On June 7, 1693, Jiaohe Port was ushering in the best time of the year.

In this world, the weather is not very hot and the air humidity is not that scary. Even on relatively low-altitude coastlines, the temperature is not too high due to the sea breeze, which is very suitable for people to carry out various activities.

Today there is another cargo ship returning from the other side of the Atlantic Ocean. This merchant ship belonging to the South China Sea Transportation Company brought back a large amount of sorghum, salted fish, wine, dried fruit and other re-export trade goods from South Africa. Especially when they docked in the free port of Cape Town, they purchased many specialties from the Far East and India. After returning to the local area, they undoubtedly gained great profits. This is nothing more than a joyful atmosphere on the ship from top to bottom. Even though the South African transport company is a state-owned enterprise and the profit is largely owned by the company, everyone on the ship can get a considerable commission, which is actually quite a lot.

However, such good days are one day or two. It is said that after changing to a fully steam-powered ship, the management will become stricter. Not only will the commission of the crew be carefully calculated (generally this means a decrease), but the amount of cargo entrained on the ship will be strictly limited. Especially the latter, it is simply a waste of everyone! Isn’t it just to make a fortune in sailing these days? In various ways to make money, crew members carry their own cargo to other ports for sale, which is actually an important part of the crew’s income. If strict management is required, the crew’s income will be greatly affected, and no wonder the opposition is so loud.

However, as the ships become larger and larger and the maturity of all-steam-powered ships, the safety of ocean-going ships has increased greatly. In this case, many people who were unwilling to work on ocean-going ships due to safety issues have also become more and more active. They have begun to be interested in the high wages of crew members, and the base of reserve crew members is gradually expanding, and the bargaining power of active crew members will undoubtedly weaken a lot. Only in this case can shipping companies vigorously rectify the order on the ship and regulate various behaviors of crew members, such as the cargo carried by crew members cannot exceed the specified box size, etc., in order to increase the revenue and profits of shipping companies.

Jiaohe Port is the first stop for the African continent to enter the east coast in the sailing era, and has always been a very important port. Ships from South Africa, New China, Angola, New Courland and other places, if they do not want to dock at the Brazilian port after crossing the Atlantic Ocean, they will only enter Jiaohe Port to stay.

Of course, there are not many ships docked in Portugal Brazil. The population here is small - "people" only refer to white people who believe in Catholicism, other Indians, and mixed-race people obviously do not count - consumption capacity is low, and when you return, you may be interested in purchasing some tropical products here, but it is difficult to come from the African continent. Generally speaking, you will dock at Jiaohe Port. At the northeast gateway of this East Coast Republic, there are advanced port facilities, a complete commercial logistics system, excellent maintenance services, and sufficient supplies. Most importantly, there are enough people here and strong consumption capacity. How to choose is clear at a glance.

Jiaohe Port has now opened regular flights to the African continent. This flight departs from Jiaohe Port, heading north to San Salvador, the capital of Portugal Brazil, and then goes eastward, crossing the entire Atlantic Ocean, and then docking at Jacob, the capital of New Courland. Here, the ship will stay for about five days (if there is no need for overhaul) for everyone to rest and purchase goods. After five days, the ship will set sail again and head south to Luanda, the capital of Angola, and stay here for three days. After three days, the ship will no longer visit any ports on the African continent, but will cross the Atlantic Ocean again and return to Jiaohe Port directly.

It can be seen that this is a flight connecting Jiaohe Port with Portugal Brazil, New Courland and Angola, which is basically passenger-cargo transportation, with more cargo than passengers. The economic value is still acceptable, because the weapons and ammunition, daily necessities, hardware and equipment produced on the east coast are urgently needed by San Salvador, Jacob, and Luanda, and the sales are very good. In addition, the above three places - especially the two ports in Africa - due to the east coast policy, there are also goods including precious wood, herbs, tobacco, sea goods and other tropical specialties, which are exported. Therefore, the ships will not run away when returning, and the utilization rate is quite high.

In principle, this flight is once every three months. It was designed to accurately calculate the flow of people and cargo between the two places. I thought at the beginning, it was set to be a monthly flight, but it was found that there were not so many people on it. After all, there were many sailboats crossing the Atlantic Ocean, and they were also grabbing business. Therefore, after negotiations with the Jiaohe Regional Administration and the South China Sea Transportation Company, they allocated two fully steam-powered ships of more than 1,000 tons to come and traveled to Africa routes once a month. Of course, it was not two ships running together, but one ship ran a short distance between Jiaohe and Hue. Sometimes the two ships would also perform some military tasks and transport some materials to the river center of South Africa, but basically it would not affect the operation of regular flights.

The connection between Jiaohe region and Portuguese Brazil and the other side of Africa is basically their main economic activities. There is no way, their geographical location is a bit awkward, too far away from the core area of ​​the East Coast. In the case of the economy of the Eastern Brazilian part, they have no choice but to develop externally through re-export trade to obtain large amounts of funds for the development of the region. This is the helplessness of marginalized areas and the biggest difficulty in their development.

Jiaohe area has not thought about other development paths, and expanding to inland areas is one of them. For this reason, they also spent a lot of money to organize militia, the army of Zhongguo, the army of Baoguo, and other mercenaries to clear out the indigenous people in the inland areas, and then set up multiple settlements, namely: Liuchen Township, located near the town of Brainian in the later generations, Luchen Township, located near the town of Rio Dupladu in the later generations, Pizhan Township, located near the town of Batinga in the later generations, Hongyan Township, located near the town of Crisolita in the later generations, and located in later generations.

Ruoqiang Township near the small town of Teofelu Ottoni is located in Jianlong Township near the town of Carlos Shagas in later generations, Ushi Township near the town of New Oricante, Kuche Township near the city of Varadaris in later generations, Dagan Township near the city of Pena, Ash Township near the town of Ipatinga in later generations, Futu Township near the city of Manuasu in later generations, and Guole Township near the town of Munis Freri in later generations. There are a total of twelve settlements, and more than 20,000 immigrants have been placed in front and behind to operate.

Twenty thousand people are really not a small number for a remote Jiaohe area. Considering that the focus of population distribution is now in Pampa and in the newly obtained land of La Plata, then 20,000 people are almost the sum of new immigrants assigned to the Jiaohe area in several years. Therefore, if you invest such a sum, it is indeed a bold move, but the effect does not look very good.

The twelve new settlements are currently mainly based on agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry and fishery, and are entangled with the Indians in the forests of the inland areas, and their lives are very difficult. The Jiaohe Regional Administration even needs to provide large financial subsidies every year to barely maintain the existence and small development of these settlements. In other words, these twelve new settlements have almost become a heavy burden for the four counties and nineteen towns (towns) in the region, causing their own development process to be severely slowed down, which seems to be a bit unworthy of the gains.

The previous regional administration commissioner who made the decision to develop inland had patted his butt and returned to the Central Ministry to serve, but the remaining pit has to be filled in by the new leadership team. They had no good solutions, so they could only continue to subsidize and hope that they could be self-sufficient as soon as possible while trying to find other development directions. Strengthening trade ties with Portuguese Brazil and Africa across the sea seems to be the general direction they have set at present.

This seems very good. At a time when all-steam powered ships have begun to appear more and more, crossing the Atlantic Ocean is no longer a game of brave people, and it is no longer necessary to say that the improvement of transportation efficiency will be improved. In this way, a larger trade spark should be bursting between the two continents whose sense of space is closer. As an early pioneer in this direction, it seems natural for Jiaohe area to obtain one of the largest cakes.

But things in the world are never that simple! Due to its own population and economic scale, Courland and Portugal doomed to make much noise in New Courland and Angola. Especially the Principality of Courland, which has only a few hundred thousand people in the country. Even if they try their best to immigrate, they cannot make huge developments in the population and economy of the colonial towns of New Courland in the short term. What is even more worrying is that the situation in Central and Eastern Europe is now peaceful, and the people do not say that they live and work in peace, but at least they will not be able to survive. Therefore, people's tendency to immigrate has greatly weakened, which is very unfavorable for the Principality of Courland.

Therefore, after taking these factors into consideration, if you want to eat this big trade cake in big mouthfuls, the Jiaohe area seems to have to be a little patient, that is, wait for the other party to develop. Otherwise, you may not be able to gain too much profit. You will know from the current three months of steamboats crossing the Atlantic Ocean. When will it be changed to one flight per month or even a shorter cycle? This is the sign of the complete maturity of this trade route.

The leadership teams in Jiaohe area are not unaware of this. But they really have no choice. The expenses in the inland areas are too high, which forces them to turn their attention overseas. If the African continent is not good, they will build the Caribbean! Anyway, our Jiaohe Port is also the closest local port to the Caribbean. As all-steam powered ships become more popular, the route will be greatly shortened and it will become more advantageous.
Chapter completed!