Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 744

On March 1649, 3, as the major shareholder of the Southern Railway Company, another physical investment from the Government Affairs Council was in place.What is different from the past is that this is a large fishing vessel with a standard displacement of more than 1 tons (full load displacement of more than 400 tons)—a comprehensive fishing vessel integrating fishing, processing and refrigeration.

Maybe you can see that the function of this fishing boat named "Nan Tie Yu-001" is more diversified. Compared with the 300-ton fishing product processing ship of Nanhai Fishery Company, it has a cold storage function. .Moreover, it seems that the volume of its cold storage is quite large, making the full-load displacement of the ship much higher than the standard displacement.

That's right, "Nan Tie Yu-001" is a comprehensive fishing boat equipped with the latest industrial technological achievement of the East Coast Republic of China - Ether Refrigerator - which greatly increases the activity radius of this fishing boat. The operating time at sea is also greatly increased (no need to load a large amount of coarse salt to sea), and the extra economic benefits are self-evident.

This kind of comprehensive fishing boat was built by Hyundai Special Ship Factory. So far, two ships have been built, namely "Nantieyu-001" and "Nantieyu-002" (this boat is still in the dock in Hekou Township, Zhenhai County for final outfitting).As part of the government's investment in kind to the Southern Railway Company (the cash investment is 20 yuan), they will be delivered successively in March. They will join the Civil Affairs Division under the Civil Affairs Department of the Southern Railway Company and start their own sea fishing career.

According to the charter of the establishment of the Southern Railway Company, the government granted the Southern Railway Company the fishing rights (in southern Chile) obtained from the Kingdom of Spain.Moreover, in the first 15 years, the fishing rights in the southern waters of Chile were exclusively enjoyed by the Southern Railway Company. To enter this area, the South China Sea Fishery Company must pay a certain fee to the Southern Railway Company to apply for a fishing license, otherwise even if they are expensive As the largest pelagic fishery group in China, it is also not allowed to enter southern Chile for fishing at will.Correspondingly, during this period, the Southern Railway Company is not allowed to conduct fishing activities in the waters south of the Port of Blanca, unless they negotiate with the South China Sea Fisheries Company and successfully apply for a license, otherwise they cannot enter this area.

It can be seen from this that the executive committee has divided the territories of the two companies, which can be said to be quite distinct, and neither will suffer.Among them, from the Port of Blanca to the south to the sea near the Baleen Whale Port on Mashima Island is a mature fishing ground that people on the east coast have explored for many years. In which places can a large amount of hake be caught every year, and where can a lot of smooth fish be caught? , Where in Baleen Whale Harbor will the squid fishing season break out again, there are detailed records, and the fishing success rate is quite high.Moreover, the vicinity of the Baleen Whale Harbor on the Mashima Island is also a famous whaling resort. From May to September every year, a large number of whales swim out of the Zhangyun Sea (Weddell Sea), which has begun to freeze, and enter the relatively warm sea near the Baleen Whale Harbor to start hunting. This time is often the time when the South China Sea Fishery Company makes a big profit.Chilean waters obviously lack abundant whale resources, which is one of the major shortcomings.

However, the southern waters of Chile also have its own advantages, that is, it is backed by the Peruvian fishery, one of the world's three largest fisheries, and the total amount of fishery resources is extremely rich. Later generations, Chile and Peru are big fishery countries, and they make huge profits here every year.In the 17th century, although there was no El Niño phenomenon that caused the overall southward shift of Peruvian fishing grounds, the number of horse mackerel migrating to cold water areas was still extremely abundant every year.If ships and manpower are available, the Southern Railway Company can make a lot of money from this business alone, which can be called a large gold mine.Of course, the profits earned by the South China Railway Company from the fishing industry will also continue to be invested in the development of the Liangyang Railway and coastal ports, cultivated land, and settlements. All the domestic trust companies on the east coast are excluded, and such a large piece of fat is handed over to the Southern Railway Company, a large-scale concerned enterprise called a railway company with complicated business in fact?To put it bluntly, this is just one of the government’s compensations for the South Railway Company’s arduous and costly development of Southern Patagonia, and it also gives the investors of the Southern Railway Company a little confidence to encourage more funds to flow to South Patagonia. Tagonia region.

After the "Nan Tie Yu-001" was in place, Mo Ming did not delay, and immediately took the ship to the south around Cape Horn and entered the Pacific Ocean.Having said that, I have to mention that according to the latest navigation safety regulations, sailing ships of the East Coast Republic of China must sail from the waters of Cape Horn when entering the Pacific Ocean from the Atlantic Ocean; only when entering the Atlantic Ocean from the Pacific Ocean can they pass through the Strait of Magellan , to avoid danger as much as possible.

Ships with steam power are different. They can enter the Pacific Ocean from the Atlantic Ocean through the Strait of Magellan in summer and autumn, but they must also go around Cape Horn in winter and spring. Crossing the Strait of Magellan is strictly prohibited to improve the safety factor of navigation. .When entering the Atlantic Ocean from the Pacific Ocean, steam engine sailboats can pass through the Strait of Magellan all year round, but the Maritime Safety Administration of the Ministry of Communications still recommends that captains try to avoid the Strait of Magellan in winter and spring and go around Cape Horn, because it is safer.

On March 3, the "Nantie Yu-15" crossed the turbulent Drake Passage and arrived at the relatively calm port of Araucan, another important port under the jurisdiction of the South Railway Company.The port is now divided into two parts, one part is the territory of the Araucan people, that is, the independent Araucan Free City; Concentrated in the narrow strip near the coast, the wharf of the South Railway Company is built on this strip of land near the sea.

Before the establishment of the Southern Railway Company, there was already a simple port built by the government, but now the executive committee has placed it under the name of the Southern Railway Company as a part of the physical investment. Therefore, the current port theory It is already the property of the Southern Railway Company—at least for 50 years (the Southern Railway Company has the right to operate the Xingnan Port and the Port of Araucan for 50 years, provided that it undertakes the subsequent construction of these two ports alone).

The construction of Araucan Port is not much cheaper than Xingnan Port, and even more expensive, because most of the building materials cannot be produced locally, and they can only be transported from the local area, which undoubtedly increases a lot of costs.Therefore, in the budget formulated by the Ministry of Engineering, the investment costs of Xingnan Port and Araucan Port, which started construction successively in 49, were 20 yuan and 30 yuan respectively, and the latter's expenditure was 50% higher than the former. It can explain the problem very well.

In addition to the wharf, the port of Araucan will also build a large railway station by the sea as the terminal of the two-ocean railway.To be honest, in the original planning of the technical department of the Southern Railway Company, the Port of Araucan did not have a train station. They originally only planned to repair the railway to the vicinity of the Rio Turvio coal mine.The reason is nothing more than that the area to the east of the Port of Araucan (including the coal mines) is actually a platform, and its terrain is generally higher than that of the Port of Araucan near the sea. It is somewhat troublesome to build a railway.

However, Mo Ming, the new official, after carefully reviewing the expedition logs and hand-painted maps of Meng Hu and others in the southern Patagonia region, immediately decided to send a survey team to re-explore this route, and finally confirmed it a few days ago. A route with a gentle slope.Judging from this route, the railway can be built from the platform in the east to the port of Araucan by the sea.

Of course, if the railway is built all the way to the sea, the cost in the middle is also extremely high.Because many foundations with uneven slopes need to be filled, the earthwork workload is really not small; in addition, whether the existing "Barbarian-6" steam locomotive on the east bank is powerful enough to support a train loaded with cargo to climb up this area? Terrace is really an unknown. If it doesn't work, I can only learn from Zhan Tianyou. When the time comes, build a fork in the road and use two locomotives (one push and one pull) to go up together, and the train can almost be moved up.

In addition, a northward branch line must be built from the edge of the platform, that is, the railway will be built to the later Rio Turvio coal mine to develop the rich coal resources here.After all, the coal quality of this large open-pit coal mine is not bad, and it is also an important property that the Executive Committee has licensed to the Southern Railway Company for 30 years. It will definitely be developed in the future.At that time, perhaps the South Railway Company will be able to compete with the high-quality clean coal from the Tacheng Coal Mine on Xinhua Island by virtue of lower mining and logistics costs, and turn this coal mine into an important profit growth point for the company, so as to continue to subsidize the company Huge investments were made in the construction of railways, roads, ports and new settlements.

Mo Ming stayed in the port of Araucan for seven or eight days, inspecting the local port construction project.In the technical department of the Southern Railway Company, there are a group of Bingtuanbao-related graduates who have just been assigned this year, and there are also a few junior high school graduates from the local Dongfang Middle School. They will serve as engineers and technicians to guide the construction workers (mostly recruited nearby, Mainly the Araucan people) leveled the foundation, built houses, dredged waterways, and erected trestle bridges.In April, the mainland will also send a ship to transport an engineering team and a large amount of machinery and construction materials to the port of Araucan to fully start the construction here.

The opening of the South Pacific route may be a matter of nearly two years. If the Port of Araucan has not been repaired by then, and the preparations are not ready to accept the arrival of a large number of immigrants, then things will be a big deal.The railway can be slowly repaired, but the construction of the port city cannot be slowed down, especially the houses for the new immigrants and the food for their stay, which can almost be prepared now.

After inspecting here, accompanied by his entourage, Mo Ming once again boarded the "Nantieyu-001" fishing boat that had just returned from the open sea, and then sailed out of the bay and headed north after entering the Pacific Ocean. It is necessary to examine many conditions in the nearby Spanish ruled area.In his plan, it is best to include these areas in the economic circle of the Southern Railway Company in the future, so as to obtain excess benefits to support the company's continued construction of the railway.

(End of this chapter)