Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 1671 West Indian Ocean ([-])

Alberto Morosini lightly grabbed a handful of soil on the ground and watched it carefully.

There are seven or eight entourages around him, some of them look like guards, with a strong body and a sword hanging from their waists, and they look like stalwart warriors; A ground lens is making special statistics on the local plants; there are also pure workers who stand on a high point, sometimes climb to the top of the tree, and carefully observe the surroundings The terrain, the distribution of forests, the direction of rivers, etc., are then described to the professional painters below to describe them, which will be used as the basis for site selection when opening plantations.

Yes, these are the people who have come to find a site for the plantation.Their team leader was Alberto Morosini, a fellow of noble origin, who had once met Li Qing, the special envoy of the East Coast Plenipotentiary to Europe on Zakynthos Island, the representative of the Republic of Venice.This time he led the team to New Huaxia Island, naturally following the order of the domestic ruling council. After several rounds of negotiations between the Republic of Venice and the East Coast, they have basically agreed to the conditions negotiated with Li Qing. , and then sent people to Xinhua Island to select a site to start a plantation—mainly pepper and cocoa.

To be honest, as a Genoese who has carried out commercial cultivation on Xinhua Island for many years, I still have a sour attitude towards the arrival of my old friend Venetian, because it means that the Italian tropical commodity market It is likely that it will no longer be exclusively enjoyed by the Genoa Africa Company and the Delta Company. The Venetians, who have rich personal connections and business networks, as long as they have sufficient sources of goods, they have the ability to spread the goods everywhere and Genoa *The subhumans compete in all directions.

The reason why it was so cool to let the Genoese dominate the market for so long was that the Venetians themselves couldn't think about it.Isn't it?Fighting for 20 years for a broken island (Crete) against the colossal Ottoman Empire, the loss of people, money and property is uncountable, and wasting precious 20 years of time, it is simply stupid!I believe that if the Venetians are given another chance, they will definitely not fight such a war with the Ottoman Empire that both sides lost a lot-the Ottomans lost 40 soldiers and civilians, and the Venetians pawned their pants. Pan Morosini and others came to Xinhua Island, they were rented French ships, and then they arrived in Dongfang Port and purchased a 650% new [-]-ton flute-shaped ship on the spot, so that they could successfully arrive at the island and see Come out, Venice, which once had the title of "City of Wealth", is really too poor now!

But as the saying goes, there are still three thousand nails in the broken ship. No matter how poor the Venetians are, it is probably not a problem to attract some businessmen from the country and raise some funds to start plantations.You know, although the capital of the Venetian Circulation Bank is not as sufficient as before, as a reputable old bank, a bank that used to be as powerful as the Amsterdam Exchange Bank in its heyday, how can it be possible that it has no family background?

Thus, Alberto Morosini finally came to Xinhua Island with a group of people three years after initially negotiating with the people on the east coast.The site he chose was in the eastern half of the island, seemingly to avoid the Genoese whose plantations were concentrated in the western half, and possibly also because of the relatively low rents in the east.

In the western half of Xinhuaxia Island, after many years of development by the people on the east coast and their inability to clear it up, the established native regime has been completely wiped out, and the remaining fish that slipped through the net will not be successful, and sooner or later they will be cleaned up by the people on the east coast who are approaching step by step clean.However, in the eastern half, due to the lack of development efforts and the inclination of resources, it can basically still be said to be a raw land.

Especially in the northeastern part of the island, when Army Major Peng Yuanzhi led the main force of the New China Infantry Battalion to attack the remnants of the Manab Kingdom, it was the first time that they made a large-scale landing in the area of ​​Antongil Bay in later generations. It can be seen that this place is basically still maintained. The original style and appearance hardly show the influence of foreign civilizations.

Therefore, the Venetians were willing to come to this area to set up plantations, and the government of the New China Pioneering Team naturally welcomed them with both hands and feet.Not to mention the low rent, it is said that Huang Yi, the captain of the New China Development Team, has planned it, even if they do not charge their rent, as long as you send people to develop these lands.Huang Yi even hinted to the Venetians that if they don't have enough money, they can find a way to help the Venetians get preferential loans from the Northwest Reclamation Bank. As long as you transport people from the old continent and start working, then everything will be fine.

Therefore, under such a background, the Venetians carefully inspected some coastal areas in the northeast part of Xinhua Island, and focused on delineating several areas. They planned to make a final decision after further analysis and discussion, and then submitted them In short, the procedures are still very troublesome for local and new Chinese localities to review and approve.

The current location of Alberto Morosini and others is on the inner side of Antungil Bay. Later generations named it Maruantetra, and now it is called Qingtian Township. The nearby river (Antai South Paraná River) Because of its shape resembling a boa constrictor, it was also named "Python River" by the Xinhua Island side. There are also several settlements established together with Qingtian Township, all of which were established after the Xinhua Infantry Battalion defeated the Manabo Kingdom. They are located in Bandao Township near Wuxi Marina, Cunjie Township near Sambava, Baoyu Township near Antahala, and Siyi Township near Manalala.

In Qingtian Township, the only buildings are the temporary camps and warehouses built by Peng Yuanzhi’s New China Infantry Battalion when they landed here. crude.

There are probably hundreds of people living in the temporary camp, more than one-third of them are exiled prisoners, one-third are exiled Ottoman soldiers and their families, and only one-third are the intercepted immigrants from the Far East. , mostly from Ningbo and Guangzhou.These people and a company of the New China Infantry Battalion are stationed here, and they are busy building the port all day long. Although they have no objection to the visit of the Venetians, they have no special welcome, and even a little bit of dissatisfaction, because no matter whether these foreigners No matter how the propagandists advertise that they will "bring their own dry food", it will inevitably take up the few resources in the settlements that have just been established. For example, if someone has malaria, laborers are fine. What about the managers?Don't you have to use the precious Kinney cream for treatment?Although it is said that people bought it with money, the resources are actually consumed. If the locals want to use it, they will lose a share!

Naturally, the Venetians can’t fail to feel these things, but they were accompanied by East Coast Outreach officials, and they also wanted to seal off the land as soon as possible, so they pretended not to see them and stayed in the township office all day long. Receive all kinds of materials in the warehouse, and go to explore and investigate around.

Today is the ninth time for Morosini and others to go abroad for investigation.After a lot of hard work in the early stage, they have basically determined the location, which is located on a slope on the left bank of the mouth of the Mang River.The reason is probably because this is a relatively "bright" Savoca terrain, and the vegetation is mainly composed of ferns and grass (the surface soil is more exposed), unlike the dense and deep deep mountain old forest behind the slope.

It can be seen from the terrain and vegetation that the early development here does not need to spend too much money and manpower, which is conducive to the rapid formation of planting scale and rapid output.It will not be too late to expand the scope of planting when the output is shipped back to Europe, the Americas, or other places and sold at a price, and part of the funds has been withdrawn. This is a more conservative and prudent approach.

However, the Venetians are also very greedy for the huge trees in the mountains, because these are exactly the materials that Venice and even the whole of Italy are very short of.In this area with abundant precipitation, the surface of the land is almost covered by dense and chaotic tall trees after seven or eight kilometers deep into the coastline. The tannin-rich Madao Duck's Palm, Red Zhongtian Olive, and olive can be seen almost everywhere; applicable There are also a lot of cinnamon and rosewood trees used in shipbuilding, and there are relatively few rosewood and ebony.

Morosini had to be reminded by his subordinates before that he had visited some places in the mountains. When he saw the huge trees with a height of tens of meters, to be honest, he was extremely shocked, and his saliva almost flowed out. Great wealth!You must know that England, France, and the United Provinces, the major shipbuilding countries in Europe, can even buy back pine masts of poor quality in Sweden and Poland as treasures. If they see so many woods with excellent flexibility and density, You have to go crazy!

Morosini once asked whether it is possible to invest in the shipbuilding industry in Xinhua Island (because the cost of transporting these timbers back to Italy is too high), so they can invest in additional personnel and cash, and the result was simply accepted by the Xinhua Development Team He refused, saying that the East Coast Republic of China is not going to open this industry to foreign companies or individuals for the time being, which disappointed Morosini and others.

However, Huang Yi, the leader of the New China Pioneering Team, also told the Venetians after learning about the incident that if the ships needed for the nautical industry of the Republic of Venice, which is embarking on recovery, whether they are civilian ships or professional warships, can be built by Xinhua Shipyard , they can consider providing various types of ships at preferential prices, and they can also allow funds of no more than 50 yuan to invest in some logging farms or timber processing factories in Xinhua Island (but they must not become the largest shareholder of the company or seek a controlling stake). Indirectly let them share the resource dividends of the island.

Morosini expressed his gratitude to Huang Yi for his "generosity", and then said that this requires local approval, and then domestic commercial capital (in fact, it is mainly the dozen or so families who have served as consuls) can enter this market. But he expressed optimism, because there were no insurmountable commercial obstacles, and at most it would dissatisfy the United Provinces, which had always contracted Venice's main shipbuilding business.

And from these things, it can also be tasted that the Venetians, who have seen the rapid development of the Genoese over the years, now have a strong willingness to strengthen cooperation with the people on the east coast, otherwise they would not Not long after the war ended three years ago, Houhou hurriedly interviewed people from the east coast on Zakynthos Island.

Of course, on the other hand, people on the east coast are also very interested in strengthening ties with the Republic of Venice. This is not only because of the relatively large Italian and German markets behind the Venetian, but also related to commercial layout and strategic deployment.

As we all know, the main export market for people on the east coast is always the Ottoman Empire - the United Provinces were the largest market in the past few years, but now more than half of the orders have been abolished - and later for various purposes, they focused on building the Danube, the first The Black Sea trade of the Dnieper River and the Don River has invested heavily in the Eastern Mediterranean.

At the same time, their performance in the large Spanish market in the western Mediterranean has become more and more surprising. The cheap and high-quality industrial products on the east coast have squeezed out many distributors from the Netherlands, making their enthusiasm Dealers in Naia, Lucca, Tuscany, and Milan are all smiling. There is no doubt that there are huge commercial profits here, but they are not as rich as the Ottoman Empire.

Therefore, maintaining a certain degree of good relations with influential countries in the Mediterranean region—such as Spain, Genoa, Venice, Ottoman, etc.—has always been an important task for the foreign affairs department on the east coast.In their view, Spain, Genoa, and Venice are all nodes, and they cannot be neglected. This time the Venetians "sent to their door", so it is natural to get close to them.It just so happens that this country has also reconciled with the Ottomans and resumed commercial trade. There is no political risk of offending the Ottomans when they make friends with them, so why not do it?So you can see that this time the Venetians came to Xinhua Island to open a plantation is a green light. Of course, the Venetians also agreed that the warships on the east coast can berth, repair and replenish their ports in the future, which is of great significance.

"Children, let's work for another half an hour, and then return to the market town to rest for a day. This work has been very rewarding, and it is almost time for us to call it a day." Alberto Morosini shot a dead The mosquito crawling on his arm yelled at the people around him who were working.

Now the site selection work can almost come to an end, the next step is to report to the high-level of Venice, and then wait for them to raise funds, recruit personnel, and purchase materials to come to Xinhua Island.The way they came was still through the Ottoman Empire, just like the route that the people on the east coast helped the Genoese to clear. First, they took a boat to the port on the Mediterranean coast of Egypt, and then took the land route, along the road that is still under construction. Yasu light rail line - Alexandria - Port of Suez, Mara track line, is a backup trade route between people on the east coast and Ottomans. It has been repaired and stopped for many years, but it is not very smooth - going south to the port of Suez on the shore of the Red Sea , and then return to Xinhua Island on a ship from the east coast. The distance is very short, and it is safer than the Atlantic route that bypasses Africa. Its superiority has even attracted the attention of some countries along the Mediterranean Sea. It would be nice to have a canal that existed in ancient times but unfortunately silted up later. Of course, they also know that it is difficult to get it now, because the Ottomans simply do not have this urgent need.

(End of this chapter)