Chapter 854 Salted Fish Also Has Dreams (First Update, Please Subscribe)

The British Empire accepted the challenge!

There was no need for intelligence personnel to gather intelligence. All they had to do was look at the price of rubber on the London Stock Exchange. Almost overnight, the price of rubber on the London Stock Exchange rose from 6 shillings per pound to 10 shillings. Then it quickly soared to 12 shillings!

The price of a ton of rubber has exceeded 1,000 pounds!

"Rubber, rubber, the whole world is desperately purchasing rubber!"

London newspapers were full of news about the skyrocketing rubber prices, and of course investing in the rubber business became the hottest topic.

Rubber has a wide range of uses!

It can be used to make raincoats, airships, shoe soles and other products. Of course, its biggest use is to make tires for carriages, cars, and bicycles. In short, it has a wide range of uses.

In 1870, the value of rubber imports to the UK was only 35,000 pounds, but it increased to 2.47 million pounds in 1875. Market demand stimulated the development of the rubber industry. Although as early as 1874, 22 rubber seedlings cultivated in the Royal Botanic Gardens in London were sent to Singapore, it took time for rubber trees to mature.

Before this, Britain could only import rubber from Brazil.

The war between Ming Dynasty and Brazil would naturally affect Brazil's rubber supply, which is also the reason for the surge in rubber prices.

In addition to Brazil, there is another supplier - Ming Dynasty.

Since the day it was built, the Ming Dynasty's Congo Colony has been famous for its rubber production. After all, there are also a large number of wild rubber trees in the Congo River basin. It was the export of rubber that laid the early economic foundation of this colony.

However, although rubber laid the economic foundation here, the pillar industry of the Congo colony is now palm oil. After primary processing in factories and workshops in Madita and other places, part of the palm oil is sent domestically for industrial production, and part is exported to Europe and the United States.

For this reason, investing in palm plantations has always been the most popular business in the Congo colony.

"Master, from now on, this is your garden!"

Standing in the corridor of the bamboo building, Zoten stood behind his owner and pointed at the garden.

"Yes,"

Ding Dashuan pointed proudly at the 2,000-mu plantation. After more than two years of development, it is not only fully planted with oil palms, but half of them have begun to mature and bear fruit, thanks to the three-year-old oil palm saplings transplanted from Boss Chen's garden when the plantation was built.

"Our orchard will be able to produce oil this year. In two years, these 1,000 acres of oil palm will be able to produce oil..."

Three years ago, when he first came to this place, he only fantasized about owning his own plantation one day, and now his dream has finally come true.

After graduating from Chen Erqiang's plantation two years ago, like all immigrants, he obtained 1,500 acres of wasteland. After using a bank loan to purchase tools, he hired hundreds of local workers to cut down trees and burn the wasteland. It took him two full years to turn the rainforest into the current plantation.

With this plantation, good days are just around the corner!

"Master, why is it that only half of our garden is planted with oil palm?"

Xia Yuhe, dressed in a maid outfit, looked at the bare land on the other side in confusion. There were dozens of gardeners busy working between the ridges.

"rubber!"

Ding Dashuan uttered two words directly.

"Rubber is the most profitable business. Mr. Chen once said that the cost of a pound of rubber is only 0.31 yuan, but the selling price is as high as one dollar. Even if the transportation cost is included, it is still twice the profit."

As soon as Sato finished speaking, Ding Dashuan spoke.

"That was in the past. I heard someone at the club yesterday that the price has doubled to two yuan per kilogram! One acre of rubber forest can produce at least 70 kilograms of rubber. Just calculate how much more money you can make from the price increase of one thousand acres of rubber forest..."

Seventy thousand yuan!

This is just the profit from the price increase!

"Oh, doesn't that mean we're going to make a fortune? That's tens of thousands of dollars!"

Xia Yuhe, the housekeeper, asked with some confusion.

"Master, since growing rubber is so profitable, why don't we grow more?"

"Butler, things in this world are not that easy. This rubber tree needs several years to grow to maturity. Our garden will take about five years."

Zoten said rather helplessly.

"Master, I heard that our rubber plantation area is about 1.75 million mu, of which about 1.5 million mu were planted in the past three years. The rubber trees in these gardens will be mature and ready for tapping in six years at the latest. When that happens, there will be so much rubber on the market, and the price will definitely not be as high as it is now."

Zoteng's words made Ding Dashuan nod in agreement.

"So, we only planted 1,000 mu of rubber trees. But with these 1,000 mu of rubber trees, we can get another loan from the bank. With this money, we can expand our garden several times, and then mortgage the garden to expand it. Money will naturally roll out..."

Listening to the master muttering about the business principle of "making money from money", Zoten did not say anything. In Congo, this method was the most common method. As long as you were a Ming person, you could own a plantation of tens of thousands of acres if you worked hard for a few years.

Of course, this is only limited to the people of the Ming Dynasty - the identity of a Ming Dynasty person is worth a fortune!

For people like Zoteng, this is something they cannot envy. Even though Dongying has been incorporated into the Ming Dynasty, they are not real Ming people after all. However, Zoteng will never have any dissatisfaction. When he was in Japan, he was just an ordinary person, but now? He is the chief foreman of the plantation and the master's close confidant.

In the colony, everyone has their place. The Ming people are the masters who are high above, and the Japanese supervisors are the "foremen". Although their status is not as high as that of the Ming people, they are second only to the Ming people. Moreover, after naturalization, they are also naturalized citizens! They can also buy land and build plantations.

Of course, in Zoten's view, even as a naturalized citizen, he should be dependent on the head of the family. Betraying the head of the family is an extremely shameful thing. Therefore, in Zoten's view, this plantation is his home, not only his, but also his son's home.

As for Ding Dashuan in front of him, he is his master. He has already considered that after he is naturalized, he will change his surname to Ding, just like the housekeeper Xia Yuhe. His father is a white prisoner, and the reason he changed his surname to Xia is because the owner of the plantation where he originally worked was named Xia.

In the colonies, it was common to take the master's surname as one's own. Even if the indigenous laborers envied it, they could not do so. After all, changing to a Chinese surname was a blessing in itself! Not everyone could change it.

"Wait another two years, and we can have the last name Ding..."

While thinking this in his mind, his eyes involuntarily looked at the housekeeper's slightly bulging belly. That was the master's child - the second child.

Looking at her complexion that was the color of milk and coffee, Zoten felt quite impressed.

She is truly a woman who does not know the difference between high and low status. She is just a woman who uses her beauty to seduce her master.

However, if his daughter can win the favor of the master in the future, it will be a blessing for her!

Muttering to himself, Zoten's gaze turned to Hanako who was wearing a maid outfit not far away. Her dark skin glowed charmingly in the sun, and the daughter beside Hanako had the same skin color as him. Looking at his three-year-old daughter, Zoten's face was full of proud smiles.

My daughter, you must grow up quickly. It would be the best thing for you to marry a man from the Ming Dynasty.

He also knew that this possibility was very small. After all, his daughter's status was there. Even if she grew up and had the opportunity to marry a Ming man, she would only be a concubine.

However, being able to become a concubine of a Ming Dynasty man is also a happy thing!

(End of this chapter)