December 3, 1642

In Flying Fish Bay on Christmas Island, Xiao Baitu, the mayor of the wharf, accompanied by a government worker, stood on a makeshift platform, picked up the scissors in the tray of Miss Manners, and cut a big red flower.

Today is the day of the opening of the Flying Fish Bay Shipyard, although the shipbuilding project negotiation with the Spaniards and the later site selection have been two months, but the day of the real opening and groundbreaking is today, in order to build this shipyard, Xiao Baitu has made a lot of efforts, such as the immigration bureau applied for at least 3,000 immigrants to Christmas Island, and at the same time like the domestic building production materials enterprises have placed a large number of orders.

It took half a month to transport building materials such as reinforced concrete, and from the left side of the statue, a thatched house not far away was the warehouse where these materials were stored. Soldiers on guard day and night came to patrol and stand guard, ensuring that this place would not be destroyed by those who had a heart.

In addition to the mayor of Christmas Island, the ceremony was attended today by the top commander of the local garrison, as well as the head of Spanish cooperation, Herbert.

It is said that Herbert was a duke heir, and the fact that he was sent to Christmas Island by Fili IV speaks volumes about the importance of his family.

The young Herbert and Xiao Baitu were about the same age, and when the two talked to each other, they learned that he was only one year older than Xiao Baitu, although he looked a little mature, but after all, he was still only a young man in his twenties.

It can also be seen from here that he was sent here to a large extent just to take up a temporary post and prepare for his later promotion. This situation was not uncommon in Eastern and Western antiquity.

"Mr. Herbert, even if our Flying Fish Shipyard is officially established today, you can just ask for help in the future. You don't think Christmas Island is big, but it's not as prosperous as any other city. ”

Xiao Baitu will never miss to introduce the prosperity of the urban area of Christmas Island that he has built single-handedly, as long as he has the opportunity, which is completely a bit of a show-off, and he knows that Christmas Island was originally just a transit point for the import and export of goods in Australia.

With the lifting of the ban on entry and exit from mainland Australia, the status of Australia has begun to decline a bit, and cargo ships from Batavia and Luzon to Macau are not necessary. They are no longer transshipped through here, but go directly to the port of Manchester City, Australia.

So realizing this, Xiao Baitu immediately felt that his biggest crisis was coming, and the status of Christmas Island City declined. This means that his political status has declined, considering that it is the second most populous city in the country and an economic powerhouse, and the only one that can compete with it at the moment is the Manchester Industrial Park. No other town has ever surpassed its economic size.

In addition to being an economic powerhouse. At the same time, Christmas Island is also a leader in the entertainment industry, and there are at least 20 entertainment venues on the island, but the recent prosperity of the entertainment industry has obviously declined, and it is inevitable that the status of the transit trade will change.

The downward trend of the economy is very obvious, and it has been evident since the beginning of August, when Xiao Baitu, who realized that something was wrong, decided to change the situation. You must not watch the Christmas Island City that you have created be compared to others like this, and then your political status will definitely not be guaranteed.

When I went back to my home country for a meeting. He happened to hear the news that Australia was going to cooperate with the Netherlands and Spain to build shipbuilding and steamboats, which was not a small news for him.

After some inquiry, I learned that the location of cooperation between the two sides will be in Australia's overseas territory, and what are the places in Australia's overseas territory, if you have to add the South American territory that has not yet been sent to the garrison, it is a total of four territories.

Among them, Hong Kong is not very likely, the threat from the land is too great, at this time it is the end of the Ming Dynasty, the official change of dynasty, it is impossible to put it here, then there is only another place, Malacca, and its own Christmas Island City.

Among them, Malacca City is the new overseas territory, Australia's investment capital is not much, the possibility will be relatively small, the biggest possibility is their own Christmas Island City, but according to Zhao Shijie, everyone thinks that the port draft of Christmas Island is too shallow and not suitable for building shipyards, and many raw materials must rely on imports, which will invisibly double to triple the cost.

The draft is too shallow, Xiao Baitu was very angry when he heard it, the total displacement of the sea ships you built is less than 1,000 tons, do you think it is a large cargo ship of 200,000 tons. As for the raw materials, then there is no need to import them in Malacca, and the same is needed.

After Xiao Baitu's efforts, he persuaded Congress to choose the second location on Christmas Island, which was regarded as saving the municipality from economic decline.

It was also in view of the declining economic status of Christmas Island that MPs agreed to this decision, and their idea was to place the shipyard in Hong Kong, which could promote the development of Daming in the future.

However, Xiao Baitu said that in order to help others develop, you don't even care about your own domestic cities, so isn't it too much, don't forget that Christmas Island City is a city that has made a significant contribution to the country's infrastructure, you can't forget it and abandon it at this time.

It is polite and polite to be opposed, not to mention that Christmas Island is indeed the largest contribution, and the trade status of the transit station, and the payment of taxes are ranked second, without its existence, Australia is largely not the status it has today.

Moreover, there are also the efforts and contributions made by Xiao Baitu and other old Christmas Island staff, and now with the change of status, they are naturally a little unaccustomed to it, and they inevitably want to redeem it.

In the end, the shipbuilding project is still very simple, and it is impossible to say that it can completely restore the glory of Christmas Island, but at least it can slow down the economic downturn, and with more and more cargo ships transporting raw materials in and out of Christmas, it can also drive the local entertainment industry, which is one of the largest characteristic industries of Christmas Island.

With these premises, there is no fear that the Christmas Island economy will continue to decline, so Xiao Baitu is very welcome to the opening of the shipyard, in addition to the future ships that transport goods will rest here, there are also many buyers to visit the island, which will drive the local entertainment industry to enter the glory again, and he is also thinking about making the Christmas Island industry enter a new stage of development, so he specially returned to the country, inviting some local small processing industry entrepreneurs to move the plant here, And very favorable conditions are given.

At present, more than a dozen entrepreneurs of small businesses have signed a letter of intent and are waiting to take practical action. (To be continued......)