Chapter 433: Immigration Transit Station

As currently the largest immigration transfer station, Xiangshan has undergone earth-shaking changes in recent years.

The attitude of local magistrates towards immigrants has also experienced changes from rejection to acceptance, and then to support.

This is not because the parents and officials in Xiangshan are very enlightened, but in Xiangshan, immigration has become a business, a relatively mature and profitable business.

At first, officials in Xiangshan and Guangzhou had a relatively repulsive attitude towards immigrants. A large part of the reason was that in order to make the refugees gathered in Xiangshan affordable, they needed to allocate some grain and rice from the treasury to provide porridge.

The gathering of a large foreign population also increases the administrative costs of their management.

These all cost money. As long as it costs money, these officials will naturally not be happy.

Of course, if you can make money, that's a different matter.

Immigration has brought prosperity to all industries in Xiangshan, and also enriched the pockets of Xiangshan’s parents and officials.

And now Californians basically take care of the food and clothing of these immigrants. Xiangshan does not have to pay any price for these immigrants. It only needs to give them the green light to get huge benefits.

Therefore, from Fang Jianyuan, the magistrate of Xiangshan County, to the petty officials of Xiangshan County, they all have a very tolerant attitude towards these immigrants, or to be precise, the immigrant industry.

California is currently in a period of rapid development, with booming industries and a large number of labor vacancies.

Many companies are currently facing a shortage of workers.

In order to recruit workers, many factory owners and entrepreneurs are no longer content to wait at ports in California to grab immigrants. Instead, they go directly to Xiangshan, Xiamen, Fuzhou, Ningbo and other places to directly grab immigrants.

The current competition logic in California is also very simple, regardless of the industry of Liang Yao America Group.

Except for a few manufacturing industries such as Pratt & Whitney that master multiple patented technologies and have relatively high entry barriers.

Most industries compete on who can expand faster and who has a higher capital turnover rate.

Only factories and companies that expand quickly enough can survive the brutal market competition.

California has no shortage of funds. All major banks in California, whether local or foreign, are willing to provide funds for California factories and enterprises.

The funding problem can be solved in California.

The labor problem is a difficult problem to solve in California.

"The power of the market is so powerful." Liang Yao said with emotion as he looked at the crowded streets of Xiangshan.

In the past, the transportation of immigrants from Qing Dynasty to California mainly relied on the shipping capacity of Global Shipping Company, but now it relies more on the fleets organized by California factory owners and entrepreneurs.

These people signed contracts with immigrants in the Qing Dynasty. After registering with the Immigration Bureau in California to obtain nationality, they could work in factories.

The efficiency is much higher than Liang Yao's organizational distribution in the early days.

“Even governments at all levels are coming to rob people.”

Deng Yan, who accompanied Liang Yao to visit Xiangshan, pointed to the plaque in the exhibition hall area in front and said.

These pavilions are named after places. The staff of the pavilions enthusiastically introduce their local conditions to passers-by, and make their locations as glamorous as possible to attract immigrants to work and settle there.

Of course, unlike factories and companies, these pavilions stationed by governments at all levels in California not only attract immigrants, but also have the task of attracting investment.

Walking down the road, Liang Yao discovered that these pavilions were not only those in big cities such as San Francisco, Sacramento, and Los Angeles.

There were even some rural booths.

Compared with big cities and towns with deep pockets, these villages don't have that much money. They can't afford to set up an exhibition hall and can only build a simple exhibition stand.

But compared to the exhibition hall, the staff at these booths are more patient and answer almost all questions. The immigration conditions and investment conditions offered are also more generous than in big cities.

"As long as you attract enough immigrants, in the coming year you can change from village chief to township chief, and township chief to town mayor. If you were the village chief, you would also come here to attract people," Liang Yao said.

California's administrative hierarchy is based on population. The number of immigrants is related to the vital interests of the village chiefs and people in these villages. Therefore, the village chiefs and people in these villages are very concerned about immigration.

As for the purpose of big city governments setting up exhibition halls here to attract immigrants, it is nothing more than to steal people.

Wealth taxes are all generated by population. In California, the more populous the place, the more developed it is and the more abundant the government's fiscal revenue will be.

"Eugene joined us in California?"

In a small pavilion at the end of the intersection in the pavilion area, Deng Yan saw that the place name written on the plaque at the door was Eugene, California, not Eugene, Oregon.

Eugene is the closest large settlement to California in the Oregon Territory, located in the southern part of the Oregon Territory. It is also the largest city in Oregon after Portland.

Four years ago, Eugene was still a sleepy little village.

"You can find out if you go and ask." Liang Yao said with a smile.

"Probably not. If Eugene joins our California, at least the entire southern Oregon will join our California.

If there was such a big thing, I wouldn't be able to hear nothing about it. "Deng Yan said after thinking for a while.

"Not yet, but it will be a matter of time," Liang Yao said. "The place names on this plaque represent the thoughts of most Oregonians, especially those in the south."

California is now the big brother of the West Coast region of the United States, and even the entire western region. It is normal for younger brothers to want to follow the big brother and take advantage of it.

There was a gold rush in California, and now there is an oil rush. Even people in many inland provinces of the Qing Dynasty have heard of California.

California is more well-known in the Qing Dynasty than any other American state.

Many people even knew about California first, and then knew about the country of America.

The sign of Eugene, California is obviously more attractive than that of Eugene, Oregon.

"General Liang, it's really not easy to meet you."

After visiting Xiangshan, Liang Yao was about to go to the dock, but was stopped by a white man in his forties who spoke French.

"Sorry, I don't speak French." Liang Yao frowned, a little unhappy.

Liang Yao could understand some French, but he could only speak some simple French words.

"You don't speak French?"

The man was a little surprised to learn that Liang Yao didn't speak French, but besides being surprised, he had a sense of superiority on his face that he couldn't hide. He switched to English and said

"If you have time, I suggest you learn French, which is a very elegant and upper-class language. Let me introduce myself. I am Nikolayevich Muravyov, the Governor-General of Siberia of the Russian Empire."

Muravyov, this name is not unfamiliar to Liang Yao. The largest denomination of Russia, 5,000 rubles, is printed with this person.

And the portrait of Peter the Great of the Russians is only printed on 500 rubles.

It is somewhat presumptuous to print Muravyov on 5,000 rubles. It can be seen that the Russians are greedy for territory.

"In this case, Russian must be a lowly and vulgar language." Liang Yao said with a sarcastic tone.

In the 19th century, the upper aristocracy and the lower class of Russian people were still in a state of separation.

The upper aristocracy was proud to speak French and ashamed to speak Russian.

If you speak Russian at a noble banquet, you will definitely be laughed at, this is beyond doubt.

Due to the strong influence of France on the European continent, French was the common language of the European aristocracy at this time. After all, the French men at that time were still very martial and not good at surrendering.

However, Russia was the only European country that elevated French to such a high level, despised its own language, and even felt ashamed of its own language.

After Peter I, the Tsarist Russia had been doing two things: one was to expand its territory and find an outlet to the sea. The other was to be eager to integrate into the European continent and gain recognition from the mainstream powers of the continent.

This is also one of the reasons why the Russian Empire advocated French so much.

The above two things were not only done by the Russian Empire, but also by the Russian Federation in later generations. It can be said that they have not forgotten their original intentions.