Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 824 Southern Theater ([-])

In the south of Dinghai County, the sky is high and the clouds are light.

Wei Boqiu, who arrived in Ningbo Mansion on the "Cadiz Rock" motorship, has been staying here for almost a week.During this week, he traveled all over the coastal salt fields of Cixi, Dinghai, and Yinxian counties, and took a good look at the sea salt production here.Generally speaking, the situation is very bad. Not only is the salt-making technique backward (still decocting), but the output of the saltworks has also declined year after year due to the war.After the people from the east bank took control of this place, due to the continuous turbulence of the situation, the output dropped to the lowest level in history, and a large number of workers also fled.

According to Wei Boqiu’s visits to Cixi County Minghe Salt Division; Dinghai County Qingquan Salt Division, Changshan Farm Salt Division, Chuanshan Farm Salt Division, Longtou Farm Salt Division; Yin County Dasong Farm Salt Division and other places, The saltworks in Cixi and Yinxian were basically abandoned, and the output was pitifully low due to various reasons. It would not take a while to restore them.At present, the salt fields in Dinghai County are still stubbornly holding on, especially the Qingquan Salt Division and the Chuanshanchang Salt Division, which have the highest output. half of.

Wei Boqiu, who was entrusted by Shao Shude to revitalize the economy, after inspecting the salt fields along the coast of the three counties, basically had a plan in mind, that is, to abandon the production of the salt fields in Cixi and Yinxian counties, and gather all the salt workers who did not escape to Dinghai. The two salt fields along the coast of the county should be restored first.At the same time, the low-cost plate-dried or beach-dried salt-making technology will be introduced here to replace the outdated firewood decoction method, which will greatly reduce the cost while increasing the production of salt.

Nowadays, people on the east coast have a huge demand for salt, which is difficult for ordinary people to understand.With the increasing catch of salmon, saury, and Far East sardine, the output of Dabo Canned Food Factory, which produces canned salted fish, is also increasing, which creates a huge demand for salt .At present, people on the east coast are supplemented partly with salt from the Dengzhou Salt Farm that has just resumed production, and partly from boiled salt from Sakhalin Island. To be honest, they are still very nervous.And once the salt field in Ningbo Prefecture is controlled and normal production resumes, the salt needs of the people on the east coast will be fully met, and the scale of salted fish production can continue to expand.

After inspecting the salt field, Wei Boqiu returned to Dinghai County surrounded by his entourage, and tacitly refused to go to the prefecture of Yin County where Huang Yi was in charge.And just after returning to the county office, the head of the army stationed in the city (with Wei Boqiu going south, a total of 2000 people) from North Korea came to report: Five cotton boats have been sent from Yin County, and they have been unloaded at the Yinjiang Wharf; After dismissing this person, another military leader came to report: Yuyao Zhihu and his family members arrived at Yinjiang Wharf by boat over a thousand people, and some looms came with them.

Hearing the reports of two people in a row, Wei Boqiu then saved Yuyao County, Shaoxing Prefecture on the other side of the corridor. It is a famous cotton planting area in Zhejiang Province. It integrates cotton planting, picking, processing, spinning, and weaving. The cotton produced is sold to surrounding areas. .Although the situation was turbulent after the Qing army went south and these industries were impacted, a large number of weaver households were still stubbornly organizing production to supply the surrounding areas.

This time the east coast army marched westward, and defeated two to 3000 people from Zhang Jie, the general army of Ningbo in the first World War, and occupied Yuyao County.After the victory in the first battle, Liu Haiyang left behind a small number of people to suppress the local area and search for handicraftsmen. The collected materials and personnel were immediately transported back along the Yaojiang-Cixi water system. These cotton, looms and weavers were one of the achievements.

Anyway, since the Qing army went to the south of the Yangtze River, China’s foreign trade has dropped sharply. Whether it is raw silk, porcelain, tea, cotton cloth, sugar or anything else, it has almost dropped by more than 1750%. Many things such as raw silk, porcelain, tea, The trade in cotton cloth dropped sharply by more than 1000%—the export of raw silk was almost cut off. Until 1, the amount of raw silk exported by China’s Guangzhou port failed to exceed 100 dan ([-] dan was about [-] kg) every year—this The figure was even only a fraction of Persia's annual export volume at that time.

Therefore, since foreign trade has been cut off, some handicraftsmen (silk reelers, weavers, dyers, etc.) Water areas, even the Kingdom of Korea, which maintains commercial ties with the east coast, is also a good target for sales-although this country is poor, it still has a certain demand for consumer goods such as cloth, silk, and tea, which is enough to support a large-scale Not a big industry anymore.

There are more than [-] people in Heishui (Sakhalin Island, Four Villages of the Amur River, Jeju Island, Yantai, and Kushiro Port)—of course, there are not many settled people with spending power, and most of them are waiting to be transported. Immigrants belong to the proletariat - the daily consumer goods of these people have been in a state of tight supply for these years.The Heishui area, which is under military control and constantly fighting, is really unable to develop people's livelihood, so there is an urgent need for a production base that can provide a large amount of consumer goods.In particular, consumer goods such as silk, cotton cloth, salt, sugar, grains, and even southern fruits have been in strong demand over the years. If the Ningbo region can undertake this production task, it will be a good thing for both parties.

Of course, the local people may not be happy to see this kind of thing, so it is necessary to communicate with the local people repeatedly.Although Wei Boqiu had an ulterior plan for the direction of the situation in the Far East, he did not dare to openly set up a factory in Ningbo to produce cotton cloth, a commodity that was extremely competitive with the local market. It is possible to set up a silk reeling factory, but a silk weaving workshop is very dangerous, and most of them will not be approved.But even so, Ningbo can still do a lot of things, and it is completely complementary to the Heishui economy in the north, which is mutually beneficial.

And just as Wei Boqiu was thinking about the cotton and raw silk industries in Ningbo Prefecture, another military officer ran in outside the door and reported to him with a happy face: two ships of raw silk, one ship of cloth and A boat of tea, porcelain and other miscellaneous goods.At this time, following the report of the people below, the word "tea" caused Wei Boqiu's thoughts to diverge again.

Isn’t it true that Ningbo Prefecture not only produces silk, hemp and cotton, but also an important producing area of ​​tea!The Siming Mountains and Tiantai Mountains meet here, and the numerous hills and suitable climate provide good conditions for the growth of tea. The future Ningbo City uses this to produce [-] tons of tea annually, which is an astonishing scale.At this time, within the scope of the entire Ningbo Prefecture, Fenghua County, surrounded by mountains and hills, is the main tea producing area, and famous historical teas such as Baiyan Camellia, Xuedou Quhao (a tribute in the Song Dynasty), and Anyan Monk Tea originated. here.Even in the war-torn late Ming and early Qing dynasties, the production scale of tea did not decrease too much at this time. As long as there is a suitable market, the tea industry here can recover soon.

In addition to Ningbo Prefecture, Yuyao County, Shaoxing Prefecture, which is adjacent to it, is the birthplace of the famous historical tea "Waterfall Immortal Tea", and "Wanghai Tea" in Ninghai County, Taizhou Prefecture is also one of the famous teas of later generations.In particular, Ninghai County is surrounded by mountains on three sides and faces the sea on one side. It is only connected to Fenghua County by a few mountain valley roads, but its tea production, both at this time and in later generations, exceeds Fenghua County by a head.And next door to Ninghai County, Ningbo Prefecture has two enclaves here, namely Xiangshan County and Changguowei. These two places are also important tea producing areas, and their production capacity should not be underestimated.

Leaving aside Yuyao County, Fenghua County, Ninghai County, Xiangshan County, Changguowei and other places are cut off from the outside world by high mountains, and other modes of transportation other than sea are very inconvenient.As long as they build strongholds and garrison troops at key tunnel positions, it will be really difficult for the Qing army to fight over. With the current situation of the people on the east bank, they can basically hold it firmly in their hands.

And once these major tea-producing counties are under control, Wei Boqiu can organize manpower to resume production. It is not a problem to produce tens of thousands of tons of tea every year, and the output value should be close to 100 million yuan (if they can be sold to Europeans. words), which is another great source of income.It's a pity that the trend of large-scale tea drinking has not yet formed in the western world, and tea consumption is only popular in some regions and some commercial cities, which greatly restricts its total consumption.

In fact, strictly counting, among many countries in Europe and the New World today, the country with the largest per capita tea consumption is undoubtedly the East Coast Republic of China.This is due to the preference of the upper classes in this country for tea as a beverage, and their preference has gradually spread to the lower classes. This is what the so-called "what is good at the top, must be good at the bottom" is the truth.

Most of the tea that people on the east coast drank before was looted by the Blackwater Pioneering Team. Both the quantity and quality were unsatisfactory. As a last resort, they had to turn to the Dutch and Portuguese to buy unbearably expensive tea— ——Wuyi tea, at first 18-20 yuan per catty, and then decreased year by year, but also maintained at seven or eight yuan.But you must know that the price of Wuyi tea purchased by the Dutch on the southeast coast is only 2-3 Dutch guilders per pound (about 0.7-1 silver dollar on the east coast), and the profit during this period is more than ten times!

In the future, we must never be tricked by the Dutch again!Wei Boqiu, who received the report from the military man, made a decision in an instant. It didn't take much troops to completely control Fenghua, Xiangshan, Ninghai, Changguowei and other places. The terrain of these places determined that the people on the east bank could easily occupy here.After controlling these tea production areas, the Heishui pioneering team government is equivalent to controlling a large source of income. With the gradual increase of the local population and the gradual expansion of the market, it is believed that the consumption of tea will be less than 500 tons per year from the current (here 1 load about 50 kg) gradually climbed.

What's more, as the price of tea falls, the increase in consumption may be even more astonishing, coupled with the gradual increase in the acceptance of tea in the western world (the current total consumption in the European market is about 1000-1500 tons per year, Mainly concentrated in the Netherlands and its surrounding areas), the future prospects of the tea market are quite broad.

On April 1650, 4, after negotiating with Huang Yi who stayed in Yin County, Wei and Huang jointly decided that Sun Shouzheng would lead 21 soldiers to go south to Fenghua County to establish a Stability Maintenance Committee controlled by Dongan people, and began to collect local Various information on tea production.

(End of this chapter)