Chapter 991 Overall Gap

What makes Van Diemen jealous the most is not the current booming trade situation between Haihan and Ming Dynasty, but Haihan's achievements in port infrastructure. When he first arrived in Sanya, he was also amazed by the local port terminals.

The scale and level of construction were very high, but at that time he thought that since this place was the face of Hainan, he would naturally make every effort to make it more beautiful so as to leave a good impression on foreign merchants. But after visiting many ports on Hainan Island this time

, Fan Diemen discovered that every port of Haihan people has implemented standardized construction. Although the scale is different, the port facilities, entry and exit procedures, operating mechanisms, etc. are completely the same, which also shows that Haihan people

Maturity of business strategies in maritime trade.

In comparison, the East India Company's operating conditions in Nanyang are more like that of a grassroots team. Except for the port in Batavia, which is somewhat decent, the construction level of other places is not to mention compared with the ports on Hainan Island.

Even Nashima cannot compare. This gap is not only caused by the difference in financial investment, but also due to the overall backwardness of the East India Company in overall planning, staffing, engineering capabilities, etc.

The gap in port construction and operation has an obvious impact on trade. The operating efficiency of Haihan Port is obviously much higher. Vessel entry and exit procedures, cargo loading and unloading, warehousing and even sales do not require too much effort from ship owners and cargo owners.

They can arrange these matters without even getting off the ship, and the time saved can be used for the round-trip voyage. If they make more trips to Haihan ports in a year, the profits gained from the time saved will naturally increase.

Very impressive.

Although Van Diemen believes that region and race are the main reasons for the disparity in trade operations between the two sides, he also has to admit that from the perspective of merchants, Haihan Port with complete service facilities and unified management measures is obviously a

A better choice. After the Haihan base in the Strait of Malacca is put into use, it is not difficult to imagine that the entire South China Sea, or the maritime trade situation between the East and the West, may undergo subtle changes as a result.

If Van Diemen had to find some faults to comfort himself, it would probably be the only shortcoming of Haihan's current maritime transportation capacity is relatively limited. In order to quickly expand its territory, Haihan put most of its resources in

In order to build ships for military purposes, the Haihan Navy already has six "Dignity-class" main battleships. However, in order to build these six large battleships and the numerous supporting warships, the Ministry of Shipping can only cut back on civilian use.

The number of commercial ships built. This makes Haihan currently very dependent on maritime transportation capacity from other countries, especially Daming. More than 70% of the ships that travel between Hainan Island and Daming all year round do not belong to Haihan.

But this shortcoming will not be able to limit Haihan for too long. During this inspection, Van Diemen saw shipyards under construction in Danzhou and Haikou. Judging from the speed at which Haihan builds military ships,

Look, in the next few years, the frequency of civilian ships launching from various shipyards will only increase. Maybe in a year or two, a fleet of merchant ships flying the Haihan flag will appear on the seas of the Nanyang region.

During the last half-day of the inspection in Haikou City, Ning Qi went to the new immigrant settlement area east of the Nandu River. From 1631 to now, nearly 20,000 new immigrants with Ming Dynasty as their main origin have been resettled in this area. These

The immigrants were resettled in ten planned villages and towns, and their livelihood was mainly based on collective farms growing food crops.

The basic organization for implementing rural governance in the Ming Dynasty was the Lijia system. In this system, one hundred and ten households were divided into one li. The ten households with the most Dingliang served as the chiefs of the li, and the remaining 100 households were organized into Shijia. The government was divided into Lijia.

Assigning corvees to the unit, including collecting taxes and grains, transporting tribute materials, supporting government public services, etc. However, because this system does not select talented people to manage the grassroots, and there are no perfect supervision measures, the head of the district has to make arrangements for corvees when arranging them.

Public power can be used privately to enrich one's own pockets. After the implementation of the One Whip Law in the middle of the Ming Dynasty, the original ten-year system of changing village chiefs was gradually abandoned, and the control over farmers became weaker and weaker.

After Haihan took over this area, he did not follow the Lijia system of the Ming Dynasty, because the immigrants here were resettled with no roots. Therefore, the civil affairs department actually adopted a commune system based on the village, that is, all production

Information is publicized, and people's income mainly comes from labor wages and food rations. The village committee cadres in each village are all appointed by the Haihan Ministry of Civil Affairs. While eating royal food, they also have to accept supervision. Although they have the power at hand

It's not small, but it has the laws of Haihan on top of it, which can be a bit of a deterrent to it.

This organizational form of collective ownership is more suitable for agricultural society. Haihan tried to use the advantages of the system to achieve a cemetery that supports agriculture and workers, and rely on agricultural accumulation to achieve the basis of industrialization. The benefits of this system are obvious. First of all, there are ready-made

The model can be followed. Haihan only needs to apply the successful experience gained in practice by his ancestors in that time and space. The management system and operation methods are very mature, and there is no need to do long-term experiments and groping. Secondly, this system can

Effectively organize farmers, use private productivity to build farmland water conservancy infrastructure on a large scale, and save Haihan’s official investment in agricultural development. The most important point is to be able to effectively concentrate the output of agricultural production.

Wealth will be invested uniformly by the government into the more important military, industrial and other fields at the moment, in order to promote the rapid development of social productivity.

However, the Haihan-style commune system also learned from the lessons of its ancestors and did not blindly emphasize public ownership. It also provided a transition channel for immigrants who expected to abandon farming and engage in business or enter other industries to work, but there was a necessary prerequisite.

It is necessary to first obtain the native place of Haihan. And if you do not have any skills or choose to join the army, it will take at least a year to get the chance of naturalization just by doing simple manual labor in the countryside. Similar to the immigrants near Haikou City

Because the resettlement area has not been established for a long time, most of the immigrants are still in the observation period, and the naturalization rate has not yet reached more than half.

Of course, after a certain stage of development in the future, the collective ownership implemented in these places may once again become a shackles on productivity. At that time, timely changes will definitely be made in the grassroots organizational system, but the fastest will be the next generation.

It’s a matter of people.

Van Diemen has a certain interest in the grassroots management system promoted by Haihan in the countryside. This is not only different from the common feudal lordship system in Europe, but also has obvious similarities with the rural social structure represented by the Ming Dynasty in the Far East that he knows.

The difference. Judging from the state of farmland infrastructure here, it is undoubtedly one of the most outstanding places he has ever seen in his life. It is similar to thousands of acres of cultivated land in several villages, and unified water conservancy projects are not organized by farmers themselves.

It can be done with a little fuss.

When the expedition team arrived, the place called Dagan Village was organizing people to dig irrigation canals leading to the Nandu River. Seeing hundreds of strong laborers sweating profusely in the wilderness, Fan Diemen seemed to understand what Ning Qi had just told him.

What does "collective ownership" mean? It is true that infrastructure projects like this can only be organized by the government, and such low-tech infrastructure projects may not take several generations in other countries.

It can be implemented - for example, during the Ming Dynasty, which ruled this area for more than two hundred years, the government did not organize the construction of these water conservancy facilities as necessary projects.

"Why did you achieve it in only two years when it took Ming Dynasty hundreds of years to accomplish?" Fan Diemen took the initiative to seek an official answer from Ning Qi.

Ning Qi thought for a moment before replying: "It's actually very simple, because we know what to do is the most correct way."

Van Diemen looked at a loss when he heard this, and had no idea what Ning Qi meant. Seeing the question mark expression on his face, Ning Qi continued to explain: "The systems and methods we use in governance are all through

The practices of our predecessors have become relatively mature after being improved from generation to generation. Similar to the practices of the Ming Dynasty or your Westerners, we have all seen it and know what the final result will be, so we will not repeat it.

Copy these wrong practices."

Van Diemen asked with some reluctance: "So what you are doing is the best way? These are all from your homeland east of the ocean?"

Ning Qi smiled and said, "Whether it is the best way, time will prove to everyone." As for the last question asked by Van Diemen, he ignored it intentionally or unintentionally.

In order to fool Ming people, the time travelers made up an origin of Haihan country "east of the ocean". This argument was okay to use to fool Ming people who had implemented a maritime ban for many years, but if they wanted to use the same statement to fool people who had already

Western colonists who have set foot on major continents around the world can easily expose their secrets, so in recent years, senior Haihan officials have rarely mentioned their origins outside the country.

Such an answer would naturally not satisfy Van Diemen, but after having dealt with Ning Qi for so long, he also knew the characteristics of this high-ranking Haihan official. The information he took the initiative to reveal was all for external publicity, but it was difficult for him to pass it.

After further questioning, we found out more information from him. Even though he drank too much at banquets arranged by local officials several times, it was still kept secret. No wonder he was chosen to take on such foreign affairs reception tasks.

Due to time constraints, Ning Qi's inspection in the countryside could only be superficial. The source of the people in resettlement areas like those under Haihan was very complex, and it was unlikely that the people would really be as happy as during the inspection.

With such calm conditions, there must still be many unavoidable conflicts. However, judging from the production organization and infrastructure status, the management effect of this area is still quite good, although it is not as good as that of an old development zone like Yazhou.

However, social order and agricultural production have become relatively stable, and this is what the Executive Committee values ​​most.

After completing the inspection in Dagan Village that day, Ning Qi and his party boarded the boat directly on the bank of Nandu River and left, heading south along the east coast of South Island, and stayed overnight at Qinglan Port in Wenchang County. There are also Wenchang and Qionghai on the east coast of Hainan Island.

, Wanning and Lingshui are four counties. However, these places are agricultural counties and have not opened foreign trade ports. In addition, an inspection team from the Ministry of Agriculture has recently guided spring plowing work in these counties. Ning Qi does not plan to do so here.

The line stayed.

There are only more than 100 nautical miles from Qinglan Port to Sanya. Ning Qi calculated that the time for this trip was almost over, so he planned to fly directly to Sanya. After returning, he would have a few days to rest and prepare for the next big event.

The two warships escorted from Haikou arrived at the sea off Wanning, and then turned around after completing the handover with the colleagues who went north to greet them. Then the relay warships escorted the expedition team back to Sanya.

On March 25, Ning Qi and his team's expedition around the island, which lasted about half a month, finally came to a successful conclusion in Victory Port. The most rewarding thing from this trip was not Ning Qi, but the fact that he followed him as a guest and watched the whole journey.

Van Diemen, Governor-General of the East India Company.

What Van Diemen saw and heard during this trip has surpassed all the intelligence collected in the three years of contact with Haihan, and many of them are first-hand information that cannot be bought with money. If Haihan had not taken the initiative to open up

I took him to visit these areas. Van Diemen probably never had the opportunity to see the true situation of society under Haihan's rule in his life.

In the past, Van Diemen once thought that Haihan must be a militaristic force that invested all the profits earned from business in military construction. Otherwise, how could it have become the most powerful maritime force in the South China Sea in just a few years?

. But after coming to Haihan and seeing it with his own eyes, he realized that Haihan's strength was not limited to the military. Its development speed and level in every field of industry, agriculture, military, science, and business were far beyond the

beyond his previous imagination.

It is difficult for Van Diemen to understand how such all-round strength can appear in an emerging force with no foundation like Haihan, but the fact is so cruel. Haihan's strength in all aspects exceeds that of the surrounding territories, which are much wider.

The traditional power of Haihan. However, Haihan is currently limited by his own lack of strength, and his true strength has not yet fully exploded. After all, there are only a few hundred thousand people in total, and it is difficult to fully exert its effectiveness no matter how many black technologies are on an island.

.Given time, when Haihan's control area reaches a certain scale, then this new star will probably rise in the Far East.

Judging from the current international situation, it seems that no one can stop the rise of this new star. In recent years, the Ming Dynasty has been trapped in internal and external troubles and has no time to look south, while Annan has almost become a slave state of Haihan, and the rest

The surrounding small countries are not enough. As for the Western colonial countries that came to the Far East, all of them, without exception, have suffered at the hands of Haihan, and it seems that it is difficult to get any benefits from him.
Chapter completed!