1850 American Gold Baron

Chapter 247 Price

In early January 1850, when Liang Yao first set foot in San Francisco, San Francisco prospered rapidly due to the gold rush.

But at that time, there was no industry in San Francisco. The sky was very blue, the water was very clear, and it was full of primitive natural charm.

Two years later, San Francisco has undergone earth-shaking changes.

Historically, factories appeared on a large scale in California only after the Civil War. In just two years, various factories sprung up like mushrooms after rain in the San Francisco Industrial Zone he designated.

The towering chimneys in the industrial zone emit billowing smoke into the clear sky, making the originally clear sky dirty. The sewage in the drainage pipes discharges turbid sewage into the clear seawater, making the seawater near the industrial zone dirty.

A turbid mess.

Being close to an industrial area, there is a pungent smell that hits your nostrils. Of course, it is also an industrial smell.

This is an inevitable price to pay for development. When he first returned to San Francisco, some fishermen complained to Liang Yao that the sewage put into the factory had polluted the nearby seawater, and there was no longer any fish to be caught in the nearby sea.

Liang Yao just asked the fishermen to give up fishing in this sea area.

Facing the mighty tide of history, Liang Yao also seemed very powerless.

In the industrialization of California, he can try his best to take care of the interests of most groups in California, but he cannot take care of the interests of everyone.

There are always people who have to make sacrifices for industrialization, and all he can do is make the sacrifices fewer.

Liang Yao has never been to London or Paris in this era, but he has been to New York and seen the turbid and smelly Hudson River in New York.

At this time, the Thames River in London and the Seine River in Paris are not much cleaner than the Hudson River in New York, let alone the sea near the San Francisco Industrial Area.

This painful journey is the only way for all regions and countries that want to enter industrial civilization.

If you don't take the road of industrialization if you have the opportunity now, if you are forced to industrialize in the future, the price you will pay will be even greater than now.

"Those machines you spent a lot of money to buy from the east are really powerful. The steel and iron produced last year may be more than those produced in Guangdong Province."

Looking at the tall chimneys in the industrial area, Deng Yan felt that he looked very small in front of these buildings.

"In more than ten years, let alone Guangdong, it will not be surprising that the steel produced in California every year will be more than that of the Qing Dynasty." Liang Yao said as he walked.

Compared with the productivity of industrial civilization and agricultural civilization, it is a dimensionality reduction blow, and there is no comparison.

Before the emergence of the chemical industry, steel production, coal production, and railway mileage were the three most important indicators of early industrialization.

Steel is the foundation and the pillar of industrial society. Railway rails, machinery, guns, warships and many consumer goods in industrial society are inseparable from steel.

As for coal, before the emergence of petroleum fuel, it was the most important industrial fuel. The operation of steam engines and making fires for cooking and heating were all inseparable from coal.

Without coal, all machines will be paralyzed.

Not to mention railways, which are the main transportation arteries. Without railways, the efficiency of personnel exchanges and the speed of commodity circulation in inland areas will be greatly reduced.

California is lucky. Gold quickly accumulated original capital for California. Nevada's coal and iron mines, and the high-quality iron ore and coal mines of Mexico, its weak neighbor, provided abundant raw materials for California's industrialization.

Counting the easy-to-exploit shallow oil in Los Angeles, California can be said to be in the right place at the right time.

Looking around the world, there are not many places like this.

According to a report provided to him by California Industry Secretary Fair, in 1851, the combined output of all steel plants, large and small, in California was 18,000 tons of pig iron, and a pitiful 353 tons of steel.

According to Liang Yao's estimate, California's steel production is close to 2% of the United States' steel production.

Although this data is not pretty, considering that California’s population does not reach 2% of the total population of the United States, California’s per capita steel production is still higher than the average data of the United States.

The state government has allocated resources to the industrial sector, and Liang Yao's efforts to encourage growth have achieved some results.

California's coal production is less than 200,000 tons.

If the railway mileage in California is open to traffic, including the scattered railways built in other places, such as mining areas, the total length will be about 1,300 kilometers (San Francisco-Los Angeles, San Francisco-Sacramento, these two together will exceed 1,000 kilometers).

kilometers).

As a new state, such an achievement within two years is undoubtedly very impressive, enough to make many states jealous.

But other states cannot learn from California's path. California's fiscal revenue of more than 4.7 million US dollars last year is unmatched in the eyes of many new states.

What's more, the conditions in other states are different from those in California. Those country gentry and wealthy businessmen do not have the courage and strength to centralize power in the state like Liang Yao. This is no longer a question of whether they can learn it, but that they dare not learn it at all.

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The most important thing is that there is no other steel tycoon like Liang Yao who is not only willing to throw money into the steel industry, but also formed a coal and steel alliance.

Heavy industry was a gold-swallowing behemoth in the early days, so don't expect to make money.

Of course, Liang Yao is not complacent about his achievements. With his current industrial strength, he can only laugh at the enemy neighbors of New South Wales and Mexico in the south of the United States.

Compared with the industrially developed regions of the United States, there is still a big gap between Britain and France, especially the industrial giant of Great Britain.

During the same period, the British Empire's coal output reached a terrifying 30 million tons, and its pig iron output reached more than 1.4 million tons. As for the total railway mileage, not counting the colonies, the mainland's railway mileage alone is more than 12,000 kilometers.

What is this concept? During this period, the coal output and steel output of other countries combined were not as much as those of Great Britain.

Of course, the railway mileage can still exceed that of the UK mainland. After all, the UK mainland is not very large.

In 1850, the total mileage of railroads in the United States exceeded that of the United Kingdom. After all, the territory of the United States was much larger than that of the United Kingdom.

In addition to these, the British naval tonnage is also unparalleled. The tonnage of one country's navy exceeds the combined naval tonnage of all countries in the world.

The locomotives currently in use in the United States are either obsolete goods imported from the United Kingdom or imitations of British locomotives.

In Europe, the United Kingdom also monopolizes the European motorcycle market. About 60% of the motorcycles in the European countries are supplied by the United Kingdom.

This is why only Britain has the strength to build an industrial miracle like the Crystal Palace, and why the fleet of the British Empire can dominate the world.

Strong industrial strength and powerful navy are the capital of Britain's arrogance.

There is still a long way to go to catch up with the Premier League and the United States.

It is hoped that the large sums of money spent this time to purchase machinery and recruit workers from the east will allow California's industrial production capacity to explode in the coming years.

Liang Yao had just walked into the steel factory, ready to take a tour, when he saw eight or nine children of about ten years old, all dirty and with soot on their faces, gathered around a chimney.

Soon, two or three children of seven or eight years old climbed out of the chimney.

Liang Yao subconsciously looked towards the top of the chimney and saw a seven or eight-year-old child standing at the top of the chimney, cleaning the top of the chimney without any protective measures.

Liang Yao's heart suddenly rose to his throat, and he was so nervous that he didn't even dare to speak out, let alone make a sound, for fear of disturbing the children who were working on the top of the chimney.

(End of chapter)