1635 Han style rises again

Chapter 878 A Flourishing Plantation
April 1673, 4, Weiyuan Island, Ningxiang Fort (now Popondeta City in southeastern Papua New Guinea).

Compared with the wealth in the eastern part of Hanzhou, Weiyuan Island, the largest overseas territory of Qi State, is a poor place that some people say is "not rich in population and has no decent industrial base".Because the entire Weiyuan Island, except for some large-scale industries in Weiyuan City (now Port Moresby), is almost a purely agricultural production area.The broad masses of the people live the kind of "poor life" where they have enough food and clothing, but generally do not have much spare money in their hands.

Of course, this poverty is also relative.

The island is located near the equator and belongs to the tropical rainforest climate with high temperature and rain all year round, so it is especially suitable for growing tropical cash crops, such as coffee introduced from East Africa and Arabia more than 20 years ago, oil palm introduced from West Africa through the Dutch East India Company, And cocoa introduced from South America more than ten years ago.

Most of these special economic crops are planted on Weiyuan Island except some transplanted in Xuanhua Island, and with the expansion of tree species, a large number of economic crop plantations have been opened up in various places.

"Everyone, please see that there is a coffee plantation in front of you, covering an area of ​​[-] mu. It has been in operation for three years, and it is about to blossom and bear fruit, and it is about to realize profits."

Li Zhaonian, the Civil Affairs Officer of Jinhua Mansion (now Lai City, Papua New Guinea), is leading seven or eight wealthy businessmen from Hanzhou to visit and inspect the local plantation operations.

"The coffee tree is native to the plateau region in eastern Africa. It spread to the Arab region 400 years ago (13th century). This method of soaking coffee quickly became popular in the region, and later spread to the Ottomans. Alcohol was strictly forbidden, so coffee became a very important and popular drink in the country, second only to tea."

"In addition, coffee was introduced to Europe through the Venetians and the Dutch in the name of "True God Wine" decades ago. It is said that this black drink full of oriental mystery, rich taste, and charming aroma was favored by nobles. As the gentry class competed for each other, the value of coffee also rose, and it even had the title of "black gold."

"However, for a long time, the cultivation and production of coffee has been monopolized by the Arabs, and the output is extremely limited. Now, after more than 20 years of cultivation in our country, coffee has fully adapted to the local climate and environment. Coffee Whether it is in India, Arabia, Ottoman, or in Europe, the demand is extremely strong, and the value is comparable to tea."

"Oh, by the way, many medical and religious people abroad believe that coffee has the effects of refreshing, refreshing, strengthening the stomach, strengthening the body, and stopping bleeding. Think about it, you can drink delicious and mellow coffee and enjoy the taste. Pleasant and comfortable, it can also maintain health and cure diseases, and its efficacy is even stronger than the tea we sell."

"Therefore, the market prospect of this coffee is very broad. You only need to enclose a hundred and eighty acres, hire a few farmers who know how to plant, and then bring in some coolies. This is an old hen that can lay golden eggs, so that you can Get a steady stream of wealth!"

"Li Tongpan, it takes 3-5 years for a coffee tree to bear fruit from planting, and coffee trees that are 6-10 years old are the easiest to bear fruit. Based on the 30-year life cycle of a coffee tree, there are 15-20 Years is the harvest period. However, your Jinhua Mansion only gives you 20 years of management rights. If you calculate it, we only have a profit period of less than ten years!" Zhu Quanping said with a wry smile: "Besides, we have to pay A high land lease fee requires the payment of seedling nursery fees and plantation maintenance fees in the early stage. It takes effort to collect coolies, pay corresponding taxes and fees during the harvest period, and even worry about drastic changes in market prices in the future. And your money Washington, however, can get the benefits of the plantation later stage for nothing after 20 years. Isn’t this deal worthwhile?”

"Treasurer Zhu, that's not what you said." Li Zhaonian said: "You can't just see your contribution, but turn a blind eye to the contribution of my Jinhua Mansion. The security around Ningxiang Fort is from this place to the For the construction of roads by the sea, and in order to ensure the export of your plantation products, we also need to build a port terminal. Calculate how much money our local government will spend on the initial construction, daily maintenance, and later renovation of these infrastructures. "

Hearing this, Zhu Quanping didn't speak, but looked at several businessmen in the same company, meaning, don't let me stand out all the time, you have to suppress the conditions and strive for the best interests for us.

"Li Tongpan, please bear with me if you say something unpleasant." Su Xi pulled the cloth towel covering his head and face, revealing a little bit of his mouth and nose, "The infrastructure construction and maintenance of this place should belong to your Jinhua mansion." Otherwise, how can we attract us to invest in the construction of plantations? The local finances are difficult, and it is difficult to have spare financial resources to develop the local economy, so we should provide practical and preferential policies to attract a large number of businessmen to invest. In this way, Only by promoting the development of local people’s livelihood and prospering Jinhua’s economy. Do you think so, Li Tongpan?”

"What are you waiting for..." Li Zhaonian felt a little dissatisfied. These merchants, all of whom are mercenary, relying on their own money, actually want to manipulate my local government and ask for more preferential terms.

However, he didn't want to offend these rich masters for this.According to the news from Chang'an, the cabinet government intends to take this economic census as an opportunity to increase the performance appraisal standards of local governments, one of which is to participate in the growth rate and development level of local GDP.If the economy and people's livelihood does not improve and the development is slow, it will definitely affect the promotion of local officials.

To develop the economy and increase the growth rate, a large amount of capital investment is inseparable.However, looking at the entire Weiyuan Island, apart from Weiyuan City, which can rely on dozens of industrial enterprises such as shipbuilding, wood processing, food processing, wine making, and building materials, as well as the location advantages of shipping transit, it can attract some foreign capital investment and achieve economic sustainability. In addition to growth, other prefectures, counties, and administrative districts don't have any decent industries. They can only pitifully rely on the cultivated land colonized around them, and dig food out of the soil with difficulty.

However, in order to promote the development of Weiyuan Island, the Cabinet Ministry of Industry and Commerce and the Ministry of Agriculture have successively given many preferential policies. One of them is to allow the area to develop a plantation economy. way to transfer land to investors interested in plantation development.

In fact, Xuanhua was the first area to develop plantation economy. On some nearby small islands, such as Beiyi Island (now Weta Island, Indonesia), Yanling Island (now Alor Island, Indonesia), Songling Island (now Indonesia Luodi Island), Yuanhe Island (now Savu Island, Indonesia), etc., many businessmen opened up various crop plantations such as grain, cotton, and coconut.With the acquiescence of the local government, they hired armed guards, captured natives as coolies, and obtained a lot of operating income with almost extremely low production costs.

Later, Weiyuan Mansion also followed suit. After mobilizing a large number of armed soldiers to thoroughly clean up the savages within tens of kilometers of the surrounding area, it immediately began to attract investment from the mainland, Nanyang and Ming Dynasty, and successively established several There are dozens or hundreds of various economic crop plantations, which have greatly promoted the growth of local "GDP".

Today, the total population of Weiyuan Island is about 35, while Weiyuan Prefecture accounts for more than [-]% of the population, reaching more than [-]. In terms of economic aggregate, it accounts for half of the entire island. dominant.

The officials in charge of the adjacent Jinhua Mansion have performance appraisals, people’s yearning for a better life, and the stimulation of the dazzling development of Weiyuan Mansion. How can they be willing to be a salted fish without seeking progress?

Isn't it just to open up plantations, isn't it to attract rich owners to invest in construction, isn't it to stimulate local economic growth.Xuanhua can do it, Weiyuan can do it, and we can follow suit!

After this group of businessmen came to Jinhua Mansion, they also inspected many places successively, constantly picking on and embarrassing the local government with various problems, in an attempt to obtain the management right of the plantation with the largest discount.Although these behaviors are really annoying, it also shows that they are already very intentional.

For the sustainability of future development, local governments will formulate different lease periods for different types of cash crops, such as coffee plantations. The lease period cannot be set at 30 years at once.Wouldn't it be that after the life of the coffee tree is over, the local government has to pay another sum of money to shovel these coffee trees with no economic value, which would be a big loss.

Therefore, Jinhua Mansion also refers to the model of Weiyuan Mansion and limits the operation period of the coffee plantation to 20 years in order to obtain a part of the income in the later stage, or transfer it at a high price to obtain some benefits for the local government and the people.

However, these businessmen obviously want to prolong the operating period of the plantation, and at worst they also want to obtain the priority renewal right after the land lease expires, in order to obtain the maximum benefit.

"In addition, Jinhua Mansion can give you a native coolie for every [-] mu of land after you have invested in place. So, are you satisfied?" Li Zhaonian said with a smile.

"Natives of Nanyang, or local natives?"

"...Uh, naturally they are local natives."

"The local natives are basically in the situation of slash-and-burn farming, how can they cultivate land!"

"What's so difficult about it? You can use a whip to teach them how to farm the land." Li Zhaonian said with a sneer, "Think about it, a coolie can serve for at least five to eight years. If used properly, it can last ten years or even twenty years." It is also possible. . . . How much wealth will this create for you?"

After hearing this, Zhu Quanping was a little moved.If you enclose a hundred acres of land, you can get five coolies for free. After one year, no matter what, you can create a few hundred yuan in income. In ten years, it can be several thousand yuan.

"Dare to ask, what are the characteristics and operating income of this oil palm? Can you also introduce one or two to me?" When everyone came near an oil palm plantation, Su Xi asked with great interest road.

"Oh? If you have doubts about the future income of coffee, you might as well consider operating oil palm trees." Li Zhaonian said: "This oil palm is definitely the most efficient oil-producing crop in the world. After preliminary calculations, The oil yield per hectare of oil palm trees averages 300 to [-] kilograms per year. You should know that among the same oil-producing crops, rapeseed is only [-] kilograms, sunflower seeds are about [-] kilograms, and soybeans It is only more than [-] kilograms. It can be called the king of oil among oil crops."

"This palm oil is obtained by pressing palm fruit, and the oil yield is about 20%. You see, this palm fruit grows on the large fruit bunches of oil palm trees. Each fruit bunch has more than 2000 palm fruits and weighs 20 -30 kg. After the palm fruit is ripe and harvested, it is boiled, crushed, squeezed, etc. to obtain preliminary palm oil, and then refined to remove the impurities and odor inside, and then refined palm oil can be obtained.”

"Think about it, this oil is a necessary material in our daily life. Naturally, the demand is endless and the consumption is huge. My Jinhua Prefecture plans to introduce several investors to establish a corresponding palm oil processing plant. , At that time, the palm fruit you produce can be sold in Jinhua nearby, without having to be transported back to Weihai or the mainland. In this way, you will save an additional cost of sea transportation."

"Of course, the operation period of this oil palm plantation is also 20 years, which will definitely bring you long-term and stable excess benefits."

Because oil palms have been transplanted to Qi for a relatively short period of time, no more than 15 years, the earliest transplanted oil palm trees are still producing a large number of fruits every year, so that the local government is sure that this economic crop is also like coffee trees , The growth cycle will be as long as 30 years, so a 20-year operating period will be set.

As everyone knows, the economic age of each oil palm tree is basically about 20 years, not more than 25 years, and the output varies with the range of tree age structure.Before transplanting, oil palm trees generally need 16-18 months of seedling time. After transplanting to the plantation, it will take 3-4 years to grow and start to bear fruit. At the beginning, the weight of the fruit bunches is only 10-15 kg. Increase year by year, and finally stabilize at 20-30 kg. After 7-14 years, oil palm trees enter the peak of production, and after 15-18 years, the production gradually declines, and then they are aged and eliminated.

It is conceivable that 20 years later, when the local government that thinks it has taken advantage of the palm oil plantation receives a large number of aging and decaying oil palm trees, it will definitely be hard to calm down.

"What kind of crops are here?" On the way back to Ningxiang Fort, the group noticed that there was a sparse forest nearby, and there were armed village soldiers patrolling on horseback outside, and they couldn't help being very curious.

"Oh, that is a tree species that was brought from America seven or eight years ago. I heard it is very precious, and it is specially cultivated and raised here." Li Zhaonian glanced at it and said with a smile: "As for the specific use, I have not yet known. Several local industrial research institutes are still researching the emulsion produced by it, and its future role should be no less than that of oil palm and coffee.”

"Is it for food too?"

"No. . . It seems to be an industrial ingredient."

(End of this chapter)