1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 297 Visiting Guangzhou
The recent gradual exodus of population from Yazhou is not just the farmers and soldiers of the guard system. In fact, the working population of the entire Yazhou has been showing an accelerated outflow in the past six months-the destination is naturally Shengli Port, which has a huge labor shortage. .

In terms of the productivity and material supply capacity of this era, if a large number of people influx into a certain place, it will inevitably face the shortage of food and material supply.But at present, food is no longer the main factor limiting the number of immigrants moving to Shengli Port. On the contrary, the material supply situation of residents in Shengli Port area is much better than that of Yazhou.Especially in terms of food supply, due to the food rationing system adopted by the Executive Committee, the basic food expenditure of the naturalized people is astonishingly low, but the food level is much higher than when they lived in Yazhou.

Similar to this, there are other living costs, such as housing, medical care, education, etc. These projects, which are uniformly arranged by the executive committee, have saved a lot of expenses for the naturalized people, and they can enjoy things that were unimaginable in the past. standard of living.It can be said that apart from not getting his own land under his name, all other treatment is better than in the past.Moreover, land is not something that is out of reach. According to the policy promoted by the Haihan people, as long as you get the status of naturalized people and work hard for a few years, you can expect to get land with extremely low rent when the labor level rises to a certain level. .

If you feel that the time is too long and you can’t wait, you can also directly sign up for the Haihan militia. Militia soldiers can retire and get land immediately after several years of service. This kind of treatment is unimaginable under the Ming Dynasty——Wei Suo Soldiers stationed fields and villages here and there have become the private property of the military leaders, but it has never been heard that the military leaders took out the land and distributed it to the soldiers below.

Beginning in the second half of 1627, some selected "senior" naturalized people returned to Yazhou to persuade relatives and friends to move to Shengli Port to settle down.Under the testimonials of these people, many people at the bottom of society inside and outside Yazhou City began to move out of their own initiative.Up to now, the resident population of Yazhou City has decreased by nearly [-]% compared with before the arrival of the Haihan people. There are mainly four types of residents who still stay here: one is people who eat public food, including various government offices and local garrisons. It is an accessory bound by Yazhou City; the second is the big gentry in the local area, these people basically will not move easily; the third is the small landlord who owns land in the surrounding area. Buying and selling land, these small landlords are naturally unwilling to give up their current living environment easily; the last category is a small number of self-cultivating farmers, and the reasons for this kind of people to stay are similar to the third category, basically dealing with land issues for the Haihan people method has serious concerns.

The consequence of the outflow of a large number of working people is the gradual depression of Yazhou City. The labor market outside the South Gate has long since lost business. Now there is no need for dental agencies to organize publicity. Residents who are willing to go to Shengli Port naturally know that every month On which days will there be free boarding for immigration boats to Victory Port.Since there is not much money to be made in the local area, the dental firm that organized immigrants for the Yazhou Office has long since stopped doing business in Yazhou, and its position has also been transferred to several towns in the north of Hainan Island.

The Ningyuan River Wharf in the north of the city is no longer as lively as it used to be. Due to the gradual prosperity of Shengli Port, the goods distribution center in the south of Hainan Island is no longer dominated by Yazhou City. Port of Victory serves as the destination for cargo.In addition to the burden of paying taxes, merchants who transport goods to Yazhou City will face another trouble, that is, it is difficult to find labor locally, and even the unloading of goods has become very troublesome.But Shengli Port will never have this problem. As long as the goods on board are the goods needed by the Haihan people, the unloading process does not even cost a single copper plate, and the labor costs are all borne by the Haihan people themselves.

As for the city of Yazhou, it is even more depressed. Both vendors and pedestrians are much less than before. Some small businesses have begun to close their doors.At present, the main channel of population input in Yazhou City is only the few prisoners who are sent here every year.But having said that, apart from a small number of felons and criminals in the Yazhou Prison, most of the other prisoners have also been sent to Shengli Port to work and earn money for the Haihan people.If the Ministry of Criminal Justice sent people down to inspect, basically none of the people in the relevant units of the Yazhou Prison could escape responsibility.

However, under such a social environment, the Cliff Office has quietly occupied the market for several major daily necessities in the local area.Haihan refined salt from Victory Port, as well as refined coal and rice from North Vietnam, quickly beat competitors in the local market at extremely low prices.Under the control of the Traveling Group, the prices of these kinds of living materials are only half of what they used to be. The local people's acceptance is naturally very high, and because of this, they have more favorable impressions on Haihan.And when the supply of these basic living materials is controlled by the Crossing Group, there is actually no suspense about the future direction of Yazhou City - as long as the Resident Office makes a slight adjustment to the supply of these materials, it will be enough to affect Yazhou. The city's society is stable.

However, for the Executive Committee, the worries of local officials like Zhang Qianhu are indeed unnecessary. The Executive Committee will not issue an order to directly occupy Yazhou City in the short term—as Zhang Qianhu thought, the occupation Xiayazhou City does not have any practical benefits for the Transmigration Group, and its more role is probably just to show the essence of the rebellion.

The development plan of the Traveling Group in the Sanya area is still based on Shengli Port and gradually expands outward.With the speeding up of labor force importation and the gradual increase in the flow of foreign sea merchants, the executive committee believes that the construction plan of the new urban area and the new port area can now be included in the agenda.

The so-called new urban area refers to the coastal plain area covered by the Sanya River and the Linchun River, which is the urban area of ​​Sanya in another time and space.The two rivers meet near the sea, and then flow into the sea through a narrow estuary, and the inland harbor close to the estuary is an excellent natural harbor.As early as the beginning of the crossing, when the expedition team was sent to Yazhou for the first time, it had already conducted a field inspection of this harbor, and the relevant construction plans had long been placed in the database of the Ministry of Construction, just waiting for the right time to implement.

Now that the time-traveling group has sufficient labor force, it is a good time to make a quick start. The Ministry of Construction once again put forward a plan to develop a new urban area.According to this development plan, the commercial and residential areas will gradually move from Shengli Port to the new urban area in the future. Shengli Port will gradually become a military port, while Tiandu District will exist as a purely industrial area.

Although such a plan may be duplication of construction with the current development plan of Shengli Port, it is also a process that must be experienced in local construction, because Shengli Port is indeed not suitable for long-term use as a commercial and residential area. During the construction process of the district, the Tiandu River system has actually begun to be slightly polluted.The industrial area is upstream and the residential area is downstream. This kind of industrial layout around Tiandu Iron Mine will gradually show more serious negative effects in the future. The executive committee does not want to wait until the Tiandu River turns into a black water river before starting. Organization relocation.

According to the plan of the Ministry of Construction, the new urban area will be built around the Xingang District. Only the first phase of the project will require thousands of laborers to renovate the Xingang River and the river. In order to transport various materials from the base camp to the construction site.In terms of engineering volume, it is no less than last year when Shengli Port built a comprehensive passenger and cargo wharf. However, since the manpower situation has been greatly improved, it will no longer be as stretched in terms of labor demand as it was then.

In principle, this plan has been approved by the executive committee, but the time to announce it to the public has to be pressed later - there is one month before the anniversary of crossing, similar to this relatively large action, At that time, it will be announced to the local people as an anniversary gift.

On March [-], two "Explorer Class" sailboats were launched at the Shengli Port Shipyard at the same time, and the final outfitting work began.According to the schedule of the shipyard, the two ships are expected to complete outfitting and sea trials before the anniversary, and be included in the newly established naval establishment.Although the third "Explorer Class" sailboat started at the same time is still on the berth, it has entered the preparation period before launching, and it is expected to be launched within a week.If the shipyard moves quickly enough, it is not impossible for three "Explorer Class" ships to be listed at the same time.

However, due to the shipyard's main focus on the construction of the "Explorer Class", the construction plan of the larger 500-ton sailboat has been affected to a certain extent.The Ministry of Shipping originally planned to complete the design scheme and lay the keel on the slipway by the end of January, but in fact this work was not completed until mid-February.When the two new ships were launched, the 500-ton ship was still in the stage of assembling the keel, and it would be considered good if it could be completed in the first half of the year.

On the second morning after attending the launching ceremony on behalf of the Military and Police Department, Tao Donglai quietly left Victory Harbor on the fast sailing ship "Lightning".The direction of his secret trip this time is Guangzhou, and the reason for keeping this trip secret is that the Executive Committee also considered Tao Donglai’s special status. Some people with ulterior motives moved their evil intentions.

Tao Donglai has two main purposes this time in Guangzhou. One is to conduct routine inspections of overseas units on behalf of the Executive Committee. Among the current overseas units, Heitu Port, Tushan Peninsula Stronghold, and Cliff Office, Tao Donglai They have all gone to inspect the work, only the Guangzhou Office has not been there yet.Secondly, the Executive Committee also needs to know the specific progress of the current financial institution construction work carried out by the Guangzhou Office - to put it bluntly, it is to represent the Executive Committee to check the accounts at the local level.

After Schneider returned to Shengli Port to attend the debriefing meeting during the New Year, he brought a full 15 taels of silver and 2000 taels of gold when he returned to Guangzhou as the start-up capital for the Guangzhou Office to carry out the universal deposit and withdrawal business.As long as this business is handled by the Guangzhou Office, maritime merchants no longer need to bring cash back and forth between Shengli Port and Guangzhou. They only need to have the bank notes issued by the "Haihan Development Bank" Office or the currency exchange center in Victory Port to directly exchange for full amount of cash silver, and the quality is full, so there is no need to worry about the problem of color discount in the transaction.

With Schneider, a veteran financial fraudster, in command in Guangzhou, the Executive Committee has nothing to worry about the possible system loopholes in the operation. Schneider himself is an expert in this field, and he will definitely be better than the members of the Executive Committee. Think more thoughtfully.The main purpose of Tao Donglai's visit this time is to see the specific operation status and listen to the evaluation of local users.

The "Lightning" completed the voyage of more than 300 nautical miles from Shengli Port to the mouth of the Pearl River in just two days.But because the appearance of the "Lightning" is too eye-catching, it is not suitable to appear outside Guangzhou, so the Guangzhou Office also arranged for Tao Donglai to transfer a boat outside the Pearl River Estuary.It took another day and a half before Tao Donglai finally arrived at the pier outside Guangzhou.

In order to avoid attracting the attention of idlers, the Guangzhou Office did not go out to the pier to meet Tao Donglai. Only He Xi took Zhang Qianzhi, the youngest son of the shipbuilder, and hired a soft sedan to wait on the pier.After receiving Tao Donglai, they exchanged a few pleasantries, and then arranged for Tao Donglai to get on the sedan chair and return to the Guangzhou office.

Of course, it was another scene in the Guangzhou Office. Schneider and others had already prepared a welcome banquet, and Tao Donglai was directly led to the wine table as soon as he entered the courtyard.

Tao Donglai looked at the big table of wine and food and couldn't help but joked: "You guys have exceeded the standard for this banquet! Don't forget that my mission is to check corruption!"

"Mr. Tao, if you want to check, you have to eat enough to have the strength to check. If you exceed the standard, it depends on whether you have eaten well. If you think that this meal is not good, then we will not admit that it exceeds the standard anyway. Everyone said Right?" He Xi couldn't help but put Tao Donglai on the throne.

Naturally, Tao Donglai would not really care about the value of the meal in Guangzhou Office. Due to the needs of carrying out various businesses, the Guangzhou Office has always had a considerable degree of financial freedom. There is no need to report to the base camp, just make a record in the income and expenditure account.Especially in He Xi's work, there are many accounts that are not suitable for public disclosure, and even some employees of the Guangdong Office do not have the authority to read the relevant records.

At the banquet that night, Tao Donglai didn't take the initiative to mention work matters, and everyone had a good time at the wine table.

The next morning, Tao Donglai met with Schneider and He Xi in the study and asked them about the current operation of the Guangzhou Office.

Schneider first handed a booklet to Tao Donglai: "This is the registration information of merchants participating in the universal deposit and withdrawal. As of the end of February, a total of 1000 merchants in the Fuguang area have used our universal deposit and withdrawal business, and the minimum transaction amount is 5000. Two cases, the highest single transaction amount was [-] taels, which was the business of 'Furuifeng' last month, and the total transaction amount has now exceeded the principal we brought in at the beginning."

Tao Donglai nodded slightly while flipping through the notebook.

Schneider continued: "According to the current transaction trend, the amount of cash imported by the Guangzhou Office is still far greater than the output, which is basically consistent with our current import and export trade surplus. Now the Guangzhou Office There are also 22 taels of silver in deposit, and nearly 8000 taels of gold. Now we have expanded a yard on the wall of the back cover room outside the Guangzhou Office, which is specially used to handle external silver and money transactions. I will take you there later. have a look."

Tao Donglai raised his head and said, "Have you encountered any difficulties in the actual operation?"

"It's mainly a question of credibility." Schneider said unabashedly: "Although our products have already gained a certain reputation in Guangdong and Guangxi, in the financial field, the credibility of our Haihan brand is obviously far from enough. Only Merchants who have direct trade with us are willing to use the bank notes we issue, and these merchants basically require the use of registered bank notes for security reasons, so there is no circulation in the market at all.”

"It doesn't matter. It takes a period of time to build credit and let customers develop habits. There is no need to worry about this. At least we have made a good start now. As long as the richest and most powerful people start Using our service, it will not be too difficult to promote it to the society." Tao Donglai still gave encouragement and comfort to Schneider's problems.

In this era when precious metals are the main currency in circulation, it is naturally very difficult to implement credit currency. This requires not only a strong economic foundation as support, but also the gradual recognition of the public.The transformation of values ​​does not happen overnight, and it is impossible for the Guangzhou Office in the mainland to copy the experience of Victory Port and directly abolish the circulation of precious metal currencies.At least from the starting point of universal deposit and withdrawal, the choice made by the financial department headed by Schneider is extremely correct, which is extremely practical for the merchants traveling between the two places, and these merchants have relatively little contact with the time-traveling group. Many, the credibility of the "Haihan" brand in their minds is relatively high.

When the number of users of Haihan Financial Services grows, the relevant departments can begin to gradually introduce unregistered gold banknotes, which will be circulated in the market as credit currency—of course, for a considerable period of time in the future, the scope of circulation will only be limited to It is only in the circle of the upper class of society.

Bank notes are nothing new in China. There were bank notes issued by the government in the Song, Yuan, and Ming dynasties. Unfortunately, although the government has the vision of issuing credit currency, it has no professionals to manage the currency. In the end, it was arbitrarily issued. As a result, the value of the paper coupons plummeted, and they had to be abolished by the authorities themselves.From Song Renzong to the end of Qing Dynasty, it took more than 800 years, but failed to form a complete financial system.And this historical development track is exactly the goal that Schneider and others are determined to change.

(End of this chapter)