1850 American Gold Tycoon

Chapter 578 Texas in 1859

In June 1859, the opening of the Garland-Germany Railway was the biggest news of the year in the United States besides political news.

This railway starts from Los Angeles, the largest city in southern California, passes through Phoenix, Tucson, El Paso, and finally connects to the Texas transportation hub of San Antonio to connect to the Texas rail network.

The opening of the Gade Railway meant that high-quality and low-cost raw materials such as dough rings, sugar cane, and tobacco from Texas could be transported directly to California through this railway.

At the same time, California's industrial products, chemical products, and even arms can be transported to Texas more quickly through the Garrison-Germany Railway.

Industrial finished products and chemical products exported to Europe can also be transported to the Port of Houston or the Port of Corpus Christi via the Garrison-Germany Railway, and then loaded on ships at these two ports and shipped directly to Europe.

There is no doubt that the commercial value of this railway can not be overstated by the amount of money it makes every day.

The senior officials of both states, including Texas, were very happy for the opening of this railway, especially the senior officials of Texas.

In recent years, as the federal government has gradually increased export tariffs, the price of cotton exported from southern states has been rising.

The original big European customers in the southern states began to gradually turn their attention to cheaper cotton from Egypt, India and other places. In addition, in order to get rid of the cotton in stock as soon as possible and avoid the goods rotting in warehouses, plantation owners in southern states rushed to sell them at lower prices, so that the profits of cotton were no longer what they used to be.

In contrast, Texas planters are lucky. Since the West Coast is native, cotton and other products sold to the West Coast are not affected by tariff adjustments. The planters were still thriving despite the economic crisis.

Of course, factory owners in California are also happy to import high-quality and low-priced raw materials from Texas. Generally speaking, trade between the two states is a win-win situation for both parties.

With the help of the California consortium headed by America Group, Texas also has a certain industrial base. It has a certain number of steel plants, military factories, and shipyards. As a result, Texas has become one of the few southern states with certain industrial strength.

As for the problem of labor conflict between planters and factory owners, this problem had not yet manifested itself in Texas due to the large influx of Chinese and Mexican immigrants.

The economic development momentum of the entire state of Texas still shows a vigorous vitality and a scene of competition for all things.

Of course, the completion of the Garde Railway also has great strategic significance for Liang Yao.

The completion of the Garde Railway means that the West Coast can directly transport supplies to Texas and even the entire South, bypassing the railway network controlled by the North.

In terms of population, by 1859, the population of Texas had more than quadrupled compared to ten years earlier.

The current population of Texas is as high as 430,000, including 140,000 Chinese and 70,000 Mexicans. As for those slaves, they are naturally not included in the census.

The population of Houston, the largest city in Texas, has more than doubled in 10 years. It has grown from a small port city with a population of only about 10,000 to a busy port with a population of nearly 100,000. and trade center.

Unlike other ports in the south, such as New Orleans, Charleston, Norfolk, and Savannah, merchant ships departing from Houston for Europe do not carry traditional raw materials such as cotton, tobacco, and sugar cane.

There are more industrial products from the West Coast, such as sewing machines, bicycles, firearms, etc., as well as chemical products, such as kerosene, Vaseline, lubricants, etc.

Because these products were particularly popular in Europe, with high profits and short supply, many Texas merchants engaged in re-export trade made a lot of money from them.

Western consortiums also regard Texas as the most important seaport to Europe, and invest in Texas at all costs.

The two most important ports in Texas, the Port of Houston and the Port of Corpus Christi, have been able to develop so smoothly and rapidly without encountering financial and technical bottlenecks. A large part of the reason is that the major port companies responsible for these two ports have strong participation of western capital. For example, the American Port Company, which is responsible for operating the Port of Houston, is from the American Group, the largest consortium in the West.

It can be said that the interests of California and Texas are deeply bound. Because Liang Yao took the lead and set an example, the phenomenon of intermarriage between the upper classes of the two places has become very common, and a situation has already been formed in which you have me and you have me.

Although Texas was still a slave state in name at this time, its economic structure was obviously different from other southern states.

After attending the opening ceremony of the Garde-Germany Railway, Liang Yao was invited by his father-in-law Bell to visit Texas, a state with simple folk customs.

What surprised him was that the planters in Texas were not only Dixie, Chinese, and Mexican planters, but there were even a lot of Indian and black planters.

What is even more ridiculous is that because black slaves are too expensive and involve sensitive political issues, Texas plantation owners rarely use black slaves, but more often use slaves from Southeast Asia, Japan, etc. Slaves brought from the ground were used as substitutes.

As for the original black slaves, they were sold to other southern states. After all, the money to buy one black slave is enough to buy four or more other slaves.

After learning about this, slave owners in other southern states have recently been keen to introduce cheaper slaves from Southeast Asia and Japan.

As for who brought these slaves from Asia, the answer is self-evident.

After arriving in Texas, a long-lost state, Liang Yao's first stop was the arsenal in Austin, the capital of Texas. This arsenal is currently the most advanced arsenal in the South, with the most impressive gun production.

Like California, for safety reasons, Texas did not choose to build the arsenal in Houston, the largest city in Texas with more convenient transportation, better supporting facilities, and more abundant labor force. . Instead, the arsenal was built in the inland Austin area.

Although transportation in inland Austin is not very convenient compared to the port city of Houston, this problem has been alleviated as Austin is connected to the Texas rail network.

As the smell of gunpowder between the North and the South grew stronger, arms became a commodity in short supply.

The North, which controls most of the United States' arms production capacity, has begun to restrict southern states from purchasing arms from the north.

Therefore, the Austin Arsenal, which was able to manufacture Walter M1851 rifles and large and small Napoleon cannons, was favored by planters in southern states.

These wealthy planters were eager to purchase weapons from the Austin Arsenal in sufficient quantities and with advanced enough performance to defend their property from the Yankee threat.