Nanyang Storm 1864

Chapter 370: Ten Major Cities of Chu
Almost without exception, the top five cities in China have relatively mature industrial systems, which have attracted a large number of people to work in the cities, spawned supporting commercial and service industries, and contributed to the prosperity of the cities.

When one industry prospers, all industries prosper.

Cebu, the fourth largest city in the Chu State, rapidly expanded its production scale after the establishment of the Cebu Copper Smelter, becoming a leading enterprise in the city's development.

Relying on the rich local copper resources, Cebu has developed dozens of mechanical processing plants over the years to produce copper and iron parts, which are widely used in warships, steamships, steam engines, locomotives and factory and mining machinery.

For example, a simple steam pressure relief valve can be manufactured by a specialized steam pressure relief valve factory, which can produce steam pressure relief valves of various specifications and pressures for use in various scenarios.

There are hundreds of handicraft factories and bell and tripod casting workshops in Cebu. The former mainly produces copper handicrafts, including copper plates, copper basins, copper pots, copper mirrors, copper Buddha statues, incense burners and other copper items. The products are exported in large quantities to Southeast Asia and the northern continent.

Larger copper castings require professional foundry workshops to complete. For example, the bronze bells and tripods in the temple, and the giant bronze bells placed on Fubo Gate, Tianque, and Corregidor Fortress, which often weigh tens of thousands of pounds, are all made in local foundries.

But don’t think that these bells and tripods are niche products, that’s totally wrong.

With the large-scale influx of Chinese immigrants to Southeast Asia, the territory of Chu State continued to expand. Wherever there were Chinese immigrants, temples and Taoist temples were built everywhere.

The number is difficult to count. There are at least hundreds of temples and Taoist temples with more than ten rooms, which are widely distributed in various prefectures and counties, outlying islands and border islands.

In addition, a large number of nobles and wealthy families are keen on building ancestral halls to gather clan members and relatives. This is a sentiment that is indelible in the bones of the Chinese. How can there be less demand?

The Chu government built martyrs' temples and cemeteries at old battlefields in various places. All the incense and sacrificial objects were mostly made of copper, and there were at least dozens of them.

These large bronze objects require exquisite casting craftsmanship, with both inscriptions and patterns, which is not an easy task.

Even though there were dozens of foundries in Cebu, they were unable to cope with the constant demand. Temples from as far away as the Kingdom of Vietnam, the Kingdom of Siam, and the Kingdom of Burma came to buy.

Cebu was originally an ancient city with hundreds of years of history. It was reborn in the Chu State. The city's size grew rapidly from tens of thousands of people. By the end of June 1871, the total urban population reached 6.

The reason
It is the urban agglomeration effect brought about by industrialization that has resulted in Cebu not only having a relatively mature copper industry, but also two cement plants, a flour mill, two slaughterhouses, a large woolen mill employing over 4 people, more than a dozen canning plants, four shipyards, and some other enterprises.

Cebu is also one of the main ports for canned product exports, ranking second only to Zamboanga.

Statistics at the end of June 1871
The total population of Cebu and the surrounding islands is over 123 million, ranking third among the four mainland islands.

The three states of East Malaya have a total population of 121.2 million, ranking fourth among the four mainland islands.

Among the remaining archipelagos with larger populations, the Shangri-La Islands have a population of 94, the Hawaiian Islands have a population of just over 80, and the other islands mostly have a population ranging from 3 to 5 to or , so I will not go into details.

Judging by the current economic development level of the Chu State, it should be a country with one foot in the steam industrialization stage, but the other foot is still outside the threshold.

It is said that for such a small country, with a total population less than half of Fuso, it should be relatively easy to achieve industrialization, as a small ship is easier to turn around.

Must see

As an immigration country, the total immigrant population of Chu State reached 459.66 million in the past two years, showing an increasing trend of immigration, which was a major obstacle to its complete transformation into a steam-industrialized country.

More than 90% of these immigrants were farmers. Although some were absorbed by industrial and mining enterprises, after entering the State of Chu, most of them were still settled in agricultural production.

This process will take at least 5 to 6 years.

Only after completely paying off the immigration tickets and various resettlement loans can one move freely within the country, try new industries, and look for new development opportunities.

This is a sedimentation process.

For an emerging immigrant country like Chu, it is a necessary process to enhance national identity, rather than just changing jobs after arriving. Wouldn't that be a waste of effort?

The State of Chu was not the United States, which almost dominated the North American continent. To the east was the turbulent Atlantic Ocean, and to the west was the vast Pacific Ocean. There was nowhere to go if it wanted to change jobs.

The State of Chu is located in a strategic location in Southeast Asia, and there are too many temptations around it.

Go east to Australia to pan for gold, go south to the Dutch East Indies, the colonies under the British Channel Governorate to the west welcome you with open arms, and to the north there are the French Saigon Governorate, the Kingdom of Siam, and the Kingdom of Burma to choose from, all of which are places where Chinese people live.

Take Bangkok, the capital of the Kingdom of Siam, as an example

Around 1871, Bangkok's population was about 41, three-quarters of whom were Chinese immigrants, with a total population of over 3, many of whom were Chaoshan immigrants.

Throughout the Kingdom of Siam, Chinese immigrants accounted for about one-tenth of the total population, with the vast majority concentrated in large cities and few in rural areas.

King Rama V of Siam, who ascended the throne in 1868, immediately sent a high-level diplomatic mission to Manila to meet with His Majesty the King of Chu and express the intention of friendly relations between the two countries.

Today, the exchanges between the Kingdom of Chu and the Kingdom of Siam are very active. The Kingdom of Siam has sent dozens of officers to study at the Manila Army Academy, and has also invited officers from the Kingdom of Chu to train the army in the Kingdom of Siam, including the royal guards.

The Siamese military also purchased 4000 Manila rifles and 24 10-pound Manila rifled cannons to equip its elite troops.

From this perspective

The exchanges between the two countries were much closer and more cordial than those between the kingdoms of Indochina and the Malay indigenous kingdoms in the Strait of Johor.

King Zheng Guohui of Chu praised Rama V highly, believing him to be "the only monarch among the Southeast Asian nations with a clear international strategic vision, knowing when to advance and when to retreat, and knowing how to choose and what to give up. This is a blessing for the Kingdom of Siam."

Zamboanga is the sixth largest city in Chu State, with a total population of 41.03, just over less than the fifth largest city, Cavite.

Zamboanga was the first city conquered by the Chu State when it moved south. Here stands the majestic Babel Pagoda, which has become a landmark building in the local area and even in the Chu State. It is tightly surrounded by the pagoda fortress.

Zamboanga is famous for its light industrial products, especially canned fruits that are sold far and wide at home and abroad. There are more than 130 fruit canning factories in the province and its counties, and the annual canned fruit production accounts for more than % of the total.

It can be said that most of the villages and towns here have fruit canning factories and large fruit plantations, making it a place filled with the fragrance of fruits and melons.

There are also two newly built woolen mills in the area that process wool from Australia, but this industry is not well-known and is often forgotten.

The industry that Zamboanga is currently promoting is offshore fishing. In the coastal fishing ports, more and more fishing boats are joining in and utilizing the rich fishery resources for fishing.

The reason for this is that Zamboanga has discovered an opportunity for development: Europeans are quite fond of canned food, including canned fish. Many of these caught seafood are made into canned fish, mainly for export to Europe and North America, and they have already won many orders.

These canned fish are mainly packaged in foreign iron sheets and come in many varieties, such as crispy canned hairtail, canned fish in fermented black beans, canned mackerel in tomato sauce, canned spiced sardines, canned stewed salmon, etc. Small packages are one pound each, and large packages are 5 pounds or 10 pounds each, suitable for different scenarios.

Even the British and French armies would purchase such canned fish products to supply colonial armies around the world, and the British Royal Navy was a major customer.

An order for this kind of canned fish can easily cost tens of thousands of pounds.

It was these large orders from overseas that triggered a climax in the development of the local fishery in Zamboanga. New fishery processing plants were quickly built, accompanied by a large number of orders for the construction of fishing boats, forming a prosperous development trend.

The saying "It's nice to have a big tree behind you to provide shade" is really true. Now that the relationship between Chu State and Britain is good, it has even received orders from the British Royal Navy, which has driven the local economic development of Zamboanga. This is unparalleled.

The seventh largest city in the State of Chu is Xinxi'an. Unlike the aforementioned six cities, Xinxi'an is a city that relies entirely on agricultural development, but it also has its pillar industries.

That is the sugar industry. Xinxi'an has 6 sugar factories that process locally produced sugarcane, with an annual processing output of 2.2 tons.

The white sugar and old rock sugar produced locally in Xinxi'an are widely supplied domestically and exported in large quantities to northern China and Southeast Asian countries. They are the local pillar industries.

End of August 1871
New Xi'an has a population of 38.83, firmly occupying the throne of the seventh largest city in the country and the only agricultural city among the top ten cities.

Actually

The new Xi'an Prefecture has one of the largest copper mine resources in the world today. It has applied for mine development and the construction of a copper smelter several times, but all were rejected.

Nowadays, it is difficult to develop this treasure mountain, and the overall urban development is far better than that of major local cities. It is really frustrating!

There is nothing that can be done about this. The "strengthening the trunk and weakening the branches" policy set by the King of Chu does not encourage industrial development on border islands, restricts the development of industrial categories, and limits resource exploitation. These are all established policies.

There are more than a dozen large and medium-sized copper mines in the Chu State. With the current smelting and development capabilities, they can cope with full development for at least 200 years. It will never be the turn of Xinxi'an.

The same is true for iron ore, lead ore, tin ore, coal mines, etc. In the resource development sequence, Shangri-La Island was originally ranked very low.

Fortunately, there is the sugarcane industry, which is a major internationally traded commodity. If it can continue to grow stronger and bigger, there will be no worries about future development.

Now, the sugar orders from France, Austria-Hungary and Britain in Europe indicate that colonial resettlement will focus on the new Xi'an Prefecture and Donggang Prefecture, further increasing the efforts to develop sugarcane plantations.

The market is there, whether you can take it up depends entirely on yourself.

The eighth largest city in Chu State was Cagayan. According to statistics at the end of June 1871, Cagayan had a population of 6 and was an emerging light industrial city.

Because of his outstanding performance in developing the regional economy, Cagayan Governor Cao Yuxiu was promoted to the central government to serve as Deputy Secretary-General of the Royal Secretariat, ranking first among the five deputy secretaries-general.

He has great hope of taking over the position of Secretary-General in the future and has a very bright future.

The ninth largest city in the Chu State was Qilibagawan, with a population of 34.71 at the end of the period. It was an emerging coastal oil city.

This city is a typical rising star. Because of its rich oil resources, the city's development is expanding rapidly like blowing up a balloon, and it has great potential.

The Governor's Office of East Malaya held a 10% stake in the Royal Bright Petroleum Company, earning millions of silver dollars in profits every year, which led to the rapid development of the three states of East Malaya.

The areas that benefited the most were Bandar Seri Begawan, the seat of the Governor's Office, and Kuching, the capital of Sarawak.

The urban construction here is quite outstanding. Cities large and small have built high-standard urban sewer culvert facilities, which prevent flooding in the rainy season and keep the environment clean and hygienic in the dry season.

Many main city roads have been paved with asphalt. Under the shade of tropical coconut trees and flowers, the red tiles, white walls, green trees and silver sand create a very beautiful scenery.

With the additional financial benefits, the infrastructure in the three states of East Malaya has been advanced at a rapid pace. In the past three years, millions of acres of fertile land have been reclaimed, thousands of bridges and more than a dozen trunk roads have been built.

The East Malayan Railway, which runs through three states, is currently under construction. The planned construction length is 1225 kilometers. Along the route, 156 bridges and railway overpasses and 41 stations will be built to connect all prefectures, counties and important towns along the route.

The entire project was planned to be completed in three and a half years, with a total investment of 310 million silver dollars and an annual allocation of nearly one million silver dollars, all of which were raised by the Governor's Office of East Malaya.

some of

The East Malaya Governor's Office raised 60% of the funds, 30% was raised from large companies and enterprises, and the remaining 10% was subscribed by citizens, which would be repaid with the operating profits of the East Malaya Railway in the future.

The reason why the Governor's Office of East Malaya was able to promote such a large-scale infrastructure project was that it had the confidence to make huge profits from the Royal Lumina Petroleum Company.

Besides
The Bandar Seri Begawan Port expansion and renovation project, the Kuching Inland Port expansion and renovation project, the Mingshan Reservoir, the urban power plant and several kerosene street light construction projects are all progressing.

The large-scale investment naturally leads to a rapid improvement in the ability to resettle immigrants.

The Governor's Office of East Malaya has submitted an application to the Colonial Office, hoping to increase the number of immigrants resettled in the three continents of East Malaya to 3 in the next three years.

This guy is going to use the annual immigration quota of 20 people, and his appetite is quite big.

According to Governor He Xian's private statement

The population of the three states of East Malaya must exceed 200 million in the next three years. These 60 immigrants are just a guarantee, and 80 immigrants are the real goal.

The shortage of 20 people must be absorbed from the neighboring Southeast Asian countries. The target is to attract those Chinese with a certain economic foundation to immigrate independently and develop together in East Malaya, so that they can embark on the road to prosperity.

East Malaya is not short of resources. There are many rivers and dense mountains. In addition to rich resources such as oil, natural gas, timber, pepper, etc., there is no shortage of mineral resources.

Sarawak has large bauxite mines, and many gold, copper, antimony, coal and other mineral veins have been discovered during exploration, all of which are in a barren and undeveloped state.

In addition, there are many local rubber plantations and palm oil plantations, as well as cocoa, abaca, sago, rattan and other development projects, and the surrounding marine resources are also rich.

With such good natural and geographical conditions, there is no reason why it would not develop well.

(End of this chapter)