Chapter 2514
Due to their schedule, they had no time to stop at Taimu Port to see the real situation there. However, Tao Hongfang, who works at the Ministry of Commerce, does know some information about this place.
"The Dutch have always wanted to run a decent colony on the island of Taiwan. However, after our country captured Tainan and Taipei, it prohibited Damuan Port from receiving immigrants from the Ming Dynasty. As a result, the Dutch wanted to move here to create a population. The difficulty and cost of development have greatly increased. In addition, the north, south and west of Damuan Port are all areas controlled by our country. If you want to operate cross-border trade, you have to act according to our country's face, so it will naturally be difficult to develop in this place."
Tao Hongfang did not hesitate to share the information he had with his companions, and at the same time he did not forget to disparage his competitor: "The Dutch East India Company fought against my country in the early years, and after several defeats, it learned its lesson. Even if Even though I know that this place is being suppressed by our country, I don’t dare to complain.”
"The Dutch are relatively pragmatic. They value commercial interests over colonial development. They are different from the Spanish and Portuguese in this regard." Ning Zijing also came into contact with many foreign trade experts during his tenure at Qiong Lianfa. affairs, so the situation in these Western countries is no stranger.
The Dutch actually had the strongest commercial atmosphere among European colonial countries, and before the signing of the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648, the Netherlands was only a region under Spanish rule in name, and its status was the same as Portugal. This resulted in the Dutch not being as obsessed with establishing overseas ruling areas as Spain was during this period of global sea power competition. Instead, they devoted more energy to the operation of commercial routes. This is where the nickname Sea Coachman came from. Come.
For Haihan, although the colonists from Europe were competitors, the Netherlands and Portugal were relatively easy to deal with. Haihan's strategy was to concentrate firepower to defeat Spain, the biggest thorn in the side, and almost completely fade out of East Asia. This strategy did serve as a warning. Since the Netherlands and Portugal established diplomatic relations with Haihan Since then, I have been doing my duty in these years and I don't dare to be an enemy of Haihan anymore.
To be fair, without the rise of Haihan, the colonial port built by the Netherlands on the west coast of Taiwan Island would definitely have developed better than it does now. But now this place is surrounded by Haihan from three directions: Taichung, Kaohsiung, and Penghu. Regardless of whether the Dutch want to engage in colonial construction or transnational trade, it is difficult to break through the barriers that Haihan has set up intentionally or unintentionally. Now the Dutch have accepted their fate and simply use this place as a supply port to ensure that the commercial routes to the northern seas will not be suddenly cut off.
Of course, if the Dutch can't think about it, or are too drunk, and want to challenge Haihan's authority in this area, the Haihan naval fleet stationed at Magong Port in Penghu will dispatch as quickly as possible, and within a day Tai Ming Harbor was flattened inside.
With the continuous import of immigrants to Taiwan over the years, multiple county-level units have been established on the west coast of Taiwan Island, and large-scale population settlements have been formed in Chiayi, Yunlin, Changhua, Miaoli, Taoyuan and other places. The population of Haihan is close to 200,000. Except for Miaoli County and Keelung Port in Taipei, two places with mineral deposits, most other places, like Kaohsiung, are dominated by agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry, sideline fishery and other industries.
And because the social environment and population structure on the island are relatively stable, the output of these areas is also relatively secure, and thus they have become very important agricultural production areas under Haihan's rule. Although the mainland area originally ruled by the Ming Dynasty is vast, it is in the transition stage between the old and new governance systems. There are many uncertainties everywhere, and the output is not as stable as in places like Taiwan.
When droughts, locust plagues and other situations occurred in the north in recent years, a considerable part of the materials and food used for disaster relief were exported from Taiwan. When the Executive Committee first developed Taiwan, it was more focused on the importance of the island's geographical location. It did not expect that twenty years later it would become an important agricultural production area that maintained the stability of the empire. In the past, most of these young people's understanding of the situation on Taiwan Island came from paper information, but this temporary trip to Kaohsiung allowed them to feel firsthand the level of agricultural development in this region. Although it seems that it is not as good as the large state-owned farms in Hainan Island in terms of the use of mechanical farming, it is basically first-rate in the deep processing of agricultural products.
Guangdong, Fujian, and southern Zhejiang, which are adjacent to Taiwan Island, are mainly mountainous areas with relatively small cultivated land areas and relatively backward agricultural levels. The agricultural products produced by Taiwan Island currently have obvious advantages in terms of quality and cost. Advantages, so you basically don’t have to worry about sales, and you can organize sales to these places nearby.
"Will Fujian also buy agricultural products from Taiwan?" Ha Jianyi heard the mention of Fujian in their discussion and couldn't help but interjected: "As far as I know, Fujian is still ruled by the Xu family. I am afraid they will not easily hand over control of strategic materials to the Executive Committee.”
Tao Hongfang said: "The situation in Fujian is somewhat special. It can be said to be a country within a country at this stage. However, when the executive committee agreed to let the Xu family continue to be in charge of local military and political affairs in Fujian, there were many conditions. In addition to the army The establishment of government agencies at all levels must be changed in accordance with the country's unified standards. In addition, finance and trade must be completely liberalized, and no thresholds can be set for materials and funds entering and exiting Fujian. Therefore, as long as Taiwan's agricultural products have competitive advantages, entry will be allowed. There will be no problem in the Fujian market.”
Ning Zijing also responded: "Brother Ha, don't overestimate the integrity of merchants. As long as there is enough profit, they will not care where these things are produced. Even if we don't take the initiative to sell, the merchants will find it themselves." Door-to-door delivery.”
Bai Letong said: "From a propaganda point of view, these compradors are also the easiest group of people for us to win over. They only value immediate interests and don't care too much about who the ruler of the country is. In the early years, our country focused on During the Ming dynasty's infiltration, the front line was these businessmen doing cross-border business. Xu Xinsu was also a large-scale merchant before he became famous, and he had many business dealings with my country, so the threshold that Brother Ha was worried about did not actually exist. "
Ha Jianyi suddenly realized: "That's it."
Tao Hongfang said: "And when we were inspecting Kaohsiung a few days ago, Uncle Li also mentioned to us that the Xu family also has a lot of land on Taiwan Island. This is called you having me, and me having you. There is a conflict of interests. Together, it’s not so easy to draw the line.”
(End of chapter)