1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 922 Amber Island
Yan Chujie woke up to the aroma of seafood porridge. Last night's reception banquet lasted from evening to midnight. He didn't eat much, but drank a lot of wine.After the dinner was over, Roger arranged for a little girl who was said to be from Siam to stay with him overnight. She was only about seventeen or eighteen years old. After this night, his stomach was already empty.Yan Chujie is already in his 40s, traveling thousands of miles from Sanya to the south, even though he is very energetic, it is inevitable that he will feel a little tired.

Yan Chujie looked at the sky outside the window, and got up resolutely. Today's scheduled itinerary is to inspect several plantations and farms, as well as the immigration office on the island, but he doesn't have much free time to sleep in.

The agricultural development on Ambuna Island has been quite successful. In the early days, there were big money owners from Haihan, such as Qiong Lianfa, the Annan Consortium, and Nanhai Investment Bank, who invested here to enclose land and build large-scale plantations.Since most of the labor force here comes from the slave trade, the operating cost of the plantation is even lower than that of HN Island, which to a certain extent makes up for the geographical disadvantage of this place being isolated overseas.Moreover, in order to support the development process of Ambuna Island, Haihan gave investors a lot of preferential policies in terms of operation, and later attracted many businessmen from the Ming Dynasty to come here to participate in the development.

The first plantation that Luo Jie Yan Chujie visited was the first batch of projects developed by foreign investors on Ambuna Island.This group of businessmen who first joined forces with Haihan to engage in the development of agricultural and forestry projects has now become Haihan's hardcore supporters. As long as it is a development project led by Haihan, it doesn't matter whether it is 21 or [-], first invest money to occupy the pit.Although the plantation on Amberna Island has not yet entered the stage of real profitability due to the crop growth cycle, at the beginning of this year, Qiong Lianfa doubled its previous [-]-acre plantation. The size of the area also shows that shareholders are optimistic about the development prospects of Ambuna Island.

The crops planted in this plantation are mainly rubber trees, coffee trees and several spice crops. There are also many similar plantations in HN Island and Annan, and most of them have begun to make profits.Haihan's successful experience in operating plantations is also one of the main reasons why the donors dared to invest heavily in this isolated island in the middle of the ocean.

This plantation has more than [-] employees, and it is also one of the largest plantations on the island, including more than [-] slave laborers.These slaves who were sold across the border by human traffickers to Ambuna Island had to perform unpaid labor on the island for more than half a year, and then they would gradually open up their qualifications for naturalization depending on their performance.Of course, under the deliberate control of the donors, the conversion rate from slaves to naturalized citizens is quite low, because once naturalized, it means that the bosses must pay them labor wages.

"Speaking of which, these profiteers will probably seize the time to replace people, right?" Yan Chujie said with a smile: "If I remember correctly, the first condition for applying for naturalization to the Ministry of Civil Affairs is to have a stable job in the local area. As long as the bosses let go of the people and replace them with a new batch of slaves, they will never need to pay wages."

Roger didn't shy away from this question, nodded and said: "That's true, this is a loophole in the current laws and regulations, and we have no better solution for the time being, so we can only send away the replaced slave labor as much as possible. In order to avoid unnecessary complications."

In order to reduce costs, plantation and farm operators will take the initiative to release slave labor after the unpaid labor time limit expires, and then buy new cheap labor from slave traders.However, these freed slaves could not apply for naturalization locally because they temporarily lost their jobs.The emergence of a large number of unemployed people in batches will inevitably affect the local public security environment, but this practice of the operator does not violate the current regulations of Haihan, so the local management committee can only choose a compromise solution, and will be punished. All the released slave laborers were transported to Sanya for redistribution.Although this will delay the time for slave laborers to apply for naturalization for a period of time, the treatment they can get when they go to HN Island will be much better than here in Ambuna Island.

Although Haihan executives are also aware of the tricks in the middle, it will not prevent operators from repeatedly using such methods to reduce costs.These slaves can be guaranteed basic living conditions, and they are already considered lucky in this era. At least they will not be used as pure livestock like the compatriots who fell into the hands of Western colonists.Although the period before entering the Haihan society will be relatively difficult, as long as you can survive until naturalization, there is still hope that your life will be improved in the future.

Yan Chujie visited the collective dormitories where the slave laborers lived. Although the houses with earthen walls and thatched roofs are a bit rudimentary, the environment is still clean. The inside and outside of the house for 20 people are cleaned every day. The wells, bathrooms, public toilets and other facilities are also clean. Very complete.The medical and health institutions on the island will also come here regularly to provide some guidance on epidemic prevention, so as to avoid the outbreak of epidemics in the densely populated dormitories under the hot and humid natural environment.

When Yan Chujie arrived, all the slave laborers had already gone to work, and there were only a few women who washed and cooked in the dormitory.The food for the slave laborers is not good, but they can basically manage their fill to ensure that they have enough physical strength to work.After taking a quick look around, Roger took him to the nearby rubber forest.

The slave laborers working here can easily be distinguished from different regions by their appearance. There are thin Malays, Persians with curly hair, dark-skinned Africans, and Javanese who seem to have not yet fully evolved.Yan Chujie is not interested in understanding the plight of these people, he is more concerned about the planting and breeding of the rubber trees planted here.

This plant native to the Americas was brought to the Far East two and a half centuries in advance by the Haihan people who traveled across the country to plant it, because the stage of generating income can last for decades, and all the output will be provided by the Haihan people. It is completely purchased by the Han government, so there is no need to worry about sales, and the economic benefits are far more cost-effective than planting food crops. In recent years, it has always been one of the most popular projects for investors at the Haihan Investment Promotion Conference.

In the original history, it was a hundred years later that the French adventurer La Condamine brought the natural rubber produced in the Amazon rainforest back to France and handed it over to the National Academy of Sciences for research. Haihan started a whole century earlier than competitors.The advantages of natural rubber, such as elasticity, plasticity, lightness, and waterproof, have not been discovered by other countries in this era. Haihan can use these characteristics of natural rubber to process it as a waterproof material to make various raincoats, rain boots and waterproof. rain cloth and more.

However, these applications are not the best use of rubber. The key to turning natural rubber into a real practical industrial product is rubber vulcanization technology.The vulcanized rubber has higher elasticity, heat resistance, tensile strength and other properties, and is more suitable for making industrial products.This technology would not have been developed by American inventor Charles Goodyear until the middle of the 19th century, and the Goodyear company named after him later became one of the most famous rubber tire companies in later generations.40 years after Goodyear invented vulcanization technology, the British John Dunlop invented the world's first pneumatic tire, and his name Dunlop has become the trademark of another famous tire company.

As for the rubber products that can be used in industry, there are too many to enumerate, such as hoses, tapes, gaskets, conveyor belts, linings and so on.For the Sanya area, which urgently needs to vigorously develop electric power applications, self-produced electric wires with insulation properties are also one of the necessary conditions.In addition, rubber has many applications in daily necessities, medical and health care, military affairs, construction, etc. The huge demand gap is far from being filled by the current production capacity of rubber plantations.

The climatic conditions in South Asia are very suitable for planting Hevea trifoliate trees, so rubber plantations occupy a very important position in the investment promotion project of Ambuna Island.At present, about half of the plantation projects developed and constructed on the island are planted with rubber trees.

"The rubber trees planted here will have to wait a few more years before they can be harvested. According to people from the Ministry of Agriculture, the annual output of dry rubber per mu in the first five years will be about 100 kilograms, and then it will increase year by year, and it will increase after ten years. When the weight reaches about 200 kilograms, the place where the environment can adapt can be higher." Luo Jie introduced the situation of the plantation to Yan Chujie as he walked: "Qiong Lianfa has enclosed several thousand acres of land here, and in the growth period of the previous few years, only investment There is no output, so it is a symbolic land rent. They are desperately reducing labor costs, and a large part of the reason is to minimize losses during this period. But after a few years when the bananas start to be harvested, there will be some profits .”

In the plantation under the name of Qiong Lianfa alone, about half of the area is used to plant rubber trees. The Ministry of Agriculture estimates that after this rubber forest is put into production, it can provide about 10 tons of dry rubber to the Haihan Ministry of Industry every year.This alone will bring annual income of several 40 yuan to the sponsor. In the first two or three years of production, the previous operating costs can be fully earned back, and in the next three to four decades, they will gain a stable income from it. income.

Of course, the benefits that Haihan can get from it cannot be measured by the few 10 yuan per year. The industrial application of rubber will greatly promote the development of Haihan, so that the society under Haihan’s rule will never be based on agriculture. The industrial structure dominated by industrialization is accelerating towards industrialization.

After visiting this plantation, Yan Chujie stopped by to check the operating conditions of the other two farms.The current cultivated area of ​​farmland on the island can basically ensure that there will be a surplus of food after meeting local needs, but the income of food crops is far less than that of cash crops, so the minimum cultivation is almost always carried out according to the land ratio.That is to say, the investor must have a certain proportion of the area in the development land encircled locally for cultivation of food crops, and as part of the land rent, he must pay a certain amount of grain tax to the local management committee every year.

In addition to rice, the island's food crops are the second most cultivated area is cassava.This starch-rich crop is one of the main food crops in the tropics. It is native to South America and was also brought to the Far East during this period by the traversers for farming.This kind of food crop does not require intensive cultivation like rice, and the planting method is extremely simple, which is very suitable for handing over to South Asian slave labor who are not good at farming.

After visiting the plantations and farms, Yan Chujie's next stop was the immigration office on the island.In addition to registering the local Haihan residents, the main function of this institution is to manage slaves imported from the outside world.In other words, this is the official agency that deals with slave traders from various countries and conducts various gray transactions.

Currently in charge of managing this organization is Li Dagui, who made great contributions to Haihan's attack on Anbuna Island. It was because of the various information provided by him and Du Rong when they were undercover on the island for a long time that Haihan was able to go smoothly. Take this place down.Later, Du Rong was transferred to Penghu to work, while Li Dagui stayed on Ambuna Island.Adhering to the tradition of Haihan's appointment of those who can do more work, Li Dagui, in addition to his position in the Ministry of Security, also held such a position in the Ministry of Civil Affairs to manage immigration.Of course, he will also make full use of the convenience of this position, and choose those who can develop into intelligence personnel among the various people he contacts.Especially for the group of slaves transported to the local area, his selection priority was even higher than that of the military and employers.

"Boss, this is the transaction record of the purchase of slave labor this month, please have a look." Li Dagui had received training in Sanya for a period of time before joining the job, so he naturally knew the status of Yan Chujie, a member of the executive committee, in Haihan's officialdom. He had the highest position among the Haihan executives he had come into close contact with, so he showed an extraordinarily humble attitude, and handed the notebook to Yan Chujie with both hands.

Yan Chujie took the notebook and began to look through it. The record on it was October [-], that is, about ten days ago.The delivery man was Geert Jansen, the captain of the Dutch East India Company. Yan Chujie had a little impression of this name. He had seen it in the reports submitted by Abunna Island in the past. He should be the first batch to establish trade relations with Haihan one of the Dutch.To a certain extent, Captain Janssen also represented the attitude of Batavia's top management-as long as they can make money, the Dutch don't mind doing business with their enemies.

Jansen sent 320 slaves that day, most of them from the slave market in Batavia.After a basic physical examination, Haihanfang accepted the slaves and paid Jansen the agreed transaction fee.Among the 320 slaves, men accounted for three quarters, and most of them were healthy men between the ages of 45 and [-]. This was also to meet the labor demand of the slave market on Abona Island.

(End of this chapter)