I have a Mansion in the Post-apocalyptic World - Chapter 838

Chapter 838: Economic Dependent Country

The summer was approaching its end, and City M’s temperature was much milder than it was some time ago.

The prisoners of war were locked into prison and the post-war liquidation ended. The transitional government took over the affairs of the country and the tension eased down.

At present, the troops of Moro still occupied City M. The scars of the war were still visible on the streets. The war refugees queuing for food at the military checkpoints were a lot less than before.

MLL Island was developing industries at lightning speed. Many food processing plants, paper mills and garment factories had sprung up. People who couldn’t find a job in City M began to migrate south. They took a boat trip to MLL Island to test their luck in Quezon.

Although the war between the two countries had just ended, the unification of many years meant there is a connection still existed between the two countries. The relationship between the transitional government and Santos was friendly. To ease the strained domestic employment pressure, the two sides signed a special visa-free agreement to facilitate the unemployed in City M to work in MLL Island.

Moro’s industry was in its infancy and it needed these technical talents from City M.

In early September, with the help of State Grid, the power grids in City M’s downtown and industrial areas managed to recover. As for when the power grid in City M could return to pre-war levels, the estimated time was close to a year.

At the moment, on the outskirts of City M, production had resumed in large and small plantations.

In the entire City M and even in the entire southern part of Province L, the only industry that suffered the least loss was the plantations with little-to-none technology.

Although orders from Mainland continued to decrease, it was fortunate that relations between Country F and Xin eased after the transitional government took power. Xin lowered tariffs on 21 items including bananas, mangoes, coconuts and iron ore from the country. Orders from Xin eased the pressure on these plantations, allowing those unsalable fruits to be disposed of at a price acceptable by farmers.

For years, the border friction and Celestial Trade’s part in the Moro-Country F war contributed to hostility towards Xin. However, these fruit farmers who obtained the benefits were undoubtedly grateful that Xin’s businesspeople saved them.

Among them, with Future Group taking the lead, Future Biology almost purchased their entire inventory.

At the moment, the refugees who came from the city to work in the countryside were helping to carry a box of fruit on a wooden cart and to carry the goods to the dock with horses. The trucks in the plantation broke down and the new vehicles had not yet arrived. Before that, they could only use this primal method.

Some of these people who carried goods were wearing leather shoes and even wearing dress pants.

Obviously they didn’t look like farmers, but they were doing labors much harder. The bitterness was only known to them

Throughout City M, very few companies didn’t close down, and only a few decent or professional jobs remained.

Although several large industrial parks had resumed their power supply, none of the factories were operational. It was not just the power grid that the EMP destroyed, but also the production lines and machines. Without production machines, and just electricity, they couldn’t just plug themselves in to do the work.

When discussing about the negative impact of EMP on Country F’s industry, it must be necessary to mention the pure electric vehicle companies that Jiang Chen purchased earlier in Europe.

Previously, due to a series of sanctions imposed by the European Union, many pure electric vehicle companies such as Luer with a market value of several billion US Dollar declined to the point of bankruptcy. At that time, Jiang Chen gave orders to move Luer and other companies from Europe to Asia, to settle into the New Malaysia Special District and to give up Europe and focus on markets in Hua, Nippon, and South Korea.

Luer was undoubtedly in despair when he executed the order.

However, not two months passed and the situation immediately turned around! It was not because of anything else. It was because of the EMP detonated over City M!

Within the scope of EMP strikes, vehicles throughout City M turned into scrap metal, and the sales of the nation’s motor vehicles were in high demand.

The collapse of the transportation system was even more vexing than the collapse in the production system. Affected by this, the demand for cars in Country F soared and the performance of Luer Motor skyrocketed!

Especially for pickup trucks and small and medium sized trucks, many companies restoring its logistic network even went into debt to purchase vehicles. In this environment, with its reliability and relatively low selling price, Luruka’s brand conquered half of the automobile markets in Country F.

In order to fill this large market gap, Luruka continuously issued orders for its assembly plant to expand. At the same time, it combined Future Heavy Industries and a number of other electric vehicle manufacturers to invest in the construction of solar power charging stations in major cities to further consolidate its current market position.

…

To maintain long-term dependencies, it was by no means a contract, but an economic dependency.

What Jiang Chen needed was for every piece of iron ore mined in Country F to be directly or indirectly processed by Xin’s steel plants. Every grain produced in Country F must go through the Future Group’s food processing plant before returning to their own dinner table.

At that time, even if the transitional government was disbanded and the new President elected by the Country F national election was not Bardista. For the sake of the employment rate and GDP data, they must continue to stay onboard Future Group’s vessel.

Having stayed in City M for a month, the affairs on hand were completed. Jiang Chen flew back to Coro Island.

Walking out of the airport and watching the crowded street, Jiang Chen finally had the feeling of returning to a civilized society. When staying in City M, it was quite inconvenient. Every time he needed to go somewhere, there were armored vehicles and there were at least two people standing in front of the door.

Fortunately, now that he was back, that life should be over.

Unlike the run-down City M, the developing Xin was thriving. The war against neighboring countries did not affect the lives of the people of Xin. On the contrary, due to the depreciation of the peso, the cost of living on Coro Island was much lower than before.

Especially fruits and food.

In mid-September, the first shipments of rice, cabbage, and carrots from the seabed finally landed in the farmer’s markets in Coro Island and Penglai.

Since there was no need to worry about insect pests, these agricultural products were free from pesticides, and they had truly reached their natural state, pollution-free! Due to the ocean’s carbon dioxide-rich environment and constant temperatures, these crops produced on the seabed were often better and more delicious than those cultivated on land.

The grains of rice were like pearls; the steamed rice soft and delicious and addictive to chew on! The Chinese cabbages were oozing with water and looked like jade; nutritious and delicious for consumption.

These agricultural products would be competitive regardless of which country’s market they were sold on.

And most critically, these crops were cheap!

Because it was produced in the country, not only were there no custom duties, even the corporate income tax enjoyed policy subsidies. In addition, because pesticides were not required, the dimensional configuration with fishes being raised on the top and vegetables grown below eliminated the need for fertilizers. The highly mechanized farming process required little manpower.

If the one-time investment in the construction of submarine farm project was not considered, the cost of these rice grown on the seabed would be at least 30% lower than the imports from Thailand and Australia!