Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 677 Gradually recovering economy ([-])

The air after the rain was extremely fresh, which relieved the people who had just left the filthy Ping'an Township. The air was full of the smell of green grass. This feeling is really great!

This is Baoan Township, the northernmost township in the East Coast Republic, which belongs to Ping'an County in the Beiyazihu ​​area.Before today (March 1648, 3), the population here was just over a thousand, mainly a group of Ming immigrants from Northern Zhili and the same number of European immigrants from Livonia and Ottoman ( mostly women).Today, the arrival of another 10 Ming immigrants allocated to the local area by the Ministry of Civil Affairs has brought the population here to more than [-], and the construction of large-scale farmland and water conservancy facilities can now be officially launched.

The Sinos River outside the settlement was dredged with dredgers last winter, and then the county and district governments also mobilized local residents, garrisons, and government officials to take turns to widen the river and dig irrigation canals.Even when it was snowing, the river construction site never stopped working for even a single day. The nearby residents, men, women, old and young, worked hard to improve the wild natural environment.

The east bank has only been founded for more than ten years, and the government's execution is quite strong, and various laws and regulations are also strict.Therefore, even Bai Siwen, who is the president of the Circuit Court of the North Yazihu ​​District, has no choice but to take part of the time to dig mud in the river in accordance with the regulations.For a dick country like the East Coast, if your leader doesn't lead by example, then the people below will also follow the story, and the atmosphere will be ruined if you come and go.Besides, everyone has already possessed more resources and enjoyed more benefits than the people at the bottom. In this era of labor shortage due to war, what is it worth to go to the front line regularly to take the lead in physical labor for a while?The early establishment of the country requires such a spirit of hard work and perseverance.Only in this way can we open up the living space for the country and the nation and seize the land under the sun!

There are still a large number of "Brazilians" from the northern mountains (in fact, the origin is mixed, but mainly Portuguese, Italians and British) working in the wild. Most of these are hard-working people who have just arrived in the New World.Unable to get along in the old continent, with the dream of getting rich overnight, they traveled across the ocean to the legendary gold-filled Brazil to seek a living.But Brazil's harsh natural environment, continuous wars, and scarcity of job opportunities made them fall into trouble immediately, and most of them borrowed money to come to the New World, so at this time they could only work with some labor brokers ( The captain has transferred the debt to the labor broker) organized to sell his labor in the East Coast Republic to gradually repay the debt.

These people generally work in lumber mills, construction sites and other places that require heavy physical labor, and their work is fairly quick.The salary is settled daily, and there is no arrears, so the cooperation between the two parties is quite pleasant.To be fair, it was the unremitting efforts of the Portuguese and Brazilian local businessmen in the northern mountains that made the labor force in the Beiyazihu ​​area of ​​the Eastern Republic of China not so scarce.

It is not for nothing that the Portuguese are working so hard.Although they were at war with the Spaniards, the tragedy of being beaten by the East Coasters in La Plata still made the Portuguese feel sad.The Kingdom of Portugal, which is weak in national strength and is still at war with Spain and the Netherlands, naturally dare not go to war with the east coast again, but finding the right opportunity to trick more immigrants from the old continent to Brazil to enrich the local white population is still supported by the Portuguese government. unanimous approval.

Therefore, a large number of "unknown" Italians, Scots, Irish and Portuguese residents were fooled by human traffickers and captains to the New World by various means, and then became many "labor brokers" active in the East Coast and Brazil Another batch of exploited targets.

However, this is not a bad thing for the people on the east coast, because many projects that require a lot of manpower, such as river dredging, road construction, house construction, etc., have been gradually completed with the assistance of these people, and these foreign labors also rely on their own resources. After two or three years, many people even paid off their debts, and then became free citizens, living in nearby cities such as New Dundee, Blacksmith Town, and Captain Ricardo Town This has greatly increased the number of new Brazilians in the Gerard Mountains.

People on the east coast are well aware of the careful thoughts of the Brazilians.However, there are still requests from the other party at present, so it is inconvenient to cause trouble again.You know, the border trade in the Gerard Mountains area is booming now. After the city of Colonia was closed due to war factors, a large number of merchants who were active in this trading city began to move to the Gerard Mountains and start a business again. border trade over land.After all, although the trading market no longer exists, the vast consumer market has not disappeared.Therefore, many merchants from Chile, Chalkas, Peru and other places began to move to the Gerard Mountains area, and started a prosperous border trade with the folk merchants on the east coast of Ping'an County.

The East Bank officials have a tacit attitude towards this kind of border trade, and even sent people to collect taxes, and strictly limited the trading place to a temporary market in Baoan Township to prevent criminals from pretending to be businessmen to spy on the East Bank Various domestic intelligence.To be honest, this kind of border trade has greatly alleviated the economic difficulties in the east coast.Because the Portuguese recruited many small handicraftsmen from the Old World, and then produced various small items such as fishhooks, sewing needles, pins, etc. in the four towns between the Gerard Mountains, which were so large that it was inconvenient for people on the east coast. The tools for large-scale industrial production flowed into the east bank through the border trade market, which eased the shortage of materials in the east bank republic.

The trade volume between the two sides is also increasing year by year.At the beginning, this kind of border trade was still intermittent, and the average transaction amount was only a few hundred yuan per month.After a year of development, at the end of last month (February 1648), the turnover had exceeded 2 yuan, a record high.And in March, which has only passed 3 days, the current turnover has reached more than 3000 yuan, and there is little suspense to hit a new high this month.

And because of frequent border trade, shopping, and tax payment needs, many merchants, handicraftsmen or ordinary manual laborers from Portugal have accumulated more and more east bank banknotes, which undoubtedly makes the circulation of east bank banknotes The scope has made a huge breakthrough, and it has begun to try to enter the Brazilian market, which has far-reaching significance.

It is precisely because of this that the East Coast officials acquiesce and even encourage this kind of trade, which can be seen from the fact that they have issued dozens of merchant licenses to private merchants who apply to do business here.The expansion of trade means the recovery of the economy. As more and more Portuguese settle in the Gerard Mountains, the trade between the two sides will become more and more prosperous in time.And through such a trade channel, the east coast can also sell its own products very conveniently. After all, it is not very safe to rely on the Genoese or the Dutch West India Company for everything, and it is easy to lose the pricing power of the products.And if these Portuguese businessmen can open up the market of Portugal and its colonies, it will also be a considerable income. You must know that the market of Portugal itself, which spans Asia, Africa, and Latin America, is still relatively broad at this time.

In these trades, Portugal flows into the east bank of handmade products, livestock, sugar, shredded tobacco, cotton, fruit, and other agricultural and mining primary products; in comparison, the level of commodities flowing into Portugal from the east bank is much higher, such as : Textiles, dyed leather goods, metal agricultural tools, hardware tools, building materials, high-end furniture, steel, medicine and food.

Especially the last two, because Portuguese planters have paid more and more attention to the pursuit of high profits over the years, plantations such as cotton, tobacco, sugar cane, and cocoa have become popular, while the area of ​​food planting has become smaller and smaller. The east coast imports grain to solve the shortage, and concentrates on growing high value-added cash crops.

And this kind of business has been taken over by the Dafeng Food Processing Factory in Xihu County. The factory exports refined flour to local white farmers, and then mixes the black wheat bran falling from the machine with miscellaneous grains such as sweet potatoes and potatoes. Mixed together, they were also exported to the slaves in the plantations to eat—their masters were reluctant to buy high-grade grains for them to eat.In addition, residues such as soybean meal left after oil extraction from soybeans on the east coast are also exported to Brazil. Many local ranchers will buy this stuff to raise livestock.

At the same time as grain exports increased greatly, aspirin, a drug known as aspirin, was gradually recognized by Portuguese businessmen under the conscious promotion of officials on the east coast, and its export volume also began to increase month by month.At present, the officials on the east bank have established a new settlement in the later San Montenegro town on the banks of the Kai River, west of Baoan Township, and began to transplant a large number of willow trees as a source of raw materials for the production of aspirin, so the settlement It is also commonly known as Willow Camp by the time travelers.

In today's financial difficulties, the Executive Committee and the Government Council have also relaxed a lot. Some things that were not dared to mass-produce and export due to various factors in the past, such as soda ash (widely used in textiles, printing and dyeing, leather, paper, metallurgy and other industries), aspirin, Commodities such as soap have also begun to prepare for large-scale industrial production.At present, they are going to test the waters with Portuguese border traders in the Gerard Mountains, and then vigorously publicize it at the Qingdao Autumn Commodity Fair in May, and then they can almost start to export a large number of key commodities.

And this will undoubtedly bring economic recovery.

(End of this chapter)