On February 25, 1689, in moderate rain, a medium-sized steamship wiping black smoke was riding the wind and waves in the Indian Ocean.

At this time, they were already very close to Tachenggang, an important city on the east coast of New China Island. The port city now has a permanent population of more than 20,000, accounting for one-third of the county, and the total number exceeds Mianhe County, second only to Xinhua County. It is the second largest city in the island's population, accounting for more than 20% of the total population (more than 280,000) under the jurisdiction of the New China Development Team. It is not necessary to say much about its importance.

The most important industry in Tachenggang is the coal mining industry. The historic Tacheng Mining Bureau is also one of the high-quality enterprises on the island. In addition to supplying military, the coal it produces is also used in civilian use, and the sales volume is extremely high. Once upon a time, the coal produced by Tacheng Coal Mine was also sold to the local and Hezhong areas of South Africa. However, after the local Heishan Coal Mine and Heijin Island Coal Mine were put into production, the famous Tacheng fine coal market has gradually shrunk for many years. It has to turn its main energy to the island and South African market, and invest a lot of resources here to build a lot of coal storage yards and establish a sales team composed of capable personnel to stabilize the market.

Later, even greater bad news came! The Chenggao coal mine in Yicheng area was discovered, and then it was quickly injected from local and South Africa. The coal mine was successfully put into production in a very short time and began to be sold in Yicheng area. At that time, due to the insufficient infrastructure and transportation capacity, although the coal in Chenggao coal mine had excellent texture, its radiation range was not wide, so it could only be sold locally. A small part of it was exported to Hezhong area and had not had a huge impact on the Tacheng coal mine today.

However, infrastructure can be improved, especially when funds are quickly in place. The Yicheng area is "born" higher than that of New China Island. In fact, it is easier to obtain funds and talents in the unified management of the central government. It is not comparable to a colony like New China Island. In addition, Xiao Jingzong, who was the commissioner of the Yicheng Regional Administration at that time, was a relatively capable person. He had a good relationship with various central ministries and commissions, so it was easy to attract projects and funds. The transportation infrastructure in the Yicheng area was improved rapidly, ports and highways were built one after another, and even railways were already under construction. Although it was a bit intermittent, it was being built tenaciously. These greatly reduced the logistics cost between the Chenggao Coal Mine and the Yicheng Terminal, making it possible for the large-scale coal export of Chenggao Coal Mine to the Chenggao Coal Mine.

At this point, coal from Chenggao and coal from Tacheng have started fierce competition in the Hezhong region. The former has better coal quality and richer types. In addition, it has received local investment, and modernization is relatively smooth, so the cost is also low. The latter benefited from a good sales management team and good connections established in the Hezhong region for many years. At the same time, the East African transportation company based on the island also provided some assistance. Therefore, under the aggressive offensive of Chenggao coal, it will not lose all, and it will still retain part of the market share in the Hezhong region.

But no matter what, this situation is very worrying, especially the Tacheng County Government, which regards the coal mining industry as a local pillar industry. They are worried that in the future, Chenggao Coal Mine may not be the Chenggao Coal Mine, but in fact, many large and small coal mines have been discovered in South Africa. There are not only huge amounts of gold underground, but also a larger amount of coal. It is really jealous that it will gradually unify the energy market of South Africa and gradually squeeze out Tacheng's fine coal. This is really a heavy blow to a colonial county like them. I don't know how many people will be unemployed and how much depressed the market will be.

Based on this consideration, Tacheng County has now begun to invest in other industries, such as the forest industry and food processing industry that are currently being promoted to reduce their extreme dependence on the coal mining industry. You should know that Tacheng Coal Mine is not a big coal mine, and its reserves are actually limited. Although it seems that it will not be exhausted in the short term, there will always be this day in the future. At that time, there will be no need for coal competition in South Africa, and they will collapse on their own. If they don’t plan ahead now, they will have to pay the price in the future.

To be fair, the two breakthroughs selected by Tacheng County are quite good. Needless to say, the forest industry is not bad. The western part of Tacheng County is on a side slope, and the forest surface is actively vast. Although the forest has been destroyed after so many years of development, to be honest, the area is still too large to be intimidating and has great potential to dig. Of course, when they cut down trees, they will also replant new trees in the open space, and will try to replant different types of saplings according to the original appearance of the forest, so as not to be too single, and once any diseases and pests appear in the future, it will be completely ruined, which will not be beautiful.

At the beginning of the year before last year (1688), the Tacheng County Government began to actively guide some local merchants to invest in the forest industry and took out part of the funds to subsidize, that is, for every import of a woodworking machine tool from the local area, it greatly increased people's enthusiasm for forest logging and wood processing. The forest industry in Tacheng County gradually grew. The Tacheng County Government felt that South Africa will definitely have a large population in the future. In the era of great development of gold and coal mines, its market capacity must not be underestimated. Moreover, South Africa is generally drought and the forest area is very small. Even on the east coast with a lot of precipitation, its forests cannot be cut down at will due to environmental protection factors. Not only will the local relevant departments interfere, but the Yicheng Regional Administration is unlikely to agree. It is really not easy for South Africa to retain a forest!

Therefore, this gives Tacheng County the opportunity for forestry industry. Although they may face competition from counties with vast forest areas such as Xinhua County and Qingtian County, they can get a share of it. What's more, the 200,000-300,000 people on the island have also demanded timber, especially in the western grassland counties. They started with cotton planting, and they have relatively wealthy local forests (not afraid to cut them down). They can only buy them from the east coast, and the market is also quite large.

In addition to the forest industry, the food processing industry is another key area to promote. The grain planting industry in Shangdang County, west of Tacheng County, has now reached a certain scale. Although most of it is used to consume and fill the reserve grain warehouse, some of it is still exported to Tacheng County for sale overseas, so it is still very interesting. What's more, with the continuous immigration of Shangdang County by the pioneering team government and the difficult advancement of the Tadong Railway, the increase in rice production on the banks of Liusha Lake has been destined to increase year by year, and then transported to Tacheng Port through the Tadong Railway is natural. It can be said that Tacheng County has found the right opportunity to develop the food processing industry at this time. In the future, not to mention anything else, just processing the grain transported from Shangdang County will be enough for them to make a fortune.

Of course, Tacheng County also has its own locally produced food, rice, corn, etc., which are not uncommon, and the output is also quite large, but they consume it locally. However, they also have several advantageous specialties, such as honey, palm oil, coconut, etc. Of course, these are not unique to Tacheng County, but because they develop earlier, have a large scale, and produce more.

The three major commodities of honey, palm oil and coconut flour have made a lot of profits for Tacheng County over the years. For example, the steamship of about 300 tons that is slowly sailing to the port on the coast of the sea had left Tacheng Port before, and its owner was also a local merchant, who had been traveling to the Port of Abbas, Persia all year round.

Now all the ports of the Persian Kingdom have been opened to the east coast, and there are many merchants running there on New China Island. This guy from Tacheng County mainly engaged in food trade, and then brought back a large number of tiles, porcelain bottles, livestock, leather, blankets, silk, spices and other commodities from Persia, and the profits are pretty good.

In recent years, the Persian Kingdom has taken advantage of the favorable opportunity of the turbulent situation in the Mughal Dynasty to restore its rule over Afghanistan, but it has suffered repeated failures. On the other hand, the Ottoman Empire, the Russian Empire and the Central Asian nomadic peoples have become more and more serious invasions on this country, resulting in constant wars and tensions in the border areas. Even people on the east coast have vaguely heard that the Kalmyks under Ayuki Khan had invaded the land of this country in the Caspian Sea many times, which makes people speechless.

Frequent use of troops exhausted the vitality of the Persian Kingdom, and domestic agricultural production efficiency was greatly reduced. In addition, the weather was not good, and the drought climate lasted for several years, which put the country on the brink of famine. The Persians had no choice but to find ways to import food from the outside. The people on the east coast of New China Island were one of the major sources.

Of course, the East Coast people may not provide enough food. Because the cultivation of cash crops in New Huaxia Island in recent years, the grain output has dropped rapidly, and some of them have to be exported to South Africa, so the number of them that can be exported to Persia is quite limited. However, due to the limited number, there are still some, not to mention that the Persians bid higher and merchants are pursuing profits, so they are naturally willing to export local corn, rice, palm oil, honey, dried fruits and even salted fish to others. This is a normal business behavior. I believe that after the explosive growth of the output of Shangdang County grain base in the future, Tacheng County will naturally become the center of the grain processing industry, and then export it to various places at home and abroad, earn huge profits, and feed back to the Tacheng County government's expenditure at this time.

The East Coast controlled area for exporting grain to the Persian Safavi Dynasty is naturally not only New Huaxia Island. In fact, in Diwu Island in northwestern India, it has recently become an increasingly food distribution center. The existence of the Eastern Portuguese joint fleet has allowed them to greatly affect the maritime trade in the Rajput region in northeastern India. The ships of local Indian merchants and Middle Eastern Green Christians were caught by them and various killings and robberies are often found. Therefore, they obtained the largest cake for foreign trade in the Rajput region and obtained countless benefits.

Of course, if they were put in the past, they would not have been so arrogant. The Mughal dynasty still had a little deterrent power. This country could easily mobilize hundreds of thousands of troops, which was a big trouble for foreign colonists. Moreover, a country with a large population of agricultural forms like India (maybe as many as 150 million) does not require much overseas trade, so you can block it as much as you want, and it will not feel uncomfortable. What's more, its coastline is extremely long and it is basically impossible to block it, so whether it is the East Coast, England, French or Dutch, they do not intend to have a head-on conflict with them, so they are disqualified from trade and allow their competitors to take advantage of it.

But now is different from the past! The Mughals are in a fierce internal war, and the central government of the empire seems to be completely trapped in the quagmire and there is no hope of successful suppression. On the contrary, money is spent like flowing water, and the national finances are on the verge of collapse. Such a state will naturally attract foreign colonists to covet and despise them. Therefore, after paying a considerable amount of money, they gain more footholds, and then build more fortress-style merchants to expand their influence, control India's foreign trade, and thus make huge profits.

Of course, the East Coast people were deeply involved, but they borrowed the Portuguese shell and did not come forward in person. For example, they were allowed to establish a commercial station in the port of Candela in the Rajput region. This was what the Portuguese came forward to discuss, but the money was paid on the East Coast, and the actual operation and management of the commercial station were also done by the East Coast people.

The port of Kandra and Diu Island are one east and one west, firmly controlling the route of foreign trade in Rajput. Local Indian merchants have no choice but to sell the goods to the East Coast Merchant Stations in both places, and then the East Coast people are responsible for selling them to make profits. Of course, there are also Indian merchants who do not believe in evil and are unwilling to do this. They prefer to drive their own ships to do trade, but this undoubtedly faces greater risks. It is not just a risk of sailing at sea, but also the danger of encountering true and false "pirates". In fact, it is not a wise choice.

But no matter what, even if some Indian or Green Merchants insist on independent trade, they can no longer change the overall situation. The influence of the East Coast and Portugal (the latter is obviously subordinate) in this region is increasing, and profits are also increasing rapidly, which is gratifying.

There are now calls for local governments to directly manage Diu as an overseas enclave to expand in the Rajput region more efficiently. Parliamentarians supporting this idea believe that most of the Indians on Diu have been forced to immigrate to the Port of Salalah in the Sultanate of Muscat, and the rest will either escape or have accepted their fate and wait for the next batch of immigrants to go to Oman.

Most of the population on Diwu Island is now the East Coast people, and a small number are Portuguese or Indian-Portuguese people. It is necessary to give them an independent political status. The currently operating business stations are completely unable to adapt to the development of the situation and must be changed! Some people even have a whimsical idea of ​​establishing several cities or regions in northwestern India where the population dominance is completely dominated by the East Coast people, and using this as a fulcrum to better control the local area. After all, in their opinion, Indian agents are not as good as their own people. This is very cost-effective in the short term. But in the long run, it seems to be a very cost-effective transaction.
Chapter completed!