Xinshun 1730

Chapter 690 The Dual Attributes of Ceylon

The face of the governor of Ceylon became quite ugly.

Because after the Dashun officer who sent the message finished speaking, he took out a very clear map of Colombo Fort like a murderer. It was obvious that Dashun had been staring at it for a long time, but it was definitely not a temporary idea.

After receiving the map of the castle, the governor of Ceylon suddenly asked: "Is the real reason why your country went to war because of the incidents in the Zhoushan Islands, Penghu and Taiwan?"

The officer didn't answer, talking nonsense, of course not, you are also the governor of the garrison, don't be so naive, okay?Speaking of the ban on Catholicism in China, isn't it still a fierce fight with France, the eldest daughter of Catholicism?
Seeing that the officer did not answer, the governor of Ceylon said again: "The company has tried its best to consider the Chinese. Those people have no jobs in Batavia, and the company did not send them back to Fujian, but arranged for them to live here. .and give them enough land to make a living. Is this how your country gives back to us?"

The officer couldn't help laughing and said: "Lord Governor, you don't think you can stop the war with a few words from you, do you? "

"Is it a fight? Or a shot?"

…………

At the same time, [-] marines landed in small boats near Kot, south of Fort Colombo.

They're going to take Kurt.

Kot is the city, Colombo is the city.The two are not the same. It was not until the British snatched Ceylon from the Netherlands that Colombo Fort was demolished and the city was built on the basis of the British navy.

Kote gradually became a suburban existence in Colombo, but it was the capital of the Kote Kingdom until Portugal's demise of the Kote Kingdom in the 19th year of Wanli.

Most of the Chinese immigrants were also settled near here.In the early stage, he worked as a contract slave to replace Tamil slaves. When the time came, the land to be allocated was of course some wasteland.The sins of Portugal, forced conversions and massacres made a large number of high and middle castes flee to the north, vacating a lot of land.

Over the past few decades, this place has not been filled with population, and the land in the coastal area can at least accommodate hundreds of thousands of standard 60-acre self-cultivating farmers.

At this time, some Chinese on land have noticed the words on the flags of the Dashun army that landed by the sea, at least. Although most of the Chinese slave laborers are illiterate, they can still tell that these should be their own words .It is square and square, and it is not the kind of alphabet that is common in Batavia.

As a city, Kote didn't have many soldiers. After Dashun's warships appeared, the Burgers in the city ran towards Colombo Fort one after another.

In Ceylon, the handicraft industry and commerce in the city are monopolized by the mixed-race Bourges, which is a word with the same origin as bourgeois, and it refers specifically to handicraftsmen and small businessmen.

The Chinese who immigrated to Ceylon were all poor and could not even pay the poll tax. This led to a completely different situation between the Chinese organizations in Ceylon and the Chinese organizations in Batavia.

In Batavia, Lei Zhenlan and Jiapitan, who are quite Chinese, don't have a net worth of several 10 taels of silver, so they are not qualified at all.

And in Ceylon, if you really have a net worth of several 10 taels of silver, why can't you even pay the poll tax and come here to be a contract slave?
Moreover, even if they were willing to come, the Dutch would not allow it.

Batavia's lessons impressed the Dutch deeply, and the Chinese penetrated into every aspect of the city.

From the fish, shrimp, crab, and rice oil that we eat, to the high-end spice purchase middlemen, to the higher-level sugar factory contractors and taxpayers, eight out of ten are Chinese.

In Ceylon, the Dutch should avoid such a situation as much as possible.On the one hand, there are mixed-race Bourges in the city. As petty bourgeois and small businessmen, there is no need for Chinese;

As a result, this led to the fact that in Ceylon, the Dutch still adopted the Kapitan system, but Lei Zhenlan and the Kapitans were all selected from slave labor.

And those who can stand out among the slave laborers are all a group of people with considerable prestige among the slave laborers.If you want to have prestige among slave labor, it doesn't depend on whether you have money, but whether you can fight, show loyalty, and have enough friends.

The ass decides the head. After these people become Lei Zhenlan, they are likely to turn bad.

However, the "benevolent government" of the Dutch has not been implemented after all, and they have not yet had the opportunity to use the power of the Dutch to oppress the lower class to grow more coffee for their own dividends, so for the time being, their hearts are not towards the Netherlands.

If they were really allowed to become Lei Zhenlan, after many years, they would basically become people who helped the Dutch oppress their old brothers: forcing a variety of coffee, the Dutch bought it at a low price, and helped the Dutch more In places other than the land tax in kind, the Dutch pay dividends according to the catty.In this case, how many of them can stick to their original intentions?

Fortunately, there is no chance to "stand the test" yet.

These elected Lei Zhenlan have contacts with Dashun's supervisors on weekdays. Dashun's supervisors are responsible for monitoring the Dutch from doing too much, and also acting as a link between the Chinese and the Dutch colonial government. Connection.

In Batavia, the system is the governor, Kapitan, Lei Zhenlan, and registered Chinese.is a line.

In Ceylon, however, the system is the two lines of governors, Dashun supervisors and Lei Zhenlan, who are enthroned Chinese.

Lei Zhenlan from Ceylon naturally had a closer relationship with Dashun's supervisors, because there would always be some conflicts with the Dutch, and Dashun's supervisors would turn towards them at this time.

When the Burgers in Kote ran to Colombo Fort, the supervisory officials in Kote naturally took over the Chinese organizations in the city and called Lei Zhenlan from all over the place together.

In a sense, we have to "thank you" for the policy of the Dutch, relying on the organization of lieutenants and captains like Lei Zhenlan and Jiapitan, which are similar to militarized army camps, and the fact that the collective labor of contracted slaves has not yet been separated, It is easy to organize the surrounding Chinese together.

Waiting for the [-] marines on Dashun's side to land, the members of the observation and supervision team who felt as if they were serving a sentence here strode toward Dashun's army.

It is Du Feng, the deputy commander of the squadron, who will command the landing operations and command the siege if Fort Colombo does not surrender.

Some people who observed the supervision team came from Weihai. Even if they didn't come from the first year, they must have recognized Du Feng.

After the meeting, regardless of the order of the teeth, the person who came first said which year he went to Weihai, and the relationship was instantly drawn.

"Master Du, is this a war?"

Looking at the fleet approaching here in the distance, and the marines with their bayonets inserted, even though they hadn't heard of it before, they knew that there must be a fight.

Du Feng asked: "How many people can you organize? Gather people together, and follow the pattern organized by the Dutch, and ask Lei Zhenlan to come forward to organize people. First help carry the materials up, and then you will lead the people Go to the rest of the Chinese settlements and read out the imperial court's policy."

Battles are easy to fight, but the hard part is how to win people's hearts quickly.

Basically, the policy of the Dutch remains unchanged for the time being, but for the Chinese community, some policies must be changed.

Those policies of the Dutch look like "government of benevolence".

Dashun's policy will be more "benevolent" than this. This is a distant hope.

And closer, it is the time to directly cancel all contract slaves, which not only gives more hope for the future that is more benevolent and more yearning, but also gives a closer reality.

The land distribution plan specified by the Dutch remained unchanged.According to the policy of the Netherlands, the paddy and dry fields totaled 60 mu per person in the prime of life.

The tax rate is reduced to ten and the tax is one.It is no longer forced to grow coffee, indigo, etc., and pay them as taxes in kind.Instead, farmers are allowed to plant freely, and merchants buy them at market prices.

If you choose to join the army, you will get a wife as a soldier.Paying two silvers per month, you still have land. During your service, you can hire others to work, and you can choose to be a small landlord.The daughter-in-law was purchased by the imperial court in batches from the disaster area and shipped by sea, with an average price of 30 taels.Or if you are willing to marry a Tamil or Sinhalese, the imperial court will give you 15 taels of silver for relocation.

Or enter the army to register as a garrison army, replace the regular tax with the blood tax, divide the equal land and Yongye land, and serve in the army for generations.

The starting point of the Dutch East India Company is profit.Therefore, it is necessary to use the fait accompli monopoly power to make money, force two-fifths of the cash crops to be planted, and pay them as land taxes, and the surplus will be purchased at extremely low prices.

This is for selling money.

Everything is based on profit.

Dashun's starting point for going to Nanyang is also to make money.

However, Dashun is not the East India Company, but a country. It is impossible to simply consider profits, but also consider political and military values.

As the front line of India, Ceylon's identity should be the identity of "Anxi Four Towns", which is to provide soldiers, a stable population, and logistics.

If you want to grow coffee, there are plenty of places in Nanyang.And as long as the three things of Ceylon, cinnamon, betel nuts, and gemstones are controlled, there will still be two or three million taels of silver a year.

The Dutch East India Company and Dashun had different positions on Ceylon, and their policies deviated.

On the basis of the eleventh tax, an average of one mu of land has to pay a tax of one renminbi.As a rice-producing area, exports here are limited, and rice-producing India is next to it. If monetary taxes are levied instead of taxes in kind, the people will definitely be more willing to grow cash crops.

In the long run, the economic value is actually higher.

Ceylon actually has dual attributes for Dashun.

As a military town, it is necessary to equalize the land and ensure a sufficient population of self-cultivating farmers. Self-cultivating farmers are the best soldiers of this era, none of them.Dashun has no shortage of soldiers and population, as long as it has money.However, if Dashun's elite Beijing camp and northern soldiers came to India to fight, ten of them would die in battle, and eighty to one hundred would die of illness.These cruelly selected slave laborers are undoubtedly the best soldiers.Those who are easy to die of illness have already died.

Another attribute, as an economic zone, is to develop large plantations.

Whether it's coffee, indigo, or sugar cane, there's no question that plantations are more efficient than small farmers.

From the early immigrants, the property of its military town was maintained.

Private capital maintains its attributes as a plantation economic zone.

But now for these immigrants, there is no need to tell them the policy of another attribute, and they will not care.Of course, it has nothing to do with them. Without capital, how can we do plantations?

Just let them know that when the Celestial Dynasty comes, benevolent government will come.Let Ceylon become the most important military town for Dashun to fight against India, just provide soldiers and population, Dashun does not need soldiers.

(End of this chapter)