The south of Dinghai County is high and the clouds are light. ※%

Wei Boqiu, who arrived in Ningbo Prefecture on the "Cadis Rock" air sail warship, has been here for almost a week. During this week, he traveled all the salt fields along the coast of Cixi, Dinghai and Yin County, and carefully inspected the sea salt production here. Overall, the situation was very bad. Not only was the salt making technique backward (still the decoction method), but the output of the salt field also decreased year by year due to war. After the East Coast people controlled the place, due to the continued turmoil, the output dropped to a historical lowest level, and a large number of workers fled.

Judging from the situation of Wei Boqiu's visit to Minghe Salt Course in Cixi County; Dinghai County Qingquan Salt Course in Changshanchang Salt Course in Chuanshanchang Salt Course in Longtouchang Salt Course in Longtouchang; Dasongchang Salt Course in Yin County, the salt farms in Cixi and Yin County were basically abandoned, and the output was pitifully low for various reasons. It was not a matter of restoration overnight. At present, Dinghai County's salt farm is still insisting on it, especially the Qingquan Salt Course in Chuanshanchang Salt Course in the highest output. The annual output of salt is still about 5,000, which is about half of the previous one.

Wei Boqiu, who was responsible for Shao Shude's economic revitalization, had basically thought about the salt farms along the coast of the three counties, that is, he gave up the production of salt farms in Cixi and Yin County, and concentrated all the salt workers on the coast of Dinghai County to restore these two salt farms first. At the same time, he would introduce low-cost salt or sun-making technology to here, replacing the backward boiling method of firewood and firewood, increasing the salt production yield and significantly reducing costs.

Nowadays, the demand for salt by people on the east coast is difficult for ordinary people to understand. With the increasing number of fishing of three main types of salmon, saury and Far East sardines, the output of the Dabo Canned Food Factory, which produces canned salt fish, has also increased. This has caused a huge demand for salt. At present, the salt supplement of people on the east coast comes from Dengzhou salt farm that has just resumed production. Part of them comes from Sakhalin Island to boil salt. To be honest, it is still very nervous. Once the salt farm in Ningbo Prefecture is controlled and normal production is resumed, the salt demand of people on the east coast will be completely met, and the scale of salt production can also continue to expand.

After inspecting the salt field, Wei Boqiu returned to Dinghai County surrounded by his followers, and tacitly refused to go to the Yin County Prefecture where Huang Yi was stationed. After just returning to the county government, the military team stationed in the city (with Wei Boqiu, a total of 2,000 people) came to report: Five cotton ships were sent from Yin County, and the goods were unloaded at Yinjiang Wharf; just after sending this person, another military man came to report: Yuyao weaver and his family members arrived at Yinjiang Wharf by boat, and there were several looms together.

Listening to the two consecutive reports, Wei Boqiu then began to capture Yuyao County, Shaoxing Prefecture, on the other end of the corridor, is a famous cotton planting area in Zhejiang, integrating cotton planting, picking, processing, spinning, and weaving. The cotton cloth produced is sold in the surrounding areas. Although the situation was turbulent after the Qing army advanced south and these industries were impacted, a large number of weaving households were still stubbornly organizing production to supply the surrounding areas.

This time, the east coast army marched westward, defeated two or three thousand troops from the Qingningbo General Zhang Jie in one battle and occupied Yuyao County. After the first victory, Liu Haiyang left a few troops to suppress the local area and searched for handicraftsmen. The materials and personnel collected were immediately transported to the rear along the Yaojiang-Cixi water system. These cotton, looms and weavers were one of the results.

Anyway, since the Qing army went to Jiangnan, China's foreign trade has dropped sharply. Whether it is raw silk, porcelain, tea, cotton, sugar or other things, it has almost dropped by more than 70%. Many things such as raw silk, porcelain, tea, and cotton have dropped by more than 90%. The export of raw silk was almost cut off. Until 1750, the annual export of raw silk at China's Guangzhou Port did not exceed 1,000 tannes (one tan is about 100 kilograms) - this number was even only a fraction of the annual Persian export volume at that time.

Therefore, since foreign trade is cut off, some handicraftsmen who have no food and clothing (silk reel workers, weaving households, dyeing workers, etc.) who are not well-off to the control area of ​​the East Coast people, and then organize them to carry out restorative production, and export goods to the Hei Shui area nearby. Even the Kingdom of Korea, which maintains trade relations with the East Coast, is a good target for sales. Although this country is poor, it still has a certain demand for consumer goods such as cloth, silk, tea, etc., which is enough to support a small-scale industry.

The area of ​​Hei Shui (Sakhalin Island, Amur River Sizhai, Jeju Island, Yantai and Kushiro Port) now has more than 100,000 people - of course, there are not many settled people with consumption capacity, most of which are immigrants to be transported and belong to the proletariat. The daily consumer goods of these people have been in a tight supply state over the years. The Hei Shui area, which implements military control and wars, is really unable to develop people's livelihood, so it is urgently needed to provide a production base that can provide a large number of consumer goods. Especially consumer goods such as silk, cotton, salt, sugar, cereals and even southern fruits, have been in a very strong demand over the years. If Ningbo region can undertake this production task, it will be a good thing for both sides.

Of course, local people may not be happy to see such things, so they still need to communicate repeatedly with local people. Although Wei Boqiu had some ulterior motives about the direction of the Far East situation, he did not dare to openly set up a factory in Ningbo to produce cotton, a product that is highly competitive with the local people. Shao Shude couldn't get over this first - it was okay to build a silk reeling factory, and silk weaving workshops were very dangerous, and most of them could not be approved. However, even so, Ningbo could still do a lot of things, which was completely complementary to the Hei Shui economy in the north and was mutually beneficial.

Just as Wei Boqiu was thinking about the cotton and raw silk industries of Ningbo Prefecture, another military man ran in outside the door and reported to him with a happy face: two ships of raw silk, one ship of cloth and one ship of tea and porcelain were sent out on the upper reaches of the Yin River. At this time, with the report from the people below, the two words "tea" made Wei Boqiu's thoughts spread.

That's right, Ningbo Prefecture not only produces silk cotton, but also an important place for tea! The Siming Mountains and Tiantai Mountains meet here, and the numerous hills and suitable climates provide good conditions for tea growth. Ningbo City in later generations produced 20,000 tons of tea annually, which was amazing. At this time, Fenghua County, surrounded by mountains and hills, was the main place for tea. Baiyan Mountain Tea, Xuedou Quhao (a tribute in the Song Dynasty), and Anyan Monk Tea originated here. Even in the war-torn late Ming and early Qing dynasties, the scale of tea production did not decrease much at this time. As long as there was a suitable sales channel, the tea making industry here could soon recover.

In addition to Ningbo Prefecture, Yuyao County, Shaoxing Prefecture, is the production of the historical famous tea "Flowing Fairy Tea". The "Wanghai Tea" in Ninghai County, Taizhou Prefecture is also one of the famous teas in later generations. Especially this Ninghai County, surrounded by mountains on three sides and facing the sea on one side, only connects with several mountain valleys between Fenghua County. However, its tea production is greater than that in this time and later generations. Next to Ninghai County, Ningbo Prefecture has two enclaves here, namely Xiangshan County and Changguowei. These two places are also important production areas for tea, and the production capacity cannot be underestimated.

Yuyao County won’t talk about it for now. The connection between Fenghua County, Ninghai County, Xiangshan County, Changguowei and other places and the outside world is isolated from the mountains and ridges, and other modes of transportation are inconvenient except for sea routes. As long as you build a village and garrison troops in a key channel location, it is really not easy for the Qing army to fight. With the current situation of the East Coast people, you can basically hold it in your hands.

Once these tea-producing counties are controlled, Wei Boqiu can organize manpower to resume production. It is not a problem to produce tens of thousands of dans of tea every year. The output value is close to one million yuan (if it can be sold to Europeans), which is another great source of wealth. Unfortunately, the Western world has not yet formed a trend of large-scale tea drinking, and tea consumption is only popular in some areas and some commercial cities, which greatly restricts its total consumption.

In fact, if we really need to count it strictly, among the many countries in Europe and the New World today, the country with the largest per capita tea consumption is undoubtedly the East Coast Republic of China. This is due to the preference of the upper class figures in this country for tea drinks, and their hobbies are gradually transmitted to the lower class. The so-called "the upper class has something to do, the lower class must be even more important" is the truth.

Before, most of the teas that the people in the east coast drank were plundered by the Black Water Development Team. Both the quantity and quality were unsatisfactory. They had to turn to the Dutch. The Portuguese bought unbearable tea, Wuyi Tea, which was originally 18-20 yuan per catty, but later it decreased year by year, but it also remained at 7-8 yuan. But you should know that the price of Wuyi tea purchased by the Dutch on the southeast coast is only 2-3 Dutch guild per pound (about 0.7-1 yuan for the East Coast silver dollar), and the profit in this period is more than ten times!

In the future, we must not be cheated by the Dutch people like this! Wei Boqiu, who received the report from the military man, made a decision in an instant. He did not need to consume any troops in Fenghua, Xiangshan, Ninghai, Changguowei and other places. The terrain of these places determines that the people on the east coast can easily occupy this place. After controlling these tea production areas, the government of the Blackwater Development Team was equivalent to controlling a large source of wealth. With the gradual increase in the local population and the gradual expansion of the market, I believe that the consumption of tea will gradually increase from less than 500 dan per year (1 dan here is about 50 kg).

What's more, with the decline in tea prices, the increase in consumption may be even more astonishing. In addition, the Western world's gradual increase in acceptance of tea (currently, the total consumption in the European market is about 1,000-1,500 dan per year, mainly concentrated in the Netherlands and its surrounding areas), and the future prospects of the tea market are quite broad.
Chapter completed!