Back to Ming Dynasty with Industrial Revolution System

Chapter 1135 Lease the royal land to build a factory

"This land is the land approved by His Majesty the King for your company. It belongs to the royal family. You are free to use and build any factories except fortresses." Servants of the British royal family led Li Jinde and other directors of Western companies to the city of London. A large piece of barren land in the outer city, only a few farmhouses and a piece of farmland.

Because it was winter, the farmhouses and fields were covered with snow.

"Isn't this farmland?" Li Jinde asked in surprise.

"The tax on farmland is too low. It is not even as good as raising sheep. If you lease it to you as a factory, the annual rent will be higher. Moreover, His Majesty the King does not lack farmland. His Majesty the King has carefully selected the crops produced here in previous years. It was transported to the city by horse-drawn carriage and the Thames River, so the transportation here is very convenient." The servant introduced them to the land that Charles I leased to Li Jinde and them.

Li Jinde and others walked around the land and were generally satisfied with the land.

"We plan to build a cotton mill, a wool mill, a smelter, and a sugar mill." Li Jinde and others made plans for this land, which is basically a processing industry that can obtain raw materials in the city of London.

As for the Song and Ming porcelains and tea with local characteristics in the mainland, they cannot be produced here for the time being due to the difference in water and soil.In fact, rare things are more expensive. Porcelain and tea imported from China can be sold at a higher price than direct production in the local area, and it is easier to be regarded as "high-end products" and obtain higher profits.

"There should be a warehouse at this location. This is a worker's farmhouse. If a small piece of farmland is reserved for planting fruits to provide benefits, it should be able to improve the work efficiency of workers." Some Huaxia businessmen put forward their own opinions.

The western trading company they run is equivalent to a foreign company for British workers. In order to quickly recruit local handicraft workers and establish a high-end brand image, they plan to recruit skilled workers with more wages and benefits.

"I think we draw the map of this land before planning, and plan on the sketch." A businessman suggested.

"Very true." A group of businessmen nodded.

They soon had the royal land leased to them by Charles I measured and sketched.According to the agreement between the Western Company and Charles I, the Western Company submitted rents to the royal family based on the land lot and area.Charles I, who was eager for money, granted a piece of land directly under the royal family to a Western company without much scruples.Compared with the squires, merchants, and nobles in the parliament, Charles I felt that Western companies did not threaten his royal power, so he was not too worried about Western companies that could bring him a lot of rental income every year.The main issue is money.Building a standing army and navy loyal to the king required a lot of money, and Charles I, who wanted to make a career, was desperate for money.

A small and medium-sized gunboat costs several thousand pounds, and a battleship costs tens of thousands of pounds, and there is also a large amount of maintenance costs every year.Charles I also had plans to establish a standing army to enhance national power and the king's control over the country.The army is not as expensive as the navy, but the total cost of the large army is several times that of the navy.

"The lease term of this land is ten years, and the contract can be renewed with the royal family depending on the situation. The traffic condition is good, but there is still a distance from the core area of ​​the city of London. But for the factory, it doesn't matter if it is not in the core area , as long as the finished product can be shipped to market quickly.”

Everyone discussed and planned the leased land, and divided the entire rented area into different areas, such as cotton mills, wool mills, smelters, sugar factories, workers' farmhouses, small farmlands, and warehouses, forming a The prototype of a small industrial park.

"The steam engine is still on the merchant ship. I wonder if the cold winter will affect the machine?"

"We still ask the workers to move the steam engine to the ground to prevent the cold winter from affecting the steam engine. The price of a small steam engine is thousands of taels of silver. Our factory will still need to rely on them in the future. We want to bring a steam engine from the mainland It is too difficult to transport it here.”

"Cotton mills, wool mills, and sugar mills need to hire workers there, but iron smelting plants should still be operated by our own workers. Metallurgical technology is the core technology listed by the government and should not be exposed to British workers. Our core technology. The steel we produce is suitable for casting cannons and weapons, which are military supplies.” Many of the directors of Western companies are sent by the Ministry of Household Affairs.One of the missions they pursue is to protect the core industrial technology when setting up factories locally, so as to ensure the leading position of European products.

"Everyone, don't forget that the sugar factory is also divided into two production lines. We have a long history of sugar cane sugar technology, but the sugar cane on the Western side is all grown in overseas places called West Africa and the West Indies. Once they happen war, the price of sugar cane will rise on a large scale. Our Academy of Sciences has developed a beet sugar technology that can replace sugar cane sugar technology. Find a way to lease a large farm from the king or the squire to grow beets, or we can encourage farmers around here to grow beets, and then we buy beets from them. It happens that the land leased to us by the king is farmland, and there are many There are few farmers, we have to find a way for them to grow beets and make sugar. As far as I know, they have not used beet sugar technology here, and the beet sugar technology needs to be kept secret..." The director from the government also made sugar beets Sugar technology is listed as the same core technology as metallurgical technology.

The core of the textile industry is not the textile industry itself, but the steam engine technology. It is not easy to imitate the steam engine, and there is also a lack of high-quality steel and machine tools required by the standard steam engine.

"The craftsmen in charge of the construction are our craftsmen, but there is still a shortage of manpower. We need to hire more craftsmen and stonemasons temporarily. I don't know if we can build our Chinese-style houses."

"Let's start hiring British workers. As long as the bid is higher than the workshop owners here, they will definitely flock here."

Everyone is naturalizing the layout of the industrial park. The next step is to build factories, install steam engines, and recruit cheap manual workers in Britain.

"They need to be trained in Chinese, otherwise the cost of communication will be too high. It is better to give British workers who are proficient in Chinese the opportunity to be promoted to the middle and lower management levels, so as to stimulate them to learn Chinese." Li Jinde, who was deeply troubled by the language barrier, proposed Proposals for reforming British workers.

(End of this chapter)