Nanyang Storm 1864

Chapter 96 Colonial Economics

As Qian Jiang described, the next day, on October 1865, 10, a huge fleet of immigrants arrived at the Davao River Estuary Pier, carrying 11 Chinese immigrants.

Another 6000 Chinese immigrants were settled in indigenous villages throughout the Zamboanga Peninsula according to prior arrangements.

When these immigrants flooded the dock like a tide, they cried, laughed, and shouted as if they were welcoming a new life, and their excitement was beyond words.

Many officials stepped forward to arrange the immigrants to line up in an orderly manner and to disinfect to prevent the spread of the disease.

The first thing was to have these Chinese immigrants throw all their clothes into a large pot of boiling water for thorough disinfection.

On the open space by the pier

Dozens of large pots were lined up at once, all filled with boiling water. Under the supervision of the soldiers, the immigrants lined up in dozens of long lines, took off their clothes one by one and threw them into the large pots.

After cooking for two or three minutes, the man standing next to the big pot took out the clothes and threw them aside, and then it was the next person's turn.

The immigrants who had boiled their clothes picked up their clothes and walked to the river, wrung out the clothes and hung them on the bushes by the river, then went down to the river to take a bath.

There are dozens of large basins by the river, filled with several bars of soap. After covering their bodies with soap foam, the immigrants help each other scrub and then jump into the river to wash.

After taking a bath, we sat by the river and chatted for a while.

After putting on their half-dry clothes, they followed the instructions and walked into the city. These people had almost no belongings with them except the clothes on their bodies. They were so poor.

After arriving in the city, these Chinese immigrants first entered the built camp, found temporary accommodation, received bowls and chopsticks, drank hot kelp soup, and each person also had a piece of pancake and a piece of pineapple.

It was impossible to eat a full meal. The Chinese immigrants who had just experienced a long ocean voyage could only eat small amounts of food to regulate their appetite.

The next step is to complete the registration procedures, which include where you are from, your surname and name, whether you have parents or brothers or sisters at home, what are their surnames and names, and where you live?

What states and counties have you been to since childhood?

Whether the person is literate, age, hobbies, any skills, whether he has ever served in the military or been a thief, whether he gambles or smokes opium, whether he is married, and other personal details.

If there is someone to corroborate the information, 1 to 3 stars will be added to the registration record, indicating that it is more reliable.

Then in the future, when selecting village chiefs, village heads, militia squad leaders, those who are drafted to serve in the military, those who go to work in the city, etc., there will be an extra advantage.

The immigration camp will focus on promoting the general's kindness and establish an account for each Chinese immigrant. This account will start with a credit of 99 taels of silver, which is the money the Chinese immigrants need to pay for the boat ticket.

Other than this
The prices for selecting indigenous women in the human market varied. Every Chinese immigrant could buy a woman on credit, with the cheaper ones costing 10 to 20 taels of silver, and the more expensive ones costing 40 to 50 taels of silver.

Farmers have very simple ideas. They think that the more expensive indigenous women are big-shouldered, have big waists, and big butts. They can work and give birth, so they are naturally more expensive.

She is as thin as a bamboo pole, can't work, can't give birth, and no matter how good-looking she is, she is cheap.

Each immigrant's account was also provided with an additional quota of 30 taels of silver, which could be used to purchase farm tools, seeds, needles and thread, lanterns, swords, spears and other weapons, and even mules, horses, livestock and oxen.

Of course, in the end, these big animals are not allowed to be sold on credit and must be paid in cash. You can't buy them without money.

to the end

According to their assignments, these Chinese immigrants would bring their indigenous women, carry their belongings bought on credit, and some food, and walk to the concentrated immigrant villages to start their new lives.

All Chinese immigrants must be in place within a week, and then the village chief of the immigrant village will check the names and allocate accommodation to these Chinese immigrants.

Some are mud houses, some are thatched huts, but basically there is a place to stay.

As for the conditions, there is no room for choice.

If you want to live well and avoid suffering, then you should work hard to earn money, participate in military operations, and if you have skills, you can go to the city to work.

basically

Every village has outstanding figures, such as those who receive large rewards in military operations, or those who kill the tribal chief and grab a nugget of gold, so that all debts can be paid off.

As a result, he obtained a free residential plot in the village and spent twenty or thirty taels of silver to build three or four beautiful houses with green tile roofs and thick wooden pillars. It was cool and comfortable to live in, and he became a role model that the villagers envied.

There are three or four indigenous women in the family. They help feed chickens and ducks, take care of livestock and manage the fields during the day, and work hard in the fields at night in the hope of having a son soon.

Who wouldn’t envy and be jealous of such a happy life?

In the City Hall
For more than a week after the arrival of the third group of immigrants, all the officials were extremely busy. They had to work overtime until late at night every day, and the next day they were busy with endless trivial matters.

The first week is the busiest, as officials can finally take a breather once Chinese immigrants arrive in droves to the new resettlement villages.

After these Chinese immigrants arrived at the resettlement villages, the villagers accepted new villagers according to the list. For example, one village accepted 27 people (Note: these 27 people only refer to Chinese immigrants, not including indigenous women who came with them on credit. Indigenous women had to rely on Chinese immigrants and could not survive independently. Otherwise, they would be arrested and sold again), and the actual number of people who arrived was 26.

When the deadline for receiving immigrants arrives, the village chiefs of each immigrant village will report truthfully, and those Chinese immigrants who fail to arrive on time will be put on the wanted list.

If the payment is overdue for less than one month, it is considered a misdemeanor and the offender shall be caned thirty times according to the law.

Overdue for more than one month is considered a serious crime and the person will be thrown into a hard labor camp after being arrested.

This life is ruined, there is no possibility of survivors leaving here.

Unless they escape into the mountains and become savages, there is no place for them to stay given the size of Mindanao.

In the office of the city hall
Mayor Zheng Shouzhong has already entered the role in advance and is reporting the progress of work to the general step by step.

He said;
"...

Among the total 16750 new Chinese immigrants, 12759 were resettled in new immigrant villages, and 12756 actually arrived, distributed in 237 villages and towns. Three others were missing.

According to verification

One of them drowned, and the other two died from attacks by wild beasts. The specific circumstances are unknown. When they were found, only some bitten corpses were left.

Davao City settled 3994 people, mostly blacksmiths, carpenters and other craftsmen, as well as some down-and-out scholars, doctors, actors and readers.

According to the regulations, each person should be classified and support himself.

Now that the police department under the city hall is in its infancy, Father Weghorst was asked to help translate the English police regulations, and after slight improvements, he would use them for his own purposes.

The police badge is being made. This is the design that the general has reviewed and sent to the workshop to be made according to the design.

The patrol police plan is to have a team of five people, three sword and shield soldiers and two spearmen, each equipped with a copper whistle and two police ropes, to patrol the streets and maintain public order.

The City Hall plans to fund the opening of no less than 20 medical clinics and 5 drug stores in the city. The amount of Chinese medicinal materials brought from the south this time is sufficient to meet current needs.

Next step…” Zheng Guohui interrupted from time to time while listening to the report on municipal affairs and people’s livelihood. After questioning, he pointed out the shortcomings and asked for improvements in the next step.

Generally speaking

After Chinese immigrants entered the new village, the corresponding affairs were taken over by the local village chief. There were not many troublesome chores. After each harvest, taxes were collected according to regulations.

All the new immigrant villages were military settlements, and the land and houses were not owned by individuals, so they had to pay a grain tax of up to 60%.

If this happened in inland China, with such a high tax burden, many tenant families would not have enough food to eat, not have warm clothes to wear, and would live a very tight life.

But in Mindanao, the picture is different.

Mindanao is known as the "Big Fruit Plate in the Pacific", "Island of Fruit Trees" and "Island of Pineapples". The plains and mountains here are full of various fruit trees, which are abundant with fruits all year round. The resources are incredibly rich.

It takes three days to walk from Hamda Valley to Davao City. You basically don’t need to carry any food along the way. When you are hungry, you can find some fruit trees to fill your stomach, and when you are thirsty, you can drink some river water.

There are 170 or 180 kinds of fruit trees on the island, especially pineapples and bananas, which are in large numbers, as well as various unknown tropical fruits, which greatly reduce food expenses.

Besides
The general allowed Chinese immigrants to raise livestock and chickens, ducks, cattle and sheep, to spin and fish, to work during the slack season, to do business, and even to hunt in the mountains. The surplus could be sold in the market.

This greatly enriched the income sources of Chinese immigrants, and was not limited to those fields.

In any case, the money earned by the immigrants would eventually flow back to the colonial government. Only after paying off their debts could they get a free piece of residential land in the village.

Spending money to build your own house, buy land, buy women, or buy livestock to expand breeding, wouldn't life be happy?

Throughout the colonization process
Zheng Guohui can be said to be the biggest beneficiary. The amount of silver loaned out by the Nanyang Money House he opened has reached an astronomical figure, reaching more than 1300 million taels of silver.

Based on an annual interest rate of around 6-10%, the income would be in the order of one million taels of silver.

How could he be so rich?
Let's do a detailed calculation

Among the Chinese immigrants who went to Southeast Asia so far, except for more than 3600 soldiers who did not have ship tickets, the remaining more than 45000 Chinese immigrants each owed 99 taels of silver on credit.

The total amount owed was more than 450 million taels of silver.

The colonial army conquered 16 to indigenous people. In addition to eliminating more than indigenous rebels, they also captured more than indigenous women of childbearing age, more than half of whom were distributed.

The minimum was 35 to 10 taels, and the maximum was 350 to taels. Taking the average number as taels of silver per person, for nearly indigenous women, this amounted to more than million taels of silver, of course, in the form of credit.

Since there is credit, there is interest.

The interest rate for buying these women was 10%, and Chinese immigrants had to pay 35 taels of silver in interest every year.

When more than 2 immigrants arrive at the end of the year, the remaining indigenous women will be allocated money and can earn a large sum of money, at least or million, all for free.

Even though it's on credit, it's all money.

The military would encourage Chinese immigrants to participate in military operations, and there would be varying amounts of rewards each time, such as two taels of silver for one time, and five taels of silver for fierce battles. This was actually not much money.

The least is a few thousand taels, and the most is twenty or thirty thousand taels.

But the harvest was extremely huge. Tens of thousands of indigenous women were abducted at any time, which was a harvest of millions of taels of silver. It was a typical case of making a small profit with a big return.

There was also a large amount of land that was forcibly seized and leased to Chinese immigrants in the form of military reclamation for cultivation. It often took five or six years to pay off the debt, and 60% of the taxes had to be paid every year.

These are all real food, and they are also good things that can be used as money. Building cities, forcing convicts to build roads, bridges, reservoirs, canals, build houses, docks, fortresses, open mines and burn kilns, all require food.

With enough food, this colonial policy can be put into effect.

Let’s return to the topic of colonial economics.
When organizing a large fleet to sail south, only Zheng Guohui had sufficient capital to purchase a large amount of supplies, such as oil, salt, sugar, vinegar, tea, needles and thread, iron farm tools, cloth, grain seeds, etc.

After arriving in Southeast Asia, they sold them all to these penniless Chinese immigrants, with the prices increasing by two, three, or even four or five times. Was this a satisfying business?
And there is no stock, it is cleared out as soon as it arrives at the destination.

After dropping off the immigrants, the large fleet quickly returned to the Chinese mainland, loading locally mined copper ingots, iron ingots, various pure white marbles, naturally textured granite, rare shells, various spices, and some worthless tropical fruits.

Once you get there, you can sell it for a good price.

Even the soldiers could not resist buying this part of the credit account. One trip would bring in hundreds of thousands of taels of silver, and two trips would bring in 1.4 to 1.5 million taels of silver in sales, with profits accounting for more than 70%.

Chinese immigrants settled in the countryside could get a piece of land in the village for free as long as they paid off their debts.

But cities are different

The large number of new houses built by the city hall were mainly purchased by officers and soldiers with purchasing power. This not only made them spend all the reward money, but also made them more or less incur a large debt.

Even if capable and meritorious Chinese immigrants made a fortune in wars big or small, they still had to contribute it to the city hall in the end, and might end up in debt again.

The money circulated back and forth and returned to the hands of the colonial government, and all they paid for was the cities they occupied for free and the houses they built by forcing the slaves to do the labor.

The resulting debt amounted to over one million taels of silver.

In addition to these businesses, Nanyang Money House also launched a "joint guarantee loan business" with an amount up to 300 taels of silver.

The so-called "joint guarantee loan business" means that each group of 12 households in the new immigrant village (each male Chinese immigrant is counted as one household, and 12 households form a group) jointly guarantee and borrow money from the Nanyang Money House.

You can open an oil mill, rice mill, tofu shop, brick kiln, drying kiln, lumber mill or blacksmith shop to increase your income.

The interest rate for this type of loan ranges from 9 to 10%. It is a relatively common credit business in villages near cities. Everyone makes money together, and everyone suffers losses together.

Through various means, the credit balance of Nanyang Money House has expanded to more than 1300 million taels of silver, with an annual income of more than one million taels of silver.

This is just the Nanyang Money House, which currently has a staff of over 5 people.

If this number is expanded tenfold, the profit would be a mountain of gold and silver, which is simply unbelievable.

This is the huge profit of colonization. As long as the most basic food can maintain operations and keep everyone from going hungry, this set of colonial economics can continue to operate.

The city expanded rapidly, and wealth increased at an astonishing rate, accumulating a deeper foundation.

all of these

It was at the cost of greatly damaging the interests of the indigenous peoples of Southeast Asia that the brutal colonial expansion began, relying on the armed forces in Zheng Guohui's hands as a guarantee. Every accumulation contained blood and tears.

Zheng Guohui started late, so he had to adopt extraordinary policies to catch up, and he could only use the indigenous people as stepping stones.

There is no reason, weakness is the original sin.

(End of this chapter)