Wild North America 1846

Chapter 251 Ranking the Top Five Cities in 1856
End of June 1856
The GDP of Datang Kingdom in the first half of the year reached 5.273 million Tang yuan, which is about 91.2% of the total economic volume of the northern United States, further closing the gap between the two economic aggregates.

This statistic does not include the economic aggregate of the American South.

From the total population

By the end of June, the total population of Datang Kingdom reached 6 million. The average monthly immigration of the northern Pacific Golden Route was 1112.33 to 9, the average monthly immigration of the Central Pacific route was 10 to 1.7, and the average monthly immigration of South and Central American routes was 2.2 to 5500. With 6000 people, this route is the only immigration route showing a downward trend.

The northern part of the United States continued to be the main inflow region of European immigrants, showing a typical trend of high population growth.

By the end of June, the population of the northern United States had reached 6 million, and the scale of industrial production was further expanded, showing a vigorous development momentum of initial industrialization.

The Kansas Civil War did not affect the economic growth momentum of the northern United States, and it was a typical local war.

With the end of the Crimean War in Europe, the demand for a large amount of war materials from Europe plummeted, which had a certain impact on the industrial and agricultural economy of the Tang Kingdom. The strong growth driven by the fierce demand during the war came to an end, and the development curve tended to slow.

exactly at this time
The main projects of the Daming Palace have been completed and delivered one after another. Now only the West Palace and the Harem are left, which are still under intensive construction. The number of construction workers has decreased from 4.23 in its heyday to about 1.4 at present.

Most of the costly main materials have been completed, and now more of the work is meticulously crafted, mostly completed by skilled craftsmen, and the demand for hard labor is greatly reduced.

The Royal Household Office was able to free up its hands to allocate funds for the planned strategic reserve, and officially launched a large-scale collection and storage operation, which provided a great buffer space for a considerable number of enterprises in the kingdom to change from wartime to peacetime.

During the year
The Ministry of Internal Affairs plans to allocate 450 million yuan for purchasing and storage. The orders will focus on individual weapons and equipment, belts and saddles, tent blankets, standard military uniforms, bedding, kettles and shovels, shells and bullets, and field guns of various calibers produced by the Colt Weapons Company. 150 doors, ten 6000-ton steam iron transport ships and other various grain, wheat and soybean reserves.

from next year

The Royal Household Office will allocate no less than 1100 million yuan for large-scale storage every year, and the Royal Government will also allocate special funds to focus more on grain and oil reserves, taking into account both military and civilian uses.

End of June 1856
The development statistics of the cities of the Tang Kingdom have been released one after another, and the ranking of the top ten cities in the kingdom is clearer, reflecting the overall trend of the economic development of the Tang Kingdom from the side.

The largest city of the Tang Kingdom is Chang’an (San Francisco), which is the political, cultural, military and economic center of the kingdom. With the Daming Palace on the Dragon’s Head as the core, the kingdom’s government, military leadership, religious beliefs, higher education, Both culture and large corporate headquarters gather here, forming an increasingly prosperous development trend.

The population of Chang'an (San Francisco) increased from 1854 at the end of 102.21 to 1856 at the end of June 6, an increase of 123.95 in one and a half years.

The education system is dominated by a series of higher education institutions such as the University of California, Chang'an Lecture Hall, Caltech, Kingdom Medical University, and Kingdom Teachers College. It has gathered experts and professors from all over the world, and its education has reached the first-class level in Europe. , gave birth to many major inventions that promote economic development.

It is especially famous for its innovative achievements such as complete sets of petrochemical equipment, small diesel engines and marine steam power, Harvey bulletproof armor steel, food and canned food processing equipment.

Chang'an City is also the only large city with a population of one million in the Tang Kingdom. It has gathered many large enterprises and bank headquarters. The scale of the city has been expanding again and again, just like a large construction site everywhere, and its development is changing with each passing day.

Los Angeles, the second largest city in the Datang Kingdom, had a total population of 1854 at the end of 73.4 to 1856 at the end of June 6, not far from the goal of a million-population city.

Los Angeles is the terminal of the golden route in the northern Pacific Ocean. Thanks to the influx of millions of Chinese immigrants every year, the development speed of Los Angeles has always been at the forefront among large coastal cities, second only to Chang'an.

Today, the four major companies, Texaco Petroleum Company, Chevron Petroleum Company, Royal Brilliance Petroleum Company and California Petroleum Company, the pillars of the Tang Kingdom's economic industry, are all headquartered in Los Angeles.

The ocean shipping and transshipment industries in Los Angeles are very developed. There are more than 20 ocean shipping companies, large and small, and hundreds of warehouses. The trade of goods shipped to Europe through Los Angeles every year accounts for more than 8% of the kingdom's trade.

In addition, the education in Los Angeles is also quite developed. The Los Angeles Institute of Technology, the Los Angeles College of Chinese, the Los Angeles Naval Academy, and the Royal Military Academy under construction are all top institutions.

The third largest city in the Datang Kingdom is Seattle. This city has benefited from the strong demand of the Crimean War, and its development momentum ranks No. 1 among coastal cities.

According to statistics in June 1856, Seattle leapfrogged Taoyuan City to rank third in the Tang Kingdom, with a total urban population of 6 people, with marine fishing, timber, canned food processing and shipbuilding as the mainstays. host.

In this way

The top three cities of the Tang Kingdom are all located in the coastal areas, one in the north (Seattle), one in the middle (Chang'an), and one in the south (Los Angeles), showing a good trend of three arrows coming together.

This further reflects that the economic center of the Tang Kingdom is biased towards the coastal areas. The gathering of people, logistics and resources, coupled with the blessing of trade routes, has made the coastal cities develop faster and faster, forming a siphon effect on surrounding cities.

Take Seattle as an example
The city has seized the huge dividends from the development of the canned food industry and the shipbuilding industry, and has taken advantage of the trend to rise. Its seafood, various meat products, and canned beans rank first in the country in terms of total exports.

In particular, canned chickpeas and spiced soybeans, which are cheap and in great demand, account for more than 72% of the country’s export volume of such cans, and canned seafood accounts for more than 80%, forming more than a dozen famous brands with advantages.

As the capital of the Northern Province, Seattle's vast inland area is suitable for the development of animal husbandry. It is rich in forest and pasture resources. It has 38 beef cattle and 216 million sheep. It is a well-known large animal husbandry province in the country.

Due to the rapid development of Seattle, which has squeezed the surrounding cities, the development of Vancouver and Portland, the capital of Oregon, is not satisfactory. The economic and population growth rates are far behind Seattle, and they are left behind.

王国第四大城市是桃源市，其人口从1854年末的45.31万人，增长到1856年6月末的56.59万人，以区区1.7万余人的差距位居全国第4位。

As the largest city in the country, Taoyuan City was gradually forgotten in the past 7 years of the US-Tang War, and then it was surpassed by one coastal city after another, making it extremely lonely.

This large northern city on the Colorado Plateau was the frontier of fighting against American aggression when the Tang Kingdom was first established.It has spent a lot of money to establish a complete industrial system, with a complete range of steelmaking, cement, food processing, weapon manufacturing and handicraft workshops, and its strength is second to none in the northern region.

Taoyuan School of Administration is the top institution for training qualified civil servants in the Tang Kingdom. The outstanding students who graduated from here are all over the provinces and cities of the Tang Kingdom, and have become an important force supporting the kingdom's grassroots administrative system.

As usual
His Majesty the King visits the Colorado Plateau every year and stays at the Jinghu Palace in Taoyuan City for at least one month every year. This is the pride of the people of Taoyuan City.

大唐王国第五大城市是赛勒姆，其人口从1854年末的27.32万人，一跃发展到1856年6月末的41.8万人，排在了第5位。

Salem is a typical industrial city. Relying on its rich coal and iron resources, it has developed a pillar steel industry, ocean-going ship manufacturing and machinery industries. The famous small diesel engines and marine steam engines are produced here.

There are more than 130 heavy industrial enterprises in the city, and the dense chimneys spew black smoke all day long, which is a sign of strong industrialization in this era, and no one raises the issue of environmental pollution at all.

Salem is only more than a hundred kilometers away from Portland, the capital of Oregon Province in the north. With its resource advantages, its development momentum has surpassed the capital city, and it is proudly ranked as the fifth largest city in the kingdom.

The rapid development of the Tang Kingdom’s canned food industry, without the high-quality thin iron sheets produced in the Salem area, would not have developed to its current scale, forming a huge industrial chain that hundreds of thousands of people rely on, and the Kingdom’s unique export products.

Different from the small and medium shipyards in the Seattle area, several large shipyards along the coast of Salem specialize in the production of large ocean-going passenger and cargo ships. The strength of dozens of shipyards in the two places can be seen.

Back to the source
It is the high-quality steel produced in the Salem area, which provides the best resources for the shipbuilding industry in the area, coupled with the kingdom's leading mechanical processing capacity, ship steam engine and ship boiler production capacity, and complete supporting capabilities, its shipbuilding industry develops potential has yet to be tapped.

From the ranking of the five major cities in the Tang Kingdom, we can see that under the balance of market forces, the national economic center of gravity and the center of urban development are biased towards the coastal areas, which is inseparable from the unique geographical advantages of the coastal areas.

The combination of Datang Kingdom's leading and powerful ocean transportation capabilities and the geographical advantages of the coastal areas has formed this one-sided development advantage.

This kind of advantage, the inland areas can't catch up with horses.

For the same production of a canned meat, the cost of transportation in coastal areas has an obvious cost advantage compared with that in inland areas.

In the increasingly fierce local competition, it is no surprise that the economic development of the coastal areas has taken the lead, and it is no surprise that they have taken the biggest cake.

The only thing that can change this disadvantage is the Gulf of Mexico Railway, which provides a convenient access to the sea for the economic development of the southern provinces, which is of great significance.

The Gulf of Mexico Railway had just opened to traffic in early 1856, and it failed to catch up with the frenzy of European demand driven by the Crimean War. This was a deep regret for the 12 northern and southern provinces.

(End of this chapter)