The negotiations took place at the Gold Mountain Hotel in Johannesburg.

The two sides of the negotiations had a fierce exchange over the prices of milk, beef, and wheat.

In view of the extremely low prices in the current market, the Mining Union has called for a significant reduction in the prices of agricultural products.

The Cape Agricultural Association argues that the current price of Cape agricultural products is abnormal, because the "market boom" brought by the expeditionary force will eventually disappear, and now that it has entered the rainy season, the precipitation in the Cape and the Transvaal has not increased significantly, so next year's drought is inevitable, and the output of agricultural products will be greatly reduced, and the prices of agricultural products will not only not decrease, but will further rise.

The Mining Union did not endorse the Cape Agricultural Association's reasoning, and officials in Pretoria also opposed the rise in agricultural prices, and the negotiations stalled.

Roque did not participate in the negotiations, but was preparing for the Transvaal Agricultural Association, and was also preparing to purchase and sell the Transvaal's agricultural products.

As a professor at the Royal Agricultural College of Gloucester, Douglas is the undisputed president of the Agricultural Society.

"——Generally speaking, because most of the farms that are running are gathered around Ziwei Town, so the headquarters of the Agricultural Association is located in Ziwei Town, and the surrounding farmers can sell their agricultural products to the Agricultural Association, and the Agricultural Association will go to talk about cooperation with the Mining Alliance, and now there is no need to talk about it, the Cape Agricultural Association is talking with the Mining Alliance, and when they come up with the results, we can just use the contract." Roque had a good hand and compared with the Cape Agricultural Association, the Transvaal Agricultural Association had a clear advantage, at least the Transvaal Agricultural Association did not need shipping to sell its produce to the Mining Union.

"It's not appropriate to put the headquarters of the agricultural association in Ziwei Town, if you want to buy a large number of agricultural products, then you need corresponding slaughterhouses and processing plants, are you willing to put these factories in Ziwei Town?" Douglas asks a very sharp question.

"Can't we put the slaughterhouse and processing plant in other areas, and only put the headquarters in Ziwei Town?" Luo Ke immediately changed his words, the name of the slaughterhouse or something is very dirty, which is too inconsistent with the positioning of Ziwei Town.

Roque's positioning for Ziwei Town is to live and educate, supplemented by a certain degree of commerce, industry is definitely not in the scope of Roque's consideration, even if it is an enterprise like a slaughterhouse, it will produce a lot of sewage and odors, which will seriously affect the environment of Ziwei Town.

"It's okay — but that would cause a certain amount of inconvenience to the staff of the agricultural association." Douglas doesn't care, anyway, even if it's an errand run, he won't let him, the president, run.

"Then it's decided, the headquarters of the Agricultural Association is located in Ziwei Town, and the slaughterhouse and processing plant are located in Kripsprut - this name is really hard to remember, you are the president, just use your name, and call it Doug Town in the future." Roque is too lazy to remember such a long name, how good Doug is-

Dog City?

Don't get me wrong, the name has nothing to do with dogs, "Douglas" means: people from the Black Sea.

Douglas doesn't matter, it's just a name, and many cities get their names from that, such as Johannesburg, which comes from a Boer named "Johannes".

What neither Roque nor Douglas knew was that without their inspiration, the future Kripspruitt would have become a famous Zulu gathering place and a source of chaos in Johannesburg, and when Cripsprut became known to the world, Crippsspruit's name was Soweto.

There are not so many Zulus in Kripspruit, there are only three or five families scattered around them, and they can move away if they want to, and if they don't want to move away, they will be with the slaughterhouse, and Roque doesn't care.

"Next we're going to count the production, milk, beef, lamb, eggs—" Douglas felt the pressure.

"It's not so troublesome, it's just milk, beef and mutton, we have to wait another three or five years, and we can only do it after the scale of breeding on the farm reaches a certain level, and it's still early." Roque's plans are all in the future, and it's still early.

The reason why Roque asked Aiden to talk to the Cape Agricultural Association is also because the farms around Johannesburg cannot meet the needs of Johannesburg at all, limited to the scale of breeding, and the farms actually produce not much milk, some farms only have one or two cows, even during the peak milk production period, can only produce about 30 kilograms of milk per day, which does not play any role in putting milk on the market, so many farmers simply give milk to Ziwei College.

It would take at least three or five years for the agricultural associations to be truly effective, when the farms around Johannesburg would grow to a certain size, and Roque would kick the Cape Agricultural Association out of the game.

"Well, then the value of our agricultural association—" Douglas laughed, not expecting that he was just a spectros.

"Instruct farmers to run their farms better, these farmers now, they didn't have their own land at all when they were in the Qing Dynasty, and now around Johannesburg, the average size of each farm is about 150 acres, which is equivalent to about 900 acres, they don't have the experience of managing so much land at the same time, many people don't know what to do, they don't even know how to raise dairy cows, so they need the help of agricultural associations very much." Roque is also helpless, to tell the truth, even Buck is not a qualified farmer, let alone others.

The kind of situation that Roque feared most eventually came to life.

Many farmers are not accustomed to the extensive management of Johannesburg, and still use the traditional intensive farming method of the Qing Dynasty, some farmers guard nearly 1,000 acres of land, and can only develop 100 acres of land with all their might, and more land is completely unused, which makes people laugh and cry.

Comparatively speaking, the farms of Chinese police officers are much better.

In Oak Town, Chinese police officers were accustomed to hiring Boers to work in the vineyards, and in Johannesburg, Chinese police officers were still used to hiring Zulu people to work on farms.

Vision is really important, just when many miner-turned-farmers are still thinking about raising a few more chickens and more pigs, the Chinese police have begun to consciously divide labor, some of them grow alfalfa, some raise cattle, some raise sheep, cooperate with each other, do not affect each other's market, and this part of the farm will be more promising and develop faster in the future.

Although Roque wants to see all the farms thriving, it is undeniable that among these farmers now, there must be many farmers who will go bankrupt because of poor management and inability to repay their loans.

"It's hard, we need more technicians, and we need a lot of translators because of the language barrier." Douglas's work is also difficult, it doesn't matter if the technology is not good, there are technicians who can guide him, and the language barrier is the most important.

"Soon there will be a translator—" This is Roque's responsibility, and it is his duty to shirk it.

Liang Dingxin finally got the hang of it during this time, and sent over three batches of more than 1,700 people in a row, including the most urgently needed translator in Johannesburg.

In September, the signing of the "Xinchou Treaty" reduced the Qing State to a semi-colonial and semi-feudal society, and many customs workers who were disillusioned with the Qing State chose to immigrate to Johannesburg at the instigation of Liang Dingxin.

Among the customs workers who have arrived in Johannesburg, there are three people who have studied in Europe and the United States are particularly eye-catching: Xia Zuo, who studied in the United States and Yale University, but was recalled after failing to graduate, Duncan, who studied shipbuilding in the United Kingdom, and George, who studied in France and graduated from the University of Paris.

Don't be surprised, the names Xia Zuo, Duncan, and George are their English names, and you have to give yourself an English name when you study abroad these days, otherwise it is not conducive to integrating into the local society.

Johannesburg is the same, many Chinese who settle in Johannesburg also have to give themselves an English name, so in Johannesburg, there are many Chinese who register their names as Chamberlain, Wilde, Liszt, and Lewis.

Xia Zuo, Duncan, and George, before leaving the Qing Dynasty, George had the highest official position, once served as the deputy director of the Qing Customs Office in London, three years ago, George was transferred from the London office by Robert Hurd, director of the General Taxation Department of the Qing Customs, because of the corruption of the director of the Qing Customs Office, and returned to the Qing State as a warehouse statistician.

Regarding Hurd and Jin Denggan, it is not at all like what is described in the history books, what Qing Customs is the most incorruptible department in Qing State.

Kim Tengan lost 80,000 pounds in an investment in 1893, and this 80,000 pounds was certainly not his salary income, because at that time Kingengan's annual salary was 2,000 pounds, which was equivalent to the salary of the British deputy secretary of finance, and even so, Kingengan's salary was not enough to spend, because he had five children and five servants in the family, so his origin of 80,000 pounds was self-evident.

It was because of the revelation of the 80,000 pounds that George was transferred out of the London office.

As for Hurd, this guy is even more of a moth, on the surface, Hurd's annual income is about 5,000 pounds, which is about the same as the annual salary of the British cabinet minister, but in fact, the British government wanted to appoint Hurd as the minister to China in 1885, and offered Hurd an annual salary of 20,000 pounds for this, but Hurd was unmoved, and was willing to guard the salary of 5,000 pounds, and continued to control the customs of the Qing country.

The Portuguese governor in Macau, Rocha, once told King Denggan that Hurd had amassed a million-pound fortune during his time in the Qing Dynasty.

What is the concept of a million pounds?

In 1893, the principal of the Bank of Bahrain was only 2.9 million pounds.

After George came to Ziwei Town, Roque appointed George as the director of the guild hall, and then George will serve as the vice president of the Agricultural Association, compared with Douglas, George is more qualified, because George also has a farm with an area of 1,000 acres not far from Ziwei Town.

This was bought by George himself, and he didn't take out a penny, which shows that George's salary was still relatively generous during his tenure as deputy director of the London Office of Customs.

The ongoing negotiations in Johannesburg are much simpler than those under way in Pretoria.

Johannesburg's negotiations were made between the two sides of the British, which was a contradiction among the people, and two ministers were involved in the negotiations, and the results were quickly negotiated, the mining union's attempt to lower prices failed, and the Cape Agricultural Association's request to raise prices was unsuccessful, and the final result was that tomorrow the Cape Agricultural Association would supply food to Johannesburg, still at this year's prices.

After negotiations between the Johannesburg Agricultural Society, which was the largest beneficiary, and the Cape Agricultural Association, the Johannesburg Agricultural Association quickly signed a supply contract with the Mining Union, which only contained the milk at a price of 2 pence per litre at the price determined by the Cape Agricultural Association and the Mining Union.

In this way, being a farmer in Johannesburg is still very promising.

Typically, a cow can produce 4,500-6,000 litres of milk a year, with a median value of 5,000 litres, and a cow can generate about £42 a year from the sale of milk.

Of course, this income is not profit, if it is all profit, then everyone goes to raise cattle, and raising a dozen cows will be higher than the income of Roque, the police chief.

Excluding costs, a cow can bring in about £20 a year for a farmer.

That's not bad, a farm only needs ten cows, enough for the farmer's family to live a middle-class life, which is a world away from their life in the Qing Kingdom.

It looks great, right, but when you combine it with the terrible efficiency of the Boers, it immediately becomes less rosy.

According to the efficiency of the Boers, raising ten cows requires 50 acres of pasture, although the area of Boer farms is generally as high as thousands of acres, but the area of qualified pastures is not large, under normal circumstances, an area of thousands of acres, the rancher will raise thirty or fifty cows, which is enough for the Boers to be at ease.

Under the same conditions, a Chinese-run farm is as efficient as a Boole farm, and if it is a alfalfa plant, one acre of alfalfa can raise ten to fifteen cows, and if you raise thirty or fifty cows, you will need three to five acres of alfalfa.

Spelling the land, the technology of the Chinese is the best in the world.

On December 15th, just before Christmas, the Johannesburg Agricultural Association was established in Ziwei Town, with a total of 350 members, which also means that there are at least 350 Chinese-run farms around Johannesburg.

As for why it is "least", it is because some Chinese people have bought more than one farm, and after the Boer farmers have made money, they like to buy the best horses, the best wine, and the best tea for enjoying life.

And after the Chinese farmer made money-

Sorry, Chinese farmers don't buy anything but necessities, and most Chinese farmers save their hard-earned little money and use it to expand production, or continue to buy farms.

So the wine merchants in Johannesburg probably won't like the Chinese farmers, but the agricultural associations certainly do.