New Shun 1730

Zhao Liben, who came to Ceylon with Quan Zheshen to look for his younger brother, certainly could not have his younger brother among the rebels who were conferring land.

Because... Dashun has no money, and does not have enough state-owned land, so it uses the Tang Dynasty-style equalization of land between the government and soldiers.

Most of the rebels were people who were forcibly relocated to Ceylon in the early stage. Because Dashun drove away the Dutch, these relocated Chinese must be treated well in order to gain their support and love for the court.

Those who participated in the uprising in Batavia were basically dispersed and dispersed into professional field troops.

Zhao Liben's younger brother was a contract "long-term worker" sent by a "labor dispatch company" and had no chance to participate in the equalization of land.

However, Liu Yu's policy is to use the state-owned land and the exclusive monopoly authorization of gems, betel nut, cinnamon pearls, to force the Chinese capital that invests here to hire Chinese as long-term workers. This has a rigid target.

Although capital prefers cheap Tamils, under the monopoly authorization, it has to accept the conditions offered by Liu Yu.

Without him, it really makes money.

If you don’t want to do it, there will be people rushing to do it.

As for those short-term jobs, there is really nothing you can do. Seasonal agriculture is destined to have busy seasons. When it is busy, it will be too busy without hiring day laborers; but when it is not busy, if a large number of Dashun people come here, what will they do when they are not busy?

This place is different from Songjiang.

The "idle people" in the Songjiang area live in different seasons.

Plant cotton, pick cotton, and cut grass; when the monsoon comes, you can do work and transport on the dock; in winter, you can build rivers.

Generally speaking, idlers cannot dig rivers at the turn of winter and spring; but during this period when the monsoon has not arrived and cargo ships are not arriving, they are prone to starvation without work.

The rest of the time, it's generally just fine. They formed gangs to fight on the pier, and those who lost went to dig the river. Those who won monopolized the work on the pier during the off-season. Overall, it was okay. The intensity of gang fights and underground religious fights wasn't too high. After all, there were other things to do.

But this requires a high amount of capital to operate and spread industries, and Ceylon does not have such vitality.

Since Quan Zheshen had a chance meeting with Zhao Liben, he also wanted to follow Zhao Liben to see what Ceylon was like, so he naturally followed Zhao Liben on the journey to find his younger brother.

According to the records of Yaxing, of course, it is better to call it a labor dispatch company, you can find it here. First, it was built in the fortress for half a year, and then it was arranged to the plantation.

Quan Zheshen followed Zhao Liben to a privately run plantation.

On the way to Ceylon, he had seen many plantations and really believed Liu Yu's words: In fact, the world's food is enough.

Compared with plantations elsewhere in Southeast Asia, plantations in Ceylon are relatively monotonous.

It is strictly forbidden to grow tea in Ceylon in Dashun. Once discovered, you will be punished.

It’s not possible to grow sugar cane. Sugar is cheap enough in Bangladesh and it’s not profitable to grow sugar cane here.

Just plant some coffee, coconuts, rice, etc.

Coconuts are mainly used to extract oil and use coconut protein to maintain the protein needs of some of the island's population.

The rice is not prepared for the Dashun market. Because of the long distance, there is no market for Ceylon rice in Dashun. It is mainly prepared for the island.

Because of the previous hundred years of colonization, war, and religious terror, Ceylon's agricultural economy was basically destroyed.

This became an important reason that restricted the development of the Netherlands in Ceylon.

After Dashun arrived here, Emperor Dashun really did not expect to collect land tax from this small part of Ceylon. The main taxes were cinnamon, betel nut, gemstones, and pearls.

Therefore, to develop these industries, a lack of population is definitely not enough.

People who do these non-agricultural productions need to eat.

Therefore, the rice planting industry is also profitable here, and the profits are really not low.

As for coconuts and coffee, there is really nothing to grow. Fortunately, Dashun has planted many oil crops in some plantations in Nanyang, so Dashun's oil pressing industry is considered to be unique in the world at this time. After coconut planting, oil extraction, oil residue fermentation, coconut protein as feed, etc. It is also a relatively suitable industry.

Because coconut oil has a relatively high saponification value, the coconut oil here is used as a raw material for industrial products.

Dashun now monopolizes the high-end cosmetics market in Europe. There is a saying in the military song in Europe: "The king of France, Moss, pays for the army, how can we be like our moon and moon?" In Europe, it is now popular for men to have oily hair, and for women to wear Dashun's straw hats from North China. Dashun coconut oil and spiced hair oil are also a type of cosmetics. It cannot be said that only those used by women can be called cosmetics.

As well as derived glycerin skin care products, coconut oil soft soap, etc. - mainly paired with some small porcelain bottles, so they appear high-end, because porcelain itself is high-end in Europe.

The market is very easy to open, for example, Madame Pompadour, if you give her thirty or fifty pounds first, she will naturally lead the women in the aristocratic circle to apply.

The industrial level of Dashun reflected in this is that the alkali production industry, which is closely related to the glass manufacturing industry, has made a breakthrough and achieved primary industrial production.

Although the production method of breaking the urn and breaking the vat is very poor, it cannot be said that this is not preliminary industrial production. Only by making preliminary acid can we make alkali, which can lead to the take-off of the glass manufacturing industry. By the way, soap glycerin and other industries have also developed together, because we can knead out the noodle alkali, and there is no place where there is a poem "Song of Lime". It can't even be made into caustic soda.

These industries, in turn, led to the development of the oil pressing industry and oil plantations.

The byproducts of alkali production also boosted the Dashun printing and dyeing, textile and other industries, because the byproducts of this old and stupid alkali production method can be bleached.

In short, the technology is crude, it seems ridiculous, the means are primitive, and the methods are used in a local way, but this is what early industrialization looks like.

The technology is crude, but it can make profits, and then the industry can be upgraded and the technological advantage can be maintained.

And these early industrializations, as well as the overseas markets that Dashun took the initiative to open up, made Ceylon valuable for capital investment.

Otherwise, since Dashun was not allowed to grow tea, capital would not invest here except for gems and cinnamon.

If capital does not invest, there will be no money for immigration. The court is reluctant to spend the money, and in the end it must have foolishly chosen to let the Tamils ​​settle down and add sand to the Sinhalese because it is cheap.

The current situation is generally more favorable to the Chinese. The development of plantations, in turn, promoted agriculture. Over the years, the number of Han Chinese who have taken root in Ceylon has reached nearly 200,000. Although the number of people can double if Dashun relaxes tea restrictions and allows tea to be grown overseas, Dashun will not do so unless it is stupid.

Just like the Dutch, who are in tears for their national past, do not welcome the Dutch to come to the Dutch colony. The Dashun Export Group, who loves the motherland, and His Majesty, the Emperor of Dashun, who is so rich in taxes on tea exports that his hands cramp, will never allow a single tea leaf to go to Ceylon, which they cannot control, and would rather the number of Han Chinese in Ceylon does not grow so fast.

But no matter what, under equilibrium, the number of Han Chinese in Ceylon is still increasing.

Among them, the coconut plantation industry is profitable and has made great contributions. A large number of contract "long-term workers" were sent here. After all, Dashun has no slaves, so they cannot be called contract slaves.

The entire industrial chain of coconut oil now seems to be a "high-end industry" and a high-profit industry. A broken porcelain bottle, add some coconut oil and soap, add some plant flower essence, and the francs you get in exchange for coconuts can probably fill up a thatched house.

However, the high-end industry at this time is often presented in a very low-end appearance.

For example, when Quan Zheshen and Zhao Liben entered the plantation, the scene that came into their eyes was a group of dirty, black people, barefoot, sitting on the ground.

Holding a knife in his hand, there was a thick layer of coconut meat piled next to him. From time to time, a handful of coconut meat was thrown over, which immediately aroused a buzzing sound of flies.

Several hired workers threw the dug coconut meat into a series of rolling pots next to them. Several sweaty people stood by and stirred it with big sticks, and some people used some strange tools to skim the oil on it.

There are both Han people and southern barbarians in Quan Zheshen's eyes who work here. He can't tell who these southern barbarians are.

In fact, in this plantation alone, many non-Han people working there are Sinhalese.

The reason is actually very simple, it is caused by the invasion of Dashun's commercial capital.

Originally, these Sinhalese people had a good life. They used to make coconut flower wine - coconut juice cannot be used to make wine, because it contains oil, and if it is not brewed well, it is easy to be poisoned to death - the juice in the coconut flower can be used to make wine.

Before Dashun arrived, this was also considered a specialty product of Ceylon, with good sales and a good life.

With the arrival of Dashun's commercial capital, three things changed.

The first thing: coconut flowers can no longer produce coconuts if they are rubbed into wine, and coconuts with high saponification values ​​are an important raw material for Dashun's export of cosmetics to Europe because of their special oil color. The price of coconuts gradually increased, and the price of coconut flowers was of course high.

The second thing: a large amount of Javanese sugarcane wine poured into Ceylon.

The third thing: The Ceylon Governor's Office imposed taxes on coconut flower wine, but exempted Javanese sugarcane wine from tax.

Three very simple things.

A very simple ending. Within a few years, Ceylon's specialty coconut wine industry collapsed, and a large number of small wine producers went bankrupt. The original coconut wine brewers could only go to Dashun's plantations to pick coconuts and squeeze coconut oil.

Coconut wine is just a microcosm of Dashun's series of activities in Ceylon.

Quan Zheshen certainly couldn't understand this dynamic world. Looking at this busy scene, he thought: "Xingguo Gong is not lying to me. Slaves can be turned into hired workers and idle people. As long as industry and commerce develop, they can be exchanged for enough rice, which may not be a bad thing. Their plantations don't grow rice, just like cotton in northern Jiangsu, but they are not without food."

"As long as there is enough official land, it is entirely possible to let those good people follow the system of frontier soldiers and abolish the low status of slaves and make them hired workers and idle people. It seems feasible so far."