Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 2238 Appearance ([-])

Agnelli staggered onto a bench.He drank a lot of wine just after the dinner party, and he would feel a little dizzy.Speaking of it, the years are not forgiving. I think he was still very drinkable back then, and there was no problem at all with a bottle of Hezhong Daqu at a time.But now that I am old and my body function has declined, it is naturally impossible to compare with when I was young.

This is a park with a small area.A pond was dug inside, some willow trees were planted, and there were some wild flowers on the bank of the river. It can only be said to be a bit wild, but it is really not very good.Agnelli once visited Luoyang, the new capital under construction, where a huge artificial lake was being dug from an existing wetland in Beicheng District.The area of ​​the lake is very large, about [-] to [-] hectares. The government plans to increase its average water depth to more than three meters, and then mine boulders from the mountains in the west and move them into the lake to build artificial rockeries.There are three rockeries in total, each of which will be decorated, and a miniature Taoist temple will even be built on the largest one. The cost is astonishing.

There is no doubt that compared with the park in Luoyang Mansion, the one in Dongfang County can only be regarded as the younger brother.No way, this park is relatively old, and the government’s finances were not abundant at that time, and there was no Chairman Shao, who liked to build large-scale projects. The innate contractor gene of the people is really speechless.

A few bright gas lamps were burning in the park, and here were some workmen in greasy overalls smoking.They may have been students at a nearby night school that taught people to learn a variety of skills, including driving a horse-drawn cart, earthworks, repairing common general-purpose machinery, and even how to be a competent security guard.

The teachers of these evening schools are all hired by the government, and the students do not need to pay tuition fees, and the school's daily operating expenses are also funded by the civil affairs department.It sounds strange, but it is indeed true, mainly thanks to the assistance of the "Social Welfare Relief Law" introduced by the state.This law was formally codified on the basis of some relief regulations implemented before. Compared with the previous ones, the content is much richer and has improved a lot.

In the new law, there are related content about opening night schools, and it is clearly stated that the central and local civil affairs systems will allocate funds to operate them.The content taught in these schools is as mentioned above, and the main purpose is to enable non-national laborers who have become regular workers and farmers who have gone to cities to find jobs to acquire skills faster and adapt to a new urban life.And the faster these people adapt to the new environment, the faster they can create value for the society and pay taxes for the government, which is a very good thing for both public and private.

Agnelli also appreciates this.There are several such workers in his rabbit hole flour mill. They are all young men who came from the countryside to the city to pursue a new life. , you often need to fight to be able to successfully register - I learned how to repair a simple small-horsepower steam engine in school. It's not without foundation, which makes business owners like Agnelli very satisfied.

Compared with the social relief system on the east coast, those in countries such as Britain and France are completely pits of fire.The children in the workhouse were forced to do child labor to support themselves. Many people were exhausted to death on the job. The regulatory agencies received benefits from businessmen and did not care about these things at all, which led to the corruption and degeneration of the entire social relief system. People are amazed when they see it: the lower limit of a person can be so low!

Social welfare relief also includes drug relief.These medicines are mainly provided jointly by pharmaceutical companies, the Ministry of Civil Affairs, the Taoist Federation and some social donations, and are diagnosed, treated and distributed by regularly dispatched itinerant medical teams. It is simply a life-saving medicine for people, so it is very popular among the masses.

In addition, there has recently been a call for "national saving insurance" in the East Coast.This voice believes that everyone with a stable income can save part of their daily expenses and join an insurance alliance so that members of the alliance can get some financial help when they face illness, old age and funeral.However, the East Bank government is unwilling to provide guarantees for these miscellaneous insurance alliance organizations. At the same time, it also warns the citizens, asking them to carefully identify these organizations.

Therefore, at present, these so-called mutual aid and insurance organizations are mostly concentrated in rural cooperatives.These organizations have been working together for many years, and the internal members are also very familiar with them, with a high degree of trust, and there are basically no intentional frauds.But in cities, because of the lack of such organizations, workers generally cannot trust anyone, and in the end they can only choose to save their own money to deal with emergencies, unlike in rural areas where they can help each other.

A dull siren sounded not far away, which made the slightly drunk Agnelli raise his head.He knew that it was the steam whistle of the government night school giving the order to dismiss the get out of class.He took out his pocket watch and saw that it was already nine o'clock in the evening.Soon, a large group of people appeared on the gravel road at the entrance of the park. They walked in twos and threes, talking and laughing, and seemed to be in good spirits.

"Gas lamp, what a great invention, it allows the evening time to be used for study. Well, it can also be used for work." Agnelli shook her head and said to herself.

Needless to say, in the pre-gaslight era, large-scale lectures at night were basically impossible.Even if you filled every corner of the classroom with candles, the light would not be enough for everyone to see the teacher's actions clearly, not to mention that the cost would be very high and it would be impossible to spread it across the country.But bright gaslights changed all that.It floods every corner of the classroom with light, making it possible to teach at night.With this alone, the efficiency of knowledge dissemination in the whole society has increased many times.

Of course, the gas lamp also brought about a dramatic increase in production efficiency, mainly because night work has also become possible.Take those shipyards on the east coast as an example. Because of the abundant orders and busy business, they have long kept their workers working all night and overtime to produce ships.The efficiency of this is naturally not comparable to those of the old continent shipyards that have to stop work after dark.

There was a factory near the park where Agnelli was at this time.Sitting on a bench in the park, he could still hear the rhythmic sound of forging hammers hitting metal in the distance, as well as the vague smell of soot wafting in the air.Obviously, that factory was still working, maybe only in the middle of the night, maybe all night, and the metal utensils processed during the night would be taken away by heavy freight wagons early the next morning and delivered to customers.You see, the goods produced at night are actually extra wealth. One factory may not be obvious, but what about dozens or hundreds of factories?The additional wealth created is amazing!

It is said that countries in the Old World are also actively developing gas lamp systems.A German businessman in Rostock even claimed to have produced a finished product. Although it was completely damaged in less than half a day of use (it also exudes an unbearable smell during normal work), after all, it was never used. The breakthrough to some zeros is of great significance.

Agnelli sat on the bench for a while, and when the managers came to drive him away, he felt that his mind was not so drowsy anymore.After apologizing to the park ranger, he dusted off his clothes, got up from the bench, and walked toward his house.The old district is a little dark at night, and the night watchmen are already patrolling the streets. In half an hour, they will turn off some of the gas lamps for lighting, leaving only a few lamps to save gas.

The children who were playing crazy games on the street have disappeared, and there are only dogs barking one after another in the alley.The evening wind is a bit cool, blowing away the heat of summer.Agnelli bathed in the night wind, breathed the slightly soot-smelling air, looked up at the bright moonlight in the sky, and felt that life was so beautiful for a while.

He thought of the days when he was a boy living in Italy.In the era of frequent wars and famines, he would never have the guts to walk in the deep alleys at night. There are too many criminals who are tortured by hunger and lose their minds. They will rob you of everything .If they were unlucky, their lives might be in danger—they were afraid of being recognized—and in that regard, the East Coast was indeed a very safe country.And this kind of security is based on the shameful traditional culture of crime on the one hand, and on the relatively affluent living conditions on the other.In the Eastern Republic of China, which entered the middle of the industrial revolution, social wealth has greatly increased. Even low-level workers without any skills can live on their wages and even marry wives and have children. This is unmatched by other countries.

Now that several states in northern Italy have formed a joint army, the next step is to establish a unified market and eliminate various tariff barriers, which are the prerequisites for industrial revolution and industrialization.I only hope that in the future, they will bring Naples and Sicily in southern Italy, so that the people in their hometown can also benefit from it. They are really poor there.He thought of his youngest son who had returned to Naples after accepting the task of the East Coast intelligence agency, and hoped that he could make good use of the knowledge and ingenuity he had learned to persuade the local nobles to wait for the opportunity and quickly move closer to the East Coast when Spain undergoes major changes.

Only by clinging to the thick thigh of the east coast can Italy have a chance to develop, there is no doubt about it!

(End of this chapter)