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Chapter 814 [Businessmen's Needs]

The new idea of ​​industrial development is to relax the use of urban industrial land.

This policy will definitely be taken advantage of by some people to annex land in disguise near towns.This is the case with any policy, and it cannot be avoided at all. We can only strengthen the supervision of relevant parties, although it is certainly impossible to supervise.

Under the influence of objective laws, cities and towns with geographical advantages will stand out sooner or later.

Location advantages, including transportation, resources, manpower, etc.

Just like Jiangning Town in the west of Nanjing, the specific address is probably between the urban areas of Nanjing and Ma'anshan in later generations.It seems that the two are incompatible, but it is backed by the Yangtze River, and there is a small river flowing from Jilong Mountain.At present, the remaining textile industry in Nanjing has been undertaken. As long as the opening of the land grant is released, the textile industry will surely flourish rapidly and form a large textile industry town.

It will compete with Nanjing for various industrial resources, and it will definitely interfere with each other at the beginning.But when the technology is sufficient, the resources are left, and the means of transportation are developed, it will be connected with Nanjing to form a ring-Nanjing textile industry belt.

It is more obvious in Jiangnan, such as Gaoqiao Town in Wuxi.It's only a waterway town at the moment, but it's at the confluence of two canals.One canal connects Jiaxing, Wujiang, Suzhou, Wuxi, Changzhou, Danyang and Zhenjiang, and the other connects Jiangyin to the Yangtze River.In addition, there are two rivers that can connect to Taihu Lake, and the surrounding areas are all cotton-producing areas. Once the land grants are released, the industrial location advantage will come immediately.

There are many such small towns in the south of the Yangtze River, where flowers bloom everywhere, competing with each other, stimulating the progress of textile technology, and finally winning or losing in a gu-style way. The market and capital will automatically adjust and run together to form an industrial package.For example, some small towns mainly focus on spinning; some small towns focus on weaving; some small towns focus on dyeing.When the various small towns unite, the conditions for large-scale industrial production will be created.

So far, there is and only Jiangnan can reach this level, what is lacking is only technological progress.

The six prefectures of Su, Song, Chang, Hu, Hangzhou, and Jia are probably the most densely populated areas in the world today. There are many cities and towns, all of which have handicraft industries and are connected by complex water networks.

……

Mughal Empire, India, Bay of Bengal, Hooghly Harbour.

The accelerated prosperity of China's cotton textile industry has clearly affected here.

Decades ago, Hooghly was not under the direct rule of Mughal emperors.People of all ethnic groups in India who fled during the war gathered here to form many communities.The Portuguese also formed two communities, which eventually merged into one city and even built the Portuguese Wall.

This is not a colony, but a leased land, similar in nature to Macau.

Due to Portugal's generous tax payments, local officials were happy to see the results, and the two sides lived in peace for decades.

More than 20 years ago, that is, the early years of Chongzhen.

Chongzhen, who had just succeeded to the throne, was facing a severe drought in Shaanxi.Shah Jahan, who succeeded to the throne at that time, faced a severe drought in the Mughals.The Ming Dynasty and the Mughal Empire experienced large-scale and severe droughts almost at the same time—the climate was abnormal during the Little Ice Age, and no one was spared. At that time, Japan and North Korea also had famines.

Years of famine in the Mughal Empire, people cannibalized each other, and many villages were wiped out.

Internal troubles are also accompanied by external troubles. Shah Jahan, who had just ascended the throne, got the same script as Chongzhen.Rebels appeared in the west of the empire, and the Sultanate of the Deccan Plateau was also making trouble, and there was still a war with the Persian Empire in the west.

As a result, the prosperous Hooghly Port was targeted, and the fat pig of Portugal could be slaughtered.

Of course, the teacher must be famous, and Shah Jahan also charged the Portuguese with crimes: slave trading and missionary work!

In fact, the Mughal Empire itself traded slaves, and had long agreed to the Portuguese mission. Portugal was really labeled for no reason this time.

An army of 1500, [-] warships, a large number of war elephants and artillery, marched mightily towards Hooghly Harbor.The Portuguese in the city had less than [-] soldiers and more than [-] civilians and missionaries.

With such a disparity in strength, the Mughal army was still unable to break through the city wall, and surrounded until the Portuguese ran out of ammunition and food.

Shah Jahan, the Mughal emperor, had achieved a "brilliant victory" but didn't seem too happy.In the past year alone, the Mughals took the initiative to show favor to Portugal, not only releasing all captives, but also granting a large amount of land to the Portuguese to rebuild their communities, and even granting the Portuguese 17 commercial and religious privileges.

why?

Because the Portuguese were driven away, not a grain of food was grabbed, and the spoils of war were not enough to cover the war expenses.Moreover, domestic goods cannot be transported from the Bay of Bengal, not only losing the commercial tax paid by the Portuguese, but also causing a large number of domestic handicraftsmen to lose their jobs.A big victory made the Mughal economy worse.

The Portuguese were invited back for three years, but Hooghly Port recovered too slowly. Shah Jahan was very annoyed. He drove the Portuguese away again and contracted all the relevant land to the Dutch.

The Dutch have run the port for 20 years and are finally thriving again.

But the Dutch were too arrogant and domineering. Shah Jahan felt that the British were good, so he agreed with the British to establish a trade point in Hooghly.

Cotton weaving is the most important industry of the Mughal Empire, bar none!

The Portuguese, British and Dutch bought cotton cloth in Hooghly Harbor, sold it to Southeast Asia for pepper, or bought Chinese goods.

Today, due to the improvement of spinning machines and looms in China, even a few of them still use the original steam engine.The production efficiency of cotton cloth textiles has increased rapidly, and the cost has continued to drop. Although it will not impact the Indian market, it has completely seized the Southeast Asian market of Indian cotton cloth!

Indian cotton cloth cannot be sold in Southeast Asia.

At the same time, China's cotton textile industry is constantly experiencing shortages of raw materials.As a result, Portugal, the United Kingdom, and the Netherlands began to purchase large quantities of cotton or cotton yarn in Bangladesh and southeastern India.They transported cotton and cotton yarn to Banten and Batavia, where the Han merchants shipped them to Jiangsu and Zhejiang for sale.

In the past two years, due to the occupation of Malacca by China, Guangdong maritime merchants began to have the idea of ​​Indian cotton.

Guangdong maritime merchants set up a station in Malacca, and first went to Hooghly Port to buy cotton.The maritime trade business here is jointly occupied by the Netherlands and the United Kingdom (mainly the Netherlands, but the United Kingdom has the Mughal emperor's side).Local officials took bribes and refused to contact Chinese businessmen. Guangdong maritime merchants could only continue southward.

Finally, in the Tanjore country on the southeast coast, through the Portuguese, the merchants from Guangdong successfully bought the first batch of Indian cotton.

As the Chinese envoys went to Mughal, the Mughal emperor also agreed to Sino-Indian trade.Only then did Guangdong merchants successfully enter Hooghly Port, but the share of cotton was still small, mainly because it was snatched away by Dutch merchants.

"Why has the price of cotton increased again?"

Hooghly Harbor, a Chinese businessman, was complaining to his interpreter.

The translator explained: "Cotton sales are tight, and Britain and the Netherlands are also vying for it. Mughal merchants have no worries about selling, so they sit down and raise prices, and the Dutch are also angry about it."

The Chinese businessman is Chen Liangxi, from Xiangshan, Guangdong.He is only responsible for buying Indian cotton, and occasionally buying cotton yarn, which is unloaded when it arrives in Guangzhou, and then transferred to Jiangsu and Zhejiang by other merchants.

Chen Liangxi said angrily: "Even if the price is increased, it can't be increased by so much. It has increased by [-]% all of a sudden. When I ship it back to China, how can I make any money?"

The translator said: "Businessmen here never talk about credibility, as long as there is a bargain, they will make money to death."

After negotiating repeatedly for several days, Chen Liangxi finally bought cotton, but the price was so outrageous that the profit was already negligible.

Both Chinese and British merchants could not accept the high cotton price, but the Dutch actually agreed.

The Netherlands has a large number of ships going to Batavia from the Bay of Bengal every year.There are not many goods that can be sold, as long as there is a small profit, it is better than running an empty ship.Moreover, a price war can be fought to drive away the British and Chinese who trade here.It is not too late to lower the price after a monopoly is formed!

A businessman from the British East India Company took the initiative to find Chen Liangxi: "Chen, China is so powerful, Chinese businessmen should go to meet the emperor. Ask the emperor of China to send troops to drive the Dutch out of Batavia. In that way, you can be in India. By buying cheap cotton, we can also get more spices in Java."

Chen Liangxi said with emotion: "Your Majesty the Emperor of China is busy with government affairs, so why would he raise troops because of us businessmen?"

But the British businessman said: "The monarch of a country should open up markets for businessmen. I heard that the Chinese emperor is very wise and intelligent, and he will definitely help drive away the Dutch. Didn't China and the Netherlands fight a few wars a few years ago? You have occupied Malacca."

Chen Liangxi was thoughtful.

After returning to Guangzhou with cotton, Chen Liangxi went to find his employer.He is just an errand, the real boss, and it is impossible to go to India to buy goods in person.

"Boss, the Dutch colluded with Mughal officials and businessmen in Hooghly Harbor to raise the price of cotton and cotton yarn," Chen Liangxi said. "The Dutch were ambitious and wanted to monopolize the cotton trade. They will drive us away before lowering the price. Let them go." In this way, there is no need for Hooghly's business to run away, and he will not make much money after working hard."

The owner's name was Chen Chong, and he asked, "What do you think?"

Chen Liangxi said: "Connect with merchants in the south of the Yangtze River, and together we will send a letter to His Majesty. Please send troops to capture Batavia in one fell swoop. As long as the Netherlands loses Batavia, the Dutch will not be able to gain a foothold, and they will no longer be able to compete with us for business."

Chen Chong frowned and said, "This matter is not easy to handle. First, the merchants in the south of the Yangtze River may not want to join forces with us; second, the imperial court will probably not send troops because of this."

Chen Liangxi said: "The textile merchants in Jiangnan are often short of cotton. Especially after the recovery of Shandong, Shandong is also building textile factories, and the cotton sold in Shandong to Jiangnan is getting less and less. We help Jiangnan merchants buy Indian cotton. The most beneficial thing is They, why don't they want to help? As for the court, let's see what His Majesty will do."

Chen Chong thought about it, slapped his fist and said, "Then give it a try!"

Chapter 815 [One country and two genus]

Last year, the land administration was rectified, and the fields were cleared across the country. In ancient times, the land clearing was always accompanied by an inventory of the population.

Now, the Ministry of Household Affairs handed over a summary, and the population in the south is increasing too fast!

The last census was conducted five years ago. There were 8677 million people (over 12 years old) in the country, and now it has soared to 9915 million (including newly occupied areas such as Vietnam, excluding overseas territories such as Luzon).

The average annual population growth rate has been above 2.5%.

Jiangsu has the fastest population growth rate and has remained above 2.9% for a long time. The population of the province has exceeded 900 million. Nanjing is surrounded by Jinling Prefecture, which is directly administered by the central government and is not under the jurisdiction of Jiangsu.However, Shanghai and its surrounding areas are under the jurisdiction of Jiangsu Province.

Taking into account the urban population without land, Jiangsu farmers have about 8 mu of arable land per capita.

It seems that there is a lot of arable land per capita, but it includes a lot of coastal saline land.Moreover, there are many rich families in Jiangsu. As long as they hand over their land properties honestly, each person can keep 20 acres of good land. This 20 acres of good land per capita can be converted into more bad land.Therefore, the per capita arable land of ordinary farmers must be less than 8 mu.

Furthermore, because children do not register for household registration until they are 12 years old, farmers have a lot of children in their families.If children are included, the per capita arable land of ordinary farmers in Jiangsu is very likely to be less than 5 mu.

The Jiangxi side is even more terrifying. Since Zhao Han ruled the earliest and escaped the great famine in the late Ming Dynasty, the population did not drop as sharply as the Jiangnan side. Although they continued to migrate to the north, the current population has exceeded 1000 million.On paper, the per capita arable land area of ​​farmers is less than 6 mu (excluding children under the age of 12), which also includes a large amount of mountainous land.

In addition, there are many nobles in Jiangxi, such as Fei Ruhe and Zhang Tieniu, the land granted by military merit has exceeded the limit of 100 mu per capita, and a large number of soldiers have also been granted land due to meritorious service.In some families with many children in Jiangxi, after the children are 12 years old and registered, the per capita arable land in the family is less than 3 mu.

Jiangxi has many mountains and little land, how much food can be grown in a few acres of mountain land?

The people in those mountainous areas still eat sweet potatoes and corn as their staple food, and they can't afford rice at all.The more children you have, the more difficult life is for a farmer.

More and more farmers in Jiangxi, because of their limited land resources, are scrambling to farm the land of nobles and rich families.In recent years, the nobles who have given more land and the rich families who have reserved more land no longer need to buy foreign slaves to farm the land.There are also many young farmers who came out of the mountains, handed over the land to their father and brother for cultivation, and went to work in the county town by themselves.

Fujian is even worse, with less arable land but a growing population.

With only a few acres of land per capita and most of the land is mountainous, more and more farmers in the coastal areas of Fujian go to sea to run boats.But they are unwilling to immigrate, even the nearest Taiwan, they do not want to migrate there, and always keep their household registration on the mainland.

Taiwan is currently under the jurisdiction of Fujian. In addition to Taiwan Island, Ryukyu County and Fangzhang County established in Ryukyu are also under the jurisdiction of Taiwan.

Zhao Han said to Guo Shunyu, Minister of the Ministry of Household Affairs: "Immigrants to the north were suspended last time, but the south still cannot stop. There are too few Han people in Taiwan, especially in Ryukyu and Fangzhang counties. The total number of Han people in the two counties is only more than 3. Fujian and Guangdong provinces will immigrate 5 people to Taiwan within three years."

"Follow the order!" Guo Shunyu cupped his hands.

Zhao Han thought for a while, then continued: "Jiangxi has too many people, 1 people immigrate to Hebei every year."

Zhao Han still takes good care of the people in Jiangxi. After all, it is the land of Longxing, and he can't bear to immigrate to the remote and cold Liaoning.

Hebei is an excellent place to immigrate. The current population of the province is only 180 million (excluding Beiping Prefecture).Although it is relatively cold, the fields can be divided when you go there, and they are all divided into good fields, which is much more cost-effective than farming mountainous land in Jiangxi.

If this growth rate continues, in five years, the population of the whole country will be close to 1 million.In another 2 years, the per capita arable land area in several southern provinces with large populations will fall below 20 mu.In another 4 years, the conflict between man and land will become very tense.

But for overseas expansion and industrial development, it is a good thing.

The more tense the conflict between man and land, the more people are willing to go out to sea, and the more people are willing to leave the land and work in factories.

But to a certain extent, it will definitely explode.

In the history of the Qing Dynasty, the population was counted in the eighth year of Shunzhi, that is, the first two years.At that time, the population of Dingkou was 1000 million, and it can be speculated that the population was about 3000 million to 4000 million.Only 50 years later, the population of the Qing Dynasty had risen to 8000 million.Another 50 years later, the population of the Qing Dynasty soared to 1 million.Another 8 years later, the population exceeded 20 million.

A population of 2 million is estimated to be the limit of the sweet potato prosperity, and uprisings of various scales will continue to emerge.

Of course, the population can continue to increase, and the population reached more than 4 million in the late Qing Dynasty.Beggars gather together, refugees are everywhere, the people are generally malnourished, and there will be famine everywhere in case of natural disasters. The average life expectancy of the people is only more than 30 years old.

Under Zhao Han's rule, there are now close to 1 million people, which is probably the level of the early years of Yongzheng.Because the fields have been widely divided, the common people can live a decent life, even if the remote mountain people eat corn and sweet potato porridge, they can still eat three meals a day.However, because of frugality, only during the busy farming season are they willing to eat three meals.

Except for those who encountered family accidents, such as illness, almost every farmer in the Datong New Dynasty had surplus grain storage.

Every family has surplus food, in the eyes of traditional scholar-officials, it is already a manifestation of peace and prosperity.

So Song Yingxing said: "Your Majesty, why should you worry about the population? There has never been a dynasty like ours. In the 12 years since the founding of the country, the population has billions of trillions, and the people have enough food and clothing. In terms of this alone, it has surpassed the prosperity of the Han and Tang Dynasties. Only when the population is prosperous can all industries prosper. For example, the population of Jiangnan has not yet recovered to that of the pre-Ming Dynasty. The population of Hebei is even less than 200 million, and there is plenty of land for the people to cultivate."

"That's true." Zhao Han looked past the officials and looked further south. "The land in Nanyang is fertile. Wait for the Han people to reclaim it. Only when the population is prosperous will there be room for it."

"Your Majesty, there is military information to report!"

Military reports from all over the country, in addition to being sent to the cabinet, the Ministry of War, and the Governor's Mansion, must be sent to the emperor as soon as possible.

It was not an urgent military situation. After Zhao Han read it, he said to the cabinet ministers: "The news from Nanyang is that the Netherlands is aggressively expanding and taking away three Portuguese ports in one go. Ceylon (Sri Lanka) has already been completely owned by the Netherlands."

Hearing that it was news from Ceylon, the officials didn't take it seriously.

Although Zhao Han vigorously popularized the concept of globalization, officials knew where Ceylon was.But in such a far place, who the hell pays attention to it? It is already next to India, and they might still care about Nanyang.

Zhao Han said with emotion: "Portugal has really declined too much. The Netherlands has been greatly weakened by our army, and they can take away three ports in Portugal within half a year."

However, it was precisely because of being beaten up by China that the Netherlands wanted to find compensation elsewhere.

The Netherlands seized Portugal's Sri Lanka colony three years earlier than in history.The Netherlands has lost too much interest in Nanyang, even Malacca, and must find new profit growth points.

China is not easy to provoke, so go bully Portugal!

Sri Lanka is rich in spices and gemstones, and taking it there can make up for the loss.

……

Batavia.

The governor of the Netherlands, Carl Rainiers, is already satisfied at the moment.

The previous governor lost cities and territories, but he was able to capture three ports.

Today, on the entire east coast of India, only the port of Nagapatam is still in the hands of Portugal, and the rest of the colonial ports belong to the Netherlands.It's a pity that there are more than 300 Portuguese defenders in Naga Patam Port, and the castle is extremely strong. It will take at least a year to siege the city to conquer it.

With a big win in Sri Lanka, Carl Rainiers is getting more and more disliked.A small city-state, sent 300 troops to fight last year, but the great Dutch East India Company actually lost.

Although more than 300 of the 200 troops were Javanese servants, it was still an ugly loss.

Karl Rainiers held a meeting and said to the MPs: "The Manpawa (Nambawa) Sultanate must be defeated. One is to deter the sultans of Kalimantan, and the other is to boost our failure last time. Morale, the third is to seize the gold mines there. I heard that the gold mines there are rich ore, and they can be turned into gold without much refining."

It is estimated that it was the confidence brought about by the victory of the war. A congressman agreed: "I support Your Excellency the Governor. After the Manpawa Sultanate is occupied, we should also attack the Sukadana Sultanate. Mataram is our vassal state. Kadana is also a vassal state of Matalan, so it is tantamount to our vassal state. But this Sukadana, taking advantage of the civil strife in Matalan, declared independence and no longer listens to us!"

The Sukardana Sultanate is located in the southwest corner of Kalimantan Island, 280 miles south of Pontianak. Later generations only left a name of "Sukardana Bay".

The Dutch East India Company was really poor and crazy. Facing China, they not only failed militarily, but also lost a lot of business.It is not enough to make amends in Portugal, even the Nanbawa gold mine is not let go, and now it is eyeing the Sukardana Sultanate.

When Zhao Han received the military information, the Dutch warships and troops had already returned from Sri Lanka.

After a little modification, the army was dispatched, and the front of the soldiers pointed directly at Nanbawa.