African Entrepreneurship Record

Chapter 349: Chapter 28: Black Hand Behind the Scenes

The Italian mafia recruits people at the docks, and for ordinary people, if they really become a part of the mafia, it might be a decent gig. Though a bit dangerous, mafia members are treated well and can use their status to bully some common citizens, giving them a sense of vanity. However, how could the Italian mafia possibly absorb such a large wave of Italian immigrants!

At this time, the Italian mafia shows what professionalism is. The United States is currently frantically building new railroads and developing the West, needing manpower and meeting demands. The Italian mafia seizes this opportunity to start participating in various projects.

For general Italians, taking over a project is easy. If you won’t let us do the work, don’t expect to start normally. We’ll send people to cause trouble every other day and see who gives in first.

With no choice, most bosses choose to keep the peace. However, they can hand the work over to you, but you must do it well. Make them upset, and they’ll still find someone to deal with you.

And the Italian mafia can’t conjure people out of thin air, so going to Italy to recruit people becomes extremely important. This is also why the Italian mafia is willing to cover the transportation costs for immigrants.

Since the end of the Civil War, half of all steel produced in the United States has been used to make railroad tracks, ushering in the golden age of American railroads, and New York seized this opportunity, experiencing rapid development.

New York, America’s Xinxiang, was discovered relatively late, so development started late. In 1524, the Italian Giovanni da Verrazzano, with support from the King of France, discovered New York Harbor. He entered the New York harbor on the Princess, declared the place as French territory, and named it New Angouleme, becoming the first historically recorded European to visit New York. Thus, the relationship between Italians and New York is long-standing.

After American independence, New York developed rapidly. In 1790, New York surpassed Philadelphia to become America’s largest city. In 1800, only about 9% of America’s foreign goods entered through New York Harbor. In 1825, the Erie Canal was opened, making New York a commercial distribution center. By 1860, the ratio of foreign goods had jumped to 62%. Meanwhile, New York’s population surpassed one million, becoming the largest emerging city in history, and now, New York is catching the wave of railroad development, hoping to progress further.

The New York Grand Central Terminal is one of the iconic symbols of New York’s railroad development, funded by railroad tycoon Vanderbilt.

He inherited his father’s estate in 1877, then massively expanded the New York Central Railroad network, acquiring the Chicago and Northwestern Railway, the Chicago, New York and St. Louis Railroad, the Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati, and Indianapolis Railroad. The Grand Central Terminal is one of his proud works.

The construction of the Grand Central Terminal is a microcosm of America’s railroad expansion. Once completed, it could accommodate 15,000 passengers. Upon completion, the New York Grand Central Terminal became a landmark building in Manhattan and the largest single structure in North America.

In the construction process of the Grand Central Terminal, Italians played a great role. Currently, Italy is the largest source country of immigrants to the United States. Although the number and quality of immigrants to the United States are far less than in past lives, they are not so poor. Italians and Slavs have filled the vacancies left by Germans.

The Heixinggen consortium bribed newspapers to objectively describe Germans in America in the German regions, dispelling the notion of most German immigrants going to America and choosing East Africa instead.

Although they knew little about East Africa, they understood the ways of nobility, and the appeal of the great nobles of the Heixinggen royal family was unparalleled by American upstarts.

Of course, America, being a land of opportunity, still carries some attraction for Germans with a rebellious streak. These people, just like those determined to get rich in Northern Myanmar, scoffed at the Heixinggen consortium’s objective description of America.

What ”hell on earth”? That’s because I haven’t been. I went to America, relying on the ”skills” honed in Germany to make a fortune. I’ve heard that American rich people are generous ”philanthropists,” so just kidnap a few, and we can get rich and return home in style, can’t we?

If you ask them how they know, they’ll say, people from my village who went before have all gotten rich. They asked me to go at the time, and now I’m hitting my thigh in regret.

These people, ignorant of the situation, only believe in their ”reliable inside information.” Let them go; no one is stopping them. When they get to America, the problem of even getting a meal arises, as the pioneers have already blocked the way, and they obviously don’t have the unity of the Italians.

The Italians going to North America include both revolutionaries and mafia organizations, with organizational capabilities far stronger than Germans.

They formed various engineering companies, then recruited people as ”workers,” providing paid cheap labor services to American individuals and enterprises, essentially outsourcing.

This year, a large number of Italian laborers were used in the construction of New York’s Grand Central Terminal. The status of Italians in America is slightly higher than that of Chinese, Indians, and Black people. Besides Black people, among whom the number is relatively large, Italians are most numerous, so their status is extremely limited. Most Italians can only engage in low-end work recognized by American society upon arriving, such as chefs, carpenters, and construction workers.

Anyway, there’s no concept of human rights. Mostly, they’re worked to death. If you want to resist, you have to deal with the mafia first. As partners of the capitalists, mafia members assist in managing their compatriots, preventing disturbances.

Although there’s always a risk of sudden death under high-intensity work, it’s still better than starving in Italy. Even if European working conditions may not be better than those in America, perhaps the social status is a bit lower, but most Italians are used to it. Besides, there are no Blacks in Europe to compare themselves to. As long as someone is worse off, there’s at least a sense of comfort.

Overall, Italian immigrants are satisfied with their lives in America, and the Italian mafia is even more so. The money is endless, and American businesses and capitalists are satisfied too. Italians are cheap, and with the mafia keeping them in check, they cause no trouble. Italians themselves are also more industrious than Indians and Blacks, with low management costs, who wouldn’t like such labor?

Furthermore, Italians don’t have a powerful homeland as their backing. Currently, Italy is back in a fragmented state, so their status naturally couldn’t rise. It’s only because they are Europeans that their status is slightly higher than that of Chinese, Indians, and Blacks.

Initially, newly arrived Italian immigrants held relatively high status and were accepted by American society. At the time, Italian immigrants were mainly small merchants, with laborers accounting for less than one-seventh.

However, in recent years, especially in the past two years, there has been a massive influx of Italians, and most are ordinary people without skills. Even if given the opportunity, they could only engage in low-end work. Coupled with Italian mafias opening branches across the United States, greatly worsening social security and causing a surge in crime rates, Italian immigrant communities turned into the slums among slums, greatly lowering the image and status of the Italian immigrant group in America.

And the initiators are actually the American government, the Italian mafia, the Kingdom of Italy, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and Ernst. The combined efforts of these forces caused this situation.

Under normal immigration procedures, even during war, Italian immigrants to America shouldn’t be this poor. However, Ernst pre-screened high-quality immigrants to East Africa and Paraguay in advance. Having top-notch Italian immigrants left for America would be unusual.