Chapter 170 One hundred and sixty-eight shopping
another beautiful day.
The Fisher family begins to prepare for Christmas.
Dar es Salaam is different from inland cities. Because it is an open port, ships from various countries pass through it, so it is easy to get many products.
This also led to currency having a place here, and European and Arab merchants would set up stalls in the open area of Dar es Salaam to sell their products.
"Honey, you're back." Anna asked sweetly. Since coming to East Africa, the Fisher family has lived a life of guaranteed income from drought and flood, and no longer have to live in poverty like they used to.
The mental state of the Fisher family has also become optimistic and positive, and they have gotten rid of the melancholy expressions they used to have for life.
"Yeah, I went to Trade Street just now to have a look. This is what I bought. Come and take a look." Fisher handed a basket to Anna.
Anna took the basket, and saw that there was an oiled paper bag, a bag and a jar inside, and there was something underneath that she didn't know what it was.
"What is this?" Anna asked first, taking out the oiled paper bag.
"Open it up," Fisher said.
Anna opened the oiled paper package along the creases, and it turned out to be a bunch of sausage-like things.
"Are there still sausages sold in East Africa?" Anna was a little surprised.
"I didn't expect anyone to sell this thing on the trading street. It's really rare, and the price is not too expensive, so I bought it. According to the clerk, it is a Vienna sausage imported from the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The taste is similar to ours. Not much difference there," Fisher said.
"It's been a long time since I've seen food from the German region, and even in Germany we can rarely afford it." Anna said pleasantly.
Although the Fisher family has no worries about food and drink in East Africa, they also have their own troubles, that is, in the eastern region, rice is mainly grown for food.
Every month Fisher can receive a salary and rations for the family from the East African colony.
The rations distributed in the eastern region are rice. After all, wheat is mainly grown inland, and flour, as an important export product, is mainly supplied to Europe.
Rice is different. There is no market for this product in Europe, and the Far East and India are both rice producing areas, so it cannot be sold at a high price.
If you can’t sell it, you can just use it as a meal for immigrants. As part of Fisher’s salary, Fisher has no right to choose.
So the Fisher family was forced to eat rice. With Fisher's financial resources, they could actually buy flour, but the rice was provided free of charge in East Africa, and the flour had to be bought in cash.
People in this era are conscious of saving money and food to deal with risks. After all, they don’t know when they won’t be able to eat.
However, Fisher's family couldn't stand eating rice all the time, so Fisher took out some money to buy some flour to keep at home, and occasionally used it to improve meals.
"Honey, we no longer have to live like we did in Germany, and life will get better and better in the future." Fisher said to his wife.
"Hmm!" Anna snuggled into Fisher's arms.
"You haven't read the following!" Fisher reminded.
"This is table salt, don't you still have it at home?"
"No, this is something I bought from a store in Hechingen. I don't want to guess what it is."
Anna shook her head, she couldn't think of anything else but salt.
"This is white sugar, imported from the Far East." Fisher revealed the answer.
Sugar is not very cheap in Europe. It basically relies on imports. Ordinary people can’t afford it. Germany has begun to grow beets to make sugar, but the scale is small and the output is very limited.
At present, European canteens are mainly imported from the Caribbean and other regions. Sugar cane can also be grown in East Africa, but there are too many things that can be grown in East Africa, so only a small area is planted in the Great Lakes region.
The white sugar Fisher bought was indeed imported from the Far East and shipped to East Africa along with the immigrant ships.
"It shouldn't be cheap!" Anna worried.
“The price is a bit high, but now that we have the means and Christmas is coming, there is always something to add to the nutrition of the children,” Fisher explained.
In East Africa, Fisher's job is highly paid, and only officials and employees of the Hechingen Consortium can beat Fisher in terms of salary.
In fact, ordinary people in East Africa basically live a good life, at least enough food, which is very good.
East Africa is short of everything except food. The huge arable land and natural resources are compared to the thin population in East Africa. The living conditions are destined not to be too bad.
Of course, maintaining food and clothing, plus meat can be mixed in from time to time, is the level that immigrants can achieve.
The difference between Fisher and ordinary immigrants is that he has the skills needed by the East African colonies, so Fisher's salary is far higher than that of ordinary immigrants.
The extra wages mean that the Fisher family has more choices than ordinary immigrants, such as going to the trade street to buy the goods they need.
Dar es Salaam Trading Street is actually the commercial area closest to the wharf, specially prepared for merchants and sailors.
In East Africa, there are only a few thousand people who can go to the trade street for consumption. You must know that the population of the entire East Africa has almost reached two million, which shows the consumption level of the trade street.
As an important port in East Africa, Dar es Salaam has many offices of the Hechingen Consortium and the government agencies of the East African colonies.
The talents in these institutions and agencies are the local consumers in Dar es Salaam who can consume in the Dar es Salaam trade market.
And Fisher is a real employee of the Hechingen Consortium, who was recruited to East Africa through recruitment. He is a talent actively introduced from East Africa, not a nominal employee like ordinary immigrants.
Although ordinary immigrants are also named under the name of the Hexingen Consortium, anyone with a discerning eye knows that they are more similar to the citizens of the Hexingen royal family, especially German immigrants and Slavic immigrants. After they arrived in East Africa, they did not feel any difference from Europe .
Even the life of serfs is no different from that of the serfs back then. As long as East Africa does not go too far, whether serfs or peasants is a matter of status is not a big deal, at least the cultural level of these immigrants does not matter.
The Far East immigrants do not have the feeling of European immigrants. After all, the Far East does not have the kind of nobles in Europe. These Far East immigrants mainly deal with the landlords in the village, and the Far East landlords are obviously not as prominent in society as the European nobles in terms of political status. .
After all, Europe pays more attention to the division of people's status, especially among nobles, and there is a clear distinction between nobles and commoners. It is difficult for commoners to become nobles, at least there is no obvious channel.
In the Far East, in theory, ordinary people can improve their social status through hard work. For example, farmers have the opportunity to become landlords, and ordinary people can pass the imperial examination to become a "scholar" class, but the difficulty is a little bit higher.
(end of this chapter)