Chapter 1587
Social Relationships
Chapter 1587 Social Relationships
For Xun Pengcheng, the life of the rich should be based on pleasure. When he was in Sanya, he had seen too many rich people enjoying all kinds of extravagance. He had always had a strong desire for such a leisurely lifestyle in his heart. look forward to.Now that I have finally become a member of the rich, it is natural to try to improve my quality of life instead of tiring myself like a dog in order to earn more money.Therefore, regarding Lao Gao's opinion, he just smiled, thinking about it in his heart.
Lao Gao had business dealings with the plantations in this area due to his relationship with the carriage and horse dealership, so according to Xun Pengcheng's request, Lao Gao took him to stop and go to see the plantations run by several acquaintances.Xun Pengcheng had done a lot of understanding of the plantation project before he set off from Sanya, so he was not a complete layman. Although he had no practical experience in agricultural technology, this was not what he was worried about. It is enough for the brokerage company under the Ministry of Agriculture to operate.Xun Pengcheng mainly wants to investigate which cash crops are most suitable for the local natural conditions, how long the payback period and income period are, and whether the expected income can meet his expectations.
The first thing Xun Pengcheng visited was a sugarcane plantation about [-] miles north of Changhua Port. According to Lao Gao, the owners here were a few Ming merchants, and they jointly enclose [-] mu of land here.Apart from setting aside a few acres of land to build warehouses and staff residences, all of them are square sugarcane fields.It is the season when sugarcane is mature and harvested. Hundreds of migrant workers are harvesting sugarcane in the sugarcane fields and stacking them in bundles.
Rao Xun Pengcheng was well-informed, and it was the first time he saw sugar cane piled up like a hill.Around the sugarcane field were more than 20 large carriages waiting in line, and the drivers greeted Lao Gao one after another when they saw him.While Lao Gao nodded, he showed off to Xun Pengcheng proudly, "These carriages belong to our family."
Xun Pengcheng said: "The master's family hired so many cars, is it to transport the sugarcane to another place for processing? Why don't you squeeze the sugar yourself?"
Lao Gao responded: "I press the sugarcane slowly and not as cleanly as the outside workshops. Now the workshops here send sugarcane to Changhua for processing."
Xun Pengcheng wondered: "This sugarcane garden is more than 1000 mu, and the scale is not small, so why not build a better workshop?"
"I can't buy a steam engine." Lao Gao shook his head and said, "Everyone wants to buy good things, but this steam engine can't be built a few times a month, so we can only pay the money and wait."
"Then how can someone still buy it and open a processing workshop?" Xun Pengcheng asked in puzzlement.
"It depends on the relationship!" Lao Gao explained the mystery: "Think about it, such an expensive thing as a steam engine, how could ordinary people buy it in the first place? Even if you have the heart, you don't have the money. There is no such way! People bought things back, and this workshop opened up, and gradually other people knew that this thing is easy to use, so they thought about buying one for themselves. You can buy it!"
Xun Pengcheng nodded thoughtfully. He knew that most of the steam engines produced by Haihan were used in what the executive committee called "industry", and the amount left for agriculture was relatively small. After the people discovered the role of this kind of machine in agricultural production, especially in the process of deep processing of agricultural products, it is almost inevitable that the supply will exceed the demand.And those who used the steam engine to dig the first pot of gold, they did not only rely on luck and foresight, but most likely came from their close relationship with Hai Han's upper class.
Of course, Xun Pengcheng has lived in Sanya for a long time, and he knows that this kind of interest chain is not necessarily illegal. In the process of promoting steam engines, the government will inevitably have many support objects, and these people often cooperate with the government most closely, and their positions are also different. The most consistent group of people.Those who can be the first to eat crabs may not be as full of shady scenes as Lao Gao thinks, but he may not believe it when he says it.
Not long after, one of the owners of this plantation appeared. This man named Gu Wenchong is from Cantonese. He has been running the plantation in Changhua for three years. It seems that he came to Haihan earlier than Xun Pengcheng. .However, although Gu Wenchong has been in Hainan Island all year round, he has not become a Haihan nationality, and still retains his identity as a Ming person.
"It's mainly for the convenience of doing business." Gu Wenchong, whose accent has obviously become Chinese, readily explained the reason why he retained Daming nationality: "[-]% of the sucrose we produce here is sold to Daming, so there are still many times. If you want to move around in the Ming Dynasty, if you change your Haihan nationality, it will not be so convenient after all."
Although the influence of Haihan in the coastal areas of Daming is very strong at present, and there is almost no obstacle for Haihan personnel to land and enter Daming, but after entering the inland area, the personnel with Haihan status will not be so difficult when crossing the state and government. convenient.Therefore, although many businessmen of the Ming Dynasty have deep interest entanglements with Haihan, and even live in Haihan for a long time like Gu Wenchong, they still retain the nationality of the Ming Dynasty for emergencies.
Xun Pengcheng himself came from Daming, and he has a clear understanding of the situation of the two countries. He nodded and said: "Brother Gu is right, but now that the two countries have established diplomatic relations, the exchange of personnel has been relaxed a lot. What's the status quo?"
Gu Wenchong shook his head and said, "The establishment of diplomatic relations will not be effective so quickly. Apart from other things, it will take several years of negotiation between the two sides to settle on the issue of business and taxation."
The city ship tax of Ming Dynasty is a wonderful system, how much to collect and how to collect it are almost all decided by the people in the city ship department.However, the volume of trade between Haihan and Daming is huge, and a shipment of goods is often worth a lot, and the difference between the tax and the tax is much bigger.In the past, there were obvious differences of opinion between the two sides on this aspect, but Haihan was powerful, and no local Shibo department had the guts to collect this money, so the main targets were Ming businessmen who were engaged in cross-border trade.
Of course, there are policies at the top and countermeasures at the bottom. Great Ming merchants, especially well-informed maritime merchants, will not be so easily baffled by a small shipping company.Smuggling, a trade method, has become the most common method in the coastal areas of Daming after the rise of Haihan. Even big merchants like Furuifeng, who are as powerful as Fu Ruifeng, only transport some relatively low-value commodities into Guangdong and Guangxi pay taxes, and almost all high-value goods are smuggled into the country.
When it comes to issues of economic interests, there will inevitably be disputes. Merchants and officials in the coastal areas have made a lot of money through smuggling, but their counterparts in the inland areas are not so lucky, so many Even if Haihan merchants were unimpeded in the coastal areas, they would still encounter specific difficulties after entering the inland.Although the two countries have announced the establishment of diplomatic relations, what the high-level governments have reached is only some framework agreements. When it comes to the implementation at the local level, there are still many specific issues that need to be negotiated by the two sides.
Daming is now paying attention to the security of the northern frontier, and has not paid much attention to these border trades in the Lingnan area. Of course, it is essentially beyond the reach of the imperial court and cannot exert much influence on the south.And this kind of negotiation linked to interests will eventually be reduced to a transaction, and the winners are those who hold the power of life and death in their hands.
Regarding the topic of diplomacy, Xun Pengcheng didn't want to delve into it too much, so he took the initiative to divert the topic and discussed the operation and benefits of the sugarcane plantation with Gu Wenchong.
Gu Wenchong's answer is very frank: "The larger the planting area, the lower the average cost of development and operation, and the more benefits. I heard that there are larger sugarcane plantations in other places, and the cost may be lower than ours. [-]%, which is quite impressive. But if Brother Xun can't make such a big battle, the profit will of course not be too high. Calculated on the scale of a thousand mu, it can recover almost [-]% to [-]% in three years. Get in."
Xun Pengcheng calculated in his mind that the funds he currently possesses should not be enough to cultivate a plantation of more than [-] mu, and he also needs to consider setting aside three years of operating expenses. It seems that it is far from the level Gu Wenchong assumed.However, he was still a little reconciled. Remembering that he had heard from Wang Hao in Sanya that there was also a lot of cheap land in Xuwen County across the strait being used to develop sugarcane plantations, he asked Gu Wenchong for news about it.
Gu Wenchong shook his head and said, "It's not easy to get land in Xuwen County. Almost all the people who go there to open plantations are big families like Furuifeng and Zhan's. Their plantations start at thousands of acres, and the land price can naturally be paid for." It should be cheaper. Now the sugar production on both sides of the Qiongzhou Strait has doubled several times, and the competition has become increasingly fierce. To reduce costs, we can only continue to expand. For example, we plan to invest all the profits this year and open another Three or four hundred acres of land will be released, and we will strive to lower the cost next year."
When Xun Pengcheng heard it, his heart was half cold. It seems that the road to the sugarcane plantation is not so easy. Those who entered the industry early are already taking the route of large-scale operation to reduce costs. If they can’t do a certain amount of operation In terms of scale, the competitiveness must be one or even a few grades worse.Of course, this does not rule out that Gu Wenchong is deliberately alarmist, and wants to use this kind of introduction to make Xun Pengcheng retreat, thereby reducing a potential competitor.
After leaving the sugarcane garden, Xun Pengcheng asked Lao Gao whether what Gu Wenchong said just now was true. Lao Gao didn't want to get the crooked intestines in Xun Pengcheng's stomach, and he didn't suspect him, so he replied honestly: "Guest officer, In fact, what Gu Ye said just now is also reasonable. In the past few years, Changhua and Danzhoujia have opened forty or fifty sugar cane gardens together. Isn’t there competition? Those with large output can gradually control the pricing power and squeeze out those small competitors in the market, so everyone is getting bigger and bigger.”
Xun Pengcheng praised: "Unexpectedly, Lao Gao, you still understand these business methods. Being a coachman is really a waste of talent!"
Lao Gao waved his hand and said, "I don't understand those profound truths. This is what my son-in-law said. He is a clever man."
As soon as Xun Pengcheng heard that Lao Gao mentioned his son-in-law again, he stopped talking at all, lest he would have to talk about the most taboo topic in the chat.He took the initiative to change the topic and said: "But to expand the scale of the plantation, there must be so many laborers! These places were originally immigrated by foreign immigrants, and the state has to give priority to Changhua's smelting and mining industries. These plantations Can the park recruit enough immigrants?"
Lao Gao responded: "Immigration alone is of course not enough. Now how many immigrants are assigned to Changhua every month? When it is less, it is one or two hundred, and when it is more, it is three or four hundred. Half of the elderly, weak, women and children will be removed, and the remaining half will be just a few hundred." It’s the labor force, and the iron and steel smelting jobs in Changhua have already been absorbed, so how can there be any leftovers left for these plantations! When they want labor, they basically find their own way.”
"Find out your own way?" Xun Pengcheng rolled his eyes and remembered something: "Could it be that he bought slaves from Nanyang?"
"That's the way." Lao Gao nodded and said, "Otherwise, where can hundreds of thousands of laborers be brought back? The slaves bought from the nearby plantations are sometimes more than the new immigrants."
Xun Pengcheng didn't ask why the state didn't care about this kind of thing, because he had also been in contact with related fields in his work as a reporter in the past, and he knew that the state had a tacit attitude of turning a blind eye to the slave trade.Because otherwise, the large number of plantations on Hainan Island simply would not have enough labor to maintain operations.Portugal and the Netherlands will send several ships of foreign slaves to Haihan every month, from the long coastline from Southeast Asia to East Africa, and there are as many as two to 3000 people a month.
Of course, these slaves did not have the same chance of obtaining naturalization as Han immigrants. The purpose of their coming to Hainan Island was all kinds of physical labor, and most of them could only spend the rest of their lives in plantations.There are only a very few lucky ones who may have the opportunity to join the army because of their special skills or outstanding physical condition, so as to escape from slavery and change their destiny.
Because there is no need to pay salaries to these slaves, the cost of purchasing them will be very cheap compared to the cost of employing a Haihan national for a long time, and you don’t need to care too much about their feelings, as long as you give them the most basic living conditions That's fine, so plantation owners are generally more willing to buy a large number of these slaves who can squeeze their labor without a bottom line.From a certain point of view, the treatment of these people is not much different from that of the prisoners in the Shilu Mine Hard Labor Camp, and even worse than those prisoners. After all, many prisoners can be released after serving their sentences, and these slaves want to regain Freedom, the time required is hard to say.
The Haihan government had issued some regulations in the past, specifying the maximum period of service for slaves, after which they would be given the freedom to leave slavery.However, the actual implementation of these regulations was not smooth, because the slaves often died of exhaustion due to high-intensity labor before the time limit was reached.
(End of this chapter)
For Xun Pengcheng, the life of the rich should be based on pleasure. When he was in Sanya, he had seen too many rich people enjoying all kinds of extravagance. He had always had a strong desire for such a leisurely lifestyle in his heart. look forward to.Now that I have finally become a member of the rich, it is natural to try to improve my quality of life instead of tiring myself like a dog in order to earn more money.Therefore, regarding Lao Gao's opinion, he just smiled, thinking about it in his heart.
Lao Gao had business dealings with the plantations in this area due to his relationship with the carriage and horse dealership, so according to Xun Pengcheng's request, Lao Gao took him to stop and go to see the plantations run by several acquaintances.Xun Pengcheng had done a lot of understanding of the plantation project before he set off from Sanya, so he was not a complete layman. Although he had no practical experience in agricultural technology, this was not what he was worried about. It is enough for the brokerage company under the Ministry of Agriculture to operate.Xun Pengcheng mainly wants to investigate which cash crops are most suitable for the local natural conditions, how long the payback period and income period are, and whether the expected income can meet his expectations.
The first thing Xun Pengcheng visited was a sugarcane plantation about [-] miles north of Changhua Port. According to Lao Gao, the owners here were a few Ming merchants, and they jointly enclose [-] mu of land here.Apart from setting aside a few acres of land to build warehouses and staff residences, all of them are square sugarcane fields.It is the season when sugarcane is mature and harvested. Hundreds of migrant workers are harvesting sugarcane in the sugarcane fields and stacking them in bundles.
Rao Xun Pengcheng was well-informed, and it was the first time he saw sugar cane piled up like a hill.Around the sugarcane field were more than 20 large carriages waiting in line, and the drivers greeted Lao Gao one after another when they saw him.While Lao Gao nodded, he showed off to Xun Pengcheng proudly, "These carriages belong to our family."
Xun Pengcheng said: "The master's family hired so many cars, is it to transport the sugarcane to another place for processing? Why don't you squeeze the sugar yourself?"
Lao Gao responded: "I press the sugarcane slowly and not as cleanly as the outside workshops. Now the workshops here send sugarcane to Changhua for processing."
Xun Pengcheng wondered: "This sugarcane garden is more than 1000 mu, and the scale is not small, so why not build a better workshop?"
"I can't buy a steam engine." Lao Gao shook his head and said, "Everyone wants to buy good things, but this steam engine can't be built a few times a month, so we can only pay the money and wait."
"Then how can someone still buy it and open a processing workshop?" Xun Pengcheng asked in puzzlement.
"It depends on the relationship!" Lao Gao explained the mystery: "Think about it, such an expensive thing as a steam engine, how could ordinary people buy it in the first place? Even if you have the heart, you don't have the money. There is no such way! People bought things back, and this workshop opened up, and gradually other people knew that this thing is easy to use, so they thought about buying one for themselves. You can buy it!"
Xun Pengcheng nodded thoughtfully. He knew that most of the steam engines produced by Haihan were used in what the executive committee called "industry", and the amount left for agriculture was relatively small. After the people discovered the role of this kind of machine in agricultural production, especially in the process of deep processing of agricultural products, it is almost inevitable that the supply will exceed the demand.And those who used the steam engine to dig the first pot of gold, they did not only rely on luck and foresight, but most likely came from their close relationship with Hai Han's upper class.
Of course, Xun Pengcheng has lived in Sanya for a long time, and he knows that this kind of interest chain is not necessarily illegal. In the process of promoting steam engines, the government will inevitably have many support objects, and these people often cooperate with the government most closely, and their positions are also different. The most consistent group of people.Those who can be the first to eat crabs may not be as full of shady scenes as Lao Gao thinks, but he may not believe it when he says it.
Not long after, one of the owners of this plantation appeared. This man named Gu Wenchong is from Cantonese. He has been running the plantation in Changhua for three years. It seems that he came to Haihan earlier than Xun Pengcheng. .However, although Gu Wenchong has been in Hainan Island all year round, he has not become a Haihan nationality, and still retains his identity as a Ming person.
"It's mainly for the convenience of doing business." Gu Wenchong, whose accent has obviously become Chinese, readily explained the reason why he retained Daming nationality: "[-]% of the sucrose we produce here is sold to Daming, so there are still many times. If you want to move around in the Ming Dynasty, if you change your Haihan nationality, it will not be so convenient after all."
Although the influence of Haihan in the coastal areas of Daming is very strong at present, and there is almost no obstacle for Haihan personnel to land and enter Daming, but after entering the inland area, the personnel with Haihan status will not be so difficult when crossing the state and government. convenient.Therefore, although many businessmen of the Ming Dynasty have deep interest entanglements with Haihan, and even live in Haihan for a long time like Gu Wenchong, they still retain the nationality of the Ming Dynasty for emergencies.
Xun Pengcheng himself came from Daming, and he has a clear understanding of the situation of the two countries. He nodded and said: "Brother Gu is right, but now that the two countries have established diplomatic relations, the exchange of personnel has been relaxed a lot. What's the status quo?"
Gu Wenchong shook his head and said, "The establishment of diplomatic relations will not be effective so quickly. Apart from other things, it will take several years of negotiation between the two sides to settle on the issue of business and taxation."
The city ship tax of Ming Dynasty is a wonderful system, how much to collect and how to collect it are almost all decided by the people in the city ship department.However, the volume of trade between Haihan and Daming is huge, and a shipment of goods is often worth a lot, and the difference between the tax and the tax is much bigger.In the past, there were obvious differences of opinion between the two sides on this aspect, but Haihan was powerful, and no local Shibo department had the guts to collect this money, so the main targets were Ming businessmen who were engaged in cross-border trade.
Of course, there are policies at the top and countermeasures at the bottom. Great Ming merchants, especially well-informed maritime merchants, will not be so easily baffled by a small shipping company.Smuggling, a trade method, has become the most common method in the coastal areas of Daming after the rise of Haihan. Even big merchants like Furuifeng, who are as powerful as Fu Ruifeng, only transport some relatively low-value commodities into Guangdong and Guangxi pay taxes, and almost all high-value goods are smuggled into the country.
When it comes to issues of economic interests, there will inevitably be disputes. Merchants and officials in the coastal areas have made a lot of money through smuggling, but their counterparts in the inland areas are not so lucky, so many Even if Haihan merchants were unimpeded in the coastal areas, they would still encounter specific difficulties after entering the inland.Although the two countries have announced the establishment of diplomatic relations, what the high-level governments have reached is only some framework agreements. When it comes to the implementation at the local level, there are still many specific issues that need to be negotiated by the two sides.
Daming is now paying attention to the security of the northern frontier, and has not paid much attention to these border trades in the Lingnan area. Of course, it is essentially beyond the reach of the imperial court and cannot exert much influence on the south.And this kind of negotiation linked to interests will eventually be reduced to a transaction, and the winners are those who hold the power of life and death in their hands.
Regarding the topic of diplomacy, Xun Pengcheng didn't want to delve into it too much, so he took the initiative to divert the topic and discussed the operation and benefits of the sugarcane plantation with Gu Wenchong.
Gu Wenchong's answer is very frank: "The larger the planting area, the lower the average cost of development and operation, and the more benefits. I heard that there are larger sugarcane plantations in other places, and the cost may be lower than ours. [-]%, which is quite impressive. But if Brother Xun can't make such a big battle, the profit will of course not be too high. Calculated on the scale of a thousand mu, it can recover almost [-]% to [-]% in three years. Get in."
Xun Pengcheng calculated in his mind that the funds he currently possesses should not be enough to cultivate a plantation of more than [-] mu, and he also needs to consider setting aside three years of operating expenses. It seems that it is far from the level Gu Wenchong assumed.However, he was still a little reconciled. Remembering that he had heard from Wang Hao in Sanya that there was also a lot of cheap land in Xuwen County across the strait being used to develop sugarcane plantations, he asked Gu Wenchong for news about it.
Gu Wenchong shook his head and said, "It's not easy to get land in Xuwen County. Almost all the people who go there to open plantations are big families like Furuifeng and Zhan's. Their plantations start at thousands of acres, and the land price can naturally be paid for." It should be cheaper. Now the sugar production on both sides of the Qiongzhou Strait has doubled several times, and the competition has become increasingly fierce. To reduce costs, we can only continue to expand. For example, we plan to invest all the profits this year and open another Three or four hundred acres of land will be released, and we will strive to lower the cost next year."
When Xun Pengcheng heard it, his heart was half cold. It seems that the road to the sugarcane plantation is not so easy. Those who entered the industry early are already taking the route of large-scale operation to reduce costs. If they can’t do a certain amount of operation In terms of scale, the competitiveness must be one or even a few grades worse.Of course, this does not rule out that Gu Wenchong is deliberately alarmist, and wants to use this kind of introduction to make Xun Pengcheng retreat, thereby reducing a potential competitor.
After leaving the sugarcane garden, Xun Pengcheng asked Lao Gao whether what Gu Wenchong said just now was true. Lao Gao didn't want to get the crooked intestines in Xun Pengcheng's stomach, and he didn't suspect him, so he replied honestly: "Guest officer, In fact, what Gu Ye said just now is also reasonable. In the past few years, Changhua and Danzhoujia have opened forty or fifty sugar cane gardens together. Isn’t there competition? Those with large output can gradually control the pricing power and squeeze out those small competitors in the market, so everyone is getting bigger and bigger.”
Xun Pengcheng praised: "Unexpectedly, Lao Gao, you still understand these business methods. Being a coachman is really a waste of talent!"
Lao Gao waved his hand and said, "I don't understand those profound truths. This is what my son-in-law said. He is a clever man."
As soon as Xun Pengcheng heard that Lao Gao mentioned his son-in-law again, he stopped talking at all, lest he would have to talk about the most taboo topic in the chat.He took the initiative to change the topic and said: "But to expand the scale of the plantation, there must be so many laborers! These places were originally immigrated by foreign immigrants, and the state has to give priority to Changhua's smelting and mining industries. These plantations Can the park recruit enough immigrants?"
Lao Gao responded: "Immigration alone is of course not enough. Now how many immigrants are assigned to Changhua every month? When it is less, it is one or two hundred, and when it is more, it is three or four hundred. Half of the elderly, weak, women and children will be removed, and the remaining half will be just a few hundred." It’s the labor force, and the iron and steel smelting jobs in Changhua have already been absorbed, so how can there be any leftovers left for these plantations! When they want labor, they basically find their own way.”
"Find out your own way?" Xun Pengcheng rolled his eyes and remembered something: "Could it be that he bought slaves from Nanyang?"
"That's the way." Lao Gao nodded and said, "Otherwise, where can hundreds of thousands of laborers be brought back? The slaves bought from the nearby plantations are sometimes more than the new immigrants."
Xun Pengcheng didn't ask why the state didn't care about this kind of thing, because he had also been in contact with related fields in his work as a reporter in the past, and he knew that the state had a tacit attitude of turning a blind eye to the slave trade.Because otherwise, the large number of plantations on Hainan Island simply would not have enough labor to maintain operations.Portugal and the Netherlands will send several ships of foreign slaves to Haihan every month, from the long coastline from Southeast Asia to East Africa, and there are as many as two to 3000 people a month.
Of course, these slaves did not have the same chance of obtaining naturalization as Han immigrants. The purpose of their coming to Hainan Island was all kinds of physical labor, and most of them could only spend the rest of their lives in plantations.There are only a very few lucky ones who may have the opportunity to join the army because of their special skills or outstanding physical condition, so as to escape from slavery and change their destiny.
Because there is no need to pay salaries to these slaves, the cost of purchasing them will be very cheap compared to the cost of employing a Haihan national for a long time, and you don’t need to care too much about their feelings, as long as you give them the most basic living conditions That's fine, so plantation owners are generally more willing to buy a large number of these slaves who can squeeze their labor without a bottom line.From a certain point of view, the treatment of these people is not much different from that of the prisoners in the Shilu Mine Hard Labor Camp, and even worse than those prisoners. After all, many prisoners can be released after serving their sentences, and these slaves want to regain Freedom, the time required is hard to say.
The Haihan government had issued some regulations in the past, specifying the maximum period of service for slaves, after which they would be given the freedom to leave slavery.However, the actual implementation of these regulations was not smooth, because the slaves often died of exhaustion due to high-intensity labor before the time limit was reached.
(End of this chapter)