Chapter 608 New Success Islands (Fourth update, please subscribe)
Everything was beyond people's expectations. No one would have thought that a news report would lead the emperor to the home of a disabled worker, and no one would have thought that the court would subsequently promulgate the "Disease Insurance Law", "Workers' Compensation Law" and "Disability and Pension Insurance Law". Although the bills promulgated were only drafts, it is certain that when these bills were promulgated, the whole world was changed.
1872 was a year of change for the Ming Dynasty. This year seemed to be the dividing line between the past and the present.
Once these systems were introduced, they were warmly welcomed by the people of the Ming Dynasty. After some "friendly" negotiations, the result of these bills was: the capitalists paid the majority, the workers paid the minority, the government provided subsidies and enforced them.
In fact, there is no such thing as mandatory or not. It doesn’t matter if those companies are unwilling to implement it. Anyway, all the companies under Emperor Zhu’s private enterprise, America Company, will cooperate in the implementation of these laws and purchase various insurances for their employees.
In other words, this one company alone covers more than 80% of factory and enterprise employees and workers.
At the same time, Empire Agriculture also purchased pension, medical and work injury insurance for all farm employees.
In this way, if other companies do not purchase insurance for their employees, they will definitely not be able to recruit workers.
Just like after Ford in the United States offered a “5 dollar wage”, other companies were forced to follow suit in order to survive. Whether they were willing or not, they had no choice but to follow suit.
From 1873 to 1883, the number of insured people in the Ming Empire increased from 3 million to 25.5 million, covering almost all adult workers.
The survival and retirement of workers, as well as the damage to health, inequality and oppression suffered in the working environment were all positively addressed under this system. Even those ethnic minorities - Europeans and European-Indians were willing to live under the rule of the Ming Dynasty. Social security was stable and industry developed steadily and rapidly.
It was also from this day that the Ming Dynasty became a country that was completely different from other countries, and would leave other countries far behind in the future.
However, if we want to leave other countries far behind, we still need people. After all, both industrial production and market consumption require people.
No one is all talk.
For the Ming Dynasty, nothing was more important than introducing immigrants. After all, the population of the Ming Dynasty was only tens of millions.
Moreover, for the Ming Dynasty, introducing immigrants has one biggest advantage - cheap labor!
Not only are those new immigrants paid low wages, but there is no need to purchase various insurances for them within six months. They are simply the best cheap labor force.
Fortunately, there are hundreds of millions of hungry people in China, and various parties with different intentions are doing everything they can to send a steady stream of immigrants to trains and ships for various purposes, and then arrive in this new continent.
Before Christmas in 1872, the immigrant ship "Kangping" sailed from China and slowly entered the new Xiamen Port in the Chenggong Islands in northern New Guinea.
New Xiamen is the capital of the Chenggong Islands. It is not Rabaul, which is well known to the world in another world, but Kokopo. Before 1910, it was the capital of German New Guinea and later moved to Rabaul.
The reason for choosing this place as the capital is entirely because of standing on the shoulders of historical giants. After all, in history, Rabaul was destroyed twice by volcanic eruptions.
As the saying goes, destiny cannot be defied. In this case, there is no need to bite the bullet and build the capital in Rabal again.
After nearly ten years of development, the new Xiamen has now become the largest city in the entire Central Pacific region.
Although the population is only about 50,000 to 60,000, it is definitely the largest city in the Central Pacific region in this era.
Dozens of magnificent modern Ming-style buildings and Western-style buildings stand in the harbor. These buildings are the offices of commercial banks here. The most magnificent one is the building of the HSBC Chenggong Branch. In addition to these buildings, most of the city is oriental wood and bamboo buildings. Thanks to the rich wood resources on the island, most of the houses in the new Xiamen are wooden houses. Those wooden houses that borrow the structure of Western modern buildings are full of oriental charm.
All of this was new to the eyes of the immigrants on the ship. Although the "Kangping" sailed from Yangzhou, compared to the crowded, dirty and messy place there... one could see at a glance that this place was not only clean and tidy, but also visibly prosperous!
"Brother Li, let's stop here!"
Looking at the city on the shore, especially seeing that the people on the dock all had rosy faces, Zhao Si shouted to the sailors on the ship with anticipation. After sailing on the ship for so many days, he recognized this fellow villager. Like him, they were from Fengyang, the hometown of Emperor Zhu of the Ming Dynasty.
According to him, if they were in the Ming Dynasty, they would be dignified Zhongdu people.
"It's only been a few days. Our ship is heading to Linhai. You may think this place is good, but this is just an overseas territory of our Ming Dynasty. When you get to Linhai, you will know that Ming Dynasty... is much better than this place!"
How good is the Ming Dynasty!
The immigrants on the ship looked at the city on the shore, their eyes full of confusion and expectation. If this place looked so wealthy, then the Ming Dynasty must be even wealthier.
In fact, for those people who migrated from China, no matter where they went, as long as they could not go hungry and had enough food to eat, it was enough.
For the vast majority of ordinary people, their requirements are never high, but this is just the requirements of ordinary people.
When the ship was approaching the port, Li Laile, driving a horse-drawn carriage, came to the dock again. As a plantation owner, the reason he rushed to the dock was, to put it bluntly, because he wanted to get people.
"Mr. Li, you are here again."
"How can you not come, Chief Xu? How many people on this ship were sent to us today?"
Li Laile said a little excitedly.
"I have registered for two months. My oil palm plantation is one of the most important in our Chenggong Islands. If someone comes, and you don't consider us first..."
The pillar industry of the tropical New Chenggong Islands is the oil rice dumpling cultivation industry. For the Ming Dynasty, palm oil is not only an edible oil, but also an industrial raw material for producing products such as soap.
Moreover, palm oil-based blended oil was the most important export product of the Ming Dynasty. Millions of dollars of palm oil were exported from the Ming Dynasty to European countries every year. The demand for cheap oil from the poor in European countries far exceeded the expectations of Emperor Zhu.
The market demand is constantly increasing, so now the oil-dumpling plantation owners will continue to expand their plantations. But expanding plantations always requires labor.
"Look at what you said. If someone comes, they will definitely be assigned to you, but..."
Section Chief Xu, who was holding a single volume, simply spread out the book and spoke.
"Look, there is nothing here! Don't say you don't have any, we don't have a single immigrant in Chenggong Islands!"
"how so?"
Li Laile shouted loudly,
"It's been half a year, and there's not even one person left on Chenggong Island. Does the imperial court want to stop giving us people?"
"It's not that we don't want to give it to you, but we have no other choice right now. I heard someone say that we have a place called the North Sea in North America. Yes, we are not getting along well with the United States, so in the next two years, immigrants will have to give priority to that place. If we succeed here..."
Section Chief Xu sighed helplessly.
"Of course there's no one left!"
"What? How could this be? Didn't the Governor General tell the Emperor? Our Chenggong Island also belongs to the Ming Dynasty. How could he not give us people?"
"What can we do?"
Section Chief Xu said as he stared at the immigration ship entering the port.
"There's nothing we can do about it. The court has to consider the whole situation. Don't say you're the one who's anxious. Everyone in our plantation is anxious. Without people, how can we expand the plantation? I heard that someone has sent people to the rainforest to capture natives..."
"Catch the natives!"
Li Laile opened his eyes wide and said,
"This, this also works..."
"If the people don't report it, the government won't investigate it. If they shut themselves up in the garden, what can the government do? But, I think, Brother Li, if you have any ideas, you might as well think about it in your hometown or somewhere else. Instead of relying on others, it's better to rely on yourself... Besides."
Section Chief Xu said as he looked at Li Laile who was wearing a silk robe.
"Brother Li, you are so wealthy now, don't you want to return home and visit your hometown?"
(End of this chapter)
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