Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 815 Decline and Adjustment ([-])

(I want to hear more of your voices and receive more of your suggestions. Search and pay attention to the WeChat public account "qdread" now, and give more support to "The Rise of South America Through 1630"!) "In Araucan In the history of Hong Kong, I'm afraid it has never been so busy as this moment." This is the first sigh that Mr. Castelli, a senior engineer of the Ministry of Communications and an Italian immigrant, uttered after entering the city.The wharf occupies a very large area (in March, the Southern Railway Company purchased a piece of land adjacent to the wharf from the Araucan people again to build a storage area), but it looks a bit messy, with a large number of Araucan employees, Ming Immigrants and self-funded immigrants from Livonia were running back and forth on the pier, constantly transporting piles of goods to the rear yard through flat rail cars and freight wagons.

On the other side of the storage yard, a large group of black Xhosa labor dispatch workers from South Africa are working hard to build rows of storage facilities under the supervision of the foreman. There are not only tall and dry grain depots, but also piles of cane sugar, cotton and tobacco leaves. , cocoa and other high-end commodity warehouses.Of course, most of the goods on the yard are stacked in the open air. This part is mainly metal ore, giant tropical logs (which can be used as ship masts), and a large number of livestock-mainly cattle.

"Mr. Shi Taili (the Chinese name on Castelli's ID card), welcome to your arrival. I am Liu Jianguo from the Engineering Department of the South Railway Company. In the next period of time, I will accompany you to inspect the Xingnan Highway and the wharf warehouse. I hope the cooperation will be pleasant." Liu Jianguo is only 18 years old this year, and is the eldest son of Liu Ang, the leader of the South African Pioneering Team. He is currently working in the Southern Railway Company and belongs to an engineering technician.Of course, there is no doubt that he is not an ordinary technician, not only because he has undergone a complete and systematic education and has knowledge beyond his peers, but also because his father and the president of the Southern Railway Company, Mo Ming, wore a pair of Pants, so his prospects in the Southern Railway Company are quite promising.

It was Liu Jianguo's first task since he joined the company to accompany Mr. Stanley, a civil engineering expert from China, to inspect the Xingnan Highway, which has been built for more than half a year.The Xingnan Highway was completed in the second half of last year and then put into use.After that, since the road itself was just a low-grade, temporary, simple sand road (with a total cost of less than 30 yuan and a total length of more than [-] kilometers), it was difficult to use heavy freight wagons, drum crushers, etc. Under the frequent rolling of various vehicles or machines such as roller rollers, steam plows, etc., the current road conditions are not very good. Many construction units have repeatedly complained to the South Railway Company many times, and warned that this road is not necessary. The maintenance has affected to some extent the efficiency of their transportation of materials, and this will undoubtedly affect the progress of the construction of the Liangyang Railway.

In the southern Patagonia region, any matter that can be related to the Liangyang Railway is worthy of special attention by the company's top management, and the Xingnan Highway obviously belongs to this category.With the vigorous development of the smuggling trade between the East Coast Republic and Peru, a large amount of materials were transported from Rocha Port to Xingnan Port by the ships of the South China Sea Transportation Company, and then transferred to Araucan Port by land.In the port on the Pacific coast, these industrial products were once again loaded on the ships of the Southern Railway Company, and then, under the escort of naval warships, they went straight to the Maureen River along the Humboldt Cold Current to trade with the Spaniards, and finally loaded with Peruvian specialties and precious metals back to the port of Araucan.That is to say, with the growing scale of trade, the Xingnan Highway, a temporary highway built for the construction of railways, has become more and more important at present, and it carries far more traffic volume than it meets. Its bad road conditions are complaining, it is beyond its load capacity.

Considering the huge financial subsidy effect of the smuggling trade on the Southern Railway Company, the company president Mo Ming began to seriously consider the possibility of renovating this road, that is, whether to transform this simple temporary sandy-soil road that originally cost only 30 yuan into a A high-grade permanent road.After all, it has been less than a year since the construction of the Trans-Oceanic Railway was in full swing, and it was still early before it opened to traffic. The trade with Peru still depends on the Xingnan Highway.

Of course, some people may ask, why not just use sea ships to ship industrial products around Cape Horn to the Pacific Ocean when starting trade with Peru?In theory, this is certainly possible, and it is quite convenient, but considering the constant wind and waves in the waters near Cape Horn (even reaching seven or eight meters high), it is too dangerous to take this road.At the end of November last year, the South China Sea Transportation Company sent five flute-shaped transport ships to the port of Araucan to transport construction materials. However, they encountered heavy waves and unfortunately sank two ships-these two ships were caused by people on the east coast who have been sailing for so many years because of non-combat Factors sank No. 11 and No. 5 ships - this shows the danger of this route.

The same is true for the Strait of Magellan, which must pass through when returning from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic Ocean. Rapids, swells, heavy fog, strong winds, hidden reefs, and floating icebergs are all nightmares for captains.Therefore, the current opinion given by the Ministry of Communications is that if you can not sail from these two areas, you must try to avoid these two dangerous sea areas, so as not to lose ships and valuable sailors again.As for the transportation of materials, except for some heavy materials such as building materials, rails, and grain, which are still transported by sea, all other things are transshipped by land (for this reason, the Southern Railway Company has ordered a large number of heavy-duty vehicles from the local Southern Vehicle Factory in three batches. Trucks), and this obviously landed on the Xingnan Highway.

"The railway has not been repaired, and the road has obviously undertaken an important transportation task." On June 6, accompanied by more than ten entourages, Stanley and Liu Jianguo left the extremely noisy port of Araucan. A truck and a dozen mules and horses headed east along the Xingnan Highway, carefully checking and recording the condition of each section of the Xingnan Highway along the way.

"Now the smuggling trade with the Peruvians is becoming more and more prosperous, and a large amount of materials need to be transported back and forth between the two oceans every month. Before our company, there were only dozens of horse-drawn trucks with a load of 1.5 tons carrying the materials. For the transportation task, now, the number of trucks in use has increased to more than 130, and the load has generally increased to 2 tons, 2.5 tons or even 3 tons, which shows that the transportation task is heavy." Liu Jianguo rode on the horse and carefully observed the road. While responding to Staley's words: "Of course, this kind of busy cargo transportation task is what the whole company likes to see. After all, the smuggling trade has gained a lot in the past eight months. Although later The profit in a few months is far less than the previous two or three months, but the total amount is not small, about 34 yuan. This is the net profit we obtained after we started trading with the Peruvians; in addition, the company A large number of goods imported from Peru were resold back to the mainland. You know, with the improvement of the living standards of the local citizens and the increase in per capita disposable wealth, the sales of sugar, tobacco leaves, cocoa, coffee, and high-quality leather in the local area Quite well, this kind of commodity that is directly oriented to the domestic needs of ordinary people will never be without profit. Of course, industrial and agricultural production materials such as sulfur, lead, tin, copper, tropical logs, tallow (for soap production), guano, etc. The market demand of our company is not small, and there are big profits in it. After all, our import price is not high. Well, Mr. Staley, you and the president of our company have a close relationship, and you are not an outsider, so it’s okay to tell you. Since the smuggling trade started for eight months, we have made a total of more than 50 yuan in profits in Peru and the mainland, and have greatly promoted domestic industrial production. The Executive Committee and the Government Council are quite satisfied with this. "

Staley nodded when he heard the words, he had heard this too.Nowadays, with the proliferation of European mercantilism, trade barriers have begun to show great power, and business is quite difficult to do.Didn't you see that the turnover of commodities at the Qingdao Autumn Fair in May was far less than in previous years?Insufficient domestic demand, structural excess in industrial and agricultural production, the economy of the East Coast Republic is currently only driven by the government's large-scale infrastructure investment, but this is undoubtedly not a long-term solution.Members of the executive committee have certainly seen this unhealthy economic predicament, and they are also eager to quickly adjust the domestic industrial production structure, expand domestic demand and at the same time vigorously develop new external markets, in order to get out of the quagmire of weak exports as soon as possible, and wipe out the previous decline.The Peruvian smuggling trade developed by the Southern Railway Company is an excellent opportunity, and everyone has to seize it.

"A huge profit of more than 50 yuan has been made in eight months, and this is just the beginning. I believe that as time goes by and the degree of market development deepens, the total profit here will become higher and higher? I I heard that those foreign smugglers in the Caribbean, their annual trading profits may not be much less than the silver dug by the Kingdom of Spain from Peru, the market here is really big." Staley echoed Said, "However, the task undertaken by the Southern Railway Company is also extremely arduous. The total planned investment in the construction of the two modern ports of Xingnan Port and Araucan Port exceeds 550 million yuan; Didao logging camp and port, development of Heishan coal mine, seafood processing center, Xingnan Highway, construction of new settlements, and resettlement of new immigrants all require a lot of funds. Even if the investment is apportioned over the next ten years , the annual cost of funds is still an astronomical figure, which is really not easy."

"Who says it's not!" Liu Jianguo smiled helplessly at Staley, and said, "We all have the awareness that before the official opening of the Liangyang Railway, the Southern Railway Company is unlikely to make a profit. Or to be more straightforward To put it bluntly, I think that before 1654, the Southern Railway Company would record losses for six consecutive years. This is probably the only one in China, haha! If we support more, the two-ocean railway can’t be completed ahead of schedule, so that the company can make profits ahead of schedule.” (My novel "The Rise of South America Through 1630" will have more fresh content on the official WeChat platform, At the same time, there is also a 100% lottery gift for everyone! Open WeChat now, click the "+" sign on the top right to "add friends", search the official account "qdread" and pay attention, hurry up!)

(End of this chapter)