Whenever there is a TV series with the theme of the Republic of China, several classic scenes will inevitably appear, one is the patrol of foreigners in the concession, one is a place of communication with red wine and wine, and the other is a rickshaw.
If the first two scenes are a must for high-end places and a necessity for every time a big person communicates, then a rickshaw is the basis for all ages, whether it is the story of the upper class characters or the wonderful characters at the bottom.
For example, among the Jingwu heroes, rickshaws not only undertake basic pulling services, but also become an important source of urban gossip, including telling Master Chen Zhenbai not to look for Huo Yuanjia's son, but to find someone else. So the question is, what does such a frequent rickshaw look like in the real historical record?
The earliest appearance of rickshaws should be in Japan, when the Japanese caught up with the Industrial Revolution, so some new tricks also grew, when rickshaws came into being, but at that time it was still called Toyo.
Interestingly, although Japan has flourished, China still has the largest market, so countless foreigners still want to come to China to do business, so they are experimenting with new products in various places in China. According to historical records, in 1874, a French merchant introduced Toyo cars in China.
However, this person is also very clever, he knows that it is very difficult to promote new things in conservative China, so he looks at the Concession in China and lets those foreigners also enjoy the creation of the Orientals.
As soon as it appeared, the Toyo car was recognized by many people, which is actually very understandable, because the British and French at that time liked to take a carriage, but the carriage was very rigid, and it was not easy to get in and out of some alleys. And, as the British lamented, the end of the Industrial Revolution must have been stopped by horse dung, because they were desperate for the dung of the carriage.
Therefore, after the Toyo car, there is no such rigid transportation, and there is no horse dung, which makes the Foreign adults like it.
Of course, foreign adults like this kind of physical work and lowly work naturally do not want to do it, but China has a hard labor force, so a large number of Chinese have entered it and become the handle of Toyo cars.
And we also know that because the Qing government was too bad, so the atmosphere of admiration and flattery was very popular, when the French Concession and the British Concession set off something new, then the surrounding rich merchants must follow up and study, as a fashion.
As a result, the Toyo car of that year came out of the concession, and it was renamed rickshaws, which were popular in various places. This is the origin of the rickshaws that we often see in the Republic of China TV series later.
So the question is, since rickshaws were very popular in those days, there is no doubt that emerging industries will inevitably be very profitable, so what about the price of rickshaws? Will the person pulling the rickshaw get a steady profit?
In the Shanghai Municipal History Museum, there is an enamel plate for rickshaw fares, which is the standard of the public concession, starting from a corner of Xiaoyang, and one more corner every half a mile.
In other words, if you want to call a rickshaw, you need a dime to get on the car, and the unit price is increased every half a mile. What is the price? According to "How to Live in the Lu Xun Era", 3.4 cents per kilogram of high-quality rice, that is, a dime can buy three kilograms of rice.
At that time, if calculated according to the relatively stable price stage, three catties of rice was also a small amount, and for ordinary people, they would not spend this money if they were killed. Of course, if converted into the current price, the current high-quality rice is only 5 to 7 yuan, which is equivalent to the starting price of 21 yuan now.
It should be said that this price is more expensive even if it is placed in the current drip, not to mention that every half mile increase needs to be doubled.
From this point of view, rickshaw drivers are still quite profitable, only need to pull a dozen orders a day to support their families, and even make a little money. So is this really the case? The answer is not what we think.
Strictly speaking, it was an era of unscrupulous capitalists, let alone foreigner capitalists and comprador capitalists. Therefore, the income of rickshaw drivers has always been a dime. Generally speaking, a rickshaw driver does not rest all day, and he gives up his life to work, about 40 yuan a month.
What is this concept? At that time, the salary of a professor was about 150 to 300 people, and Mr. Lu Xun's monthly salary was 300 yuan a month. A small section officer of the government has a monthly salary of 100 yuan, and a low-level petty officer starts with a monthly salary of 60 yuan.
So it can be seen that the income of rickshaws is actually not high, and even if they are tired and tired, they have not reached the threshold of these middle classes.
Of course, some people may say that it is not bad to be able to get an income equivalent to that of the middle class in that turbulent era. Yet the truth often leaves us desperate.
According to some newspaper reports at the time, a rickshaw worker was very difficult, knowing that they were not machines, but a living person who had to pull a car and a person and run through the streets.
By the standards of the time, rickshaws could not be slower than the early bicycles, otherwise they would be complained about. Therefore, rickshaw drivers must not only have a strong physique, but also need to have developed foot muscles.
We can imagine that a car is dozens of pounds, and a person with 100 pounds behind it, and then has to pull a dozen times a day, and no rest is allowed in the middle. The only thing they can adjust to themselves is a sweat towel on their shoulders, pulling the car with one hand and wiping the sweat with the other while maintaining the speed of their advance.
I had previously seen the history of the Spring and Autumn Warring States, saying that in order to save the Song Kingdom from the attack of the Chu State, Mozi's shoes were broken. At that time, it was still exaggerated, but if it was used on rickshaw drivers, they would run their shoes all year round, and their feet would be deformed, and even the soles of their feet would often be worn.
And what is even more terrifying is that the early foreigner car dealers did not regard Chinese as people at all, they only regarded Chinese as cattle to make money, so every rickshaw driver could barely get a normal salary only if he was tired to death, many people were gambling with their lives tomorrow, often when it was time to retire, they had all kinds of pain, but the boss of the central bank would not give him any protection, just paid a normal salary, and kicked it away.
As some reporters reported at the time, a young and strong rickshaw driver was likely to die of exhaustion before the age of 40. This is the real rickshaw of that era, they earned the first pot of gold for the capitalists, but they could only earn a high wage. Therefore, the history of rickshaws is actually very bitter, but it is a job that ordinary people have to accept. Accepting a job can feed a family, but you die early. If you don't accept a job, it's not that the whole family will starve to death. This is a memory that our modern people cannot imagine.
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