [-] people on the pier wore short hair, but they vaguely looked like Ming people.And if you listen to their conversations with each other, you can be absolutely sure that they are wise people.These people are basically from Yancheng, Taizhou, Rugao and other places in the Jiangbei area. They have similar languages ​​and customs, and they are quite close to each other.

"Be quick!" A bearded man wearing a red sailor uniform from the South Sea Transportation Company stood on the port deck of the ship. After taking a sip of spirits, he wiped his dirty sleeves. At the corner of his mouth, he shouted angrily: "All the catches assigned to you this month are here, move them away quickly, grandma's, they will be fishy to death if you put them in the cabin."

Hearing that fish were distributed from above, the dock workers who were already busy could not help speeding up their actions.With their hard work, the wooden barrels full of salted fish were carefully hoisted to the ground of the pier, and then quickly loaded into the carriage.

The driver of the carriage was already getting impatient at this time, and I saw him staring closely at the wooden barrels full of salted fish, looking at the words "cod", "smooth squid", "calamari" written on the wooden barrels. " Waiting for the words, I couldn't help swallowing a few mouthfuls of saliva.God is sorry, everyone has settled in this port for almost a year. The first crop of grain planted in the ground has not yet been harvested, and the relief food issued by the government (the Ministry of Civil Affairs distributes for new settlements that are not self-sufficient) all day long Grain, mostly miscellaneous grains such as corn and sorghum) almost vomited.Now the superiors are kind enough to send everyone so many buckets of salted fish for the Teeth Festival. This is really a great happy event.

You must know that even in the capital area, which has always been known as affluent, the supply of several major seafood on the market, such as cod, squid, and red shrimp, has decreased sharply, and the prices are extremely expensive.If you want to ask why, hehe, please go to the Battlefield of La Plata to find out how many cans of spinach and cod those soldiers eat a day, and how many cans of spicy shrimp they consume every day.All the good things are eaten by the big soldiers, so naturally there is no share for ordinary people.

What?You said there are eel, grouper, and canned hairtail imported from New China?Sorry, that exorbitant price is definitely something that high-ranking officials and nobles can afford, and I am not blessed to bear it.Now it's pretty good to be able to leak some salted fish from the fingers of the nobles and Qiu Ba, so let's be content.You must know that everything in this country is given priority to the dignitaries and nobles. If you want to live a life where you have milk in the morning, delicious food at noon, and some beer in the evening If you want to live like a fairy, then you can only become a soldier or a technician, there is no other way to go!

"If it weren't for the two calamari fishing floods that broke out in the Falkland Islands this year, and the production of several fishing boats increased greatly, otherwise it would never be your turn to eat this kind of high-quality fish. "The boatswain on the deck obviously drank too much. I saw him pour the last few drops of wine from the cowhide water bag around his waist into his mouth, then smashed his mouth and said: "Also, this In two days, another group of immigrants from Yizhou, Rizhao, Ganyu and other places will come to your place. At the same time, some high-ranking officials will come to inspect. The above decided to temporarily add extra meals for everyone to add joy. Grandma’s is really cheap You guys!"

Everyone who was busy on the pier suddenly realized what the bosun said.I dare say that there are high-ranking officials from Beijing who are coming to inspect. No wonder officials from the district and town have come here to check the progress of the project in the past two days. I have never seen these people running so frequently before.If the higher-ups come to inspect once and add another meal, then everyone would rather come to inspect every day.

Two batches of rail freight cars pulled by Turkmen horses left the pier quickly and headed towards the rear of the port area.Behind the port area is a large construction site, where two-thirds of the more than 2300 residents of Qingdao Port gather here, either to clear and level the land, to dig trenches and lay pipes, or to build walls and repair houses. It's all busy.

In fact, not only them, there are more than 500 employees from the Fourth Bureau of Communications Construction and more than 1000 black laborers from the South African Labor Service Team on the construction site. These people are working hard to build this large area together with the local residents of Qingdao Port Buildings.These buildings are huge in scale, stretching all the way to the seaside. There are single-story brick houses and small buildings with two or three floors. Among them, the building with the largest construction area is a super-large building called Qingdao Expo Hall.

The building is shaped like a large football field. In the middle of the "football field" is a large piece of leveled grass, which is the core exhibition area of ​​the Expo Hall - obviously this is an open-air exhibition hall; and around the exhibition area, a large circle firmly surrounds the exhibition area brick building.Most of these buildings are single-story masonry houses, but there are also many small buildings with two or three floors. There are more than 200 large and small houses in total.

At this time, some wooden signs have been hung in front of some of the completed houses, which read: "Qingdao Commercial Clearing Bank", "La Plata Bank", "Foreign Exchange", "Customs", "Tax "Bureau", "Transaction Registration Center", etc., can literally understand the usefulness of these houses.

In a few months, it will be the opening date of the first Qingdao Autumn Commodities Fair jointly organized by the Ministry of Trade and the Ministry of Finance. As of the middle of this month (January 1648), 1 businessmen have clearly registered to participate in this event. This is the largest international commodity fair in the New World, and all of them have opened special accounts in Qingdao Commercial Bank or Bank of La Plata, and have deposited a certain amount of cash (East Coast silver dollars or Foreign currency), it looks like it is going to flex its muscles at this conference.

According to the estimates of the East Coast Trade Department, if some businessmen from various countries who got the news were added, this commodity expo should attract more than 50 businessmen from various countries to come to negotiate and trade, and the commodity turnover during the entire fair is likely to break through. 100 million yuan.And as the reputation of the Qingdao Autumn Commodity Fair is spread by word of mouth by these merchants, I believe that when the second fair opens in May next year, more merchants will come to trade.

Since it is related to the country's major strategic deployment, the construction of the venues of this fair has been carried out rapidly from the very beginning under repeated orders from local and even regional officials. At present, most of the venue constructions have entered the final stage, and the completed ones Some have also entered the stage of interior decoration.I believe that after another two or three months, by April, the construction and decoration work of the venues should be completely completed. At that time, we only need to send people to clean these houses, and almost all offices can be stationed in, and at the same time, visiting businessmen can rest overnight. Hotels, restaurants, and pubs can also start trial operations in advance.

Two parallel railway tracks lead directly to the warehouse entrance of the Expo Hall. After paying the payment, the merchants who have completed the transaction can go to the warehouse to pick up the goods with their own bill of lading.These goods will be loaded onto rail carriages on the drying yard at the entrance of the warehouse, and then transported to the wharf under the pull of the horses, and then transported to the cargo ships moored at various berths through pulleys and booms, and then transported to all parts of the world ( Mainly Europe) for sale.

Since the businessmen who come to trade have opened current accounts in the Bank of La Plata or Qingdao Commercial Bank in advance, compared with trade in Europe, the people on the east coast can get back their money very quickly, which is very beneficial for the factories to carry out the next step of production. benefit.

At this time, several freight carriages pulling salted fish from the pier had already started to slow down as the drivers stepped on the brake shoes, and finally stopped slowly at the edge of the warehouse drying yard.A group of women who were cooking by the temporary earthen stove immediately showed joy when they heard the men's yelling. Under the organization of the captains of the work teams, they went to the drying ground to pick up salted fish one by one, and then put them on the ground. The pot started to fire.

Some half-grown children who were helping on the construction site were drooling and lingering around the earthen stove. Although they could eat eggs and milk subsidized by the Ministry of Education every day, the dolls obviously had no resistance to meat.From time to time, they rushed to the iron pot, lifted the lid of the pot and looked inside, as if the more they looked at the fish inside, the faster it would be cooked.And every time they do this, they will definitely be scolded by adults.

"A new customer is here! Make more meals! The meal time will also be postponed for two hours!" Just as the construction site was commotion, a cadre from Bingtuanbao suddenly appeared on the construction site on horseback and began to notify everyone one by one. various task forces.

(End of this chapter)