Chapter 246 Trip to Austria (Part 1)
Silesia, Katowice.
The house at the back of Mr. Philpot's house was still full of people.
"Damn it! It's really incredible. At least half of the thread was left on the spool by you. You want to exchange such useless things and defective products for money?"
Bengt Jung threw the linen into the man's arms, and the other weavers could only watch silently, waiting for the man in front of them to pronounce their fate.
At this time, he suddenly saw a familiar figure. It was Master Philpot himself. Bente knew why the boss came. The quality of linen had declined year after year, coupled with the impact of cotton and government oppression, making people in this industry breathless.
"Mr. Philpot, I didn't expect you to come here!"
When all the weavers and employees saw the young man in the white suit, they looked flattering and pious, as if they were meeting a bishop in a church or an emperor in the palace.
Philpot was very satisfied with the attitude of these "untouchables". He looked at Bent and waved.
The other party understood immediately and yelled at the weavers.
"Damn things without eyes! What are you doing here!"
The apprentices also waved their wooden rulers in an attempt to disperse the crowd.
"Kind Mr. Philpot, please give me a few coins."
Philpot took out a handkerchief from his breast pocket and covered his mouth and nose, fearing that he would breathe the same gas as those civilians. The bodyguards around him immediately stepped forward and drove the beggars out of the house.
After the maids sprayed perfume, he spoke.
"Bent, how are this year's goods?"
"Master, don't worry! This year's goods will be handed over in full!" Bente lowered his waist and said with a flattering smile.
Philpot frowned. Since the Saxons replaced Austrian looms with new looms, the number of products has become larger and larger. Not only are they grabbing Prussian business everywhere, they are even selling their products to Prussia itself.
Now his profits are getting worse year by year, but due to conflicts between countries, the Prussian government opposes merchants buying Austrian looms, while British looms are too expensive and difficult to repair.
(The French machinery manufacturing industry at this time was a piece of shit, and even the French did not use machinery produced in their own country.)
"How's the quality?" Philpot asked. At this time, the only advantage of manual weaving compared to machinery is that the quality is higher and the patterns are more varied.
(In fact, looms are also used, but they are manual looms, which are much less efficient than water-powered looms and steam looms.)
"Sir, as you know, the defective rate has been surprisingly high in the past few years. It is also the same this year. Those lazy guys are not willing to work hard because it is too easy to make money."
Bent's words made Philpot furious and he said immediately.
"If we lower the price one level further, third-class products will also be treated as defective products. Do you understand?"
"Yes, sir, I know what to do."
In fact, due to the rise of large-scale mechanical weaving, the market for manual weaving is shrinking. Unless it is handmade cloth with unique patterns and styles, it will be difficult to compete with mass-produced cotton cloth in the market.
However, as the purchase price has dropped year after year, weavers are no longer willing to spend time and energy developing new styles and improving quality.
The decline in quality further led to the shrinking of the market. In the end, merchants had no choice but to switch to the cotton textile industry or spend money to purchase linen textile machines.
But at this time, cotton had occupied a large market share with its low price, and it was impossible for linen to regain its former glory.
So mercilessly squeezing has become the last resort in this industry, but workers are like water in a sponge, and sooner or later they will dry up.
On the other hand, Avra and her husband sold their house and loom in order to raise enough tickets for five people.
Some people here who are proficient in geography may ask, there is only the Oder River between Upper Silesia (Prussia) and Lower Silesia (Austria), why don't you think of a way to swim to the other side?
Mainly due to long-standing religious conflicts, the relationship between the two sides is very poor, and they often even shoot each other across the river. The population of Upper Silesia is mainly composed of Protestants, of which Germans make up the majority. There are also many Czech Protestants who were persecuted in Austria and fled here.
Lower Silesia is mainly Catholic, of which Germans make up the majority, and the rest are Polish Catholics who fled to Austria after being persecuted in Prussia.
The hatred between the two parties cannot be explained clearly in one or two sentences, so the Avra family can only choose to take a detour.
At that time, the internal structure and facilities of the train carriage were so primitive that the family could only sit in the corner with their luggage. The Prussian train carriages did not even have roofs, so passengers could only use their carry-on clothing as cover in rainy or snowy weather.
After entering Dresden Station and changing trains, the Avra family finally breathed a sigh of relief. The Austrian train finally had a roof, but there were still no seats inside the carriage. And it was obviously more bumpy. First, the trains in Austria were fast, and second, the terrain in the Austrian Empire was more complicated than that in Prussia.
The family was talking and laughing at first, but when they were about to arrive in Austria, the adults' faces became serious. Perhaps it was because of the pressure and uneasiness caused by resettling in a strange place. Even their own children could not I could vaguely understand the seriousness of the matter from my parents' expressions.
Suddenly, Ephra felt nauseated and dizzy. She stood up quickly and wanted to run to the door of the carriage to vomit again, but it was too late.
The flight attendant who heard the sound picked up the stick, rolled up his sleeves, and kept swearing.
"Damn it, what drunkard is excreting your disgusting bile in my carriage! Hand over 5 Kreuzs quickly! Otherwise I will let you eat all that shit back into your stomach, and then take my Licking the carriage clean!”
Xiong Zhuang's flight attendant came over, and the passengers in the carriage moved out of the way, not wanting to get into trouble.
Avra's husband wanted to protect his wife and stood in front of the flight attendant. As a result, the flight attendant grabbed his hair and lifted her up like a chicken. Before he could speak, a stick fell hard on his head. Broken leg.
Just as the flight attendant was about to continue beating the man, his two-year-old daughter Ellie hugged his thigh.
"Uncle, stop fighting. The one who vomited on the ground is not my father, but my mother."
After the ride, the steward and the surrounding passengers had complicated expressions on their faces, but he did not choose to continue the violence because it was related to Austrian law. The former Queen Theresa loved children very much, so she formulated a lot of policies and regulations to protect children.
If the flight attendant Xiong Zhuang continues to turn a blind eye and abuses the girl's parents, he will most likely lose his job after getting off the bus, plus spend three months in jail. If the review period comes, he will The sentence may be doubled.
(The review period, the Austrian version of crackdown, is to pull out cases that have already been tried and impose severe penalties. Of course, if you have the ability to bribe the judge, you may be acquitted.)
If you ask why this flight attendant is so rude? In fact, at that time, only people in first- and second-class carriages could enjoy courtesy, while passengers in third- and fourth-class carriages were all from the lower class. Because of the difference in status and social status, they could only enjoy bully-like service. Harassment by personnel, even beatings and extortion are commonplace.
"What bad luck, damn cripple, you are lucky today, get out of here!"
Then the tall flight attendant picked up the mop and began to clean up the mess. Franz has strict regulations on hygiene maintenance on trains. After all, with the increase in crowd movement, the scope and channels of virus transmission have become wider.
Especially on such a crowded train, if the virus spreads, it is very likely to cause a large-scale epidemic.
Soon the train entered the newly built "United Forces" train station in Vienna. There were special people on the platform holding signs to guide these immigrants from the German region to a special management center for registration.
"Joining Forces" is a meme that was added at the request of book friends.