Back to Ming Dynasty with Industrial Revolution System

Chapter 1817 Completion of the Suez Canal
The Suez Canal, which connects the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea, has greatly shortened the distance between the East and the West, and reduced the distance of thousands of nautical miles. Merchant ships traveling between the East and the West can send their goods to designated places in a shorter time, and avoid Dangerous sea areas such as Cape Storm.

The two steamships "Fog" and "Moon" came to the Suez Canal and found that there was a river where the land was originally, and a new port appeared.

Standing on the deck of the steamship, Chu Lingyun looked at the man-made Grand Canal, and couldn't help thinking that there was also a great canal excavation project in the east, that is, the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal.

The Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal is even longer than the Suez Canal.However, the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal was repaired in successive dynasties, and inland ships usually pass through it. Some water sections may be less than 2 meters deep, and ships over 100 tons cannot pass through.As far as inland water transport is concerned, the shortage of tonnage can be fully made up by quantity.

This time Chu Yun formed the Suez Canal Company to go to Egypt to dig the Suez Canal, but it is used for ocean shipping. Its depth and width must be sufficient for 50000-ton ships to pass through, otherwise the Suez Canal will lose its cargo value in the future.

A 50000-ton freighter was unimaginable in this day and age, as even the largest ships produced by Imperial Dockyards weighed no more than 10000 tons.

But Chu Yun knows that it is estimated that it will take decades for the 5-ton giant ship to appear.As the world's grand canal connecting the Mediterranean Sea and the Indian Ocean, the Suez Canal definitely needs to plan for the future, otherwise it will soon cost a lot of money to expand the Suez Canal.

"I didn't expect that artificial power could be so great, and it forcibly connected two different sea areas. This Grand Canal is more than 100 kilometers long, and many places still pass through the desert."

"It will save a lot of time for those of us who come to the West to do business in the future. There are probably tens of thousands of people and more than 10 tons of goods passing through here every year, and the toll alone may be more than 10 taels."

The envoys on the steamship looked at the river surface of the rather wide canal. Even if the two steamships "Fog" and "Moon" sailed side by side, there would be no problem.

The Suez Canal Company also built a port at the entrance and exit of the Suez Canal, known locally as Port Said, as a "toll booth".

The Mediterranean Fleet also specially sent two wooden warships to station in Port Said to protect the port and arrest ships that did not pay tolls.

The Suez Canal was not built for charity, but for economic and military purposes.

In terms of military use, the Suez Canal is similar to the Strait of Malacca, and both are places of contention for military strategists.

For economic purposes, it is natural to collect tolls on passing ships.

The two steam cruisers "Fog" and "Moon" entered Port Said, and the director in charge of managing Port Said came to entertain them: "I am Liu Zhong, Governor of Port Said of the Suez Canal Company, what do you think of this canal?"

A group of envoys both complimented and replied from the bottom of their hearts: "It's amazing."

"Haha, we have been working hard for 11 years, and we have maintained the number of Egyptian laborers at more than 10 per year, so that we can dig such a section of the canal. 11 years, you can hardly imagine how long this is. I was a Technician, you have now become the governor of Port Said." Liu Zhong said to a group of officials who arrived.

In fact, he was considered an official and belonged to the Ministry of Industry, while the passing envoys were staffed by the Ministry of Rites, so they could be regarded as colleagues from different departments, so there was no need to be too polite.

It is rare for Chu Lingyun and his party to pass through the Suez Canal, and his father Chu Yun even allowed him to travel through these places, so as to familiarize himself with the situation in all parts of the world.

If you only focus on the local area, you will easily fall into the predicament of closing the country.

Chu Lingyun can drink the best batch of tea from the local area here.

Compared with the good tea that Venice, Prussia and other kingdoms think, the Chinese people themselves know what is good tea that suits their own taste.

"Apart from the governor of Port Said, what governors does the Suez Canal Company have?" Chu Lingyun asked about the situation of the Suez Canal Company.

"I am the governor of Port Said in the north, and the governor of Suez City in the south. As long as we firmly control the entrance and exit of the canal, the Suez Canal is in our hands. After the increase in cargo ships and passenger ships traveling between East and West, the canal must be The income is one million taels of silver every year," Liu Zhong said.

An envoy asked again: "I'm afraid it will take a long time to recover the cost of excavating the Suez Canal? I heard that for the excavation of the Suez Canal, the Ministry of Households allocated more than 1000 million taels of silver to the Ministry of Industry."

1000 million taels of silver!
"It will indeed take 30 to [-] years to recover the cost. This kind of big project is not intended to be profitable in a short time. Even if our generation does not make a profit, there will be the next generation, the next generation, will definitely recover Cost. This is only a direct profit, and the real big one should be an indirect benefit. Our merchant ships save a lot of time and money, and the tolls we charge are only a small part of their cost savings.” Liu Zhong said The prospect of the Suez Canal is full of confidence.

Everyone nodded after hearing this. The indirect benefits brought by the Suez Canal are much higher than the direct tolls, and its value is difficult to measure.

For thousands of years, the rulers of Egypt have wanted to dig a canal, but no one has been able to do it. Now the Suez Canal has finally opened.

"It's a pity that we have just opened the sea route in South Africa, and it seems to have fallen into disrepair. Our ships can reach the Western Ocean without passing through the Cape of Storms. I think people in the future will take the Suez Canal route and not go any further. The Cape of Storms route. We also have a transfer station called Cape Town in South Africa, will it become unpopular in the future?" An ambassador asked.

Chu Lingyun was listening to the conversation between them, thoughtful.

Indeed, if it is possible to reach Europe through the Mediterranean Sea, the long African route may be neglected.

"Maybe in the next ten or 20 years, the African route will become deserted. But I think that Africa will also have value worth developing. In addition to our Cape Town transit station in South Africa, we seem to have recently sent a An expedition into South Africa?" An ambassador mentioned an interesting message.

"The expedition team in South Africa? South Africa is full of miasma, and there are many uncivilized tribes. What is the expedition team doing there?" Everyone was surprised.

"Maybe it was to find some minerals. Didn't the teams we went to North America and Oceania go deep into some barren lands and find a lot of gold? Otherwise, how could the Ministry of Finance be so rich and throw tens of millions of taels of silver into the Suez Canal?" Under construction."

(End of this chapter)