Reborn as King of South America

Chapter 191 Immigration Status
The detailed negotiation of the transaction details lasted for three days. On August 25, representatives of Brazil, the United States and France jointly announced that they had reached a warship transaction plan. The Brazilian Empire would purchase an ironclad ship from France and the United States respectively. At the same time, France and the United States would each provide a sum of money to support Brazil's economic reconstruction.

In their public declaration, the representatives of the three countries did not disclose the size of the loans provided by the United States and France. However, after much inquiry by the British Minister Edmund, they roughly figured out the content of the three-party transaction: a transaction of two ironclad ships over 6000 tons, a low-interest loan with a total amount of approximately three million pounds, and a package of commercial transaction plans. It has to be said that the American and French ministers had done a big business right under the noses of the British.

When the tripartite cooperation had already been reached, Edmund wrote in a frustrated telegram to London: Britain did not seize the favorable opportunity in the Brazilian warship transaction, resulting in the commercial contract that originally belonged to British businessmen falling into the hands of Britain and France. After this transaction, Britain's business expansion in Brazil temporarily lags behind that of the United States and France. The London government should carefully discuss the opinions put forward by the embassy in Brazil and grant the embassy more autonomy in commercial transactions to prevent similar incidents from happening.

Edmund's telegram to the London government has not received a reply. On the Brazilian side, Pedro II handed over part of the commercial transactions to emerging domestic businessmen, who were responsible for taking over the cooperation with the United States and France.

On the other hand, Pedro II diverted a quarter of the funds from the first loan to strengthen military forces in areas prone to rebellion.

With both economic and military measures in place, Republican businessmen who had obtained some contracts chose to cooperate with Pedro II's actions driven by practical interests. After the Brazilian army continued to rush to local areas for alert, rebels and rioters in various places also stopped their actions and temporarily ceased their activities.

The funding shortage was effectively alleviated, and Pedro II enjoyed a rare period of peaceful life in the Royal Palace in Rio de Janeiro. In Rio Grande do Sul, after a year of recovery, all the newly migrated Chinese immigrants settled down.

Outside the new capital, all the tents and collective wooden houses built to accommodate Cuban immigrants have been cleared out, and the Cuban Chinese immigrants who originally lived in them have built their own Chinese-style houses.

In principle, Chinese workers who migrated from Brazil had to complete a year of labor before they could be allocated land. However, with the intervention of Li Mingyuan, some changes were made to the treatment of Chinese workers. The new regulations for the management of Chinese immigrants stipulated that after the first month of labor, as long as the Chinese workers did not engage in passive resistance and completed the assigned work tasks satisfactorily, they could select a piece of land of 30 acres in advance. After a year of labor was completed, different areas of land would be added based on the specific performance of the Chinese workers.

Thirty acres of land was the minimum standard for granting land. If a Chinese worker was allocated thirty acres of land and performed mediocrely during a year of work and did not receive additional land rewards, he would have to rely on the thirty acres of land as capital to marry, have children, and start a family.

Thirty mu of land for a family is enough for ordinary people to live a comfortable life in mainland China, but the situation is very different in Rio Grande do Sul. There are many people and little land in Rio Grande do Sul, and the ratio of men to women is seriously unbalanced. In the period when land represented the main wealth and status, most of the few women of marriageable age would be assigned to meritorious soldiers, and the few remaining women would choose Chinese with more land as their marriage partners. Those Chinese who only guarded thirty mu of land found it difficult to compete with others and get the opportunity to start a family.

The joy of gaining freedom and being allocated 30 acres of land was soon replaced by competition under the guidance of the retired soldiers who were responsible for managing the labor of the Chinese workers.

Inheriting land and starting a family are traditional requirements of Chinese culture. The Chinese workers, who had just begun to hope for a better life, naturally did not want to be left behind by others and end up being single for life without offspring. Therefore, after the first batch of 30 acres of land was distributed, the work efficiency of the diligent Chinese workers increased a lot. Eight months later, on August 25, most of the first batch of Cuban Chinese workers who arrived had exceeded their workload by one-third, and 123 Chinese workers completed their one-year labor tasks ahead of schedule.

It takes a lot of labor intensity to complete a year's work in a little more than eight months. After Li Mingyuan learned about the situation from the officials who managed the Chinese workers' labor, he gained a new understanding of the diligence of the Chinese workers and gained more confidence in the development of Rio Grande do Sul.

The Chinese workers who settled in Rio Grande do Sul were all from lower-class peasant families. They might not have as much knowledge as the educated people, but Li Mingyuan admired and needed the hard-working and obedient qualities of the Chinese workers.

At the beginning of the Chinese workers' uprising in South America, more than 100,000 people, regardless of age or strength, were incorporated into the army to fight, and the ratio of soldiers to civilians reached 100%. Even half a year after the founding of Rio Grande do Sul, the number of Chinese and naturalized women in Rio Grande do Sul reached 300,000 by absorbing Chinese workers from the western United States to build railways. The National Defense Force still maintained a regular field army of 38,000 people and a garrison of 20,000 people. Not counting the half-soldier and half-civilian militia, the ratio of soldiers to civilians in Rio Grande do Sul reached nearly five to one.

In the mainland, due to the interference of local gentry forces, Li Mingyuan could not find 50,000 soldiers from 30 people. However, it was different in Rio Grande do Sul. There were no complicated local power relations. The Chinese workers who came to different regions had simple identities and high obedience. Li Mingyuan could command all the Chinese under his rule according to the plan and develop the industrial development plan set in Rio Grande do Sul, which was like a blank sheet of paper. The centralization of power in the early stage of the establishment of power was conducive to concentrating forces to deal with external enemies. At the same time, in order to maintain the stability and competitiveness of the Chinese, Li Mingyuan planned to take advantage of the development of Rio Grande do Sul for more than half a year to publicly commend the Chinese workers who performed outstandingly in labor.

The scope of Chinese workers who were honored was not limited to Chinese workers in Cuba, but also included Chinese workers who were introduced from the United States, Canada and other American regions after the completion of Cuban immigration.

Chinese workers from the mainland went to the United States mainly to work on railway construction. In March 1869, when the American Pacific Railway was about to be completed, Li Mingyuan ordered Wang Youtian, who was stationed in the Caribbean, to go to the United States to guide Chinese workers in the United States to immigrate to Rio Grande do Sul.

After receiving the order, Wang Youtian handed over the affairs of Torti Island to his deputy, and then boarded two armed merchant ships to travel to the United States in advance.

On May 5, three days before the completion of the Pacific Railway, Wang Youtian reached an agreement with the Americans. The agreement stipulated that Rio Grande do Sul would pay the Pacific Construction Company immigration fees at the price of US$3 per person, and Rio Grande do Sul would not pursue the issue of unpaid wages from the Pacific Construction Company. …

The agreement contained only a few articles. The biggest dispute between the two parties was over the issue of unpaid wages by the Pacific Company. When the construction of the railway was about to be completed, the Americans reduced and withheld the wages of Chinese workers in various ways. After visiting the Chinese workers on the railway, Wang Youtian argued for their legitimate interests, but the Americans refused to give in. Finally, Li Mingyuan sent a telegram personally, deciding to give up pursuing the unpaid wages of the Chinese workers and to reach an agreement to introduce Chinese workers as soon as possible.

Faced with a disadvantageous situation, Wang Youtian had no choice but to compromise. After announcing that he would give up pursuing the unpaid wages of the Chinese workers, the Americans also lowered their requirements for immigration fees, charging only US$30 for each Chinese worker willing to immigrate to Rio Grande do Sul.

After the agreement to introduce Chinese workers to the United States was signed, one hundred ships belonging to ocean shipping companies immediately set off for the United States. After more than three months of transportation, a total of 2 Chinese workers arrived in Rio Grande do Sul.

There were about 1869 Chinese in the United States, and most of them were single, except for a few who had settled down and started families there. In , the United States had already begun to discriminate against Chinese people, and the situation of the Chinese who stayed in the United States was not easy. However, due to their unfamiliarity with Rio Grande do Sul, most people chose to wait and see, hoping to get accurate information from the Chinese workers who went to Rio Grande do Sul before making a decision.

Few Chinese workers who came to the United States to make a living chose to return to the mainland, because although Chinese people were discriminated against in the United States, they received more than three times the salary of mainland China for the same work. The 30 US dollars paid by Rio Grande do Sul to the Americans was the monthly salary of an average Chinese worker. The Chinese worked hard to earn a small amount of 30 US dollars a month, but not only did they have to suffer deductions from the Americans, but also suffered from their contempt and discrimination. In the original history, they could only choose to tolerate it, but now the existence of Rio Grande do Sul has given Chinese people in the United States a new choice. When they really can't survive, they still have a way to survive.

The labor intensity of railway workers is greater than that of Cuban Chinese workers engaged in agricultural production. Therefore, in the list of 300 outstanding Chinese workers compiled and screened by Liu Pu, 62 were American Chinese workers, 200 were Cuban Chinese workers, and the remaining 30-odd were Chinese workers from Canada, the Caribbean and other places.

The Chinese workers from the United States arrived in Rio Grande do Sul relatively late, and it was a great thing that 62 of them were selected for their outstanding performance in the labor.

After reviewing the list of 300 people, Li Mingyuan signed his name on the order to distribute land rewards. As a result, the 300 Chinese workers will end their one-year labor ahead of schedule and will also receive a reward of 100 acres of land each.

After the list of rewards was announced and the 100 acres of land was distributed to those outstanding Chinese workers, the other Chinese workers looked at them with envy and jealousy. At the same time, many people secretly encouraged themselves:
After I complete the labor task, I will join the army and make meritorious contributions. By then, I will earn no less land than you!
(End of this chapter)