Jamie Kassiotis Farmer #4 British India

Hello everybody, it's Caleb again.
Things have basically stayed the same since my last post, so i'm not going to talk about my life. Instead, I'm going to talk about India. India is a very unique place, it is a British colony and is a great source of wealth. Many sons of titled families go to India as army officers to earn their fortune. I am not the son of a titled family, but I don't think you need to be rich and fancy to join the military in India. Why are only the wealthy able to take advantage of these opportunities? It's not fair. India is run mainly by the British, so it would be just like living here except much hotter. British India or British Raj was founded in 1858. The U.K. had complete control over it. The East India Company controlled trade and set up factories and mills in India.


That's the flag of British India.
Well, wish me luck going to India! I don't know how it will work out trying to get into the army there but I make so little money now farming I have to find something else to do. Goodbye!
http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/images/i/in~bre.gif
http://www.victorianweb.org/history/empire/india/india.html

Carpenter 4

Ah, Christmas. This looks like it will be one of the best in years, maybe even my life. With the rising amount of entertainment for the middle and lower classes, I have more opportunity than ever. I have made  enough money this year to be able to buy a small turkey for my brother's family and me and Egbert. Before, I hadn't even closed the shop, much less celebrated in previous years. Though I'm not sure why this holiday celebration started, I enjoy it because it gives me a chance to look away from business issues and towards what little family I have.



I am planning on taking my brother's boys to get a tree for the celebration to decorate like the Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. Like them, His children made a Christmas card of their own and sent it to me. It may be because I have no wife or children, but I appreciate this gesture of kindness.

Christmas crackers, though new, seem like they will fall out of popularity soon. The are good crackers, but the social aspect of it paired with the silly hats will cause people to be drawn away from it soon enough. I have been perused by many to start giving them out with furniture, as is the business norm, but it is just a waste of money. Unless  they pay for them separately, they are not getting anything more than what they order. That is how business should be.

Though meager the feast shall be, it shall be joyous and exciting. It will most likely resemble Lewis Caroll"s A Christmas Carol. That is currently one of my favorite books, considering ass well that i do not read very well and have but four books from my lack of education and means to buy books.

Exporter Entry #4: Victorian Food/Diet

As an exporter, I travel to many different places. In each  place there is something different, something new. Recently, I have been very interested in the different foods and how various ingredients are used to make food. However, my favorite foods are right here at home, in England. 

For breakfast, I eat a vary of different foods as do other wealthy merchants. We eat a vary of different things in the morning from bacon and eggs to fruit, haddock, and coffee. We enjoy coffee in the morning and tea in the afternoon.

Some of the more poor people survive off drippings, bread (probably stale), and a small variety of vegetables, with a small bit of tea. They do not have many luxuries like the wealthier people; they typically eat bland foods. Potatoes and rotten vegetables is a usual daily meal.

This is an example of a common meal that would be easy to acquire for the poor.

Wealthier people, like me, can have meat and cheese daily for dinner, sometimes even bacon at dinner, too! I love bacon as I'm sure you can tell. On average, I have a large breakfast, a lighter lunch, and a very late dinner/supper. In order to fill the gap in the afternoon we have tea, which is my favorite time of the day. My friends and I always come together and drink tea together, relaxing and having a good time.

One of my favorite recipes is one my mother used to make me when I was younger. It is from Fannie Farmer Cook Book 1896. She made Pork Chops with Fried Apples. First she would wipe off the pork chops, then she would swiftly and fluidly sprinkle them with salt and pepper. She looked so graceful when she did so. Although my sister was the one who helped with the cooking, I enjoyed watching. Then she would cook them slowly until they were tender and brown on both sides in a hot frying-pan. After the pork chops were removed and arranged on the plates she would fry the apples in the remaining fat from the pork. The apples were then placed on the plate with the pork chops. It was simple, but it tasted wonderful; apples soon became my favorite fruit, even when they weren't fried in deliciousness.

Although I prefer finer foods, I also enjoy what the street vendors sell. It is sort of a guilty pleasure. I like the rice milk and ginger beer. I find some of the foods there disgusting like the Plum Duff. It is too gluey, and I do not enjoy the gross raisins sprinkled throughout it. I love apples, but I do not like plums in the least.
That is a plum duff^ . Looks gross, right? 

The street vendors have some good foods, but they are mostly for the working class. I usually enjoy meats for dinner rather than cheaper foods. Those poor people are really missing out on the bacon.

Sources:
http://www.victorianchildren.org/victorian-food/
http://www.victorian-era.org/victorian-food.html
http://www.thecompletevictorian.com/thepantry.html
http://listverse.com/2013/01/06/10-weird-foods-sold-by-victorian-street-vendors/

Candle shop owner #4

Thanks to the dowry of my son's wife, We have added an extension to our coffers. My son's wife, Kanaya Maryam -now Kirkland- and my own wife, Clara, went dress shopping. I was forced along, since I needed a new suit from the tailors'. Savile Row had Many tailors,the best for both men and women, so Clara and I headed there. In the carriage ride she told me about the various styles of the day...
     "Good Corsets," She began "Are made of steel or whalebone.They help keep up our figure."
Kanaya, though blushing, listened intently.
      "I once heard a doctor friend of mine talk about the effects of those corsets," I remembered, "They squeezed the lungs,liver,intestines,bladder, and dislocated the stomach"
        Kanaya made a gagging sound.
"Anyway-" Clara glared a little at me "The skirt, in order to be made to look bigger, has a skeleton made out of steel wire. It is more flexible than most other materials used. We put on a first layer, so the springs shan't be seen when we put on a second."
    She pointed to Kanaya's bright green dress ,
"That fabric is dyed with Arsenic to produce that color, And I will have you know that Paisley shawls are quite in-fashion. In fact-" Clara turned to me and giggled, "The brighter the dress the better."
She frowned slightly, her grey eyes growing dark, and leaned toward me.
"Her majesty, Queen Victoria, has recently become enamored by the highlands, so plaid might be in style soon"
Her eyes suddenly twinkled brightly, and she tapped me playfully in the chest with her fan. (I would never allow such a thing in public, but no one outside could see in.)
"We need to get you a dinner jacket!"
And we arrived at the tailors, no more to be said...

Nobleman #4

As a nobleman, I constantly have to deal with money, either coming as profit, leaving as expenses,

buying and selling goods, and more. It has come to my attention that the British monetary system is not as organized and orderly as other currency systems today and so I shall share with you on how its complications work. Today, Queen Victoria is found on most of British currency.
After the Normans invaded England in 1066 and to this day, the basic monetary systems have been the same, although different types of coins have been added to the system. There are three main units of money, the pound, the shilling, and the penny. Each are represented by their own symbols:
Pounds=£ or |; Shillings=s. or /- (from the Latin solidus); Pence=d. (from the Latin denarius, an ancient Roman silver coin). The symbols and numbers are spaced using hyphens. (£1-3s.-5d.)
There are 20 shillings in a pound and 12 pennies in a shilling, meaning that there are 240 pence (the plural of penny) in a pound. Each penny is divided further into two halfpence, and each halfpence is divided into two farthings, so there is 4 farthings in one penny.
Why are there 20s. in £1 and 12d. in 20s.? This is because there used to be a unit of weight for precious metals called a pennyweight during the rein of King Henry II. One penny weighed one pennyweight, and 240 pennyweights equalled one pound.

Here are the coins of the currency system (some are still used but some are defunct):
Farthing (2 farthings in 1 halfpenny)                         Halfpenny (2 halfpennies in 1 penny)
Penny (3 pence in 1 threepenny bit)                          Half-Groat (2 half-groats in 1 groat)
Threepenny Bit/(2 threepence in 1 sixpence)            Groat (4 pence in 1 groat)
Sixpence (2 sixpence in 1 shilling)                            Shilling (2 shillings in 1 florin)                                    Florin (1 florin and 1 sixpence in 1 half crown)        Half Crown (2 half crowns in 1 crown)
Crown (2 crowns in 1 half-soverign)                         Half-Sovereign (2 half-soverigns in 1 sovereign)
Half-Guinea (1 half-soverign and 1 sixpence in one half-guinea)
Sovereign (1 pound coin)                                          Guinea (1 pound and 1 shilling in 1 guinea)
£5 coin
A threepenny bit (or threepenny) is also known as a joey, a sixpence is also known as a tanner, a penny is also known as a copper, a shilling is also known as a bob, and a florin is also known as a two bob bit. 1 crown is equal to 5 shillings and is sometimes called a dollar as well.

The guinea (My favorite denomination) has a value of £1-1s. and is used only when giving or receiving currency with the nobility and gentlemen. There used to be a guinea coin, but in 1816, the coin was taken out of circulation. The Guinea coast in Africa is famous for its gold, which is why the coin was named a guinea.
There are also special ways of writing certain denominations. For instance, 12s.-6d. would be written as 12/6 and 10 shillings would be written as 10/.
There are also paper banknotes for higher denomination values. These include the quid, or the £1 banknote, the fiver, or £5 note, the tenner, or £10 note, the £20 banknote, etc.
There have been many more different coins and banknotes throughout British history, and this is no means a complete list.
Maybe one day the currency system will be decimalised...

Sources:
http://resources.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/customs/questions/moneyold.htm#back
http://www.studyenglishtoday.net/british-money.html
http://media.liveauctiongroup.net/i/13425/14157083_1.jpg?v=8CF7F23209D6C60 (Picture)

General Store Owner #4

Hey guys its time for another blog and that time is the Victorian era.  The reaction to Queen Victoria has been that of Universal Acclaim.  They have gone so far as to name our time the Victorian era.  Everything is changing and I have adopted the new fashion with open arms.  Women always wear there best so they wear some variation of a dress with the jewels they can afford.  Men are always in some variation of a suit.  we usually have long coats, matching pants, polished shoes, and a bucket hat(although a bucket hat is not required although they are insanely popular).  Facial hair is extremely popular at this time so I have started to grow all that I can.  Typically we would wear vests underneath our coats with a tie or bow-tie.  Our pants are balloon style similar to what baseball players wear with high socks, just not as tight.  If you don't have a pocket watch to hold in your pocket or hand, you could have a cane even if you didn't need one.  An alternative was to have a cane and a pocket watch.  Truly Yours, Ken.

"Victorian Clothing,Victorian Era Costumes for Women,Men,Children,Shoes,Hats." Victorian Clothing,Victorian Era Costumes for Women,Men,Children,Shoes,Hats. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Nov. 2014.

Jamie Kassiotis: Farmer Post #3

(I'm so sorry this is late, I forgot all about it and had a busy weekend)
Hello, it's Caleb again. I'm going to keep this post short and sweet as I am in dire circumstances. With the Industrial Revolution in full swing, factories and foreign farms are ruining my business! The other day, I sold my property and land off to the enclosure and now I am living in Manchester, England. Life is tough, and I can't find a job but I'm sure that things will get better. Anyway a lot of things are going on. Queen Victoria was visiting Manchester today. It was nice to see her for the first time. I like her much more than William IV. Britain has reached it's height of wealth and power with her on the throne. She became queen when she was just 18! I find that amazing. She was only here on business so I only got a glimpse of her, but it was still nice.

Women have been getting a lot more rights nowadays. especially because men are getting more and more. All men in England get universal suffrage, but women get none. This has caused them to hold several militant protests, even here in Manchester! I have a picture I took there too, here it is.



Most of them got arrested, it's risky doing protests nowadays. The riots gain attention but generate no response from government figures, right now only New Zealand out in Oceania lets their women vote.
Women have a lot of rights now but they don't have suffrage.

Mass culture and entertainment is also really emerging. Only the wealthy enjoyed these things before. Now there are so many more things to do and see and it's much cheaper. Because people work so much, they need to let off some steam at things like theater, movies, and sporting events like football and cricket games.

I took this photo during a cricket game that I didn't have enough money to get into. It costed ten shillings! They usually don't cost this much though, but this one was part of a tournament.


My grandmother in Sheffield sent me this photo of a stage at a vaudeville show before the act. She said the show as splendid! It was like nothing she had ever seen in her life. I was I could of seen it too...
I must go now, I have to find a job! Hopefully things will get better...