Chapter 2635
The cost issue is undoubtedly one of the important factors that restricts the North American colonial areas from recruiting immigrants from the country. Especially when local output is still very limited, the high immigration costs will cause a heavy financial burden on the colonial authorities.
According to Wang Anguo, the North American Colonial Zone hopes to normalize the recruitment and transportation of immigrants in the future, instead of only organizing it once every few years as it is now. However, Tao Hongfang and others are not optimistic about whether this can effectively reduce the operating costs of immigration.
The transoceanic route from the East Asian continent to the North American colonial areas is thousands of miles long. With the current scale of immigration, if a special immigration fleet is organized for this purpose, it is obviously impossible to fully utilize the transportation capacity, and the transportation cost will only be higher than now. Unless the trade volume between the two places can be increased rapidly, it is ensured that every merchant ship sailing between the two places can earn huge profits. Only in this way can more ships be attracted to invest in transoceanic routes, thereby solving the current problem of high transportation costs.
However, they did not make suggestions to Wang Anguo in this regard, because doing so would be suspected of being a mastermind. The person sitting in command across the ocean is the former commander of the Imperial Navy. Who else knows these things at sea better than him? Tom Wang must have considered these issues that he can think of long ago, and most likely have corresponding development plans. Maybe in a few years, the situation will be very different.
Then Wang Anguo took the initiative to introduce: "In addition to these recruited immigrants, there are also many family members of the advance fleet who will set off with the fleet this time, and the number is probably around a thousand. This time they came back and were temporarily renovated at the Zhoushan Shipyard. Several heavily loaded sailboats have converted their cargo holds into passenger cabins, otherwise they would not be able to take so many people away.”
These words reminded Zhu Zian of his experience when he came to Zhoushan from Hangzhou. The dark and crowded rest cabin was filled with constant snoring and various strange smells. He had to live in this kind of place during the months of wandering at sea. It's hard to imagine how uncomfortable it must be. With this said, it is no wonder that Wang Anguo has not recruited many immigrants.
But when he thought about it again, he couldn't help but worry about himself. This mission to North Korea and Japan would take at least one or two months. The environment he would live in during the operation might be similar to when he came to Zhoushan. He would be in trouble then. have eaten.
Tao Hongfang and others were lamenting the difficulty of this feat. They have been taught by the words and deeds of their elders since they were young, and they know that the development process of their country is achieved through continuous expansion of colonization. However, because they have lived in Sanya all year round, they only know that the empire is powerful, but they have never experienced the difficulty of this process. At this time, I witnessed Wang Anguo organizing immigrants to colonies thousands of miles away, and I truly felt the hardships of this external expansion process.
Wang Anguo said: "You may think that since there are indigenous people in North America, why don't we focus on conquering the indigenous people, but recruit immigrants from the country at all costs. In fact, the reason is very simple, because the local indigenous people The residents are rebellious and there are many warlike tribes. It is not easy to live in peace with them. It is too difficult to conquer them. ”
Tao Hongfang and others had rarely heard about the local conditions in the North American colonies. When Wang Anguo took the initiative to mention it, they all cheered up to listen to his explanation.
The indigenous people of North America are Indians. Although their appearance is similar to that of Northeast Asians, their language and culture are not the same. The Western colonists who arrived before Haihan did not get along well with the Indians, and armed conflicts occurred from time to time.
However, Tom Wang obviously knew better how to deal with the Indians. He took the initiative to establish a system of mutual trade with various local tribes, win over the Indians through trade, and at the same time tried his best to maintain a certain safe distance between the colonial areas and the Indian tribes' territories. After such operations, although conflicts could not be completely avoided, it did maintain relations with the Indians better than their Western counterparts.
Of course, some Indians will join in the process, but it is still almost impossible to achieve the goal of converting all local tribes into naturalized people.
The local Western counterparts will not sit back and watch Haihan come from behind. They will intentionally or unintentionally create some conflicts and try to destroy the relationship between Haihan and the local tribes.
Ha Jianyi said: "With Uncle Wang's style of dealing with things, he probably won't let go of those who cause trouble, right?" Wang Anguo nodded: "Of course. The armed conflicts that have occurred with the outside world in the past three years have been large and small. All together, there are eighty if not one hundred, and more than half of the time, the opponents are Spaniards.”
"Old enemies!" Ha Jianyi was not surprised by this answer.
The conflict between Haihan and Spain can be traced back to more than 20 years ago. When controlling the island of Taiwan, they removed two Spanish colonial settlements in the Taipei area.
After that, the two sides fought for many years in the South China Sea. It was not until Haihan captured the city of Manila, the Spanish colonial center in the South China Sea, in 1637 that the two sides finally distinguished themselves.
Since then, Spain's influence in the South China Sea has declined day by day, and it has retreated to the Maluku Sea near the equator to maintain its presence, fearing no more head-on conflicts with Haihan.
But the Spaniards probably never imagined that a few years later, the Haihan people would appear on the other side of the ocean on the west coast of North America and once again compete head-on with them.
Although the Spanish explored the west coast of North America a full century earlier than Haihan, their first-mover advantage did not allow them to establish a solid enough foundation there.
Facing the menacing Haihan colonial fleet, the Spaniards had to temporarily avoid the edge. When they wanted to take measures to drive away the new competitors, they found that the people sent here were not ordinary civilians, but thousands of professional soldiers armed to the teeth.
Of course, the Spaniards would not give up the territory they controlled, but it was difficult to confront Haihan's advance troops head-on. Therefore, in the past three years, they had been trying every means to cause trouble for Haihan, and various underhanded tricks emerged in an endless stream.
Wang Tom's response method was also very simple, which was to complain directly. All Spaniards caught performing tasks such as robbery, theft, poisoning, and assassination in the Haihan Colonial Area were hanged, and all were publicly disclosed. Execution of punishment serves as a warning to others.
"If the Spaniards want to sneak into our place, no matter how they disguise themselves, they should be able to stand out, right? By doing this, wouldn't they be throwing themselves into a trap?" Bai Letong asked in confusion.
Wang Anguo explained: "The Spanish are not the only Westerners active in the area. There are many immigrants from southern Europe who look similar to the Spaniards. There are also some Portuguese in the area, and they even talk like Spaniards. Almost, it’s not that easy to tell.”
(End of chapter)