Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 716 Social Change ([-])

Captain Ventura stood at the bow of the ship and just sang an Italian folk song. He sang this song with a beautiful and breezy melody with his broken gong voice, which was a kind of torture for the passengers.

Agnelli curled up in the cabin with a smile on her lips.Although the song was sung appallingly, and the accent was rather strange to him—he was from Naples, while Captain Ventura was from Tuscany—but this did not prevent him from being in a good mood because he met a fellow countryman. become more enjoyable.

The boat sailed on the vast and boundless Milin Lake, which is a deep water area that has been simply dredged, with a water depth of seven or eight meters, which can be called a golden waterway.But to the east, Agnelli could still see some shallow swampy areas—it was obvious from the dense reeds.These reeds grow in the saltwater lake, but they grow extremely luxuriantly. There are a large number of waterfowl and wild ducks inhabiting it, but there are no crocodiles that are common in the northern duck lake.

There is a large amount of farmland on the west bank of the lake. According to a passenger next to him, these farmlands belong to Meilin Township and Qishan Township.It's early spring now, and the field is full of green wheat seedlings, but it's a pity that they are too far away to see the growth of the wheat seedlings.Occasionally, there are rows of houses with red bricks and blue tiles dotted among the vertical and horizontal wheat fields and water canals. At noon, the smoke from cooking smoke floated over the village, which reminded Agnelli, who was used to running around for a long time. own home.

"Now the country has liberalized the non-governmental wheat trade." Agnelli, who was thinking about it, suddenly heard a loud voice. He was startled at first, but when he looked up, he found that it was Captain Ventura. I knew when I was already standing in front of Agnelli.

"Yes, I've heard that too. Maybe this will intensify the competition in the machine-made flour industry." Agnelli smiled, took off his water bag from his waist, took a sip, and said: "For the farmers It is said that war is profit, a good life, new clothes for their children, and a brand new carriage. Although the war is not over, with the expansion of arable land, the continuous improvement of irrigation measures, and the three-crop rotation With the in-depth promotion of the system, the situation of increasing grain production year after year may not be improved for many years to come. Now the state allows more and more fluctuations in grain prices, which means that the space for grain price declines has been opened..."

"But isn't it good for the machine milling industry?" Captain Ventura asked immediately.

"In theory, this is the case, but in fact, European grain prices are also falling rapidly. Didn't you see that just last month, the export price of wheat in the Racha Bulk Trade Center has dropped to 30 yuan/metric ton ——This is the price of the Dutch West India Company." Agnelli scratched his head and said: "The war in Europe is almost over, production has resumed in many places, and grain prices have experienced a series of declines. It is not good news for the industry, because the small domestic market is completely unable to digest the current excess production capacity, if it cannot be exported, the domestic machine milling industry is bound to usher in a painful process of eliminating excess production capacity."

"Aren't you a tinkerer? Why do you speak in the same tone as those officials and lords now?" Captain Ventura shook his head, as if he couldn't understand.

"I'm the most educated tinker on the entire East Coast, and I've read a little in Naples." Agnelli raised his chin contentedly, and then said: "Of course I recently talked to some veterans of the machine milling industry. After chatting for a long time, I have some understanding of this industry. All in all, the competition in this industry is fierce now, the domestic market is saturated, and everyone is fighting for the international market. With the changes in the general situation, we first need to reduce costs. "

"Does the cost include this too?" Captain Ventura bent down, picked up a piece of black coal from the cargo hold, and asked thoughtfully.

"This is clean coal from Tacheng, and I'm afraid no factory in China can afford it." Agnelli said awkwardly, "Now everyone basically uses Ping'an Coal produced by the Ping'an Mining Bureau, and some frugal bosses even Organize employees or family members to go out to mow grass, collect firewood and store it, and then use it as fuel for steam boilers. After all, the implementation of the "Forest Law" is becoming more and more strict, and individuals can no longer cut down trees at will."

"The coal in the Ping'an Mining Bureau is only 80 cents a ton, which is already very cheap. How much coal does your broken steam engine consume per hour? Is it 12 kilograms? I don't think so! That is to say, the coal costing 200 cents is enough for you to burn. It’s more than [-] hours, which is almost one day’s production time. Counting [-] days a year, the total is less than [-] yuan. Your mill can process about [-] tons of wheat a year, and the output of flour may be about [-] tons. It’s only a few cents a ton when converted into the cost, which is nothing at all.” Captain Ventura pouted and said.In his opinion, the price of this fuel is already very low, but businessmen always want to pursue the highest profit, so it is reasonable to save some fuel money.

But it is said that coal, a fuel, is really getting deeper and deeper into the daily production and life of the people on the east coast.This can be seen from the increasingly popular coal trading in Meihe Township, Ping'an County. Now the local township government has built a huge coal wharf along the Meihe River, which is specially used for coal stacking, transportation and even trading.

A large number of coal brokers are active among them. They form formal and informal companies one after another. They do not engage in coal mining and excavation, but purchase coal from the Ping'an Mining Bureau, and then organize their own manpower. and ships to transport the coal to designated locations for sale.With the gradual liberalization of industry and commerce in the country, some private capital who are unwilling to invest in industry began to enter the coal sales industry. After a bloody reshuffle, the three major trading companies have jointly monopolized the coal trade.

Behind each of these companies there are many investors from across the country, such as Bai Siwen, who started out as a beef trader. This gentleman pulled a group of people from the legal department (such as Jiang Nanqi, etc.) in the political arena on the East Bank to jointly invest, and then monopolized a considerable amount of money. Part of the coal produced by Ping'an Coal Mine.They transported the coal bought by the whole ship to nearby "densely populated" big cities, such as Ping'an County, and then handed over to local wholesalers for sale separately.

Wholesalers generally have special stores in the city. They buy the coal and then crush it further—this is good for sales. Coal grades are sold at different grades.Those who buy these coals include small businessmen, small restaurant owners, small business owners, etc. The sales volume is quite good, and the profits are relatively objective.

Of course, there are also quite a few ordinary residents who buy coal for cooking or heating, because the domestic production of briquettes is still quite limited, and many people can only buy slightly more expensive coal when they can't wait.Fortunately, one ton is less than one yuan (terminal retail price), which is enough to burn by yourself for a long time, so it is still affordable.All in all, after years of publicity, education and marketing, coal has undoubtedly become a very common mass consumer product in today's East Coast Republic.Bai Siwen and others took a fancy to and intervened in the trade of this commodity, not aimlessly.

Over the years, the Executive Committee and the Government Council have been encouraging various domestic industries and the private sector to reduce tree felling, thereby using coal as an alternative fuel on a large scale, and have issued a series of policies for this purpose.For example, the construction of coal terminals, coal storage bases, and coal stations in various places promoted by Bai Siwen and others is in full swing. These projects are jointly funded by the central finance and local finance, and also absorb some private capital.According to the words of Bai Siwen and others, it means that a large amount of currency has been recovered, a large amount of working capital has been deposited, and domestic inflation has been reduced.Of course, the above is all nonsense, the essence of these projects is still convenient for them to make a fortune by monopolizing the coal trade.

However, judging from the current situation, the effects of these policies are quite impressive.In the whole of last year, Ping'an Coal Mine produced more than 20 tons of coal, equivalent to the market price, which is a big business worth more than 20 yuan.Excluding industrial coal with low profit margins (most of the enterprises on the east coast are state-owned enterprises, and the coal purchase agreements are signed by various competent departments), the civilian market still accounts for more than half, that is, the output value is no less than 15 yuan. No wonder so many people It's going to be a head-scratcher.

Captain Ventura's "Yiyun-007" inland river steamer slowly docked at the wharf of Hekou Township in Zhenhai County on October 10th - the 7th anniversary of the crossing.Agnelli said goodbye to him briefly, then took a carriage back to the city to sell vegetables, and staggered along No. 18 Highway to Rabbit Hole Village, which is Gao Jinzhong's hometown.

After Agnelli waved goodbye to the kind coachman again, he walked straight ahead.The destination he was looking for was obvious, because the chimney erected at the head of the village was too obvious. The black and yellowish smoke from the chimney seemed to contain quite a lot of sulfur, which is also a common problem of Pingan Coal. Everyone has long turned a blind eye.

Pushing open the door of the miniature workshop (wooden shed) where the machines were roaring, Gao Jinzhong, who was busy working inside wearing a mask, was taken aback for a moment, and then said happily: "Old man, it's great that you're finally here! Damn, recently I'm really too busy. I snatched up orders for two Brazilian plantations. Good guy, it's a big order. It's enough for us to work for a long time. I'm worried that I'm too busy. I didn't expect you to come. The melon I invited before The Lani people are really stupid. They have a bad temper and dirty hands and feet. I fired them the day before yesterday. It’s best if you come here. Let’s work together and discuss it with everyone in the future. This factory is also yours. share. We all crawled out of the same trench, and we will never share with each other.”

(End of this chapter)