1850 American Gold Tycoon

Chapter 603 Oregon in 1860

"The Democratic Party was split as early as last year. The Northern Democratic Party nominated Douglas, and the Southern Democratic Party nominated Breckenridge. Judging from the current situation, although the Republican Party is a new party, it may not be unable to defeat the Democratic Party." I just took the train back from the eastern region. to Fremont, California, to analyze the current shape of the election.

As far as the foundation and strength of the two parties are concerned, there is no doubt that the Democratic Party is the old party and is the stronghold of the eastern, especially the traditional and aristocratic families in the eastern and northern regions. Its strength and basic base are far stronger than that of the Republican Party.

But the problem is that people in the Democratic Party are now divided. Northern and Southern factions have withdrawn from their respective presidential candidates. This has undoubtedly dispersed the strength of the Democratic Party and given the Democratic Party's biggest rival, the Republican Party, an opportunity.

On the Republican side, William Seward and Simon Cameron, the big guys in the Republican Party, did not turn against Lincoln after losing the qualifications for the party's nomination. Instead, they pushed all their supporters to Lincoln's side. .

Combining what he saw in the eastern region, Fremont even believed that a united Republican Party was more likely to win this election.

"Southerners have made harsh words. If the Republicans win the election, the Union will disintegrate. Will Southerners vote for Douglas in order to oppose the Republicans? If Douglas can get the support of the South, the form will be very different. Yes." Pan Zhengwei said.

"The South is not monolithic. Southerners are more willing to vote for Breckenridge than Douglas." Liang Yao analyzed.

"Had Douglas been willing to work hard, he might have won the support of some southern swing states, such as Tennessee and Kentucky. As for the votes of hardcore slave states such as South Carolina and Georgia, unless Douglas used his basic base in the north He wanted to offend everyone and offer very generous compromise terms to the South, otherwise Douglas would not be able to win over these hardcore slave states. "

"What do you mean, your Excellency, the Republican Party will definitely win the election? Is a full-scale military conflict between the North and the South inevitable?" Robinson couldn't help but frowned.

Although Robinson was loyal to the Free States, he did not want a full-scale military conflict to break out between the North and the South.

"I didn't say that, but we have to take precautions and prepare for the worst," Liang Yao said.

“If, I mean if, if the situation in the East has reached an irreversible point, and both sides force us to take a stand and ask us to take sides, how should we express our stance and who should we support?

You know, we have a lot of economic interests in both the south and the north. No matter how we express our stance, it means losing one of the high-quality markets. The western economy will also be affected. "Ge Wen looked at Liang Yao worriedly.

"Support ourselves." Liang Yao's sharp eyes swept across all the white people in the living room, and his tone of voice gradually became heavier.

“I know that all of you are yearning for your hometown in your heart, but I have to remind you that you are all from the west now, and you must speak and act from the standpoint and interests of the west.

If I find any one of you cheating, no matter who it is, don't blame me, Mr. Liang, for turning his back on you. "

Civil war was inevitable, and Liang Yao felt that it was still necessary to inoculate these white people in the west.

After the tea party, Liang Yao invited Oregon Governor Wu Yuanhua and Liangzhou Governor Strauss to his study to talk. He wanted to know about the development of Oregon and Liangzhou.

In addition to California, the other two states in the West Coast region, Oregon and Liangzhou, are also the core areas of the West.

Although compared with California, the giant in the west, the population and economic size of Oregon and Liangzhou pale in comparison.

However, thanks to the industrial welfare of California and the reasonable planning at the beginning of statehood, Oregon and Liangzhou have good development momentum. The population of both states has exceeded 500,000, which is far better than the border states in the east and some states with relatively lagging economic development.

"Tell me about the situation in Oregon and Liangzhou."

After Wu Yuanhua and Strauss entered the study, Liang Yao motioned them to sit down and asked about the situation in Oregon and Liangzhou.

After Wu Yuanhua sat down, he took the tea cup from Zeiss, put the tea cup on the coffee table aside and said: "As of the end of last year, Oregon had a population of 730,000, of which 440,000 were young. In addition to the militiamen who have been incorporated into the 102nd Brigade, In addition, there are currently 4,800 registered reservists and militiamen.

As for the economy and people's livelihood, thanks to the blessings of California, Oregon's industries are currently prosperous and people live and work in peace and contentment. "

After speaking, Wu Yuanhua submitted the report he had prepared and handed it over to Liang Yao, who was also the governor.

Liang Yao carefully read the report submitted by Wu Yuanhua.

Since the Oregon region is rich in forestry resources, the wood processing industry and furniture manufacturing are the pillar industries of Oregon.

More than 70% of the oil barrels used to load oil in Los Angeles and the wine barrels used by wineries on the West Coast come from Oregon. As for the high-quality wood and furniture produced in Oregon, they are not only very popular throughout the western region, but are even exported to the Qing Dynasty, Japan, and Borneo in Southeast Asia.

In addition, Oregon's mining industry is also relatively developed, with thousands of gold, silver, copper, iron, coal and other mines. However, compared with California, the size of mines in Oregon is not very large. Most of them are small and medium-sized mines, and there are relatively few large mines.

Oregon also has the ability to deeply process metal ores, but Oregon's industry is relatively weak compared to California and cannot digest all the ores mined in the state. Most of the copper ore and iron ore is still shipped to San Francisco, where it is digested by copper smelters and steel plants in the San Francisco Industrial Zone.

In terms of agriculture, thanks to Oregon's suitable climate, fertile soil, and abundant water resources, Oregon's agriculture is very developed. Not only did Oregon achieve self-sufficiency in food very early, it was even able to export large amounts of food.

Oregon's major agricultural production areas are mainly concentrated in the valleys and basins in the western and southern regions.

The Willamette Valley is the most important agricultural region in Oregon and is known as the granary of Oregon. It mainly grows wheat, corn, soybeans, oats and other crops, and the livestock industry in the area is also very developed. Salem, Oregon's capital, and Eugene, its third largest city, are located in the Willamette Valley.

Another major agricultural production area in Oregon is the Rogue Valley, located in southwestern Oregon and close to the California border. In addition to growing conventional cereal crops, the Rogue Valley also has a very developed local fruit, especially grape growing industry, and has a complete wine industry chain.

Of course, in addition to this, Oregon also has several smaller agricultural production areas such as the Klamath Basin, which I will not go into details here.

The catch is that much of Oregon is unsuitable for growing rice.

Since most of the Chinese immigrants on the West Coast are southerners, they prefer to eat rice.

However, there are not many large fields suitable for growing rice in the entire West. Only the Central Valley in central California and the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta in the north have warm summers, abundant water, and marshy soil, suitable for growing rice.

Therefore, in the western region, the price of rice is much higher than that of wheat. It has always been the norm in the western region that wheat is cheap and rice is expensive.

In addition to new immigrants with financial constraints who choose cheap wheat as their staple food, families with a little bit of conditions will try their best to buy rice to satisfy their appetites. After all, eating habits are difficult to change.

There are also many merchants engaged in the grain trade who have spotted the business opportunities. They purchase low-priced wheat from the west coast and use steamships to transport it to Japan. In the southern coastal areas of the Qing Dynasty, they exchange wheat with local grain merchants and even official warehouses for rice. They are then shipped back to the West Coast and sold at high prices for profit.

In addition, the fur industry in Oregon is also very developed, especially the local beaver fur industry, which is extremely profitable. An ordinary beaver hat that costs only over 80 cents can easily sell for seven or eight dollars as long as it is shipped to Europe.

Especially in the London metropolitan area, local British gentlemen are even willing to spend more than ten or twenty pounds to buy a high-quality beaver fur hat.