Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 1556 Pampa ([-])

Another medium-sized offshore sailing ship rushed into the harbor. The Spanish officials on the pier got up several times, and then sat down abruptly, watching the ship lower its sails and anchor.

The incoming ship is a relatively simple offshore sailing ship. If someone is familiar with the inside information of the shipbuilding industry on the east coast, then they must know that this small cargo ship of only a hundred tons should be the "New Star-2" type designed and manufactured by the private Xinxing Shipyard. It is very cheap, and the workmanship is very rough. It is very suitable for those who do not have sufficient funds to buy it for offshore or inland river transportation.

After the ship in front of me was moored, a large group of unkempt or ragged men (of course there were also a few well-dressed men) came down to the pier.They wore slightly worn-out denim jackets and carried a tattered sackcloth bag—even many of them came completely empty-handed—and looked at the city with fiery hopeful eyes.

This is Mar del Plata, one of the colonies of the Kingdom of Spain in the Pampa region. At first, there were only more than 1666 immigrants from the peninsula and Italy. After years of poor management, it barely increased to more than 500 in [-]. , sounds like a very common colonial town.However, after a "bison fever" emerged in the East Coast two years ago, the population of Mar del Plata began to increase rapidly, soaring from more than [-] to more than [-], which is a surge of several times.

There is no doubt that most of the increased population are not Spaniards, nor subjects of other territories under the rule of King Carlos, but illegal immigrants from the "evil neighbor in the north" China East Coast Republic.These people either carried large bags or small bags, or were simply employed empty-handed. Like a raging wave, they broke through the thin embankment of the small town of Mar del Plata and poured in. Then they grandly settled here and opened shops. , Construction workshops, did not regard themselves as outsiders at all, it simply stunned the local Spanish colonists.

Strictly speaking, people from the east coast came to Mar del Plata earlier than Niuzhuang, and had conflicts with the Spanish colonial government earlier.However, just like what Constantin de Obando encountered in Niuzhuang Port, he also visited Mar del Plata several times, trying to "persuade" the local people from the east coast to leave, but to no avail.Even for the last time, he brought a whole hundred fully armed cavalry over to "persuade", which once frightened the illegal immigrants on the east coast into panic, but after all, the Spaniards who did not dare to be rough were caught by the immigrants. After that, it immediately became a paper tiger.In addition, these illegal immigrants themselves are also lawless and rebellious, and the Spaniard's plan to unilaterally expel these people went bankrupt. In the end, they had to turn to the East Coast government to recall these people, but how is this possible?

So you can see that in today's Mar del Plata - the east coast immigrants call it "Silver Harbor", which means silver beach - the number of illegal immigrants on the east coast is increasing day by day, far exceeding the number of local Spanish colonists, accounted for the majority of the population.Moreover, they built a lot of new buildings next to the original Spanish town, and spontaneously formed a new colonial town, which made Spain do nothing.

It is not that the Spaniards have struggled. At the beginning of last year, they migrated more than 500 French-speaking local residents from the southern Netherland, where the war had just subsided, and settled here (it also meant to avoid making it the basis of French rule. ) to counter the population advantage of immigrants from the east coast.It’s just that, while the Spaniards took the time to get 1000 people, in the first six months of this year alone on the east coast, more than 3000 people flocked from the local counties to live in Jean Mar del Plata (or While the population of Silver Harbor increased by more than [-], it also made the so-called immigrant race launched by the Spaniards wishful thinking into a complete joke-have you ever fought against the east coast, which is close at hand?

In the end, the Spaniards also became numb and resigned to their fate, especially when their General Obando no longer cares, what do you ask their subordinates to do?Naturally, it can only be regarded as invisible.So, now there is such a strange situation in Mar del Plata, that is, the Spaniards live together with the people on the east coast, but they are clearly separated, the Spaniards live their own lives, and the people on the east coast do their own business, and the two sides do not interfere .

Of course, it is not correct to say that there is no interference at all, because in order to appease the emotions of the Spanish colonial government, with the acquiescence behind the scenes of the East Coast National Development Bureau, the local East Coast people normally pay various taxes to the Spanish government, including Church tithes.However, compared with the scale and profits of the bison business, this tax burden is still acceptable.

Now that this immigrant ship has arrived at the Port of Mar del Plata, the number of people on the east coast of the entire city has exceeded 2300, mainly engaged in the bison industry (including hunting, selling, slaughtering, pickling), hoops, Leather, hotels and other small businesses.The local Spaniards also engaged in bison hunting at first, but because the buyers are basically east coast merchants, they have no competitiveness, so now they have basically turned to agricultural production, providing wheat, fruits, and vegetables to the local east coast immigrants , wine, cheese, grease and other food, but it allows them to earn some money, so that the relationship between the two groups will not be too bad.

Accompanied by his son and several entourages, Master Zhu Heng carefully disembarked from the boat, and then looked around.The city has a typical Spanish style. The most magnificent building in the city is always the church, followed by stone official residences and warehouses, and the rest are mostly private houses.Compared with the area where the Spaniards live, the urban area of ​​the people on the east coast is more messy, and the houses are mostly thatched shacks, which looks relatively poor.However, considering the kind of people who immigrated, it is understandable, they are all speculators and bitter, haha, normal.

Zhu Heng, who is mainly engaged in the building materials business, came here this time, of course, for his old business, that is, to set up a quarry, but the scale will not be too large, just come to the Pampa area first to occupy a place. , A good foundation for future layout.At least for now, Master Zhu's industrial management focus is still on the local prairie on the east coast. The quarry he opened in Yichang County produces a large amount of ordinary bluestone and marble. The supply of products is almost in short supply, especially in the middle and upper reaches of Wujiang River. Many new settlements were established—Jiqiu Township near the later town of Itapiranga, Zhuanyu Township near the later town of San Miguel West, and Gai Township near the later town of Palmitus. Ye Township, Tuancheng Township near the small town of Pinarkinho in the later generations, Langya Township near the small town of Chancheret in the later generations, Chengyang Township near the small town of Irani in the later generations, Dai Township near the small town of Oulu in the later generations Beixiang, Pingyi Township near the small town of Campus Novus, Tobu Township near the small town of Anita Garibaldi, and Longde Township near the small town of Campus South, A total of ten new villages and towns——————————————————————————————————————————————————————–—————————————————————–————————————————————————————————————————————————————–

Under such circumstances, it is naturally unlikely that Master Zhu Heng will shift his main energy to other places. In fact, he is currently trying to find ways to recruit people to expand the production scale of the stone field in Yichang County.As for why I came to Mar del Plata this time, there is actually a reason: no one else, mainly because I have taken a fancy to the very rich limestone resources here, and want to use it to open a cement factory. The current local limestone resources are basically They were all circled by the state-owned building materials company, a giant enterprise. Private companies like Mr. Zhu have no chance to get involved, so they can only find a way outside.

Cement is a building material, and its market is undoubtedly optimistic in the long run. After local policies are gradually liberalized and private capital has gradually accumulated to a certain extent, it is actually natural for people like Mr. Zhu to enter the cement industry.However, under the circumstances that local limestone resources are largely monopolized, if Zhu Heng wants to make a career, he can only find a way outside. For example, he just came to the Pampa area this time. It will be one of the intentions of the princes.

In the hinterland of Mar del Plata, there is a series of mountains called the Tandilla Mountains—because there are livestock pens set up by the people on the east coast nearby, it is called the Niupen Mountain by the immigrants on the east coast—a series of mountains. Later generations, the central part of Buenos Aires, Argentina extended to the southeast, ending at the Atlantic coast near Mar del Plata, with an axis length of 335 kilometers, a maximum width of 60 kilometers, and an area of ​​about 1.23 square kilometers.

The rock masses that make up the Tandilla Mountains were formed in ancient times.Its Precambrian basement, part of the ancient Brazilian massif, consists of crystalline schist, gneiss and granite.On top of the basement is deposited a Paleozoic sedimentary rock series consisting of layers of quartzite, dolomite, clay and limestone.Limestone is exposed in most areas of the mountain system, which can be used for cement production, so it has great economic value. Later generations of Argentines mined and used it in large quantities for many years, until the domestic market was occupied by foreign cement after the opening of the country.Of course, the entire Niulan Mountain system also produces a large amount of granite, and later generations of Argentines also set up many quarries to mine and use it. However, as far as the surrounding area of ​​Mar del Plata is concerned, it is mainly quartzite, which is an important part of the city's construction in later generations. One of the materials is also quartzite, which can be described as local materials.

What Zhu Heng is looking at now is naturally the quartzite around Mar del Plata. Of course, he will not invest huge sums of money, it can only be said to be testing the waters.According to his plan, the cross-border reclamation of people from the east bank in the Pampa area must be more and more frequent, just like the Hejian area back then, so the demand for building materials will also be quite large. After all, on this great plain, extremely Timber is scarce, so mining stone is profitable and well worth the investment.

And after the quarry produces a large amount of quartzite steadily and makes profits, Zhu Heng will gradually increase investment in this place, and then further recruit manpower to start a cement kiln to try to produce cement, an extremely important building material.After all, it is indeed insufficient to always engage in quarries, and products must be diversified to be more stable.

Some people may ask, Master Zhu opened a quarry here, and will set up cement kilns and lime kilns in the future. Is there really a business?Is the expansion of the East Coast people on the Pampa Plain really as rapid as it was in the river region in previous years?Well, this question is really difficult to answer, but as far as Mr. Zhu learned from limited information channels, in the second half of the year, there will be an immigrant ship with official background departing from Luocha Port, heading for Niuzhuang to Yinhai (that is, Ma Depu Lata) to set up a landing site on the long coastline, and then either hunt bison, or terminate the grain, in short, it will live for a long time-of course, this immigrant ship is "spontaneously organized" on the surface, without the slightest The official background is a purely commercial activity, but we can know from the fact that the person leading the team is a graduate of Bingtuanbao, this is completely a deception, and the people on the east coast have played it many times.

In fact, some people in the country are secretly recruiting people. In the quarry Zhu Heng set up in Yichang County, two young second-generation citizens resigned a while ago, saying that they were going to the Pampa Grassland to "try their luck." , it can be seen from this.According to Mr. Zhu’s private knowledge, there are currently about three landing sites for immigrants, namely Junyi Port near the later town of MarChiquita, and Xincheng near the later town of Miramar. Hong Kong, and Donghun Township near the later Centinela del Mar.

The Spaniards must have never imagined that after being squeezed into Niuzhuang and Yinhai, the people from the east coast were still not satisfied, and they would flood into the Pampa area through this semi-official means, which is simply unimaginable.If things go on like this, I am afraid that the Spaniards will not be able to do much business in exporting live cattle, cowhide, tallow, etc. to the east bank, because the bison captured by the people on the east bank alone has already surpassed the amount of cattle slaughtered by the Spaniards every year. Wow, this is really depressing.

Master Zhu Heng Zhu certainly sees the prospects for the future development of the Pampa region. In fact, the members of the executive committee are not willing to arrange precious manpower to "waste" in hot and humid Brazil (meaning high mortality), so they gradually turn to climate change. The transport of people from temperate, fertile regions also became a necessity.Just like today’s Pampa region, the people on the east coast took advantage of the favorable international situation (the Spaniards were in great danger in the Old World, and they wanted something from the people on the east coast), and then extended their tentacles here, intending to form a fait accompli, Then try to find a way to steal it.Mr. Zhu came here to invest because he grasped the context of the policy, and the future development prospects are limitless.

(End of this chapter)