1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 1739 Overseas Investment
In fact, more than two months have passed since the end of the war in Manila. However, considering the local situation in Manila and the actual distance between Sanya and Sanya, it is understandable that the Ministry of Commerce has only launched a local investment project now. The investment promotion activities have been delayed for so long because of low efficiency.

But for these big merchants who really have a close relationship with Haihan, one or two months sooner or later is not a big deal.This is not because the merchants are magnanimous and don't care about the benefits they can get in this little time, nor is it that they are afraid of Haihan's authority and dare not urge them, but that they have already started business activities in the local area long before Haihan's official public invitation for investment.

During Haihan's attack on Manila, there were quite a few civilian ships that accompanied the army to serve as logistics and personnel transportation tasks, even more than the military's warships.Considering the actual needs of combat operations, these civilian ships were not randomly recruited from the civilian population. Instead, several large sea merchants closely related to Haihan provided ships and sailors to the Haihan government to ensure that military secrets before and after the operation would not be leaked to the outside world. After all, it is not the first time they have done this kind of work, and they can cooperate with the military's command and actions more skillfully.

These merchants are willing to use their precious shipping capacity to help the Haihan army complete the logistics transportation tasks. Of course, it is not because they are coerced by the Haihan officials or purely for patriotic purposes. Among them, there are even maritime merchants from Ming Dynasty who actively participated. .They are so active in this matter, in addition to having confidence in the victory of the Haihan Army, another main reason is to obtain benefits from the local area immediately after the war.

In addition to completing the transportation tasks required by the military, these ships and personnel accompanying the army will also choose opportunities to buy or sell various wartime supplies in the local area, and even directly purchase local real estate title deeds.Whether it is driving up or suppressing prices in wartime, it will always be much easier than in peacetime, and they have the Haihan military as their backer, so there is no need to be afraid of using such extreme commercial methods locally. Then the cost of going out with the army can be recovered from the local area.

The main task of the Haihan military is to complete the attack on the Spanish armed forces. As for the management and reconstruction after the war, according to Haihan's usual practice, they are all done by professional people.For some local commercial fields that are related to people's livelihood, these merchants who went out with the army will get the opportunity to take over according to their respective strengths immediately after the war, which means that they will be able to operate in a near-monopoly manner for a period of time in the future To run some local livelihood industries.

The facts are exactly the same. For example, Zhan's Shipping Company, which dispatched the most ships in this expedition to the west, took over most of the shipping business in the ports of Manila and Cavite after the war.The boss, Zhan Gui, has even reserved more than [-] acres of land near the seaside in the best location near the port of Cavite to build warehouses and shipyards in the future, and he only needs to pay a very low land rent to Haihan officials. That's it.

All kinds of gold, silver, jewelry and valuable items confiscated by the Haihan army from the local area also need to be digested by these merchants accompanying the army, and converted into Haihan currency before they can be recorded in the military's accounts.

The first round of dividends was actually completed within a few days after the end of the war, and at that time, Sanya had not even made public the victory of the front line.The process of dividing up the dividends of war among the upper class of society is much faster than the outside world knows. After two months, these business projects that were brought up for promotion at the investment promotion event have actually been screened by the big local businesses.

Of course, for merchants with second-class qualifications and connections, these projects launched by the Haihan Department of Commerce at this time are still luscious and fragrant, and they are worthy of attention and corresponding funds to compete.

Similar to the previous investment invitations for overseas colonies, the projects prepared by the Haihan Ministry of Commerce this time are still focused on agricultural development, with fisheries, animal husbandry, farms and plantations accounting for the majority.However, perhaps considering that Manila is too far away from Daming, Haihan, and Indochina Peninsula, the government has also given more preferential treatment than usual in this investment promotion, in terms of development costs and taxes in the next few years. In order to attract them to invest in Manila, they have obtained the relief policy that businessmen are looking forward to.

There are thousands of square kilometers of coastal plains in the north and south of Manila Bay, and its natural conditions are very suitable for planting tropical cash crops such as rubber, tobacco, fruits, oil plants, and spices.However, the scale of agricultural development carried out by the Spaniards during the rule of the local area was limited, and the development results over the past few decades were not even as fast as Haihan's farming speed on Hainan Island in recent years.

Of course, it is unfair to attribute this entirely to the incompetence of the Spaniards. After all, the number of local Hispanic and Chinese immigrants is limited, and these two groups of talents are the main force of social production.Except for some tribes attached to the Spanish rulers, the local indigenous people who occupy the majority of the population have no interest in participating in the agricultural development and infrastructure projects organized by outsiders.Haihan also faces the same problem when planning to develop the local area, so the government needs to mobilize non-governmental forces to let businessmen invest in local development and move in immigrants to meet labor demand.

Immigrants across the sea to the local area are undoubtedly one of the costs that investors need to consider. However, the local area was not a Han Chinese-ruled area in the past, and its appeal to immigrants was limited.Therefore, Haihan can only significantly reduce other expenses including taxes, and reduce the cost of business investment, so as to complete the investment promotion.

It has to be said that these measures have played a certain role. After Schneider announced the investment promotion project, businessmen raised their hands to subscribe.This is actually the situation expected by the officials. If there are only a few people who respond after giving so many discounts, it means that Haihan's appeal has dropped to a terrible level.The reactions of the businessmen now basically confirm the official prediction before the war, that is, there will still be a large number of businessmen who will see the low development cost of the local area and participate in the plan to develop Manila.

The reassurance prepared by the Ministry of Commerce for merchants is not limited to this. Considering the limited benefits of planting agricultural products and cash crops, the Ministry of Commerce is also planning to build a group of workshops in Manila for deep processing of products.The production of flue-cured tobacco, canned food, perfume, and deep processing methods such as sugar refining, oil extraction, and wine making can all bring more lucrative benefits to agricultural products.

However, most of the most advanced techniques and recipes are in the hands of Haihan officials, and many processes require the use of high-end equipment such as steam engines, so the initial investment is much higher than that of ordinary processing workshops.And considering the confidentiality of the process, it is still difficult for private individuals to independently contract such projects. They can only invest in shares, and the production technology and equipment use and maintenance are controlled by the government.

But even so, the deep processing project still made the participating merchants overwhelmed. Anyone who has dealt with Haihan will understand that these advanced processing technologies can increase the value of agricultural products several times.This is something that is really valuable, and businessmen hope that through cooperation, they can gradually master these technologies that cannot be bought in the market.

The merchants competed to raise prices in units of ten thousand yuan, spending money like running water. This lively scene deeply shocked Li Xi, who participated for the first time.Before that, he didn't have a precise understanding of Haihan's good management skills. Until today's event, as long as Schneider said a few words and introduced some plans that were still on paper, these shrewd big businessmen would be able to make money. This shows how amazingly valuable Haihan's business reputation is.

Seeing this situation, Fei Cexian was even more upset. He had only read the imperial palace report a while ago. Last year, in order to cope with internal and external wars, the Ming Dynasty sent additional taxes to the provinces to pay for the soldiers, a total of 300 million taels.Among them, Fujian added 12 taels of silver, and Guangdong added 23 taels of silver. The government of these two places complained endlessly. In the memorial delivered to the imperial court, they said that Jiapai silver was too severe for the local government. , the people are already miserable, and further taxation may arouse popular uprisings.

But what is the actual situation?Perhaps the people at the bottom do not have much money left to pay the extra taxes assigned by the imperial court, but all the businessmen from Fuguang who were present here were all generous, and they wanted to buy the whole of Manila. It seemed that they had no money ?

Fei Cexian silently calculated that the items that businessmen in Fuzhou and Guangzhou bid for after the event started totaled at least more than 50 Haihan yuan, converted into equivalent silver taels, which is more than the extra silver paid by the two provinces last year. more than half.Fei Cexian really wanted to ask those officials who complained infinitely that there was no money in the locality, how to explain the behavior of these businessmen in Haihan who were so rich and powerful.

Of course, Fei Cexian can also understand why these businessmen are unwilling to donate money to the country's war. After all, Fuzhou and Guangxi are far away from the battlefield. Attracting people and property from war-torn areas to settle in these places, the local economy has become sickly prosperous.

The more frequent wars in Ming Dynasty, the easier it is for businessmen in these places to make money. It is obviously a more secure arrangement to invest the money earned in the areas ruled by the Haihan people. In the chaos, they don't have to worry that they have no way out.

"The imperial court wants money, but you call it poor! The Haihan people want money, but you fight to give it!" Fei Cexian looked coldly at these Ming businessmen who were vying for bids, but his heart was full of anger and he couldn't vent it.

The more resources and wealth Haihan sucked away from Daming, the faster Ming's national power will decline. Fei Cexian can now see this general trend very clearly.But he also has no power to deal with this trend, and he can't stop what Hai Han is doing.

Why Haihan can have a stronger appeal than the imperial court, so that these misers in Lingnan are now willing to spend their money, Fei Cexian can't help but start thinking about this higher-level political and economic issue.

What attractive conditions can Haihan provide them?According to the introduction just heard, Fei Cexian believes that there are three main points: extremely low taxes and development costs, rich investment returns, and a stable and safe social environment.And these seem to be the most lacking part of Ming Dynasty at present. Merchants are all profit-seeking by nature. The conditions provided by Haihan can make them earn more wealth in a stable manner, so it seems that they choose to transfer assets overseas It's a matter of course.

But even so, Fei Cexian didn't want to forgive these merchants who smelled of money.His eyes swept over these people one by one, and he silently remembered every Ming businessman who had raised his hand to bid.He decided to write the names and origins of these people in the next memorial, and report their behavior of stealing inside and out to the Ming court, and then the court will put pressure on the local government to punish these people.

Of course, Fei Cexian also understands that it may take several months to see results. By then, it is estimated that the money that should be spent in Manila has already been shipped out, and it cannot stop these people from donating Daming's resources to In Haihan's hand.Besides, even if the imperial court promulgates disciplinary measures to the localities, most of the local officials will collude with these businessmen and deceive the upper and lower to get over the matter.

Very helpless, but the reality is like this. Daming can only temporarily act as a spectator on the chessboard of the South China Sea, watching Haihan slowly attack, deploy, and operate in this area, and strengthen its own strength through continuous outward expansion.Even if he realizes that Daming will become the target of Haihan's annexation sooner or later, Fei Cexian has no ability to change the status quo.

"You really want to flip the table, don't you? Just get used to it."

Fei Cexian turned his head and saw that the speaker was Su Keyi, the special envoy of the Netherlands.In fact, he didn't have much affection for the Han Chinese who worked for the red-haired man. However, the East India Company has been suppressed by Hai Han in recent years. He is still aware of this. .

Although Haihan's investment promotion activity is open to the public, only people from Haihan's own country and allies can participate.In other words, the Dutch East India Company was excluded from this activity and was not eligible to fight for these investment projects officially announced by Haihan.The treatment that the East India Company can get is not even as good as that of the Portuguese. At least the Portuguese have obtained permission to open shops and consulates there after sending personnel and ships to fight Manila.

The East India Company has not even obtained a trade permit to enter Manila, and it is estimated that it will have to wait until the end of the activities in the past few days at the earliest.It's a bit like the East India Company can only come on stage and lick the plate after everyone has divided the cake.

Su Keyi also feels helpless about such treatment, but Haihan's attitude towards the East India Company has always been like this, and the Dutch have never been allowed to participate in investment promotion activities for overseas colonies.He knew that it would be useless even if he complained about injustice, so he could only face Haihan's investment promotion activity with a very complicated mood like Fei Cexian.

(End of this chapter)