Opening up wasteland is not an easy task. No matter how much the people around and his friends publicize the fertility of the land in the Mekong Delta, the reality is that in the 17th century, most of the area here was still a barren tropical jungle.
There are of course developed fields, but the number is limited. This Shuizhenla hometown has been settled and cultivated by Ming people since the 15th century, but the real development did not begin until a large number of immigrants from the Ming Dynasty arrived during the revolution between the Ming and Qing dynasties.
There is naturally some mature land at the moment, but the area and output of these cultivated lands are still far behind the expectations of the Senate. This involves two major issues: input of agricultural inputs and land reclamation.
Not to mention agricultural materials, there is not much hope around - it would be good if Tiandihui can send some technicians. Fertilizers and pesticides are always used by a very small number of demonstration farms directly under the Agricultural Committee, unless they can be used in Nanqi. Occupy mature land with good conditions to set up a direct farm, otherwise there is no need to consider this area.
In the era without mechanical assistance, the cost of land reclamation was very high, requiring a large amount of labor and animal power. One family opens up wasteland, and even if there are three or four strong laborers in the family, it will take more than ten years to open up more than ten acres of wasteland. One can imagine how difficult it was during this period.
"Overgrown weeds are the norm...the biggest problem...the grassroots..."
"We don't have the ability to do large-scale weeding..."
"Also weeding. If you don't have a high-horsepower tractor, try weeding those tree roots."
"To open up wasteland, you must use machinery, at least steam machinery..."
"Two generations in thirty years, without machinery or cattle, have managed to open up 17 acres of wasteland..."
"Zheng Chenggong also wants to develop Taiwan with three golds and one cow..."
"In the early stage, we can only rob ripe land..."
"Shu Di, how much ripe land can there be in that place?"
"The captives were originally going to go panning for gold in the Phong Myo gold mining belt in Da Nang, but now it seems they can only be used as serfs first..."
"Haha, do you know how many slaves died during the land reclamation when Keelung was developed?"
…
After all the difficulties were put aside, the final conclusion was: 1. To open up wasteland, it is necessary to increase the level of support for "modern" technology, in other words, more money is needed. 2. Since economic goals have given way to political goals, it is not appropriate to use product output as a profit assessment. The focus should be on relocating disaster victims as much as possible, and the focus of interest repayment should be on "colonial land ownership."
However, after the second point was raised, everyone fell silent again - this land policy has not yet achieved results, and it is really inconvenient to do anything.
"Everyone! The local land policy is actually also brewing!" After saying this, they turned to gesture to Liu Xiang's group. When Liu Xiang saw it, he nodded and confirmed the opinions around him.
The land policy is currently under active "discussion" in Lingao. In fact, neither Liu Xiang nor those around him have high hopes for what conclusions this discussion can draw.
Although the land issue was discussed only two or three times at the Senate Assembly. However, internal meetings convened by the Executive Committee and later the Government Affairs Council were held almost a dozen times. There is great controversy between the parties.
Generally speaking, the only thing that can guarantee majority approval is the basic policy of state ownership of land. How to operate under the premise that land is state-owned, how to confirm the rights of old land owners, how to distribute newly acquired land, how to tax it, how to transfer it... Almost every detail is controversial.
Of course, there are still some people who insist on recognizing land private ownership. Although their number does not exceed one-third, their activities are very active.
Liu Xiang knew that the Senate's land policy would not be decided in the short term, but this time the Government Affairs Council made another opening. However, he still doesn't know what the specific opening is, because this power is currently only granted to Nanyang Company. If used properly, the specific practices will be promoted to Taiwan and Qiongnan. The current increase in land due to land reclamation in various places will be replaced by temporary policies.
After getting the endorsement, he continued: "Moreover, even if there is no new land policy in the near future... Then, we, a colony affiliated with the Nanyang Company, can also deal with special issues first! Otherwise, what is the use of my red-headed document? What?" After saying that, he took out a copy of the Nanyang Company's approval document from his briefcase and began to tell the other elders about the scope of his "expeditious" power in the imperial edict in hand...
Specifically, it is to grant immigrants "colonization rights." The colonial land occupied by the Nanyang Company was distributed to immigrants in the name of "colonial rights" by the Nanyang Company. After immigrants take possession of this land, they can obtain a twenty-five-year share contract. If the land allocated is wasteland, the first five years will be exempted from the shareholding. Starting from the sixth year, dividends will be paid to Nanyang Company. The proportion of the share varies based on location, land condition and other factors. In addition to sharing the shares, immigrants do not need to pay agricultural taxes.
The reason why the sharecropping system was chosen was not only to encourage more rewards for more work, but the main reason was that what the Senate urgently needed now was physical goods, not currency.
"We can collect surplus grain through market means. Immigrants will need money in many places. As long as we arrange the grain bank in time, we can obtain enough surplus grain."
After the expiration of twenty-five years, the colonial immigrants can renew or not renew the contract with the company, and no other taxes and fees will be charged except stamp duty.
To put it bluntly, this is still a temporary measure. However, this measure is more standardized than those vague "agricultural tax payment certificates" and "waste land reclamation tickets". Batch processing will also be easy in the future.
"...This plan has been approved so far, but if you have any specific opinions and suggestions, you can raise them again. As the implementer, we can make fine adjustments - of course, we must submit it to the Government Affairs Council for approval." Mian Mian said quite humbly.
"Oh, you have a lot of power!" Liu Xiang sighed with emotion after hearing the introductions around him: "I also asked myself whether I should invite Zhou Mu to fight back the three southern counties. The result, look at it now Looking at your pioneering rights, I want to build the Annan Protectorate."
The people around me were shocked when they heard this: Why are you starting to focus on the administrative power of the colony now? But with a smile on his face, he said: "Old Liu, you are right! If you are willing to come to Nanyang Company to work in the sea, our whole company must applaud and welcome you!"
Liu Xiang seemed not to have heard, waving his hands to the surroundings and saying: "Stop talking nonsense! How can I leave now? The drought will still last two years! In fact, let me tell you, in terms of natural conditions, the Red River Plain is more beautiful than the Mekong River estuary. The value of grain-producing areas, after all, is that one has a tropical monsoon climate and the other has a tropical rainforest climate. However, the difficulty of conquering the Red River Plain is to open up the mouth of the Mekong River. To conquer a political power, there is more and more complicated work to do, including fighting with others! "Liu Xiang said calmly: "Your colonization direction at the mouth of the Mekong River is more about fighting against the sky and the earth. Just think of it as a practice. We will give our full support here. I hope you can stand firm and prepare for the future. Lay a solid foundation for development.”
This... sets the tone?
"Then let's talk about the deposit and exchange business of Nanyang Company's operation..." Chu He took over the topic without waiting for Liu Xiang's response. The conference room became lively again...
Eventually, the surrounding "Nanyang Company's first colonization plan" was established.
The target locations for colonization are the main plain areas and suitable grain-producing areas in Nanqi. The long-term goal is the entire territory of Nanqi and whether to expand outward will be determined based on the military situation.
The colonization process is divided into three stages. In the first stage, in addition to the initial establishment, it also needs to cooperate with Guangdong to alleviate the impact of drought this year and next and undertake the task of population migration. The second stage is to develop the three main gold mining belts of Penmiao, Chanan and Suti to increase the precious metal reserves of the Senate - and consume the captive population as much as possible. The third stage is to open up professional plantations of tropical crops and begin to export products. Of course, there is no strict sequence between the second and third phases, but it is clear that the profit cycle of most tropical crops is longer than the development of gold mines.
Guangzhou City was mainly responsible for the manpower needed for colonization in the first phase. The current general arrangement is to crack down on and clean up a large number of clan organizations that have not cooperated in the anti-epidemic operations and land clearance operations, and to exile all clans as a unit. At the same time, Liang Xinhu and other legal veterans who came to attend the meeting later also said that when sentencing criminal cases, the death penalty and long-term sentences of more than seven years among serious criminals can be reduced, and the sentence of exile can be significantly increased. Finally, the survey asked retired soldiers and naturalized citizens whether they were willing to go to Nanqi to colonize. The Nanyang Company would treat them as "nationals", and if they could bring their families with them, there would be additional rewards. That's right, in order to cater to Liu Xiang's interests, people around him have begun to use terms such as "countrymen", "savages" and "slaves" to discuss things under the feudal system of Xia, Shang and Zhou...
Materials needed for colonization will be purchased in Guangzhou with priority under the same conditions. For industries such as agricultural tool casting and light industry, they originally wanted to relocate to the mainland. So Nanyang Company came forward to negotiate for relocation and co-construction, and set up the production base in Guangzhou. If financing was needed for expansion, the original enterprise and Guangzhou Investment Development Bank and Nanyang Corporation jointly funded the solution.
The funds needed for the expansion project will be entrusted to the Guangzhou Investment and Development Bank for the first phase, and the bank will also be entrusted to be responsible for all deposits and exchanges of the expansion project. The commission was terminated after the first phase of the operation. However, everyone knew that financing could be switched to a new platform, but once the deposit and exchange business was mature, there was no energy to change. This sentence was just to save a little face.
After his colleagues finally relented on the issue of deposit and exchange business and material procurement and production priority, Liu Xiang stopped the pressure show of "calling the correspondent to demand the results of the interrogation from the police and the political security system." After finally reaching an agreement, another correspondent was welcomed into the conference room.
