Chapter 185: South American souvenirs

At the end of July, the newly completed South Rio Grand Ocean Shipping Company's fleet arrived in Southeast Asia, with the first stop at the Natuna Islands.
The shipping company has more than 150 ocean-going vessels with a displacement of more than 500 tons. Since the first voyage only needs to carry more than 10,000 Southeast Asian Chinese, about one-third of the vessels came this time, about 50.
With the establishment of an ocean shipping company, the task of the fleet is not just as simple as transporting immigrants. In the route between the South American continent and Asia, it is also an important task to carry goods for sale.
South America is rich in plant and animal resources. High-yield crops such as corn, soybeans, sweet potatoes, and potatoes were spread by European colonists to Asia and other places, increasing local food production and supporting more people.
Cocoa, mahogany, sandalwood, mahogany, balsam, snake mulberry, cinnamon, cinchona and other medicinal plants have not been widely spread like sweet potatoes due to their critical living environment, and their origin is limited to the Americas In the mainland, the production is limited, the price has been high, and there is a lot of profit margins. Therefore, in addition to the living materials and weapons and equipment stored in the fleet, the remaining space is full of preliminary processed plant medicines, cocoa, and some selected golden chickens. Accept tree seeds.
After the fleet arrived in Southeast Asia, the cocoa and medicinal materials were quickly sold in batches to the kings and merchants of the Malay Peninsula, Thailand, Annan and other places at high prices. The seeds of the cinchona tree were collected by more than ten South American states. The Indians planted in suitable locations in the Natuna Islands.
Cinchona trees are suitable for living in humid and rainy regions. Later generations of southern Yunnan Province, Taiwan Island, Indonesia, and Malaya are the main producing areas of cinchona trees except South America.
Southeast Asia has a tropical rain forest climate. The natural environment is similar to that of most parts of South America. The Cinchona tree is planted by the fleet on the one hand in consideration of natural factors, on the other hand, in order to obtain greater profits.
In 1850, the British extracted the dysentery drug quinine from the cinchona tree, which solved the greatest threat to colonial life in the tropics.
After the invention of Quinine, European colonists began to gradually expand their sphere of influence in Southeast Asia and Africa, Annan, Myanmar, Malaya, and the East Indies gradually fell, and European colonists became more and more powerful in controlling Southeast Asia.
The invention of quinine was of great significance to European colonists, but in 1869, about 19 years before the invention of quinine, due to the limited source of cinchona tree, the manufacturing cost of quinine had not been effectively reduced, limiting the Large-scale use.
The second half of the 19th century was a historical stage of rapid changes in science and technology. Raw materials such as rubber, cinchona and other industrial and pharmaceutical industries discovered from South America in the following decades. With the improvement of science and technology, the output increased rapidly. In the past ten years or so, rubber and cinchona trees had the opportunity to maintain high prices and rely on the monopoly position of South America to obtain huge profits.
Europeans have mastered the production process of quinine drugs. The reason why they have not introduced large-scale cinchona trees to other regions is mainly because they did not choose a suitable place to plant transplanted seedlings, and this limitation has gradually been explored as they experiment. It can be solved in a few years. Therefore, with the knowledge of later generations, Li Mingyuan firstly transplanted the cinchona tree in the Natuna Islands, and could gain the opportunity to use the raw materials from the nearest place to gain profits in this region with a large market in Asia.
Selling South American souvenirs at a high price has obtained unprofitable profits. After discussion with the ship's head and Sun Bin, most of the sales profits were left as the cost of immigration, and the remaining part was used to purchase and solicit Chinese artisans who lived in various parts of Nanyang. .
During the war years, the people in the Central Plains moved collectively and moved. For example, when Henan suffered a famine, the local people habitually fled to Gansu and Shaanxi, Shandong residents flocked to the northeast, and refugees from Hebei and Shanxi fled to nomads. Hetao Plain and Mongolian steppe.
The northern Han people's flight to the grasslands in the north brought the nomadic people with much-needed technical talents. Then the nomadic people relied on the fleeing Chinese artisans to develop the military manufacturing system, and strengthened their own strength to initiate the invasion of the Central Plains. Internal troubles caused by chaos in the chaos led to external troubles. Most foreign invasions came from this.
Compared with the North, the south is rampant. Because the indigenous peoples of Southeast Asia are rich in the natural environment, they are not as aggressive as the northern nomads. The Han people who fled to Southeast Asia quickly integrated into the area, and have less impact on the Central Plains.
Rio Grande do Sul is a long way from Asia. At the beginning, the Chinese who voluntarily or involuntarily traveled to South America were at the bottom of the society. Except for a few anti-Qing Yi soldiers, they had preliminary knowledge, and there were very few traditional craftsmen among ordinary people.
The development of Rio Grande do Sul has entered a formal state. In terms of industry, since the industry was in the early stage of rapid development in the second half of the twentieth century, under the guidance of Prussian skilled workers, Chinese apprentices can start from scratch. In traditional Chinese industries, such as tea making, , Refining porcelain, building Chinese-style wooden buildings, etc. need skilled artisans with more than three or four years of experience. Without the guidance of a master, it is difficult for ordinary people to master related skills in a short time.
The development of industry will eliminate most of the technology companies in the feudal period. When Prussian experts and technicians helped South Rio Grande to build factories and facilities, Li Mingyuan was not very concerned about the lack of talents in the traditional Chinese industry. Industrial products have little contact with traditional industries in daily life.
At this time, the Hans were forced to change their clothes and clothing under the rule of the Manchu dynasty, while maintaining their traditional habits in daily life.
When Li Mingyuan inspected the construction in Rio Grande do Sul, many Chinese families who had just settled out of their homes were often withdrawn from the temporarily built collective wooden houses. Five or six familiar Chinese retired soldiers formed a construction team to help each other on their land. Transport timber and build humble Chinese-style wooden houses.
In Rio Grande do Sul, there are local Brazilians who left brick kilns and western-style houses built with bricks and crushed stones ~ EbookFREE.me ~ Li Mingyuan was a bit strange why they did n’t live in the house they were assigned to. Most Chinese are dissatisfied with the western-style brick houses left by the Brazilians. They think that western-style houses are not only uncomfortable but also look ugly. They are not as airy and beautiful as Chinese-style wooden houses. So even if they were assigned a western-style brick house, they wanted to build a Chinese-style wooden house suitable for living.
The inertia of traditional culture has a great impact on the Chinese. There are many things similar to the construction of Chinese-style wooden houses in Rio Grande do Sul. Wang Pu and the officials in charge of Southern Rio Grande have also made similar suggestions to Li Mingyuan many times. Relocate some Chinese artisans to solve the inconvenience of the Chinese living in Rio Grande do Sul. As a result, the ocean-going fleet has added a new task in addition to completing its established immigration task.
Annan is a place where Nanyang Chinese live in large numbers, and there are many artisans among more than 300,000 Chinese. Sun Bin accepted the task to select a group of Chinese artisans from Annan as the first Nanyang immigrants, and sent his men to Hong Kong as Annan Chinese merchants. , Macao, Shanghai and other European concessions to recruit craftsmen. ...
The fleet stayed in Nanyang for half a month. After receiving 11,000 ordinary immigrants and 1,000 craftsmen, the fleet set off in mid-August to return to South America, while Sun Bin continued to be responsible for the subsequent task of recruiting Chinese artisans. Find this site Please search for "" or enter the URL: