Reborn as King of South America

Chapter 157 Rubber
The operation of transporting Chinese workers lasted for more than two months. During this period, Li Mingyuan took out a large amount of seized silver dollars and part of the gold in stock, and hired merchant ships for transportation at a price 1.5 times higher than the market price. He accepted merchant ships from Britain, the Netherlands, Belgium, and even Spain that was suppressing a rebellion. As long as the tonnage of the ship was higher than 500 tons, Li Mingyuan would pay to hire it.

Although the profit of transporting Chinese workers seems to be low, in fact, the profit of a ship trip from the Caribbean to Rio Grande do Sul is over 200%, and Rio Grande do Sul pays 1.5 times the market price for hiring merchant ships, so the profit margins of various countries' fleets will only be higher.

After the First Industrial Revolution, the shipping industry became the most profitable and lucrative industry. From the early African triangular trade to the later plundering of colonial mineral resources, European merchant ships that went out to sea could often gain several times or even ten times the profit as long as they could make a successful round trip.

In the 19th century, in order to consolidate the colonial order and gain more benefits from the colonies, Britain announced a ban on the slave trade. Later, France, the United States, the Netherlands and other countries abolished slavery one after another.

North and South America and the Caribbean are rich in resources but have a sparse population. Without the slave trade, mines and plantations could not obtain sufficient labor. Under such circumstances, the independent American countries found an alternative method: using contract labor to lure the Chinese to go overseas and serve as the new main labor force.

Nearly 100,000 Chinese workers went out to sea every year, promoting maritime trade between South America and the mainland. Hundreds of coolie ships loaded with Chinese sailed in the Pacific Ocean, Indian Ocean, and Atlantic Ocean, transporting Chinese workers deceived from the mainland to every corner of the world.

Wherever the sea passes, there are overseas Chinese. Wandering around the world is a passive and helpless choice for the Chinese. During the voyage, a coolie ship often carried three to four hundred Chinese workers. They were crowded on the lower deck of the coolie ship, with their shoulders touching each other, and there was no place to lie down and rest.

Due to the small space and poor living conditions, many Chinese workers died on the ship during the journey and were then thrown into the sea to become food for fish.

The Cuban Chinese workers who survived had all experienced unimaginable suffering and hardship, and on the way back to Rio Grande dolls, Li Mingyuan did not want them to suffer the torture they had experienced at sea.

Li Mingyuan hired merchant ships at prices higher than the market price. He also required that each merchant ship should not carry more than the standard number of Chinese workers, and that the Chinese workers on board should be guaranteed a place to rest.

In order to complete the operation of transporting Chinese workers in the shortest possible time, it was impossible to provide them with a very good environment on board. However, the rest area for one person, the diet and physical health of the Chinese workers on board had to be basically guaranteed.

While in Rio Grande do Sul, Li Mingyuan was always concerned about the operation of transporting Chinese workers.

After the first large-scale transport fleet returned with 25,000 Chinese workers, in order to improve transportation efficiency, the ships hired from various countries no longer acted in a large fleet, but formed a small fleet of more than a dozen large and medium-sized ships. Once the number of Chinese workers on board was sufficient, the small fleet would set off immediately. The large-scale pirate forces entrenched in the Caribbean were wiped out by Chen Sen and others. Small-scale pirates posed no threat to the transport fleet carrying weapons, and there was no need to worry about the scattered small transport fleet sailing in the Caribbean.

A large amount of money was spent to ensure that most of the Chinese workers in Cuba arrived safely in Rio Grande do Sul. The small number of Chinese workers stranded on the island of Cuba were also gathered in more than a dozen temporary resettlement sites and will leave the island of Cuba within the next month.

Most of the Brazilian soldiers were released, and the construction work they had previously been doing was handed over to Chinese workers who had arrived earlier.

In the Xinjing (Porto Alegre) area, rows of Chinese-style wooden houses are neatly arranged outside the old town. Outside the wooden houses, a newly built wall more than two meters high surrounds the old town and the wooden houses.

Xinjing was the administrative and military center of Rio Grande do Sul. The city built by the Brazilians was too small to accommodate the garrisons and retired soldiers gathered near Xinjing. Therefore, the construction of the new city was quickly started after the arrival of Prussian experts.

The new city covers an area of ​​about seven square kilometers and is mainly planned to be divided into four areas: residential area for ordinary people, military garrison area, government garrison area, and light factory commercial district. As for the request of his generals to build a palace, Li Mingyuan did not agree. Infrastructure construction, industrial development, transportation of Chinese workers... There were many areas that required huge investments in the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China. Building a palace at this time would not be worth the cost.

Li Mingyuan rejected the proposal to build a royal palace and continued to live in the castle left by the Brazilians. Liu Pu, Sun Bin and others built their homes near the castle to make it convenient for them to report state affairs to Li Mingyuan.

At the construction site outside the wooden houses, more than 10,000 Chinese workers who had arrived earlier were carrying cement and bricks to build the city walls.

The cement factory and brick factory were built at the foot of a mountain more than ten miles away, and were constructed by Chinese workers under the guidance of Prussian experts.

More than 10,000 Chinese workers were responsible for transporting bricks and cement from more than ten miles away, while others were responsible for mixing cement and building the city wall. The two groups of Chinese workers had clear division of labor, and the vast construction site was full of orderly labor scenes.

Li Mingyuan, wearing an ordinary black military uniform, came to the construction site with Sun Bin and others to check it out.

In the center of the construction site was a cement pile of more than 20 square meters. More than a dozen Chinese workers were pouring water and stirring lime with shovels.

Li Mingyuan walked to the cement pile and found more than a dozen Chinese workers working barefoot on the cement. He immediately stopped them and said, "Cement is corrosive. Everyone, put on shoes and don't mix cement barefoot."

As soon as the words fell, more than a dozen Chinese workers who were working focused their eyes on Li Mingyuan and his group. Li Mingyuan was wearing military uniforms and had a number of guards around him. The Chinese workers thought Li Mingyuan was an officer of the National Defense Forces.

"Sir, the government gave each of us a pair of new cloth shoes. We didn't want to damage them, so we just mixed the cement and lime barefoot."

A man wearing a white turban began to explain.

Cement is corrosive and cloth shoes can be easily damaged when stepping on cement slurry. Li Mingyuan understood this, but he felt uncomfortable when he saw the Chinese workers working barefoot in order to save a pair of shoes.

"Building a city wall is not something that can be completed in a short time. Working barefoot all the time will do great harm to your body. Let me ask the factory to make a batch of waterproof rubber shoes for you. You don't have to worry about your feet being corroded by cement when you work in rubber shoes in the future." "Prince, what are rubber shoes? Why haven't I heard of them?" The factories that the Prussians helped to establish included textile factories, clothing factories, and cloth shoe factories, but none of them were connected to the factory. Therefore, Sun Bin felt strange and puzzled.

"No rubber shoes? Brazil is the origin of rubber. Rubber extracted from rubber trees can be used to make a variety of basic industrial products such as rubber shoes and tires. Rio Grande do Sul belongs to Brazil, so there should be rubber trees growing there."

Li Mingyuan was surprised at first, then he thought about it slowly and understood the key to the matter. In order to monopolize the profits of rubber production, the Brazilians prohibited the export of rubber seeds to other countries. At that time, rubber was only available in Brazil. If other countries wanted to obtain rubber raw materials, they could only buy them from Brazil. Later, in 1876, British businessmen secretly brought thousands of rubber tree seeds out of Brazil and moved them to the Malay Peninsula, thus breaking the Brazilian monopoly on rubber.

The sources of rubber raw materials are limited, and machinery such as automobiles are still in the exploratory stage. Therefore, European countries have not developed a systematic rubber industry chain, and rubber shoes have not been put into large-scale industrial production.

In 1839, American Goodyear invented the vulcanization method of rubber, which solved the problem of raw rubber becoming sticky and brittle, and made rubber have higher elasticity and toughness, which really entered the industrial practical stage of rubber. Therefore, natural rubber became an important industrial raw material, and the demand for rubber also increased rapidly.

The production process of rubber shoes is simple, and the problem of rubber elasticity was solved by Goodyear thirty years ago. The only obstacle to the large-scale production of rubber shoes is the raw material problem.

Rubber is monopolized by Brazilians. It costs a lot for European countries to obtain large amounts of rubber raw materials, and large-scale industrial production cannot be formed. However, these problems happen to be advantages in Li Mingyuan's eyes. Rio Grande do Sul and Santa Catarina states are in Brazil, and the local environment is suitable for the growth of rubber trees. He does not believe that there are no rubber trees on the 430,000 square kilometers of land.

Rubber production and processing technology is mature. With the acceleration of industrialization, rubber will be an important and indispensable industrial raw material for the next 100 years. It will take at least ten years for rubber to be transferred to other regions and form large-scale plantations. Rio Grande do Sul just took advantage of the time difference before the outflow of rubber to develop the rubber industry on a large scale and establish the dominant position of the rubber industry by taking advantage of the first-mover advantage. In this way, even if rubber seeds are obtained by other countries in advance, it will take several years to form large-scale planting to meet the needs of industrial production.

An inadvertent inspection of the construction site allowed Li Mingyuan to discover a new industry that could bring huge returns to Rio Grande do Sul. After a brief chat with the Chinese workers on the construction site, Li Mingyuan returned to his residence and immediately arranged for people to investigate the distribution of rubber in Rio Grande do Sul.

The people who were sent out to search for rubber soon brought back the information that Li Mingyuan wanted. There were thousands of wild rubber trees distributed in the jungle west of Xinjing. Soldiers sent to other places also brought back news of the discovery of rubber trees.

In a forest west of Xinjing, Li Mingyuan, Liu Pu, Sun Bin and others walked through a path opened by soldiers, bypassed the bushes, and came to a tall rubber tree.

"Prince, is this the rubber tree you sent people to look for?"

Sun Bin looked at the more than 30-meter-tall tree in front of him and felt that it was no different from the local Su wood, bitter wood and other trees.

"Come, look at what this is."

Li Mingyuan took out the dagger he carried with him and gently cut a hole in the rubber tree. Then a stream of milky white mucus immediately flowed out from the wound on the tree.

Sun Bin stepped forward and put some lotion on his hand. Just as he was about to put it on his mouth to taste it, he was stopped by Li Mingyuan.
"The rubber liquid is poisonous. Although it is not fatal, it will cause abdominal pain for a few days if ingested by mistake."

The milky white liquid was like coconut juice. Sun Bin had not expected it to be poisonous. He quickly took his finger away from his mouth and said with a wry smile, "Thank you for reminding me, Your Highness."

"It's okay, just be careful next time." Li Mingyuan waved his hand, then walked around the surrounding rubber trees and returned to his original position.

"The lifespan of a rubber tree is about 60 years. This rubber tree is about 20 years old, which is the peak period for producing rubber liquid. There is also a forest nearby with a total of about 300 rubber trees, and more than 130 of them are over 20 years old."

Li Mingyuan introduced with some joy: "Brazilians only harvest rubber liquid from wild rubber trees, which not only limits the amount obtained, but also leads to great waste. We cannot learn from the Brazilians. Rubber trees are a cash cow and must be used well."

"Prince, we have never touched rubber trees before. Will it cause harm to the trees if we do it ourselves?"

Liu Pu asked.

"Don't worry, the environment and soil in Rio Grande do Sul are suitable for rubber trees to survive. Tell the brothers to be careful and transplant the rubber tree seedlings to the cleared wasteland. Then water and care for them regularly, and the seedlings will survive."

Apart from having some special requirements for the living environment, rubber trees are similar to ordinary trees in terms of transplanting and planting, and do not require any extra manual care.

When Brazilians obtain rubber liquid, they mostly use axes to cut down the tree trunks directly. After several cuts, most rubber trees will die due to severe damage, or the trees will be damaged, and the rubber liquid output will be seriously reduced.

The Brazilians' method of obtaining rubber liquid is to exhaust the resources, but Li Mingyuan will not do that. Instead, he will adopt a more efficient method that can obtain sufficient rubber liquid without endangering the survival of rubber trees.

This method was invented by a botanical garden owner in Singapore in 1887. It involves repeated cutting on the original incision to obtain rubber liquid without damaging the tissue formation area of ​​the rubber tree. This allows a rubber tree to provide rubber liquid for decades.

(End of this chapter)