1850 American Gold Tycoon.

Chapter 360 Bird droppings
As the speed of the train slowed down, Liang Yao could already clearly see the faces of the farmers along the railway.

At present, the Chinese in California account for about half of the total population, but the proportion of the agricultural population is far more than half.

Among the farmers that Liang Yao met along the way, at least three out of every four were Chinese immigrants.

The remaining one was either a Mexican immigrant or an immigrant from the eastern United States.

"How's the income of the farmers?" Liang Yao asked Chen Baoliang about the income of the farmers.

"It's not as good as before." Chen Baoliang replied, "In 1850 AD, the days when you just picked up a few acres of land and planted a few vegetables and fruits in the land and sold them to the gold mining area to make a fortune are gone forever. Now people If there are too many, the output of agricultural products will go up, and the price will naturally come down.”

"Don't compare it to 1850. At that time, the miners in the gold mining area still bought food with you with dog's head gold." Liang Yao laughed.

In 1850, there was still a lot of gold on both sides of the American River. At that time, California had not yet established a state, and the trading method was very rough. Everyone went to the market to buy vegetables, and they always carried a few ounces of gold in their pockets to pay the bill.

Exchange food, melons, fruits and livestock for gold from other mining areas, Liang Yao did not do this kind of thing less in the past.

He often used some tools and a small amount of gold to collect grain and livestock from the Indians, and then sold the excess grain and livestock to mine owners and miners in other mining areas at a higher price.

When prices in Sacramento were the most outrageous, it even appeared that one ounce of gold could only be exchanged for three hard-boiled eggs.

Therefore, the price in California in 1850, except for Los Angeles, which is far away from the gold-producing area, does not have much reference value for the price in other places.

Prices in California at the time depended more on how much gold the miners could get out of the ground in a day.

"The income of farmers is really hard to say. In California, farming and raising livestock, in addition to watching the sky for food, it is more important to watch the market for food. Different crops and livestock have different prices every year or even every season. They are all very big." Chen Baoliang said after thinking carefully for a while.

"If a couple manages a farm, after deducting fertilizer money, labor money, animal fodder money, and agricultural product transportation costs, if you are lucky, you can leave four to five hundred dollars a year.

If you don’t gamble during the slack season, you can go to other farms to do odd jobs for others, and you can earn more. California land is not rare, and a lot of wasteland is waiting to be opened up. What is rare is people.As long as it is not delicious and lazy, no one will starve to death. "

What Chen Baoliang is talking about is that two people manage a small farm, and when the weather is good and the market does not fluctuate significantly, they can earn 400 to 500 US dollars a year.

After careful calculation, they can earn about 20 dollars a month, which seems to be lower than that of the oil workers in Los Angeles that Liang Yao has known.

But the cost of living in Stockton is negligible compared to the cost of living in Los Angeles. Farmers basically eat and live on their own.

Just because you can actually save $20 a month and earn $30 a month as an oil worker in Los Angeles doesn't mean you can save $30 a month.

"What if you're unlucky?" Liang Yao asked back.

"If you are really sad, your life is not good, the crops are not harvested, and the livestock you raise are plagued, it depends on whether you have bought insurance and whether you have traded futures." Chen Baoliang said.

"Bank of America, Bank of Boston, and even Barings and Bank of France have opened banks in Stockton Township, selling insurance to farmers, and if it is a natural disaster, the bank will pay for the loss according to the contract.

But this situation is not the worst. You are working for nothing on your own land, and it is still no problem to do odd jobs for others to earn some money to make ends meet.

The worst case is not buying insurance, but also doing futures.Not only do you have to bear the losses yourself, but you also have to pay others according to the contract if you fail to deliver the goods when the time comes.

Of course, in such a situation, you can only be willing to gamble and admit defeat. After all, you have made money in futures, but you have to make a lot of money. "

"Are there a lot of farmers in Stockton doing futures?" Liang Yao continued to ask.

"Small farmers do not have many futures, but large farmers do more futures. Big farmers have a solid background, a lot of land, and a lot of people. They always want to make more money and are willing to take a chance. They are also more capable of taking risks than small farmers. Strong, so it takes a lot of money to play." Chen Baoliang said without thinking.

"There are so many lands, so many things planted, how can I eat so many things? Stockton's agricultural products are sold to the city for the city's people to eat.

In short, compared to the Qing Dynasty, this place is already a paradise in the mouth of the ghosts. In the Qing Dynasty, let alone a year of farming, you can't earn four or five hundred dollars for a lifetime. "

Liang Yao got up and looked at the endless fertile fields outside the window and said: "This is our granary. How many people can be fed in California in the future depends on how much food this granary can produce. If there are any difficulties with the Ministry of Agriculture and the Agricultural Association Tell me that food is the most important thing for the people, and agricultural production must not be taken lightly."

"If you want to say that there are no difficulties, it is nothing more than the lack of people and animals. If there are enough people and animals, a lot of land can be reclaimed, but these cannot be solved overnight." Chen Baoliang said, "The most difficult problem right now The problem is the fertilizer."

"Fertilizer, I heard that the main fertilizer used by farmers in California is guano imported from South America? Has the price of guano increased?" Liang Yao frowned.

Guano is rich in nitrogen, phosphorus and other organic matter. It is the most ideal natural fertilizer at present, which can greatly increase the yield of agricultural products. Before the emergence of chemical fertilizers, agriculture in the Americas and even Europe relied heavily on guano.

The guano used in California is mainly produced in the Lobos Islands not far from Peru, and the Atacama Desert at the junction of the three countries of Peru, Bolivia, and Chile. All three countries claim sovereignty over the Atacama Desert.

The dispute over the sovereignty of the Atacama Desert among Peru, Bolivia, and Chile also occurred after the discovery of abundant guano and saltpeter resources in the Atacama Desert.

Liang Yao was not interested in which of the three countries had the sovereignty over the Atacama Desert, he was more interested in who could provide him with more guano and saltpeter.

After all, these three countries are not strong countries, and without the intervention of external forces, it is not difficult to deal with these small South American countries.

However, it is impossible without the intervention of external forces. Great Britain in the 19th century can be said to be pervasive all over the world. As long as it can make money, the British Empire is indispensable.

The situation in the region also became complicated after the discovery of rich reserves of guano and saltpeter on the west coast of South America.

Take the guano-rich Lobos Islands as an example. The British then announced that the island was first discovered by a British captain named Lawson, so the island should belong to the British Empire.

The Americans also claimed that in September 1828, the captain of the New York merchant ship "Hornet" was the first to discover the island. According to the principle of "priority of discovery", the island should belong to the United States, including the island. Guano resources on

But in terms of facts, in this matter, the most shameless is not the United Kingdom or the United States, but Spain.

At that time, not long after Peru became independent from Spain, such valuable resources were discovered just after Peru became independent, which made the Spanish government feel a blood loss.

Therefore, the Spanish government jumped out and said that this is their former colony, and the Peruvian government wants to mine the guano on the island, so it must pay the Spanish government a so-called mining fee.

But in the end, no one paid attention to Spain, and even Peru didn't take the former suzerain seriously.

After all, Spain in the 19th century was already lying in the coffin, and it was only the United States that had to cover and nail the coffin for him before the end of the 19th century.

The guano resources in Peru were finally jointly developed by Britain, the United States and Peru after consultations between the British government, the American government, and the Peruvian government.

The situation in Bolivia and Chile is not much better, basically the same as in Peru.

"Yes, in 1852, Peru alone sold guano for $550 million, and we in California spent $280 million buying guano from them."

Having been the Minister of Agriculture for nearly four years, Chen Baoliang's horizons have also broadened a lot. He read books and newspapers eagerly on weekdays, which gave him a general understanding of the situation in America.

"Originally this was a very good deal. The Peruvians got the gold and we got the guano. However, at the beginning of this year, the Hudson's Bay Company pushed the Peruvians to sell us the guano at a higher price, and farmers in California were miserable. .”

"Fucking British guys again, British guys specialize in doing things that harm others and not themselves." Fremont on the side couldn't help but interjected.

Chen Baoliang became even more angry when he heard this: "It's not about harming others and benefiting oneself, it's about harming others and benefiting oneself! You bastard British guy, [-]% of the money he earned from raising the price belongs to the British guy, and the remaining [-]% belongs to Peru. There is no British guy to give." With their support, do they dare to sit on the ground and raise the price?"

Liang Yao is also very troubled by this problem. Bird droppings are currently the most cost-effective fertilizer, and agriculture in California will be inseparable from bird droppings for a while.

Unless chemical fertilizers can be fiddled with, but fiddled with chemical fertilizers in the laboratory and mass-produced fertilizers are two different things.

Even if the laboratory can synthesize some chemical fertilizers, it is of great significance in the field of chemistry, but if the chemical fertilizers cannot be mass-produced, it will only hope for plums to quench thirst for agriculture.

The chemical industry in California has just started, and it is obviously not obvious to want to mass-produce chemical fertilizers.

"In the future, you will take my Roland and Yang Wei to the coastline of Peru and then disembark to negotiate the price with the Peruvians," Liang Yao said.

He has three warships of more than [-] tons that can be sold. Except for the Super Brave, which was sent to Nagasaki to deter the Russians, the other two are still in California.

Of course, putting pressure on the Peruvian government is only a stopgap measure.

The British may be busy dealing with the Russians now, and have no time to deal with South American affairs, but the Crimean War will not be fought for a few years, and he will be uncomfortable when the British recover their senses.

The best way is to find a few shitty islands that the Brits haven't got their hands on yet.

In this way, enough guano can be obtained without offending the British.

Nauru, the name of this island came to Liang Yao's mind.

This island in the Marshall Islands is also rich in guano, and although the island was discovered in the 18th century, it was discovered by both the Dutch and the British.

However, because Western colonists did not realize the value of the island at that time, Nauru was not formally colonized by Germany until 1888.

After Germany's defeat in World War I, Nauru Island, along with the Marshall Islands, was assigned to Japan at the Paris Allied Powers Sharing Conference.

Liang Yao is going to send Sven, the president of Global Shipping Company, to search for this island in the waters near the Marshall Islands. As long as he finds this island, he can legally occupy this island according to the so-called "priority of discovery" principle of the western powers. .

Take the island of Nauru and its guano for yourself.

Although Liang Yao didn't know anything about engineering, he had a fairly solid knowledge of geography, and he remembered the approximate location of Nauru.

With the current level of navigation, it is not impossible to find this island in a short time.

(End of this chapter)