Chapter 155: Special Treatment for Russian Immigrants
"All right, take these people away!" Mikhail waved at Giovanni.
"Got it, brother. Next time you get more 'goods,' contact me first," Giovanni called out from the carriage.
What Giovanni was hauling were Russian peasants who had gone bankrupt after the reforms. Although Alexander II's reforms granted them freedom, local nobles wouldn't willingly take a loss. Through various means, they squeezed as much as they could out of these newly freed peasants.
For instance, regarding land: as part of a compromise with feudal conservatives, the nobility's and landowners' ownership rights were prioritized and they received compensation. Freed serfs were allocated some land (for which they had to pay redemption fees), determined by the region. But the landlords would "keep the best and leave the worst," reserving fertile land, forests, and pastures for themselves while handing out the poorest land to the former serfs.
Even so, given Russia's vastness, the peasants still received, in terms of pure acreage, a considerable share. But much of that land held little to no value: in the north, a frozen wasteland where crops hardly grow; in the southern steppe, sandy or infertile fields were given to serfs, who ended up paying triple the market price for deserts, cold highlands, salt flats, and other worthless ground. Besides having small (relative to the nobles' land) and poor-quality lots, the nobles deliberately split up the peasants' fields into scattered plots, often far away and lacking any real value. Also, once freed, the serfs lost rights to livestock and farming tools they had once used, which were reclaimed by landlords.
Thus many peasants, theoretically "free," found their land nearly impossible to work, and were saddled with heavy debts. The government, needing revenue, continued imposing high taxes on them. Therefore, many peasants ended up even worse off than before. A few did rise to become prosperous farmers, but more slid into bankruptcy, their land reverting to the big owners. Combined with Russia's ample birth rate, many peasants simply had to migrate to cities to find work or return to the local nobles.
Seeing so many excess people, the Hechingen consortium became quite eager. German and other European immigration had slowed to a lull, so these surplus Russian peasants perfectly filled the gap. What pleased Ernst most was that female Russian labor came cheaper than male, helping to balance East Africa's population ratio. East Africa consistently encourages intermarriage among different immigrant groups, always aiming to have them intermarry.
East Africa has been working to increase mixed marriages. So far, it's going well. Chinese men, for example, might be paired with women from the purchased European population; likewise, white men might marry women from Southeast Asia. These are mostly "non-normal" arrivals—people East Africa either paid real money or exchanged slaves to obtain. Whether both sides "approve" is irrelevant, for marriages are arranged, with the government deciding.
Hence these Russians qualify as "low human-rights immigrants," ranking just above those from Southeast Asia and the Middle East. The Hechingen consortium pays local Russian elites for them—25 rubles per male and 17 per female—and from there they are brought into the colony. In Russia, or rather the Russian Empire, there are Poles, Ukrainians, Balts, Belarusians, Central Asians, peoples of the Caucasus, Finns… so many sources. As long as there's money, it's no issue.
Yet the consortium doesn't import large numbers of Slavs at once, only moderate batches. The biggest mistake would be to act too eager, letting the sellers exploit them. This way, the consortium can haggle better and also take the time to choose higher-quality individuals. Preferably those from three generations of old Russian peasant families with no education—just strong labor potential, easy to assimilate.
…
St. Petersburg.
Here in the Russian capital, newly acquired laborers heading for East Africa gather at a transit port. In other eastern regions, the peasants might be funneled via different ports—Poland under Russian rule, for instance, has ports of its own.
Giovanni led the group to St. Petersburg for "shipping."
"Giovanni, you brought the biggest load this time. Got any tips for the rest of us?" asked Maksim.
Giovanni said nothing but held up three fingers. Maksim understood: "Brother, that's three full meals, but that's too much. Two is all I can afford."
"Hey, that's the sum of my 'meal money' from experience, three is already cheap. If you can't, go find someone else," said Giovanni.
"Fine! Don't trick me, though," sighed Maksim, capitulating.
Giovanni wasn't stingy. "If you want a stable 'source' of people, you've gotta go into the countryside. Don't hang around the office. Build ties with local nobles and landowners—once you're friends with them, you won't lack for 'recruits.' Think about it: in the city, sure there are jobless peasants, but they have relatives or a network. Plus whoever dares to come to the city by themselves must be shrewd and not that easy to fool. So scamming people in town is risky. But in the villages it's different. The lords and landowners have far sharper tongues than ours, peasants are all in debt and under the landowners' control. Some families have multiple sons they can't feed, so they send them out. If you visit there, you're guaranteed to get a good haul. Sure, you have to spend money to grease the palms of local landowners, but it saves effort…."
There was no conflict of interest because Giovanni covered the Moscow area and Maksim handled near St. Petersburg, while others had places like Poland, Ukraine, or the Caucasus.
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