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"Is there enough food in the fort?" After lunch, Meng Hu lit a pipe for himself and asked with a pleasant squint.

"Now that there are few people and subsidies from above, it is not a big problem to be fed, after all, we can still hunt." "But in our country, flour and rice are always just expensive luxuries, and the most we eat are potatoes and sweet potatoes, mixed with fish, vicuña, seals, sea lions, fur seals, sea otters, and so on, but the quantities are very unstable." Moreover, there are not many hunters in the township who have obtained hunting licenses, and the number is limited, so these meat from the sea are actually very tight in our place; The only thing that is not lacking is vicuña meat, after all, it is everywhere, but the men here usually have to carry out regular military training, grow pasture, barley, raise reindeer and dogs, and have to go into the mountains to cut wood in winter, so they don't actually have much time to go out to hunt, so ......"

"So without the grain subsidy of the Southern Railway Company, it will be difficult for you to hold on?" Meng Hu said with a frown.

"Not really." "As the forests are cleared, we clear more arable land in the spring and plant potatoes, barley and, of course, pasture – essential for the winter of livestock." As for the food for the reindeer, we can go north, where there is moss everywhere. The reindeer were cute and ate. And now their populations are not large enough. The feed problem is not enough to constitute a problem. All in all. If it continues to develop normally, the settlement of Beech Fort should be self-sufficient after the three-year subsidy period, and there will be no need to bring in large quantities of grain from the mainland. But the problem is that with the construction of the Pacific Shipyard, we are required to increase the amount of logs harvested, and we will also need to build a timber processing plant and a drying plant at the dockside, which will inevitably take up a lot of manpower. We can't open up enough arable land. ”

The Pacific Shipyard, which the young official was talking about, is located in the port of Araucan and is currently only a ship repair yard. The executive committee does not plan to upgrade it to a shipyard in the short term, but the Southern Railway Company is very keen on it, because Mo Ming wants to control a shipbuilding company by himself, so as not to be controlled by others. At present, the two sides are going back and forth, and this matter is estimated to be gone in the short term.

"You don't have to worry about the food problem." Meng Hu shook his head when he heard this, and reassured everyone: "As far as I know, the Pacific Shipyard will not be able to play in the short term, and your main task after the beginning of spring is to expand the area of cultivated land and plant more barley and pasture. The barley is partially used for personal use. Some of it is exported back to the country - this thing is sold well in the country, and the grass is used to feed the livestock. The conditions here are so good that there is no reason not to develop animal husbandry. In addition, the Southern Railway Company is currently tight on the bank, and may issue a large number of hunting licenses after the beginning of spring, allowing everyone to hunt seals, fur seals, sea lions and sea otters in the designated area, on the one hand, to provide enough meat for the new settlers, and on the other hand, to produce more high-quality leather and lubricants, which are very profitable projects, and the company is very short of money. ”

Speaking of Tierra del Fuego and its surrounding islands, it has always been a paradise for seals, sea otters, sea lions, fur seals and other animals because it has been inaccessible for 10,000 years and has good fishing. After the opening of the South Pacific route, the number of people on hand of the Southern Railway Company has increased significantly, and they now plan to send more people to settle on the island to hunt the abundant seals and other resources in the area, and to provide enough funds for the company's development. You must know that in today's Oriental Port, with the growth of residents' disposable income, the auction price of a first-class sea otter skin has soared to about 50 yuan, and the second-class sea otter skin has also cost 20 or 30 yuan, and even seal skin has risen to 8 yuan a piece, which is extremely profitable.

What's more, in the process, a large amount of high-grade lubricants comparable to whale oil can be produced, and it is also a large amount of income to sell, and the number of these animals on Tierra del Fuego is estimated to be as many as seven or eight hundred thousand, if there are rules and limits for hunting, this is a long-term business. What did the French go to great lengths to get to Quebec for? Get the fur! The French are flocking to these high-quality leathers, so don't the relatively wealthy people on the East Coast consume them? How can it be!

However, although the decision was made to capture these amphibians, the necessary regulations had to be developed in order to avoid indiscriminate hunting and killing of the population. For example, muskets are not allowed to be used in the hunting process (the female beasts who die under the musket are basically incapacitated, and there will be sea beast carcasses sinking to the bottom of the sea, which is too wasteful, of course, the main reason is that the musket killing efficiency is too high), female beasts are not allowed to be hunted, only sea beasts that are more than a certain age (generally three years old) are allowed to be hunted, some areas are set as hunting ban areas, and the number of sea beast habitats killed in each sea beast habitat is determined by the Ministry of Agriculture officials after actual inspections every year, etc. If these rules are strictly adhered to, then theoretically speaking, the number of sea beasts will not decrease, and the people of the East Coast will only need to use "interest" every year to obtain the wealth they need - if the total number of sea beasts is regarded as "principal".

Of course, as far as Menghu's personal opinion is concerned, he is very disapproving of this kind of hunting, he is a "travel friend", but also an environmentalist, and he also loves animals. In his opinion, although there were all kinds of so-called "rules", even if muskets could not be used, he believed that under the leadership of the old Shandan hunters, the Ming immigrants would definitely be able to hunt these sea beasts on a large scale with great efficiency, so that their populations would decline significantly.

He had seen how the Shandan people hunted sea beasts: a thin net could often easily catch a seal; A few people surround from the sea, and the panicked fur seals swim towards the shore, and then they only need to slam the seal's head with a wooden stick to get the whole high-quality fur, and so on. All in all, he would never believe that these people would honestly hunt and kill sea beasts in accordance with the law, driven by huge profits and with the tacit consent of the Southern Railway Company, there will definitely be many people who will take risks and carry out indiscriminate hunting and killing of sea beasts.

The Russians in the Komandor Islands are a prime example. The Russians also enacted many measures to restrict the killing of sea beasts, but they still irretrievably failed under the magic of money. Before 1892, for example, they had only a few thousand sea beasts a year, but with the popularity of sea animal skins in the London market, the Russians slaughtered 80,000 in 1892, 102,000 in 1892, and 141,000 in 1893......

After a few years, the number of birds has plummeted to just over 10,000, which is telling. In fact, this was not only the case for the Russians, but also for the Americans in Alaska, and with the indiscriminate hunting and killing of sea beasts on the verge of extinction, they had no choice but to stop hunting for many years. Meng Hu didn't believe that Mo Ming of the Southern Railway Company didn't understand this truth, but his eyes had been blinded by money, so he couldn't help it. In addition, he was only one person, and he had killed three or five of his friends, and he couldn't twist his arms and thighs, so he couldn't stop the decision of the Southern Railway Company at all-even if he hunted only 30,000 sea beasts a year, the profit during the period was likely to exceed 500,000 yuan, which was a fortune that no one could give up lightly--so he could only see out of sight and not be upset.

"Let go of hunting sea beasts?" Everyone was refreshed when they heard this. Of course, they know very well how profitable the sea beasts are, there is a small oil refinery in the beech fort, and the seal oil refined every month can bring thousands of yuan to the Southern Railway Company, which is enough to support the small scale (more than 800 people) exploration and business activities of the Southern Railway Company on this island so far.

It is believed that if the hunting restrictions are relaxed, the income from this oil refining may increase several times or even more than ten times, after all, there are only two domestic enterprises that can refine high-grade oils and fats on the east coast, namely the South China Sea Fishery Company (cod offal oil refining, whale fat refining, and Falklands Baleen Whale Port seal refining) and the Southern Railway Company (sea animal fat refining), of which the South China Sea Fishery Company occupies most of the market share. These oils and fats are undoubtedly extremely important for the East Coast Republic of China, because they can be used to make high-quality edible oil, high-quality smokeless candles, high-grade lubricating oils, high-grade soaps, high-grade cream (butter), etc., which are very versatile, the market demand is very large, and the profits are very high, and no one can take them lightly.

After seeing the excitement of the group of people, Meng Hu sighed in his heart and mourned the sad future of various sea beasts (seals, sea lions, sea otters, fur seals, etc.), which numbered nearly 800,000 in the entire archipelago and the surrounding waters. Fortunately, the hundreds of thousands of sea beasts on the Valdes Peninsula and the Falklands in the La Plata region have not been hunted for the time being, and these sea creatures finally have a safe habitat.

"It's long overdue to loosen hunting restrictions." Some people said excitedly, "In addition, the whaling activities should also be carried out, the nearby whale resources are actually very rich, every year many whales are thrown ashore by the waves, and some can only let them rot when they are found late, and it is a pity that they cannot be used properly!" ”

In the 19th century, dozens of whales were pushed ashore by the waves almost every year near the Kamchatka Peninsula of the Russian Empire, and they were an extremely important source of food for the local aborigines. This is the case in the Bering Sea, and the number of whales thrown ashore each year near the Southern Ocean, where whale resources are more abundant, is more objective. In fact, the indigenous people of Tierra del Fuego, such as the Ona people, have always lived by killing stranded whales, and of course they will brave their canoes into the rough waters of the Strait of Magellan and Beagle to catch whales with wooden or stone spears.

"Loosen the restrictions on the hunting of sea beasts and add a few whaling ships, and Tierra del Fuego will definitely develop slowly and become a rich land." Some local officials couldn't help but make some happy associations. (The novel "Crossing 1630: The Rise of South America" will have more fresh content on the official WeChat platform, and there will also be a 100% lottery gift for everyone!) Open WeChat now, click on the "+" sign in the upper right corner "Add Friends", search for the official account "ddxiaoshuo" and follow, hurry up! (To be continued......)