At this time, the carriage was walking on the street, and the millennium wheel hubs and rubber-coated thin steel wheels of the light carriage made a rustling sound. Before the carriage entered the city, the sled was replaced with four wheels. After all, there is no snow on the city streets. It will all be cleaned up.
There are street lamps along the street. These are pillars like asphalt telephone poles, hanging from a lampshade, which contains whale oil as fuel. There are many whales in the sea now. Whaling has become the second largest industry in Vladivostok after the timber industry.
Whales are full of treasures, their oil can be used as fuel, and their meat can be used to make braised fish cans.
Whale baleen can be made into many items, such as brushes, women's corsets, and umbrella ribs. New immigrants have already opened several umbrella-making workshops. Brushes are also very important. Shipbuilding requires painting, and there are many places that need painting in industry.
Both bristles and whale baleen are strategic resources and must be controlled, especially during war.
Whale oil can be used industrially in the tanning industry, as well as in tempering baths and as lubricants. After hydrogenation, it can be used as raw material for food and soap, candles, etc. This is what Yang Fan's system needs.
Blubber is an animal oil that is very rich in fat. It not only contains a large amount of glycerin, which can be used for nitroglycerine in synthetic explosives and cigarette processing, but can also be used to make soap and refine high-grade lubricants.
Yang Fan estimates that the whaling industry and related industrial chains will soon develop greatly. Vladivostok will be able to make money after it develops its lumber, shipbuilding, and whale industries. Rather than being a bottomless pit for investing money like now. So far, more than three million taels of silver have been invested.
The carriage turned around several streets and arrived at the official district of the city, stopping at a group of wooden houses built specifically to receive Mr. Yang. There is a wall here, and there are four small villas and wooden houses in the courtyard. There are also facilities such as military camps and stables. Convenient for military garrison.
After Yang Fan settled in, he went to the city hall in front to meet the personnel stationed here. Listen to their reports on their work over the past year.
These talents cultivated by Yang Fan's system are still satisfactory. Now every agricultural household has reclaimed more than 300 acres of wasteland. Because there is too much land, and the policy is, as long as it is a breather, the land will be divided according to the head, and each person will have one hundred acres of land. It cannot be cultivated even if it is cultivated.
These landless farmers watched in disbelief as the village chief rode his horse to divide the wasteland. Then when the Huke officials handed over the title deed with a steel seal to themselves, all their defenses were broken. The whole family hugged each other and cried. Their ancestors had been allocated land by the government for generations, but they still had so much land.
Of course, the founding period of the Tang Dynasty and the Hongwu Dynasty of the Ming Dynasty may have been separated. However, they must have all become tenants now.
It wasn't over yet, and soon the shopkeeper of the bank came with the streetwalker and the waiter. Force them to give them loans. This loan is used to purchase agricultural and production tools, pots and pans and other daily necessities. Enough food, oil and salt to feed the whole family for a year.
The biggest expense was building a two-story cabin. This can be paid in installments. You can also buy it with a loan from Xinghe Bank. Many people choose to buy a wooden house directly because the price is really high and the wood here is not valuable.
It’s not that there’s no way to make a living here, it’s that all walks of life are short of people and everyone is trying their best to recruit people. On this land, in addition to farming, there are also people who graze, fish and hunt, and there are also people who go into the forest to pick mountain products. Opportunities to make money can be found almost everywhere.
Even if you can't, you can still work as a worker. Whaling ships recruit sailors all year round, and the whale processing factories on the shore also recruit people. There are always not enough people in the fish and fat workshops.
If there is a shortage of labor, the price of wages will be very good. If there are too many unemployed people, it will put pressure on the employed population to accept lower wages. However, Yang Fan opposed taking the sweatshop route from the beginning. Because his needs are different.
Yang Fan hopes that high wages will allow every family to provide education for their children. In this way, we should take the path of quality development instead of relying on squeezing workers and taking the path of low wages. Only when workers' incomes improve and they can buy more goods will they be willing to educate their children.
Only in this way can we take the path of high-quality development. And sweatshops have no future. It is not good for the country or individuals, and it also affects industrial upgrading and healthy development.
"For a family of five, only three hundred acres of the five hundred acres of land have been developed, which is enough for their family to live," Yang said.
He understood that this achievement was the result of taking out loans to buy oxen and plow sticks. Otherwise, we still don’t know how long it will take to do this by relying on people to plow the ground.
"How is the current crop and breeding industry?" Yang Fan asked, he was still more concerned about agriculture. As long as these new immigrants can grow food, they will take root here. As long as cultivation continues, the land will be considered occupied by the Han people.
In the last century, when we were at odds with Maozi, Maozi always encroached on our land. Later, we relied on soldiers from the Construction Corps to farm on the border. There were many of us, and we kept cultivating the land. We didn’t lose even the last inch of land, we kept it.
There is no entertainment life in this era, and candles are too expensive. Once it gets dark, the couple only have some entertainment. Therefore, there are so many children. Of course, there are also many people who die prematurely from various diseases. Hunger and various accidents are also causes of premature death.
Agricultural society relies entirely on labor, so farmers are particularly willing to have children. More people means more wealth. The economic calculation of giving birth to a child is high investment and high output. It's profitable. In modern society, raising children is purely a loss-making business.
Even if the profitable business involves beheading, many people do it. No one does money-losing business.
Therefore, families in cities are now reluctant to have children.
"Reporting to the master, the latitude here is high, and the planting period of the year is less than six months. Therefore, we can only grow the corn provided by the master. In addition, sorghum and soybeans can also be grown here. After the trial planting of potatoes last year, the effect is also good. Not bad, we can promote it next year.”
“Poultry and livestock can be raised here, especially ducks and geese. There are many lakes and ponds here, which is also very suitable for development. Now, every farmer raises dozens of chickens, ducks, geese and other poultry, and there are Donkeys, mules, farm cattle and other livestock.”
Hearing this, Yang Fan felt relieved.
There is grain to eat, sorghum to feed livestock, and poultry eggs. Soybeans can be pressed for oil, and they can be self-sufficient except for clothes.
Yang Fan originally planned to rely on soybeans to provide plant protein if he didn't have enough meat. Unexpectedly, the situation was much better than he expected. Although there were many difficulties in the early days, the situation has now come to an end.
