Wind Rises in North America 1625

Chapter 158 Gold Rush
Compared to when the Hokkaido development plan was still on paper, Fort Jinchuan (now New Westminster, Vancouver), located in the southern part of the Buller Peninsula and on the north bank of the Fraser River, ushered in a wave of development.

As early as April this year, when the spring was warm, the decision-making committee dispatched two transport ships, "Shun Yun-1" and "Shun Yun-2". While heading to Fenzhou Fort to transport coal, they also sent more than immigrants and Indians to the location of Jinchuan Fort to start establishing this gold mining logistics base.

After more than a month of hard construction, dozens of wooden houses were completed one after another. A simple wooden fence roughly surrounded the fortress in the middle. It was fully equipped with facilities such as sedimentation tanks, sewers, toilets, public canteens, public bathrooms, watchtowers, warehouses, etc.

The immigrants even found time to open up more than 40 acres of farmland and plant various vegetables, potatoes, corn, soybeans and other crops.

Of course, we don’t require much harvest from these raw lands, but we just hope to improve the soil slightly and lay the foundation for large-scale planting next year.

When Jinchuan Fort began to take shape, Zhao Zhanpeng, who was in charge of the work there, took more than 40 people, carried a large amount of supplies and gold panning tools, and took two flat-bottomed boats to explore the upper reaches of the Jinsha River (now the Fraser River) in search of possible gold veins.

After more than ten days of searching, they finally found traces of gold when they arrived at the middle section of the Jinsha River, which later became the location of the city of Chilliwack.

At the bottom of the river, if you cast aside the covering gravel and rubble, you can find scattered gold, some as small as rice grains and some as big as stone eggs. If you wipe off the mud and sand on them, they will emit an attractive golden color.

Zhao Zhanpeng immediately ordered the exploration team to set up a temporary camp here, and then distributed digging and collecting tools to the temporary miners to start the vigorous gold panning work.

In less than a month, more than 37.3 workers used simple tools such as shovels, pickaxes, and sieves to dig out more than kilograms of gold ore, which was equivalent to more than taels (based on the Ming system, one pound was taels, and one tael was grams).

If converted into silver, it would be about 1 taels (in the early Ming Dynasty, the exchange rate of gold to silver was about 4:1. During the Tianqi and Chongzhen periods, with the influx of a large amount of silver, the exchange rate expanded to about 12:).

Calculated this way, gold production does not seem to be high.

At this rate of gold mining, even if the Portuguese dispatched two or more merchant ships to help transport immigrants from September to October, they might not be able to raise enough money for the transportation.

However, these temporary miners had almost no gold panning experience before they came, and many clumsy Indians were unable to accurately identify gold and stones of similar colors, making the entire gold panning work extremely inefficient.

As the gold mining process progressed, the miners gradually mastered some mining experience, and gold production began to slowly increase.

By the second month, nearly 50 kilograms of gold ore were produced, and the efficiency had doubled.

When the "Shunyun-1" transport ship arrived to deliver supplies in late July, Jinchuan Fort had accumulated more than kilograms of gold ore, enough to extract gold worth about taels of silver.

Encouraged by this, the decision-making committee sent more than 40 miners to Jinchuan Fort in early August, half of them were Ming people and half were Indians.

This move is self-evident, and it is hoped that the gold mining team will produce more gold after obtaining new manpower replenishment.

Because, in less than two months, the immigrant fleet will arrive, and by then, not only will they have to pay a large sum of gold and silver to pay the Portuguese for the shipping costs, but they may also have to spend money to buy the various Ming Dynasty goods they carry.

In addition, the decision-making committee prepared to issue its own currency to replace the ugly and irregular Spanish silver peso after the first batch of immigrants' service terms expired.

This requires the decision-making committee to control sufficient gold and silver reserves to cope with the financial order under the new situation.

To be honest, there is not a single professional financial talent among the entire group of time travelers. They have no idea how to issue currency, how to regulate financial policies, and how to maintain normal financial stability. They can only rely on the fragmentary information they have come into contact with and learned from media such as television, the Internet, and magazines, and grope for implementation.

Fortunately, the entire Qiming Island has a small population and an extremely simple economic structure. There are not many aspects that need to be controlled for the time being, which allows time travelers to absorb and learn relevant financial experience through continuous trial and error.

To put it another way, even if they do not understand the specific knowledge of the modern financial system, they still have a more forward-looking vision and advanced knowledge than the "natives" of this period, and know how to guide the economy of a country or a region onto the right track.

They don't need to cross the river by feeling the stones, they just need to move forward courageously along the correct and bright road ahead.

Even if there are occasional stumbles, it will not affect the overall situation.

As for how to act specifically here, it is a matter of personal control.

The gold mining site at Jinshatan (now Chilliwack) is located in the middle section of the lower reaches of the Jinsha River, surrounded by mountains and lush forests on both sides. The original tent camp has become a simple wooden village.

On the morning of August 8, the air was filled with mist, and the sun shone through the gauze onto the rushing river. The golden foam seemed to be telling the secrets buried in the sand.

To the sound of a resounding gong, a group of miners, dressed in linen overalls and buckskin boots, emerged from their camp, carrying shovels, pickaxes, spades, and screens. After walking about 400 meters, the miners removed their boots, rolled up their trouser legs, and stepped into the cool Jinsha River.

This is a mudflat impacted by the river, covered with gravel and gravel, with occasional fish and shrimps playing in it.

Soon, they were either swinging hammers to hit the ore, or bending over to sift sand and gravel in the river. Their sweat and river water soon blended together, sparkling with the light of diligence in the sun.

Sometimes there was the crisp sound of metal colliding, and sometimes there were the excited shouts of miners, which meant that a piece (or a piece) of natural gold had been discovered.

But more often than not, there is silence and concentration, with only the dull sound of tools colliding with stones and the endless rushing of the river.

"Hmm?..." Bian Fusheng reached out to push away a pile of stones on the shovel, and suddenly found that one of the huge stones was orange-yellow in color. He carefully brushed off the mud and sand on it, revealing its full appearance.

"Is this a piece of gold?" Bian Fusheng held it up to his eyes with some uncertainty and looked at it carefully.

Under the sunlight, it emits a heart-pounding golden color, and the many particles attached to it seem to be shining with golden light.

So far, only two pieces of this fist-sized gold ore have been discovered. After being sent to Jinchuan Fort and undergoing simple testing, both were confirmed to be pure gold ores.

The discoverers were also rewarded by the mine managers. In addition to enjoying delicious food and receiving several sets of new clothes, their names were also recorded in the book. After their service period expired, they would receive a certain amount of free production materials, allowing them to quickly achieve "wealth accumulation."

However, there has been a saying since ancient times that "gold fascinates the eyes and wealth moves the heart". In the early days of gold mining, there were miners who could not resist the temptation of gold and secretly hid the gold they dug on their bodies in the hope of making a fortune in the future.

However, these people were either reported or caught by the mine managers, and then they were severely punished by being pinned to the ground and beaten with twenty military sticks.

Subsequently, it was announced that the service period of these people would be extended by three years before they could be granted land and houses.

When the mine was first established, the managers announced to all the miners that anyone who concealed gold during mining would be convicted of major theft. In addition to being subjected to corporal punishment, all labor performance accumulated during previous service would be deducted, and the service period would also be extended.

In other words, those who secretly hoard gold will not only be severely punished, but will also have to serve three years longer than the immigrants who arrived at Qiming Island at the same time. After their labor performance is deducted, they will have to bear a high loan when they are allocated land, agricultural supplies and houses in the future.

Actually, if you think about it, these people are not worth it.

They were originally recruited onto a ship because they could no longer survive in the territory of the Ming Dynasty, and then sailed across the ocean to this wild continent.

The masters in charge also said that as long as their service period is completed, they will receive a piece of land that can be passed down to their descendants, and it is a full 40 acres.

Moreover, except for a small part of virgin land, most of the land allocated to them was cultivated land that they had already cultivated. As long as they took good care of it, they would not only be able to fill their stomachs, but there would also be a large amount of grain left. They would no longer have to worry about a famine that would lead to the tragic end of their families being broken up.

Needless to say, in order to mobilize the enthusiasm of these gold miners and in view of the harsh environment of gold mining, the managers also promised that as long as they worked hard to mine gold, everyone's service period would be reduced by one year as appropriate, and they would obtain the status of "self-employed farmers" in advance.

Now, some people, in order to covet the gold, tried to hide it secretly. Not only did they suffer physical pain, but their service period had to be extended by two years. It was really not worth it.

In fact, even if the gold was hidden and taken away safely, it would be purely a waste of time.

Because the gold and silver on Qiming Island are not circulated at all, you cannot buy any goods even if you hold a large piece of gold.

Maybe you will be reported, your gold will be confiscated, and you may be severely investigated and punished.

Unless you can escape back to Ming Dynasty with the gold.

But, is this possible?

So, if you dig up gold, you should just hand it over to the mine manager.

"Manager Zhang, I found a piece of gold here!" Bian Fusheng held up the gold and shouted to the manager who was patrolling the riverbank, "...What a huge piece of gold!"
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(End of this chapter)