The Imperial Age with the Resurgence of Han Style

Chapter 274 The ideal place for the "hand-chopping party"
In the second year of Hanxing (1672), a senior craftsman from the Black Mountain (near Palmerston, Australia) steel factory invented the reverberatory furnace and the mixing and rolling method.

Stirring can remove carbon from molten iron. Rolling uses a rolling press to replace the hammer for forging iron. The revolutionary significance of this invention is not only to save fuel, but more importantly, to increase the iron output per hour by ten times compared with before. Times as much.

In the 1684th year of the Han Dynasty (), an engineer at the Yiyang (today's Collie, a city in southwestern Australia) Iron and Steel Works invented the hot-air ironmaking method, which saved both coal and time.

This series of technological innovations led to the continuous increase of Qi's steel production. By the first year of Yonglong (1730), the national steel output reached 80 million tons. In more than years, it increased nearly times, accounting for almost the entire world's steel production. % of total output.

This made Qi the largest steel exporter more than 40 years ago. However, the more important technological revolution is still in the steelmaking industry, because machine manufacturing cannot be separated from steel.

In the fifth year of the Han Dynasty (1675), at the suggestion of Emperor Taizu, the Industrial Research Institute of the Royal Academy of Sciences and the Daxing Iron and Steel Works came up with the crucible steelmaking method, which could easily produce high-quality steel.

Although this steelmaking method is not very perfect and the cost is high, it has been used until now and has become the most important production method in major steel plants in Qi.

With the advancement of technological revolutions in power, fuel and steel industries, material conditions have been prepared for the development of Qi's machine manufacturing industry.

In the early days of the Industrial Revolution, most of the machines in Qi were made by hand using high-quality wood. This kind of machine has small output, high cost, low efficiency, and is not wear-resistant. Most of them are jointly manufactured by special machine manufacturers and factories that use machines. They are cut with axes, chisels, and knives, and are not suitable for the needs of large-scale industrial development.

Starting from the 1960s, Qi State used steam hammers and simple lathes to manufacture some metal parts for wooden machines, and handmade wooden machines began to be partially replaced. In the early 1980s, machines gradually began to be used to manufacture machines, and a preliminary machine manufacturing industry was established.

The widespread use of steamships not only made Qi the first modern maritime country, but more importantly opened up a new era of world ocean transportation.

Fortunately, Qi State has long ago invested huge amounts of money, manpower and material resources, regardless of cost, to develop the application of steam engines. While providing more efficient power output for industrial production, it also began to gradually explore and test its installation in "large-scale "horse-drawn carriage", thus triggering a subversive revolution in land transportation - the birth of the train.

The Hanzhou continent is vast and vast, and the area of ​​cultivated land gradually cultivated is increasing day by day. Compared with the scarce agricultural labor force, it has also given rise to the need for large-scale agricultural production, and the technological achievements in industry have provided the opportunity to realize this requirement. condition.

Hanzhou has a vast territory and a vast area, and is extremely rich in various mineral resources, which can provide the most abundant raw materials for Qi's industrial development.

The Hanzhou continent is isolated on the sea and far away from the surrounding major overseas markets. This forces Qi to vigorously develop and promote the maritime transportation industry and actively improve ship manufacturing technology.

The development of railway transportation and railway technology has completely changed the way humans travel, making the world smaller and smaller, and business connections getting closer and closer.

Most of the many rivers in Hanzhou are seasonal rivers, and the water volume is not abundant, and the navigation conditions are extremely poor. Even if huge costs are spent to dredge the rivers and build canals, the effect is not very great.

New railways are constantly being built, quickly replacing the main role of road transportation. In the seventh year of Taiping (1711), Qi's important railway lines had been basically completed. By the 1722th year of Taiping (), Qi State had more than railway locomotives. By the first year of Yonglong, it could be said that Qi State's railway system was basically completed.

Agricultural production, which accounts for the vast majority of labor resources, also urgently requires technological innovation and requires more manpower to be freed from heavy agricultural production.

Subsequently, calenders, cutting machines, machine hammers, milling machines, drilling machines, turning machines, etc. were invented one after another. Qi's machine manufacturing industry was finally established and entered the period of machine-made machines.

The reason why it did not spontaneously shift from light industry to heavy industry like later Britain was that it could take advantage of the considerable advantages of light industry, such as low investment, fast turnover, and large profits, to accumulate a large amount of industrial capital, and finally create a solid economic foundation for the development of heavy industry.

You know, since the founding of the Qi State, the extreme lack of human resources has been a fatal flaw. While the government spends a large amount of financial funds every year to accelerate immigration and increase the population, Qi State also forcibly recruits countless Nanyang natives as coolies, using their piles of corpses and countless lives to contribute to the development of the Hanzhou continent and the advancement of industry. A bloody development path has been blazed.

Although some roads were built in the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China, they were of no avail due to the inefficiency of horse-drawn carriage transportation. In particular, the transportation problem of bulk minerals such as coal and iron ore could not be solved at all.

In general, the entire industrial revolution process is the process of Qi's industrialization. It takes the mechanization of industry as the mainstream, and sidelines the mechanization of agriculture and the mechanization of the transportation industry.

However, Hanzhou is not like mainland China, which has large rivers such as the Yangtze River, Huaihe River, Yellow River, and Pearl River, as well as dense web-like streams and waterways in the south of the Yangtze River. Commercial connections and material exchanges can be freely accessed through waterways. If we were willing to spend more money and manpower, we could build a large number of canals to connect north to south and east to west.

Therefore, in order to save labor to the greatest extent, the Qi government and industrial enterprises are also sparing no effort to increase investment in machine manufacturing and try their best to replace manual production with machine production, thereby obtaining comparatively advantageous production costs.

From the perspective of Qi's industrial technological reform, this process began with the invention and application of working machines and completed with the systematic invention and application of "machines for producing machines".

As a result, new seeders, mowers, harvesters, threshing machines, etc. appeared one after another, forming a technological revolution in agriculture and providing a steady stream of production raw materials and sufficient food security for industrial production.

From the perspective of the innovation of industrial categories, what is different from the industrial revolution process in Britain in later generations is that Qi adopted a development model of both light and heavy industries, driven by strong government leadership. In less than eighty years, Qi State The reform and progress of light industry and heavy industry have been gradually completed.

The smooth progress of the industrial revolution led to the rapid development of commodity production in Qi. The growth of domestic and foreign trade, the expansion of markets, and the strengthening of international connections. An unprecedented large number of commodities and raw materials are in urgent need of long-distance transportation, all of which have put forward new requirements for the transportation industry.

After decades of development, the ships built by Qi State became faster and faster, and their sizes became larger and larger. In the 1729th year of Taiping (), an all-steel ship with a displacement of tons was built. After the steamship was launched, the ambitious Qi State Shipyard immediately began preparations to build a giant ship with a full load of more than tons, so as to continue to consolidate Qi State's position as the largest shipbuilding country.

Gein, Qi is short of people, not money.

In the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China, Qi State successively discovered a large number of gold and silver mines on the Hanzhou continent, giving Qi State "inexhaustible money" in its hands.

In addition, through the two Han-Dutch wars, Qi State established its dominance in the Nanyang region in one fell swoop, so that it could plunder and exploit the princes of the feudal states on the Nanyang islands at will.

Countless natives were forcibly recruited as coolies and became cheap "hired labor" in Qi's large and small mines. The wealth accumulated by the princes for hundreds of years became the "lubricant" for Qi's economic development, and countless fertile fields Provide sufficient and stable sources of agricultural products for Qi's industrial development.

Not to mention, Qi also broke into India, the richest region in the world, thus providing an extremely huge consumer market for Qi's industrial products.

In the First Qi-India War (also known as the Qimo War), Qi State severely damaged the Mughal Empire and completely kicked open the half-open door of the Indian region. No force could stop Qi State from expanding and deepening its colonial activities in India. , making it a super "big blood bag" that Qi can ask for. During the Industrial Revolution, machines were widely used, and large-scale machine industry began to occupy an absolute dominant position in production, which enabled Qi's social productivity to achieve unprecedented development, and labor productivity was hundreds of times higher than in the past.

From the eighth year of Qianwu (1650) to the sixteenth year of Taiping (1720), the productivity of Qi workers per working day increased by about thirty times on average.

Previously, each worker in the pin-making factory could produce more than 2.8 pins per day. After the Industrial Revolution, using professional machines, one worker could produce up to 13 pins per day. In the textile industry, without a significant increase in new looms, cotton consumption increased from million kilograms to billion kilograms, consuming almost more than half of the world's cotton.

The large-scale machine production under the factory system has continuously reduced the price of social commodities, which not only enhanced Qi's foreign competitiveness, but also benefited the entire social class.

For example, in the tenth year of Qianwu (1653), the price of one kilogram of cotton yarn was eighty-five cents, but by the first year of Yonglong, it was only eight cents.

Large-scale machine industry, supplemented by assembly line production, gives Qi's products a huge cost advantage in the global market, allowing them to squeeze out products from other countries and expand their sales.

This is also the confidence and strength of Qi State to vigorously promote free trade!
If a foreigner comes to Qi for the first time, especially when entering the mainland of Hanzhou, almost all of them will be surprised and stunned by the cheap goods on the market. What follows is a desire to "sweep the goods" crazily and buy all the goods they can. All the products I saw were packaged and brought back to my home country.

Where is the money spent here?
This is definitely saving money!
Before traveling to the Han continent, Prince Friedrich from the Kingdom of Prussia asked the Emperor of Qi for a loan of 20,000 yuan in the name of the kingdom. He planned to not only pay for the expenses along the way, but also I can buy some souvenirs and bring them back to Prussia as a tribute to my father and mother.

However, when he just arrived in Linzi Prefecture (now Sydney, Australia), he was embarrassed to find that he had spent all his money again.

However, the money was definitely not all spent to satisfy his crazy art collecting hobby.

Because when the accompanying Kingdom’s financial advisor passed through Daxing, Yongchang (now Gold Coast, Australia), and Ju’an (now Gosford, Australia), he immediately lost his mind when he saw many cheap Qi goods on the market and started going crazy. buy buy buy mode.

你能想象吗？在欧洲市场上售价高达10克罗伊茨（普鲁士货币，1塔勒=3银马克=12克罗伊茨，1两白银约等于1.25塔勒）的牛肉罐头，在齐国还不到1克罗伊茨。

A pair of good leather boots costs only 5 kreuz, but a Prussian businessman will sell them for 1 taler!
Cotton cloth, clothing, leather goods, hardware, glass, clocks, pottery, steel bars, iron plates, mechanical equipment, precision instruments, and even soap, spices, daily miscellaneous goods...etc., many commodities, with many categories and large quantities, The price is so low that you will be stunned when you see it.

Moreover, these cheap products are sold to many consumers in the market. If the demand is large, if you order directly from the manufacturer, the price will be discounted to a certain extent.

You know, the monthly salary of a musketeer in the Kingdom of Prussia is 2 thalers - no way, soldiers in the German states generally have lower military salaries. This is why many young and strong men with military experience in the region are keen to serve as mercenaries for other countries. One of the main reasons for the army, that is, 48 ​​Kreuz, well, is equivalent to the value of 5 cans of beef and two pairs of fine leather boots.

The kingdom's financial advisor, who was familiar with the European commodity market, immediately strongly suggested to Prince Friedrich that he use the extra money to purchase the commodities that the Kingdom of Prussia urgently needed and transport them back to the European continent, thus gaining huge economic benefits.

This is a price difference of several times or even more than ten times. If a large number of things that are urgently needed in the country are bought back, how much money will be saved for the poor kingdom's finances!

It is true that returning to Europe with a large amount of goods may require paying a lot of freight for the goods, but even if these freight charges are excluded, the final purchase cost is still far less than the price sold by those second-rate dealers who are greedy for the Netherlands.

Prince Friedrich was convinced of this, and authorized his accompanying financial advisors to purchase large quantities of goods from across the country, and then began a frantic shopping spree.

As a result, after such a big purchase, I found that I couldn't stop it at all.

Daily hardware tools can bring great convenience to countless ordinary families in Prussia.

buy!
Cotton fabrics of various colors and high quality are much more cost-effective than the woolen and rough cotton fabrics produced in the Netherlands and England, whether they are used to cut military uniforms for army soldiers or for daily use by ordinary people.

buy!
Various agricultural tools with solid materials and durability are definitely the best farming tools for Prussian farmers and can produce more food for the kingdom.

buy!
Mechanical equipment capable of large-scale processing and production can completely replace the backward and primitive manual work methods in the country, and will play a positive role in promoting the industrial and commercial development of the Kingdom of Prussia.

buy!
Mechanized agricultural machinery will liberate redundant farmers from heavy agricultural production, thus providing more soldiers to the kingdom.

buy!
Tough springs, iron nails of various sizes, extremely sharp knives, advanced guns and artillery, sweet sucrose, essential spices, new rubber material products...

buy!
Buy them all!

As Prince Friedrich traveled to one city after another, the list of goods they purchased became longer and longer, and the number of goods to be scanned also increased, so that the little prince of the Kingdom of Prussia had to They asked the Emperor of Qi again and again to grant them more loans.

Can't stop, can't stop at all!
By the time he almost traveled around the Hanzhou continent and met Pan Guangfeng in Xiangjiang who was returning to his homeland, Prince Friedrich had already borrowed a huge amount of 120,000 yuan from the Imperial Bank and purchased a wide range of goods.

However, he was not at all worried that after spending so much money, he would be severely reprimanded by his father when he returned to Prussia.

Because even if he does not bring these purchased goods back to Prussia, but sells them at will in any country in Europe, after deducting the transportation costs, he will definitely make more than three times the profit, thus paying all the money he owes. All national debts are repaid.

No wonder the Dutch have been trying their best to maintain friendly economic and trade relations with Qi for decades, trying their best to please the Qi people, and even gave up the acquired East Indies and Cape Town in South Africa to Qi.

Just transporting Qi's goods back to Europe and reselling them will make the Netherlands rich and become the richest country in Europe.

Qi State is definitely the most ideal place for all "hand-chopping parties" in the world.

(End of this chapter)