Wild North America 1846

Chapter 562 Civilian Life

Author: Portuguese toothless

Chapter 562 Civilian Life

After listening to the coachman's words, Richard suddenly realized, but this made his interest in exploring even more intense.

So he took out a pack of "Fugui" brand cigarettes from his pocket. These cigarettes cost 2 cents a pack, which is much better than the "Qinli" brand cigarettes which cost 8 cents a pack, and gave them to each of the carriage drivers around him.

Got one.

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

"Hoho... I'm so rich, thank you, sir!" The coachmen all knew the goods, and each one of them with a smile on his face took one and lit it up, and started puffing away and enjoying it.

Most of the rickshaw pullers on the pier took the "diligence" which cost 8 cents a pack, and only a few were willing to take the "wealth", after all, this thing is much more expensive.

If everyone smokes such good cigarettes and loses several yuan a month, how much money will they spend on cigarettes a year?

It’s not that the rickshaw drivers can’t afford it, but behind every rickshaw driver there is a family and many children. There are still people who are saving money to buy a car. If they don’t save little by little, where will the money come from?

After smoking a cigarette, the conversation started.

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

"Isn't that right... No matter how much cargo is loaded, just push the accelerator and go."

"The truck came before dawn in the morning and worked until the road was no longer visible at night. One truck almost did the work of our four carriages, and we earned at least more than 20 yuan a day.

What about us?

Our carriage can only work for six or seven hours at most, and we spend more than half of the time waiting in line. We only get four or five yuan every day, which is a big gap.

No matter how long it lasts, the horses won’t be able to bear it and the people will be exhausted.”

"Also, it would be better if the goods are shipped at the dock. They go directly to the warehouse without any pauses. Basically, it takes more than 40 minutes to make a round trip.

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

There were vehicles and pedestrians on the street outside. The carriages stopped and stopped along the way. Every time they stopped, it was fatal. You had to whip and push the animals and use force, which could tire people to death.

Unlike those trucks, you can go a long way with just one step of the accelerator without any trouble at all."

“The truck is great, but it’s too expensive and we can’t afford it!”

"Saving like this for seven or eight years is probably enough. There are more and more trucks on the docks, and they are basically bought by rich people in the city and transportation companies. People like us don't buy many."

"Well, people who buy trucks either sell their houses and land to raise money, or they rely on the Chamber of Commerce to raise funds, or a few people pool their money together, which accounts for about a small half of the money at our Pier 9. It's all like this.

"

"I think we can chip in. The sooner we buy a truck, the sooner we can make money. We can earn enough money for the truck in a year and a half, and it will be a net profit from now on."

"When you make money, you can buy a car. One car will become two, and two will become four. Are you worried that you won't make any money after living so much on the dock?"

"I think it's okay. Let's do a total after this matter is over. Anyway, the more dividends you get, the more dividends you get. We just need to pool our shares. We should all have saved some money."

"It's okay... Brother Dong, can you take the lead?"

"Okay, we have a few acquaintances who count as one, so we won't expand it any more for the time being. We will discuss the difference at that time, and we will have to agree to attract other brothers to buy shares. Let's try to buy a car together and put it on the dock.

Let’s work together.”

"Hahaha... This is called sharpening a knife and chopping wood at the same time. Count me in."

Richard couldn't help but smile when he heard their discussion becoming more and more lively, and the topic gradually changed to buying a car.

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

think about it

These new immigrants, who originally had their backs to the earth and their backs to the sky, quickly integrated into the society a few years after arriving in the Tang Empire. They were full of energy in a fair social environment. What they were thinking about was how to make more money? How to collect shares?

This is unimaginable in our original life. Who knows what it means to collect shares?

We have always been familiar with it, but now everyone knows about "collecting shares", and the response is very enthusiastic, because there are many successful examples clearly before our eyes.

The vast majority of people working on the docks are new immigrants who have just arrived to carry packages and transport goods. They work hard and earn eight or nine yuan in a month. They are basically making a living, and they only eat a day.

A hard-earned meal.

Most of these coachmen have been immigrating for a few years. They have saved up money to buy carriages to transport goods. They still earn one hundred, thirty or forty yuan every month, which is equivalent to the annual income of ordinary workers in Chang'an, the imperial capital.

Even more powerful are the truck owners. Most of these are immigrants in the early years. They quickly became rich with the rise of the empire. They can spend tens of thousands of dollars on trucks and easily get five to six hundred yuan in a month.

Excluding labor, fuel, maintenance, taxes and other expenses, there will be more than 400 yuan in the pocket, which is nearly 5,000 yuan a year. If you do a good job, you will get more than this amount. You can get your capital back in one and a half years.

Dream.

Why are shipping costs so high?

This is due to the backward human transportation level in today's era. At the world's top level shipping terminals such as Chang'an, the imperial capital, the huge volume of cargo circulation and the use of new terminal loading and unloading cranes have created massive transportation needs.

Human transportation is inefficient, but it is a common transportation method in ports around the world, so it naturally has corresponding transportation price levels.

The same is true in some remote ports or with relatively backward facilities in the Tang Empire. Human-powered carts, mules and horses pulling carts and horse-drawn carriages are the main means of transportation. Expensive truck transportation is far from being widespread in these areas.

The transport price of a human-operated trolley determines the lower limit of the overall transportation price. A human-powered trolley works hard for a day and only earns 40 to 50 cents of hard-earned money. In a month, more than ten yuan is the top of the sky. No matter how much it is, it will be nothing.

People are willing to do it.

Heavy-duty four-wheeled carriages and freight cars transport large quantities at high speeds, and are of course more profitable.

The booming economy of the Tang Empire was full of opportunities, such as cigarette stalls, tea stalls, wowotou big pancake stalls, tea eggs, melon seeds and other stalls on the pier. Otherwise, who would be able to make a lot of money?

Putting this thing on display?

Just like a burrito stall, even if a burrito only earns one penny, selling more than 200 burritos a day is still a gross profit of more than two yuan. After paying half of the share fee on the dock, you can still make a lot of money.

There are more than 13,000 people working on Pier 9, and there are dozens of various stalls and shops, lined up like a makeshift snack street, selling everything.

Richard even saw a temporary sex room here, which consisted of more than twenty boxcars parked on the roadside, forming a specific area. On each boxcart were two or three Mexican women who were posing, looking at each other greedily.

He keeps ogling the strong men coming and going. These are all moving guests!

Chinese businessmen really don’t miss any opportunity to make money, what else can I say!

In the Tang Empire, neither prostitution nor gambling was prohibited, but it was required to be filed with the government and taxed according to regulations, which was a standard practice common in all countries around the world.

Nowadays

There is no talk of equality between men and women, and no country has banned prostitution and 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 Tang Empire

The majority of brothels and prostitutes are white and Mexican women. In recent years, a large number of Fuso women have migrated eastward to North America, becoming the main source of popular prostitutes.

There were very few real Chinese women. This was because the official control of the empire was very strict. Once it was found that a Chinese woman was forced to prostitute herself against her original intention, the owner of the brothel would be punished and bankrupted, or even thrown into a hard labor camp for the rest of his life.

According to the laws of the Tang Empire

The operators of any commercial enterprises, companies, mines and shop stalls must have legal citizenship in the Tang Dynasty and pay taxes according to regulations. Otherwise, it will be an illegal act severely punished by law. Once investigated and dealt with, not only will the illegal gains be confiscated, the business premises will be closed, and the business premises will be closed.

Operators must be severely punished.

Being able to obtain the legal citizenship of the empire is worth cherishing. No one is willing to take huge risks and do such a shameful thing. Isn’t it nice to make money legally and safely?

Different from ordinary economic crimes and public security crimes, this kind of person is particularly hated by people when he enters the hard labor camp, and it is basically impossible for him 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 society, and the business became more and more prosperous.

Generally speaking

The Fuso people will find some empire citizens to be their bosses. They only need to collect money every month, and there is no need to ask about anything else.

This is also an area where local power is concentrated. Gangs and social libertines gather together. Various Fusang prostitutes, health centers, and Japanese-style bathhouses have sprung up, forming a red light district.

This also led the Fuso government to vigorously export Japanese women to North America in order to earn large sums of hard currency to subsidize the domestic economy, becoming the most important means of earning foreign exchange.

From January to November 1870 alone, Fusang Kingdom imported more than 130,000 young women like the Tang Empire, with an average of more than 10,000 young women per month, which is quite impressive.

This gave ordinary subjects of the Tang Empire a fixed impression of the Fusang Kingdom. One was short and vulgar, and the other was a prostitute and obscene. They generally believed that their race was inferior and looked down upon them from the bottom of their hearts.

These Japanese women who were imported into the Tang Empire through additional treaties were unable to obtain legal resident status no matter how many years they stayed in the empire.

From the moment he arrived on the North American continent, he was marked with a black chrysanthemum tattoo on his shoulder, and he could only become a plaything with a tragic fate.

From now on, more than a hundred years later, the total number of Japanese women who traveled eastward to North America was about 7 million, and they left behind more than 10 million children. Over the years, they earned hundreds of millions of foreign exchange for the Fuso Kingdom, making them the largest exporter.

item, which has strongly supported domestic economic development.

However, the number of Japanese women who eventually became imperial citizens was very rare and could be completely ignored.

These 7 million Japanese women work in a harsh environment and suffer from diseases. Very few, less than 10%, can survive more than 10 years. Most of them have ended their blooming youth early and withered on the land of North America.

how many years later

Fuso Country once filmed a film that reflects the tragic past of seven million women in Japan, called "Japanese Elegy", also called "Blooming Black Chrysanthemums". It tells the story of a group of Fuso women who traveled east to North America and the past that is difficult to look back on.

.

However, the movie received a ban just two days after its release. This unbearable memory is buried in history and will never have a chance to be shown to the world again, which makes people sigh with regret!

Free to roam on the pier

Richard had close contact with coachmen, loaders, stall owners, collectors, terminal company employees and freighter crews, and truly felt the living and working conditions of the grassroots people in the empire, which was unimaginable in the past.

Although he often visited various places, the people he came into contact with were all social groups with a better life. Even the farmers or ranchers at the lowest level had a better life than the ordinary working class.

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

It's worthless.

Several pigs, cows, and lambs that were crushed to death cannot be thrown away, so just kill them and eat them!

There is no such thing as health quarantine these days. Wasting food is the biggest sin, and it will be punished by God!

There is no shortage of eggs, milk, vegetables, and oils on the farm, so the standard of living is naturally higher.

As long as you spend more than 110 yuan to buy a hand-operated oil press, you don’t need to buy any more oil for the entire farm. Whether it’s peanuts, rapeseeds, or cottonseeds, you can press oil. It’s easy and quick to operate, and can satisfy hundreds of people.

People farm needs.

Generally speaking

Just keep the oil residue as processing fee, such as peanut residue, rapeseed residue, cottonseed residue, etc. These things are excellent whether they are used to fertilize fields or raise livestock, and you can't buy them even if you want to.

Urban residents are different. They have to spend money to buy everything they eat, wear, and use. Of course, they have to budget carefully. When buying food, they mainly buy cheap corn noodles and more affordable economic flour. What they pursue is cost-effectiveness.

Economical flour is coarsely ground flour. The flour particles are relatively large, and it is also mixed with some finely crushed wheat husks and other impurities. It is yellow in color and tastes average. It is not as chewy as white flour, and some are processed from old grains.

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 staple foods for middle-class Chinese families. 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. Glutinous rice sweet liquor, 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 terrestrial rice and glutinous rice has always been relatively high.

There's nothing we can do about it

From Central America to the large, medium and small cities on the Pacific coast of the Empire and the central Great Plains of North America, the transportation costs are higher than the value of the rice itself. Coupled with the fact that it has changed hands several times, it is not surprising that the price is relatively expensive.

On the contrary, the price of grain shipped to Europe by sea is not high. This is because the sea movement often involves tens of thousands of tons. When the sea freight is diluted into every pound of grain, there is not much left.

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

(End of chapter)