Chapter 1016 Different Worlds
The welcome banquet was very lively. Although the reception standard was not high, it was more affordable.
In order to welcome the new 2,000 laborers, Viscount Outlets slaughtered 50 cows, 100 sheep, and several chickens very readily, and the chef carefully prepared bread and vegetables.
There is no way, there are many people and there is a big appetite. As a good lord, it is natural for the Outlets to invite all the citizens to participate in such a large banquet.
Even though 50 cows may seem like a lot, African cattle in the 19th century were all fed naturally. They were not big in size, and they were not artificially modified beef cattle in later generations. Naturally, the meat yield was not much higher.
With one steak per person, 50 cows will be consumed. As for the 100 sheep just for stewing soup, it is obviously not enough for barbecue. In contrast, the supply of chicken is much more abundant.
Of course, meat is not considered a luxury in Europe. Especially after Austrian Africa was opened up, the price of meat products fell again and again.
The African continent is sparsely populated, which provides a favorable foundation for the development of animal husbandry. Take the territory of Outlets as an example, the population of more than 7,000 square kilometers is only a little over 10,000.
After excluding the elderly and children, the young and strong labor force is only five or six thousand. So much land must not be able to be cultivated. The development of animal husbandry is a good choice.
For aristocratic lords with enough land, the cost of raising cattle and sheep that can grow up purely on grass is really not high. You raise me and I raise them too, and the price will naturally go down as more people are raised.
What really stands out is the white bread on the table, the kind without any impurities. For workers who are used to eating bricks and black bread, the impact will be too great.
There is naturally white bread in continental Europe, but because the production cost of wheat is higher than that of rye, the price of white bread has also risen, and it has become the standard for rich people.
At an ordinary welcome banquet, the lord brought out all white bread, which was beyond everyone's understanding.
Many people looked at the white bread in front of them and hesitated to make a move, for fear that the chef made a mistake and served the wrong food. Seeing that everyone around got white bread, I was sure it wasn't the chef's mistake.
The beautiful misunderstanding added a bit of talk to this banquet. This is only for people who have just arrived in Africa, and they will not be so surprised after staying for a long time.
For no other reason, the core of the problem is that rye likes cold and grows in temperate cold regions. The African continent is like a big furnace. No matter how high-yielding rye is, it is useless.
In contrast, wheat has less stringent requirements on the growing environment and is adaptable to a variety of climates, so it has naturally become a staple food on the table.
Looking at the unlimited supply of chicken, you can tell that the Viscount Outlets is a master who has no shortage of food. In fact, more than 99% of the lords on the African continent have encountered the problem of excess food production capacity.
Restricted by the African localization agreement, overseas lords cannot sell grain to the European continent to impact grain prices, which directly cut off everyone's desire to export grain.
However, in this world, there are only people who starve to death due to lack of food, and there are no people who are starved to death due to excess food production capacity.
The overcapacity of grain obviously does not scare the shrewd aristocratic group. At first, everyone cut down on food production capacity and switched to cash crops.
Later, everyone found that the income of cash crops was extremely unstable. The same price last year and the same price this year may lead to rotten fields next year. Although the income is high, the ability to resist risks is too weak.
Soon someone came up with a new way. Not being able to export grain does not mean not being able to export meat products. Anyway, it's all about making money, so it's not bad to develop a side business to share risks.
Chickens and ducks with a short growth cycle, low breeding threshold, and the ability to eat insects have become the first choice.
The point is to "eat bugs". People don't like to immigrate to Africa. Apart from the unsuitable climate, the biggest problem is that there are many poisonous insects, which makes people miserable.
Some people found that after chickens and ducks were raised in settlements, the caterpillars that were everywhere and often crawled into the house suddenly became rare.
Of course, this alone is not enough to make everyone make up their minds. It was the "locust plague" that really made everyone decide to raise chickens and ducks.
Because of the dry climate, many areas in Africa are high-incidence areas of locust plagues. There are no pesticides these days, and agricultural production is most afraid of "locust plagues". Chickens and ducks can contain locust plagues. With this advantage, they instantly become everyone's favorite.
Due to the poor management of some lords, domesticated chickens and ducks were left in the wild, and now they are almost flooded.
Flooding is not completely useless. Not only are there fewer poisonous insects, the plague of locusts has been contained, but even epidemic diseases are not as frequent as in the past.
Of course, whether the reason for the reduction of diseases is the reduction of poisonous insects or the removal of the source of the virus is a question that the medical community has different opinions on, and there is no accurate answer for the time being.
In fact, not only chickens and ducks are flooded, but also cattle, sheep, wild boars, and rabbits are flooded in some parts of the African continent.
It is not a problem of species invasion, but mainly a problem of sparsely populated land. In addition, for the safety of the people, the noble lords hunted and killed predators, destroying the ecological chain cycle.
Any flooding will lead to a decline in profits. Seeing the decline of the animal husbandry industry, some people started the grain industry.
One by one small workshops came into being, the most common ones were naturally refining vegetable oil, brewing wine, making alcohol and dried meat, and the more high-end ones were also making sugar, starch, flavoring agents and so on.
Today, almost all the local supporting grain processing industries have been moved here. The only problem is the self-sufficient lord economy model, which restricts the development of these industries.
However, in the eyes of the parties, these are not problems. The "self-sufficiency" given to the outside world
The evaluation of the "sufficient primitive economic model" expresses deep disdain.
How can you make money if you don't play like this?
Don't look at the proliferation of these small workshops, they are actually forced out. Shinra occupies more than 85% of the land of the African continent, but has a population of less than 16 million. It is conceivable how vast the land is and how sparsely populated it is.
If there are few people, don't expect good traffic. Although the Vienna government has also built several railways on the African continent, these are only the main lines, and most of the noble territories have not been covered.
The railways were blocked, and the roads were also not perfect. The main means of transportation were horse-drawn carts, ox carts, donkey carts, and camels. Cars were only available in the first developed areas.
In an inland territory like Outlets, all large machinery and equipment are first dismantled into parts, brought in and then reassembled.
In this context, if you don't play in small decentralized workshops, is it possible to expect to transport all the grain together for processing?
As for the development of small workshops, it is not too late to consider this issue after the road is cleared. Anyway, with the advantage of having more land, small workshops will be competitive for a long time to come.
If you look at the international market, you will know that 30% of Europe's meat products come from Africa. Alcohol occupies 43% of the market share, and the production capacity of beer is the largest in the world...
The original restrictions on food exports not only did not restrict the development of the African economy, but instead promoted industrial upgrading.
From raw grain export to small workshop processing is also a big progress. Regardless of the fact that humans have entered the industrial age for many years, the production model is still dominated by small workshops.
The big factory economic model exists only in a few countries. Just "existing", until the advent of the era of monopoly, workshop-style factories with 180 people were the mainstream.
...
It was already evening after the banquet ended, and they returned to the assigned dormitory for eight people. Because of the lack of language, everyone just greeted each other and fell asleep.
For the convenience of management, the dispatched laborers are scattered and distributed. The eight people in the dormitory in front of them come from eight countries.
In this world of "different customs in ten miles, different customs in a hundred miles", even if there are multiple languages in the same country, workers from eight countries naturally cannot understand the language.
Although he had already received language education on the way here, talent is really something that can't be forced.
Most people, in more than a month of language learning, have only mastered simple everyday expressions. Some wooden fish bumps have only learned limited vocabulary such as "hello", "eat", "sleep", and "work".
It’s okay to say hello. If you want to communicate in Austrian, it is estimated that workers from Switzerland and Belgium can barely do it.
The problem is free communication. It’s not enough for you to know Austrian yourself, you must also have others. Of course, if you can speak other languages at the same time, the question is, will the master who can speak a foreign language still live in an eight-person dormitory?
Who deserves what treatment? In this cruel world, even labor dispatch is divided into grades and grades.
If he really is a language genius, he showed it when he was learning Austrian, and now he has been promoted to play the role of temporary team leader, and occasionally he will do translation work as a guest.
Although the salary has not increased, the accommodation benefits have gone up first, and the eight-person dormitory has become a four-person dormitory, which can be regarded as a small preferential treatment.
Suddenly coming to a strange world, normal people will feel uneasy deep in their hearts. The lively welcome banquet only slightly eased the uneasiness in everyone's hearts.
Although the Viscount Outlets had tried his best to appear as approachable as possible, the aura brought about by being in a high position all the year round still made everyone feel nervous.
Getting closer is impossible.
"Jiaolong does not play with fish and shrimp, and Kunpeng does not swim with Xuejiu."
The Viscount Outlets can be approachable, but everyone can't be ignorant. Regardless of the large number of recruits, it is assumed that the threshold for admission does not exist.
In fact, those who can be selected here are masters who have been beaten by society and accepted the reality of life. Those who are rebellious and pretentious are rejected early.
As an ordinary person, Yamani, who lives in a room with eight people, suffered from insomnia tonight.
Although the Viscount Outlets seemed very kind, like a benevolent lord; but based on past workplace experience, the more friendly the leader is, the more vicious the subordinates will be.
Thinking of all the difficulties he might face in the future, Yamani couldn't sleep. Various scenes of being made things difficult and the countermeasures made up by the brain can't help appearing in my mind.
There is no way, money is not easy to earn.
There is an economic crisis in the country, and now the whole family has to support themselves, so this relatively well-paid job must be kept.
What's more, even if you want to leave in this unfamiliar place, Yamani doesn't know which way to go.
Domestic officials in charge of exporting labor services will say goodbye to sending them on board. There is a high probability that there will be no such thing as the so-called governments sending people to jointly track and manage.
From the moment they left their native land, they became rootless duckweeds. If you lose your job, you won't know what your next meal will be.
...
The next day, the sun was shining brightly, and it looked like a good time to work. Yamani, with dark circles under his eyes, naturally joined the labor force.
Want to "rest", no problem. However, according to the contract, when you start working, you will start to calculate your salary.
You must know that time has passed since the departure from China
Nearly two months. Except for a one-week rest after arriving on the African continent, the rest of the time was spent on the road. Everyone experienced the boat, train, car, and horse-drawn carriage.
Although physically and mentally exhausted, the pressure of life left everyone with no choice. As a migrant worker, upon arrival at the destination, all expenses must be borne by oneself, including daily living expenses.
The vast majority of people have empty pockets, and if they don't go to work to mix a work meal, they will be hungry soon.
No need to be urged, one by one got up early and waited for work arrangements. I am afraid that I will be late and delay my work for a day.
Yamani admits that he doesn't love work so much. He gets up early to line up. The fear of being late is only one aspect, and more importantly, he is afraid of missing breakfast.
Only those who have been hungry know the value of three meals a day. Although it is already the industrial age, in fact, two-thirds of the people in the world cannot have a full stomach.
Even in Europe, the most economically developed country, many people still can only eat two meals a day. Especially after the outbreak of the economic crisis, starvation is a common phenomenon in the lower classes.
A piece of bread + a glass of milk + an egg + a few vegetable leaves + jam is the hearty breakfast for Yamani and others.
In continental Europe, the food that only the middle class can enjoy every day has become an ordinary working meal here.
The territory is seriously short of labor force, and the Viscount Outlets, who could have been the mayor, sadly became the mayor of the town.
All the food comes from the territory's own production. It is all natural and green food without chemical fertilizers and pesticides. Even the seeds are kept by oneself. The production model of extensive planting and low harvest does not require high input costs.
In order to buy people's hearts, the Viscount Outlets naturally wouldn't save on food. One of the most important reasons why many European migrant workers choose to stay in Africa is the good food.
The effect is very obvious. Looking at the enjoyment expressions on everyone's faces, you can tell that everyone is very satisfied with the breakfast.
At least the capitalists in Europe are reluctant to provide such a rich "free" breakfast to ordinary workers.
The content of the work is very simple. Except for a small number of skilled workers who were taken away and made other arrangements, all laborers including Yamani had the same job: road repair and aqueduct digging.
What is different from the past is that everyone's work here is in quantitative mode.
Every sixteen people form a group and appoint a group leader. The management staff divides the construction section, and each team draws lots to determine the construction section. They are all carried out under the watchful eyes of the public, and it depends on whether God blesses you or not.
The working hours still follow the oldest "work at sunrise and rest at sunset".
The salary is determined by the completion of the project, and you can feel free if you don't want to get a salary. Individuals who behave badly can report to the management staff to apply for kicking out after voting by more than three-quarters of the group members.
The members who were kicked out were grouped separately, and performed poorly again-expulsion.
Hearing the word "dismissal", Yamani shuddered. This is the African continent. Once fired, it is not as simple as being unemployed.
Although the territory is severely lacking in labor force, once they are expelled from the Lord's Mansion, they will not be able to find a job in the small town again. As for leaving, you must first ensure that you have the travel expenses.
Don't even think about making troubles. Although the town is small, it has all internal organs.
The Viscount Outlets held a series of positions such as the mayor, judge, police chief, and militia chief. In short, he has the final say on all matters in the territory.