Chapter 349: Rural California

The trip to Los Angeles made Lionel James and others more interested in California.

Before coming to California, August reported to them about the situation in California, but the focus of August's report was on San Francisco and Sacramento, two big cities that rose due to the gold rush.

As for Los Angeles, there was really nothing worth reporting except the massacre in 1850, so August did not report the situation in Los Angeles to James and Lionel.

Before coming to Los Angeles, August thought that Liang Yao discovered oil fields in San Francisco or Sacramento, as well as in Nevada, and never thought that Liang Yao would discover oil fields in Los Angeles.

Los Angeles, which was developed later than San Francisco and Sacramento, has developed so well, so with the blessing of the gold industry and the earlier development history of San Francisco and Sacramento, will they develop better?

Lionel and others are full of curiosity about San Francisco and Sacramento.

After six o'clock, the passenger train between Los Angeles and San Francisco has stopped running.

However, the suspension of passenger trains did not prevent Liang Yao from taking the train back to San Francisco. He was the owner of the entire California Railway Company, and calling a train was just a matter of words.

Although the passenger trains between Los Angeles and San Francisco have been suspended, it does not mean that the trains between the two places have fallen into a state of rest due to the arrival of night.

The Los Angeles train station is still very busy at night. Freight trains between the two places sound loud whistles and spew billowing black smoke to and from Los Angeles and San Francisco.

Kerosene, asphalt and other petrochemical products in Los Angeles are transported to San Francisco, Sacramento, Carson, Reno and other settlements along the way through California's developed railway transportation network.

Machinery, tools, food, vegetables, fruits, wood, cloth, luxury goods and other commodities from San Francisco and Sacramento are also imported into Los Angeles through the developed railway network.

The rapid rise of Los Angeles in just one year can be said to be due to the contribution of the railway.

"Light is a luxury for the night. Before I came to Los Angeles, I thought only wealthy cities like London and Paris could light up all the street lights at night."

While waiting for the train at the train station, James sighed as he looked at the street lights that illuminated the Los Angeles train station as bright as day.

The spacing between street lights in Los Angeles is even smaller than that of the street lights on the Champs Elysees in Paris.

"As long as the production of kerosene increases, there will be more and more cities that never sleep in the future. Light at night will no longer be a luxury for humans. This is the power of civilization and the power of industry."

Liang Yao said, staring down at the asphalt platform under his feet.

He is now in the fastest-growing and most changing era in human history.

The changes in humans over the past thousand years are not as great as those in the past hundred years.

If a person living in 1800 traveled to 1899, he would definitely wonder if he had arrived in a different world, because there were too many new things in 1899 that people in 1800 had never seen.

After a while, Liang Yao's private train slowly drove into the platform. There is no usurpation in America. He has a private train that is more luxurious than Fillmore.

Everyone boarded the train that was illuminated by kerosene lamps.

Inside the train, sofas, beds, desks, bookshelves, cabinets, and dining tables are all available.

Even if you don't get off the train, you can live a very comfortable life on the train.

"Your train is just like a palace."

Even though he is picky about his personal life and pursues quality, Lionel couldn't help but admire it after boarding the train.

The train of this American gold tycoon who started with gold did not use any gold to decorate his train, but the wealth of the owner of the train can be felt everywhere on the train, which is luxurious and not vulgar.

"Please go ahead, if you want to have a midnight snack and a little wine, just pull the bell at your seat, and there will be a special attendant to serve you." Liang Yao pointed to the copper bell hanging on the sofa and said.

This copper bell extends from the private rest car to the crew car and the kitchen. As long as it is pulled, the copper bell at the kitchen end will ring.

After saying this, Liang Yao went to his lounge and fell asleep.

When he woke up the next day, it was already eight o'clock in the morning. The train was bathing in the morning sun and running in the vast Central Valley.

Liang Yao got out of bed and drank a sip of water, enjoying the scenery along the way. Riding a train and enjoying the scenery along the way is also a pleasant and comfortable enjoyment.

At first, the Central Valley where the train passed was relatively desolate, with few people and buildings. Only occasionally could you see Indians staring at the train in panic.

This scene was also within Liang Yao's expectations. The Central Valley covers an area of ​​nearly 50,000 square kilometers, and the current population of California is less than one million. It is still a state of vast land and sparse population, and the population density is still very small.

The Central Valley still has great development potential.

However, as it gets closer to San Francisco, the farms and villages along the way are gradually increasing.

Rural areas in California are basically distributed along the railway lines. Every time the railway is built to a new place, rural areas of different sizes are often formed along the way.

Outside the train window, local farmers and their employees ride horses and drive carriages to work in wheat and rice fields.

In addition to farmland, Liang Yao also saw many vineyards, orchards and vegetable fields along the way.

Orchards and vegetable fields of such a large area are obviously not planted by local farmers for their own consumption, but are commercially cultivated.

Except for a small number of vegetables and fruits that are kept for their own consumption, most of them are taken to the city for sale.

Every village has a train station, and every train station has farmers waiting with agricultural products at the train station. They are farmers who are ready to take agricultural products to the city for sale.

Due to the vast land and sparse population in California, the per capita arable land area is originally large, and coupled with the state government's support policy for agriculture, California basically has no self-employed farmers.

These people who look like farmers, whether they are Chinese, Mexican or other ethnic groups, are essentially no longer completely farmers.

It may be more appropriate to call them farmers.

As for the traditional land annexation problem of the Qing Dynasty, Liang Yao is not worried about this happening in California.

At present, there are still a lot of wasteland and swamps in California waiting to be developed. The cost and risk of developing new land are lower than directly annexing other people's land.

Furthermore, the farmers in California are not the farmers of the Qing Dynasty, nor are they lambs to be slaughtered.

Allowing citizens to own firearms is a provision written into the Constitution of the United States. As a part of the United States, California should naturally follow the Constitution of the United States.

In other words, large and small farmers in California all hold old firearms. If large farmers insist on annexing the land of small farmers, they will not only face legal risks, but also face life-threatening dangers. After all, everyone is equal in front of peanuts. Even rabbits will bite people when they are pushed to the edge, let alone people with guns.

The reason why land annexation occurs is that in agricultural production, land is the most important means of production.

In California's agricultural production, the most important means of production is not land, but people.

When people become a more important means of production than land in agricultural production, "land annexation" will exist in another form.

What the exploiting class should consider is not how to occupy more land, but how to occupy the more important means of production than land, that is, people.

The typical representative of this model of "land annexation" is the serfdom currently prevalent in the Russian Empire.

Russia, with its vast territory and sparse population, has no shortage of land. Therefore, the Russian landlords are not thinking about annexing the farmers' land, but trying to turn the self-cultivating farmers into their slaves, so that they and their descendants can become their slaves and serve them for generations.

Of course, the second brother does not laugh at the eldest brother. The same is true in the slave states in the southern United States. "Black slaves" are more important means of production than land.

In the mid-19th century, the United States was a great power with the second largest number of slaves after the Russian Empire.

In Virginia, a black slave can be exchanged for at least thirty acres of cultivated land. In Texas, where the population density is even lower, a black slave can be exchanged for even more land.

Liang Yao should prevent and should prevent the emergence of serfs in California, so as to prevent California from developing in the direction of the southern slave states.

While thinking, suddenly a black shadow, a dark black shadow flashed past the window.

Black people? Black slaves?

Liang Yao's heart skipped a beat. He opened the car window, leaned his head out and looked back, and sure enough, he saw a black man mixed in with a group of people.

The appearance of black people in California, or at this time, is not a good sign. Liang Yao frowned.

He did not want the so-called abolitionists and slaveholders to appear in California. California had no historical burden of slavery and there was no need to get involved.

Getting involved in the political whirlpool of slavery and abolition would not do any good except hinder the development of California.

The train was getting closer and closer to San Francisco, and the villages on both sides of the track were getting bigger and bigger. The cries of cattle and sheep penetrated the roar of the steam engine and reached Liang Yao's ears.

Liang Yao looked in the direction of the sound. It was the sound of livestock in the ranch.

But now he had no intention of appreciating the beautiful scenery around him. When he saw a black person along the way, it meant that there was already a group of black people in California.

This is a very thorny problem for now and even in the future.