Wild North America 1846

Chapter 522 The Big European Market

The vacation time of Mirror Lake Palace was very leisurely. During these two months, Emperor Richard also took time to inspect the northern provinces. He went north from Colorado to Montana, and galloped in the wilderness of Montana. , Participated in the annual large-scale hunt for bison.

The annual bison hunting event in Montana lasted for 6 weeks, attracting many rich and leisure nobles from the empire to experience this wild style, and gradually evolved into a local special program.

After emperor Richard had a good time here, he named it "Montana Bison Festival" impromptuly.

From Montana to North Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois, and then west to Michigan, it took almost a month to inspect this circle, what I saw, what I saw The sight of prosperity and harvest is satisfying.

On this vast central North American plain, countless towns have no traces of war. The characteristic residential buildings and manor-style buildings scattered in the wilderness can be seen everywhere. Singing loudly, it turned out to be Xintianyou's tune.

scrutinize
It turned out that there were Chinese immigrants who had fled from northern Shaanxi to the Jiaodong Peninsula. No wonder the singing had the rough style of the Loess Plateau, so there was no problem.

On the Great Plains of Central North America

The combination of fertile black soil and chemical fertilizers is a surprisingly high grain yield. How high is the yield?

In the western and southern provinces of the Tang Empire, the yield per mu of wheat without chemical fertilizers is generally between 120 pounds and 160 pounds. After fertilization, the yield per mu can increase sharply to between 420 pounds and 3 pounds, an increase of 4 to [-] times.

On the fertile black soil of the Great Plains in central North America, the average yield per mu is between 200 and 250, which can be regarded as high yield.After using chemical fertilizers, the average yield per mu is more than 600 pounds, and the maximum can reach about 750 pounds per mu, and the yield also increases by more than three times.

It's a pity that the existing chemical fertilizer production is limited. The seven chemical fertilizer factories that have been built can only meet less than 5% of the needs of the empire's local farmland. What restricts the expansion of the chemical fertilizer factory's production capacity is the mining scale and total amount of natural potash deposits, which cannot continue to expand .

Based on current fertilizer production, Gallup's world-class potash deposits can only be exploited for 33 years.

Another channel to increase food production is the guano and saltpeter deposits that abound in the Atacama Desert at the junction of Chile, Bolivia and Peru. The former is a high-quality natural organic fertilizer, and the latter is used by arsenals to make gunpowder. It is an important raw material with quite high strategic value.

In 1866, Chile and Bolivia signed a border treaty, stipulating that the 24° south latitude line was the border between the two countries, and the tariffs on all mineral products and export products between the 23° south latitude line and the 25° south latitude line were divided equally between the two countries.

In the same year, the saltpeter company, a joint venture between Chile and Yingtang, signed a contract with Bolivia to obtain mining rights in the Antofagasta area to exploit the rich local guano and saltpeter resources. This super-large ore company is located in Ata The northern part of the Kama Desert.

Island manure does not require any processing, simply crushed and sprinkled in the fields is the best fertilizer.

Datang Empire can obtain about 4.75 tons of guano and 1.1 tons of saltpeter every year according to the shares and interests of the mining company. These precious resources have enabled Datang Empire to harvest more fertile fields and have sufficient raw materials to make explosives. Very strategic resource.

It really took a lot of effort for Datang Empire to snatch 27% of the shares of the mining company.

Really want to talk

The rich guano and saltpetre resources in the Atacama Desert were first discovered by the Prussians. After the news spread like wildfire, they immediately attracted the British with a keen sense of smell.

As a result, the British were overjoyed. Since the mine was located at the junction of the three countries, the British immediately discussed with the governments of Chile, Bolivia and Peru to establish a mining company operating guano and saltpeter. The British exclusively owned 78% of the shares, and the three South American countries shared the rest The next 22% of the equity.

The Tang Empire knew the news a bit late, but stepped in forcefully.

As the leader of the entire Americas, how could South America not have a share of the precious resources?
if placed elsewhere
The British Empire can really refuse in 100 ways, but not in South America. This is the power of local snakes.

Regardless of the fact that the British Empire is known as the "Empire on which the sun never sets", even if it occupies the entire mine's 10,000+ tons of guano production, without the permission of the Tang Empire, it is impossible to transport a pound of guano or saltpeter.

The truth is simple

The most convenient way to transport guano or saltpetre from this South American mine near the Pacific Ocean is the Panama Railway in Central America. This 78-kilometer-long railway transports it to Kohler Port on the Caribbean Sea coast, where it is loaded on a ship directly to the UK. various ports.

Besides
It can also be loaded at the port of Chile or Bolivia, bypassing Tierra del Fuego to the Atlantic Ocean, and from here directly to the ports of the United Kingdom.

But no matter which transportation line, it cannot get around the restrictions of the Tang Empire.

For example, the Panama Railway does not give you wagons. Can the British carry these bird droppings on foot across the 78-kilometer-long isthmus to the port city of Kohler on the other side?

It's impossible even if you think about it, it's too outrageous.

After the Tang Empire stepped in strongly, it originally requested to share half of the shares of the saltpeter mining company with the British, but the British disagreed life and death, and finally reached an agreement after repeated discussions;
The British took out 24% of the shares, and their shareholding in the saltpeter company dropped from 78% to 54%.

The other three South American countries contributed 1% each, and sold a total of 3% of the shares. Their shareholding in Saltpeter Company dropped from 22% to 19%. Datang Empire ranked the second largest shareholder with 27% of the shares.

The Prussians who first discovered the mineral deposits were squeezed out, and they did not get any resources.

The French looked jealous, but were blocked by the joint efforts of the British and Tang Dynasties, and they also failed to obtain any equity in the saltpeter company. As for other world powers, it was even more useless.

However, the huge stock of farmland in the Tang Empire is still a drop in the bucket, and the farmland that can obtain fertilizer supply only accounts for 11% of the total amount. This is a problem that cannot be solved in the short term.

Fortunately, the fertile black land of the Great Plains in central North America owned by the Tang Empire is very powerful, and it has gradually become the area that exports the most agricultural products. , the food gap in Eurasian countries such as the Ottoman Empire, is the world's largest food supplier.

The ports of Datang Empire exporting to Europe mainly include Milwaukee, Chicago, Detroit in the Great Lakes region, New York, Philadelphia, Richmond on the east coast, Houston in the south near the Gulf of Mexico, New Orleans and various ports in Central America, with hundreds of exports at every turn. Thousands of tons of huge.

Covering major grain varieties such as grain, cotton and oil, especially refined wheat flour, soybean oil, grain-based wine, cold storage beef, pork, dried fruit and other varieties, the export volume is quite large, and it has won a high reputation in the European market and has a promising growth prospect.

In this era, due to the extreme lack of chemical fertilizers, the output of European agricultural production areas is generally not high, which cannot meet the market demand of a large population that is rapidly growing in Europe, and the import of food products is a hard-core demand.

The population of Europe increased from 1.9 million at the beginning of this century to 19 million at the end of the 60s. The total population doubled, but the total grain output only increased by more than 3.8%. There was a huge gap between supply and demand.

The solution for European powers is colonization. Britain can import food from Egypt, the Near East and Ukraine, and France can import food from Libya and Monaco. Those countries without overseas colonies will be miserable.

For example, the states in the German region, Italy, the remote areas of France and the frontier provinces of the Austrian Empire, as well as the island of Ireland, which the British Empire does not care about, these European regions are short of food all the year round, and hunger is a nightmare memory that cannot be erased by the people at the bottom. Just ordinary things.

Driven by poverty and hunger, the above-mentioned areas became the main source of European immigrants to North America. There are still nearly one million immigrants every year, and a considerable part of white immigrants flowed into the Tang Empire, especially German immigrants.

Due to the friendly relationship between the two countries, the German immigrant community has a relatively solid foundation in the Tang Empire.Many German immigrants have a high status in the military, political, and academic circles. They can elect their own German village and town mayors, worship in churches in the town, brew beer and German-style pork sausages, and live a leisurely and peaceful life. rich life.

Once passed on to ten, ten to a hundred, the Tang Empire has a very high reputation among German immigrants.

The favorite place for white German immigrants to go is the Great Lakes Plain. They enjoy their own piece of farmland, a house, and a regular life of working at sunrise and resting at sunset.

The Tang Empire gave equal national treatment to white immigrants. In the empire, there were many villages and towns where German immigrants gathered.

Although a large amount of food products are exported every year, for the European market with as many as 3.8 million people, it can only be said to slightly ease the tension in food, but cannot fundamentally solve the problem.

Ordinary lower-class Europeans still cannot afford imported goods, and the imported refined flour and delicious bread made of special flour are mostly digested by the wealthy class above the urban middle class.

The European market is huge, the potential is simply endless...

Taking the royal train roaring and galloping across the vast North American Great Plains, you can see endless pastures, dotted with large herds of cattle and sheep, forming a beautiful picture of the wilderness.

When approaching the villages and towns, there will be large tracts of farmland covered with heavy golden ears of wheat. Looking at the beaming faces of the local people, one can know that it is another bumper harvest year.

Li Cha likes this feeling very much. Sitting on the train day after day, all he can see is the vast territory of the empire. This will make him feel a strong sense of accomplishment, as intoxicated as fine wine.

That's what a successful time-traveler should be, and he's already brought about a huge shift in history.

Having been in the top position for 23 years, Li Cha is no longer that willful young man, but the emperor of the Tang Empire, whose every move affects the situation of the Tang Empire and even the entire American region.

Over the years, he has become more and more integrated into this era...

(End of this chapter)