Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 2236 Industrial Revolution ([-])

After studying with Qian Qing, Oleg Naryshkin left the teahouse.He decided to take a stroll in the street, for no other reason than that he missed the wine brewed by a certain restaurant.As a standard Russian, Oleg still likes to drink very much, especially like to taste different flavors of wine from other countries.

The street where the Naryshkin building is located was widened just last year.The laborers were all Krandi and Quechua people from the inland area. They spent a lot of effort and sweat on this, and then received a bounty and boarded the sailboat to South Africa with complicated emotions.

The widened streets still look a bit congested.This may be because more people come to do business. The charm of Nancun Port seems to be different.But Nancun Port also has a disadvantage, that is, the layout is too messy.In other words, there was no layout at all, and it was all made up bit by bit by the barbaric growth.After all, it was still the territory of the Kingdom of Spain at the beginning, and people from the east coast were attracted by the Yanbu Railway and the port.However, the Amtrak group is indeed far behind their predecessors, the Southern Railway Company, in terms of municipal management. They basically took a laissez-faire attitude towards it. Hong Kong is such a slightly messy city pattern.

Naryshkin Building is a well-known high-end office area, which gathers many famous enterprises on the east coast. However, the street where it is located was originally a barren area, but many houses have been built in the past two years. There is a small enterprise engaged in mechanical processing, which shows that it has no plan.Oleg Naryshkin walked slowly past this small enterprise, which mainly processed marine machinery parts, and found some wooden boxes piled up in the yard of this factory, which seemed to be newly bought machines. He couldn't help but sigh at its business Very good.

At this time, he couldn't help thinking of an interesting story he once heard from several British businessmen: Sheffield, the second largest machinery industry city in the UK, used new machine tools to process parts and greatly improved efficiency, so many workers were laid off.The results of it?Those workers rioted collectively and smashed all the new machine tools bought from Birmingham, causing losses of thousands of pounds.Although the fate of those unemployed workers was not good, and many were sentenced to exile in the North American colonies, this incident itself illustrates the various contradictions arising from the transition period between the old and new societies.

This story also made Oleg understand that the only capital of workers is labor and professional skills, and any behavior aimed at reducing the value of this product or that skill is depriving them of a part of everything.The greatest advantage of the machine is that it can save labor, but the workers may have a good reason to think that this saving is harming their interests, so it is inevitable to arouse their resistance.

Of course, workers don't understand that when machines are used in large quantities, their prices will drop quickly, so that more machines can be purchased by business owners, which in turn will increase jobs in disguise.But the problem is that it is difficult for the workers to understand that, when they see the machine, they subconsciously think that their jobs will be lost - at least the wages will be reduced - so they have to fight, because not everyone can adapt This shift is about learning new skills and finding the right job.

In comparison, the situation on the east coast seems to be much better.The social system here is inherently reasonable, that is, relatively low prices and high average wealth allow workers to retreat. Whenever technology advances and the number of workers required by the factory decreases, they will go to other factories to try their luck. .Even, sometimes they will not be laid off, because the factory is likely to expand the production scale, and the business owner chooses to train them adequately so that they can adapt to the new job.Taking ten thousand steps back, even if they are really laid off and have not found a new job, they can still carry their luggage and sign up at the branches of the State Development Administration in various places to participate in the pioneering work in new development areas and become farmers .

Although the income of farmers on the east coast is declining as a whole, it is not as good as the income level of industrial and commercial positions, but to be honest, it is not difficult to live a moderately prosperous life, as long as you can endure the hard life of opening up wasteland.Not to mention, the state is also trying to help farmers increase their income, such as finding markets for their agricultural products, encouraging the establishment of cooperative organizations (which can effectively increase their bargaining power and reduce operating costs), and implementing low-interest or even interest-free loans, etc. Farmers Their income still has at least one base there, and it will not fall indefinitely. This is much better than those workers in England who have transformed from homeless peasants.Those unemployed English workers, if they are really unemployed, they will have no source of income, and starvation is inevitable.

England lacks such a social system that guarantees the basic life of these people, which is why it has caused such a serious problem.In fact, it is not that they do not have this kind of opportunity. In fact, they need a lot of labor in the North American colonies, but the problem is that their management of the colonies is too bad, and there is basically a lawless place where everything is decided by the company. The government can only formulate policies on a large scale, such as the "Navigation Act" implemented by the strongman Cromwell back then, but it is difficult to get a handle on the operation of individual farms or manors. He despises the English royal family very much, violates all kinds of policies, and treats new immigrants harshly. As a result, the native people of England will not consider living in the North American colonies until they are desperate. It is really a bad reputation.

It is said that the British discussed introducing a poverty relief bill last year to help these poor unemployed and ease social conflicts.The Poverty Act has many contents, including distributing a limited amount of food to unemployed workers, providing simple training opportunities, and also including setting up orphanages and so on.Oleg learned that this poor bill was first implemented in Paris by Louis XIV after listening to the reports of the ministers - obviously it was implemented poorly - the British thought it was very good, so they copied it.The rich in Congress, out of self-interest, contributed a token amount of money to keep the poor bill going.

However, Oleg did not have much confidence in the effect of this bill. He felt that those businessmen had already sold their souls to the devil.In those orphanages in Paris, it is said that older children have to spin and weave, and if they move slowly, they may be whipped.The dean of the orphanage colluded with the businessmen, deceived the children, and made the children suffer heavy work and inhuman torture. They had no humanity at all—in those textile factories, dozens of girls often sat Spinning together, in absolute silence, with a vicious woman standing by and punishing anyone who is lazy or not doing well, and sometimes even four-year-olds have to make a living like grown-ups. I was speechless after reading it.

Oleg has lived on the east coast for many years, and under the influence of subtle influences, his moral standards are indeed much higher than before.Although children were small, with slender fingers and a docile disposition, they were the best workers in some parts of the weaving work, but he really could not agree with this.Child labor is prohibited by law in the east coast (although there are some child labor phenomena in society to some extent), Oleg thinks this is right.The task of children is to study hard and learn as much knowledge as possible to help them in their adult life, instead of wasting energy prematurely in endless physical labor, which is not beneficial to the whole society.

Speaking of which, it is still a difference in the system!The East Coast Republic of China can indeed bear the title of the beacon of human civilization, rather than someone boasting that he is the "Sun King" as if it really shines brightly.Oleg Naryshkin shook his head, walked past the factory where new machines were being unboxed, and walked into the tavern he liked to patronize very much.

Coincidentally, there are a group of off-duty workers drinking beer in the restaurant—not brand beer, of course, but cheap beer brewed by the store itself.While drinking, they talked loudly about how the factory’s business was this month, who’s bonus this month was going to exceed everyone’s, and of course there were more gossip and pornographic jokes about the factory girls, which made Oleg Naresh Jin could not help but smile.

This is the factory atmosphere of freedom, not the prison-like atmosphere of the old road.Although these factories run by the British and the French can greatly reduce the cost of goods and make them more competitive in the European market, but in the final analysis, this is to harm all citizens—yes, whether they are adults or children— at the expense of health.Sooner or later, they will regret these actions, especially those children who have been deprived of the right to education. Perhaps there are some particularly gifted children whose talents are wasted in endless spinning machines, and their short-lived Isn't it sad that you can't create much value for the country in your life?

"Maybe the reforms that His Majesty the Tsar is carrying out will also bring about this consequence?" Sometimes Oleg can't help thinking this way, but he has no good way.Russia is so poor that they seem to have no other way of getting money other than selling natural resources and agricultural products.The gentlemen of the Duma wouldn't care if there was a profit to be made at the expense of a child's life!I am afraid that even his father, one of the framers of the Russian reform plan, would not hesitate to implement it!In Russia, the lives of adults are very cheap, let alone children. This is really an extremely cruel world!

"I hope that with the deepening of the industrial revolution, the profits of business owners will gradually accumulate, and everyone's life will gradually improve. This is my last luxury." Oleg Naryshkin took a sip Spirits, thought silently.

(End of this chapter)