Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 1534 He Jian (26)

"Every morning when people wake up from sleep, new machines are already running; and when people start to eat dinner, the machines are still roaring..." Li Dayan, who has just replaced retired Li Dayan, airborne as the "Pravda" Sun Wuben, the editor-in-chief, sat in an "ancient" Spanish villa in Corrientes and wrote the above paragraph.

This is the headline in a newspaper issue to be published next week. It mainly talks about the development of industry and agriculture in the East Coast and the improvement of people's living standards.To put it bluntly, this is just to look back on the past development, to flatter the members of the executive committee, and to promote the advancement and superiority of the five hundred elders by the way, so as to make their rule more legal and stable.

"...food production is admirable. In our country there is no longer a marked difference between the price of wheat before and after it is harvested, which is very different from the Old World. Counties have established An effective food reserve system, a large amount of grain is more successfully stored in the grain warehouses of the national reserve grain depot, and then transported by trains and ships to various places to stabilize and control grain prices. A bad harvest in any area can be safely controlled by Harvests in other places can be evened out: when there is a flood in the Duck Lake Basin, it can be stabilized by increasing the supply of the prairie on the east coast; Shipped to the south for sale, although the grains transported in bulk by these wooden sea ships will inevitably be somewhat damp..."

"...the price has fluctuated around 30 yuan for 25 years, and it has never been higher than 1663 yuan since 27, nor has it been lower than 22 yuan. In the recently published package of goods price index table, we can clearly see that the general Retail food price fluctuations have been properly kept within a constant percentage range, largely because there are so many forces in this industrialized country on the east coast that help to stabilize food prices...”

"...Today I was invited to participate in the inauguration ceremony of the Qingyuan Port Wharf and the barn. It is precisely to describe to you how the rich Hejian will become another food supply base for our motherland in the future. This is like the Jiangnan water town in the eastern mainland. In this area, the soil is always fertile, the water source is abundant, and the climate is warm. As long as the swamp water is drained, the future is limitless. Perhaps, under the impact of this grain base under construction, the price of grain on the east coast will fall below 22 yuan per ton in the future. It’s not impossible. A rural family with [-] acres of arable land can expect a reduction in their income in the future, which may prompt some far-reaching changes in the agricultural form of this industrialized country on the east coast..."

At this point, Sun Wuben paused for a moment, pulled out a crocodile match, lit a pipe for himself, and thought silently.Every time a country immigrates to the border, it usually starts with agriculture. After several years of development, these places will try to export food after they gradually become self-sufficient in food.The grains on the market began to increase. In addition to supplying the increased population and non-national laborers, there will generally be some surplus. These will undoubtedly cause the price of grains to fall.

And every time the price falls, it will lead to a decline in grain acreage in some areas—usually old counties and more economically developed areas—because farmers in these areas can't bear the drop in grain prices more than farmers in newly developed areas , so they turned to other farming operations to maintain the family's income.You must know that if a family counts ten people, the daily expenses are not low: nearly a quarter of the grain output of 40 mu of farmland is consumed by oneself, and the rest is the output of fallow land. (The fallow land is usually planted with alfalfa, which can be used to feed livestock, but in recent years, with the large import of Patagonian bison, this situation has been decreasing. So far, the fallow land seems to have really been fallow.) To purchase other daily necessities, he has to pay taxes, find someone to serve him on his behalf, and deal with miscellaneous expenses. Generally speaking, 60 yuan left at the end of the year is not bad, if he does not go out to do odd jobs during the slack.

This level of income is naturally unable to satisfy the appetites of farmers who are close to major cities such as Dongfang, Qingdao, Ping'an, Zhenhai, and Tieling.Due to the comparison effect, they are quite envious of the working class whose total annual salary is at least 90 yuan, so they are very eager to increase their income, so the farmland, which is their only and most important means of production, must be changed. business model, and this situation has been shown in the suburbs of those big cities.

"...the cultivation of vegetables such as tomatoes, peppers, pumpkins, cabbages, cowpeas, onions, etc., the supply of fruits such as peaches, plums, and oranges, and the increasing proliferation of country wineries (which require a lot of barley) are all examples of agriculture on the outskirts of large cities. forced to transform. In the era of no increase in the income of grain planting, they can only increase their income in this way, and obtain profits from urban workers with higher incomes. Only in this way can they continue to maintain their own lives Funding for their children to complete basic primary education (now school buildings and teaching aids in many areas still need to be donated by villagers collectively, and teachers have to raise funds to hire them at high prices in cities), and at the same time deal with various apportionments, such as digging Rivers, apportionments for road repairs, and so on.”

"...The capital Dongfang County once had statistics. Since 1655, the population engaged in agriculture has decreased by 6%. In the past ten years, the number of agricultural population in the narrow sense—such as grain growers—has dropped surprisingly. 25%, but the number of horticulturalists, nursery operators, fruit growers, seed merchants, gardeners and other practitioners increased sharply, an increase of nearly 1655% higher than that in 80. More and more people abandoned traditional grain cultivation, Move to agricultural work that they deem more valuable - it doesn't mean they can't compete with outlying farmers who own their own land, it just means they don't want to compete at a lower level with those who have worked their ass off to grow food It’s just competition, or to put it more bluntly, they may be more afraid of investors who lease large tracts of state-owned land to build large farms than ordinary farmers who are the same land holders as them.”

"... Such a change has attracted the attention of the relevant departments in recent years, but it seems that they do not intend to take any measures, and let these farmers make choices according to their own judgment according to market demand, although Dafeng Agricultural machinery factories have been pointing out that the use of steam agricultural machinery in these areas is gradually declining. Perhaps, the wise and wise members of the executive committee believe that the income level of transitional farmers in the suburbs of big cities is not lower than before, and it is enough. The land is The last guarantee of their family's life, if things go wrong, they can restart food cultivation, provided that the irrigation and water conservancy facilities in the countryside are still taken care of fairly well, although it seems that this is not the case in every area."

"...However, when farmers on the outskirts of cities take their produce to market, they often encounter disadvantages, sometimes because they are at a disadvantage in It is because the products produced by everyone far exceed the demand of the adjacent market, and sometimes it is because they lack bargaining power when facing wholesalers (this is also applicable when purchasing some production materials or daily necessities). Repeated occurrences have made many people realize that the products of all farmers should be gathered together and sold in batches, and the premise of doing so is to establish some systems similar to cooperatives, just like what our Brazilian rural financial cooperatives have done in Beining and Hue Like that."

"...Brazilian Rural Financial Cooperatives have spent many years and carried out a lot of publicity and agitation. By the end of 1668, these seeds that have been sown have already had initial harvest: they have opened bank accounts for a considerable number of farmers in the Beining area. , now has more than 8000 members, absorbs deposits of more than 26 yuan, and has issued low-interest agricultural loans to more than [-] members. The name of the cooperative has finally become worthy of its name. Such a situation will almost only Appeared in our country, because the basis for the existence of rural financial cooperatives is that all farmers are equal, so Jewish loan sharks who frequently appear in the villages of the Old World are rarely seen in Brazil. A farmer who operates aquaculture may be He is in debt, but he does not feel strenuous at all, and no one can exploit him, so to a great extent, the restriction of personal dependence is also eliminated, which is extremely important for creating a large number of rural middle classes with consumption capacity..."

“…the emergence of agricultural cooperatives now seems inevitable, as this is the only way for them to build up their resilience and compete with large farm renters. In the middle of this year, four rural areas in the commercially important Qingdao county were registered. Family agricultural cooperatives—generally formed on the basis of one or more villages—the purpose of the cooperative is to purchase seeds, fertilizers, tools and other daily necessities required for agricultural production, and the business value exceeds 8000 yuan. At the same time, these cooperatives also sell their products on behalf of the members to help those who are not good at management to obtain more benefits."

"...The agricultural cooperatives collectively negotiate with wholesalers, state-owned enterprises, and even the government. After the negotiations are completed, they collectively prepare the site and purchase various production and living materials—such as collectively purchasing fertilizers, collectively renting agricultural machinery, and collectively providing cattle. Insurance, etc.—and sell the products uniformly after harvesting, and finally distribute the profits. This kind of cooperation enables them to have a certain degree of self-protection power in the face of competition from large farm lessors. With the cooperation, it is no longer the target of being slaughtered and ravaged by others, this may be the future development direction of the east bank village..."

As I wrote this, there was a burst of firecrackers not far from the villa. It was the inauguration ceremony of the Qingyuan Port National Grain Reserve.In this town with a large number of agricultural facilities left by the Spaniards, the planting industry has developed relatively rapidly, and the annual output of wheat and rice is quite a lot, which has strongly supported the construction of many new settlements nearby.

However, there are no loan cooperatives, no seed cooperatives, no agricultural tool cooperatives, no insurance cooperatives, no agricultural product sales cooperatives, and farmers generally work on their own, with low ability to resist risks and high operating costs, far from being able to compete with the eastern regions. compared to.To be honest, if it weren’t for the state’s implementation of preferential policies for farmers in these places—such as requiring nearby new settlements to purchase grain nearby—it would be difficult to say that the wheat transported by boat from Changhua Port and their output Wheat, which one is cheaper?

Take Qingyuan Township (later city of Corrientes) as an example, Ningyang Township (later town of Lomas de Vallejos) and Qingxi Township (later town of Empedrado) nearby , Fuquan Township (later San Luis Del Palma Township), Sijin Township (later Mbrukua Township) and four settlements. This time, a total of more than 1 immigrants from Huai’an Prefecture of the Qing Dynasty were transferred to reclamation and resettlement. An unknown number (but certainly a lot) of non-national laborers, the daily consumption of food is not a small amount, so Qingyuan Township, as an important food supply area, has a considerable income for the grain growers— —Of course, the income of the farmers is considerable, which is also good for the local government, because it means that a large number of public land indicators they hold in their hands can be sold smoothly again, which is undoubtedly a great supplement to the local finances. It can be restarted, such as the construction of the embankment of the Paraná River, the construction of the reservoir sluice, the widening and dredging of the river, and so on.

"The agricultural system in the Hejian area is still too backward. Rather than saying that it is an agricultural form of an industrial society, it is better to say that it is an agricultural form of a feudal society with a slightly more developed business. The rural financial cooperatives in Brazil and the rural cooperatives in Qingdao County, etc. Perhaps this is the new direction for the development of agriculture on the East Coast in the future.” Sun Wuben, editor-in-chief Sun Wuben tapped the pipe in his hand in the wooden ashtray, and then thought: “But it’s no wonder, after all, this is a new development. Well, commerce, transportation and government management are still not in place, maybe it will be quite different after a few years of development. Wasn’t it the same at the beginning of the prairie on the east coast? How is it different from them? The economic foundations of the two places are different, and the agricultural forms are naturally different. Let’s see how it will develop in the future. I am still very confident in the future of Hejian, because the agriculture here The conditions are very good. After weakening the hidden dangers of floods, it will inevitably occupy a place in the domestic agricultural product market, and there will inevitably be rural areas in some places that cannot compete with them, which will lead to a decrease in the number of people engaged in agriculture year by year. This is unavoidable. .”

(End of this chapter)