I want to be emperor

Chapter 1157 Winter in London

The winter in the London Settlement is not as long-term with ice and snow as in Northern Europe, but it is not very mild. It can be several degrees below zero in cold weather, and most of the time it is only seven or eight degrees during the day.

Coupled with the biting cold wind from the North Sea and a little rain from time to time, the winter in the London Settlement seems cold and wet.

In the early morning, when John Taylor came out of his rented apartment and prepared to go to work, he was wearing a thick business suit because of the cold weather, and also put on a long black woolen coat. He was carrying a black leather jacket in his hand. Gloves and a woolen scarf around his neck.

But despite this, when I first went out and was blown by the cold wind, I still felt bitingly cold.

The temperature in the past two days has been colder than usual. There was a heavy snowfall the day before yesterday, and there is still snow on many floors.

Taylor wrapped his coat tightly, walked out of the apartment onto the street, and then took a public carriage to the company two blocks away, the London Branch of the European Channel Trading Company, to start his day's work.

Taylor's job is not too busy, but it is not easy to say. He is mainly responsible for the kerosene business in the London area, and mainly deals with various indigenous kerosene wholesalers and retailers in this area.

In addition to handling many documents in the company on a daily basis, I also have to go out in the field from time to time, traveling to East London and other places to negotiate with many customers, inspect and supervise the market.

And leading teams on field trips is also the main purpose of their existence as formal foreign employees...

The England Branch of the European Channel Trading Company is responsible for various businesses throughout the Kingdom of England. The branch headquarters is located in the London Concession.

As for Dover, which seems to be not far away... it is the company headquarters of the entire British region, and because of the special nature of Dover being a directly administered territory, foreign employees cannot enter and work there, so the regional company headquarters of Dover is The relatively simple headquarters is only responsible for the strategic operations of the entire British region, while the specific business is handed over to the branches of the five kingdoms established in each concession.

The England branch is such a subsidiary responsible for specific business.

The office headquarters of the entire England branch is set up in the London Concession, and there are more than ten offices in London and other cities in the Kingdom of England.

These offices have more than ten people in large scale and only a few people in small ones, responsible for the local market.

The entire England branch actually has a lot of employees, with a total of three to four hundred people, but there are only about 20 Chu employees... all middle and senior management.

Among the majority of the remaining people, there are about sixty or seventy indigenous formal employees, that is, people like Taylor. These sixty or seventy indigenous formal employees are employees who enjoy the protection of the labor laws of the administrative territory of the Great Chu Empire in accordance with the law and have permanent resident certificates. They are mainly engaged in some relatively important clerical work or middle and low-level management work.

Just like Taylor!

To a certain extent, formal indigenous employees such as Taylor can be regarded as the backbone of the company in the European Straits Trading Company.

In addition to the formal Aboriginal employees like Taylor, there are also about 300 foreign workers. These people are all Aboriginals with long-term labor certificates. Their treatment is much worse than that of the Aboriginal formal employees, but these people are also considered employees of the company. , although they have not signed a formal labor contract with the company...

It's useless even if they sign. The 'Labour Protection Law for Residents of European Administrative Territories' implemented in Europe does not apply to them. This thing only applies to 'permanent residents' like Taylor.

In a sense, "permanent residents" like Taylor are actually Chu people. They are legally protected by the corresponding Chu laws and have the obligation to pay taxes for the empire. They can register in the Chu administrative agency of the administrative territory in accordance with the law. Get married, raise children, and send them to government-run schools for children of permanent residents.

It's just that these benefits or obligations are only limited to the administrative territories...the directly-administered territories have nothing to do with them!

Until now, the laws of the Dachu Empire did not completely prohibit the indigenous people from entering the directly-administered territories, but also set up a lot of thresholds. Except for a few special personnel in special fields, it was almost impossible to be allowed to go to the directly-administered territories.

Those who can be approved are usually diplomats, and then there are a few businessmen who have obtained guarantees from powerful people or large companies, and have been approved by the government of their administrative territories. Apart from these two, others can basically not expect to go to the territories directly under the jurisdiction of Chu State. ... Even the scope and time limit of the directly-administered territories that the first two can go to are extremely limited. It does not mean that you can go wherever you want after you go, but that you can only move at a fixed time and place. work.

However, if you don’t want to go to the directly governed territory and just live in the administrative territory, the status of a permanent resident is sufficient.

It’s much better than labor status!

These workers all receive three-year, five-year, or ten-year labor residence permits... These people are not legally Chu people, they just come to work in the administrative territory. They're just foreigners... If a Chu country man is in a bad mood and beats a foreign worker to death on the street, he probably only needs to pay some money and perform a symbolic ten and a half days of community labor.

You don’t even have to go to jail!

If there is a reason for the incident, for example, if a foreign worker insults the Chu people and is then beaten and killed by the Chu people in the street, then there is no need to pay compensation... because this applies to a relatively special penalty management in the Great Chu Empire, 'Indigenous Honor Self-Defense' right'.

The origin of this thing was that some natives insulted the Chu people, and then the Chu people directly drew their guns and killed them... There were no corresponding legal provisions at that time. At that time, a defense lawyer had an idea and said that the natives had raped his client. As a law-abiding citizen of the empire, how could he be insulted by a lowly native? Therefore, it is legal and reasonable for his client to fight back because his reputation has been insulted...

In the end, the judge followed suit and ruled that the Chu native had been infringed upon his reputation and was forced to 'self-defense' in the name of indigenous honor and self-defense... and was acquitted on the spot.

Then this penalty was regarded as an example and began to be applied to the conflicts between the Chu people and the indigenous people.

Of course, such nonsense does not apply among Chu people...

If you have to say something about honor and self-defense, if you feel that you have been scolded and your character has been insulted, you can scold him back... It is very reasonable to reciprocate scolding...

But as long as you dare to do something, you are breaking the law. If the other party has a tooth knocked out by you, then, at worst, it is a misdemeanor of intentional injury, and you will be sentenced to less than half a year in prison or detained, and you will be fined...

Knock out two of the opponent's teeth? That's even worse. According to imperial law, it starts in half a year, and it is directly regarded as a criminal case. It starts in half a year, and the maximum is three years!

So... don't think that the laws of the Great Chu Empire are nonsense, only the laws involving the Chu people and the indigenous people are nonsense...

From this, we can see that ordinary natives are not considered human beings in the eyes of Chu people... at least not in the legal sense.

Aboriginal people with labor certificates are slightly better off, but that's it, they are not the same concept as permanent resident Aboriginal people. The latter are legally legitimate people and are protected by the law. Permanent residents are subject to the labor protection laws of the administrative territories, and foreign workers are subject to the foreign labor management laws of the administrative territories.

One is the protection law and the other is the management law!

You can tell the difference just by looking at the name.

Well, the above are only limited to foreign staff, Chu people are not included in this list... All Chu people, whether you are working in a directly-controlled territory, an administrative territory, or even an indigenous-controlled area, Chu companies must We sign formal labor contracts with employees in strict accordance with the unified labor protection law, and provide corresponding benefits such as statutory minimum wages, statutory vacations, work-related injury insurance, and pension funds.

Putting aside the Chu people, just talking about these indigenous staff, in fact, formal employees like Taylor are also relatively important, and they generally hold mid-to-low-level management positions or more important regular civilian positions.

As for workers, most of them are general service employees.

Finally, there are some who are not even company employees, but temporary workers who are dispatched... These people are basically not allowed to work in the London Concession, and can only work in indigenous areas. Their jobs are not fixed, stable, and they can be used when they need something. Hire some on a temporary basis and don't hire them if nothing happens.

European Strait Trading Companies are actually quite conscientious. At least they have more resident employees and more permanent foreign workers. Although there are temporary workers, there are not many on weekdays.

In order to save costs, many companies often do not hire permanent residents as regular employees, but only hire foreign workers.

The European Channel Trading Company is more conscientious, mainly because they have money... few companies selling kerosene are short of money.

Furthermore, it is also a government-run enterprise with relatively formal management. The top managers are relatively conscientious and do not treat employees very harshly...

Therefore, the European Channel Trading Company is a very good company for Aboriginal employees like Taylor to find employment.

Taylor himself is very aware of this...especially if he really gets into it. After living in the London Concession for a few years, he knows the situation of some other companies, and he is even more grateful for his own Straits Trading Company. .

Without the Straits Trading Company, he would not even have the chance to become a permanent resident... Not all companies would release recruitment opportunities for formal employees to the indigenous people, which means more labor costs.

Taylor worked until the afternoon when his boss called him into the office.

His boss, Manager Wang, gave him a new job and asked him to lead a team to Essex County to handle several businesses and investigate the local kerosene market.

In the past year, the company's local kerosene sales have declined instead of increasing, which has attracted the company's attention. However, after communicating with several peer companies, several other kerosene companies with operations in England have not made any sales in the area. malicious competition caused by price dumping.

Although there is competition among many Chu enterprises in Europe, there is rarely vicious competition. Most of them maintain a relatively tacit understanding and earn as much profit as possible.

For example, in the kerosene industry, in Europe, there are actually many small wholesale kerosene companies that go deep into the local retail business. There are dozens of large and small companies, but the larger ones among these kerosene companies are basically petroleum companies. Subsidiaries of the company, or oil companies that have certain shares.

However, the oil companies above have a tacit understanding regarding the sales of kerosene in Europe. They have adopted a relatively unified price alliance and will not easily lower prices to cause malicious dumping... Of course, if you want to increase prices, no one will care about you. .

In short, let's sit down and divide the territory and make a lot of money, without engaging in any malicious competition within the industry.

In fact, malicious competition is more difficult... because the petroleum industry is a bulk materials industry, the price of crude oil as a raw material is very transparent, and there is also a corresponding futures market.

The crude oil supplied to Europe mainly comes from Northeast Africa and the western peninsula of West Asia. These crude oils are converted into kerosene and then transported to the European market for sale.

The cost of crude oil, freight costs and corresponding taxes are also similar, so it is difficult for everyone to have any big unique advantages.

Instead of vicious competition, it is better to negotiate in advance and harvest everything at a high price with tacit agreement.

The oil company at the top has determined the market and controls the shipment of bulk kerosene. It is difficult for the downstream kerosene trading companies to engage in vicious competition.

Therefore, after the branch headquarters communicated with several other kerosene companies operating in England and found that there was no decrease, they became a little confused as to why local kerosene sales did not increase but fell.

You know, the sales of kerosene are increasing year by year... Not to mention in backward and remote places like Europe, even in seemingly developed places in East Asia, kerosene lamps are still the main lighting tool, and with the economy As people's incomes increase, they are more willing to use lamps, which ultimately leads to an increase in kerosene sales year by year.

Even though there are electric lights now... But in fact, the main lighting tool for Chu people is still kerosene lamps, and there is still a long way to go before the universal use of electric lights.

Kerosene is still the main product and source of revenue for various oil companies.

This is true in East Asia, not to mention places in Europe. The indigenous people have no electric lights to use. Their nobles and wealthy people can certainly use candles, but for most ordinary people, even the middle and upper classes, , daily lighting still uses kerosene lamps.

With the increase in population, the gradual increase in local people's income, and the gradual change in living habits, kerosene sales in Europe have also maintained a relatively large increase every year.

Therefore, when other places are rising and one place is falling instead of rising, there must be something wrong here.

John Taylor's task is to conduct market research and find out why local kerosene sales have declined instead of rising!