Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 760 South Patagonia ([-])

Little Vicente had just come down from the coal mines of the Black Hills, where the East Coasters were already trying to mine coal.That vast area of ​​open-pit coal mines has a huge output. After the black "stones" are dug out from the surface, they can be thrown into the furnace after simple washing and drying. It is much more convenient to chop wood.Moreover, this kind of black fuel is not expensive at all, and now many people in the city have begun to spend money to buy it.What?What money do you say they spent?Of course, they are all kinds of coins made by the First Mint of the East Coast Republic of China.

Now the area of ​​the free city of Araucan is getting bigger and bigger, and the rolling mountains in southern Chile can no longer restrain them.Moreover, as more and more Araucans joined in, Vicente Jr., who currently has no less than [-] soldiers and civilians, began to have greater ambitions. He ordered his soldiers to bring tents and drive sheep. The group headed north.The soldiers of these Araucan guerrillas climbed mountains and crossed valleys covered with coniferous forests (mainly fir, Chilean cypress and other trees), and planted the flag of the Kingdom of Araucania on the vast land further north.

And once they find a land with rich water and grass and settle down, they will start to recruit residents who are willing to come to cultivate it.The new ruler of the Kingdom of Araucania (self-proclaimed that the east coast and Spain only officially recognize the small free city of Araucan) Vicente Jr. granted them all these lands, so if they want to To realize the wealth on the land, you first need to recruit a large number of people to cultivate the land and mine resources.

But the manpower of the Araucan people is not very sufficient.Today, 1 to [-]% of the [-] population of the Kingdom of Araucania live in the free city of Araucania, and they are all directly under the population of the head of the kingdom, Vicente Jr.As for the manpower that the hundreds of guerrilla fighters who "conglong" were able to control (now they have all become lords), it is pitifully small, but their demand for population is extremely huge.For this reason, for their own benefit, they had to reach an agreement with the Southern Railway Company of the East Coast Republic, and the Southern Railway Company would import people from the Far East for them.

These introduced populations are said to be mainly from the "west" Ming country. They are hard-working and tenacious, and they are unusually proficient in land reclamation, which is very suitable for the requirements of the lords of the Araucanian Kingdom.After these Ming people are introduced, their nationality will fall on the east coast, and then they will be regarded as living and working in the Kingdom of Araucania.Of course, in this way, their jurisdiction also falls into the hands of the East Coast government. When the Araucans have disputes with the East Coasters, they will apply the laws of the East Coast.The fighters of the Araucan guerrillas didn't think it was a big problem, so they readily agreed.

In fact, some of them still know a little bit about the Ming people. Aren't most of the men in the East Coast Republic of China the Ming people?And they are indeed very different from the Spaniards. For example, they never eat the bread that the Spaniards often eat, and they rarely drink milk. They raise cows just to breed their offspring; Or the Spaniards are more meticulous, they cultivate in the border fields, and weed many times in summer, so the harvest is generally much higher than that of the Araucans who sow; Hay, the hay they cut just to sell.Well, according to the East Coast people, that is the difference between farming civilization and fishing, hunting and gathering civilization.

Vicente Jr.'s subordinates were short of labor, but there was a lot of cheap labor in the Free City of Araucan, which he directly governed.This port city on the arid and barren coast, according to the backward productivity of the Araucans, is actually unable to feed a population of 7000. Therefore, these poor Araucans accepted the employment of the people on the east coast, and then sold themselves labor force in order to earn some breadwinner goods.

There are two main workplaces for them. One is the port of Araucan purchased by people on the east coast, and the second is to build the roadbed from the pier to the east platform (there is a difference in terrain between the platform and the pier, and it is impossible to pass without renovation. roads or railways), both of which are long-term projects, so these Araucans do not expect to lose their jobs.

Of course, after the Montenegrin Coal Mine (the Rio Turvio Coal Mine, named after the mountains of coal mined) began to enter the trial mining phase, going there to be a coal miner became a lot of unavailable sites A new option for working Araucanians.In fact, it’s ironic to think about it. They fled the Spanish ruled area in order to escape heavy physical labor and endless exploitation, but now they still have to sell their physical strength in order to have enough food in the free city of Araucan, as if life opened up for them. Like a big joke.But in fact, their lives have improved a lot. For example, the work intensity of the coal mines is far less than that of the Spanish mines, and they will be paid wages. After paying the food expenses, they can still have a little surplus. That is, the standard of living has improved.What's more, they are still completely free in the legal sense. They can do coal mine work if they want, and if they don't want to do it, they can tell them in advance and leave, and no one will stop them.

The head of the Mining Section of the Technical Department of the Southern Railway Company personally sits in the Heishan Coal Mine to organize trial production. The machinery and equipment purchased by the company have not yet arrived, so the original manual excavation method is still used for mining.The work in the mine is heavy and arduous, especially in spring and autumn, the health of miners soaked in tunnels full of stagnant water is often greatly affected.Rheumatism is the disease with the largest number of patients here, followed by scarlet fever and dysentery, and occasionally there are some malaria patients, which greatly affect the work efficiency of the mine.

In addition, due to the employment of a large number of Araucan workers, these natives who are backward in civilization and enjoy themselves have gradually become addicted to profligacy and excessive drinking.When working in the mine, the strict management system and alcohol prohibition made them honestly stay in the workplace to dig coal, but once they were out of the mine supervision after work, they immediately resumed a life of unrestrained profligacy. He would binge on food and drink in the state stores he opened until he had spent most or all of his money, and then returned home empty-handed.These people are not so much a helper to the family as a burden to the family.

These situations have happened many times in the Ping An coal mines on the east coast. There are very few Indian workers who work in the mines without being infected with bad habits and insist on taking their wages home.Therefore, later on, the people who came to work in the mines on the east bank were basically bachelors who left their families to live alone. After working in the mines for a period of time, they could no longer adapt to the old family life.After a few years of debauchery and squandering, they lost their health and returned to the tribe with their half-crippled bodies, only to rely on intermittent support from family members.

The Bureau of Mines on the east coast also tried to limit the profligate life of Indian hired workers, because it had obviously affected the production of mines, but it had little effect, and the bad habits of Indians who had not yet transitioned to a civilized society were hard to get rid of.Therefore, if it is not really enduring the shortage, the technical department of the Southern Railway Company will not hire Araucan workers.Maybe next year, when a large number of Ming people sail directly from Australia to the port of Araucan and land, they will be able to kick these ignorant and unruly Araucan people away, and then mine coal or build roads by themselves.

Now the Southern Railway Company is really crazy about money. The construction of two ports, a road, a railway and several settlements, if all measured in currency, may require a huge investment of more than 1000 million yuan. The Southern Railway Company At present, there is obviously a lack of such huge funds-they have only raised less than 20% of the total amount, which is only enough to spend the first year or two.

It is precisely because of such a situation that Southern Railway Company urgently needs to strengthen its own hematopoietic ability, and create a profit for every profit it can make.For example, the seal and sea otter hunting industry in southern Patagonia (a seal skin is 6 yuan, a sea otter skin is 24 yuan), and the derived oil refining industry; such as the fishing industry along the coast of Chile and the logging industry in Beechburg ;Then there is the trial production of the Montenegrin Coal Mine that is struggling to advance (the produced coal is transported to the Port of Araucan by cart, and then chartered to ship back to the country to compete with the clean coal of the Tacheng Coal Mine on Xinhua Island) .

The above-mentioned businesses are all measures taken by Southern Railway Corporation to increase its own hematopoietic capacity. Unfortunately, due to the lack of manpower and lack of financial strength, these industries are still in their infancy, and the profits they get can't even offset the huge investment in the early stage.In order to reverse this predicament and at the same time open up new sources of income, Mo Ming, the president of the Southern Railway Company, called a meeting with the head of the company's business department in Xingnan Port a few days ago, and plans to send people to the Chilean area to find out what the Spaniards say, and see if there is any bilateral cooperation. possibility of trade.

Although the war between the two countries has just ended and the wounds of the war have not yet healed, business is business to Westerners, and as long as sufficient profits can be generated, there is nothing that cannot be discussed.After all, judging from their history, doing business while fighting wars abounds, which is very normal.What's more, the war in Europe is basically over now, and only Spain and France are still fighting. In this way, the Kingdom of Spain, which has economic difficulties and shortage of commodities, may be even more unable to take care of the colony's economy.Therefore, it would be beneficial to both parties for the Southern Railway Company to export commodities to Chile and other Spanish colonies, and then import some urgently needed commodities on the east coast.

(End of this chapter)