Wild North America 1846

Chapter 688 A Few Big Events

After the celebration of the 40th anniversary of the founding of the Tang Empire, Emperor Richard revised the rules of the cabinet's routine meeting, from twice a week on Tuesday and Friday to once a week on Wednesday.

This aspect is based on the maturity of the imperial government and the improvement of official governance. Most of the decisions related to the government can be completed at the cabinet level, and there is no need to go into everything.

On the other hand, it is decentralization, giving the cabinet more trust and more power space, which is a manifestation of the maturity of the constitutional monarchy.

The courtiers discussed major domestic issues, which involved appropriately raising the immigration threshold, gradually reducing the import of low-level illiterate immigrants, and improving the overall quality of the people.

This part of immigrants can be sent to South American countries first, such as Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay, to solve the problem of a large local labor gap.

Today, the main driving force for the population growth of the Datang Empire comes from newborns. It is estimated that the number of newborns will exceed 600 million this year, showing a trend of rising all the way.

from now until the end of this century

The size of the newborn population in the Tang Empire will continue to increase, and the corresponding number of natural deaths will also increase. This is an inevitable phenomenon of the overall increase in population size.

As of 1886

The average life expectancy of the Tang Empire was 54.6 years, an increase of 10 years compared to 3.3 years ago. This reflects the improvement of the standard of food, clothing, housing and transportation under the overall economic development of the empire.

In the current government budget, there is very little funding for medical and health services. Western medicine is mainly provided by some government public hospitals and royal charity hospitals, and it is basically popularized in large and medium-sized cities with a population of more than 30.

In the cities of the Tang Empire, there are traditional Chinese medicine halls everywhere in the streets and alleys. Chinese medicine shops are the main places for citizens to seek medical treatment.

The Ministry of Culture, Health and Sports of the Tang Empire is formulating corresponding Chinese medicine regulations, preparing for the establishment of a Chinese medicine university, implementing a licensed business system, and formulating a corresponding reward and punishment mechanism to standardize the orderly development of Chinese medicine halls.

It is a common phenomenon in the world today that the imperial finance does not pay attention to social medical and health services. The same is true in European industrialized countries such as Britain, France and Germany, where the overall medical level is relatively backward.

As early as 1853, the Crimean War broke out between the Ottoman Empire, Britain, France and other countries and Russia. In March 1854, Britain and France officially declared war on Russia in order to aid Turkey, and then the Tang Empire also declared war on Russia, joining the war against Russia.

In September of that year, in the report sent back from the front by the British "Times", it was extremely dissatisfied that the wounded soldiers were left unattended.

According to the report;

The medical rescue conditions of the British army were very poor, and the mortality rate of the wounded was as high as 42%. After being lifted off the battlefield, no one cared about it.

After these facts were disclosed by the press, there was an uproar in Britain.

Upon hearing the news, Nightingale immediately wrote a letter to the wife of the then Minister of War Hebert, expressing his willingness to lead [-] nurses at his own expense to the battlefield to rescue the wounded.

Minister Herbert agreed to her request. In October 1954, Nightingale led nurses to the front to participate in the care of the sick and wounded, established a hospital administrator system, improved the quality of care, and rapidly reduced the death rate of the wounded and sick.

After the news was reported, it caused a shock in Europe, including the United Kingdom. At this time, countries began to take care of the wounded seriously.

In November 1858, when the American Civil War was fierce, the world's first nursing school was established in Los Angeles, and then Chang'an, Taoyuan, Seattle, and Sacramento successively established many nursing schools.

In 1860, the first nursing school named after Nightingale was officially established in Britain and Europe, two years later than the Tang Empire.

However, due to the relatively backwardness of western medicine and the high cost of diagnosis and treatment, the general public in the Tang Empire is more willing to accept traditional Chinese medicine treatment, and only consider western medicine when it is really not possible.

Therefore, apart from a few public hospitals in the Tang Empire, most of the hospitals are private, including the Royal Mercy Hospital, the Royal Puji Hospital and more than a hundred hospitals located in the provinces of the empire.

Today, the health and medical services of the Tang Empire are just beginning to take shape, and cannot cover all the people in the society. There is no medical insurance system, and all medical and health expenses are borne by the patients themselves.

There is also no old-age care system, and the traditional home-based old-age care custom of "the old is the old, and the old, the young, the young, and the young" is implemented, and there is no such thing as a nursing home.

the reason for this

Emperor Li Cha is; "If you don't do it, you must not do it."

He clearly knows that the establishment of a social medical system and the improvement of the pension system are the only way for future social development.It is the only way for the whole society to improve the level of health care and improve the average life expectancy of the society.

But doing so will bring a heavy financial burden to the government. It is a bottomless financial black hole that will never be filled, and it is an unbearable burden at this stage.

One step ahead is leading, two steps ahead is madness.

Before the national economy has developed to a higher level and a jujube-shaped social structure dominated by the middle class is formed, if we rashly put this burden on our shoulders, we will never be able to let go of it.

People in society who have tasted the sweetness will not want to go back to the past, which means that the imperial government will always carry this heavy burden and dance with shackles.

And this is an extremely dangerous move in today's competition among major powers in the world.

Horizontal comparison
Take Britain, which was the first to enter industrialization at the same time, as an example;

The gap between rich and poor in Britain has never been as stark as it was during the Regency years 1795-1837 (note; before Her Majesty Queen Victoria came to the throne), when the richest enjoyed the fruits of powerful industry while the working class lived Dirty, cruel and short life.

In the 19s, middle-class Londoners could expect to live to an average of 30 years, but working-class life expectancy was only 44.

In Manchester, 53 percent of infants did not live past the age of five, and in Liverpool, 57 percent did not live to the age of five, a rate roughly equal to the infant mortality rate among slaves in the American South.

in that dark age
The working class in towns such as Liverpool, Preston and Manchester would be lucky if they could live to the age of 19. The British capitalists not only brutally exploited the colonial people, but also relentlessly exploited their compatriots at home. The working conditions were extremely harsh.

During the Regency period, the average life expectancy across the UK was in the 40s, which is surprisingly high in Europe.

On the unsewered streets of Ashton-under-Lyne, low-level artisans lived beyond the five years of their infancy, with a life expectancy of only 5, less than a third of their wealthier compatriots.

Why was the gap between rich and poor in Britain so large in the early 19th century?

The Industrial Revolution clearly led to a worsening of the living conditions of the poor, while at the same time making the rich richer than ever before.

As the American ambassador to England, John Quincy Adams, wrote in his London diary in 1816:
"The extremes of affluence and want are more pronounced in this country than in any other country I have ever seen".

Leaving aside the extreme luxury of the rich in Britain, the poor working and living conditions of the people at the bottom are shocking enough.

In the parish of St. Giles in London in 1830, an investigator of the Government Works Bureau visited a row house in a slum and found that in the yard;
"Filled with excrement overflowing from toilets to a depth of nearly 6 inches, people placed bricks in the yard so that residents could walk through the yard without getting their shoes wet."

Investigators report not isolated cases, but widespread occurrence in civilian areas.

Similar conditions prevail in towns and cities across the north of England, with densities of up to 1 people per acre in parts of Liverpool capable of driving trypophobes into a frenzy.

The poor lived in cramped dwellings, and many were forced to sleep in basements where liquids from cesspit and fetid waste littered the ground seeped through cellar walls.

The communal cesspit in public housing has no door, because the landlord claims that if a wooden door is installed, the residents will use it as firewood.

Being able to join the army or venture out to the colonies is seen as one of the few ways to change one's destiny.

Britain's working class, which makes up more than 70% of the population, has no such option.Those lucky enough to work in agriculture can expect to live to age 36, while the urban poor live, on average, about half that number.

Britain's industrialization required a lot of coal, and Britain has been the world's largest coal mining country for more than a century.

A large number of men, women, boys and girls working in the mine, in 1823, in the Cumberland coal mine 630 feet underground, the writer Richard Ayton held up the lantern;

Richard Ayton saw rows of carriages driven by young girls in the dark tunnel, and he described all the people below as;
"...uncommonly miserable, their countenances marked by disease and decay from overwork and noxious fumes.

Most of these children were half naked and black with mud, they were so tragically disfigured and abused, they looked like a race fallen from humanity, destined to spend their lives in these dark shadows, It's like being in hell."

It was not until the mid-19s that the average life expectancy of British society rose to 80 years, ranking among the top in Europe, second only to several Nordic countries.

At this time, the steam industrial revolution in Britain had been developing for a century and a half, and the second wave of industrial revolution represented by chemical industry and electrification was surging...

In the plantations of the Republic of Carolina and Brazil in North America, due to heavy labor and relatively harsh living conditions, it is difficult for ordinary black employees to live beyond the age of 30. This is the current reality.

Regarding the new policies proposed by the cabinet ministers, Emperor Li Cha did not comment too much, and gave them all the royal approval.

Actually

These policies have been polished repeatedly in various ministries before they are released, and dozens of drafts have been changed. The advantages and disadvantages of them have been considered more thoughtfully, and a fairly mature plan has been formed.

Under normal circumstances, Emperor Li Cha would not easily veto it after repeated discussions and approval in front of the imperial court.

The next important issue is the proposal to establish a new Colombian province. Since the complete conquest of Colombia in 1874, Zhongzhou Province (formerly Ecuador) and Fuyuan Province (Ceded by Peru) to the present, the policy of "vacating cages and changing birds" in the above-mentioned areas under the colonial ministry has basically reached expected.

After 12 years of large-scale infrastructure construction, the above-mentioned new colonies in South America have already taken on a completely new look. Mainline railways and a relatively complete road network have been built, forming a social demographic structure in which more than 8% of Chinese people are Chinese.

all the data show
The above-mentioned provinces were directly under the central government of the empire, and the conditions for the establishment of provinces to be included in conventional governance have been met.

According to the proposal of Earl Yuan Guanglin, Minister of the Colonial Department;
In order to implement Sinicization in an all-round way and completely abandon the old Spanish colonial name "Colombia" that is easily reminiscent, it is suggested that Colombia, which is too large, be divided into two parts.

Qingzhou Province was set up in the northeast, the original capital Medellin was changed to the provincial capital city and renamed Qingzhou City, Penglai Province was set up in the southwest, and the provincial capital was set in the former Cali City and renamed Penglai City.

Namely set Qingzhou, Penglai two provinces, Qingzhou City (formerly Medellin), the capital of Qingzhou Province, Penglai Province, and Penglai City (formerly Cali), the capital of Penglai Province.

In addition to the original Zhongzhou Province (formerly Ecuador) and Fuyuan Province (ceded by Peru), as well as the Beihai Province in East Asia, the above-mentioned 5 provinces will all be handed over to the direct administration of the empire in early 1888.

After the transfer to the central government, the political, economic and military affairs of the five provinces mentioned above have nothing to do with the Colonial Department of the Tang Empire, and the corresponding financial allocations are directly allocated by the imperial finance.

Today, only Cuba Province (note; including Puerto Rico), Luzon Province, Cebu Province, Mindanao Province, and Yunzhong Province (note; the former Eritrea region, including the upper reaches of Larema) are managed by the Colonial Department. Che, Tower Kuralo, a total of 8.5 square kilometers, plus Eritrea's 12.4 square kilometers, Yunzhong province a total of 21 square kilometers), Alaska and Yukon, a total of seven provinces.

The first four provinces are due to the fact that they have only started for a short period of time, about 4 years ago, and the corresponding in-depth policy of vacating cages and replacing birds has not met expectations, and it will take a few years to grind.

Green and astringent fruits are definitely not delicious, and it is better to be ripe.

These 4 overseas provinces belong to the territory directly under the royal family. According to Emperor Li Cha's plan, they will be entrusted to the princes, namely the fifth prince, the sixth prince, the eighth prince, and the ninth prince.

There is no way, who made His Majesty the emperor have many heirs, and the royal family of the Tang Empire flourished, so he was awarded several vassal kingdoms.

These vassal kingdoms are different from the Fusang Kingdom and the Ryukyu Kingdom. Their kingdom territory is part of the territory of the Tang Empire, and there is no separate army. The diplomatic field is unified by the imperial government, but the kingdom is independent in terms of economy and taxation.

This situation
Similar to the Kingdom of Bavaria, the Kingdom of Saxony, the Grand Duchy of Hesse and Württemberg in the German Empire, they are part of the Empire but have great autonomy.

Regarding the above-mentioned five overseas provinces' proposals to separate from the colonial ministries, after discussions in front of the imperial court, they were successfully approved by His Majesty.

Then, a few months later, that is, from January 1888, [-], these five provinces were transferred to Zhili by the imperial central government, and the treatment in all aspects was raised by one level, which can be regarded as a ripe result.

As for Alaska and Yukon, these two provinces are the first two provinces with the largest area in the Datang Empire, and they are also the provinces with the smallest population so far.

Alaska has a population of only 3.32 so far.After the discovery of gold deposits in Yukon Province, a wave of gold rush was formed, and now the population has reached 23.76.

These two provinces are also the provinces that have been conceived for the longest time in the infancy of the colonial department. At least at the end of this century, they will not see the day when they will come to fruition, and they still need time to develop.

Yunzhong Province is too far away. So far, the province's population has reached 39.92. Due to the disregard of financial allocations, the construction of various infrastructures is relatively lagging behind, and further cultivation is still needed.

If it is not done well, it will fall behind Cuba Province and Luzon Province, the last batch of overseas provinces that have come to fruition in the empire.

Of course, the jurisdiction of the Colonial Department is not limited to this, and also includes the Yemen area across the Red Sea, the area around the Port of Suez in Egypt, Paraguay, Uruguay, Peru, Chile, and the Republic of Mississippi and the Republic of Florida in North America.

As was common among the great powers in the 19th century, many functions of the Colonial and Foreign Offices overlapped.For a period of time, the British abolished the Colonial Department and incorporated it into the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which was based on such considerations.

(End of this chapter)