1850 American Gold Tycoon.

Chapter 247 Price
In early January 1850, when Liang Yao first set foot in San Francisco, San Francisco prospered rapidly due to the gold rush.

But at that time, San Francisco had no industry, the sky was very blue, the water was very clear, and it was full of primitive natural customs.

Two years later, San Francisco has changed dramatically.

Historically, factories in California appeared on a large scale only after the Civil War. In just two years, various factories sprung up like mushrooms in the San Francisco industrial zone he designated.

The towering chimneys in the industrial area discharge billowing smoke into the clear sky, making the original clear sky dirty. The sewage from the drainage pipes discharges the turbid sewage into the clear sea water, making the sea water near the industrial area become turbid. It was cloudy.

Being close to the industrial area, the pungent smell comes to the nostrils, of course, it is also the smell of industry.

This is an inevitable price to be paid for development. When he just returned to San Francisco, some fishermen complained to Liang Yao that the sewage poured into the factory polluted the nearby sea water, and there was no fish in the nearby sea area.

Liang Yao just told the fishermen to give up fishing in this sea area.

Faced with the tide of history, Liang Yao also seemed very powerless.

In the industrialization of California, he can try his best to take care of the interests of most groups in California, but he cannot take care of the interests of everyone.

There are always people who have to make sacrifices for industrialization, and all he can do is make fewer sacrifices.

Liang Yao has never been to London and Paris in this era, but he has been to New York and seen the muddy and stinking Hudson River in New York.

At this time, the Thames River in London and the Seine River in Paris are not much cleaner than the Hudson River in New York, and they are not much cleaner than the waters near the San Francisco industrial area.

This painful journey is the only way for all regions and countries that want to enter industrial civilization.

Now that we have the opportunity to take the initiative to take the road of industrialization, if we are forced to industrialize in the future, the price we pay will be even greater than it is now.

"The machines you bought from the east with a lot of money are really powerful. The steel and iron produced last year may be more than the steel and iron produced in Guangdong alone."

Looking at the towering chimneys in the industrial area, Deng Yan felt very small in front of these buildings.

"In more than ten years, let alone Guangdong, it is not uncommon for California to produce more steel every year than Qing Dynasty." Liang Yao said as he walked.

Comparing the productivity of industrial civilization with that of agricultural civilization is a dimensionality reduction blow, and there is no comparison.

Before the emergence of the chemical industry, steel production, coal production, and railway mileage were the three most important indicators of early industrialization.

Steel is the foundation and the pillar of industrial society. Railroad tracks, machinery, guns, warships, and many consumer goods in industrial society are inseparable from steel.

As for coal, before the advent of petroleum fuels, it was the most important industrial fuel. The operation of steam engines, lighting of fires for cooking and heating are all inseparable from coal.

Without coal, all machinery would be paralyzed.

Not to mention the railway, which is the main traffic artery. Without the railway, the efficiency of personnel exchanges and the speed of commodity circulation in inland areas will be greatly reduced.

Luckily for California, gold quickly accumulated original capital for California, and Nevada’s coal and iron mines, as well as the high-quality iron ore and coal mines of Mexico, a weak neighbor, provided abundant raw materials for California’s industrialization.

Counting Los Angeles' easy-to-exploit shallow oil, California can be said to have the best time and place.

Looking around the world, there are not many places like this.

According to the report given to him by California Department of Industry Minister Fell, in 1851, the combined production of all large and small steel plants in California was 1.8 tons of pig iron, and only a pitiful 353 tons of steel.

According to Liang Yao's estimate, California's steel production is close to 2% of that of the United States.

Although this data is not good-looking, considering that the population of California does not reach 2% of the total population of the United States, the per capita steel production in California is still higher than the average data of the United States.

The state government has allocated resources to the industrial sector, and Liang Yao's countermeasures have achieved some results.

California's coal production is less than 20 tons.

If the California railway is open to traffic, including other places, such as mining areas, the scattered railways will total about 1300 kilometers (San Francisco-Los Angeles, San Francisco-Sacramento, these two add up to more than 1000 kilometers. kilometers away).

As a new state, it is undoubtedly very impressive to achieve such an achievement within two years, enough to make many states jealous.

But other states can’t learn from California’s path. California’s fiscal revenue of more than 470 million US dollars last year is beyond the reach of many new states.

What's more, the state conditions in other states are different from those in California. Those gentry and wealthy businessmen don't have the courage and strength to centralize power in this state like Liang Yao.This is no longer a question of learning or not, but of not daring to learn at all.

Most importantly, there is no steel tycoon in other places like Liang Yao who is not only willing to throw money into the steel industry, but also formed a coal and steel alliance.

Heavy industry was a gold-swallowing behemoth in the early days, so don't expect to make money.

Of course, Liang Yao was not complacent about his achievements. With his current industrial strength, he could only make jokes about the hated neighbor of New State and Mexico in the south of the United States.

Compared with the industrially developed regions of the United States, there is still a big gap with the industrial giants of Britain, France, and especially Great Britain.

At the same time, the output of coal in the British Empire reached a terrifying 3000 million tons, and the output of pig iron was more than 140 million tons. As for the total mileage of railways, the total mileage of the railways in the British Empire was more than 1.2 kilometers, not counting the colonies.

What is this concept? During this period, the coal production and steel production of other countries combined were not as much as Great Britain.

Of course, the railway mileage can still exceed that of the British mainland, after all, the British mainland is not large.

In 1850, the total mileage of railroads in the United States surpassed that of Britain.After all, the territory of the United States is much larger than that of the United Kingdom.

In addition to these, the tonnage of the British navy is also the best. The tonnage of the navy of one country exceeds the sum of the tonnage of the navies of all countries in the world.

The locomotives currently in use in the United States are either obsolete goods imported from Britain, or imitations of British locomotives.

In Europe, the UK also monopolizes the European locomotive market. About [-]% of the locomotives in continental European countries are supplied by the UK.

This is also the reason why only the United Kingdom has the strength to create an industrial miracle like the Crystal Palace, and why the fleet of the British Empire can be domineering around the world.

Strong industrial strength and a powerful navy are the arrogant capital of Great Britain.

There is still a long way to go to catch up with the Premier League.

It is hoped that the machines and workers recruited from the east will allow California's industrial capacity to explode in the coming time.

Liang Yao had just walked into the steel factory, ready to take a tour, and saw eight or nine children around the age of ten, who were all dirty and covered in soot, gathered around a chimney.

Soon, two or three children aged seven or eight climbed out of the chimney.

Liang Yao subconsciously looked towards the top of the chimney, and saw a seven or eight-year-old child standing on the top of the chimney, cleaning the chimney at the top without any protective measures.

Liang Yao's heart instantly rose to his throat, and he was so nervous that he dared not breathe out, let alone make a sound, for fear of disturbing the children who were working at the top of the chimney.

(End of this chapter)