Chapter 170 Chapter 168 Shopping
Another beautiful day.
The Fisher family begins preparing for Christmas.
Dar es Salaam is different from inland cities. It is an open port with ships from various countries passing through, so it is easy to get many products.
This also led to the use of currency here, and European and Arab merchants would set up stalls in the open areas of Dar es Salaam to promote their products.
"Honey, you're back." Anna asked sweetly. Since coming to East Africa, the Fisher family has lived a life with a stable income regardless of drought or flood, and no longer has to live in poverty as before.
The Fisher family's mental state also became optimistic and positive, and they got rid of the melancholy expressions they once had about life.
"Yes, I just went to the Trade Street and took a look. This is what I bought. Come and take a look." Fisher handed a basket to Anna.
Anna took the basket and saw an oil paper bag, a bag and a can inside, and there was something else underneath, but she didn't know what it was.
"What is this?" Anna asked, taking out the oil paper bag first.
"Open it and take a look," Fisher said.
Anna unwrapped the oil paper package along the fold and found a string of sausage-like things.
"Are there still sausages for sale in East Africa?" Anna was a little surprised.
"I didn't expect someone would sell this thing on Trade Street. It's really rare and the price is not too expensive, so I bought it. The clerk said it was Vienna sausage imported from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and the taste is not much different from ours," said Fisher.
"I haven't seen German food for a long time, and even in Germany we can seldom afford to eat it." Anna said in surprise.
Although the Fisher family had no worries about food and drink in East Africa, they also had their own worries. In the eastern region, the main crop grown was rice.
Every month Fisher received a salary and food rations for his family from the East African colony.
The ration distributed in the eastern region is rice. After all, wheat is mainly grown inland, and flour, as an important export product, is mainly supplied to Europe.
Rice is different. There is no market for it in Europe, and the Far East and India, both of which are rice producing areas, cannot be sold at a high price.
If it can't be sold, then just give it to the immigrants to eat. As part of Fisher's salary, Fisher has no choice.
So the Fisher family was forced to eat rice. With Fisher's financial resources, he could actually buy flour, but rice was provided free of charge by East Africa, while flour had to be bought with cash.
People in this era have the awareness of saving money and food to deal with risks. After all, they never know when they will not have enough food to eat.
However, the Fisher family couldn't stand eating rice all the time, so Fisher took out some money to buy some flour and kept it at home, using it occasionally to improve the meals.
"Dear, we no longer have to live the same way as we did in Germany. Things will get better and better in the future," Fischer said to his wife.
"Yeah!" Anna snuggled in Fisher's arms.
"You haven't seen what's below yet!" Fisher reminded.
Anna took out the jar and looked through the glass to see white particles inside.
"This is table salt. Don't you have some at home?"
"No, I bought this from the Hechingen store. Take a guess at what it is."
Anna shook her head. She couldn't think of anything other than salt.
"This is white sugar, imported from the Far East." Fisher revealed the answer.
Sugar is not very cheap in Europe and is basically dependent on imports. Ordinary people cannot afford it. The German region has begun to grow sugar beets for making sugar, but the scale is currently small and the output is very limited.
Currently, Europe imports sugarcane mainly from the Caribbean and other regions. East Africa can also grow sugarcane, but there are too many things that can be grown in East Africa, so it is only planted in a small area in the Great Lakes region.
The sugar that Fisher purchased was indeed imported from the Far East and shipped to East Africa on immigrant ships. This was just a side job. In fact, the bulk of it was shipped to Europe.
"This shouldn't be cheap!" Anna said worriedly.
"The price is indeed a bit high, but we have the conditions now, and Christmas is coming soon, so we have to add some nutrition to the children's food," Fisher explained.
In East Africa, Fisher's job was high-paying, and only officials and employees of the Hechingen Consortium could outpay Fisher in terms of salary.
In fact, ordinary people in East Africa generally live a pretty good life. At least they have enough food to eat, which is pretty good.
East Africa lacks everything except food, but the vast arable land and natural resources relative to the sparse population in East Africa mean that living conditions are destined to be not too bad.
Of course, maintaining a basic standard of living and occasionally being able to get some meat is the standard that immigrants can achieve.
The difference between Fisher and ordinary immigrants is that he has the skills needed in the East African colonies, so Fisher's salary is far higher than that of ordinary immigrants.
The extra wages meant that the Fisher family had more choices than ordinary immigrants, such as going to Trade Street to buy the goods they needed.
Dar es Salaam Trade Street is actually the commercial district closest to the dock, specially prepared for merchants and sailors.
In East Africa, only a few thousand people can afford to go to the Trade Street for consumption. You should know that the population of the entire East Africa is now almost two million, which shows the consumption level of the Trade Street.
As an important port in East Africa, Dar es Salaam has many offices of the Hechingen Consortium and East African colonial government agencies.
The talents in these institutions and agencies are the local consumers in Dar es Salaam who can afford to consume in the Dar es Salaam trade market.
Fisher is a real employee of the Hexingen Group. He was recruited to East Africa and was a talent actively introduced by East Africa, rather than an ordinary immigrant who was an employee in name only.
Although ordinary immigrants were also registered under the name of the Hechingen Consortium, anyone with a discerning eye knew that they were more like subjects of the Hechingen royal family, especially the German and Slavic immigrants. After arriving in East Africa, they did not feel any difference from Europe.
There is even no difference between their lives and the lives of serfs back then. As long as East Africa does not go too far, whether they are serfs or farmers is just a matter of status, and it is not a big deal. At least these immigrants do not think it matters given their cultural level.
The Far East immigrants did not have the same feeling as the European immigrants. After all, there were no aristocrats like in Europe in the Far East. These Far East immigrants mainly dealt with the landlords in the village, and it was obvious that the landlords in the Far East did not have as prominent political status in society as the European aristocrats.
After all, Europe pays more attention to the division of people's status, especially among nobles, and there is a clear distinction between nobles and commoners. It is difficult for commoners to become nobles, at least there is no obvious channel.
In the Far East, in theory, ordinary people could improve their social status through hard work. For example, farmers had the opportunity to become landlords, and ordinary people could become "scholars" through imperial examinations, but the difficulty was a little higher.
(End of this chapter)
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