Chapter 597 ?Moore: I finally smelled the smell of capitalism!
Yongping Prefecture, Jing'an Fortress, Luanzhou, August of the seventh year of the Tianli of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.
That afternoon, the carriage of Moore, Friedrich and Baiswen was parked in Luanzhou, outside a small castle called Jing'an Castle.
They entered Shanhaiguan a day ago and entered Yongping Prefecture in northern Zhili. As soon as they entered Shanhaiguan,
It is obvious that the population is dense. The villages and towns on both sides of the official road immediately became more and more popular. From time to time, you can see groups of refugees and "porridge sanctuaries" built by the Zhili Governor's Office. This is specially set up for refugees who escaped from famine and rushed to Guandong. Any refugees who are taking their families and walking in groups always have a bowl of life-long porridge to eat in these porridge sheds.
Outside the east gate of Jing'an Fort, there is a wrinkled porridge shed. Brown rice is being boiled in more than a dozen large iron pots. The porridge has not been cooked yet, but the rice fragrance has attracted many refugees who are with their families.
Friedrich put on round-frame glasses and looked at the refugees huts compressed under the straw shed on both sides of the official road. These people were wrapped in patched linen cloth, and the baby in his arms was sucking his dry breasts, and his eyes were just staring at the sheds that were cooking rice porridge.
Bai Siwen had already pushed open the car door and walked down, and even greeted Moore. Friedrich got out of the car and took two steps. He pointed to a sign on the side of the road: "There is a sign there, and go and see what it is written!"
Moore looked along his folding fan and saw more than a dozen big words "I ordered the supervisor of Zhili military affairs Zuo Xiaoyuu, the imperial edict to reduce rent and interest rates, and the people's imperial edict." Bai Siwen walked over quickly, and Moore and Friedrich followed together.
"One is to reduce the rent. For all the land in Zhili, regardless of the Guanzhuang and civilian land, the rent will never exceed 40%...\n." Bai Siwen glanced at the notice of classical Chinese, and soon discovered the most critical content. He paused and said, "Fourty percent is not low! And...:::. The second is to reduce interest. For all the money borrowers, the annual interest rate cannot exceed 20% and 5% of the annual interest rate. Twenty-five percent is better than nine and thirteen, but it is not low!"
"Aren't the land divided? Why are there anyone willing to rent land so high?" Friedrich took out his notebook and copied the contents on the signboard while asking questions in a blunt Beijing film.
"Dividing the fields, hum, telling jokes..." A full sigh came from the broken straw hut on one side. An old man wearing a patched shiny satin jacket crossed his legs, and the jade ring on his thumb was missing half of it. "You foreigner must have come to Kaiping Mining Bureau, right? You must have been staying in Nanzhili before, right? I thought Nanzhi and Beizhi's division of fields were the same thing?"
How many versions are there in the matter of dividing land?
Moore's gray and blue eyes narrowed. He noticed that although the old man had a unkempt face, his clothes were once rich and prosperous.
"Is my father-in-law from Beijing?" Bai Siwen shook off the folding fan and leaned over, and spoke up with an extremely fluent Beijing film.
The old man's mung bean eyes rolled, and he stood up and bowed, with some bannermen tying, "I'm here, Zhao Wu, I made a living in Liulichang, Sijiucheng. Now the world is difficult...::::" He warned that the silver dollar leaked from Bai Siwen's fingers reflected, and his voice immediately lit up, "What do you want to ask?"
Inside a dilapidated temple in Jing'an Fort City.
"Zuo Dashu's Juntian Ling is a joke!" Zhao Wu was chewing the beef jerky given by Bai Siwen, and the chew was so fragrant. His saliva was sprayed on the ash on the incense table. "The Eight Banners' Imperial House, Official House, and Private House are all filled with public servants,
But the Han landlords did not move at all!" He suddenly lowered his voice, "Justice Wang in this town, his ancestors were the robber slaves who followed Prince Rui into the pass! Now he cut his braids and changed the inscription of the ancestral tomb. Hey, he has become a serious Han gentry!"
Friedrich's pen tip rustled on the paper: "So landless farmers can only go to Guandong?"
"Those who can leave are considered good luck!" He whispered outside the temple. "Zuo Zongtang opened a commercial port in Tianjin. Many foreigners and profiteers from the south set up factories in the commercial port. The Shengku in the south set up a coal mining bureau in Luanzhou, and they were short of staff...:::. On the official road outside the pass, there were recruiting officials in each porridge shed to coax people to do hard work and go down the mine!"
After hearing what he said, Moore and Friedrich both had a bright light in their eyes. This is the smell of capitalism!
To bankrupt farmers, then coax them into factories and mines to be used as cheap labor...::
At this time, a commotion suddenly came from the temple gate. Several men in short-skinned beatings knocked away the refugees, protecting a Western-style top hat and a Chinese-style robe, and broke in. Civilized sticks hit the bluestone slab, and the Cantonese accent mandarin was filled with a honey-smelling smell of congratulations on wealth: "Kaiping Mining Bureau is recruiting workers! Four yuan per month for Taiping silver dollars, which is for food and accommodation!"
A short man stood up in the crowd of refugees: "It's dangerous to go down the mine. How about being injured or dead?"
"The work-related injury subsidy is 50 to 50 yuan, depending on the injury!" The Guangdong man took off his hat and fanned his clothes, and said with a smile on his face, "All work-related injuries will be subject to a pension of 100 yuan!"
The crowd exploded metaphorically.
The treatment seems to be good...:
Zhao Wu picked up the broken bowl on the altar and smashed it over: "Last year, the mine owner collapsed in Lijiazhuang. After leaving, the lives of more than 30 people died in vain! You guys who started the mine were not good!" He said loudly to the refugees gathered outside: "Friends, we have all arrived in Yongping. We gritted our teeth and walked out of our mouths. One person and two acres of black soil are better than going to the mine!"
The Guangdong man's face suddenly changed. Just as the bodyguard was about to step forward, Bai Siwen's folding fan was already standing in the middle: "This master, His Highness Gan Wang's distinguished guest is here, would you give me some face?"
This Guangdong man's surname is Tang. Tang Tingshu, the general manager of Kaiping Mining Bureau, is his distant nephew. Everyone in the mine calls him Tang Siye, who is the leader in recruiting workers in the mine.
During this period, the English miner Wen, hired by the Kaiping Mining Bureau, found several shallow mine veins and was about to develop them. He was very short of people, so he, the leader, also came out to pull people. Unexpectedly, he met the guest of Gan Wang in Jing'an Castle...
He held Hong Ren's token and looked at it repeatedly, and suddenly grinned: "Master Zuo also heard that King Gan and his foreigners were going to Tianjing. He had already entered Zhili, so he did not dare to neglect and came to Yongping in person. Unexpectedly, you have arrived in Jing'an Fort...:::.Disrespect, disrespect!" He bowed, "But Kaiping Mine is the industry of Shengku, one of the 36 key factories and mines introduced from England. It is planned to invest millions of silver dollars, not only to open a coal mine, but also to build a railway...\n. It is really short of manpower!"
Moore suddenly asked in a rude official language: "How many hours a miner works every day?"
"What hour?" Mr. Tang was stunned for a moment, and calculated with his fingers, "Work at the time of Mao, and get off at the time of Hai, and count the time of two meals...\nThere are eight hours in total."
Friedrich took out his pen and wrote the data: Working 16 hours a day, the salary is equivalent to 0.7 shillings...
"Where is child labor?" Moore asked.
"Half price!" Master Tang Si knocked on the table proudly, "It will be reduced by half if you are under ten years old! Luanzhou last month,
The victims rushed to send their children to the mine...::.:
Bai Siwen suddenly coughed violently. Master Tang Si stood up and bowed tactfully: "Everyone should rest early. The Zuo Magistrate Zuo should be able to arrive at the Kaiping Mining Bureau tomorrow." He added before leaving, "Now, there are cloth factories, flour mills, match factories, and ship bureaus on the ground of Zhili, which are blooming everywhere, making it not inferior to Jiangnan. It is much bigger than the situation of Dongwang on the other side of the sea. You will know when you come to Tianjin."
Friedrich was so excited by his words that he asked again: "Are these factories invested by the Heavenly Kingdom Holy Cu?"
Mr. Tang shook his head: "The Holy Library only invests in 36 key points, and the rest are invested by the rich people from the people. The distribution of land and land in Zhili is light, and the vitality of the rich people from the people is not much damaged, and there are more poor people without land than in the south."
In Jing'an Castle Station, Moore went back and forth: "Zuo Zongtang deliberately retained the landlord class in order to keep the farmers' poverty and force them to leave the land and go to factories and mines to be cheap labor!"
"Although there is no such situation as sheep eating people......" Friedrich recorded in his notebook, "but he used wasteland in the northeast that could be reclaimed as bait to lure farmers out of the land. As long as some obstacles are set up along the way, capitalists can use the minimum wage to trick them into entering the factory and go to the mines...::... This is a typical method commonly used in the primary stage of capitalism!"
Moore nodded: "China has richer resources, larger domestic market, more capital than North Korea and Japan. In addition, it has enough cheap labor and appropriate tariff protection, industrial policies, and the investment of Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Holy Ku in certain key projects...:::. China's industrialization process is likely to be faster than North Korea and Japan."
Friedrich frowned: "If the North Korean Heavenly Kingdom wants to complete its industrialization, it must first conquer Japan, then close the markets between Japan and North Korea, and at the same time monopolize the profits of the Japan-West Coast trade line, and use the West Coast of the United States as a dumping place for products. This will surely prompt the complete breakdown of the relationship between the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and the North Korean Heavenly Kingdom!"
Moore said: "Yes...:::. Even if the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and the North Korean Heavenly Kingdom believe in a Heavenly Father, conflicts between them are inevitable! Because as long as they embark on the path of capitalism, they will inevitably be dominated by the laws of capitalist economics."
Friedrich closed the notebook and thought, "If the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom wins the future struggle, then the 500 million people in East Asia will be out of the cage and the world's pattern will be recast!"
The door was suddenly pushed open, Bai Siwen flashed in with a cloak, with a weird smile on his face: "Two, Zuo Zongtang's convoy arrived in Kaiping Town, know who else he brought?"
Chapter completed!