Film and Television: Starting from the Journey to Guandong

Chapter 124

What is Maris going to do now?

It means gathering supplies from the Far East, transporting them to the distant Atlantic coast through maritime fortresses such as Malacca and the Suez Canal, and feeding and drinking to the great men of the Sunset Empire, otherwise they will not be able to survive.

At best, this thing is called ocean trade, but at worst, it's just buying and selling.

It stands to reason that many people are doing this business, so Maris would not be so interested.

This has to do with Maris’s family background. He has a way to monopolize trade to a certain extent. Isn’t that just as easy as picking up money in broad daylight?

Of course, Zhu Chuanren also learned from Maris how miserable Britain was now.

The First World War cost Britain dearly.

Merchant ships alone lost a total of 2479 ships due to Germany's "unrestricted submarine warfare" and other attacks, with a total tonnage of 776 million tons, which was almost 1/3 of the total number retained before the war.

Of course, if the number of wartime construction and supplements is included, the proportion of losses may not be so shocking.

More than 600 million British people were conscripted into the army, and 75 of them died in the war.

Among male citizens aged 20 to 40, the death rate reached 8.8%, and an equal number of young and middle-aged men suffered from varying degrees of physical or physical disabilities.

The large number of deaths of young and middle-aged men in battle led to a serious imbalance in the gender structure of the British native population. Its direct social consequence was to promote the awakening of women's independent consciousness. A large number of British women left the home and became working women.

为筹措战争经费，英国的所得税率从1914年的每英镑1先令3便士，提高到1918年的每英镑6先令。

Not only did this happen, the British top officials also increased indirect taxes and expanded borrowing.

As a result, the country's debt to the United States reached 7.42 million pounds, and its international financial status began to shake.

1919年英国国债余额超过70亿英镑，1920年达到78.317亿英镑，仅年息当年就要支付3.496亿英镑。

Such a heavy debt burden severely affected industrial investment at that time and after the war, further hindering the pace of postwar economic recovery and prolonging the recovery time from war trauma.

In addition, many factories were converted to military production during the war and then returned to civilian industry after the war. The cost of asset replacement was very high. Moreover, due to the serious loss of young and middle-aged men, there was a shortage of hot-trained workers and skilled workers, which in turn led to a huge increase in labor costs. The amplitude increases.

In addition, the technological transformation and structural adjustment of British industry after the war were also unsatisfactory.

From 1919 to 1922, the British economy was in the so-called "double shock", so that after being hit hard by this, it never recovered between the two major world events.

Between 1919 and 1920, British trade unions achieved a reduction of approximately 13% in weekly working hours while labor productivity remained unchanged, and wages calculated on a per unit basis, that is, efficiency wages, increased by 13%.

Due to the end of wartime financial controls and the end of government control over many materials, a large amount of wartime surplus materials flooded into the market like a tide.

This directly caused the post-war Great Depression. Between 1920 and 1922, the British people, who were suffering from unemployment, experienced an unprecedented period of massive price collapse, causing real wages to be higher than before when the economic depression ended at the end of 1922. period of inflationary boom.

Because money wages did not fall as much as wholesale and retail prices, rising unit production costs caused by unions and economic depression caused by the government depressed the expected profits of enterprises, so that full employment became an impossible delusion.

There were many reasons for the postwar economic depression, but the seeds were sown in the last two years of the war.

After one stop, Britain had a period of economic prosperity caused by inflation. In the last two years of the war, British wages grew faster than prices, but commodity control policies made it impossible for people with increased incomes to buy them. Required consumer goods.

After the war, controls were lifted and people began purchasing like crazy.

其后果不言而喻，从1919年4月到1920年4月，物价上涨了整整50%。

As a result, the increase in money wages began to lag behind the growth rate of prices, resulting in what Keynes later called "profit inflation."

Once this inflationary boom occurs, prices continue to rise until the entire financial system collapses.

And when prices are growing at a rate of 4% per month, who doesn't want to borrow money from banks at an annual interest rate of 4% and continue to gamble on commodities, stocks, and real estate?

Britain itself abandoned the gold standard in March 1919 because the upper echelons were worried that a large number of demobilized laborers after the war would be forced to receive benefits because they had no jobs, thus causing social unrest.

The cabinet even regarded the general strike at the Clyde Arsenal in April 1919 as a signal of an imminent revolutionary uprising, so the logic of finance and Zheng Zhi merged into one and decided to reduce interest rates to a surprisingly low level.

Even when the dangers of the dangers brought about by the inflationary boom have emerged, the government still refuses to give up the above-mentioned policies.

However, few lawmakers realize that lowering interest rates under those financial conditions is equivalent to treating hypoglycemia with insulin...

The British financiers, who sensed that something was wrong, launched a fierce struggle with the cabinet in the winter of 1919-1920, and finally the Bank of England, with the help and encouragement of Sir John Blackbird of the Treasury, brought the politicians to Financial decision-making powers usurped during the war were regained.

In order to save the crisis, the Bank of England began to adopt a "high-priced monetary policy."

On April 1920, 4, the Bank of England raised the latest bank interest rate to 15%, and such high interest rates remained for a whole year. In response, the government also promulgated several new tax projects.

Financial officials who advocate a "high-priced monetary policy" believe that if the pound is to return to the gold standard system at the pre-war exchange rate level with the US dollar, inflation must first be eliminated quickly and even the direction of the value of the pound must be reversed.

Implementing this goal requires a balanced government budget, full use of interest rate policy to control the growth of credit, and the establishment of legal restrictions on banknote suppliers.

If they had taken decisive measures to curb the inflation boom before it was out of control, the British economy might not have suffered such a severe recession later.

But now, Britain is faced with two choices, both of which are terrible...

A combination of fiscal and monetary tightening quickly quelled the inflationary boom, but an economic collapse soon followed.

The first is that consumer spending falls, and investors invest less.

After July 1920, the continuously rising prices finally began to show signs of decline, and continued to fall again and again in August and September.

People believed that the decline would continue, so people who had previously relied on bank loans to make money decided to quit.

The first signs of a collapse were reflected on the London Financial Exchange, where stock traders began selling shares in a steady stream.

Banks, sensing trouble, began to demand early withdrawal of loans.

Due to the overall decline in the stock market and futures market, investors were still unable to cash out even though they endured a significant reduction in investment. As a result, real estate owners were forced to sell their houses, and various business owners tried to sell their companies to maintain their creditworthiness, and even Protection from prosecution.

As prices continued to fall and purchasing power dropped significantly, manufacturers stopped recruiting workers and tried to lower workers' wages, while workers resisted business owners' attempts to lower wages.

The result of the confrontation between the two is that when the profit rate falls, real wages rise instead, causing corporate and individual bankruptcies one after another.

From October 1920, prices in England began to fall sharply; in November, the unemployment rate rose sharply.

In the following 12 months, the UK's total output fell by 15%, and the unemployment rate rose by 22%.

The British economy ended up exhibiting an unprecedented phenomenon: price and wage elasticities were so great that wholesale prices of goods fell by almost half, while money wages fell by a third during the same period.

The economic downturn has put traditional industries such as coal, steel, and textiles in deep trouble.

In the foreign exchange market, the pound was overpriced when the gold standard was restored. This situation, which was equivalent to currency appreciation, made the prices of British industrial products generally high and uncompetitive in international trade. Now it has fallen sharply after abandoning the gold standard in a hurry. Too deep.

In the autumn of 1919, prices in the UK were growing faster than in the UK, and now the value of the pound is bound to fall relative to the US dollar.

At the same time, because France, Germany and Italy have higher inflation rates than the UK, the value of the pound will rise against these three currencies.

从1919年3月开始，英镑和美元的汇率脱钩，到1920年2月，英镑对美元的汇率从1:4.7下降到1:3.4。

Driven by technological innovation, the labor productivity of American industry has greatly exceeded that of Britain. However, the successive trade union movements in the UK have greatly increased the unit production costs of British industry, and prices have continued to rise. As a result, the decline in the value of the pound has not improved the UK. export.

Afterwards, the market expected that the Bank of England would raise interest rates, and the pound began to rebound from oversold conditions.

Many speculators suffered huge losses due to the violent fluctuations in exchange rates, including Keynes, who was well versed in financial policy and investment. He also made mistakes in judging the timing of the Bank of England raising interest rates.

It was not until 1922-1923, when the exchange rate of the British pound against the U.S. dollar returned to above 1:4 that the deflationary state of the British economy eased, and equilibrium was restored on the basis of very low prices and high unemployment.

At the beginning of 1923, when the previous changes gradually calmed down, the number of unemployed people in Britain had reached 130 million, equivalent to 11.4% of the total labor force.

The economic situation in the UK at that time can be summarized like this - as if it was lifted 2000 feet by an invisible hand and then suddenly let go.

In July, bank interest rates rose from 7% to 3%.

On the surface, the direct cause of the rise in interest rates is that the exchange rate of the pound against the US dollar dropped from 6:1 to 4.70:1 in June. However, the subtext is self-evident. The UK is trying to return to the gold standard at the expense of once again damaging exports.

Because the gap in wholesale prices between Britain and the United States has been greatly narrowed, and the exchange rate has approached the pre-war official parity of 1:4.866, it seems that a new "golden age" is just around the corner.

But that's not the whole story.

After several years of sharp ups and downs in interest rates, although the UK's trade volume still ranks first in the world, exceeding US$1921 billion every year since 90, trade has turned from a surplus to a deficit, with total trade volume and industrial product exports declining. The world's share continues to decline.

Although it is only due to the repatriation of international investment profits that the UK's international balance of payments is barely balanced.

Many British politicians who failed to fight for low-priced currency turned to trade protection and imperial preferential treatment. In fact, in order to raise war funds,

In 1915, the United Kingdom began to impose an ad valorem tax of 33.3% on imported cars, clocks, musical instruments, and movies.

In December 1918, Lloyd George's campaign platform also included trade protection policies and the principle of imperial preferential treatment.

The Industrial Protection Act enacted in 1921 expanded the 1915% ad valorem tax on imported goods in 33.3 to major industrial products imported from countries other than the British Empire.

In May 1923, protective tariffs were introduced to reduce unemployment.

1925年春，英格兰银行有黄金储备1.53亿美元，1924年秋、冬两季拨出9200万美元，1925年又拨出1.66亿美元，用于偿还当年6月15日和12月15日到期的战争债务。

But the price level is still not on the right track. Under the gold standard system, if prices and wages in the U.S. do not rise, those in the UK must fall.

In October 1925, the Bank of England lowered the rediscount rate to 10%. The following month it felt strong enough to relax unofficial restrictions on foreign loans in the London market, but by December foreign exchange appeared weak and the Bank's rediscount rate It was raised to 4.5% again.

This action prompted strong protests from Chancellor Winston Churchill, on the grounds that it would undoubtedly increase unemployment.

After that, the rediscount rate changed only once in three years, that is, it was reduced again to 3% in April 1927.

The nationwide general strike finally broke out in 1926. The cause was that on May 5, some mine owners used the excuse of economic deterioration to close mines and fire employees. In this layoff storm, about 3 million miners were fired in total.

In the midst of this turmoil, Britain has managed to maintain basic public services across the country, and he has taken an unusually strong stance by refusing to engage in negotiations of any nature unless the union abandons the strike.

Finally, the union compromised.

Although the top management did not collapse as a result, the strike still caused heavy damage to the national economy.

Of course, from a historical perspective, the British national general strike in 1926 became the last major disturbance in the British economic recovery process after World War I. After that, except for the worldwide financial crisis from 1929 to 1931, there was no other major crisis. Big twists and turns again.

The First World War began on July 1914, 7, and it took four years for the war to end in 28.

Although Britain was a victorious country, it was embarrassing that the country was not overly excited. During the war, Britain lost 94 officers and soldiers, lost nearly 70% of its merchant ships, spent 100 billion pounds on military expenditure, and consumed one-third of its national wealth. On the war zone.

Agriculture also declined rapidly after 1923.

英国的债务由1914年的6．5亿英镑激增至1920年的78．28亿英镑，英国变成丑国的债务国。

Britain is in deep recession on all fronts.

The most important thing is that the aristocratic lords who maintain the glory of Britain are out of money, and they have nothing left except a name.

The things that the British are proud of have been completely lost, so what else can we talk about?

In 1917, anti-German sentiment was rising in Britain because the ancestor of the British royal family since 1714 was George V. George V was a German. In order to prevent the British throne from falling into the hands of Catholics again, the British Parliament, according to the Act of Succession of the Throne, Invite him, the descendant of the Protestants, to come to England to inherit the throne.

George V, who had a German surname, had no choice but to lose his German surname, and accepted the suggestion to change his surname to Windsor to appease the people's emotions. At this time, it was also called the Windsor Dynasty.

Looking at the entire 19th century, it is the history of the demise of the aristocratic group and the bloody rise of the capitalists.

The most direct blow to the aristocracy was the "war". At the beginning of the First World Station, most of the aristocrats still regarded this human catastrophe as a "gentleman's game."

At the beginning of the war on July 1914, 7, many nobles joined the battlefield. In their view, the war would definitely end before Christmas. Under the influence of this emotion, the nobles encouraged their servants and hired workers to participate in the war. Go to war.

However, the cruel war not only did not end immediately but lasted for four full years. Before it ended in 1914, 200 titled nobles died in this war.

Most of them served as officers in the war, responsible for leading their soldiers to charge into battle. Moreover, the tradition of heroism and bravery allowed them to rush to the front.

The frontline casualty rate for noble officers was 14%, while the mortality rate for ordinary soldiers was only 6%.

The casualties of the nobles were much greater than those of ordinary soldiers. They rushed to the battlefield like knights, but were slaughtered like wild beasts and buried in the rubble like flies.

In the face of war, death seems to be just a series of cold casualties after the battle.

This opened the background of the era. During this stage, the economy was depressed, the domestic manpower was weak, and the influence of the royal family further declined. This also opened the prelude to the 20s in Britain.

During this period, the city of London was divided into the inner city and the outer city. The inner city was divided into 12 districts, and the outer city was divided into 20 districts. Counting the city of London, there were a total of thirty-three districts, collectively called Greater London.

The reason for this scene is that the progress brought about by the two industrial revolutions has led to explosive growth in population.

The outer city area is a suburb, and the overall architectural style remains the same, but it is much inferior in terms of population density and prosperity.

The inner city and the City of London were not much different from the City of London at that time, both in terms of architecture and living habits.

Before the Great Depression, London was the center of the world and the heart of finance. It was the most advanced city in the early 20th century.

Britain's temperate maritime climate is mild and humid.

Because it is rainy and foggy all year round, sunlight is very precious to the British. Therefore, sunbathing is a traditional health care method for most British people.

Like the Fog City in China, natural fog is produced because cities have large areas of water sources near the city. However, after the industrial isolation, the fog in London escalated into a deadly mixed fog. At this time, the word "Fog City" has changed. .

An inversion layer enveloped London, making it quiet and windless for several days.

At that time, London mostly used coal for heating in winter. Dust, toxic gases and pollutants generated by coal combustion accumulated over the city, causing heavy fog for several days. The whole city is filled with a strong "rotten egg" smell.

The London smog incident caused more than 12000 people to die from respiratory diseases, which can be said to be very terrible.

In the UK in 1900, waking people up in the morning was a business. People with a stable income would spend 5-10 pence a week to hire a human alarm clock to knock on the door or bedroom window with a stick in the morning.

Just use a stick, you might say why not use an alarm clock?

The industry has been separated for so long. Watches and pocket watches can be seen everywhere. In fact, alarm clocks became popular only after 1920, and this magical alarm clock industry also disappeared with the popularity of alarm clocks.

But they haven't disappeared completely, and some professional bell ringers have found a new way to make a living - going to train stations to greet workers for their shifts.

It was not until after 1940 that "professional bell ringers" completely disappeared.

1918年英国平均周薪(52小时)是1镑10先令6便士。

At that time, 60% of the income of the average family was spent on food.

One pound is equal to 20 shillings, and 1 shilling is equal to 12 pence.

The guinea was issued from 1663 to 1813 and ceased circulation in the 1970s.

1 guinea equals 21 shillings.

A bell ringer's weekly income can reach the average level, which can be said to be doing well.

But now, all this has changed. The people knocking on the door have disappeared, and there are only homeless people on the streets who have no food to eat.

This situation continued until after the second stop.

Britain is an island country, and it is destined to be difficult for an island country to be self-sufficient. Even during the second stop, Britain used a rationing system to overcome the shortage of supplies.

A few years later, Britain and France declared war on Germany because Germany refused to armistice with Poland. However, Britain and France, who were afraid of a full-scale war, did not attack Germany first. Instead, they adopted a "sit-down war" on the border and stayed on the sidelines.

Even after Germany defeated Poland, the two sides were in a state of confrontation for a long time.

However, Britain was also under severe war pressure - the German Navy's submarine force and surface fleet frequently conducted diplomatic operations in the Atlantic, and Britain's maritime transportation lines faced tremendous pressure.

How huge is this pressure?

In the 20s, Britain imported more than 30 million tons of grain every year, and Germany's breach of diplomatic relations at sea posed a great threat to Britain's grain supply.

Just four months after declaring war on Germany, and before a large-scale war broke out with Germany, Britain already suffered from severe supply shortages and inflation due to the sinking of a large number of transport ships carrying food by the Germans. The people As a result, the cost of living has increased significantly.

Under pressure, Britain began to implement a food rationing system.

In fact, before food rationing began, Britain had already rationed gasoline. This had no impact on the vast majority of British people, but food rationing was another matter.

The British, who had to use ration books to go to the shops to buy butter, sugar and bacon or raw ham, felt the shortage of food rations almost immediately.

At that time, each adult could get 4 ounces of butter, 12 ounces of sugar, and 4 ounces of bacon or ham per week.

This kind of food scarcity and restriction is difficult to understand for British people born after the first station, but it is not unfamiliar to those British people who experienced the first world station.

But this does not mean that they are at ease. After all, during the First World War, Britain's food supply could only be described as terrible.

Before the implementation of the food rationing system, the British Ministry of Food and the Ministry of Economic Affairs have made many efforts and will absorb the lessons and mistakes from the last war to ensure that they can distribute food fairly.

But during the war, the British government had to face a real problem. Bread, potatoes and fish could be supplied in unlimited quantities during the war. However, because a large number of imported meat products, dairy products, and fruits were sunk by German U-boats, the British government Dairy products and meat will be missing from people's tables, and vitamins and minerals will also become scarce.

With a total of more than 72.8 tons of related cargo sunk, the British people's supply of cheese, sugar, jam, and meat will be reduced below tolerable levels, which obviously cannot guarantee the health of the British people.

Here we have to mention the efforts and contributions of British nutritionists. After discussions and tests, they confirmed that the careful local diet can ensure that the people complete high-intensity physical work, and the calories are completely guaranteed.

As for how to ensure nutritional needs, some additional means are needed.

For example, adding calcium and vitamins to whole wheat flour used to make bread would be a feasible solution. This kind of dry and hard gray bread is considered to be able to ensure the nutritional needs of the people.

Providing fresh orange juice, milk and cod liver oil to children and pregnant mothers are also possible strategies.

According to calculations by nutritionists, this will ensure the survival needs of the British people.

However, during the implementation of the rationing system, some unexpected problems still emerged.

It is true that the UK goes to great lengths to feed its people and to ensure that nutritional levels are within acceptable limits rather than widespread malnutrition.

Whole wheat bread is certainly a good idea, but the British people are not satisfied with this dry and hard "patriotic bread" and even earned the nickname "Hitler's secret weapon".

This situation has led to limited enthusiasm among the British people to buy "patriotic bread". The British government has had to introduce various strategies and even spread some gossip to encourage people to eat this bread.

In addition, the losses during the Battle of Britain also caused the displacement of many people. These poor people who lost their homes were obviously unable to cook food at home. How to solve their dietary problems became a top priority.

The British solution to this problem is to open a canteen, which is a buffet-style restaurant that can provide displaced people with the food necessary for survival, and its food is also very cheap, requiring only one meal on average. A shilling would get one a decent meal, including roast meat, two portions of vegetables, pudding, bread, butter and coffee.

Of course, the food in short supply would not exceed the daily ration per person. This kind of high-quality and low-priced restaurant was very important to the British at that time.

It should be noted that even if the rationing system and control strategies are implemented, food rationing appears to be in short supply and difficult to obtain. How to enable people to better utilize these foods has become a big problem.

At that time, the British slogan was "croquettes without beef, cakes without sugar and tea without tea leaves", and the British Food Minister Wootton promoted "Utton Pie".

This is a kind of food made from carrots, turnips, radishes, potatoes and oatmeal. Its taste is very average, and the people don't like it very much, but it is valuable in a war environment.

In order to meet domestic needs, British housewives have some additional privileges. They can get extra sugar and buy Seville citrus from Spain to make marmalade, which contributes to the nutritional intake of the British.

While this seems feasible, the supply of oranges is problematic, as are other unregulated items that quickly disappear from shelves once they are subject to price controls in an attempt to slow consumption.

The reason is that these things are being moved to the black market.

Black market trading was rampant in the war environment, and criminals hoped to make profits. This could be regarded as a minor failure of the British rationing system.

It must be admitted that the British people under the rationing system still cannot enrich their dining tables.

The British who had abundant food before the war could now only satisfy their appetites with pitiful food. This was really a headache.

Although fish meat is not regulated on the market, the British fishing industry was greatly affected by the outbreak of the war and German bombing. The price of fish meat became more and more expensive in the market, including herring. and cod.

The types of vegetables are scarce. Although there are many carrots, other types of vegetables are much less available. Lemons and onions are always difficult to obtain.

It can be said that how to ensure the appetite is the key issue at present.

In response to this problem, the British people have adopted the strategy of "doing it yourself".

British farmers are cultivating as much land as possible, or using small plots of land, which are used to grow various vegetables, such as carrots, turnips, onions, radishes, etc., are all under consideration. As long as these It just needs to be large enough and easy to grow.

The same goes for British people in cities. They will try their best to use their own gardens or land in public areas to turn them into vegetable plots that can provide vegetables, so as to ensure that their food supply is sufficient and they can save money. Bet a lot of money.

Meat can also be solved through breeding, which was also a common understanding among the British at that time.

At a time when meat is regulated, rabbits are considered a good source of food. Because rabbits have a short reproduction cycle and a fast growth cycle, they can easily become a source of meat supplement for the British.

The British also taught people how to eat rabbit meat in various publications, which greatly enriched the British table.

Raising chickens and pigs was also a good source of meat, especially since hens could lay eggs, which helped the British circumvent egg rationing controls.

It is worth mentioning that every time after the German bombing, the crowing of chickens and pigs could be heard in the city. Although it was not harmonious, it was the most familiar sound to the British at that time.

How to save food was also an important consideration that year. Using yogurt instead of cream as pastry ingredients, using starch-rich mashed potatoes instead of flour to make soup, using vegetables instead of fruits to decorate pastries, and adding vanilla and butter instead of cream are all common methods.

Fruit is a difficult problem to solve. After all, Britain's transportation capacity is still very limited. From 1940 to 1945, British children rarely saw fruit.

As a vegetable with sweet taste, carrots have replaced fruits due to their huge output, and they can effectively supplement vitamins. This was considered a stupid idea back then.

What Maris has to do now is to invest supplies from the Far East into the British Isles in advance so that the people can eat and he can make a lot of money.

However, this period was also the cause of British dark cuisine.

Anyone who has been to England in later generations knows that cold sandwiches, sweet cakes, battered and fried fish, as well as dark pudding and Marmite make up the entirety of British life.

Not only that, but all the vegetables were cooked to soft mash, and the mashed potatoes with tons of cream went with everything.

The British are indeed not particular about "eating".

After all, sugar and bread were once daily necessities that had no choice under industrialization.

Industrialization and international trade were the two pillars that supported the British Empire.

With the advent of British maritime hegemony in the 17th century and the birth of the spinning machine and steam engine in the 18th century, Britain established a global trade network and became the so-called "empire on which the sun never sets."

One of the steps was to obtain black slaves from Africa and sell them to Caribbean plantations to produce cane sugar. The cane sugar was shipped back to the UK for British consumption, and then the industrial products produced in the UK were sold around the world.

The development of the sugar industry brought about by the development of industry has also made white sugar a popular standard consumer product in society.

The price of sugar has therefore been greatly reduced, and consumption has increased significantly.

At the beginning of the 17th century, the average annual sugar consumption per capita in England was only about one pound, but by the end of the 18th century, it had increased to 7 kilograms.

With the development of industry and the increase of people's income, ordinary families began to be able to consume sugar. Sugar got rid of its status as a luxury product and entered the dining table of the common people.

For example, paired with tea imported from Ceylon and India, black tea with sugar has become a popular food from top to bottom.

But unlike the so-called "afternoon tea" of the British upper class, the working class's habit of consuming tea is more simple and crude - after completing a day's work.

They will use cheap broken tea and add a lot of sugar to make a very sweet tea to dispel fatigue and provide necessary calories. This is also the so-called "high tea".

Until later generations, the dialects in some parts of the UK still called the evening meal "tea".

The food that goes with this kind of tea is relatively simple and crude.

The working class had left their land and could no longer farm it, so all food had to be purchased from the market.

When economic conditions were good, they could eat raisins from southern Europe, spices from India, beef from Irish farms, and drink beer.

However, when the economic cycle goes down, prices rise and incomes fall, the working class is more unlucky.

In the late 18th century, fuel prices rose in Britain. Workers in the cities had no land of their own, no way to get fuel to cook a proper meal, and even milk to drink.

At this time, industrially produced sugar and syrup became the only salvation - at least the sweetness was still pleasant.

Bread can only be obtained from mass-produced bakeries. With cheap wheat from Ireland and North America, it is not a problem to feed a family of several people, but the taste does have to be sacrificed.

When you can't afford milk, drizzling a little syrup on top of your porridge might make it tastier.

The layer of syrup applied to the bread is also a good butter substitute...

A pot of sweet tea, a slice of bread and syrup, at least gives the impression that this is still a hot meal.

Tea suppressed appetite, and sugar and syrup replaced fresh meat, milk, butter, cheese, and vegetables.

Just like in later generations of China, busy people did not care about what to eat. Takeaways heavy in oil, salt and taste have become the mainstay of the diet, and they are also subtly changing people's taste.

A monotonous and "make do" diet has become the daily routine of the working class.

In fact, the British are really not very good at cooking at home. In crowded urban slums, there may not even be a decent kitchen;

Most of the "British cuisine" that is popular now is not "traditional food". Many of them are thanks to modern trade and solve the urgent need to fill the stomach.

For example, a pie with a layer of pastry on the outside and meat filling on the inside (yes, in the UK, "pie" is salty), was originally a hand-held food sold on the street;

The so-called "national dish" of fish and chips is also sold in bars or food stalls wrapped in newspapers to drink.

Fresh cod, breaded in flour and fried, did not become popular until the invention of cold chain transportation technology in the 19th century.

The people it serves are also workers who need a snack after a tiring day. Filling their stomachs in a simple and crude way is the first priority, and the pursuit of taste is secondary.

But haven’t France, Italy and other European countries also experienced industrialization? Why is there so much food?

In fact, the industrialization of France and Italy was far less rapid and thorough than that of Britain.

Until the 19th century, a considerable degree of small-scale peasant economy was still preserved.

When the commercial society came, the country and society were able to allow the small-scale peasant economy to participate in commodity exchange in a suitable way, instead of everyone giving up their land to become textile workers like the British (after all, the British were miserable and there was nothing good to farm...) .

One of the important measures is "origin protection," which means that the state uses corresponding systems to certify local agricultural products, so that farmers can retain their proud traditions and make a profit after selling them.

For example, France’s AOC.

In fact, various products in France, such as cheese, foie gras, etc., have such origin protection, so that the "ancestral taste" of a village can be certified and preserved.

Italy's famous Parmesan cheese is named after its place of origin.

Although the UK also has certification of origin similar to Somerset cider, it is far less popular than Italy and France. There are far fewer people and capital investment in agricultural production, and the "food" from the civilian class is not as popular. There is no way to mention it.

(End of this chapter)