Reborn South Africa as a police officer

Chapter 162 The Trouble of Happiness (Fourth Update, Please Subscribe)

In the past, Rock always heard people use "there is a mine at home" to describe people who are richer, but Rock couldn't understand what it was like to have a mine at home.

Now Rock finally realized it.

In the first week when the Matilda Gold Mine resumed operation, the profit of the gold mine exceeded 5000 pounds. Profits will increase further.

In fact, improving the treatment of workers will not increase much expenditure, because the camp, equipment, tools, clothing, etc. are all one-time expenditures, so the cost of this part can be ignored, so the biggest expenditure is food expenses.

Including management personnel and security personnel, the total number of people in the Matilda Gold Mine does not exceed 1000. In Johannesburg, if it is replaced by other gold mines of the same size, the daily expenditure on food will probably not exceed £50.

In other words, about a shilling or so per person.

But in the Matilda gold mine, the daily expenditure on food is about 100 pounds, that is to say, it costs about two shillings per person on average.

Sounds like the standard has been doubled, but how much support is being added every day?

A mere £50.

It may not be enough for those extravagant mine owners to pay for cigars for a day.

But the benefits of this mere £50 are immeasurable.

For example, after the standard is improved, the workers will work harder, the efficiency of the unit will be higher, and the expenditure on management of the mine will also be reduced.

At the same time, it also increases the workers' sense of identity with the mine. This is very important. Why is there a shortage of miners in Johannesburg?

Because of the harsh working environment and the harsh treatment of the mine owners, the mines are always unable to retain the miners, whether they are Boers or Zulus. After the contract ends, they usually leave Johannesburg to try their luck elsewhere. , instead of staying in the mine to start the next contract.

This is the real reason for the lack of miners in Johannesburg.

Relatively speaking, the Boers are actually better. Those Zulu people are really "innocent". Through the Zulu people under Christian, Rock's impression of the Zulu people has changed, but after meeting with Christian Only after An communicated did Roque know that those Zulu people were really muddy and couldn't support the wall.

It is undeniable that some Zulus are indeed practical and capable, but most Zulus are very lazy. If there is no supervisor to supervise, most Zulus will be lazy at work. After every salary, Christian must Worried about the loss of workers.

Most Zulus have no concept of saving, they spend what they have and never save money.

Some workers will disappear for no reason after getting their salary, and will not come back to start the next job until they spend all their salary, and then repeat the previous process.

So Rock doesn't like Zulu people very much now, even those black people in the Johannesburg police station. What Christian said is true. Some Zulu policemen will disappear after receiving their salaries, and come back after their salaries are spent. , hoping to continue to be a police officer.

For such a guy, Rock will definitely not accept it again. Knowing that most blacks have this kind of virtue, Rock warns Yaya and asks him to remind all the Zulu policemen that if they dare to disappear, then Luo Gram will sell them to the mine for mining.

In contrast, Chinese miners must be hard-working.

According to Sam, he has managed workers of many races. Chinese miners are the most self-controlled, hardest-working, best-managed, and most frugal group Sam has ever seen.

After experiencing the initial discomfort, Chinese miners soon began to get on the right track.

In fact, it is really easy to change a person's habits. After a Chinese miner who urinated everywhere was whipped in public, all Chinese miners remembered to go to the toilet.

After a Chinese miner spilled his urine outside the pool and was flogged in public, all the Chinese miners remembered to take a small step forward when urinating.

After a Chinese miner appeared in the cafeteria with disheveled clothes, was whipped in public, and then starved, all the Chinese miners remembered to take a shower after work and change their clothes for the day.

Yes, the punishment method of Matilda Gold Mine is simple and crude, that is whipping, whipping, whipping——

And it's public whipping.

You must know that the Chinese are very concerned about face, and it is undoubtedly a shameful thing to be whipped in public, so it only took a week for all Chinese miners to meet the hygiene standards required by Rock. Sam was dumbfounded.

Sam has worked in the mines for many years and knows what most miners look like. Under normal circumstances, miners are disheveled, rude, and dirty, and they are almost the same as those homeless people in the city.

In fact, when Sam arrived at the Matilda Gold Mine, in Sam's view, the Chinese miners in the Matilda Gold Mine were no different from other miners in Sam's impression.

However, the miners who have adapted to the rules of the Matilda gold mine have obviously improved a lot. Maybe their behavior is still rude, but they are neat and clean, and there is no unbearable smell on their bodies. In contrast, Sam was surprised to find that even many native British freemen were not as hygienic as these Chinese miners working in the Matilda gold mine.

What an astonishing discovery.

What is even more surprising is that Rock did not stop educating these miners. During the day, the miners had to go down to work in the mine, and at night, the night school teachers hired by Rock would train the miners' English skills.

This is also Rock's mandatory requirement. Each person must learn three English words every day, otherwise the food supply for the next day will be halved.

The Matilda gold mine now provides three meals for miners including eggs, milk, bread, vegetables, and chicken legs and beef——

Supply cut in half?

That's worse than killing the miners.

So after only one week, there are already Chinese miners who can say hello to Sam in English.

Weekends are paydays.

This is definitely a novel experience for Chinese miners.

Because no matter how long they've been in Johannesburg, they've never been paid before.

So by the time Hoover took them away from De Beers Consolidated, most of them were penniless.

It's sad that they collect the most precious metal in the world, but they are almost the poorest people in the world.

The salary offered to the Chinese miners in the Matilda Gold Mine was three shillings a day, which was a little lower than that of the Boers and a little higher than that of the Zulus compared to the time in the Transvaal, so after working for a week, Each worker was paid one pound, plus one shilling.

Even if a few workers did not go down because of illness, they still got half wages, that is, one shilling and six pence a day.

This is because the Matilda Gold Mine stipulates that miners are entitled to sick leave, and during sick leave, the gold mine will pay half of their salary.

A shilling is actually a silver coin that is slightly smaller than an ocean, and an ocean is roughly equivalent to two shillings.

In other words, the monthly salary of these Chinese miners is about 45 oceans.

What is the concept of 45 oceans?

In this era, if a girl from a poor family in the Qing Dynasty worked as a servant in a rich family, she could get a salary of ten taels of silver every year in addition to food and lodging.

Ten taels of silver, about 20 yuan.

Soldiers in the Qing Dynasty paid one tael to five dollars a month and three buckets of rice. Calculated annually, the sum of silver and rice was less than 30 taels. Even if it was calculated at 30 taels, it was only 60 yuan.

To be a soldier is to put your head on your belt.

So when the salary is received, the joy of the Chinese miners can be imagined.

This was the first money they got after they came to Johannesburg, especially when they knew that one shilling was almost equal to half an ocean, and their joy reached its peak.

In fact, the joy did not last long.

When De Beers Unified Mining Company hired these Chinese miners, they talked about hype, such as salary payment on time, extra meals on the next day, fixed paid annual leave, etc. In the end, none of them were fulfilled.

In fact, Chinese miners don’t have much requirements for extra meals and vacations. Salary is the most concerned issue for Chinese miners. As a result, De Beers Consolidated Mining Company reneged on its promise and became fat. There are no extra meals, no vacations, and even the most basic salary. , which is really unacceptable.

In the Matilda Gold Mine, Chinese miners finally got the legendary "weekly salary".

This was originally a good thing, but some delicate miners discovered within a long time that a good thing could turn into a bad thing.

After all, Johannesburg is not a Qing Dynasty, and the salary cannot be paid to the family in time. At present, there are only three ways to get this salary, either send the money to the family, or deposit the money in the bank, or Or take money with you.

Either way, it's not the best way.

If such a small amount of money is sent back to the Qing Dynasty——

I guess it's not enough for postage.

If banked—

Leaving aside whether the foreign devil's bank can be trusted or not, the bank probably doesn't care about such a small amount of money. I heard that if I want to open an account in the bank, there will be no interest, and I have to pay some account opening fees. It doesn't count, it doesn't count——

Seemingly the safest carry-on-

That's even worse, what should I do if I lose it?What if it is stolen?When you go to take a shower, do you want to hang money around your neck?

It's better now, if a few months later, the salary will be saved more, and it will be hung around the neck, so don't exhaust people to death!

If you are not exhausted, you will be crushed to death!

At this moment, the miners realized that when the mine did not pay wages, the miners were very troublesome.

Now that the mine pays salaries, the miners seem to be more disturbed.

Really happy trouble.

(End of this chapter)