Chapter 1215 Anbu accepts what he has seen
Of course, Tan Juren does not need to live in a temporary tent like the immigrants. The local management committee has already prepared hotel suites and sumptuous reception banquets for the travelers who come from afar, and has also arranged for several four-wheeled carriages to arrive. Pick them up at the dock.
This black box-type carriage made in Sanya is not cheap. Not only the glass windows on the carriage are valuable, but the spring damping system and rubber wheels under the carriage are also unique to Haihan, making the ride more comfortable. It is better than a traditional carriage, and of course the price is much higher. When the fleet settled in Da Nang, the technical content of the carriage sent by the local management committee to pick up Tan Juren and others for the banquet was far inferior to this new carriage.
As far as Tan Juren knows, this thing currently has extremely limited production capacity due to insufficient parts supply, and only a few high-ranking officials in Sanya have replaced it with this new model. Even if many wealthy businessmen from other places come to Sanya with money to buy, they still have to wait in line for a long time. But eight of them were dispatched here at once, and their wealth was clearly revealed. It must have taken a lot of effort just to transport the parts of these cars to Amborna Island for assembly.
"Get in the car, get in the car, everyone, come back and visit slowly." Mu Xiabai enthusiastically greeted the stunned people to get in the car. He was used to such reactions. The idea of the Ministry of Commerce is to build the largest offshore gold-selling cave in the Far East this century. The first impression after getting off the ship is very important, and this design effect has obviously been achieved. Most people who visit for the first time will be attracted by it. The level of construction was astonishing, even for these partners who came from the same time and space as Mu Xiabai.
Sitting on the carriage, Tan Juren suddenly thought of Qiu Xin in Vung Tau Port. For him, this place was paradise. As a native emperor, he could get whatever he wanted, and he could do whatever he wanted. But if we really want to talk about the standard of living, I am afraid that Ambon Island is much higher. Apart from the inconvenient transportation, there is nothing wrong with this place. The per capita resources may even be better than those in Sanya. It is a blessing to be assigned to be an official here.
The quality of the Jie Feng Banquet really did not disappoint the visitors. In addition to some Haihan signature dishes that can be eaten in Sanya, there are also some flavor dishes unique to Southeast Asia, and the drinks provided during the banquet are not common at domestic banquets. "Sanya Special Brew", but there are other preparations.
"Pour a cup and try it. This is a good thing shipped from Europe!" Mu Xiabai greeted everyone enthusiastically: "I'm not bragging. You can't buy this thing in the market in Sanya. If you want to drink it, you can You have to come to Ambona Island to find it!”
Tan Juren raised the glass in his hand to look at it, and then smelled it. It felt like ordinary wine. After taking a sip, he felt that the taste was sweeter than ordinary wine.
Wine imported from Europe is actually nothing new. After Haihan establishes a connection with Portugal and the Netherlands, it will also import some goods from Europe through the merchant ships of these two countries, including many European wines that travelers miss. However, due to the long route from Europe to the Far East in this era and the relatively primitive wine preservation technology, after long-distance transportation by sea, the quality of these wines will decline to some extent, and the taste is far inferior to what the travelers drank in the previous time and space. of European wines. So after buying a few batches and trying them out, the travelers gradually lost interest and simply asked the Ministry of Agriculture to study how to breed grapes to make wine on Hainan Island.
"Is this really a wine imported from Europe? Why does it taste better than before?" Someone soon tasted some of the taste.
"It's really imported from Europe!" Mu Xiabai nodded, and continued to add: "It was bought from Portugal."
"What's the name of this wine? Why is it different from what we drank before?" Tan Juren took another sip, and as expected, he had similar questions.
Mu Xiabai responded: "There is no fixed name for this wine yet, but if there are any of you who like to drink wine, you should have heard of the Port Bar? This is the most original Port wine."
"Port wine? So this is port wine!" Although Tan Juren had never drank it before, he had heard of the name of the wine. Speaking of which, this wine is really one of Portugal’s specialties.
Port wine is a kind of wine produced in the Douro River Basin in northern Portugal. However, it is not really famous at this time. Historically, it was originally discovered by British merchants at the end of the 17th century that it was brewed by local monasteries. The wine was named and promoted. Its special taste comes from three reasons. First, it is the flavor of the grapes produced in the special local soil environment. Second, the wine is distilled before the fermentation of the grape juice is completed during the brewing process. Third, in order to allow the wine to To maintain the quality after long-distance transportation, a certain amount of brandy is added to it.
The people present did not have such in-depth research on European wines. They suddenly understood it after listening to Mu Xiabai's explanation of the brewing process. This thing is not even famous in Portugal, so its production capacity must be limited. No wonder Mu Xiabai just boasted that it can no longer be bought in Sanya. To say it is rare, it is indeed a rare thing.
Someone immediately became interested in this wine: "This brewing method is not too complicated. Can it be replicated in China?"
Mu Xiabai responded: "Of course the brewing method can be copied, but the climate and raw materials cannot be copied. Even if we invite people from Portugal to do it in China, the products will definitely be different. But in the future, if the Ministry of Agriculture If you are interested, you can talk to the Portuguese and ask them to bring over some missionaries who know how to make wine from the local monastery to develop a new series of Sanya special wines.”
At that moment, someone retorted: "If we bring missionaries over, we have to build a monastery for them. I'm afraid the executive committee will not agree to this. The higher-ups take religion very seriously."
"Then there's nothing we can do." Mu Xiabai shook his head and said, "But I didn't buy this wine from the Portuguese just to sell it in the country. With such a name, and the small supply, it's hard to sell it locally. If you sell it at a high price, there will still be many people willing to pay. If you send it back and use it as a special internal wine, it will be nothing.”
Someone joked: "Old Mu, you have been here for a long time, and your business habits have become a lot worse! Are you going to work as an errand in the Ministry of Commerce after retiring from service?" Mu Xiabai said seriously: "I won't hide it from you. He said, I have really considered this approach, but I don’t know if Mr. Shi would think highly of such rough guys like us. But if you really want me to play intrigue with those foreign businessmen, then I think this job would be a bit difficult. "
Tan Juren smiled and answered: "Brother Mu, what you want is to be able to guard Amborna Island all the time, right? The difference between leading troops or doing business should not be that important to you."
"Xiao Tan understands me!" Mu Xiabo praised: "To be honest, after driving the Dutch away from here, I thought this place was quite good. Now that it is built so well, it is certainly a good thing to stay here and live here. But of course we soldiers have to follow the orders and be stationed wherever they are arranged. If we are to use force in the South China Sea in the future, we might be transferred to another place after a telegram comes from Sanya. .”
Living for a long time in an environment like an overseas paradise like Ambona Island will inevitably slowly wear away your willpower, even for veterans like Mu Xiabai. However, he is not as content with the status quo as Qiu Xin of Vung Tau Port, just joking. But when a war really comes, he will still be one of the military's leading generals in the South China Sea.
Mu Xiabai quickly turned the topic back to the itinerary: "I just took a look at the dock. It is estimated that it will take three to five days to complete the repair of the damaged ship. You are all on the island these days. Stay, I will arrange for you to visit around and see the construction results of this place in the past two years!”
Such an arrangement is naturally a dream for everyone. Most of them had few opportunities to go abroad for vacation before the time travel. After the time travel, they basically spent the past few years on Hainan Island. It is a pretty good arrangement to be able to take advantage of this opportunity to go south and spend a few days on Ampurna Island, known as the Golden Grotto in the South China Sea. Everyone suffered a lot at sea in the past few days, but now the clouds have finally cleared and the sun has finally cleared, and their mood has improved greatly.
"Old Mu, tell us first, what fun things are there on this island?" Someone immediately started to inquire.
Mu Xiabai responded complacently: "As for fun things, we have them here, and they are of a higher quality. We also have them here if we don't have them elsewhere! We are all our own people, eating, drinking and having fun on the island. No need to spend money! But if you have fun and want to give a reward, or want to gamble in the casino, please pay it out of your own pocket!”
The main industries on this island can be divided into three major areas. One is the re-export trade with the port as the main business, the other is the numerous tropical cash crop plantations, and the third is the characteristic tourism and entertainment industry that the Ministry of Commerce has invested heavily in.
Ambuna Port does not have the same unique geographical conditions as the colonial ports on the Annan coast, so the scale of port construction and the degree of development here are relatively limited. Fortunately, the shipbuilding technology of this era is still relatively primitive, so it is not necessary. We are worried about the difficulty of 10,000-ton ships entering the port and docking. Like the fleet going south this time, although there are many ships, they can still all enter the pier berths and dock. The geographical location here is in the center of the South China Sea, and it is also the location where the South China Sea Trade Alliance holds its annual meeting. Therefore, there are many merchant ships from various countries traveling here, as well as entrepot trade and related transportation, warehousing, sales and financial services. Naturally, the Ministry will not miss the opportunity.
Haihan has accumulated too much experience in the management of ports and islands. These development models have been proven to be valuable in practice and will not cause big problems when used on Ambona Island. The original plantations on the island have also been promoted due to the gradual expansion of the scale of port trade. The scale of the plantations has also been increasing year by year in the past two years.
"If you have a lot of spare money on hand and want to invest in some real estate for future generations, then I suggest you build a few plantations on Ambon Island for long-term investment and make a sure profit!" Mu Xiabai talked about this issue. , sparing no effort to promote the island's plantation project to the audience.
Ambona Island covers an area of more than 2,000 square kilometers. In addition to setting aside hundreds of square kilometers of land in the south for biologist Zhang Yun to establish a wildlife area, there is also a large area on the island that is completely undeveloped and primitive. state. Products processed from cash crops such as rubber, spices, and oils can be regarded as hard currencies that are not marketable at all. They have stable profits for a long time and have relatively low operating risks. They have been subject to foreign investment in the past few years. One of the main projects.
However, there are certain threshold requirements for investment in Ambona Island, and small business applications are generally not approved. Therefore, except for the Haihan official, most of the people building plantations here are such as Commercial organizations such as Qiong Lianfa and the Guangdong Business Alliance came forward and directly chartered thousands of acres of land for development.
Smaller-scale plantations are basically invested by traversers and then handed over directly to the Ministry of Agriculture for management in the form of collective farms, with profits distributed in proportion. Although the income of this business model is not that impressive, it is more stable and worry-free. The plantation owners do not have to go all the way to Ampurna Island to operate the business, and can make money just lying down in Sanya. Rather than an investment, it is better to say that it is a disguised benefit provided by the executive committee to the time-travelers.
Of course, not everyone may want this kind of benefit. Some people feel that it is a bit unsafe to invest their money on an island thousands of miles away, or it may be an investment object that already has better returns. Like the travelers who came here with the fleet this time, the vast majority of them have not approved official investment and operation projects in Ambon Island. But after this trip, maybe some of them will change their original ideas and use part of their wealth to make long-term investments in Ambona Island.
The sightseeing itinerary arranged for visitors naturally included a visit to local plantations. Those who originally had no idea about this visit decided to add it to the itinerary after carefully listening to Mu Xiabai's recommendation. on this item. After all, Mu Xiabai generously claimed that he also had a plantation of two hundred acres on the island, and planned to increase investment this year to double the area of the plantation. Such vivid examples are very convincing. .
Of course, the expansion of the island's plantation operations will in turn promote the development of trade, shipping and even the island's population. This is also an unquestionable trend. According to Mu Xiabai's estimation, the island's plantation area will exceed 100,000 acres within the year, which is definitely a large number in overseas colonies.
(End of chapter)