Wild North America 1846

Chapter 562 Civilian Life
Hearing what the coachman said, Li Cha suddenly realized, but this made him more interested in exploring.

So he took out a pack of "Fugui" brand cigarettes from his pocket. This kind of cigarettes cost 8 cents a pack, which is much better than the "Qinli" brand cigarettes which cost [-] cents a pack, and distributed them to the coachmen around him. took one.

After playing around the pond, the atmosphere immediately became more harmonious.

"Yo ho... Dafugui, thank you, sir!" The drivers were all knowledgeable, and one of them with a happy face took one and lit it up, and began to enjoy it.

Most of the drivers on the wharf smoked "Diligence" for 8 cents a pack, and only a few were willing to smoke "Fugui" because it was much more expensive after all.

If they all smoked such good cigarettes, they would lose several dollars a month. How much money would they spend on cigarettes in that year?
It’s not that the coachmen can’t afford to smoke, but behind every coachman there is a family and many children, and some people save money to buy a car. If they don’t save a little, where will the money come from?

After smoking a cigarette, the chatterbox is opened.

"To tell you the truth, sir, we also want to save money to buy a car. How powerful is that thing?"

"Isn't it... don't care how much cargo is loaded, just kick the accelerator and pull away."

"The trucks came before dawn in the morning and worked until the road was out of sight at night. Almost one truck did the work of our four horse-drawn carriages, earning at least 4 yuan a day.

What about us?
Our horse-drawn carriage works for six or seven hours at most, and we spend more than half of the time queuing, and we can only drop four or five yuan a day, which is a big gap.

No matter how long the time is, the horse can't stand it, and the people are tired and panicked. "

"Also, it's better if the goods are shipped in the dock, and they go directly to the warehouse without any pause in the middle, and basically call back and forth in more than 40 minutes.

If the warehouse is far away, it would be a serious crime to go to the street outside.

There are vehicles and pedestrians on the street outside. The carriage stops and stops along the way, and every time it stops, it will kill you. You have to pump and push the animals and yell hard, which can tire people half to death.

Unlike those trucks, it doesn't take much trouble to go a long way with one kick of the accelerator. "

"The van is good, but it's too expensive, we can't afford it!"

"Seven or eight years of saving like this is probably not enough. There are more and more trucks on the dock. Basically, they are bought by the rich people in the city and transportation companies. We people don't buy many."

"Well, those who buy trucks are either selling houses and selling land to raise money, or relying on the chamber of commerce to raise funds, or a few people pool their money together, and it is estimated that it accounts for about a small half of us on Pier 9. This is the case. "

"I think we can also get together. The sooner we buy a truck, the sooner we can make money. In a year and a half, we can earn money for the car, and we will make a net profit in the future."

"Buy a car after earning money. One car becomes two cars, and two cars become four cars. Are you afraid that you won't make money with so much work on the dock?"

"I think it's ok. Let's sum it up after we get off work. Anyway, if you get more dividends, you will get more dividends. Everyone should pool their shares. They should have saved some money."

"It's okay... Brother Dong will take the lead?"

"Okay, one of us acquaintances counts as one. Don't expand it for the time being. When the time comes, we will discuss how much we need to discuss. Everyone must agree to attract other brothers to buy shares. Let's fight for a partnership to buy a car and put it on the pier Let's work together."

"Hahaha... This is called sharpening a knife and chopping firewood, count me in."

Li Cha could not help but smile when he heard their discussions became more and more lively, and they gradually strayed from the topic to buying a car.

The new social wave impacts the thinking of Chinese immigrants, allowing them to change with the changes in the new society and subtly adapt to the new environment. This is a good phenomenon!

think about it

These new immigrants, who originally faced the loess and their backs to the sky, quickly integrated into the society after a few years in the Tang Empire, and they were full of energy in a fair social environment.How do you make more money?How to get together?
This is unimaginable in the original life, who knows what is going on with the share?

We have heard it all the time, but now everyone knows about "joint stock", and the response is very enthusiastic and enthusiastic, because there are many successful examples that are clearly in front of us.

Most of the people who work on the wharf are new immigrants who have just come here to carry packages and deliver goods. They work hard and earn eight or nine dollars a month. A hard meal.

Most of these coachmen had immigrated for some years, and saved money to buy horse-drawn carriages to transport goods. They could earn 40 yuan a month, which was equivalent to the annual income of ordinary employees in the imperial capital of Chang'an.

Even more powerful are the truck owners. Most of these were immigrants in the early years. With the rise of the empire, they quickly made a fortune. They were able to spend tens of thousands of yuan to buy a truck, and easily got 600 yuan in a month.

Excluding labor, fuel, maintenance, taxes and other expenses, there must be more than 400 yuan in the pocket, which is nearly 5000 yuan a year.The good work is more than that. It is not a dream to get back the capital in one and a half years.

Why are shipping costs so high?

This is due to the backward level of human transportation in today's era. On the world's top-level shipping terminals like the imperial capital Chang'an, the huge number of goods in circulation and the use of new terminal loading and unloading cranes have created a huge demand for transportation.

The efficiency of human transportation is low, but it is a common transportation method in ports all over the world, and naturally there is a corresponding transportation price level.

The same is true in some remote or relatively backward ports in the Tang Empire, where human-powered carts, mules and horses drag carts, and horse-drawn carts are the main transport methods. Expensive truck transport is far from popular in these areas.

The transportation price of a rickshaw determines the lower limit of the overall transportation price. A rickshaw can only earn four to five cents of hard-earned money after working hard for a day. People are willing to do it.

Heavy 4-wheeled carriages and freight cars transport large volumes and fast speeds, and of course they are more profitable.

The economically booming Datang Empire is full of opportunities, just like the stalls selling cigarettes, tea, steamed buns and big pancakes on the wharf, and the stalls selling tea, eggs and melon seeds are also very profitable, otherwise who Playing this thing?

Just like a stall selling burritos, even if a burrito only earns a penny, selling more than 200 copies a day is a gross profit of more than [-] yuan. After paying half of the burrito on the pier, you can still save a lot.

There are more than 9 people working at Pier 1.3, and there are dozens of stalls and shops lined up like a temporary snack street, selling everything.

Li Cha even saw a temporary spring house here, that is, more than [-] vans parked on the side of the road, forming a specific area.In each carriage, there are two or three Mexican women who are posing, looking greedily at the strong men who come and go and winking non-stop. These are all moving guests!

Chinese businessmen really don't let go of a chance to make money, what else can they say!

Neither whoring nor gambling is prohibited in the Tang Empire, but it must be archived by the government and taxed according to regulations, which is a common practice in all countries in the world.

Nowadays

There is no such thing as equality between men and women, and no country bans whoring or gambling. Even the United States of America, which claims to be the most civilized, open and free, cannot ban these gray industries. The red light districts of New York and Philadelphia are very famous.

Within the scope of the Tang Empire

Brothels are mainly white and Mexican women. In recent years, a large number of Fusang women have traveled east to North America and become the main source of popular prostitutes.

There are very few real Chinese women. This is because the imperial government is very strict. Once it is verified that the Chinese women are forced to sell sex against their original intentions, the brothel boss will be fined and ruined.

According to the laws of the Tang Empire
Any operating enterprise, company, mine or shop stall, the operator must have the legal citizenship of the Datang Empire and pay taxes according to the regulations, otherwise it will be an illegal act severely punished by the law. Operators should be severely punished.

Being able to obtain the legal citizenship of the empire is worth cherishing. Few people are willing to take huge risks to do such unscrupulous things. Isn't it good to make money safely and legally?
Different from ordinary economic crimes and security crimes, this kind of people are especially hated when they enter the hard labor camp, and it is basically impossible for them to come out alive.

A large number of Japanese women entered the empire, mainly engaged in the prostitution industry, which met the huge needs of the society, so the business became more and more prosperous.

Generally speaking

Fusang people will find some imperial citizens to be their bosses on the surface. They only need to collect money every month, and they don’t need to ask about anything else.

And this is also an area where local forces are concentrated. Gangs and social prostitutes gather together, and various Fusang brothels, health care centers, and Japanese-style baths have sprung up, forming a red-light district.

This also led the Fusang government to vigorously export Dongying women to North America to earn a large amount of hard currency Tang Yuan to subsidize the domestic economy and become the most important means of foreign exchange income.

From January to November 1870 alone, the Fusang Kingdom imported more than 1 young women just like the Tang Empire, with an average of more than 11 people per month. The scale is quite considerable.

This made ordinary subjects of the Tang Empire form an inherent impression of the Fusang Kingdom. One was short and vulgar, and the other was a prostitute.

These Japanese women imported into the Tang Empire through additional treaties, no matter how many years they stayed in the empire, it is impossible to obtain legal resident status.

From the beginning of its arrival in the North American continent, it was marked with a black chrysanthemum tattoo on its shoulder, and it could only be reduced to a plaything of tragic fate.

For more than a hundred years from now, the total number of Dongying women who traveled to North America in the east is about 700 million, and their posthumous children exceed tens of millions. They have earned hundreds of millions of foreign exchange for the Fusang country for countless years, and they are the largest exporter of Fusang. items, strongly supporting the domestic economic development.

However, only a handful of Dongying women who can eventually become imperial citizens are completely negligible.

These 700 million Japanese women were operating in harsh conditions and suffering from diseases. Few of them survived 10 years, less than [-]%, and most of them ended their flowery youth early and withered on the land of North America.

How many years later
Fusang once filmed a film reflecting the tragic past of 700 million women in Dongying, called "Elegy of Dongying", also known as "Blooming Black Chrysanthemum", which tells the story of a group of Fusang women who traveled east to North America. .

However, the movie was banned just two days after it aired. This unbearable memory has been buried in history, and it will never have a chance to be presented in front of the world. It makes people sigh!
Roam freely on the pier
Li Cha had close contact with coachmen, stevedores, stall owners, chipmakers, wharf company employees and cargo ship crews, and truly experienced the living and working conditions of the grassroots people in the empire, which was unimaginable in the past.

Although he often visits various places, all he can come into contact with are social groups with a better life. Even the lowest-level farmers or ranchers live far more comfortably than the ordinary working class.

But don't underestimate those farmers or hired workers who work on the farm. They eat better than the grassroots people in the city. White flour pancakes can be eaten open, and there is no shortage of meat, egg, milk and vegetables. After all, these things are in the farm. It's worthless.

A few pigs, cows, and lambs that died of illness can't be thrown away, so kill them and eat them!

There is no such thing as health and quarantine these days, wasting food is the greatest sin, and that will be punished by God!

Eggs, milk, vegetables, and oil are all available on the farm, so the standard of living is naturally higher.

As long as it costs more than 110 yuan to buy a hand-operated oil press, the whole farm does not need to buy any more oil. Whether it is peanuts, rapeseeds, or cottonseeds, all of them can be squeezed. It is convenient and quick to operate and can satisfy hundreds of people. needs of human farms.

Generally speaking

As long as the oil residue is left as a processing fee, such as peanut residue, rapeseed residue, cottonseed residue, etc., these things are excellent whether they are fertilized fields or livestock breeding, and you can't buy them if you want to.

Urban residents are different. No matter what they eat, wear, or use, they have to spend money. Of course, they have to be careful. When buying food, they mainly buy cheap cornmeal and relatively affordable economical flour. The pursuit is cost-effective.

Economic flour is coarsely ground flour, which has relatively large particles and is mixed with some finely crushed wheat husks and other debris.

The more expensive refined wheat flour is commonly known as "white flour", as well as high-quality japonica rice from Central America. These are basically the staple food of Chinese middle-class families, but the disadvantage is that they are more expensive.

High-quality stem rice from Straits Province, Central Plains Province, Zhennan Province and Costa Rica Province. Glutinous rice is the staple food of many Chinese families. The glutinous rice sweet white wine, glutinous rice dumplings, rice noodles, rice cakes, fried glutinous rice cakes, fried cakes, There are also delicious rice balls wrapped with fried dough sticks and various pickles, which can be seen everywhere in the streets and alleys of major cities in the empire.

However, due to the long distance, the price of high-quality stem rice and glutinous rice has been higher.

This is also impossible

The cost of transportation from Central America to the cities of the Pacific Ocean of the Empire and the Great Plains in central North America is higher than the value of the rice itself, and it is not surprising that the price is more expensive after several times of changing hands.

On the contrary, the price of grain transported to Europe by sea is not high. This is because the sea transport costs tens of thousands of tons, and the cost of sea freight is diluted to every pound of grain, so there is not much.

Countries such as Britain, Germany and the Netherlands implemented a low customs tax of 2% on grain, which was also one of the reasons why the grain price of the Datang Empire was extremely competitive.

(End of this chapter)