Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 684 Capital ([-])

On April 1648, 4, in the Yihe area, the autumn air was crisp.

In the vast and vast wilderness, a gray roadbed stretches towards the distant sky.Next to the embankment, there are a large group of road construction workers in sky blue jeans, who are struggling to install the rails.This is the Baichiyabao-Meluobao section of the Northwest Railway. At present, the track installation work has been fully launched. After adding more than [-] people, it is expected to be open to traffic before the end of June.At that time, the train departing from Xiayihe Town will be able to directly transport a large amount of supplies to Fort Merlot, and nearly [-] local residents will enjoy the convenience brought by the leap forward in transportation.

And in the vast rural area south of Baichiyabao and north of Canyon Township, some technicians are also carrying out intense surveying and mapping.They are all technicians from the newly established Northwest Guandao Company, which has a registered capital of 2 yuan—one of them, Chuozhong (Captain Languo, the army company commander), invested 5000 yuan alone.At present, the company has undertaken some gravel road projects between towns, among which the seven-kilometer-long rural road from the agricultural production area near Canyon Township to the railway station is the largest project.It is estimated that the cost of this section of road is almost 2500 yuan per kilometer, and it may be close to 2 yuan when it is fully completed.Fortunately, the money does not need to be invested at one time, otherwise another project of the Northwest Guandao Company would not have to start.

In order to encourage private capital to enter the infrastructure industry, the Government Council gave these road companies that have been established a relatively loose deadline for completion, so that they have sufficient time to prepare materials and most importantly obtain labor from abroad.Foreign labor prices are still quite low, especially those European indentured workers (commonly known as indentured slaves), who are really cheaper to use than those black people, because the initial investment is small, which is very suitable for these customs companies to hire.Anyway, the sites for these roads have been selected, and they are rebuilt on the original dirt roads where people and animals came out.

The cost of road construction is so low that the participants are very satisfied. Perhaps the only risk is that the land in this agricultural area has not been fully allocated, and there are still many public lands (that is, wild land) in the wild. When tolling, some people will transport materials from the wilderness to long distances in order to avoid the toll, which will undoubtedly reduce the revenue of the road company.But this is all a matter for the future, and I believe there will be a solution by then.

Now, instead of thinking about the problem of charging fees, it is better to think about where the labor force for road construction comes from.Judging from the current domestic situation, the shortage of labor force will not be changed for a long time, so the only way to find a way is to go abroad.And where is the source of foreign labor?

Old World Europeans?Sounds good, but it's a bit farther, takes longer, and a bit more expensive.Importing blacks from West Africa?Not to mention that private slavery has not yet been allowed in China, and the employment of black people is also prohibited. Just say that the price of black slaves exported from the Gold Coast to the East Coast is not cheap!The price of the Portuguese is about 150 yuan per person, the price of the Dutch is slightly lower at 120 yuan, and the price of the English is between the two. This price is not very sufficient for major domestic investors. It is undoubtedly unbearable to say.

Then there is only one way left!Well, well, of course, this way is not to emigrate from the Far East. The cost is even more exaggerated. Now the government will immigrate from the Far East regardless of the cost. Private capitalists will only choose Ming people if they have a brain hole. After all, everyone’s money is not a big wind. The ones who came here were saved up pennies and pennies through hard work in the streets and alleys, and they were snatched by braving the enemy's artillery fire with their heads up. The cost that should be saved must be saved!

In this way, the answer is actually ready to come out.Yes, there are a large number of Guarani villages outside the northwestern border of the East Coast Republic, and in the vast La Plata area across the sea, there are even a large number of Kelandi people, it is said that there are hundreds of thousands of them. many.So, what are you waiting for?Why don't you just pick up guys and arrest people, this is labor that doesn't cost money!

Most of the people who came up with this kind of thought were the emerging petty bourgeoisie who were born in the military. They don’t have a lot of money. To start a project, they have to attract many comrades and neighbors to invest together, otherwise the follow-up investment will not be maintained at all.Therefore, for them, careful calculation has almost become an instinct, and they who once possessed force and simple and crude thinking immediately thought of enslaving foreign races to reduce costs for them and complete the primitive accumulation of capital for them.

It just so happens that the East Coast Army is still fighting in La Plata. They have all served there before and know the situation there very well.Some of them, soldiers who have served in the port of Buenos Aires, have long known that two or three hundred so-called Krandi prisoners (mostly for theft, robbery, arson, murder, etc.) are loaded on board almost every day Shipped to the exile places of New China and Australia.Anyway, these Kelandi people have to serve their sentences when they are in exile, so it is better to change their place of serving their sentences to the country, so hello, hello, hello everyone.

The military department can obtain some material benefits from it, and by the way, it also takes care of these veterans, which improves everyone's cohesion.In addition, the emerging petty bourgeoisie transferred from veterans have also obtained a large amount of cheap labor, which is of great benefit to saving costs and completing primitive accumulation.Of course, in the end, the government also enjoyed the benefits as a matter of course: roads were repaired, farm output increased, seafood on the market increased, and inflation fell, which is definitely a happy thing for everyone.

The military department also quickly responded to the opinions of the veterans. On April 4, after the acquiescence of the executive committee, the first ship of 20 Kelandi "prisoners"—in fact, many of them were framed Yes, just because he appeared at the so-called crime scene, and then he was automatically made up as a criminal by the officers on the East Coast—and sent to Canyon Township.The Northwest Pass Road Company paid 30 yuan for each person, and then obtained the right to use these people for three years. This alone can reduce the cost of the rural road to less than 2000 yuan per kilometer, and greatly increase the profit margin.

Three years later, these Kelandi people—if they are still alive—will be released after serving their sentences, and then they will be arranged by the Immigration Department to settle in Australia and New China. In short, they will not stay in the mainland. resident.In order to manage these prisoners, the [-] or [-] veteran shareholders of the Northwest Guandao Company were also granted ten muskets and some cold weapons such as armored sabers with special permission from the government. They were put in long shackles to make sure they were incapable of rioting, fighting or running away.

The primitive accumulation of capital is indeed extremely bloody and violent!In fact, the people on the east coast are not bad, but the slavery of the Spaniards is even more appalling.For example, when they just promoted the guardianship taxation system in Hispaniola Island (that is, taxing and enslaving Indians as slaves), there were still about 30 Caribbeans on the island; but after more than ten years, the number dropped sharply. to 6, and then reduced to 14000 a few years later. After more than 50 years of promoting this system, there are only about [-] Caribs left on the island, which can almost declare the extinction of this race, and this is The reason everyone sees the island is almost all black or mixed-race people-the Spaniards had to introduce a large number of black slaves because of lack of labor.

As an ordinary labor force, the Kelandi people are easy to solve, but the many technical personnel needed to build roads are not easy to solve, because there is a shortage of such talents in the east coast.At this time, you need to find Mr. Sorendino, a well-known labor broker. He has a lot of skills in the Old Continent. Not only can he get a lot of ordinary labor, he can even get you some technicians. The premise is that you can Provide adequate compensation.

For example, there are some mirror-making technicians from the Netherlands in the Henan Glass Factory in Dongfang County. They have created huge economic benefits for the factory by manually polishing lenses, manufacturing telescopes and high-magnification microscopes.As Europe, which began to build a large number of roads in the Roman Empire, there is definitely no shortage of construction professionals. As long as you pay enough to make them tempted, there will always be some technicians who are not so happy. Come serve on the East Coast.

In addition to technical personnel, some construction machinery has also been introduced into the field of infrastructure for the first time, such as the steam plow that has received more and more praise in agriculture.This kind of thing can not only plow the land, but also is good at digging ditches, and its efficiency is absolutely unquestionable.Perhaps its only shortcoming is that the selling price is too high, which is unattainable for the bourgeoisie on the east coast who are still in the stage of primitive accumulation. One or two.

But it doesn't matter if you can't afford it. Nowadays, there are not one or two agricultural machinery leasing companies in China.For example, the wealthy East Coast Company (involving textiles, construction, trade, banking, shipbuilding, military industry and other industries) placed an order for more than 20 steam plows at one go, and at the same time began to build its own professional maintenance team at a cost. Start to promote this kind of machinery to domestic road companies who are interested in investing in the infrastructure industry and farmers who invest in large-scale agriculture.

The rent is not cheap, but it is worth renting for investors who cannot hire enough labor, because it will obviously help them reduce costs and speed up the construction schedule.With the full spread of these private capitals in the country, the First Machinery Factory, Dafeng Agricultural Machinery Factory, and the Second Machinery Factory also began to organize manpower to develop some simple construction machinery to reduce the difficulty of road construction and reduce costs.

A large amount of capital has flowed into the infrastructure or agricultural fields, which has greatly developed these two fields.The development of these fields has led to the development of construction machinery and agricultural machinery, which seems to have formed a virtuous circle.And this cycle can undoubtedly be extended to other industries.

(End of this chapter)