Chapter 21

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On November 25, 1842, when Zhu Jishi left Manchester, the social order of this industrial city had already been fully restored. However, the city's militia, police, and British Army garrison were still enforcing martial law, with soldiers in red uniforms and rifles patrolling the streets. Any form of assembly, parade, or strike was prohibited. All newspapers had to be reviewed by the authorities and were not allowed to contain any content related to the "People's Charter," "universal suffrage," or "democracy."

The order inside the train station was also very good, with many British cavalrymen patrolling the square outside. After finding a seat in the spacious and bright waiting room, Will Heming told Zhu Jishi that those were officers and soldiers of the Royal Scots Greys, one of the elite units of the British Army. He himself had once considered buying a major's position in this regiment.

"Buy... buy?!" Zhu Jishi was stunned, "Is there such a thing as buying an official position in Britain?"

A young man with blond hair named Cosper William shook his head and looked at Zhu Jishi, "Jason, you don't even know about buying positions? Don't they have that in Russia and Germany?"

Zhu Jishi gave the young man an awkward smile, "Cosper, I really haven't heard of such things."

This young man was a friend of Engels, a serious and unsmiling individual. However, he was a top student in the finance department at Cambridge University, the second son of a merchant who dealt in cotton and wool, and had a well-paid job at the Manchester branch of Baring Bank. Zhu Jishi guessed that his stern temperament must be very suitable for banking work. He wondered if his four major patents—hydrochloride morphine, diethylmorphine, hydrochloride berberine, and vulcanized rubber—would catch his eye—after all, he was the source of the large sum of money Engels had mentioned.

After seeing Zhu Jishi use the Gram staining method (which would be called the Zhu staining method in this timeline) to stain bacteria at a "charity hospital" in Manchester, Engels recommended his friend at Baring Bank to Zhu Jishi. After listening to Zhu Jishi's introduction of his patents, Cosper William expressed his willingness to go to London to personally witness these amazing inventions. If they were as good as described, Baring Bank could accept the patents as collateral or even buy out some of them.

"In Britain, certain levels of military and civil positions can indeed be purchased, but not everyone is qualified to buy them. Only those who meet certain conditions can purchase the corresponding positions," Cosper William explained the matter of buying positions to Zhu Jishi in a very calm tone. He took a puff of his high-quality cigar and pointed to Will Heming. "For example, if Mr. Heming had not been dismissed from the army, with his background as a graduate of the Royal Military Academy, he could have bought a rank below colonel after serving in the army for a short period. The Duke of Wellington, who defeated Emperor Napoleon at Waterloo, bought a lieutenant colonel's position at the age of 25."

What! The Duke of Wellington was actually a bought position?!

Will Heming spread his hands and smiled, "That's how things work in Britain. Not only the Duke of Wellington, but my Irish compatriot, Field Marshal Hugh Gough, who recently defeated China, also bought his position. However, his family was relatively poor, so he had to serve in the British Army for twelve years to save enough money to buy a major's position."

A bought position, no, a group of bought-position officers, leading more than ten thousand soldiers who treated opium as military supplies, actually defeated the mighty Qing Dynasty. This... this timeline's history must be different from the original one.

At this moment, a few people suddenly approached Zhu Jishi and his companions. They seemed to be a family, with a middle-aged couple whose faces were full of sympathetic suffering and numbness, wearing very old and patched clothes, and were very dirty. They were barefoot, with only rags wrapped around their feet. There were five children, two boys and three girls, the oldest of whom looked to be less than ten years old, too short and small to work as child laborers. A three-year-old boy was being held in his mother's arms, his eyes closed, clearly sick.

These people stood silently in front of Zhu Jishi and his companions, saying nothing. This was not the first time Zhu Jishi had seen such a situation. In fact, on his way to work at the hospital, he almost saw such families standing on the streets of London's industrial and worker districts every day... They were beggars!

In the first half of the 19th century, at the center of the glorious and prosperous British Empire, there were people who could not even fill their stomachs and had to beg with their entire families! This was something that any ordinary person from the future could hardly imagine. In fact, in this most powerful and richest country in the world, many people died of hunger every day! If it was winter, some would also freeze to death. There were countless homeless people sleeping on the streets in several parks in London. If Zhu Jishi had not been fortunate enough to save the fat man and receive help from Isabella after his time travel, he might very well have been one of them!

Moreover, Zhu Jishi knew that these beggars and homeless people were not lazy. The British were not known for their laziness, and it was the first half of the 19th century, a time of bourgeois rule, with no social welfare to support the lazy.

However, Britain was currently experiencing a very severe economic crisis, with overproduction in industry and poor harvests in agriculture, leading to massive unemployment and a significant increase in food prices—strangely, only the prices of grains were rising, while the prices of beef and mutton were continuously falling. For the lower-class laborers who relied on grains for sustenance, this was undoubtedly the worst situation. For workers who earned only 1 to 3 shillings (20 to 60 pence) per week, that income could barely cover a family's rent and food expenses, making it difficult to save any money. Once unemployed, the entire family would face the fate of sleeping on the streets and going hungry.

"Here, take it." Thinking of how he might have been one of the starving and cold people, Zhu Jishi took out a one-shilling silver coin and handed it to the mother holding the child.

"Thank you, may God bless you." The mother bowed gratefully to Zhu Jishi.

"Get out! Get out!" The family's begging behavior quickly attracted the attention of the police on duty at the station, who came over with their batons to drive them away.

The man pleaded, "Sir, we really need help!"

The police remained unmoved, "Not here! Go to Little Ireland to beg!" As he spoke, he pushed and shouted, driving the family out of the train station waiting room.

"Little Ireland is the worst worker district in Manchester, full of poor people from the Irish countryside. You won't get a single penny there!" Will Heming, an Irishman, sighed as he watched the British poor being driven away. "Jason, your one shilling can keep this family from going hungry and cold for a few more days, and delay the woman from having to sell herself on the streets." He suddenly turned his head and looked at Zhu Jishi seriously, "Now you understand why the workers are participating in the Chartist movement, right?"

"What does universal suffrage and democracy have to do with it? Such a system would only disrupt society, and economic development needs stability," Cosper William took up the topic, his views clearly aligning with Zhu Jishi's.

Then he coldly said a very cold-blooded but logically sound statement: "The income of workers is also determined by supply and demand. The demand for workers, like the demand for any other commodity, regulates the production of workers, the number of people produced. If production is too slow, demand will speed it up; if production is too fast, demand will slow it down. This is the same for any other commodity. If there are not enough workers, their wages will rise, they will live better, more people will get married, the birth rate will increase, and more children will be raised until there are enough workers; if there are too many workers, wages will fall, unemployment, poverty, hunger, and the diseases that result from them will appear, and these diseases will eliminate the excess population!"

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