Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 495 Economic Survey ([-])

After years of development, Zhenhai Port has become more and more prosperous. The current commercial area has already broken through the city wall to live in a small area and began to expand to the outside.Today, around the city wall, a large area of ​​commercial buildings has sprung up like mushrooms, providing various services for this city with a population of more than [-].

Ventura walked to a fruit stand with ease, picked up a well-preserved coconut, weighed it, then dropped a 2-cent copper coin, turned around and left.

"Old Wen, I don't have enough money. Now that the market has changed, the price has increased! It costs 3 cents each!" A young man sitting in front of a fruit stand called out to him.

Ventura spat, begrudgingly took out another penny, and resumed his routine groaning: "Marketization of shit, everything that's marketed has gone up in price dramatically, and It’s not as good as before. Everything has been raised, but the wages have not been raised, and these days are becoming more and more unbearable.”

"You can't survive if you earn more than ten yuan a month. What should I do if I only earn four or five yuan a month?" The young man also complained. It can be seen that he is familiar with Captain Ventura. Therefore, the words are more casual: "I can't live anymore. Now the inland areas are given priority to the daughter-in-law. Compared with them, the people in our so-called coastal cities are shit. Don't complain, I can only do this. Until the end of this month. The county is recruiting supplementary soldiers of the Far Eastern Army. I am going to sign up, and then I will go to Jinshan Port, Australia for training. The monthly income is 8 yuan, and the various allowances during the war are doubled. It is much better than selling fruit .”

Ventura sighed and said nothing more.Although Zhenhai Port is a thriving emerging industrial city, in the final analysis, not everyone's life is very satisfactory, and many people's income is just enough for food and clothing.Especially for the ordinary shipbuilders who account for a huge number in this city, their income is only hovering between 4-6 yuan, and 70% of their monthly income is spent on daily necessities.After deducting some taxes paid, occasional luxuries and unexpected expenses, there is not much money left throughout the year.

Although this kind of life is much better than in Daming or the Old Continent, let’s not talk about it in Daming, there is no food there; let’s just talk about the Old Continent, Captain Ventura used to only eat some black bread every day Day, sometimes when I was unemployed and had no job, I could only go to the church or workhouse to see if I could get some food and drink, and I was very depressed.Now that they are on the east coast, life in the old continent is like heaven and earth. Here at least they can have a full meal. When beef was included in the price control, they could often eat some meat. It stands to reason that they should be very satisfied.

However, they are afraid of comparison in everything. After seeing that the quality of life of rural farmers is higher than theirs, their mentality is not balanced.I think it was the stupidest guys who were assigned to farm at the beginning, and those of us who were smart or skilled were left in the factory as workers, but after a few years, we found that the lives of those guys were much better than ours. up.It is unbearable that a fool who was so stupid in his hometown and knew nothing can afford whale leather shoes now!

Compared with such living conditions, it is no wonder that they want to go overseas to fight, after all, the income is much higher.Ventura knew that the neighbor of this young fruit stand owner had already remitted dozens of yuan to his family, which made the neighbors in the neighborhood envious.Patting him on the shoulder, Captain Ventura turned and left, he still had to eat.

"Captain Ventura!" Unexpectedly, there was another crisp shout in the distance, and Ventura turned his head to look, and couldn't help shivering.It was a Sicilian fellow he knew before, who later served as a soldier. After retiring from the army, it is said that he entered the Syphilis Patient Statistics and Investigation Section—an institution whose name sounds very unlucky.

"Hi, Silvio." Ventura reluctantly greeted, he didn't want to have anything to do with these guys in black leather.If in the future it is known that he has been investigated by people from Mei's agency, how can he survive in society?Others will definitely criticize me, even if I really haven't had syphilis.

"Nice to meet you here, how are you doing recently?" Silvio didn't seem to notice Ventura's ugly face, walked over to him and hugged him, then put his shoulders and said, "Long time no see Here you are, you are always busy. Ha, I am so lucky today, I just need your help with something, come on, come with me to the office in the city. It’s not far, it’s right in front.”

"I..." Captain Ventura was about to say something, but Silvio grabbed him and walked towards the city.He had no choice but to bite the bullet and follow.He knew in his heart that the Mei Agency might not be as simple as it appeared on the surface. Besides investigating syphilis patients, they should have many other things to do.Ventura vaguely remembered that there used to be a Portuguese priest in West Lake Fort who disappeared for no reason after being "invited" by the Mei agency to assist in the investigation. It was rumored in the village that he went to Australia for "labour therapy".

The office of May Agency will arrive soon.Although it was winter, Captain Ventura still felt a little sweat oozing from his back. It was because he felt that some passing residents on the street were looking at him with strange eyes.

"Xiao Li, have two cups of yerba mate." Silvio hung his woolen coat on the hanger, and then told Ventura to sit across from his office.Ventura took a deep breath and sat down opposite Silvio.

"Chief, yerba mate." Xiao Li quickly brought two cups of warm tea and placed them in front of the two of them.

Silvio took out a stack of papers from his drawer, and after a rough glance, he filled out some things on it.After I finished filling it out, I took another look, and then I raised my head and said to Ventura: "I'm sorry to disturb your lunch time. But I really need your help, because the data samples for this survey have not been collected enough. It's so tight, I have no choice but to ask you for help."

Captain Ventura smiled and motioned for him to continue.

Silvio coughed, and then said: "Then it begins, this is a questionnaire, I will ask you a few questions, please be sure to answer truthfully. The first one, the necessities of life in your daily expenses Does it account for more than two-thirds of the consumption? Well, I think you already know the definition of necessities, that is, the part of goods that are included in the price control."

"No, I don't need that much. I'm the captain, and my income is not bad." Captain Ventura replied truthfully.

"Thank you. Second question, have you regularly consumed some meat in your diet for the past three months - fresh or cured? meat prices drop?"

"Yes, I eat beef a lot. It's not cheap, but my kid Mario likes it. I have to complain here. The price of beef has more than doubled in this year. What the hell is going on? What's going on? Is it because the people of La Plata refuse to lower the price? Then we should press their heads to make them submit! As for putting in a lot of whale meat, I think it is very necessary! Although the citizens do not have the habit of eating whale meat Well, we don't even know how it tastes, but if it is sold at a low price, then there must be less demand for beef in the market. In this way, the price of beef must come down, although I doubt it Can beef return to the price it was a year ago!"

Silvio looked at the eloquent Captain Ventura in astonishment, wondering why the guy who was so reserved just now became so talkative all of a sudden, this guy is really a typical Italian!

"What do you think of the higher quality of life and faster wealth accumulation of ordinary food farmers compared with ordinary workers? Do you think they should be treated disproportionately to their status?"

"No, I don't think so, Silvio. In fact I quite agree with what is written in Pravda that the laborer is honorable and should enjoy the fruits of his labour. It's not that the peasants are getting unreasonably high wages, But the wages of industrial workers are not high enough. Especially when they create a huge wealth, they do not share in it all. The government exchanged the products they produced from the Ottoman Empire for a large number of female slaves, but these female slaves In the end, when they were given priority to those rural farmers, this made all their complaints justified. Obviously, they have been treated unfairly!"

"You... are such a smart and special guy." Silvio finished recording, then sighed, looked at Captain Ventura with strange eyes, and said, "I think you should come to work in May Agency, you It's such a pity to be a captain."

"This joke is not funny, Silvio." Ventura shrugged and said.

"Okay, last question, do you think there should be a price subsidy for necessities for workers earning less than $4 a month?"

"It's very necessary, Silvio." Captain Ventura said after thinking for a while, "In fact, I know that many workers in those small private factories and workshops don't work all the time. .If he doesn't catch up with the good times, I mean when the new settlements in the interior are subdivided, then he will often be out of work for some days of the month. You know, their wages are calculated on a daily basis, Many private employers even like to hire some Guarani and Italians with temporary IDs because their wages are low. These make their wages remain low for a long time, and they often lose their jobs intermittently. For These people, I think the government should introduce some laws to protect them, the current laws are too weak, the bosses can fire them at any time without taking any responsibility, which makes their life very insecure.”

(End of this chapter)