A Man of Science and Engineering in Troubled Times Wandering in the Late Qing Dynasty

Chapter 18 The Qing Post Office
The Daqing Post Office has recently moved from the General Taxation Department to Chongwenmen Street, which is now south of Beijing Railway Station.

It was five miles away from Tongwen Hall, so Martin went out and called two rickshaws.

Rickshaws are called rickshaws in Shanghai because they are usually painted yellow.

In Beijing and other places, because it was introduced from Japan, it is called Dongyang car, or foreign car for short.

Li Yu and Ding Weiliang got into one each, and Li Yu was pulled by a young man in his early 20s. Although he was not tall, he looked very strong.

Naturally, it was impossible for them to drive side by side. There was a distance of more than ten meters between the two cars.The man who pulled the cart for Martin was obviously an old hand. He pulled it very steadily and knew the road well, so he ran ahead.

The driver Li Yu was sitting on obviously staggered a lot. Although he had a lot of strength, his speed was not even at all, and he was a bit jerky when he sat up.It was as if Martin was sitting in a high-end Mercedes-Benz car, while Li Yu was sitting in a Wuling Hongguang with slabs.

When the wheels ran over a stone, Li Yu's buttocks left the seat, and gave it a hard twitch. The driver turned around and said embarrassedly: "I'm sorry, boss, please forgive me!"

Li Yu didn't mean to blame. After all, the people at the bottom are earning hard money, so he said: "It's okay, you drive slowly, oh no, just run slowly."

The coachman said, "Boss, take care of me! I have only been driving for a few days."

Li Yu had nothing to do, and chatted with him: "Listen to the accent, you are not from Beijing."

"Boss is good at hearing. I'm from Zhangjiakou."

Unexpectedly, he met another Bei Piao, and Li Yu asked, "Why don't you stay in your hometown and come to the capital?"

The coachman said: "It's my brother who said that he earns more money in the city and is lighter than the country. My brother is the one who pulls the cart for the foreign master." The coachman said while running, his breath is very stable, and his physical fitness must be very good .

Li Yu asked in surprise, "Is this job still easy?"

"That's right! Going to the fields to do farm work is much more tiring than pulling a cart!"

Li Yu didn't have any idea about pulling carts or growing crops, so he continued to ask, "How much money can you earn a day for pulling?"

"I don't earn much now, but my brother earns a lot. He can earn more than 200 yuan a day! Usually, he earns [-] or [-] yuan." The coachman was quite honest, so he said nothing.

Li Yu did some mental calculations, and there were almost 4500 liters a month. According to the silver-to-copper ratio of about 1:1500 at that time, it was about 3 taels of silver.

Li Yu said: "It's not bad, now I can earn 3 taels of silver a month, which is quite a lot."

The coachman grinned, looked back at Li Yu, and said, "The boss has a clean face, and he looks like a scholar. You don't know, we are coolies who have to pay 50 renminbi to the car dealer every day." Money, except for food and sleep, there is not much left.”

The coachman below broke his leg, but the car dealer can earn 1 tael a month in a car, really lying down and collecting money.

Li Yu thought of Lao She's "Camel Xiangzi", Xiangzi is a coachman, and his biggest dream is to have his own rickshaw.He was diligent and conscientious, and he was responsible for his duty, but the chaotic era only gave him the saddest ending.

Li Yu sighed unconsciously, the late Qing Dynasty was really an even worse era.

In about half an hour or so, two cars arrived at the gate of the Daqing Post Office one after another. Li Yu was so jolted that he almost vomited his overnight meal, he still managed to get out of the car pretending to be fine.

Martin took out a small string of money from his pocket: "This is 100 Wen, 60 Wen is for travel expenses, and the rest is kept as a tip."

The two drivers are very grateful, they like to pull foreigners very much, because they often give tips. 30 Wen is considered a big job in the first place, and with tips, the two of them ran away for a day's worth of money in one fell swoop, and they made a net profit when they ran again.

Martin was not short of money at all, and tipping was common when he was living in the United States, so he didn't take it seriously. Before the two drivers finished singing their thanks, they called Li Yu into the post office.

It can be said that this is the headquarters of the Qing Dynasty Post Office. It is quite spacious inside, and four or five guys are sorting letters on the long counter.Behind them were several large cupboards with many smaller cupboards on them, and labels with names of places such as Shanghai, Tianjin, and Wuhan were pasted on the doors.

A postman at the post office knew Weiliang Ding, so he came over to greet him and said, "Professor Ding, are you sending a letter again?"

Martin placed the stack of papers on the counter: "Yes, Mr. Cui, I want to send a registered letter to Shanghai."

Li Yu hadn't heard the word "registered mail" for a long time. After all, the express delivery industry was too developed in his era.

If one day I really receive a registered letter, I will definitely be very scared, because there is basically nothing good: registered mail is still used now, either a court summons or a lawyer’s letter warning, or it is sent from the high wall of the prison.

Postman Cui skillfully weighed the manuscript paper, and then said: "Teacher Ding, you see, one or two coins are heavy, and a 10-cent stamp needs to be affixed."

Martin Martin directly took out 10 silver dollars and put them on the table.

Postman Cui immediately said, "Professor Ding, 10 cents of stamps are enough."

Martin said: "Of course I know, but when this letter arrives in Shanghai, it needs to be sent to London by the British Letter Bureau."

The current Daqing Post Office has not yet joined the UPU and only conducts domestic business.If you send a letter abroad, you need these foreign post offices, that is, "customer mail" for forwarding.

As early as 1861, Britain built a postal building by the Suzhou River in Shanghai, namely the British Post Office, or the British Letter Office.Since the letters are sent to London, there will definitely be less transit if they send them.

The fee for 10 silver dollars is very high, which is equivalent to 7 taels of silver.As a comparison, it costs about five or six yuan to send a letter from Shanghai to the UK. Of course, if you send a slightly larger package, it will be quite expensive.

Li Yu's money at the moment is not even enough to send a cross-border mail!Fortunately, Martin Martin paid for it.

Postman Cui flipped through the manuscript according to the regulations, and after confirming that there were nothing else, he wrapped it in the envelope, and then affixed a small yellow stamp on it, which said "Take it as a dime of foreign silver", and there is "10 cents" written in English.

The post office of the Qing Dynasty was established under the auspices of Hurd, and many things were learned from Britain, and even the tariffs were set according to foreign money.

——Anyway, the Qing court has lost enough sovereignty, and it is no longer missing such a small detail.

Li Yu was a little bit fond of this set of stamps, and he was going to buy a few sets when he got the chance, because it was the most likely thing that he could buy with the poor money in his hand.

别看一张面值只有几分，这套邮票可是1897年限量发行的慈禧六十寿辰小字改值邮票，有1分、2分、4分、5分、8分、10分、30分等几种面值。

Limited edition!
If you can collect a complete set, it will fetch tens or even millions of dollars in auctions today, more than 100 years later.The appreciation space of several million times is still considerable!
(End of this chapter)