On March 16, 1701, Jiaohe Port, sunny.

The passenger and cargo ship of the Messenger Liner Company has been here for several days, waiting for a batch of daily necessities transported from the Rehe River, including ready-to-wear, shoes, blankets, household utensils, etc., which are as many as 100, but the total value is only tens of thousands of yuan. In fact, they are all very fragmentary things, but they are all necessary for the daily lives of ordinary people.

The Rehe River is the name of the people on the east bank. The Portuguese called the Rekitinionia River. It is a river originating from the southern part of the Tuanjie River area. It has abundant water volume and a large drop. It is not very conducive to navigation, but it is very conducive to power generation. Of course, it has not yet reached the point of repairing a hydropower station.

According to the agreement between the East Coast people and the Portuguese decades ago, the two countries were bounded by the Jiaohe Port (Seguru Port). For a long time after the agreement was signed, the East Coast people abide by the agreement and did not desperately cross the border and cultivate and encroach on other people's territory as they were in other places. The reasons for this are hard to describe and very complicated, but generally cannot escape the poverty of the entire Jiaohe area, and there is no motivation to expand northward. The then leaders were relatively conservative and did not support these two factors in terms of policy.

However, nothing is unchanging. After years of development, as a trade node between Africa and the east coast of the sailing era, Jiaohe Port has accumulated a lot of capital. Moreover, local tropical agriculture is becoming more and more mature under year-on-year operation, and land resources are being developed in large quantities. Many people have turned their attention to the fertile land located north of Jiaohe and south of the Rehe River, and have started cross-border reclamation activities for the first time.

The Portuguese came earlier than the East Coast people, but they were less numerous. Before the East Coast people crossed the river northward, they only established a town near the east coast border, namely the city of Eunapolis. The city mainly has agriculture and logging as its main source of economic resources, and also has a small army stationed, which is simply a settlement that was forcibly established to divide the borders of the two countries.

There is no doubt that such forced settlements are naturally not popular with people, so that only ten years after the city was established, there were only 500 people, which almost could not be maintained. If it weren't for the reckless guy of King Louis XIV of France, which made the Huguenots unable to survive in France and had to escape overseas, many people took a boat to Brazil, such as Ennapolis, a city like Brazil, which could not reach the current 3,000, and it would never be possible!

In addition to forced cities like Ennapolis, there are many settlements and villages that have spontaneously formed. These villages and towns have one of the biggest characteristics, that is, people on the East Coast live with the Portuguese. Well, it may be a bit wrong to say that they live with the Portuguese, but in fact, they are "Protestants" (non-Protestant Christians, especially Jews who converted to Catholicism), and the Huguenots and Portuguese live with the Portuguese, and the first two are even more.

The cultural integration of the people living in the mixed people is actually very interesting, highlighting the strength of the east bank on the American continent today. According to a secret investigation by the Jiaohe Regional Administration, most of the more than 160 villages and four large settlements are mainly Chinese as the mainstream term. The reason is that their economic activities are mainly aimed at Jiaohe and Liuchen counties in the south. If they do not learn Chinese, they can't do business, so Chinese has become the most popular language in the local area.

The four large settlements in the mixed settlement are Jinman Township (located near the town of Cabraia in later generations, where there is a slightly silted port), Luntai Township (located near the town of Almenara in later generations), Gongyue Township (located near the town of Santa Maria de Salto in later generations) and Isi Township (located near the town of Belmonti in later generations, where there is also a semi-silted port with only navigable boats). These four settlements are home to more than 10,000 people in total, and are mainly based on the deep processing and handicrafts of agricultural products. The goods were first sold to Jiaohe and Liucheng counties in the south. Later, as foreign merchants who docked at Jiaohe Port discovered these cheap "gold mines", these fragmented small commodities slowly began to go to other parts of the world, bringing many benefits to the local economy.

It is worth mentioning that these four settlements have appeared on the map of East Coast people, and their names are also chosen by the State Development Administration, and locals have another set of names for them. However, it seems that the Jiaohe Regional Administration has planned to annex it and will be included in the formal control of the East Coast government in the future. Jinman, Luntai, Gongyue, Isi and others will also become official place names. This is almost inevitable, and there is no doubt.

In early 1698, Serginho was ordered to inspect the city of Ennapolis. The city was famous for processing clothes, and almost every household had mechanical sewing machines imported from the east bank. They did not produce cloth, but directly purchased the east bank cotton cloth shipped from the market, and then processed it into various clothing, cloaks and other textiles, and sold it to several counties in Jiaohe area. Because of the low cost, rapid delivery, and reasonable quality, the local sewing companies in Jiaohe were very big. The cost was not enough to compete with others, and the quality was limited. How to make it? Now some people have proposed to restrict the export of sewing machines and cotton cloth to these "unified places". Fortunately, it did not become a reality. Then someone proposed to build a wall, but it did not become a reality.

During his stay in Ennapolis, Serginho talked to the locals and found that there were no large-scale enterprises in the local area, and they basically existed in the form of family workshops. They worked hard during the day, worked hard during the night or during the slack season, and did not count their free time into labor costs at all, so their products were extremely competitive.

Similar to this, there are handicraftsmen in other towns who process copper pipes, lead pipes, horseshoes and even dry food. The income of these people is actually quite good, at least much stronger than farmers who simply farm. They are an important supplement to the large machine industry and an important part of the social economy. According to incomplete statistics from the Ministry of Industry and Commerce of the East Coast, the total number of handicraftsmen in the hardware industry (processing of gold, silver, copper, iron, and tin) in the East Coast country has exceeded 120,000, with an average annual income of more than 140 yuan, which is higher than that of workers, farmers and soldiers. Isn’t it amazing? Handicraftsmen in the Great Industrial Age can still live like fish in water, become middle and upper class in the middle class, and are important consumers of goods.

In addition to hardware industry, there are saddle craftsmen, shoemakers, watchmakers, bamboo craftsmen, carpenters, masons, garment craftsmen, bakers, etc. The list can be infinitely extended. Since 1690, the number of these craftsmen has been experiencing a very rapid increase, with an average annual growth rate of 6%-7%, which is higher than the population growth rate. This seems to show the continued prosperity of the East Coast economy from another perspective.

In fact, if we consider it from a human perspective, we will find that everything is normal. People always act as wage workers at the beginning, and after having certain skills or capital, they will try to act as independent workers. The world is not always constant, and people are always used to transferring from one class to another. Carpenters often only need to have a few dozen yuan of funds on hand to start their business. Smoked fish and cured meat makers require less capital, and lamps, toys, desserts and so on. If these people can successfully find a business, they will try to hire a few people to act as helpers. If they can't find a business, don't worry, they can return to the ranks of wage workers. When these helpers learn technology or accumulate capital, they will try to leave the workshop and become an independent worker.

The number of handicraftsmen in the East Coast Republic of China may have grown rapidly in such a cycle, and eventually became a very important component of the industrial population, although they cannot accurately rule. But one thing must be explained here is that such a growth method actually depends very much on the healthy development of the economy. The economy is prosperous, the scale continues to expand, and the amount of funds that people can use for consumption continues to increase, which can lead to such a scenario. On the contrary, if the economy goes down and the market shrinks year by year, the number of handicraftsmen will definitely not increase, and they may continue to decrease, because they cannot obtain satisfactory income through their own craftsmanship, so they can only switch careers or go to factories to serve as industrial workers who get wages.

Fortunately, the East Coast is now on such a benign track of economic prosperity. The market demand is very strong, and the number of craftsmen is increasing day by day. Especially in the hardware industry, which has the largest number of independent workers, with the popularity of steamships, the number of people has exploded again and again. More than ten years ago, a senior craftsman who divided the packaging and nailed boat boards might have only one or two people under his command, but now, a master who has taken on subcontracting projects often divides money with four or five people, and the work intensity is much greater than before. Often, after one boat is finished (the part he is responsible for) he goes to another boat. He is very busy, but his face often has a tired but satisfied smile. There is no other reason, there is a lot of business, a lot of work, and a high income!

Serginho compared the handicraftsmen in San Salvador and the east coast cities and found that their income was low, and the number had almost not increased much, and wage workers were clearly separated from independent workers, with very little movement. This seems to indicate the stagnation and lack of vitality of the Portuguese Brazilian economy, but it seems to be very good compared to the war-torn old continent, right?
Chapter completed!