April 18, 1655, sunny.》.》

Li Dayan led a group of young reporters from the Pravda newspaper to Zhuangcheng Port by horse by land. Recently, spring rain in the east coast area was continuous, and the soft grassland became extremely muddy after sucking water. This made Li Dayan and others extremely embarrassed and delayed their trip. Fortunately, they finally arrived here the day before the reopening of the port.

At this time, about three or four ships were moored at the slightly old pier, two of which were from Buenos Aires, which was considered to be a supporter for the shopping mall. Any Spanish merchant who had lived in South America for a long time knew very well, especially these La Plata merchants. Once upon a time, in their opinion, the merchants from Chile who came out of remote areas (of course, this is a bit exaggerated) not only had a smell of cow dung, but also had poor financial strength. At least, compared with La Plata merchants, there were many grain and wood merchants in Paraguay, which were not as good as those in the Paraguay region, shipping and dock merchants in Santa Fe, and livestock and leather merchants in Buenos Aires, which were not better than those Chilean merchants who came out of the poor mountain valley?

However, in the past decade, the strength comparison between La Plata and Chilean merchants has undergone major changes. First, after the outbreak of the Second East-West War, the entire La Plata, including Paraguay, was tragically looted by the army on the east coast. The merchants suffered heavy losses. Although they did not fail to recover, they were seriously injured. Moreover, the Crandy Uprising, which lasted for several years after the war, also made the business conditions of these merchants worse and they did not improve for a long time.

Secondly, the Peruvian smuggling trade, which began to grow at an astonishing speed since 1648. This large-scale smuggling operation led by the East Coast South Railway Company and supported by the business community of the East Coast Republic, flourished with the colonial officials turning a blind eye and comprador merchants running hard. It has reached a scale of more than 3 million yuan in total last year. The South Railway Company imported 1.63 million yuan from Peru and exported 1.8 million yuan (the Nantie Company made a high profit of 720,000 yuan in one in and out), almost reaching an unattainable peak.

Such a powerful total import and export volume naturally fattened up the Chilean smuggling merchants, and even the Lima merchants who joined later made a fortune and made a lot of money. The La Plata merchants (especially Paraguay merchants) who were called rich were jealous and were always looking for the same "traitor" way. If you were wrong, it was a trade channel.

But to be honest, in terms of product, La Plata really cannot compare with Peru. Yes, the vast La Plata Plata is a fertile land (fertile volcanic ash soil plain with abundant water system), but so what? What do you sell to the people of the East Coast? Food? Sorry. The East Coast is not short of it. If the tariffs are included, the cost is about the same as yours (perhaps lower), and it cannot be sold at all; leather, wool, animal fat, beef and mutton? This is still a little bit, but it is not easy, because the East Coast also produces these things. Although the East Coast has the urge to import due to the low price, it also has to consider the domestic market.

What do farmers and herdsmen feel? So setting import quotas is almost a certain thing; then you can only sell horses, mate tea, honey, giant logs and other commodities, especially horses. With the continuous improvement of transportation conditions on the east coast, horse-drawn carriages and riding horses have begun to become popular. La Plata's low price of horses has become its biggest advantage, so once exports are relaxed, it will be a good business. In recent years, Qingdao Port has imported more than 200 horses from La Plata every year. If this business is standardized, organized, and large-scale, the scale of this business will definitely be even larger.

Therefore, in general, the scale of trade between La Plata (including Paraguay) and the east coast will not be small, but it is also destined not to be too large. However, it is enough for the Mall Port. The strong chairman has personally promised, and the State Council has issued a document. In the future, the Mall Port will be the only designated trading location for bilateral trade in East and Latin America. For this reason, the Ministry of Transport has also allocated funds to repair the wharf and its ancillary facilities. The Ministry of Trade has also established a customs in the wharf area (custody officers also collect other taxes). The General Railway Administration may promise

A railway branch line will be built from Caijiazhai Township to Shangchenggang (provided that Qingdao Luoqia Railway is under large-scale construction is successfully completed). The total length of this railway branch line exceeds 90 kilometers. In addition to the two stations of Shangcheng and Caijiazhai, there will be two other stations in the middle, namely the military horse farm near the village of La Estan Suera, Colonia Province of Uruguay (which will be gradually expanded into a town in the future), and is located in Caishi Township near Tararilas Town (Tara Riras).

On the west bank of the San Juan River (now renamed Yewu River), the Yewu Township (located near the small village of Los Cerrossan Juan in Uruguay, named after a lonely brick house built for more than a year, with relatively good soil texture) after the establishment of the settlement, four towns, including the Shangcheng Port, formed the foundation of the future Mall County on the La Plata River. After all, as the trading window of the Ramada Trade designated by the Government, the Shangcheng Port cannot be without a hinterland. Moreover, the population of the Shangcheng Port has exceeded 7,000, and the proportion of Italian and Hispanic residents is very high. It is also time to migrate them to the inland hinterland, and at the same time, a large number of Ming people immigrants are diluted and assimilated, otherwise it will always be an unstable factor.

"Sometimes ago, people from Wujiang and Jiaohe areas came to the capital, constantly asking for people, money and goods. The central departments were very upset and almost glared at these people." Li Dayan called on the juniors in the newspaper to check in a hotel with a slightly Baroque style (it was obviously transformed from a building left by the Spanish back then), and then said with a smile.

"This..." Some young reporters didn't understand, "Is this something I want to ask for? Is the Executive Committee so easy to talk to?"

"It was naturally not possible before, but now, hehe." An older reporter who had been away for several years interrupted, "With the shopping mall port, everyone knows what to do. Do you think this shopping mall port is a waste of time? Ha, that's what they got from complaining to Chairman Qiang and Minister Zhou. So since the shopping mall port can be exchanged for national investment, what's strange about setting up offices in Beijing in the capital, specializing in projects, investment, and immigration? An familiar official in Wujiang area told me last time that the "tongued grandson officials" in Shangcheng County were unreasonable, undermining the policy of developing the Wujiang area and Jiaohe area set by the Executive Committee, dispersing valuable national investment and immigration share, and must be severely punished."

"Severe punishment is just a saying, it's impossible." Another older reporter took over and said, "But now everyone knows that Chairman Qiang, who has not been here for a long time, is a soft-eared person. He talks a lot and makes more noises, and he can get some benefits back. So, you have also seen that now everyone likes to run to the central government and cry poorly. He is really a good example of the mall port."

Speaking of this, everyone laughed. Now that the country is developing greatly, the subjective initiative of local officials has indeed been greatly improved, because this is linked to their political performance assessment. Any government official who is a little motivated will find ways to develop the local economy and make a fortune in all work. Think about the mischievous county officials in the Ming Dynasty, basically based on the principle that it is better to have less than more things and do nothing (because the principle of the superiors to assess their opinions is "peaceful". Over time, the grassroots of the country are all bureaucrats who are in vain, which is far from the east coast.

"Not to say it's useless, everyone sit down and discuss how to do a good job in the interview in the next few days. The Businessman's Daily also sent someone to interview, but fortunately everyone's interview ideas are different. They value the news of the industry and economics, and we value political and social news, but a certain degree of competition is inevitable. Everyone is energetic, walk more and dig more, and never let the guys in the Businessman's Daily compete with each other." Seeing that everyone was almost the same chat, Li Dayan was gentle and gentle.

He knocked on the table and said, "Lao Niu, you go and ask the local township government officials tomorrow to see if they have time to be interviewed, and try to understand the development ideas of local officials from their mouths. Lao Lu, after you go to the local Taoist association for interview, there are more than 3,000 Catholics in the Mall Port (they even raised funds to repair and expand the Church of San Jose left by the Spanish). There is a strong religious atmosphere. This is a news worth exploring, and make a good interview plan."

"Okay..." Everyone responded with a loud voice, and then they scattered one after another, taking their luggage back to the room to rest.

Li Dayan walked to the window and pushed the thick glass window (with some bubbles and slightly turbid color). This was a guest room near the sea, and outside the window was the vast La Plata River. The surging river was fierce, pushing the sea water far away to a place far east (in fact, it was just pushing away from the surface sea water. The fresh water of the La Plata River gathered on the surface, and the middle and lower layers were sea water), making everyone who had just arrived here fascinated.
Chapter completed!