Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 877 Southeast Pacific ([-])

On August 1651, 8, as it had done in the past two years, the "Nan Tie Yu-5" and three other ships of the same type docked at the wooden pier by the Maolin River on time, ready to start unloading.And in the Pacific Ocean not far from them, two 001-ton escort gunships - belonging to the Third Fleet - are drifting boredly on the calm sea, waiting for four fishing boats The transport ship) returns to the port of Araucan after unloading the cargo.

And on the way back to the port of Araucan—to be precise in the waters near Chiloe Island—these ships will also fish by the way. The horse mackerel resources in this area are still very rich, and large groups of migratory fish Horse mackerel gathered here, which gave the fishing fleet of Southern Railway Company a very good opportunity.They stuffed the caught sea fish into a cold room equipped with an ether freezer for long-term preservation, which actually greatly enhanced the time of fishing boats staying at sea and reduced the cost of fishing in disguise.

As for the caught fish (mainly horse mackerel), some of them are shipped back to the port of Araucan for sale, and some are processed and sold back to Chile.Just as the Dutch sold the herring caught off the coast of England to the British, the people on the east coast also sold a huge amount of horse mackerel to the Chilean and even Peruvian markets. The minuscule fishing industry—thanks to the King of Spain for restricting the Peruvian fishing industry—was in ruins.

Of course, since there are industries that have been "dead" by foreign commodities in Peru, such as the textile industry, fishing industry, and iron smelting industry, there are naturally industries that have flourished, such as grain planting, tobacco planting, and sugar refining. industry, logging, brewing, etc.Especially the tobacco plantation and sugar industry, whether it is tobacco plantation or sugarcane plantation, is undoubtedly extremely land-consuming, which puts forward extremely high requirements for high-quality fertilizers.Under such circumstances, the east coast bean cake, which has been widely praised in Brazilian plantations, has become a material that Peruvian plantation owners vigorously import.

According to incomplete statistics, since more than ten months since bean cakes were exported to Peru, due to the limited production capacity and the huge demand in Brazil and North American markets (Virginia and Florida), the price of bean cakes exported from the east coast via the port of Rocha has been higher than that of other countries. At the beginning, it had already skyrocketed by [-]%, which made all the domestic oil extraction-cake making companies collectively smile crookedly.Stimulated by this huge market demand, the sown area of ​​soybeans in major domestic agricultural areas has surged, the sown area of ​​grains has dropped sharply (because the profits are too thin), and the sales of new oil presses and supporting steam engines have also attracted an explosion. With rapid growth, the entire industry has shown a booming trend, and it has almost become one of the few industries on the east coast that is still prosperous today.

Sell ​​the superior commodities on the east coast, such as high-quality agricultural tools, fertilizers and even cultivated seeds (which will degenerate into ordinary seeds after a few generations), to the Viceroyalty of Peru at a very high profit. Produce more and cheaper basic agricultural products.These agricultural products are of great significance for reducing domestic inflation on the east coast and liberating more labor (these precious labor resources can be transferred to the infrastructure industry).

And because the export bargaining power of Peruvian agricultural products is always in the hands of the Southern Railway Company, coupled with the help of a group of compradors who have been "corrupted by money", the grain, sugar cane, tobacco and even cotton planting industries in the entire Viceroyalty of Peru The pricing power of these plantations is basically not in their own hands. The characteristics of colonization are very obvious. Any change in the price in the international market (actually the East Coast market and the export market derived from it) may cause these plantations The nightmare of the master and even the yeoman.

In order to tide over the difficulties, they often have to try to produce more goods, but this often causes them greater disasters-greedy compradors and ruthless Southern Railways will take the opportunity to lower the purchase price and wantonly exploit them. The result is that the more commodities they produce, the poorer they are, and the poorer they are, the more commodities they have to produce. This forms a vicious circle, and finally they are unable to extricate themselves, falling into a debt trap, and being controlled by compradors who control their destiny. control.

There are many reasons for this consequence, but the most important one is the frequent activities of the East Coast Navy ships in the Caribbean Sea.These ships that were engaged in private plundering all day long severely hit the French capital, British capital, Dutch capital, and even Italian capital that competed with the capital on the east coast, which greatly reduced the purchase of Peruvian agricultural products by merchants from these countries.In addition, the people on the east bank also used various methods, nothing more than coordinating interests, dividing and wooing, so that their dominant position in the Peruvian market was further consolidated, and the characteristics of monopoly became increasingly obvious, in order to grab excess profits.

The most typical example is the St. George Firm in Genoa. This old syndicate company has been engaged in the import business of American specialty products in the port of Cadiz, Spain for more than 100 years. In the past one or two years, it has completely stopped importing tobacco, sugar cane, and cotton from Peru back to Europe. The reason for the selling business is firstly that it is unprofitable, and the second is that they have found a better opportunity to make money—the East Coast people have coordinated their interest relationship with them and granted them the agency rights of many high-quality East Coast commodities. The market has been opened to St. George's, and they can export high-quality cheese, ham, olive oil, butter, wine, dried fruits and other commodities produced in Italy to the east coast and its colonies-this is a market with a population of several 10. And the proportion of consumers is extremely high.

Win over the relatively friendly Genoese capital, focus on attacking the British and French capitals that compete with the East Bank (these are countries that are determined to develop their own industries), and maintain limited cooperation with the Dutch capital with vested interests. The overall development strategy formulated by the committee for the country's industrial capital.Today, when the French market is lost, focus on developing the Peruvian market, drive out the commercial tentacles of the British, French, and Portuguese, and at the same time cultivate a group of compradors who are closely tied to the interests of the East Coast, and then indirectly through these commercial compradors Controlling and influencing the producers and consumers in Peru is the key to maintaining the advantages of the East Bank in Peru for a long time, and then nourishing the East Bank itself by sucking the blood of Peru.

All in all, after negotiating the smuggling trade with the Southern Railway Company representing the industrial and commercial power of the East Coast Republic two years ago, the ending of Peru has basically been doomed—as time goes by, this area with a large population and rich resources , the characteristics of its economic colonization will be further deepened.The East Coast is not the Spaniards who do not do production. They have a preliminary industrialized production system. Although limited by factors such as population, education, and market, their industrialization level is not deep enough, and the system is still incomplete, but it is enough to destroy the Governor of Peru. Most of the handicraft industry in the area has lost its strength.

It can be said that if there is no external force to violently break this process, then the future of Peru is simply worrying.In the long-term planning of the Executive Committee and the Southern Railway Company, a large number of cheap industrial products from the east coast poured into Peru first. When this process developed to a certain stage, the accumulated industrial and commercial capital of the east coast (such as Southern Railway Corporation) will also begin to invest excess capital in the Peru region.In other words, at this stage, commodities and capital from the east coast will enter Peru at the same time, and then control the Peruvian market and economy—this is the capital export stage of the so-called imperialist countries.

However, unlike the imperialist economic invasions that occurred in history, along with the goods from the east coast entering the Peruvian market, there were also a considerable number of immigrants—most of them were immigrants from the Ming Dynasty from the Far East. There are quite a few by the Lin River, and the number is about 800.

These immigrants are all employees of the Southern Railway Company in name—and they are almost the same in fact. They all signed a five-year labor employment contract with the Southern Railway Company and received a large amount of resettlement fees at the same time. Came to the Maolin River and landed.According to the plan, these people will build commercial stations, warehouses, shops, and work in hotels on the land purchased by people on the east bank of both sides of the Maolin River, and provide services for the ships and personnel of the Southern Railway Company.In addition, the Southern Railway Company has also found various excuses to relocate a considerable number of agricultural personnel here. They have already opened up some fertile farmland by the Maolin River, planted a large number of fruits and vegetables, and also raised many livestock. , planted some fruit trees, and developed settled agriculture in earnest.

As for whether the Spaniards are worried that there are too many people on the east coast here?This is actually not a problem at all, because this is a wild area with few settlers. After two East-West wars, the early colonists either died in the war or were killed by the rioting Araucans. Not a hair left.Now this place is booming due to the smuggling trade, and the number of people has increased rapidly. The consumption of daily necessities is not a small amount. Therefore, there is an urgent need for agricultural laborers to come to provide various vegetables, poultry eggs, meat, etc. to the people in the city. kind of food.

Therefore, the arrival of farmers from the east bank actually fills the gap in this area, and it is of certain benefit to everyone.You see, these farmers are so hardworking, so productive, and offer a wide variety of products at affordable prices. Is there anything more satisfying than that?

Of course, some people worry that these farmers on the east bank will not leave after they come—this is basically true—then their offspring will completely occupy the Maolin River Basin, and then this territory will actually belong to aliens. believers.However, in Maolin City, which has a strong commercial atmosphere, this worry did not resonate much.Everyone should do business, do business, and make a fortune. Who cares about what will happen decades or even hundreds of years later?

(End of this chapter)