little miss austin

Alice thought that the matter of funds should not be a problem. In terms of company size, 1 pounds is at most a small company, but which big company—except for the East India Company of various countries, which is equivalent to a state-owned company—is not a small company Started?Come step by step.

Wesley actually didn't understand business or typewriters, so it was quite interesting to be able to agree to invest 1 pounds at once.

He also thought that he tried to avoid mentioning Jane as much as possible now, probably because he finally gave up his heart.After all, if a girl gets engaged in this day and age, it basically has nothing to do with other men. There are cases of divorce, but if it is not for the man or the woman has a major character problem, it is rare for someone to propose a divorce.Or, like Cathy, the fiancé dies before getting married.

When I think of Cathy, I think of her saying that the 1000 pounds will be used to run the company. Cathy is really a good sister, but Alice is not ready to use Cathy's 1000 pounds yet.Cathy didn't go home, but stayed in Edward's brother's Goldmusham Manor.

Jane, who was separated from her fiancé on two islands, was also full of energy this year.In the first half of the year, she was mainly revising "Eleanor and Mariana" and "First Impressions", as well as the semi-autobiographical love novella "Janet". In July, she went to Goethe Musham with her parents and sister. Manor, where "Susan" began.After Alice returned home, she read the less than half-written manuscript, and "Susan" was the later "Northanger Abbey".

Jane is 23 years old this year.In a country like Steventon, it is already an older unmarried young woman.There is already a daughter in the family who has vowed never to get engaged and married again, and her mother has accepted Cathy's decision helplessly. If there are any twists and turns in Jane's marriage, her mother will not be able to bear it.

Whenever Henry came home, his mother would ask how Tom Lefroy was doing in Dublin, if he had a job, if he was making any money.She allowed Tom to come back and get married when he made money, but not indefinitely. Jane had better get married before she turned 25.

Alice thought, this is the "did your mother force you to get married" at the end of the 18th century.

Jane has always been full of hope for her love.Tom sends two letters from Ireland every month, no more and no less. The first half of a letter usually talks about his work in the Dublin High Court, and the second half begins to talk about love.Jane would not let Alice peek at Tom's letters, but would sweetly pick out some sentences and relay them to her.This is probably because Cathy is not at home, and she has no one else to talk to but her little sister.

According to Tom's letter, he was doing well in the Dublin court system. Uncle Langlois gave him a sum of money, and he was very quickly in his department.It's not surprising that Tom is very smart. He came from a prestigious school and has a high IQ and EQ. Uncle Langlois has connections in the British House of Commons. As long as Tom has worked step by step in his career for more than ten years, it is not a problem to enter the House of Commons.

"But in that case, he will become the kind of 'politician' you hate most in the future." Alice said.

In this era, "lawyers" are actually a class between squires and craftsmen. Tom is like a "big lawyer". His future prospect is to become a member of parliament, which is higher than ordinary lawyers. Otherwise, , Tom Lefroy is also unlikely to be engaged to the pastor's daughter.Because the pastor is an exclusive profession, in terms of class division, it is at the same level as the country gentry. The social class of the ancestors of the Austin family and the Leigh family is relatively higher than that of ordinary priests.

Alice stayed at Mrs. Becker's house for two years, and felt more and more the convenience and discrimination brought by the level of social class.Both Alice and Lucinda’s backgrounds are not good. Lucinda’s family is rich, but not as rich as the Beckford family. As mentioned above, Lucinda's father only has daughters, so he has always wanted to give birth to a male heir, and there are many children in the family. Now there are 6, and Lucinda is the third.

And Alice’s background is a little better. After all, mother Cassandra’s great-grandmother is the daughter of an earl. The Li family and the Austin family have many relatives and friends, and they know many famous people. Mr. Hastings is still Alice's patron, when Lucinda's father came to visit his daughter, he treated Alice the same as he treated Lucinda. He took them out to play, eat, and buy anything. If Lucinda has a share, there will be Alice. a copy of

Lucinda has a good temper, not only is she not jealous, she is also very happy that her father also likes Alice.She finished her studies this year and left Mrs. Becker's house at the end of November. When she parted, she hugged Alice and cried for a long time, gave each other farewell gifts, made an appointment to write letters frequently, and kept several permanent residences in her home. The address was given to Alice.

Jane was not so disgusted with the word "politician", "If it were Tom, I don't think he would become that annoying guy."

It seems that love made her automatically add many layers of filters.

Alice snickered, "Then did he say, when will he be able to save a sum of money? He has a formal job, so he should be able to consider getting married. Mom said he has to buy a house first."

Jane was unhappy, "He hasn't said anything about the house yet, so I can't ask him directly."

"Ask him, just tell me what my imagined home looks like, and he will understand."

Jane rubbed her waist and scratched her, "How do you know everything?"

Alice fell on her little bed and rolled around laughing, "Don't scratch me!"

"Did you learn this in London?" Jane let her go.

"It's called the 'art of speaking'." Alice blushed a little, "But if you get married, you have to go to Dublin, and I may not see you once a year."

Jane hugged her all at once, and said softly, "Yes, what should I do? I also can't bear to leave you, Cathy, and Mom and Dad."

Everything about her is here, mostly in Steventon, parents, siblings, relatives and friends, familiar villages, familiar fields, familiar everything.When you arrive in Ireland, it is tantamount to another country, and you may not be able to return for many years.

"Let Tom come back and get a job in London. His tutor is in London, and he should have stayed in London."

Jane shook her head, "He was born in Ireland. If he wants to be a member of Parliament in the future, he must be a member of the constituency where he was born."

Alice frowned, "Complicated, I don't understand."

So Tom wants to be a politician?Only in this way can we change our family background and improve our class status, which is a very correct choice.But what about Jane?Will she still be the gifted writer of rural England in Ireland?She must be uncomfortable, not to mention the danger that will inevitably appear in the future-she will also become one of those women who are desperate to have children after they get married.

this is too scary!

Alice couldn't stand just imagining it.

Alice never thought that women had to marry and have children, not to mention the high maternal mortality rate in this era. Their first sister-in-law died of dystocia, and the poor child did not survive.

Thinking about it, she couldn't help shaking and shivering.

"What's wrong? Are you cold?" Jane hurriedly touched her face, got up and opened the cabinet, and added a thin quilt for her. "Okay, go to bed." Gently kissed her on the forehead and whispered, "I'm glad you're home. See you tomorrow, my dear little sister."

It's always fun to stay at home.

The chickens at home have been raised for a year, and when the Christmas holiday comes, it's time to sharpen the knife.Mom is very economical, one chicken gets two stews, and Alice can eat chicken legs every time, and she hasn't gotten tired of chicken legs yet.

The yard at home is also very large. The front yard is lawn, trees, and flower beds. In the middle of the back yard is a place to dry clothes and bed sheets. A little further away is a chicken coop and a stable. Roast suckling pig, fat but not greasy, fragrant with oily flowers.And because Alice came back after eating roasted squab and squab soup at Mrs. Gresham's, she said that the family should also raise some meat pigeons. She only started buying pigeons a few years ago.

Pigeon meat was better, and Alice asked her mother to stew at least one pigeon for Jane every month.When Jane was Alice's age, she had typhus and almost died. Alice always felt that she must be weak and needed to be replenished.Besides, Jane doesn't like chicken legs very much, but pigeon meat is tender, she likes to eat it.

A little farther away is the vegetable field of Austin's family. They grow their own vegetables, which are green and pollution-free.

In general, apart from the lack of electric lights and toilets, rural life in England is actually pretty good.

There is not much work to do at home in winter. Pastor George goes to look after the horses every day and add fodder. There are 4 horses in the stable including Alice's little Malamese.Ramses grew up and got a new saddle. Pastor George wanted to buy her a side-sitting women's saddle. Alice said that it would not be worthwhile to have a pair of saddles at home. Just buy an ordinary saddle. up.

However, Pastor George didn't buy any saddles afterwards, and Henry entrusted someone to send back a pair of 9% new saddles, which seemed to have been secretly obtained from the militia.

Because Alice was not at home, she did not ride a horse much. She originally wanted to take Ramses to London so that she could ride on the road on weekends. Mrs. Baker asked her if she had ever seen a young lady riding a horse on the streets of London. ?Not really.There are very, very few female riders, most of them are girls from noble families, and most of them have to sit sideways, and there are even fewer female riders who dare to ride with ordinary saddles like men.Alice had to give up.

But in Steventon, Alice doesn't care about so much "manners", she is always fully dressed, a men's style fit leather jacket specially made in London, a wool sweater inside to keep warm, men's style leather trousers, But at this time, the style is not the front button, but the side button. Inside are the down pants made by her mother, which are light and warm.

Wrap in a woolen scarf, put on woolen gloves, and ride out for a lap, often from Steventon to Dean, from Dean to Gresham, and back again.

When Mrs. Gresham saw her dressed up as a boy, she always said that she had gone to London for nothing, that she was not a lady at all, and that she was becoming more and more wild.

Alice was always smiling, never talking back or listening to her, Mrs. Gresham chattered for a while, and asked the maid to bring her hot tea, let her drink it warmer before going back.

If Wesley was at home, he would ride a horse and follow her around.He didn't like horse riding at first, and thought that this kind of exercise might be too intense, but he was close to Mo Zhehei, who was taken by William, and he also loved riding horses. After all, is there any man who doesn't like the feeling of galloping around the world?It's like why men in later generations can't wait to buy a car first when they have a little money, just want to have the feeling of "everything is under my control".

Needless to say, Henry's riding skills are excellent. When he returns home from the Christmas holidays, he will also take Alice out for laps, but he will be very careful not to run too fast. Every time he checks Ramses' saddle straps again and again, Make sure it's fastened.

Because of being a major shareholder and living nearby, Henry is now very familiar with Wesley, and privately told Alice that Wesley has changed a lot now compared to when he didn't go to Oxford University.It's not bad, he has increased his experience and knowledge, and in the future he will marry a lady with an annuity, and everyone will be happy.

He used to like Jane very much, but it wasn't that he liked Jane, so Jane must also like him.No one can force her to do things that Jane doesn't like to do.The three girls in the Austin family are very willful, but Henry just feels that the wayward sisters have their own cuteness.

At this year's New Year's Ball, Alice could only watch and not dance.This year, some new faces came to Gresham Manor. It is said that they are noble young ladies who are on vacation nearby, and William is among them.William introduced his friends to Wesley and Henry. Wesley is William's roommate, and Henry is also a graduate of Oxford University.

They were on vacation at a nearby noble manor. They went hunting foxes at the end of November. They ran around the wild hunting grounds for a whole week. The inside is worn out.

William happily talked about how interesting hunting is, even if the skin on his thighs is worn out, he must persevere and not be cowardly, otherwise he will be ridiculed by others.It took several days of rest after hunting to let the newly grown skin scab over, and it took another week before I was able to walk properly.This has nothing to do with riding skills, it has to do with pampering and raising a body with fine skin and tender flesh.

Ladies don't take part in hunting, but just play cards, embroider, take a walk, drink tea in the manor every day, ladies are too good.Of course, I also read novels. I set up a book club, and stipulated that I read a novel every week. Sometimes the number of people in the party was relatively large, and I would read the highlights of the novel aloud.

This is the elegant activity of a well-educated woman.As for playing the piano and dancing, it is a talent that needs to be shown when there are men around. Girls usually don't play this kind of skill when they are together.

Alice is not interested in the topics of those noble young masters. They usually turn to the actresses in the West End of London when they talk. It's all playboys, right.

She prefers to listen to the topics that the ladies talk about, and often asks questions.She was lovely, and William liked her very much, and everyone liked a sweet and elegant little girl.Knowing that she was learning lady manners from a well-bred and respected lady in London, she unconsciously regarded her as the same kind—of course, her social class was far inferior to theirs, but there was no need to show it.

Alice is very concerned about what kind of novels they will read. Currently, epistolary novels written by female writers are still in the ascendant and are still popular.I generally like the love story in it, full of fantasies about love, and very picky, but if there are any details that are not written in place, I will use a mocking tone to laugh at it.

It is true that they look down on women writers who write novels and publish them for profit, but it does not prevent them from liking some of them.

Novels written by male writers generally like adventure novels with exotic flavors, that is, Gothic novels that are still popular today, with fantasy elements, because the plots are bizarre and can satisfy their desire and yearning for unknown things in their hearts. The curiosity about the unknown is in everyone's heart, regardless of gender.

And because women have less chance to go out, they prefer to find more joys, sorrows, sorrows and joys from novels, because their lives are immutable, and they will never have the opportunity to come into contact with any adventurous things.

Excellent novels, regardless of subject matter or the gender of readers, should be universally welcomed by readers.All writers will include private goods in their works, without exception, this is the writer's own life experience, and beliefs - not narrowly defined religious beliefs, the so-called "views of life, morals and values" are not strictly unified Standards, as long as it is within the scope of social rules, writers are free to carry their own three views.

Mrs. Baker also mentioned this kind of book club among women in the upper class. Of course, there are also classes. People of what class hang out with people of what class. If you want to enter the circle of the upper class, the best and fastest The way is to participate in this kind of small group activities.

Alice didn't think about how to improve her social class and integrate into the circle of these noble ladies. The question she considered was very practical, that is, how to use the book clubs of these ladies and wives to promote Jane's novels published in the future .

There are already more than one newspaper in London. The Times has already been published, but due to transportation problems, they all radiate from London. For example, if it is delivered to Basingstoke, it must be at least at night or the next day Yes, it takes longer to reach Steventon, so the newspapers that Pastor George often reads are all newspapers from 2 or 3 days ago, which is very time-sensitive.

Advertising upcoming novels in newspapers is now almost the only means of promotion for publishers. To be honest, the cost of advertising is not expensive. Usually, they will advertise in several newspapers at the same time; another means of promotion is to print some Single leaflets are posted on the bulletin boards of various bookstores, or when customers come to buy books, the clerk will actively promote the book to the customer. win-win thing.

The bookstore is also Alice's key marketing target. Although she has no novels to publish and promote, the typewriter can also be sold in the bookstore!She is going to print some leaflets first, and the advertisements are a little extravagant, such as those rich and powerful families who often hold banquets, and just writing invitations requires a person to write hundreds of sheets in skilled cursive characters. Fei's typewriter is a symbol of power and status, and the invitations typed out by the typewriter are so fashionable, and how unique they are sandwiched in special invitations.

The industrial revolution is in full swing, and almost all classes of people can feel the impact of the industrial revolution, most of which are positive changes, even the lowest workers and the lowest servants, get more salary than 20 years ago, Inflation exists, but the prices of more mass-produced products drop rapidly, so the standard of living is higher than it was 20 years ago.

Therefore, typewriters, such fashionable industrial products and household machines, must not be difficult to promote. After all, "I have what no one else has" is also a kind of conspicuous consumption.

So Alice did not hesitate to set the price of the first batch of typewriters to 299 pounds per unit.

When Henry heard this number for the first time, his legs were almost limp in fright: This is his one-year allowance as a lieutenant officer!

Alice also wants to raise the price to £499.But think about it, 500 pounds to buy a home machine may indeed be too expensive, 299 pounds should be more appropriate.

William felt that the price of 299 pounds was acceptable to him.This is about the price of a middle-to-higher racehorse or hunting horse with saddle harness, which is not too expensive for them, and it is indeed a bit interesting to have no one else.Some aristocrats and rich people just want to get new gadgets as soon as possible, and want to be fashionable in everything. Otherwise, in social circles, people will ask: Have you bought a typewriter?The result is not, don't you want to lose face?

Alice then came up with another marketing idea, saying that the first batch of 100 units would be all cast with the LOGO of "Dr. Pepper" on copper sheets, and numbered on the body of the typewriter. The reservation would be opened after the New Year, and the deposit for the reservation would be collected. 100 pounds is fine.We have to start advertising to create the illusion that "this fresh and fashionable household machine is in short supply and can't be bought early or late".And it can only be booked from No. 011, No. 001 to No. 010 are reserved for distinguished royal family members.

If all 100 were sold, that would be £3, and the profit would be - £2!This is only the gross profit after deducting the manufacturing cost, but even if taxes and other necessary expenses are deducted, the profit is doubled.

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For tomorrow’s update on the 30th, see the [Thousand-Character Earnings Ranking] ranking. If it’s in the top five, update the first chapter with 12 words before 1:6000 noon. Update, also 5 words.

The author has something to say:

*Regarding the per capita annual income of Britain (I don’t know if Ireland is included) at that time, the statistics at the end of the 17th century (this figure must be inaccurate but still of great reference value) was more than 7 pounds, which was the highest per capita income in Europe at that time, around 1860 It's less than 30 pounds.

Pastor George's parish income was about 150 to 200 pounds. At that time (at the end of the 18th century), the annual income of a highly professional craftsman like a blacksmith was 100 pounds.

In "Jane Eyre", the annual salary of a governess is 30 pounds, which was considered a high-paying occupation in the mid-19th century.

*The cost and profit of typewriters are written casually, and similar information is too difficult to find.