(I want to hear more of your voices and receive more of your suggestions. Now search for the WeChat public account "dd" and follow it to give more support to "Traveling through 1630: The Rise of South America"!) "In the history of the Port of Araucan, I'm afraid it has never been as busy as this moment." This is the first sigh that Mr. Castelli, a senior engineer of the Ministry of Transport and an Italian immigrant, made after entering the city. The dock covers an active vast area (in March, the South Railway Company once again purchased a piece of land adjacent to the dock from the Araucan people to build a storage area), but it looks a little messy. A large number of Araucan workers, Ming immigrants and self-paid immigrants from Livornia were running back and forth on the dock, constantly transporting piles of goods to the rear yard through flatbed track trucks and freight carriages.

On the other side of the yard, a large group of black labor dispatch workers from Xaza, South Africa, were under the supervision of the foreman and worked hard to build rows of storage facilities, including tall and dry grain warehouses, as well as warehouses for high-end commodities such as sugar, cotton, tobacco, and cocoa. Of course, most of the goods on the yard are piled open-air, and this part is mainly metal ore, giant tropical logs (can be used as masts of ships) and a huge number of livestock - mainly cattle.

"Mr. Siteli (Chinese name on Castelli's ID card), welcome you. I am Liu Jianguo from the Engineering Department of Nantec Corporation. In the next period of time, I will accompany you to inspect Xingnan Highway and the terminal storage area. I hope the cooperation will be pleasant." Liu Jianguo is only 18 years old this year and is the eldest son of Liu Ang, the captain of the South African Development Team. He is currently working in Nantec Corporation. He is an engineering and technician. Of course, there is no doubt that he is not an ordinary technician. Not only because he has received a complete and systematic education and has knowledge beyond his peers, but also because his father and Mo Ming, the president of Nantec Corporation, are just wearing pairs of pants, so his prospects in Nantec Corporation are quite optimistic.

Mr. Si Taili, a civil engineering expert who accompanied the local government, inspected the Xingnan Highway, which had been built for more than half a year, which was Liu Jianguo's first task since he entered the company. The Xingnan Highway was fully completed in the second half of last year and then put into use. After that, since the road itself was just a low-level, temporary simple sand and soil highway (the total cost is less than 300,000 yuan, and the total length is more than 300 kilometers). Therefore, under the frequent crushing of various vehicles or machines such as heavy freight carriages, drum crushers, drum rollers, steam plows, etc., the road conditions are not very good at present. Many construction units have repeatedly complained to the Nanzhi Railway Company many times and warned that the road lacks necessary maintenance, which has affected the efficiency of their transportation materials to some extent, and this will undoubtedly affect the construction progress of the Liangyang Railway.

In the Southern Patagonia region, anything that can be related to the two-ocean railway is worthy of special attention from the company's senior management. Xingnan Highway obviously belongs to this list. With the vigorous development of smuggling trade between the East Coast Republic and Peru, a large amount of materials were transported from Luoqia Port to Xingnan Port by the South China Sea Transport Company's ships and then transferred to the Port of Araucan by land. In that port along the Pacific coast, these industrial products were once again loaded on the ships of the South China Railway Company.

Then, under the escort of naval warships, he followed the Humboldt cold current to the Maolin River to trade with the Spaniards, and finally returned to the Port of Araucan with Peruvian specialties and precious metals. In other words, as the scale of trade becomes larger and larger, the temporary road built for the construction of railways of Xingnan Highway is now becoming more and more important, carrying a transportation volume that is far beyond its compliance. It is no wonder that everyone complains about its poor road conditions, which is really beyond its load capacity.

Considering the huge financial subsidy effect of smuggling trade on the Nan Railway Company, the company's president Mo Ming began to seriously consider the possibility of renovating the highway, that is, whether to transform this simple temporary sandy road from the original cost of only 300,000 yuan into a high-grade permanent road. After all, the construction of the Liangyang Railway has been fully launched less than a year, and it is still early to open to traffic. The trade with Peru still depends on the Xingnan Highway.

Of course, some people may ask, why not use sea ships to transport industrial products to the Pacific Ocean in trade with Peru? Of course, this can be done, and it is quite convenient. However, considering the endless storms and waves in the waters near Cape Horn (even reaching seven or eight meters when they are high), it is too dangerous to take this route. At the end of November last year, the South China Sea Transportation Company sent five flute-shaped transport ships to Port Araucan to transport construction materials, but encountered big waves and the two ships unfortunately sank - these two ships are the eleventh and twelfth ships that have sunk due to non-combat factors in the East Coast sailing for so many years - this shows the danger of this route.

The same is true for the Magellan Strait, which must be passed by returning to the Atlantic Ocean from the Pacific Ocean. Rapids, swells, fog, strong winds, reefs and floating icebergs are all nightmares for the captains. Therefore, the current opinion given by the Ministry of Transport is that if you can sail from these two areas, you must try to avoid these two dangerous sea areas as much as possible, so as not to lose ships and precious sailors again. As for material transportation, except for some heavy materials such as building materials, rails, and grain, which are still transported by sea, all other things will be transported by land (for this reason, the Southern Railway Company has ordered a large number of heavy trucks from the local Southern Vehicle Factory in three batches), and this is obviously on the Xingnan Highway.

"The railway has not been built, and the highway obviously undertakes important transportation tasks." On June 20, Sitaili and Liu Jianguo, accompanied by more than ten followers, left the extremely noisy Port of Araukan, and took a truck and a dozen mules and horses to the east along the Xingnan Highway. The situation of each section of the Xingnan Highway was carefully inspected and recorded along the way.

"Now the smuggling trade with Peruvians is becoming more and more prosperous. Every month there are a large amount of materials that need to be transported back and forth between the two oceans. In the past, our company only had dozens of horse-drawn trucks with a load of 1.5 tons, which was responsible for material transportation. Now, the number of trucks in use has increased to more than 130, and the load capacity has generally increased to 2 tons, 2.5 tons or even 3 tons. It can be seen that the transportation task is so heavy." Liu Jianguo rode on the horse, carefully observing the degree of road damage, and responding to Sitaili's words: "Of course, this busy cargo transportation task is something that the whole company enjoys. After all, the smuggling trade has been carried out for eight months. Although the profits in the next few months are far less than those in the first two or three months, the total amount is not small, which is about 340,000 yuan. This is the net profit we obtained after trade with Peruvians; in addition, the company

A large amount of goods imported from Peru were resold back to the local area. You know, with the improvement of the living standards of local citizens and the increase in per capita disposable wealth, such as sugar, tobacco, cocoa, coffee, and high-quality leather, the sales volume of local products are quite good. This kind of goods that are directly targeted at the domestic demand of the people will never be without profits. Of course, the market demand for industrial and agricultural production such as sulfur, lead, tin, copper, tropical logs, animal fat (producing soap), bird droppings and other industrial and agricultural production materials is not small, and there is also great profit here. After all, our import price is not high. Well, Mr. Styli, you have a close relationship with the president of our company and are not an outsider, so it is okay to tell you. In the eight months since the smuggling trade started, we have made a total profit of about 500,000 yuan in Peru and the local areas, and have greatly promoted domestic industrial production. The Executive Committee and the State Council are quite satisfied with this."

Sitaili nodded when he heard this, and he also heard about it. Now with the proliferation of European mercantilist thoughts, trade barriers have begun to show great power, and business is quite difficult to do. Haven’t you seen that the transaction volume of commodities at the Qingdao Autumn Fair in May is far inferior to previous years? Do you have to insufficient domestic demand, structural surplus of industrial and agricultural production, and the economy of the East Coast Republic is currently driven by large-scale government infrastructure investment, but this is undoubtedly not a long-term solution. The Executive Committee’s official also saw this unhealthy economic dilemma. They are also eager to quickly adjust the domestic industrial production structure, expand domestic demand, and vigorously explore new external markets, in order to get out of the quagmire of weak exports as soon as possible and sweep away the previous decline. The Peruvian smuggling trade developed by the Nantie Company is an excellent opportunity, and everyone must not seize it.

"I made a huge profit of more than 500,000 yuan in eight months, and this is the beginning. I believe that as time goes by, as the market develops, the total profits here will become higher and higher, right? I used to hear that the trade profits they earn from the Caribbean Sea may not be much less than the silver dug by the Spanish Kingdom from Peru. The market here is really big." Stieri echoed, "but the task undertaken by the Nan Railway Company is also

It is extremely difficult. The total planned investment in the construction of two modern ports, Xingnan Port and Araucan Port, exceeded 5.5 million yuan; there are also the same huge investment in the Two Ocean Railway, Tierra Tierra logging farm and port, the development of Montenegro coal mines, the seafood processing center, Xingnan Highway, the construction of new settlements and the resettlement of new immigrants. These all require a lot of funds. Even if the investment is distributed to the next ten years, the annual funds consumed will still be an astronomical figure, which is really not easy."

"Who said no!" Liu Jianguo smiled helplessly at Sitaili and said, "We all have this awareness. Before the Liangyang Railway is officially opened, it is unlikely that Nantec Corporation will make a profit. Or to put it bluntly, I think before 1654, Nantec Corporation will lose for six consecutive years. This is probably the only one in China, haha! Of course, if the number of immigrants continues to increase and the Executive Committee gives us more support, two
Chapter completed!