Eighth year of Chongzhen

Chapter 881

In March of the 24th year of Chongzhen, after more than two years of wandering, the caravans and the Ming Navy formations that sailed to Europe returned to Tianjin Port. After the news reached the capital, Zhu Youjian nodded and agreed. Several doctors went to Tianjin Port to welcome Zhang Wenyao and more than 1000 soldiers from the fleet.

After the brief welcome ceremony, Zhang Wenyao and other chief generals accompanied the court officials to the capital to report on their duties. Most of the rest of the soldiers will return to Dengzhou Port on their respective warships after a short rest in Tianjin Port for a few days.

The fleet led by the Four Seas Commercial Bank unloaded and distributed some of the goods, and then set sail south again to Guangzhou, Quanzhou, Shanghai, Ningbo and other ports, and distributed the remaining goods in the south of the Yangtze River.

In the next period of time, the business owners who participated in this voyage organized various gatherings to summarize what they saw, heard and experienced during the opening of the business route, and then discussed how to proceed in the next step.

During the voyage of more than [-] miles back and forth, the entire caravan was hit by a storm in the waters near the Cape of Good Hope. Four merchant ships and their cargo capsized, and more than [-] people were killed, including more than a dozen shopkeepers of various commercial firms.

For these commercial firms, the loss this time is not small, but compared with the amazing profits they have obtained, it is actually nothing.

In the past, when the major trading houses organized and sold the goods to the Dutch merchant ships, they were quite satisfied with the profits generated. The owners were very satisfied with the high prices that the Dutch bought various goods, but this trip to Europe was greatly improved. It subverts everyone's traditional cognition.

It turns out that the Dutch have earned so much silver from Daming, and the prices of various commodities sold by Daming to Europe can be as high as several times or even ten times. Earning away, I only lost a small head.

Although there are losses of goods and personnel after the capsizing of merchant ships, after considering various factors such as the cost of these sunken goods, the burning and burying of the victims, the distribution of goods, and the time consumed, the owners found that the silver coins they got were more expensive than In the past two years in Daming, I have earned more than twice as much.

The excess profits of sea trade are enough to make all big merchants jealous.

After hearing about the huge profits from this voyage, many giant merchants who did not organize their cargo and merchant ships to participate because they were worried about the high risk felt as if they were cutting out their hearts with sharp knives. Almost all of them regretted not taking this profitable ship. .

Not long after this short but heated discussion on maritime trade ended, Jinzhou and Jiangnan Shipyard welcomed a large number of giant businessmen from Jiangnan.

The owners either sent their own big shopkeepers, or brought their servants to go out in person, and some big merchants even came to the shipyard with large bank notes to buy and book large merchant ships.

All of a sudden, the restaurants and inns where the two shipyards are located were all full. Some owners who went out in person saw that there was no hope of buying a new ship, so they directly left the bank notes to their cronies and returned to their hometowns, and repeatedly asked their cronies to use all means , Buying merchant ships first, in preparation for another voyage to the West that is being brewed by merchants in the south of the Yangtze River.

In order to cope with the sudden situation of overcrowding due to the overcrowding of ships, the principals of the two shipyards hurriedly reported the news to Yousi, and at the same time urgently recruited a large number of young and strong laborers from the vicinity of the station. After expanding the scale and scope of the shipyards, , turning the newly recruited young adults into workers.

The principals of the two shipyards and other middle- and lower-level officials with some powers suddenly became sought-after meat and potatoes.

The shopkeepers of the various commercial firms stayed in the local area waiting to pick up the new ship, used various means and relationships to catch up with these principals, and then either visited them with gifts, or invited them to feast and have fun, trying to pass these Ways to open up the joints, and strive to buy a new ship one day earlier than others.

You must know that building a ship is extremely time-consuming. It is not that you pay a deposit today and the new ship that has passed the inspection can be driven away in a few days. The long process in the middle is enough to make people lose heart.

Just like the Jinzhou Shipyard, the entire shipyard now has four large docks, two of which are building new warships for the Ming Navy, and most of the skilled craftsmen have been transferred to participate, so that only two are left. The shipyard builds merchant ships, and the number of craftsmen and small workers is not too large. In this case, the speed of merchant ship construction is greatly slowed down.

The owner of the Jinzhou Shipyard is also shrewd and capable. Before receiving a response from Shangfeng, he immediately used the profits that had not yet been handed in, recruited nearly a thousand laborers from Jinzhou and surrounding areas, and started building three shipyards as soon as possible. To deal with the merchant ship orders that made him sleep with laughter.

In June of the 24th year of Chongzhen alone, Jinzhou Shipyard received as many as [-] orders for merchant ships, while Jiangnan Shipyard received orders from local big merchants more than twice that of Jinzhou due to its geographical advantages.

With the current capacity of these two shipyards to launch two to three merchant ships per year, these orders will take several years to complete, and the scale of expansion is imperative.

The Ministry of Industry and the Ministry of Households successively received urgent documents from the two shipyards. After a brief discussion, the officials sent the news to the cabinet. .

The cabinet proposed in the proposal that, given that the current threat from the sea is equivalent to nothing, the two shipyards can appropriately reduce the construction speed and quantity of warships, and while supporting the expansion of the shipyards, they should use timber and other related shipbuilding materials and personnel. Configuration, etc., are heavily tilted towards the construction of merchant ships to meet the explosive growth of merchant ship demand.

After careful consideration, Zhu Youjian agreed to the cabinet's proposal.

In addition to increasing Taicang's income, he has new plans for the development blueprint of the Ming Dynasty Navy.

There will also be fundamental changes to the previous generation of warship construction plans.

Because according to the latest news, his most anticipated steam engine project has made significant progress, and a working prototype of the machine is being manufactured.
Although this symbolic product of the first industrial revolution is only in its most primitive form, Zhu Youjian has reason to believe that with the improvement of various conditions, in another dozen or 20 years, the steam engine-powered warships of the Ming Dynasty will be in full swing. Between the oceans, it may no longer be a dream.

If this is the case, then the new type of gunboat under construction will become tasteless, after all, the power of the sail can catch up with the power of the battleship itself.

The news that the steam engine is about to be built was reported by Fang Yizhi to the palace yesterday. While Zhu Youjian was very excited, he also reminded Fang Yizhi to instruct the relevant people not to reveal any secrets.

After Fang Yizhi left, Zhu Youjian immediately ordered Jin Yiwei to dispatch elite forces to conduct close inspection and protection of the surrounding areas of the Royal Institute of Technology.

(End of this chapter)