Chapter 991 Overall Gap
What makes Van Diemen jealous the most is not the current booming trade situation between Haihan and Ming Dynasty, but Haihan's achievements in port infrastructure. When he first arrived in Sanya, he was amazed at the scale and level of construction of the local port terminals. However, at that time, he thought that since this place was the face of Haihan, he naturally had to do his best to make it beautiful so that it could impress foreign merchants. Good impression. But after visiting many ports on Hainan Island, Fan Diemen discovered that every port in Hainan has implemented standardized construction. Although the size varies, the port facilities, entry and exit procedures, and operating mechanisms etc. are completely consistent, which also shows the maturity of Haihan's business strategy in maritime trade.
In comparison, the East India Company's operating conditions in Nanyang are more like that of a grassroots team. Except for the port in Batavia, which is somewhat decent, the construction level of other places is not to mention compared with the ports on Hainan Island. Even Anbu It can't even be compared to Najia Island. This gap is not only caused by differences in financial investment, but also due to the East India Company's overall backwardness in overall planning, staffing, and engineering capabilities.
The gap in port construction and operation has an obvious impact on trade. The operating efficiency of Haihan Port is obviously much higher. Vessel entry and exit procedures, cargo loading and unloading, warehousing and even sales do not require too much effort from ship owners and cargo owners. They can make these arrangements without even getting off the ship, and the time saved can be used on the round trip. If you make more trips to Haihan's ports over the course of a year, the time saved in exchange for the profits will be considerable.
Although Van Diemen believes that region and race are the main reasons for the disparity in trade operations between the two sides, he also has to admit that from the perspective of merchants, Haihan Port, with its complete service facilities and unified management measures, is obviously Better choice. After the Haihan base in the Strait of Malacca is put into use, it is not difficult to imagine that the entire South China Sea, or the maritime trade situation between the East and the West, may undergo subtle changes as a result.
If Van Diemen had to find some faults to comfort himself, it would probably be the only shortcoming of Haihan's current maritime transport capacity which is relatively limited. In order to quickly expand its territory, Haihan put most of its resources into building ships for military purposes. Haihan's navy already has six "Dignity-class" main battleships, but in order to build these six large battleships and with them To support the numerous warships compiled, the Ministry of Shipping could only drastically reduce the number of civilian and commercial ships built. This makes Haihan currently very dependent on maritime transport capacity from other countries, especially Daming. More than 70% of the ships that travel between Hainan Island and Daming all year round do not belong to Haihan.
However, this shortcoming will not be able to limit Haihan for too long. During this inspection, Van Diemen saw shipyards under construction in Danzhou and Haikou. Judging from the speed at which Haihan builds military ships, civilian ships will only be launched from various shipyards more frequently in the next few years. Maybe in a year or two, a fleet of merchant ships flying the Haihan flag will appear on the waters of the Nanyang region.
During the last half-day of inspection in Haikou City, Ning Qi went to the new immigrant resettlement area east of the Nandu River. From 1631 to the present, nearly 20,000 new immigrants with Ming Dynasty as their main origin have been settled in this area. These immigrants were resettled in ten planned villages and towns, and their livelihood was mainly based on collective farms growing food crops.
The basic organization for implementing rural rule in the Ming Dynasty was the Lijia system. This system divided one hundred and ten households into one li. The ten households with the most Dingliang served as the lijia, and the remaining 100 households were organized into Shijia. The government assigned corvees in Lijia units, including collecting taxes and grains, transporting tribute materials, supporting government public use, etc. However, because this system does not select talented people to manage the grassroots, and does not have complete supervision measures, the village chiefs can use public power for private purposes and enrich their own pockets when arranging corvee labor. After the implementation of the One Whip Law in the middle of the Ming Dynasty, the original ten-year system of changing village leaders was gradually abandoned, and the control over farmers became weaker and weaker.
After Haihan took over this area, he did not follow the Lijia system of the Ming Dynasty, because the immigrants here were resettled with no foundation. Therefore, the civil affairs department actually adopted a commune system based on the village, that is, all production Information is publicized, and people's income mainly comes from wages earned from labor and food rations. The village committee cadres of each village are all appointed by the Haihan Ministry of Civil Affairs. They are subject to supervision while receiving royal food. Although they have a lot of power, they are suppressed by Haihan laws, which can have some influence on them. A little bit of a deterrent.
This organizational form of collective ownership is more suitable for agricultural society. Haihan tried to use the advantages of the system to achieve a cemetery that relies on agriculture to support workers, and rely on agricultural accumulation to achieve the foundation of industrialization. The benefits of this system are obvious. First of all, there is a ready-made model to follow. Haihan only needs to apply the successful experience gained in practice by his ancestors in that time and space. The management system and operation methods are very mature, and there is no need to Let’s do some long-term experiments and exploration. Secondly, this system can effectively organize farmers and use private productivity to build farmland water conservancy infrastructure on a large scale, saving Haihan the official investment it needs to make in agricultural development. The most important point is that the wealth produced by agricultural production can be effectively concentrated and officially invested in the more important military, industrial and other fields at the moment, so as to promote the rapid development of social productivity.
However, the Haihan-style commune system also learned from the lessons of its ancestors and did not blindly emphasize public ownership. It also provided a transition channel for immigrants who expected to abandon farming and engage in business or enter other industries to work, but there was a necessary prerequisite. It is necessary to first obtain Haihan’s native place. And if you don’t have any skills or choose to join the army, it will take at least a year to get the chance to naturalize just by doing simple manual labor in the countryside. Because resettlement areas like those near Haikou City have not been established for a long time, most of the immigrants are still in the observation period, and the proportion of naturalized residents has not yet reached more than half.
Of course, after development reaches a certain stage in the future, the collective ownership implemented in these places may once again become a shackles on productivity. At that time, timely changes will definitely be made in the grassroots organizational system, but the fastest will be the next generation. It’s a matter of people.
Van Diemen has a certain interest in the grassroots management system promoted by Haihan in the countryside. This is not only different from the common feudal lordship system in Europe, but also has obvious similarities with the rural social structure represented by the Ming Dynasty in the Far East that he knows. the difference. Judging from the state of the farmland infrastructure here, it is undoubtedly one of the most outstanding places he has ever seen in his life. There are tens of thousands of acres of cultivated land in several villages, and unified water conservancy projects are not small projects organized by farmers themselves. It can be done with a little fuss.
When the expedition team arrived, the place called Dagan Village was organizing people to dig irrigation canals leading to the Nandu River. Seeing hundreds of strong laborers sweating profusely in the wilderness, Fan Diemen seemed to understand what Ning Qi had just told him. What does "collective ownership" mean? It is true that infrastructure projects like this can only be organized by the government, and such infrastructure projects with low technical content may not be implemented in other countries for several generations - such as the previous rule of this country During the reign of the Ming Dynasty, which lasted for more than two hundred years, the government did not organize the construction of these water conservancy facilities as necessary projects.
"Why did you achieve it in only two years when it took Ming Dynasty hundreds of years to accomplish?" Fan Diemen took the initiative to seek an official answer from Ning Qi.
Ning Qi thought for a while before replying: "It's actually very simple, because we know what is the most correct way to do it." Van Diemen looked confused when he heard this, and had no idea what Ning Qi meant. Seeing the question mark expression on his face, Ning Qi continued to explain: "The systems and methods we use in governance are relatively mature practices that have been practiced by our predecessors and improved from generation to generation. Similar to We have all seen what Ming Dynasty did, or what you Westerners did, and we know what the final result will be, so we will not copy these wrong practices again.”
Van Diemen asked with some reluctance: "So what you are doing is the best way? These are all from your homeland east of the ocean?"
Ning Qi smiled and said, "Whether it is the best way, time will prove to everyone." As for the last question asked by Van Diemen, he ignored it intentionally or unintentionally.
In order to fool Ming people, the time travelers made up an origin of Haihan country "east of the ocean". This argument was okay to use to fool Ming people who had implemented a maritime ban for many years, but if they wanted to use the same statement to fool people who had already Western colonists who have set foot on major continents around the world can easily reveal their secrets. Therefore, in recent years, senior Haihan officials have rarely mentioned their origins outside the country.
Such an answer would naturally not satisfy Van Diemen, but after having dealt with Ning Qi for so long, he also knew the characteristics of this high-ranking Haihan official. The information he took the initiative to reveal was all for external publicity, but it was difficult for him to pass it. After further questioning, we found out more information from his mouth. Even when he drank too much at banquets arranged by local officials several times, he was still kept secret. No wonder he was given the task of receiving foreign affairs like this.
Due to time constraints, Ning Qi's inspection in the countryside could only be superficial. The source of the people in resettlement areas like those under Haihan was very complex, and it was unlikely that the people would really be as good as during the inspection. Even with such calm conditions, there must still be many unavoidable conflicts. However, from the perspective of production organization and infrastructure, the management effect of this area is quite good. Although it is not as good as that of old development zones like Yazhou, the social order and agricultural production are relatively stable. This is the most important thing for the Executive Committee. The important part.
After completing their inspection in Dagan Village that day, Ning Qi and his party boarded a boat directly on the bank of Nandu River and left, heading south along the east coast of Nan Island, and stayed overnight at Qinglan Port in Wenchang County. There are four other counties on the east coast of Hainan Island: Wenchang, Qionghai, Wanning, and Lingshui. However, these are agricultural counties and have not opened foreign trade ports. In addition, inspection teams from the Ministry of Agriculture have recently visited these counties. Ning Qi does not intend to stay on this frontline to guide the spring plowing work.
It was only over a hundred nautical miles from Qinglan Port to Sanya. Ning Qi calculated that the time for this trip was almost over, so he planned to fly directly to Sanya. After returning, he would have a few days to rest and prepare for the next big event. The two warships escorted from Haikou arrived at the sea outside Wanning. They completed the handover with the colleagues who went north to greet them before turning around. Then the relay warships escorted the expedition team back to Sanya.
On March 25, Ning Qi and his team's expedition around the island, which lasted about half a month, finally came to a successful conclusion in Victory Port. After this trip, the person who gained the most was not Ning Qi, but the Governor of the East India Company, Van Diemen, who followed him as a guest and watched him all the way.
What Van Diemen saw and heard during this trip has surpassed all the intelligence collected in the three years of contact with Haihan, and many of them are first-hand information that cannot be bought with money. If Haihan had not taken the initiative to open up Van Diemen estimated that he would never have the opportunity to see the true situation of society under Haihan's rule in his life.
In the past, Van Diemen once thought that Haihan must be a militaristic force that invested all the profits earned from business in military construction. Otherwise, how could it have become the most powerful maritime force in the South China Sea in just a few years? . But after coming to Haihan and seeing it with his own eyes, he realized that Haihan's strength was not limited to the military. Its development speed and level in every field of industry, agriculture, military, academia, and business were far beyond the His previous imagination.
It is difficult for Van Diemen to understand how such all-round strength can appear in an emerging force with no foundation like Haihan, but the fact is so cruel. Haihan's strength in all aspects exceeds that of the surrounding territories, which are much wider. traditional forces. However, Haihan is currently limited by his lack of physical strength, and his true strength has not yet fully exploded. After all, there are only a few hundred thousand people in total, and it is difficult for him to fully exert his effectiveness no matter how many black technologies he has on an island. In time, when Haihan's control area reaches a certain scale, then this new star will probably rise in the Far East.
Judging from the current international situation, it seems that no one can stop the rise of this new star. The Ming Dynasty has been trapped in internal and external troubles in recent years and has no time to look south. Annan has almost become a slave state of Haihan, and the remaining small surrounding countries are not enough to see. As for the Western colonial countries that came to the Far East, all of them, without exception, have suffered at the hands of Haihan, and it seems that it will be difficult to get any benefits from him.
(End of chapter)