Wild North America 1846

"How is the specific progress of the dock project?"

"Your Majesty, the terminal project is built according to the standard of being able to load and unload ships of 10,000 tons. It is planned to have 6 10,000-ton cargo berths, 9 5,000-ton cargo berths, and two passenger berths. The entire terminal area is about 4.7 kilometers long and is made of reinforced concrete.

There are 3 trestles and 5 wooden trestles, with a cargo handling capacity of one million tons, and the entire construction period is expected to be four and a half years."

"Four and a half years, how long does it take?"

"Your Majesty, the 5,000-ton cargo berth and passenger berth built in advance are expected to be put into use as soon as July next year. Other 10,000-ton berths will be built one after another, and will not affect the port's cargo transportation."

"That's a bit slow. How much labor is there now?"

"Your Majesty, there are about 2,400 Chinese laborers and nearly 5,000 convicts. They need to build dozens of kilometers of rock concrete slope protection, and also need to build a large number of warehouses, and drive wooden piles into the coast, which is also very labor intensive.

It’s all extremely physical work.”

"Let's do this, I'll give you more manpower." Richard thought for a moment and then said;

"The newly formed cavalry of 4,000 people in the area around Chang'an has already set off to the northern Oregon region one after another. Their main task is to wipe out the northern Indian indigenous tribes.

This military activity will last for half a year. It is expected to bring back no less than 100,000 Indian hard labor prisoners and a similar number of indigenous women.

I will allocate 8,000 hard labor prisoners to the two dock construction projects in Chang'an and Los Angeles respectively. These labor forces will be in place before the end of the year, and you can use them as you please.

I have only one request; if I shorten the construction period by half, can it be completed?"

"This... I am a guarantor of this humble position. I will do my best to complete the tasks assigned by His Majesty, otherwise I will bring my head to see you."

"Very good, the kingdom is now in a period of major construction, and we must be fully prepared to deal with the flow of immigrants."

Speaking of which

Richard looked at the blue Pacific Ocean with his deep eyes, containing complex emotions, and he stared for a long time.

The two 5,000-ton passenger ships ordered by the Tang Dynasty successfully arrived in the Bay Area at the end of last year and have been put into trans-Pacific immigration shipping.

so far

The "Moganshan" and "Longhushan" sailing on the northern route of the Pacific Ocean have completed 6 voyages in 10 months, and completed one round-trip voyage in almost one and a half months.

Coal-fired and steam-powered iron-hulled ships are not affected by wind direction and ocean currents. They carry a huge amount of cargo or people. Compared with sailing cargo ships, they have the advantage of crushing.

These two ships can carry more than 2,200 Chinese immigrants on each voyage. They transported more than 16,000 immigrants and tens of thousands of tons of cargo in 10 months, and the profits were astonishing.

in North American ports

Fully loaded with steel products, cement, cloth, copper and Mexican silver, they set off for Eastern China. These bulk goods had a huge market in the Qing Dynasty and were very popular. As long as they arrived, they could earn a huge profit of 3 to 4 times.

When returning from the Weiying Concession in Weihai, the ship was loaded with raw silk, porcelain, tea and immigrants. After returning to the ports of Chang'an or Los Angeles, the American businessmen who swarmed the ship swept away these hot and sought-after goods, waving their banknotes.

For the huge American market, no amount of porcelain or tea is enough.

As for the raw silk, it entered the internal factories of the Tang Dynasty. After processing, the value increased by more than 10 times, and then was sold to the southern United States or Europe to make huge profits.

The "Moganshan" and the "Longhushan" only made two voyages between each other. Subtracting the loss-making immigration business, they made back the money they paid to buy the ship, including the principal and interest, which shows how huge the profits were.

The trans-Pacific migrant transportation business is promising and contains countless business opportunities.

Therefore, the Pacific Steam Navigation Company, controlled by Richard, placed orders for 12 5,000-ton transoceanic transport ships at one go to several British shipyards. The new ships will arrive one after another at the end of October and then be put into transoceanic shipping.

Thus

The Tang Kingdom's own ocean-going transportation capabilities are demonstrated. Based on seven voyages per ship per year, 14 transport ships will have the capacity to immigrate 220,000 people a year.

If coupled with the UK's monthly transoceanic immigration transport capacity of 8,000 people, the total number of immigrants per year on the Pacific Northern Route alone will exceed 320,000.

If Chinese immigrants from Central and South America are included, this number will increase by 80,000 to 100,000.

With the arrival of shipyard equipment one after another, the Tang Kingdom will soon have the ability to independently build iron-hulled ships, and more ships will be put into use on the trans-Pacific route next year.

And all this

This is the origin of the immigration wave mentioned by Richard. The total population of the Tang Kingdom will be close to 500,000 by the end of the year. Based on the current immigration scale, it is estimated to be between 470,000 and 485,000.

By the end of next year, he hopes that the total population of the Tang Kingdom will exceed 1 million.

Such strong confidence stems from the grasp of the general trend and the sufficient confidence in China's massive population. When it comes to human sea tactics, we have never been afraid of anyone.

If the original appearance of history does not undergo major changes,

The vigorous Taiping Rebellion will soon sweep through several provinces along the southeastern coast of China, and will burn the prairie fire to the heart of the country. Most of the provinces south of the Yangtze River will inevitably be affected.

With the war continuing and a large number of people displaced, isn't this the best time to immigrate to North America?

besides

Richard has asked Sequoia Bank to arrange for special personnel to go to China and set up branches in Weihaiwei, Tianjinwei, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Hong Kong to carry out transoceanic bank exchange business.

If those Chinese immigrants who made money in the Tang Dynasty wanted to remit money to their hometown, Sequoia Bank would charge 30% of the exchange fee.

When gold diggers enter a bank, 100 ounces of gold can be exchanged for banknotes and coins of equal value after a discount based on the fineness of the gold. The bank makes a huge profit from this.

If 100 ounces of gold is of insufficient fineness, you can only get the equivalent of 65 or 70 ounces of gold in banknotes. Good-quality alluvial gold cannot exceed 78 ounces of gold at most. How much water there is and how much room for price reduction is all depends on what bank experts say. It is simply worse than

Robbery brings in money quickly.

So if these 70 ounces of gold want to be remitted back to their hometown, Sequoia Bank will take a 30% cut, which is 21 ounces of gold. The remaining 49 ounces of gold is the amount that the gold digger's family can get.

Do you think this is over?

No, the bank will send a letter to the payee asking him to come to the bank to collect the remittance.

If the recipient of the letter has died or is unable to receive it for various reasons, then the money belongs to the bank.

In the southeastern coastal provinces that are about to be devastated by war, this situation is not uncommon!

The bank's obligation to notify you has been fulfilled. Who will blame you if you don't do it yourself?

Making money is one aspect, expanding the influence of the Tang Dynasty, and promoting the impression that people in North America are quick to make money is another aspect, which is conducive to the rapid expansion of various immigrant Chinese groups.

That is to say

In the future, the Pacific Steam Navigation Company may make a lot of money from selling shipping tickets, and the money of the North American gold diggers will still end up in the pockets of the steamship companies.

The cost of transoceanic transportation is not cheap. A bed costs at least 50 taels of silver. This is still the lowest class of accommodation.

On the Tang Dynasty's transport ship "Moganshan", there is a kind of bunk called a ladder bed. In a 7.6-meter-high cabin, there are 10 layers of iron-framed beds arranged like ladders. The height of each layer is less than 80 meters.

centimeters.

Passengers can only enter by climbing a ladder. The price of such a bunk is as high as 56 taels of silver in Weihaiwei and at least 68 taels of silver in Guangzhou Prefecture.

You have to pay for the ship ticket for independent immigration. After there are rumors that there are large gold mines in North America that can make you rich overnight, many brave and ambitious Chinese people will buy a ship ticket and travel across the ocean to realize their dream of getting rich.

Even if there is one person in 100, given China's huge population, that is a huge business opportunity that can overwhelm the shipping company.

The steel industry, shipbuilding industry, and transoceanic transportation trade are the three key development directions of the Tang Kingdom in the future.