In Danhe City in the north of Nanyang Province, Li Maolin, the magistrate of Danhe City, rode his horse to a plantation.
This plantation is very large. At first glance, it feels like you can't see the edges. They are all tall and dense sugar cane forests. Soon, the sugar cane harvest will be bumper again.
Li Maolin is also estimating how much sugar cane Danhe County under his jurisdiction can produce this year. Luzon is more suitable for growing sugar cane and rice than Ryukyu, and all plantation owners generally choose to split the sugar cane in half.
Half of the land is planted with sugar cane and half with rice.
Sugar cane can be sold for money, rice can be used to feed one's own slaves, and the excess can be sold.
Thanks to the unique geographical conditions here, both rice and sugar cane can be matured for more than a year. The output is very large and the quality is very good. Using increasingly convenient sea transportation, large quantities are sold to various parts of the Ming Dynasty.
"It used to be said that places outside the Ming Dynasty were barbarian lands full of miasma. Only after I came to Nanyang did I realize that this place is simply paradise."
Riding on a horse, walking on a small cement road, this cement road was built by the plantation owners here at their own expense. It is not wide and not paved thickly. It is mainly to facilitate the transportation of sugar cane and rice.
In Nanyang, there is very heavy rainfall. If cement roads are not built, the roads will be very muddy, which is not conducive to traffic.
Li Maolin, who is already in his fifties, sighed while watching.
Before coming to Nanyang, he, like most people in the Ming Dynasty, felt that the Ming Dynasty was the best. The world outside the Ming Dynasty was a barbarian land, full of miasma, and it was not a place for people to live at all.
After actually coming to Nanyang as an official and staying here for a long time, he knew that Nanyang was much better than the Ming Dynasty in all aspects.
The land here is fertile, with abundant rainfall and abundant light and heat. It is very suitable for growing rice and sugar cane. It can be harvested three times a year and seven times in two years, and the yield is extremely high.
It is very warm here all year round. Even winter is almost the same as summer, so there is no need to worry about the cold.
In a place like this, it's like heaven.
When he was in the Ming Dynasty, he saw too much, too much hunger and poverty. Many poor families worked hard all year round and could not even have a full meal.
If there is a year of famine, one can only survive by selling his sons and daughters. Sometimes he even cannot survive by selling his sons and daughters.
This is definitely not a lie, but something that really existed in the Ming Dynasty.
But here in Nanyang, everyone has enough to eat. Even the slaves of the plantation owners can eat three meals a day, including white rice and fried sea fish. These days are very different.
.
He thought about this question carefully.
Why are the hard-working people of Ming Dynasty never enough to eat or wear warm clothes?
Now it seems that the main reason is geographical conditions. The geographical conditions here in Nanyang are so good. With three crops a year and seven crops every two years, the output is really too large.
Even if a small area is used to grow rice, there is still not enough food to eat in Nanyang, and a large amount of food is shipped to various places in the Ming Dynasty for sale.
"Reading thousands of books is not as good as traveling thousands of miles. Only by going out for more walks and reading more can you truly gain knowledge."
Li Maolin couldn't help but sigh.
After witnessing the richness and fertility of Nanyang, he often wrote letters back to his hometown, asking all the folks in his hometown to immigrate to Nanyang.
In the Danhe City under his jurisdiction, there are a large number of people who immigrated to Nanyang from his hometown. The person he wants to visit this time is a good friend of his.
"Lao Qin, Lao Qin~"
Having just arrived at his friend's plantation, Li Maolin couldn't help but roar. From a distance, he could see a dozen slaves tearing sugar cane leaves in the plantation.
"Haha, Lao Li~"
Soon, someone heard Li Maolin's voice and walked out of the sugar cane forest. This person's name was Qin Yan. He was over fifty years old and a scholar.
Li Maolin and Li Maolin were classmates in the past, and they had been taking the imperial examinations for their whole lives. Although Li Maolin passed the imperial examination, he could not pass the Jinshi examination and had no official position.
At the end of last year, the imperial court needed a large number of officials, and he happened to catch up with this wave of welfare, so he came to Nanyang and became the county magistrate of Danhe City.
Because Qin Yan received Li Maolin's letter, his family moved to Nanyang.
Because the imperial court encouraged immigrants to the Nanyang region, it also gave preferential policies. One person could be rewarded with dozens of acres of land. Qin Yan's family, old and young, moved here. The rewarded land alone was thousands of acres, so they also established a plantation.
The whole family was so busy that they bought more than a dozen slaves one after another.
"How about it?"
"The harvest this time should be good, right?"
Walking with Qin Yan in his plantation, Li Maolin also asked with a smile.
“Very good~”
Qin Yan also smiled and nodded and said bluntly that Li Maolin did not lie to him. Nanyang is indeed very good.
He was originally a poor scholar, and his family was very poor. In the Ming Dynasty, the whole family had trouble eating. After coming to Nanyang, he suddenly turned around.
Not only did he have thousands of acres of vast land, but he also quickly became rich by growing sugar cane. Not only did he build a large house here, but he also bought more than a dozen slaves. The life he lived in this small life was simply unnecessary.
So comfortable.
The family of dozens of people, old and young, lived comfortably. The eldest son helped take care of the plantation here, the second son went to learn navigation, the third son went prospecting and mining with others, and the fourth son went into business.
The grandchildren were all liberated from the land. Some studied and took the imperial examinations, some did business, and some went to sea to work as sailors, etc.
In the past, the whole family was basically trapped on the land, with their faces facing the loess and their backs turned to the sky. They worked so hard all year round that they couldn't even get a few full meals in the end.
"After this crop of sugar cane is harvested, I plan to buy dozens more slaves and a few cows, plant the remaining land, and open up more wasteland to plant some rubber. I heard that Tianjin
The plantations under the Ocean Trading Company are growing this stuff on a large scale."
"It is said that this thing takes seven or eight years to mature, but it will be very profitable in the future. I don't know whether it is true or not, but the plantations under Liu Gongzi have always been the most profitable. They never grow sugar cane, nor do they grow sugar cane.
Rice is all about growing some weird things."
Qin Yan talked with Li Maolin about his plan for the plantation with a smile on his face.
The whole family moved here, and the rewarded land was too much. A lot of the land was still wasteland and needed to be reclaimed by oneself. Since there were not enough manpower, the only solution was to buy more slaves and cattle.
"You can't go wrong by following Mr. Liu."
Li Maolin smiled and nodded, then looked at the slaves working in the sugar cane forest and said, "How much money did you spend on these dozen slaves?"
"It cost me nearly five hundred taels of silver."
"The twelve young male slaves are the most expensive, costing almost forty taels each. There are also five adult female slaves and a few young slaves, which are basically given away for free."
Qin Yan thought for a while and said: "This slave is too expensive. I heard that the price is still rising."
"Well, the price is rising. In the slave market in the city, as long as slaves are shipped over, they will be sold out immediately."
"Recently, the Western United Trading Company captured the island of Ceylon. They shipped a group of slaves over, and they were all bought in less than an hour."
"The imperial court has basically ended the war in Java. There will be a shortage of slaves in the future. The price of these slaves will definitely rise. If you want to buy, hurry up and buy more as soon as possible, and buy some young slaves too."
"Anyway, it's just to eat some food. Here in Nanyang, there is a lot of food, and a teenager will start to do things."
Li Maolin thought about it and nodded.
There were so many plantations in Nanyang that the Ming Dynasty could not keep up with the immigration alone, so the demand for slaves was very high.
The price of slaves has also been rising again and again. That is to say, the war in Southeast Asia some time ago resulted in a large number of slaves, which alleviated the demand of plantation owners.
But once the war stopped, the source of slaves became a big problem again, and the price of slaves began to rise again.
"I think so too, but I don't have the money. As you can see, the money has been used to build houses, build roads, buy tools, and buy slaves. We can only wait until the sugar cane harvest is finished."
Qin Yan smiled and said helplessly.
"You can get a loan and pay it back after harvesting the sugar cane. Otherwise, the price will be much higher than the interest rate."
Li Maolin is the county magistrate and has contact with more people, so he naturally knows more.
"I have also thought about getting a loan, but bank loans require collateral. I only have this plantation in my hand. If I don't pay back, the plantation will be gone."
"It doesn't matter if it goes slower. If it rises too much, I won't buy it."
Qin Yan thought for a while and shook his head slightly. His thoughts were still a bit old-fashioned. He always felt that loans and borrowing money were not a good thing. Think about the loan sharks in his hometown. The interest rate is compounded. If you bring one or two silver, you may end up paying back dozens of dollars.
Neither is clear.
Therefore, his principle has always been to avoid debt if he can avoid it. Even if the bank's interest rate is low, he will not think of taking out a loan unless it is a last resort.
"You came to me for something, right?"
After thinking about it, Qin Yan said to Li Maolin again.
"Yes, it is definitely a good thing for you."
"The triennial imperial examination is about to begin. The imperial court has also issued a decree. Our Nanyang province is also going to hold a provincial examination, and there are still a lot of places."
"You are a scholar, one of the rare scholars here. I think you have a great chance this time, so I want to come over and invite you to take part in this provincial examination."