Back to Ming Dynasty with Industrial Revolution System

Chapter 1824 Nanyang Center Guangzhou Mansion

After a long voyage, the missions traveled from Mumbai to Calcutta, and then entered the territory of the mainland through the Strait of Malacca. The Pacific Ocean, which is tens of thousands of nautical miles away, has become an inland sea.

Chu Lingyun went to the West alone this time to invite various countries to participate in the second World Expo. At the same time, he also traveled to some prefectures and counties along the coast to understand the changes in these places.

In the past, the dynasties that emphasized agriculture and suppressed commerce focused on agriculture. Some commercial hubs in the interior were equally as important as the coast, and even more important. However, after announcing the permanent end of the sea ban and expanding outward, the coastal counties suddenly became extremely prosperous. With the convenience of geographical location and sea transportation, it surpasses some towns in the inland.

When the railway was not well developed, the transportation capacity of sea and river transportation was much more efficient than that of horse-drawn carriage and coolie transportation.

The goods that can be transported by a galleon over 1000 tons may require hundreds of horse-drawn carts and mule carts.

Resources from overseas and commodities exported overseas have become an important economic pillar of some prefectures and counties.

For example, in Guangzhou, out of distrust of Southeast Asia, Chu Yun did not place the center of Southeast Asia in Batavia, Malacca, or Annan, but in Guangzhou, which is adjacent to Southeast Asia.For example, the Nanyang telegraph network is controlled by the Guangzhou government. As long as the base station on the Guangzhou government side has an accident, the entire Nanyang telegraph network will be paralyzed.

Guangzhou Mansion has also become an important tea exporter and raw material importer, and its prospects are even more exaggerated than Chu Yun imagined.

Chu Yun originally thought that the future local economic center would be in the Yangtze River Basin, especially the Jiangnan area.

But he is still somewhat limited by the vision of his previous era.

After the annexation of Dongying, Korea, and Siberia, Liaodong and Liaonan became a very important triangular trade location, and industrial bases emerged in the north, while Liaodong, Liaonan, Dongying Province, Korea Province, Siberia Province, Gyeonggi The combined population of Ryukyu and Ryukyu also has a population of 3000 to [-] million.

Guangzhou, Fuzhou, Xiamen and other places have become the economic center of gravity of Nanyang due to the integration of Yizhou and Southeast Asia into the territory, and these places are closer to the West and India than the Yangtze River Basin.

The advantage of the Yangtze River Basin lies in its wider hinterland and the golden waterway of the Yangtze River.

Guangdong and Guangxi provinces, Fujian provinces plus Yizhou, East Jiaozhi provinces, South Jiaozhi provinces, and Nanyang provinces actually have a huge population advantage, and also have the ability to export spices, rubber, silk, porcelain, tea, and sugar Ability.

That is to say, the scene of the Yangtze River Basin thriving in Chu Yun’s view did not appear, and the coastal areas became a situation where the three major trade circles of the North, the Yangtze River, and Nanyang were confronted. The economic center of gravity shifted from Jiangnan to Lingnan in the south and Liaonan in the north.

This separation of economic centers of gravity is not a bad thing. If a large amount of wealth is concentrated in one place in the south of the Yangtze River, it is very likely that the regional gap will be too large, and other troubles may even occur.

Chu Lingyun and his party took the lead to come to Guangzhou Mansion, where the Guangzhou Thirteen Banks became extremely prosperous, and countless merchant ships were moored on the Pearl River, and various flags were hung on the merchant ships, which were colorful.

The thirteenth row on the shore is even more crowded, and the two sides of the street are no longer the kind of low shops, but tall stone buildings.Smokey chimneys can also be seen in the distance.

They saw people of various appearances here, and these people who appeared in Guangzhou Mansion came from Southeast Asia, India, the Arabian Peninsula, and Western Europe.They were not just merchants, some were sailors, travelers, scholars.

It is hard to imagine a cosmopolitan city starting to take shape here spontaneously.

This is something that Chu Yun did not expect.

Coastal prefectures and counties lifted the sea ban indiscriminately, and Guangzhou prefecture was not a separate treaty port, allowing them to develop on their own.

Due to its geographical location adjacent to Nanyang, Guangzhou has suddenly become the economic center of the Nanyang trade circle, and has become an existence above Batavia, Hoi An Port, and Malacca, and has enriched itself by relying on the population and special products of Nanyang. The variety of products has become an international metropolis.

If businessmen from India, Western Europe, and the Arab world want to buy Nanyang specialties and inland specialties at the same time, they can be satisfied in Guangzhou.

"Ten years ago, Guangzhou Mansion built a railway. At that time, Zhan Tianyou presided over the construction of the railway. This railway strengthened our communication with the Central Plains." A local official came to pick up the diplomatic missions and introduced them to the people who appeared in Guangzhou Mansion. railway.

The Pearl River in Guangzhou is not as convenient as the Yangtze River for water transportation, so the local area attaches great importance to the emergence of railways.

When Chu Lingyun saw the railway in the Pearl River Delta, he thought of the project of the North-South Railway. The main road of the North-South Railway ends in Guangzhou at the southern end. It passes through Xiangyang and Hankou from the capital to open up the main artery in the central part of the country.

It seems that this large railway running through the north and south is about to be completed, and the person who presided over the construction of the north-south railway is Zhan Tianyou, who built the Guangzhou Railway.

"In the past ten years, our trade with Nanyang has increased by more than ten times. Many people from Guangzhou, Fuzhou, and Xiamen have begun to emigrate to Yizhou, Brunei, Annan and other places. The reason is also very simple. More land, and the agricultural tax has been exempted for five consecutive years, and the tax has been halved for five years. This is a great discount for farmers. Originally, the residents of Nanyang are mostly residents of our places, plus Nanyang has been managed by our government, and with this encouragement, many people still choose to go to Nanyang.” The officials of the Guangzhou government briefed them on the situation here.

After hearing this, Chu Lingyun nodded in agreement.

The decision to "voyage to the West" was also proposed by his father.

Although many Han Chinese emigrated overseas due to wars and overseas trade during the Southern Song Dynasty, there were still not enough Han Chinese in Nanyang, so his father ordered to encourage the provinces closest to Nanyang to immigrate to Nanyang on a large scale, diluting the proportion of local aborigines, and adding Shanghuaxia has always paid attention to blood relationship, and immigration will completely turn Nanyang into an inseparable part since ancient times.

"That one is the customs building of Guangzhou Prefecture. It has a history of more than 20 years. It was built by Guangdong governor Xiong Wencan when he was in charge of affairs here. Now Mr. Xiong died of illness, which is really embarrassing." The local official pointed to a cement building. , The building made of stones, for more than 20 years, already has a sense of vicissitudes.

Chu Lingyun noticed that Guangzhou, where commercial trade had begun to take off, had also popularized new technologies such as railways, street lights, and telegraphs, and was also trying to expand its streets to become a trade center in Nanyang with a better attitude.

The complete lifting of the sea ban and the changes in the world structure have allowed many coastal towns to seize many opportunities.

Chu Lingyun also heard that in the Jiangnan area, a town called Shanghai County also began to prosper due to the change in the pattern.

(End of this chapter)