1850 American Gold Tycoon

When California became a state in 1851, the state government submitted its first Five-Year Plan proposal to the state Legislature and it was passed.

It is certainly inappropriate to describe California as poor and empty when it was first established as a state.

In 1851, California's industrial foundation was very poor. The only things related to industry were some mining and handicraft industries that emerged around the gold mining industry.

However, California in 1851 was not poor, and its per capita income was ridiculously high.

To this day, many people in California still miss the days when California gold diggers earned 1 ounce of gold per day.

In 1856, when the gold rush was gradually cooling down, those who could earn an ounce of gold per day were definitely the wealthy class in California.

Of course, what they miss is only the income at that time. No one will miss the prices, living standards and poor public security at that time.

This year is the last year of California’s first five-year plan. Except for a few targets set five years ago that have not been achieved, most targets have been achieved as scheduled.

In Tingtao Garden, Liang Yao looked through the relevant data provided by the Bureau of Statistics for 1855, that is, last year, to provide reference for formulating the second five-year plan for the coming year.

The first is population data. Whether it is an industrial state in the north or an agricultural state in the south, population is the basic base of a state.

Even if a sparsely populated state is very wealthy per capita, its upper limit will not be too high.

As the largest immigrant state in the mid-19th century, California’s data growth in this area is very gratifying.

In 1851, California's registered population was 140,000. In 1853, California's population exceeded 500,000. In 1855, the number was 950,000, which was only a few feet away from breaking through the one million population mark.

It is now April 1856. Perhaps when Liang Yao was looking through these data, California's population had already exceeded one million.

With a population of 950,000, the United States was in the middle of the pack at this time and was definitely not considered a populous state.

Not only has California's population grown dramatically over the past four years. The demographic structure has also been optimized, although California’s demographic structure, especially the gender ratio, is still unbalanced.

But now women in California account for at least 31% of the total population, which has made great progress compared to four years ago.

If California's economic growth momentum can continue, this situation will further improve.

The world is such a big place, as long as your wallet is not flat, you don’t have to worry about finding a wife.

Many early immigrants who had already made a fortune either returned to their hometowns, went to the east, or established families through other means.

Unmarried immigrants are basically new immigrants within the past one or two years.

Compared with other states, California's population at this time is about the same as that of North Carolina.

But in fact, North Carolina definitely has a larger population than California, by a lot.

At this time, the attributes of black people in the South were not human beings, but agricultural tools like cattle and horses. Slaves and even free blacks in slave states were often not counted in the census.

If blacks are also included in the statistics, California's population in 1855 was actually in the lower middle range.

In terms of population figures, the northern Free States were far ahead.

The three most populous states in the United States are New York (3.6 million), Pennsylvania (2.7 million), and Ohio (2.1 million).

These three states are the only three large states in the United States with a population of more than 2 million.

The vertical comparison between the three indicators of steel, coal, and railway mileage that Liang Yao is most concerned about and California in 1851 is very gratifying.

In 1851, California's steel production was 16,000 tons, of which steel production was only 360 tons.

Liang Yao still clearly remembers that he originally wanted to lay rails, but in the end he had to give up due to the poor steel production in California at the time, and had to compromise with reality and use pig iron to lay rails.

In 1855, California's steel production suddenly increased to 115,800 tons, of which steel production was 7,560 tons.

California's coal production also increased from 350,000 tons in 1851 to 2.1 million tons in 1855.

The railway mileage increased from 0 kilometers in 1851 to 2,880 kilometers in 1855.

The goal set by the first five-year plan is that after the end of the first five-year plan, California's steel production needs to exceed 100,000 tons (steel production exceeds 5,000 tons). The coal output exceeds 2 million tons and the railway mileage exceeds 2,000 kilometers.

Of course, this is limited to vertical comparison with yourself.

If we compare it horizontally with the only superpower of this era, looking at the cold data can make people feel despair.

British steel production in 1855 was 3.4 million tons, pig iron production was 4.9 million tons, and coal production was 82 million tons.

The data for the United States during the same period are: steel production 400,000 tons, pig iron production 900,000 tons, and coal production 17 million tons.

As the only country in the world that has completed industrialization at this time, the productivity of the British Empire is not only a dimensionality-reducing blow to agricultural countries, but also a dimensionality-reducing blow to other powers that are undergoing industrialization.

The United Kingdom and the United States are countries of the same size in terms of population. In the 1850s, the British population was in the early 30s, while the United States' population was approaching and overtaking the United Kingdom with its terrifying growth rate (mainly from immigrants).

The above-mentioned goals are all major goals that California has achieved during the first five-year plan and is about to achieve them.

Beyond that, California also has unmet goals.

This goal is food self-sufficiency.

The first five-year plan’s requirement for California’s food self-sufficiency rate is that California’s food self-sufficiency rate reaches 100% after the end of the first five-year plan.

In 1851, California's food self-sufficiency rate was about 60%. In 1855, this figure only increased to about 75%.

To achieve the goal of 100% food self-sufficiency in 1856, unless the Bureau of Statistics makes technical adjustments to the 1856 data, the country will be forced to achieve self-sufficiency.

Otherwise, according to objective laws, this goal cannot be achieved within one year.

The wasteland that was reclaimed before 1853 has now become mature land. The guano dug from Nauru is also available to farmers from all over the country at a low price. The state government also invests in agricultural water conservancy facilities and also provides agricultural machinery. Thanks to farmers’ subsidies, California’s agricultural taxes have also been kept at a very low level.

It stands to reason that with so many policy blessings, the Ministry of Agriculture should not hand over such an ugly answer sheet.

Liang Yao didn't understand, so he sent a report to Chen Baoliang, the Minister of Agriculture, asking him to come to Tingtao Garden. He wanted to question the Minister face to face about the reasons.

"The population is growing too fast, and no matter how fast we farm, we can't stop adding so many more mouths to eat every year." Chen Baoliang said with a grimace.

He had already expected that one day, among the various ministers in California, the Minister of Industry would be the most comfortable, having contributed more than 70% of the state's tax revenue, and he would not have to look at anyone's expressions wherever he went.

In contrast, his life as Minister of Agriculture was not so comfortable.

Chen Baoliang also expected that Liang Yao would talk to him alone. Perhaps after Liang Yao, the new governor would talk to him again.

"But the Immigration Bureau can say that they give you a lot of immigration quotas for the Ministry of Agriculture every year. Are the people in your Ministry of Agriculture just useless? With so many immigration quotas and so many policies, even food self-sufficiency Can't even achieve the basic goals?" Liang Yao looked at the table very displeased and spoke louder.

"This is not the Qing Dynasty! There is no shortage of land!"