Chapter 1739 Overseas Investment Promotion

It has actually been more than two months since the war in Manila ended. However, considering the local situation in Manila and the actual distance from Sanya, it is understandable that the Ministry of Commerce has only launched the local investment project now. It is not

The investment promotion activities have been delayed for so long because of low efficiency.

However, for these big businessmen who are really closely related to Haihan, it is not a big deal sooner or later than a month or two. This is not because the businessmen are magnanimous and do not care about the profits they can get in this time, nor is it because they are afraid of Haihan's authority.

I don’t dare to rush, but they have actually started business activities in the local area long before Haihan’s official public invitation for investment.

During Haihan's attack on Manila, there were quite a lot of civilian ships accompanying the army to carry out logistics and personnel transportation. The number was even more than the military warships participating in the war. In order to consider the actual needs of combat operations, these civilian ships were not randomly recruited from the private sector.

Instead, several large merchants with close ties to Haihan provided ships and sailors to Haihan officials to ensure that military secrets before and after the operation would not be leaked to the outside world. After all, this was not the first time they had done this kind of work, and they were relatively skilled.

to cooperate with the military’s command and actions.

These merchants are willing to use their precious transportation capacity to help the Haihan Army complete logistical transportation tasks. Of course, this is not because they are coerced by Haihan officials or simply for patriotic purposes. There are even maritime merchants from the Ming Dynasty actively participating.

.They are operating this matter so actively. In addition to having confidence in the victory of the Haihan Army, the other main reason is to obtain profits from the local area as soon as possible after the war.

In addition to completing the transportation tasks required by the military, these ships and personnel accompanying the army will also choose opportunities to purchase or sell various wartime supplies in the local area, and even directly acquire local property titles. During wartime, whether

It will always be much easier to drive up or suppress prices than in peacetime, and with the Haihan military as their backer, they don't have to worry about using such extreme business methods locally. They can control the situation locally in a short time.

The cost of going out with the army is recovered.

The main task of the Haihan military is to complete the attack on the Spanish armed forces. As for post-war management and reconstruction, Haihan's usual practice is to leave it to professionals. For some local business areas related to people's livelihood

, these merchants who accompanied the army will be given the opportunity to take over according to their respective strengths immediately after the war, and this means that they can operate some local livelihood industries in a near-monopoly manner for a period of time in the future.

This is indeed the case. For example, Zhan's Shipping Company, which dispatched the most ships in this expedition to the West, took over most of the shipping business in Manila Port and Cavite Port after the war. The boss Zhan Gui even had a business in Cavite

More than 500 acres of the best seaside land were circled near the port for the future construction of warehouses and shipyards, and he only had to pay an extremely low land rent to the Haihan official.

The various gold, silver, jewelry and valuable items collected by the Haihan Army from the local area also need to be digested by these merchants who accompanied the army on the expedition, and they can be converted into Haihan currency before they can be recorded in the military's accounts.

The first round of dividends was actually completed within a few days after the war ended, and at that time Sanya had not even disclosed the good news on the front line. The process of dividing the war dividends among the upper class of society was much faster than the outside world knew.

The business projects that will be promoted at the investment promotion event two months later have actually been screened by the big local merchants.

Of course, for merchants with second-class qualifications and connections, these projects launched by the Haihan Ministry of Commerce at this time are still lucrative and worthy of investment and corresponding funds to compete.

Similar to previous overseas colonial investment promotions, the projects prepared by the Haihan Ministry of Commerce this time are still mainly agricultural development, with fishery, livestock, farms and plantations accounting for most of them. However, this may be due to the fact that Manila is far away from Daming, Haihan and

The Indochina Peninsula is too far away, and the official government has also given greater discounts than usual in this investment promotion. In terms of development costs and taxes in the next few years, it has come up with the reduction and exemption policies that businessmen are looking forward to.

Attract them to invest in Manila.

There are thousands of square kilometers of coastal plains in the north and south directions of Manila Bay. Its natural conditions are very suitable for growing tropical cash crops such as rubber, tobacco, fruits, oils, and spices. However, the scale of agricultural development carried out by the Spanish during their rule was limited.

The development results over the past few decades are not even as fast as Haihan's farming on Hainan Island in recent years.

Of course, it is unfair to attribute this entirely to the incompetence of the Spanish. After all, the number of local Hispanic and Chinese immigrants is limited, and these two groups of talents are the main force of social production. Except for some tribes that are attached to the Spanish rulers,

In addition, the local indigenous people who make up the majority of the population have no interest in participating in agricultural development and infrastructure projects organized by outsiders. Haihan will also face the same problem when planning to develop the local area, so the official needs to mobilize private power and let businessmen

They invest in local development and immigrate to meet labor demand.

Cross-sea immigration to the local area is undoubtedly one of the costs that investors need to consider, and the local area was not a Han-dominated area in the past, and its attraction to immigrants was limited. Therefore, Haihan can only significantly reduce other expenses, including taxes.

, reduce the investment cost of merchants to complete investment promotion.

It has to be said that these measures have played a certain role. After Schneider announced the investment project, businessmen all took the initiative to subscribe. This is actually what the official expected. If so many discounts are given, it should be

There are only a handful of people, which means that Haihan's appeal has dropped to a terrible level. And the current reaction of businessmen basically confirms the official prediction before the war, that is, there will still be a large number of businessmen who have taken advantage of the low local development costs.

Characteristics, participating in the plan to develop Manila.

The reassurance prepared by the Ministry of Commerce for merchants does not stop there. Considering the limited income from the cultivation of agricultural products and cash crops, the Ministry of Commerce is also preparing to build a number of workshops in Manila dedicated to deep processing of products. The production of flue-cured tobacco, canned goods, perfume,

As well as deep processing methods such as sugar refining, oil extraction, and wine making, etc., all can bring more substantial benefits to agricultural products.

However, most of the most advanced processes and formulas are in the hands of Haihan officials, and many processes require the use of high-end equipment such as steam engines, so the initial investment is much higher than that of ordinary processing workshops. Moreover, considering the issue of process confidentiality,

At present, it is difficult for private parties to independently contract such projects. They can only invest in shares, and the government controls the use and maintenance of production technology and equipment.

But even so, the deep processing project still attracted the attention of the merchants attending the meeting. Anyone who has dealt with Haihan will understand that these advanced processing technologies can increase the value of agricultural products several times. This is

For things that are truly valuable, businessmen hope to gradually master these technologies that cannot be bought with money on the market through cooperation.

Businessmen rushed to increase prices in units of 10,000 yuan, spending money like water. This lively scene deeply shocked Li Xi, who was participating for the first time. Before this, he did not have a clear understanding of Haihan's good management.

To this day, as long as Schneider comes out to say a few words and introduces some plans that are still on paper, these smart businessmen can spend money like crazy. This shows how amazingly valuable Haihan's business reputation is.

.

Fei Cexian was even more upset when he saw this situation. He had just read the imperial newspaper some time ago. Last year, in order to deal with internal and external wars, the Ming Dynasty sent additional taxes to various provinces to pay military salaries, a total of three million taels. Among them, Fujian

An additional 120,802 taels of silver were sent to Guangdong, and an additional 231,178 taels of silver were sent to Guangdong. The officials in these two places complained endlessly, and in the memorials delivered to the court, they said that the additional silver taels were sent to the court.

Local oppression is too severe and the people are already miserable. Further taxation may trigger civil unrest.

But what is the actual situation? Perhaps the people at the bottom do not have enough money to pay the extra taxes imposed by the court, but these businessmen from Fuguang are all generous and want to buy the whole of Manila.

Does it look like you have no money?

Fei Cexian silently calculated that the projects bid by businessmen from Fuzhou and Guangzhou after the event had totaled at least more than half a million Hainan dollars. Converted into equivalent silver tael, it was already more than the extra silver distributed by the two provinces last year.

More than half. Fei Cexian really wanted to ask those officials who complained endlessly that there was no money in the local area, how to explain the performance of these businessmen in Haihan that they were so wealthy.

Of course, Fei Cexian can also understand why these businessmen are unwilling to donate money to the country's war effort. After all, Fuzhou and Guangzhou are far away from the battlefield. Whether it is the Jin soldiers going south or the civil strife in the Central Plains, the direct impact on these coastal areas will be minimal. On the contrary, there will be more

Attracting people and property from war-torn areas to settle in these places has led to pathological prosperity of the local economy.

The more frequent the wars in the Ming Dynasty, the easier it is for businessmen in these places to make money. It is obviously a more stable arrangement to invest the money earned in the areas under the rule of the Haihan people. In this way, even if the Ming Dynasty conquers the world one day

If there is chaos, they don't have to worry about having no way out.

"The imperial court wants money, but you cry poverty! The Haihan people want money, but you are vying to give it!" Fei Cexian looked coldly at these Ming businessmen vying for bids, but there was a fire in his heart that he could not vent.

The more resources and wealth Haihan absorbs from the Ming Dynasty, the faster the Ming Dynasty's national power will decline. Fei Cexian can see this big trend very clearly now. But he is also powerless against such a trend and cannot do anything about it.

Stop what Haihan is doing.

Why could Haihan have more powerful appeal than the imperial court and make these misers in Lingnan willingly spend their money? Fei Cexian couldn't help but start thinking about this higher-level political economic issue.

What powerful attractive conditions can Haihan provide them? Based on the introduction just heard, Fei Cexian believes that there are three main points: extremely low taxes and development costs, generous investment returns, and a stable and safe social environment.

These seem to be the most lacking parts of the Ming Dynasty. Businessmen all have a profit-seeking nature. The conditions provided by Haihan can allow them to earn more wealth steadily, so it seems logical that they choose to transfer their assets overseas.

’s matter.

But even so, Fei Cexian did not want to forgive these merchants who smelled of copper. His eyes swept over these people one by one, and every Ming merchant who had raised his hand to bid was silently remembered in his heart. He decided

The names and origins of these people should be written into the next memorial, and their destructive behavior should be reported to the Ming court. The court would then put pressure on the local government to give these people some punishment.

Of course, Fei Cexian also understands that it may take several months before the results are seen. By then, the money that should have been sent to Manila will have been shipped out long ago. This does not stop these people from sending Ming's resources to Manila.

In the hands of Haihan. Besides, even if the court promulgates disciplinary measures to the local areas, local officials will most likely collude with these businessmen and get away with it.

It is helpless, but the reality is such that Ming Dynasty can only temporarily act as a spectator on the chessboard of the South China Sea, watching helplessly as Haihan slowly conquers, layouts, and manages this area, and strengthens its own strength through continuous outward expansion.

Even if he realized that Ming Dynasty would become the target of Haihan annexation sooner or later, Fei Cexian had no ability to change the status quo.

"You really want to flip the table, don't you? Just get used to it."

Fei Cexian turned his head and saw that the speaker was Su Keyi, the Dutch special envoy. He actually didn't have much favorable impressions of this Han Chinese who worked for the red-haired people. However, the East India Company has been suppressed by Haihan in recent years, so he still wanted to do this.

Clearly, from a certain perspective, the two of them are in the same boat.

Although Haihan's investment promotion activities are conducted publicly, those who can participate are limited to personnel from Haihan's own country and its allies. In other words, the Dutch East India Company was excluded from this activity and was not qualified to compete for Haihan's official announcement.

For these investment projects, the treatment that the East India Company could receive was even worse than that of the Portuguese. At least the Portuguese had received permission to open business houses and consulates in the local area after sending personnel and ships to fight against Manila.

The East India Company has not even received a trade permit to enter Manila yet, and it is estimated that it will have to wait until the end of these few days of activities at the earliest. It feels like the East India Company will appear to lick the plate after everyone has divided the cake.

Su Keyi also felt helpless about such treatment, but Haihan's attitude towards the East India Company had always been like this. The Dutch were never allowed to participate in investment promotion activities for overseas colonies. He knew that it would be useless even if he complained about unfairness, so he just

Like Fei Cexian, he faced Haihan's investment promotion activities with extremely complicated emotions.
Chapter completed!