Leon Wolfgang Wagner arrived at Jiaohe Port in a boat.

This ship is a 650-ton flute-type transport ship produced in the Zhenhai Shipyard on the East Coast. In addition to tropical specialties such as tobacco, coffee, cocoa, dried fruit, sugar, pepper, cinnamon, etc., the cargo in the cabin also has many masts, wooden tar, cable and other rigs. The latter is an industry developed by the New Kurland colony in recent years. It mainly utilizes the unique natural resources of the Congo River Basin to import machinery and equipment from the East Coast, hire technicians to establish a series of workshop-style enterprises aimed at utilizing these resources. Among them, masts, wooden tar, cable and other rig products are the focus of the development of the Kurlands, because they had similar industries in the Baltic Sea of ​​the Old Continent, and now they are familiar with it. The only difference is that they import a bunch of unfamiliar equipment from the East Coast to improve labor efficiency.

Actually, according to common sense, although the Kurians were used to rig business in the Baltic Sea and even had a large shipyard in Wendao Port, their products were not very competitive on the East Coast, especially when cross-ocean transportation costs and import and export tariffs were added. In other words, from a purely commercial perspective, they should not and have no ability to sell these goods to the East Coast market to make profits.

But who has given the East Coast government a very criticized policy? That is, for some political or other interests, they deliberately support some companies or countries they think should be supported, such as the Dutch West India Company, North American Free State, New Courland, etc., and there are certain indicators for importing the above-mentioned companies or regional specialty products every year, which makes many domestic businessmen very dissatisfied, but helpless.

Therefore, in other areas such as New Kurland, their economy is heavily dependent on the market demand of the East Coast Republic of China, and the prosperity is almost exactly the same as the East Coast Republic. Especially in the case of more than 4 million people in this country and the consumption population has increased significantly, according to the latest estimates, as of the end of August 1678, the total population of the East Coast Republic of China has reached a historical high of 4.1347 million, of which Ming people accounted for 35.46%, second-generation citizens accounted for 50.47%, and the number of white people accounted for about 14.1%. In addition, there are about 366,000 non-nationals, which is also the highest peak in recent years. This is mainly due to large-scale domestic infrastructure operations in recent years.

A country with a population of more than 4 million cannot be considered a small country, especially the gap between the rich and the poor in this country is really small (even non-national labor workers have a certain consumption capacity). There are large groups of middle-class people in China, composed of self-cultivated farmers (transformed agricultural operators who have joined cooperatives), workers, merchants, soldiers, civil servants and handicraftsmen. As their living standards improve, the consumption of various resources at home and abroad has also begun to intensify. Among them, there are many tropical commodities from overseas. This is the key to the survival of the New Kurland colony.

The Latvians who founded New Courland certainly understood the key points and knew who their parents were. Therefore, the two governors of the New Courland colony, Beverren and Wagner, attached the highest importance to the East Courland. This is from the fact that they personally took a boat to the East Courland almost every two years on average, visiting various old relationships. Old friends can see that they deeply understood where their wealth was.

Today, Leon Wolfgang Wagner, the second governor of New Courland, came to the east coast by boat. It was said that he had visited alone since Governor Beverren retired and returned to the Baltic Sea. If he set out from Jacob's Port and crossed the Atlantic Ocean, the first stop of the ship was the northernmost end of the east coast border, located in Jiaohe Port in the hot and hot areas.

Jiaohe Port is now the county seat of Jiaohe County, with a relatively developed economy. The county was established in the middle of this year and is the 126th county-level administrative unit in the country. It is under the jurisdiction of Jiaohe Town, Suiye Township, Gushu Township, Yanran Township (located near the small town of Itamararu in later generations) and Gesi Township (located near the small town of Guaratina in later generations). It has five settlements, with 10,000 or 20,000 residents, with a high per capita income and a high consumption capacity.

With the same establishment, Gaochang County, the 127th county-level administrative unit in the country, is also the country. The county is under the jurisdiction of Gaochang Town, Shule Township, Xuanchi Township, Huozhou Township (located near the city of Teixeira Difreitas in later generations) and Loulan Township (located near the town of Nanuki in later generations). They are also five settlements with a population of more than 12,000, mainly tropical plantation economy, logging and planting industries.

In addition, there are several isolated settlements established in recent years, namely Puchangxiang, located near the small town of San Matteus in later generations, Tuman Township near the small town of Liniaris in later generations, Xianqing Township near the small town of Alacruz in later generations, Cheshi Township near the town of Velia in later generations, Qianting Township near the town of Guarapari in later generations, Wusun Township near the town of Coratina in later generations, and Liuzhong Township near the town of New Venice in later generations.

The above-mentioned isolated settlements are managed by two nearby counties, and their lives are already tight. In addition, the drastic reforms carried out by Chairman Liao after he came to power in the past two years have made the "disaster" of these settlements a deeper. At present, they are basically in a state of struggling to operate, with neither foreign investment nor internal immigration. If my grandmother doesn't love my uncle, she may have to rely on her own pitiful accumulation to slowly develop. It's a pity.

Of course, these places are so miserable, and Jiaohe County, the leader in the region, is still quite adept, because its superior geographical location is incomparable to other places. According to the blessing of the previous two governments, Jiaohe Port currently has a port and dock facilities that seem to be quite decent on the east coast, with all kinds of equipment and docks. At the same time, there is a medium-sized ship repair office and a small-scale marine industrial chain based on this repair office. This makes Jiaohe Port have the ability to provide anchorage, supply, maintenance and maintenance services for ships traveling from oceans, which can attract the arrival of many merchant ships.

In addition, Jiaohe Port is the only way for ships on the west coast of the African continent to cross the Atlantic Ocean to South America. Various commodities and personnel gather here, so it is difficult to develop them. For example, Governor Wagner knew that the Courians wanted to purchase production materials and labor tools, such as steel bars, gears, saw blades, blades, bolts, etc., which could be found in various stores of Jiaohe Port. The difference is that the price is slightly more expensive. Therefore, after a merchant ship from Africa arrived in the New World, they liked to buy some of the first docking ports at this port of first stop, and then go to other east coast ports to see if they wanted goods, and then slowly fill the required purchase volume.

Even the only pharmaceutical company in the East Coast, the state-owned Northern Pharmaceutical Factory, has a special store here, selling drugs such as aspirin. Especially the most popular tropical products such as wind oil essence, wind oil, and cooling oil. The containers are never filled with them and are always sold out early.

In addition, wine, liquor, beer, biscuits, cured meat, canned food, chocolate, coffee, cigarettes, matches and other common daily necessities on the east coast, even less common products such as musical instruments, paintings, carvings, etc. can be found in the rows of shops on the street of the wharf. Everyone, as long as you have money, no matter you are from the East Coast, European, Indian or black, can purchase here, without any deception, and fair transactions.

It can be seen from this that the development of Jiaohe Port and Jiaohe County was based on passenger flow and the prosperous commerce that brought it to the forefront. Without the berth of merchant ships and warships in South America, Africa and the Caribbean, this county was generally like the Portuguese, and became a small and without any characteristics of the harbor city, although it was the capital of the General Seguru District of the Kingdom of Portugal at that time.

The officials in Jiaohe County are not fools, so they can naturally see their future development model. Especially now that the local area has "cut off food". Well, maybe it is not very suitable to say that the cut off food is not suitable, but it is obvious that the focus of development has shifted to the south. They should think of ways themselves and see what path they should take in the future. Just as the Beining region has found its positioning and plans to develop deep processing industries such as canned food, biscuits, dried fruits, and supporting food machinery design, manufacturing, repair. Hue region focuses on the development of sugar refining, by-product development, wood industry and corresponding mechanical design, manufacturing, and repair industries. Jiaohe region (which is already in the process of being established) in the future, which is a high probability event.

At present, although the local area no longer "likes" them, there is no support at all. For example, the Ministry of Industry and Commerce should feel a little interested in the proposal to focus on building an international trade port in Jiaohe Port, and give them some talent and technical support. For example, the Dayuhe Higher Finance School has arranged hundreds of graduates here to engage in import and export trade and daily financial management, which has strongly supported the development of Jiaohe County.

As a very important business partner of the East Coast Republic, Governor Wagner naturally received news about this. Therefore, this time he took a boat to the East Coast event, he planned to stay at Jiaohe Port for a while and find someone to learn about the details of the future development of Jiaohe Port. If necessary, the New Kurland colony should purchase land, build warehouses, and open shops for selling goods at Jiaohe Port, because it is said that Jiaohe Port has a high possibility to obtain a lower import and export tariff rate from the East Coast Government, as the basis for the future development of this port city.

To be honest, low tariffs are a very big temptation for legal merchants, especially on the east coast. This country has a large number of light and fast "Star"-class light cruisers, patrolling offshore, killing pirate ships, and pursuing smuggling ships. It is very efficient. It cannot be said that there is no smuggling at all. That is unrealistic, but it is definitely much less than other countries' coastal areas. Moreover, the risks that smuggling merchants need to take are extremely high, and the cost is too high, so they cannot do without huge profits. Therefore, most merchants who trade with the east coast are still willing to go to ports to trade in formal channels. Although paying import and export tariffs, port entry fees, service fees, etc. are painful, they can only endure it.

If the river port successfully obtains a lower tariff rate from the East Coast government and reduces the amount of ship entry fees, service fees and other miscellaneous fees, it will definitely attract more merchants to trade than before, whether it is domestic merchants on the East Coast or overseas merchants.

Governor Wagner stayed here for more than half a month, during which he visited many connections accumulated during the Governor Beveren era, learned some little-known things, and became more optimistic about the future of Jiaohe Port. Therefore, he has basically confirmed that after returning to Jacob Port, he will start to allocate personnel and go to Jiaohe Port on the other side of the Atlantic to set up offices, warehouses and shops as display windows for New Courland goods on the east coast.

You know, even the famous Dutch West India Company plans to set up branches here, and the decision made by this company and the English and French people in the Atlantic Ocean for many years and financially increasingly difficult. This shows that this large colonial company has bet on the East Coast and is hoping to turn things around here.

And the Dutch West India companies can make up their minds to do this. What reason does the New Courland colony, which is not so financially pressured, do not keep up? Whether to follow the East Coast policy and respond to the East Coast call is a major event that concerns the future development of New Courland. For example, investing in and establishing commercial institutions at Jiaohe Port is a good thing, which can sell East Coast people, why not do it? Are you stupid?

What's more, since the East Coast people have had a feud with United Provinces and the sales of the Baltic Sea market plummeted, the Principality of Kurland has become the de facto largest agent of East Coast goods around the Baltic Sea, shouldering the heavy responsibility of opening up the market for East Coast goods and regaining lost land. At present, they are not doing very well in this work, and the progress is very limited, and the East Coast is also a little dissatisfied. His Majesty the Grand Duke is worried about this and has been thinking of ways. If the Principality of Kurland can purchase East Coast goods at a relatively low price in Jiaohe Port, it will have a certain positive effect on the work they are currently working hard to promote? At least they can give agents more room for concessions, right?

"The Principality of Kurland lacks strategic depth in the old continent, the country is small and weak, and the surrounding neighbors are all jackals, tigers and leopards, and they will be swallowed up by others if they are accidentally killed. Therefore, the retreat of New Kurland is extremely important, and we must not offend the East Coast people in this regard. If the Jiaohe area needs to transform and establish an international trade port, we must participate closely." Governor Leon Wolfgang Wagner thought.
Chapter completed!