Chapter 347: Which Is Better, This Place or the Qing Dynasty?

An oil well produces about 6 to 7 tons of crude oil per day, and the annual output is at least 2,000 tons.

In other words, this oil well directly owned by Standard Oil Group can produce at least 740,000 tons of crude oil every year.

This is only the oil fields directly under the Standard Oil Group. Counting other retail oil wells, the annual crude oil production in Los Angeles is likely to exceed 1.5 million tons this year.

Such a huge crude oil production made James and others excited. No wonder Liang Yao dared to boast to them that he would increase the production of kerosene in Los Angeles to 50 million liters in two years.

With the support of such a huge crude oil production, not to mention the annual output of 50 million liters, James and others are willing to believe in the annual output of 50 million gallons (one US gallon is about 78 liters, and one British gallon is about 54 liters).

August is indeed right. This young American millionaire is indeed a relatively conservative person.

“How many dollars do you earn per month?”

Liang Yao asked about the monthly income of oil workers.

"Those of us who work hard can earn about 35 US dollars a month." The oil worker answered Liang Yao's question with a smile while scraping off the wax residue on the pumping rod and putting it into a small wooden barrel nearby. .

Another oil worker pointed to the machinist who was repairing the steam engine and said: "Those of us who work hard don't earn much. The masters who understand the machine can earn at least 50 US dollars a month. The masters can earn More. I heard that our masters at Standard Oil can easily earn more than a hundred dollars a month.

I have sent my son to the mechanical school in the Holy City to learn skills from the masters in the school. When he learns the trade from the school, he will come to Standard Oil to work as a machinist and tinker with these machines.

Compared to the Qing Dynasty, this place is paradise. My son told me that the school not only does not require tuition fees. He was also in charge of food. He might not be able to eat eggs and meat during the Chinese New Year in the Qing Dynasty, but he could have at least one meal every day at school.

I had never dreamed of living like this before. "

At $35 a month, this income is on par with industrial workers in San Francisco and Sacramento, and three times the per capita income in New York City.

In the eastern region, this kind of income can be regarded as half a foot on the threshold of the middle class.

You must know that Los Angeles was the place with the lowest income and the most disgusting people in California. The first choice destinations for immigrants were San Francisco and Sacramento. Even if the situation was bad, they would go to Nevada. Few people would choose to settle down in Los Angeles, which does not have any advantageous industries.

Looking at the entire United States, only industrial workers in California can have such high wages.

This is why, in addition to the immigrants from the Qing Dynasty, there are also industrial workers from the eastern United States and even the European continent running to California.

"Is it better here or in Qing Dynasty?" Liang Yao continued to ask these oil workers.

"Of course it's better here!" the oil worker said without hesitation.

"When I was in the Qing Dynasty, our family of seven or eight people only relied on the harvest of four or five acres of land. Once the wind did not change or the rain did not go well, the whole family would go hungry. As for saving money, we did not even dare to hope. .

Here, I live frugally every month and can save at least about 20 US dollars. I am now thinking about whether my relatives in my hometown will also take over the money, so that the whole family can be taken care of here, so as not to have to worry about it in the future. The Qing Dynasty had a meal but no meal. "

"Compared to the Qing Dynasty, this is the Elysium in the book. As long as you are not a lazy man, you will never die of hunger." Another oil worker echoed, "I am from Jiangxi. I only arrived in Los Angeles two months ago. Last year, there was a long-haired incident in Jiangxi. At that time, Changmao came and took away all the food and stuff from our family. I heard that it was put into some kind of holy treasury.

Fortunately, this Changmao guy was kind-hearted. The Changmao commander saw that I felt sorry for me and even left five buckets of rice for my food ration. With these five buckets of rice, I took my whole family over the mountains and fled to Fujian, and then took a boat to Los Angeles. "

"You are very lucky. You met a long hair with a conscience. I heard that some long hairs also filled women into the holy treasury." Another oil worker sighed.

"I thought that I would be able to live a peaceful life for a few days after Changmao left, but as soon as Changmao left, Xiangyong came with his hind legs. These Xiangyongs were nothing compared to Changmao. They not only snatched things. , they forced the husbands to work for them and robbed the women. If they didn’t obey, they would kill people and burn down their houses.”

"Bah! The Xiangyong who suffered a thousand blows, the one who was killed by God had his head shaved. What nonsense, the Xiangyong is just a bandit in the skin of a country hero." Another oil worker said, "I was originally a small businessman. When I went to Ganzhou to sell some goods, Zeng Shatou sent someone to set up a card at the flood entrance to collect a fee. They said they were charging a fee, but in fact they were robbing me. All my goods were stolen by them! "

Liang Yao was surprised that there were so many Jiangxi immigrants in Los Angeles.

Due to the unstable situation in the mainland, Liang Yao had no familiar local officials in the mainland. Previously, he basically immigrated from the three provinces of Guangdong, Fujian and Zhejiang.

"The recent immigrants are all immigrants caused by the war, not only from Jiangxi, but also from Hubei, Anhui, and Zhejiang." Deng Wenshun added.

"How much do workers in other oil companies earn?" Liang Yao nodded and asked Deng Wenshun.

"It's a little lower than our Standard Oil Group. Our Standard Oil Group's treatment is the best." Deng Wenshun thought for a while and said, "But it's not much lower. There is always thirty dollars, so you won't starve to death."

"What are these wax stains?"

While Liang Yao was talking, James stared at the wax stains in the barrel and asked. His intuition told him that these wax stains were not waste.

This black liquid called petroleum, since it can be refined into kerosene, it is naturally possible to refine other valuable things.

"This is the dirt condensed on the pumping rod by crude oil. It must be removed in time, otherwise it will cause mechanical failure." Deng Wenshun was quite smart and explained seriously.

James was skeptical about Deng Wenshun's explanation. After visiting the oil field, James and others said that they would go to the refinery now.

Deng Wenshun led everyone to the heavily guarded refinery, which is the factory that produces kerosene.

James and others were not surprised that there were so many soldiers guarding the refinery. If he found such a business opportunity, he would also send heavy troops to guard the factory to prevent competitors from stealing his production secrets.

After entering the gate painted with a sign prohibiting fireworks, it is the interior of the refinery.

"The black viscous liquid you just saw in the oil field is crude oil, which is a semi-finished product. Crude oil is refined into kerosene in the factory here." Deng Wenshun introduced to everyone.

At this stage, the refining technology is very backward. Kerosene is the most economically valuable product that Liang Yao can extract from crude oil through distillation.

In addition, some lubricating oils, oil waxes and asphalt can be refined, but the market prospects of these products are not as broad as kerosene at this stage.

Deng Wenshun deliberately took James and others to skip the distillation and secondary distillation of production and came to the end of the production line.

I saw that the workers were filling the finished kerosene into empty barrels, and then pushed the wooden barrels filled with kerosene into the warehouse.

James noticed that a lot of unknown liquids similar to kerosene were discharged as waste, pointing to these liquid wastes and curiously asked: "Why are these liquids not packaged in barrels?"

The waste James referred to was waste liquid containing gasoline or diesel.

Liang Yao also wanted to use these things, but now there is no internal combustion engine, these things are useless, and can only be discharged as waste.

Moreover, the internal combustion engine, a product of this era, is not something that California's skilled craftsmen can tinker with in a short time.

"These are useless waste materials." Liang Yao replied.

"Can they be burned?" James continued to ask.

"Yes, crude oil can be burned." Liang Yao replied.

"Since they can be burned, why not package them and sell them as inferior kerosene?" James' eyes lit up.

"The combustion of kerosene is controllable and safe, while the combustion of these waste liquids is uncontrollable. Do you smell their smell?" Liang Yao asked back.

"Yes, this is a smell I have never smelled before." James replied.

"The gas produced by these waste liquids will explode as long as there is a little spark, sending us all to the sky. Do you want to sell this flammable and explosive liquid as kerosene?" Liang Yao asked back.

James was speechless. He didn't expect that this waste liquid was so dangerous. Liang Yao's answer also cut off his idea of ​​reusing this waste liquid.

As a brand-new product, kerosene is most afraid of being boycotted due to safety accidents.

Liang Yao was not stupid enough to sell the waste liquid as kerosene. If an accident happened, it would not only affect his reputation, but also the whaling industry practitioners would hype it up to attack and boycott kerosene.

After leaving the factory, Liang Yao breathed in the relatively fresh air and felt refreshed.

"You have visited the oil field and the refinery. I think you should have nothing to worry about in our cooperation. You should also know that I am not bragging to you." Liang Yao went straight to the point.

"To be honest, the kerosene plant in Los Angeles needs to be expanded to increase production capacity. I have other projects to do, and the funds that can be transferred to the refinery are limited. I hope to get a loan from Rothschild Bank to expand the kerosene plant. The more kerosene Los Angeles produces, the more benefits you will get. I think you understand this principle better than me."

There are many oil companies in Los Angeles that can extract crude oil, but Liang Yao Standard Oil is the only chemical company that can refine crude oil into kerosene.

The current situation of the chemical industry in Los Angeles is that the refining capacity cannot keep up with the mining capacity, and the crude oil in many oil traders' warehouses has even exploded.

After a period of discussion, Lionel and James reached a consensus that Liang Yao is a very high-quality business partner. And he has enough ability to repay their loans.

At the same time, they also felt that Armstrong's arsenal was not blown up in vain. This bombing brought them a very reliable business partner, which is very worthwhile.

"As long as you can agree to some of our small requests, the Rothschild family is willing to provide you with a low-interest loan of 1 million pounds." After saying that, Lionel did not forget to emphasize, "This is the largest loan provided to a private person by the Rothschild family bank since its establishment."