Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 1371 Capacity Expansion Period ([-])

"Increase production, don't delay." On the Yancheng Port Fishery Wharf, Zhang Yun, the executive deputy general manager of the Nanhai Fishery Company, put his hands on his hips, looked at the barrels of salted fish being shipped ashore, and said with a serious face: "Now the Ministry (Agricultural The Ministry) is raising the matter of production capacity expansion. As a key enterprise under the Ministry, our Nanhai Fishery Company must implement the spirit of the superiors, increase fishery production, and share the country's worries."

"Of course, you don't have to think about it too much. The increase in fishery production is not only for export, but also for supplying the domestic market. I don't think you can't feel the large population of the country now. Some old counties have tens of thousands of people. Now that the city is big, there are a lot of newborns every year, and the consumption of seafood is increasing exponentially, so it is imperative for the company to expand its production. The Anglo-Dutch war is just an opportunity." Zhang Yun Then he said to the middle-level management and technical personnel of the company who followed him.

According to the new round of guidelines for fishery development issued by the Ministry of Agriculture, the total tonnage of various fishing vessels and processing vessels of Nanhai Fishery Company will reach 1 tons in the next 2-[-] years.This is undoubtedly an astonishing number, which will make the fishing fleet on the east coast surpass France and other European countries and enter the forefront of the world. Although it is far from being comparable to the Netherlands, it is still quite good.

According to the conversion of the existing fishery production quantity, the tonnage of fishing vessels of [-] tons is enough to reduce the national fishery production to [-] tons. There is no suspense that the output will exceed [-] tons.However, people from the Ministry of Agriculture also suspect that if the people on the east coast continue to increase the number and tonnage of fishing boats in the small fishery off the coast of Patagonia, the fishery output will probably not increase year-on-year, unless the people on the east coast Come up with a more efficient fishing method, otherwise the fishery potential will stop here. The seafood (mainly cod, squid and squid) that the Patagonian fishery contributes to the East Coast Republic of China every year should The highest is around [-] tons.The next step to improve is either to improve the net gear, collect more accurate fishing season and fishing ground information, or simply add more personnel and fishing rods to each boat, but it is not an economical approach, and the improvement is limited.

"Is the squid fishing fleet going out to sea this year?" Zhang Yun walked to a wooden barrel, lifted the lid, looked at the neatly packed cod fish of similar size inside, and said, "These are all Is it going to be exported to the United Provinces? Damn, it’s cheap to those boys, so that we can only eat squid and squid, and we are about to vomit.”

"It's already out to sea. They are going to resupply and maintain the ship in the Baleen Whale Port of Mashima Island, and then set off with the whaling fleet to hunt for the squid fishing season. If you are lucky, you should be able to catch more than 260 tons. If you are not lucky Well, then we can only go back home, and this trip is a pure loss." A young official stepped forward and reported: "The cod exported to the United Provinces is of uniform size, about four kilograms each. All are transported in barrels. Well, now the size of a barrel is 270 pieces, that is, two tons. The wholesale price for the Nanhai Transportation Company is [-] yuan per barrel. However, when they sell to the Dutch, the freight, Insurance fees, refrigeration fees, packaging fees, export duties and other miscellaneous fees may increase the price to [-]-[-] yuan per barrel. But who made the Dutch rich, and they didn’t have to choose during the war. It’s good to eat cod, so don’t care about the price!”

It is said that the export of goods on the east coast is becoming more and more standardized. Under the economic order dominated by large state-owned enterprises, the goods produced by various domestic factories and workshops must be uniformly handed over to several companies for transportation. The most famous of them is undoubtedly South China Sea Transportation. The company, and several other small private shipping companies are just small-scale businesses, and they are completely useless. It is another matter for large-scale colonial companies such as Air Canada and Southern Railway Company. They have their own fixed commodity dumping. Site——and the South China Sea Transportation Company must also pay marine insurance fees to state-owned wholly-owned insurance companies such as East Coast Insurance Company and Central Insurance Company in accordance with regulations during the process of transporting goods to Europe, and the fees are quite high, plus The cost of the goods on the east coast has indeed been increasing day by day over the years, including the cost of transportation, the cost of replenishment at various places entering the port, and the export duties paid to the customs. This has undoubtedly reduced the competitiveness of its products to some extent.

However, compared with such a large trust enterprise as the Nanhai Transportation Company, the profitability of the Nanhai Fishery Company is not inferior at all, or even worse. It can create a gross profit of more than 100 million yuan almost every year. In terms of the cost of production, sales and other links, it is easy to make a net profit of hundreds of thousands or even millions of yuan a year, almost half of which comes from the manufacture and sale of whale products for the international market, and the rest comes from ordinary seafood. , the market is mainly domestic.

For a company with such strong profitability, it is no wonder that a group of domestic dignitaries stare at it with red eyes and want to privatize it.Zhang Yun is also a little helpless about this. As a whaling captain, he really treats this company as his own child, but he is helpless. It is probably inevitable that the South China Sea Fishery Company will be eroded by private capital, become a shareholder or even hold a controlling stake. Yes, maybe he can see it in his lifetime.

"Vice President Zhang, last year's cod production was only over 11500 tons, and now a considerable part of it is given to the Dutch, so how to meet the demand in the domestic market? Citizens will complain." Someone asked about Zhang Yun. , because the Anglo-Dutch war ten years ago exported a large amount of salted fish to the United Provinces, which caused the price of domestic seafood on the east coast to fluctuate sharply. This time, the United Provinces have a greater appetite and export more seafood. The price can't go up to the sky.

"That's why we need to expand production capacity." Zhang Yun said naturally, "What is the purpose of expanding the fishing fleet? It's not to increase fishery production! Of course, it is inevitable that domestic seafood prices will increase in the short term, but in the long run, it is not at all. What is the problem? When the contradiction between supply and demand is no longer prominent, its price will naturally fall back. You have all studied in the Dayuhe Cadre Training School. You should understand this kind of economic common sense? Besides, it is said that the Southern Railway Company will also spend huge sums of money. , to double the size of your own fishing team, man, this is also the rhythm of a big fight. In this way, the output of horse mackerel and salmon (in recent years, a large number of stocking and small-scale breeding) along the coast of Chile It is bound to increase significantly. In addition, they also stock a large number of trout in some local cold-water lakes. After so many years of breeding, their population is already very large. It’s underestimated. I estimate that the South Railway Company can also provide the country with more than [-] tons of seafood every year, most of which are to be exported to the mainland, which can fill a large part of the gap.”

"Actually, we have been slow to expand the size of the fishing fleet in recent years. Most of the profits have been confiscated by the central government for construction. As a result, only a few boats have been purchased in a year. The pace is really slow. "Zhang Yun complained casually again, only to hear him complain: "This war with the United Provinces is also an opportunity. The central government finally realized that we can't just draw blood from us. It is said that this year it will take at least 25 less A profit of more than RMB [-] allows us to renovate ships, purchase equipment, buy new ships, and recruit new people, otherwise, when will the fishery output increase!"

Everyone was silent when they heard the words.Everyone here is the head of the fishery company, no matter how bad it is, it is above the middle management. Many people have worked in the company for more than 20 years. We share weal and woe.The growth of the South China Sea Fishery Company and the enhancement of its profitability are their biggest source of profit. Therefore, everyone is excited about this major expansion of production capacity and is happy to see its success.However, they also understand how much they are, but they dare not do such a thing like Zhang Yunzhang, the vice president who has actually presided over the company's daily operations for many years, and publicly complained about the "blood sucking" of them by the Executive Committee and the Government Affairs Council. .

……

And when the management of the Nanhai Fishery Company was "chatting nonsense" on the wharf of Yancheng Port, a large cavalry team had just set off in Yanshan Township, not far from them.There were a total of six hundred of them, led by Lieutenant Guo Handong, with many horses and carts.The horses are used to transfer to save horsepower, and there are about four or five hundred horses; the number of carts is extremely large, and a considerable part of them is completely empty, except for some food, salt, and tools. Most of them are well-bundled large wooden barrels, the same model and specification as those wooden barrels for bacon on the east coast, and they seem to be imported from the Duck Lake area.

To put it simply, their team is out to catch cattle, that is, to catch wild cattle scattered in the Pampas and northern Patagonia. On the one hand, it is also preparing for a large amount of cured meat to be exported to the United Provinces-speaking of which, the Dutch are really the "Zhao family". Sending a batch of cannon military supplies to Amsterdam, this is just like a gentleman!If it weren't for the sake of future strategic layout, who would care about you? It's better for us people from the east coast to live our lives in South America behind closed doors than anything else!

"The previous ones have also practiced with some small herds, and they have probably summed up some experience. Therefore, this time, we decided to engage in a large herd, a large herd with tens of thousands of head, and strive to Send it to Baoxing Township, and then sort it out and send it away." Guo Handong rode on the back of a steed war horse with a face full of reluctance, pointed to the endless prairie outside, and said: "There must be some cattle in the herd. For the old, the weak, the sick and the disabled, these cattle are easy to fall behind and get injured after we mobilize them, and the wounded cattle cannot be taken away. Therefore, apart from part of the troops assigned to the cavalry to adorn the main force of the herd, the rest of the manpower is focused on Attack these old, weak, sick and disabled cattle, throw them to the ground first, and then slaughter, pickle, and seal them on the spot, understand? Second Lieutenant Pei Dade, you bring someone to do this job! Second Lieutenant Li Zhixin, your people follow closely The main force of the cattle herd, keep in touch with the team at any time, and try to control the movement route of the cattle herd, and drive them to the boundary of Baoxing Township, without any mistakes!"

To be honest, Guo Handong is extremely unwilling to do this job of catching cattle now.Without him, it doesn't sound good to say it!He is the son of Major Guo Zili, the commander of the second fleet, the cavalry lieutenant, the dazzling figure on the battlefield, and the killer star of the Tehuelche people. Now he is ordered by his superiors to catch cattle on the prairie. This is as depressing as it is, Therefore, he was a little weak when he could speak, and he just gave a brief order and led the team to set off.

However, the officers who led the team were not in high spirits, but the main force of the cattle-hunting team consisting of Mongols, Shandans, Gauchos, Poles and even a few Tatars underneath was in high spirits.For these rammers, it doesn’t matter what sounds good or bad, they only care about one thing, there is a reward for catching cattle—this alone is worth a thousand words—so their interest is very high, and they can’t wait to Now catch up with the herd of cattle that has been targeted by the gendarmerie scouts (the gendarmerie scouts are also very helpless, when will they do the job of tracking bison...), rush in and hunt them down, and earn money for yourself enough bonus.

By the way, Baoxing Township is a newly established settlement less than a year old. It is located on the gentle land on the south bank of the Baoxing River (that is, the Colorado River) (near the later Rio Colorado City), and currently has a total of [-] residents. Wheat planting, orchard management and animal husbandry are the main activities.According to the plan, a large number of materials and tools have been stored here in advance, and the herds of bison caught nearby will be sent here for captivity, screening, and then driven to Yancheng Port in batches to wait for transport back to the mainland for processing.

On August 1664, 8, the chariot team led by Lieutenant Guo Handong and the gendarmerie scouts got on the line, and then quickly locked the location of the cattle and followed them up. On August 18, members of the East Bank Cattle Team, who had already been familiar with the road, rode their horses and rushed towards the cattle from three directions, starting another spectacular grassland cattle hunting operation.

One after another cows were crushed, trampled and injured in panic and fell to the ground. The escaped cows were left on the grass and howled.At this time, the lazy officers and soldiers of the rear team took out their knives from their saddle bags, selected a cow each, and started the intense work of slaughtering, skinning, and cutting—the leather can be pulled back to make skin (for ships), Ammunition bags, leather boots and parcels, tallow can be eaten and made into soap, and the beef is naturally marinated and sent back in barrels, most of which are destined for export to the United Provinces.As for the offal and internal organs of the cows, they were either thrown to the hounds that came with the army, or eaten by the soldiers. Of course, most of them were eventually abandoned on the grassland and became a delicacy for scavengers, which is a pity.

Naturally, the escaped cattle were not good to eat. Under the intentional or unintentional coercion and driving of the cavalry on the east bank, they slowly walked towards the boundary of Baoxing Township. They were destined to have no freedom in the future.

(End of this chapter)