1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 991 Overall gap
What makes Van Diemen the most jealous is not the current booming trade between Haihan and Daming, but Haihan's achievements in port infrastructure.When he first arrived in Sanya earlier, he was also amazed at the scale and standard of construction of the local port and wharf, but at the time he thought that since this place is the facade of Haihan, it is natural to make every effort to make it more beautiful, so as to impress foreign merchants. good impression.But after visiting many ports on Hainan Island this time, Fan Dimen discovered that every port of the Haihan people has implemented standardized construction. Although the scales vary, the port facilities, entry and exit procedures, and operating mechanisms They are all completely consistent, which also shows that Haihan's business strategy in maritime trade is mature.

In contrast, the operation of the East India Company in Nanyang is more like a grassroots team. Except for the port of Batavia, which is still a bit decent, the construction level of other places is not as compared with these ports on Hainan Island. No island can compare.This gap is not only caused by the difference in the degree of financial investment, but also because the East India Company lags behind in terms of overall planning, staffing, and engineering capabilities.

The gap in port construction and operation has an obvious impact on trade. The operation efficiency of Haihan Port is obviously much higher. The ship entry and exit procedures, cargo loading and unloading, storage and even sales do not require too much work from ship owners and cargo owners. They can arrange these matters without even leaving the ship, and the time saved can be used on the round-trip voyage.After a few more trips to Haihan's port in a year, the profits in exchange for the time saved will naturally be considerable.

Although Van Diemen believes that region and ethnicity are the main reasons for the gap in trade and operation between the two sides, he also has to admit that from the perspective of merchants, Haihan Port, which has complete service facilities and unified management measures, is obviously a better choice.After the Haihan people's base in the Strait of Malacca is put into use, it is not difficult to imagine that the entire South China Sea, or the maritime trade between the East and the West, may undergo subtle changes.

If Van Diemen had to pick out some flaws to comfort himself, probably the only shortcoming is that Haihan's current sea transportation capacity is still relatively limited.In order to quickly expand its territory, Haihan put most of its resources on the construction of ships for military purposes. The Haihan Navy already has six "Majestic-class" main battleships, but in order to build these six large warships and other For the many warships prepared as a supporting set, the Ministry of Shipping can only greatly reduce the number of civilian and commercial ships built.This makes Haihan currently very dependent on the maritime transport capacity from other countries, especially Ming Dynasty, and more than [-]% of the ships that travel between Hainan Island and Ming Dynasty all the year round are not owned by Haihan.

However, this shortcoming will not limit Haihan for too long. After the investigation, Van Diemen saw shipyards under construction in both Danzhou and Haikou.Judging from the speed at which Haihan builds military ships, the frequency of launching civilian ships from various shipyards will only increase in the next few years.Maybe in a year or two, a fleet of merchant ships flying the Haihan flag can be seen appearing on the seas of the Nanyang region.

During the last half-day inspection time in Haikou City, Ning Qi went to the new immigrant resettlement area to the east of Nandu River.From 1631 to the present, nearly [-] new immigrants, mainly from Ming Dynasty, have been settled in this area.These immigrants were resettled in ten planned villages and towns, and their livelihood was mainly based on collective farms growing food crops.

The basic organization of the Ming Dynasty's rule in the countryside was the lijia system. In this system, 110 households constituted a li, and the ten households with the most rations served as the head of the li, and the remaining [-] households were organized into Shijia.The government uses lijia as a unit to organize and dispatch corvee, including collecting taxes and grains, transporting tribute materials, supporting the government for public use, and so on.But because this system does not select talents to manage the grassroots, and there are no perfect supervision measures, the village head can use public power for private use when arranging corvee, and fill his pockets.After the one-whip law came into effect in the middle of the Ming Dynasty, the original ten-year replacement system of village chiefs was gradually abandoned, and the control over farmers became weaker and weaker.

After Haihan took over this area, he did not follow the Lijia system of the Ming Dynasty, because all the immigrants here were resettled without roots, so the local civil affairs department actually adopted the commune system with the village as the unit, that is, all production Data are publicized, and people’s income mainly comes from wages and food rations earned from labor.And the cadres of the village committee in each village are all appointed by the Haihan Ministry of Civil Affairs, and they have to accept supervision while eating the imperial food. A little deterrent.

This organizational form of collective ownership is more suitable for an agricultural society. Haihan tries to use the advantages of the system to achieve a cemetery where agriculture supports workers, and relies on agricultural accumulation to realize the foundation of industrialization.The benefits of this system are obvious. First of all, there is a ready-made model to follow. Haihan only needs to apply the successful experience gained in practice by the ancestors in the original time and space. The management system and operation method are very mature. Then do a long experiment to explore.Secondly, this system can effectively organize farmers, use private productivity to build large-scale farmland water conservancy infrastructure, and save Haihan's official investment in agricultural development.The most important point is to be able to effectively concentrate the wealth produced by agricultural production and invest it in the more important military, industrial and other fields by the government, so as to promote the rapid development of social productivity.

However, the Haihan-style commune system has also learned the lessons of its predecessors, and does not blindly emphasize public ownership. It also provides a channel for immigrants who want to abandon agriculture and enter business or enter other industries to work, but there is a necessary premise It is necessary to obtain the native place of Haihan first.And if you don't have a skill or you choose to join the army, and just rely on simple physical labor in the countryside, it will take at least a year to get a chance to be naturalized.Because these immigrant resettlement areas near Haikou City have not been established for a long time, most of the immigrants are still in the observation period, and the proportion of naturalization is not yet over half.

Of course, after a certain stage of development in the future, the collective ownership implemented in these places may once again become the shackles that bind productivity. At that time, timely changes will definitely be made in the grassroots organization system, but the fastest must be the next generation It's people's business.

Fan Diemen has a certain interest in the grass-roots management system promoted by Haihan in the countryside. It is not only different from the feudal lordship system common in Europe, but also has obvious differences with the rural social structure in the Far East represented by Ming Dynasty that he knows. the difference.Judging from the state of the farmland infrastructure here, it is undoubtedly the most outstanding place he has ever seen in his life. It is similar to the water conservancy projects with tens of thousands of acres of arable land in several villages and unified regulations. You can get it out with a little fuss.

When the expedition team arrived, this place called Dagan Village was just organizing people to dig irrigation canals leading to the Nandu River. Seeing hundreds of strong laborers sweating profusely in the field, Fan Dimen seemed to understand what Ning Qi told him just now. What does "collective ownership" mean.Infrastructure projects like this can indeed only be organized by officials, and this kind of low-tech infrastructure project may not be implemented in other countries after several generations—for example, the government that ruled the country before During the 200-year rule of Daming in the region, the government did not organize the construction of these water conservancy facilities as necessary projects.

"Why did you only take two years to achieve what Daming failed to achieve in a hundred years?" Fan Dimen took the initiative to seek an official answer from Ning Qi.

Ning Qi thought for a while before answering: "It's actually very simple, because we know how to do it is the most correct way."

Fan Dimen was at a loss when he heard it, he didn't understand the meaning of Ning Qi's words.Seeing the question mark expression on his face, Ning Qi continued to explain: "The systems and methods we use in governance are relatively mature practices that have been practiced by predecessors and improved from generation to generation. Similar We have seen what Daming, or you Westerners do, and we know what the final result will be, so we will not copy these wrong ways again.”

Van Diemen asked a little bit unwillingly: "So what you are currently doing is the best way? These all come from your homeland east of the ocean?"

Ning Qi smiled and said, "Is it the best way? Time will tell everyone." As for the last question Fan Dimen asked, he intentionally or unintentionally skipped it.

In order to fool the Ming people, the traversers made up a person who was from the Haihan Kingdom "east of the ocean". Western colonists who have traveled all over the world's major continents can easily reveal their secrets. Therefore, in recent years, senior Haihan officials have rarely mentioned their origins outside.

Such an answer naturally cannot satisfy Fan Dimen, but after dealing with Ning Qi for so long, he also knows the characteristics of this high-ranking Haihan official. Follow up to find out more news from his mouth.Even a few times when he drank too much at banquets arranged by local officials, it was still sealed. No wonder he was responsible for this kind of foreign affairs reception task.

Due to the limited time, Ning Qi's inspections in the countryside can only be superficial. The sources of people in resettlement areas like those under Haihan's rule are very complicated, and it is impossible for the people to really do what they did during the inspection. Seeing such calm, there must still be many unavoidable conflicts.However, judging from the production organization and infrastructure status, the management effect of this area is quite good. Although it is not as good as the old development zone like Yazhou, the social order and agricultural production are relatively stable. This is the most important thing for the executive committee. important part.

After the inspection in Dagan Village was completed that day, Ning Qi and his party boarded a boat on the bank of the Nandu River and left, followed the east coast of Hainan Island to the south, and stayed overnight at Qinglan Port, Wenchang County.On the east coast of Hainan Island, there are four counties, Wenchang, Qionghai, Wanning, and Lingshui. However, these counties are all agricultural counties and have not opened foreign trade ports. In addition, inspection teams from the Ministry of Agriculture have recently visited these counties. Instructing the spring plowing work, Ning Qi did not intend to stay on this line.

It is only more than 100 nautical miles from Qinglan Port to Sanya, and Ning Qi calculated that the time for this trip would be about the same, so he planned to fly directly to Sanya. After returning, he would have a few days to rest and prepare for the next major event.The two warships escorted out from Haikou went all the way to the sea off Wanning, and turned around after handing over with the colleagues who were greeted by the north, and then escorted the expedition team back to Sanya by the relay warships.

On March 25th, Ning Qi and his party's round-the-island investigation, which took about half a month, finally came to a successful conclusion in Shengli Port.After this trip, the one who gained the most was not Ning Qi, but the Governor of the East India Company, Fan Dimen, who followed him all the way as a guest.

What Fan Diemen has seen and heard during this trip has surpassed all the information collected during the three years of contact with Haihan, and many of them are first-hand information that cannot be bought with money. If Haihan did not take the initiative to open up After visiting these areas and taking him to visit, Van Diemen estimated that he would never have the opportunity to see the real situation of the society under Haihan's rule in his life.

In the past, Van Diemen once believed that Haihan must be a militaristic force, investing all the profits earned from business in military construction, otherwise how could it have become the most powerful maritime force in the South China Sea in just a few years? .But after coming to Haihan to see it with his own eyes, he realized that Haihan's strength is not limited to the military, but the speed and level of development in each field of industry, agriculture, soldiers, learning, and business far exceeds that of Haihan. his previous imagination.

It is difficult for Van Diemen to understand how this kind of all-round strength can appear in Haihan, an emerging force without foundation, but the fact is so cruel, Haihan's strength in all aspects exceeds that of the surrounding territories. traditional forces.However, Haihan is currently limited by his lack of stature, and his true strength has not yet fully exploded. After all, there are only a few hundred thousand people in total, and in an island, no matter how much black technology there is, it is difficult to fully exert its effectiveness.Given time, after Haihan's control area reaches a certain scale, that will probably be the time when this new star will rise in the Far East.

Judging from the current international situation, it seems that no one can stop the rising of this new star.In recent years, Daming has been trapped in internal and external troubles and has no time to look south, while Annan has almost become a slave state of Haihan, and the remaining small neighboring countries are not enough to look at.As for the Western colonial countries that came to the Far East, all of them have stumbled in the hands of Hai Han without exception, and it seems that it is difficult to get any advantage from him.

(End of this chapter)