Chapter 82: The Great Depression (1)

At Huang Xuan's feet is a small ditch with black water, mixed with garbage that flows in a lower direction, developing in all directions without restrictions.

Huang Xuan raised his eyes and looked around, and what he saw was like a scene after an earthquake, if it weren't for a few black children playing in the distance, he would have thought he had been born in Tangshan.

"Africa?" Huang Xuan asked Lorraine with some regret.

Detroit East, Michigan, USA. The similarity is 91%. The length of stay is about 10 days. ”

"Slums?" Maybe it's more figurative to use the slums. Huang Xuan wiped off the thick fur hat on his head, and inside was a small round hat, under which the densely woven metal was thinly entwined, and it was intertwined with his hair.

"Yes." Lorraine replied truthfully, "But you should pay attention to the children in front of you, they don't seem to be friendly to you. ”

Naturally, 1931 was during the Great Depression in the United States, and unemployment was as high as 20% or more, and this problem was even more pronounced in Motor City, where a large number of skilled workers lost their jobs, even after Ford introduced the $5 work system, such a scenario would not go away.

The disadvantaged are always the main force in the unemployed army, and the black Detroit people are no exception, although they do not frantically put the yellow race in the enemy camp, but the unfriendly atmosphere can be felt in front of the children in front of them.

In fact, Huang Xuan's every move couldn't get rid of his childishness, and several black children felt that his appearance was deceitful, and slowly walked over.

"I bet his shoes are worth a dollar." The leader refers to the Nike under Huang Xuan's feet, which has only been reinforced by the simplest densely woven alloy, but the leather on the outside is still full of toughness, and it is easy to find that this is a good thing.

"50 cents." Another child guessed. There were 5 of them, and the oldest should be no more than 15 years old, but maybe the black people were growing faster.

Huang Xuan clearly heard their conversation, if it was in China, he might pounce on this guy and punch him, then swell his eyes, and tell him that these shoes are worth 200 US dollars. But being in a foreign land, he was unconsciously a little worried, and he looked around, as if he was afraid of an ambush.

"My suggestion, it's better to run away now." Lorraine, of course, doesn't like to use energy, which is consumed far more in the Ectope Plane than in P112.

There were a few adults around who saw the children's actions, but no one paid any attention, and there were generally three kinds of men living in the slums: those who wanted to leave, those who gave up, and those who were about to leave. But no matter what kind of person you are, you have to try to find a job or work hard every day, and only then will it be possible to have enough bread.

Fights are commonplace here, Huang Xuan only needs to look at the rough arms and layers of scars of these children, he can understand that even with his strengthened physique, the odds of winning in the face of 5 people are still very low, he glanced twice, and ran helplessly. Even if these 5 boys are really knocked over, maybe more children will run out, and just think about the fraternity of the American neighborhood in the 21st century to understand that it is not at all strange that two .45 caliber Colts will appear when necessary or unnecessary.

"Catch up with him." The children shouted, and Huang Xuan, who had been on the edge of the slum and had left the community completely, had run a kilometer with ease.

The black water under his feet was still the same, Huang Xuan kicked the ground in annoyance, and the splashed gray stone hit his pants again.

"Sell grain first?" Huang Xuan, accustomed to "sexuality", asked Luo Lin: "Where is the market here?" ”

"Battle Creek is a grain hub for the Detroit area, a satellite city on the outskirts of Detroit, but I don't think we can sell enough food."

"Why?" The people Huang Xuan just saw were hungry, and in this case, the price of food should be high.

Lorraine replied with a standard: "Because it's the Great Depression." Agricultural products began to depreciate two years ago, and the price of food tends to be lower than the price of transportation. And no one can afford to buy food. ”

"Now is the time to pour cow's milk into the river?" Huang Xuan still remembers that a certain teacher once said that in a certain period, capitalist countries in economic crisis poured cow milk and coffee into rivers and seas, and directly "shot" cattle and sheep into the valley.

"That's right." Lorraine's answer made Huang Xuan powerless for a while, 15,000 tons of wheat, it is better to transport them back than to pour them into the sea.

In 1929, before the collapse of Wall Street, the price of agricultural products in the United States had plummeted, first triggered by the price war of Soviet lumber, and then by the panic caused by the overgrown wheat harvest in Canada, which eventually caused the stock market to plummet and the Great Depression to begin.

To put it in simple terms, the more output and the less consumption there is, the more wealth there is, but for the capitalist market as a whole, when output increases and consumption remains unchanged or even decreases, producers reduce their earnings, and when this decrease in returns becomes unpredictable, factories shut down, thus lowering consumption again, and then widening the crisis.

The economic crisis of the '30s was a "big" depression, which was also very much linked to the investment frenzy of the twenties, when factory owners expanded production in the hope of increasing productivity and making more products, but the results were disappointing.

This disappointment can be clearly felt in Detroit, where Huang Xuan slowly walks along the bank of a river that runs through the city, along the way not only many homeless people, but also more blank-eyed, stout but idle men.

The Great Depression has been going on for 2 years, and the huge pressure of life has not only caused hunger, but also psychological hopelessness, and the United States in the 80s of the 20th century also had an unemployment rate of 12% - only half of the Great Depression - but just look at the rhetoric of Americans today to know how much panic they have caused in those years, so much that it hurts.

"No one wants food, what are we going to do." Huang Xuan was almost talking to himself. The materials they brought were basically all agricultural products, and a few handicrafts were used as gifts, but no matter which one they were, they were the lowest prices in this period.

Lorraine didn't speak, which proved that there was nothing he could do. Huang Xuan sighed, feeling that he was very similar to the unemployed people on the side of the road, if he didn't get anything on this trip, he would lose all his money - this is a real loss of money, not only all the materials need to be discarded, but also the energy worth tens of millions of dollars is burned in vain. If you don't count the $300 million still frozen in Huang's fund, Huang Xuan can only sell assets if he wants to enter a new plane again.

In order to store enough energy, it is not enough to rely on a few electrolytic aluminum farms, and Furans has not yet entered the formalization process, so the energy that can be used is pitiful, and it will take a lot of time to buy futures.

Thinking of this, Huang Xuan couldn't help but speed up his pace, if Lorraine couldn't help, then he could only rely on himself.

At the end of the twenties, Detroit reached its peak, with a population of more than 2 million, becoming one of the four largest cities in the United States, and as the backbone of the population, the workers had an absolute advantage here.

If you watch an NBA game, you will find that the Detroit Pistons' style has always been tough, and people call them bench bandits - because Detroiters love this style, so only bad boys will be traded to Detroit to stay in Detroit.

There is also a toughness in the traffic on the streets, with vintage cars with loud horns whizzing by, and when they encounter a slow car, the white or black people in the car will shout and occasionally explode.

It's totally a unique style.

Huang Xuan's knowledge of Detroit far exceeded that of Japan, and for a time, the Huang family had a great interest in the auto industry, but of course, it didn't work out.

However, during the year-long verification period, not only Zhang Xinyi, but also Huang Qunsheng participated, and when they ate together, Huang Xuan could hear Detroit's name from time to time.

Detroit is located in the Great Lakes region, backed by the Detroit River, the natural environment was originally very good, but years of industrial development have begun to ruin all this, Huang Xuan strolling beside an unknown tributary of the Black Water, the air smells of garbage corruption, he whispered to Lorraine: "The four major automobile companies in the United States (General Motors, Ford, Chrysler and America are headquartered in Detroit, if it were now, it should be the first car production here." ”

"That's right." Lorraine replied in the affirmative.

Huang Xuan shrugged, passed by the two young men, and stopped to look around, only then did he notice that many of the vehicles on the street were the same clumsy.

"This is ......," Huang Xuan pointed to one of them.

"The Model T, once the world's best-selling car, produced 57 percent of all cars produced by Ford before production ceased production in 1927."

"I know it." The Model T, with its four bicycle-like tires, entered China after the Xinhai Revolution and can be seen in many films about Greater Shanghai, with a bodyguard standing at the door of a Model T, eyeing the surrounding doors.

The Model T made Ford rise to prominence, and when other cars sold for $3,000, the first Model T cost $850, and five years ago, a Model T cost $260, and the Ford factory had already begun to implement a $5 daily wage, which means that these workers could buy a Model T with only two months' salary. This is still 1931, the United States in the quagmire.

Huang Xuan didn't actually care about the Model T, he was trying to recall what his mother said when he talked about Ford, and only then did he know that it was more useful to put things in his head than in the database.

"Let's talk about the Ford after the Model T." Huang Xuan had no choice but to ask Lorraine for help, but fortunately, there was still His Excellency the Guardian.

"After Ford closed the Model T production line, it took six months to develop the Model A, and the results were good, selling about 6 million units, and in the 30s there were V8s and Model Bs."

"Right here." Huang Xuan clenched his right hand into a fist, struck it on the palm of his left hand and said, "Lorraine, the technology we sold to Ford V8 and VB." ”

"Trafficking technology is usually banned in plane trading, which greatly reduces the energy of the buffer zone, and there is less harvest, and people should usually trade mainly in goods."

"Wouldn't killing Napoleon reduce the energy of the buffer zone?" Huang Xuan scoffed. For Lorraine's statement that the harvest is less, it is even more dismissive, and there is an income on the line.

Lorraine argued: "That's because the first sequence requires ......"

“OK。” Huang Xuan pressed his hands and said, "Don't pay attention to your sequence requirements, there is no plane base here, if you sell technology, I have to benefit, and you also have to buffer energy, how good?" ”