Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 1395 Guild ([-])

Agnelli and Gao Jinzhong sat in a small courtyard in the countryside, chatting while drinking.

The weather is good tonight, the breeze is blowing, the moon is bright and the stars are sparse.The two core managers of the Rabbit Hole Flour Mill are also in a very good mood because they have received a large order. The trading company of Li Wenchang, a famous grain merchant, placed an order with them for 3000 barrels of flour (300 tons) to supply The South African colonies of the British East India Company were exported because the British were worried that the Portuguese in the Zambezi River Basin would not be able to send food to South Africa as promised, so they did not want to put their eggs in the same basket, so they also sent food to the people on the east coast. Orders were placed to ensure the security of the food supply.

After all, once a war breaks out between the two countries - which is almost inevitable in the eyes of many people today - the colonists in the British South African colony may not have time to comfortably farm and graze, so they will store a large amount of food in advance. Weapons and ammunition, flour, bacon, oil, salt, cloth, medicine and so on are very necessary.

So, they found some acquaintances through the Jinlu Commercial Hall, and placed an order for a batch of food in the east coast, most of which were salt, whale meat, corned beef, and barreled flour. Some wine and beer are also thoughtful enough.The only pity is that the Dutch in Cape Town did not place an order for any food. This seems to be because they have a larger population, better production, and sufficient food. Of course, they did not order less weapons and ammunition. Kishi deliberately delayed the delivery.

The order placed by Li Wenchang, a big syndicate businessman in the grain industry, is worth 4000 yuan, which is quite a big business, making Rabbit, which has been competing more fiercely with Linhu Flour Mill and Dafeng Food Company in recent years. Everyone in the Dong Flour Factory breathed a sigh of relief, so it's no wonder that Agnelli and Gao Jinzhong are sitting and drinking under the moon at this moment, it's really cool!

"I heard that Li Wenchang and others formed a trade association of grain wholesalers, but they didn't want to let the national grain reserve depot join in, which caused a lot of trouble a while ago." Agnelli skillfully cut the grain from the grill. He took a piece of beef tongue and said while eating: "What is the National Grain Reserve? It is the largest grain wholesaler in the country. A large amount of public grain handed over to the countryside every year is collected by the State Reserve Grain Depot. The supply of goods on hand is sufficient, and the branches They spread all over the country and have a well-developed distribution network, so they were already jealous of grain merchants like Li Wenchang, but the so-called turmoil this time is nothing but an outbreak of old hatred."

"Anyway, I don't want to see the Grain Wholesalers Association set up and play a role." Gao Jinzhong said with an unhappy expression, holding a wine glass in his hand: "Especially when the price of grain has risen by 10% recently, when this organization has Established, what if they form an offensive and defensive alliance to monopolize grain prices? Of course, they also know that the State Grain Reserve will not mix with them to play such a dangerous game, so this time they did not let the State Grain Reserve participate in this Industry guild. Hehe, there is a national grain storage. As long as the large amount of public grain harvested every year is still stored in the national grain storage barns all over the country, then the grain price can be stabilized and will not suddenly skyrocket and affect people's lives. Li Wenchang and his group want to make money from food, really—this is all ill-gotten wealth! Although there were a lot of people in Ming Dynasty and now in the Old Continent speculating in food to make money, our Dadong’an can’t do it!”

"It is possible to make money in grain wholesale and sales, but if you want to make a lot of money, you have to use the quantity. There is no other shortcut." Agnelli chewed on the delicious beef tongue and said vaguely: " So I heard that they plan to enter the grain planting industry, and they want to set up a grain production industry association to build large farms in wild areas and sign a 30-50 year land lease contract with the government, which is quite impressive. , I heard that the government is very appreciative of these acts of opening up the newly occupied wild lands. There are many policy subsidies, such as free rent, one-time priority renewal right after the lease expires, etc. The conditions are quite generous. , it’s no wonder so many people are tempted. After all, the grain planting industry is a long-term industry, and the overall profit margin may not be very high, but it is stable and long-term.”

This is the first time Gao Jinzhong has heard of such a thing. He did not expect these grain wholesalers to be so courageous, and now they are thinking of entering the upstream industry to engage in grain cultivation. This really underestimates them.However, once the large farms leased by them are established, the production cost will be much cheaper than the large number of self-cultivated farmers in rural areas in China, which will definitely have a certain impact on them. The executive committee should formulate some policies, right?Some farms along the Southwest Railway—such as the Shrub Farm, Advance Farm, Victory Farm, etc.—are not so large in scale, and the impact is not obvious. , and then plant wheat, soybeans and corn in large quantities. As time goes by, it will definitely have an increasing impact on the pattern of the domestic grain market. This cannot be ignored.

After all, agriculture is now the industry that absorbs the largest number of employed people in the East Coast Republic of China. The existence of a large number of self-cultivating peasants with consumption capacity is extremely important for consuming industrial products, regulating the social polarization between rich and poor, or stabilizing social order. The significance of this - if all the profits in agriculture are earned by the big farmers, and a large number of farmers go bankrupt, then what a fart!With the current relatively small international industrial product market demand (meaning limited manufacturing jobs), should all these bankrupt farmers be pushed into the construction industry?How can it be!

Gao Jinzhong and Agnelli were limited by their knowledge and vision, and only thought of the impact on grain prices, not the more far-reaching things behind, so they just had an instinctive anxiety about the possible big grain merchants in the future.But this year (1665), how could it be possible for the fourth set of ruling team on the East Coast to turn a blind eye to this kind of thing that would threaten their ruling foundation?Especially the army system, which has always been rooted in the countryside and based on self-cultivating farmers (there are quite a few rural children in the navy), is extremely vigilant against this situation.

Therefore, the ruling group headed by Chairman Qi Wangping and Qi Wangping (the former deputy prime minister) has decided to adjust the gap through tax leverage and financial subsidies, so as to protect the interests of the farmers as much as possible and prevent the country from experiencing unfavorable conditions. The turmoil it deserves.To put it bluntly, it is to try our best to make the two agricultural systems run side by side, and when the time is right, we will properly cancel these policy inclinations and let the agricultural market compete freely.I believe that the east coast, which was becoming more industrialized at that time, was already ready to absorb a large number of rural laborers into the system, so that it would not have any negative impact.

"Where is the pioneering site chosen by the Grain Wholesalers Industry Association?" Gao Jinzhong sipped a mouthful of Hezhong Daqu, and asked with his eyes wide open, "Is it along the Southwest Railway or the Northern Railway? It seems that the conditions there are suitable, right?"

"How can there be such a cheap thing? Do you think the members of the Executive Committee are such easy-going people?" Agnelli rolled his eyes at Gao Jinzhong, and said in a teasing tone: "Although Li Wenchang Li is honorable and has a great face, but in In this matter, they did not ask for too many benefits. The executive committee gave them two locations, one of which was the Changhua Bay area, and the other was Yongbyon Port (that is, near the city of Joinville, Brazil in later generations) ) area, of course, if they are willing to go to the Beining area, they will not object to it, but this choice seems to be directly rejected by them, because the transportation conditions there are really bad. Well, I have heard these from familiar grain wholesalers Yes, this matter has been planned for a long time, and it will probably be implemented in the near future.”

"You still didn't say where they chose." Gao Jinzhong asked.

"Uh, well, they chose the area around Yongbyon Port. Although there is only one new settlement that was established three months ago, the coastal plain is large and vast, and the forests are not as dense as those in Changhua Bay. It is less difficult to open up. Therefore, these grain wholesalers chose that place and decided to go there collectively to open up large farms and carry out large-scale planting of soybeans, corn and wheat. For this reason, they have even begun to ask Dafeng Agricultural Machinery Factory Order large quantities of machinery and equipment such as threshers, seed drills, steam plows, horse-drawn corn harvesters, horse-drawn wheat harvesters, horse-drawn soybean harvesters, horse-drawn pasture harvesters, and horse-drawn roller rollers, and order large quantities of seeds from Northern Botanical Gardens , order superphosphate and other fertilizers from Northern Chemical Industry, in short, we have made all the preliminary preparations.” Agnelli seemed to be very clear about these details, so he explained them to Gao Jinzhong one by one.

In fact, after learning that the Grain Wholesalers Association headed by Li Wenchang planned to open up wasteland in the Nyongbyon Bay area, the State Development Bureau has decided to add several new settlements in the area to cope with their pioneering behavior, which can be regarded as giving some policy support. Go ahead and save them money.At present, there are five preliminary settlements, namely Lingqiu Township near San Francisco South City (San Francisco Island was also renamed Lingqiu Island), and Anbian near Old Barra City in later generations. Township, Guangchang Township near the later city of Guaratuba, and Pingshu Township near the small town of Garuwa later.

The five settlements are expected to accommodate more than [-] immigrants from the Huai'an Prefecture of the Ming Dynasty, and another [-] non-national laborers who have become regular workers. These people, together with the more than [-] immigrants already in Yongbyon Port, will live here in the future. Logging and mowing, pioneering and planting on the lowlands of the coastal plain, using their hardworking hands, they completely digested the land seized from the Portuguese here into the core territory of the Eastern China Republic—the climate here is suitable, not as good as that in the north The heat is so hot, the sunlight and rainfall conditions are good, and the soil conditions are not bad (after all, it has not been developed for thousands of years, and there is no shortage of nutrients in the soil). If it is developed, it will be a prosperous and prosperous coastal area in the future.

"It's all gone to this level..." Gao Jinzhong held the wine glass in his hand, and said blankly: "Where do they get the manpower? Compared with other materials or tools, manpower is the most lacking? They It is destined to be unable to recruit people in the country, because the income is too low, and the only way to do it is to find a way from non-citizens. Perhaps this is the original intention of the government. While letting them develop wasteland, they also recruit a group of non-citizens from abroad Labor workers come here! No wonder the conditions are so generous. The lease period of 30-50 years can be chosen at will. Not only is the rent free, but there is also a priority right to renew the contract after the expiration. It is said that those farms along the Southwest Railway have already done it before. This kind of thing, but their scale is still small, this time the investment of Li Wenchang and others is huge, at least thousands of non-national laborers have to be recruited, where do they get it?"

"Where else can I go? Of course we should look for the famous Mendes or Valentino!" Agnelli said of course: "Only these two people have the ability to get a large number of non-national laborers from the Old World. The amount of several thousand is beyond the reach of ordinary people. Of course, Goshkin may also have this kind of energy, but he is currently paying more attention to running his own construction company. I am afraid that he will not be able to allocate too many people to these large farms, right? I know that the Iguazu Port, Yinan Railway and Dingjunshan National Highway projects he contracted will consume a lot of labor. Find two other people. But then again, I heard that Mendes also became a national of his own country a while ago, and seems to be planning to set up some engineering construction company. If domestic enterprises or farms want to recruit non-national laborers in the future, they can Another way is missing. Hehe, Mendes also saw the way Goshkin went ashore in vain, and wanted to learn it. After all, the appearance of this fool now is indeed a bit outrageous. Maybe someday I was arrested by the gang of black skins from the Syphilis Patient Statistics and Investigation Bureau, and their hands are not clean, and they are covered with blood."

"I can't stand those bastards who drink the blood of laborers." Gao Jinzhong clinked glasses with Agnelli, then drank it down and said, "Forget it, what are you thinking about so much, let's focus on our own business Alright. Britain and the Netherlands are fighting, and there will be a steady stream of orders in the future, but the bastards at Linhu Flour Mill will definitely not let go of the opportunity to fight us, and the state-owned company with the best technical ability Dafeng Food Factory is even more formidable enemy. It is not easy for our Rabbit Hole Flour Factory to dominate the markets of [-] counties across the country. Be sure to grab it, um, and the refined flour order from New Courland, you must also get it, it's all money!"

(End of this chapter)