Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 1120 The Good Times of Trade ([-])

On February 1657, 2, the train slowly stopped outside Rocha Railway Station.

After eating an "Eastern meal" in an ordinary restaurant near the train station, everyone boarded several carriages again and drove to the Textile Road in Rocha City—according to the loan agreement, the East Bank also needs to pay the Spanish A considerable amount of textiles. Last year, two shipments of ordinary white cotton were distributed. This year, some relatively high-value-added textiles will be distributed, such as high-grade cloth, silk, silk textiles, woolen cloth, etc., and of course low-grade linen.These goods need to be inspected by the Spaniards before they are shipped, so the East Coast Industrial and Commercial System took Thiago to the Textile Road in Rocha County and asked him to see the quality of the materials that were about to be sent to Spain. The implication of shore production capacity is included, but this is not enough for outsiders.

Textile Road is well-known in today's Luocha, even in the neighboring capital Dongfang County and the financial center Qingdao County. Without him, this is a place where textile enterprises get together, not only joint ventures with Genoese The Luocha United Textile Factory also has a large number of small private factories and even individual weavers.These enterprises and individuals are active in many fields such as cotton spinning, wool spinning, silk weaving, linen weaving, etc., and have produced a variety of commodities. While enriching the commodity market on the east coast, they have also gained a lot of wealth by exporting to Peru, Brazil and even the Indian Ocean. considerable profits.

"There are large-scale enterprises here on Textile Road. It is almost impossible to find companies employing less than 30 workers here. The quality of the products they produce is absolutely reliable." Bai Bai, chief of the Economic Investigation Section of the European Division of the Ministry of Trade Yutang talked to Tiago and his group. This gentleman is the eldest son of Bai Siwen. He looks pretty good. He has worked in the trade department for more than six years. He is at the age when he plans to show his talents. Chen Ke and others who brought Thiago to Luocha County have already returned to the capital by train.

"There are three joint ventures located at No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3 of Textile Road. They are all textile enterprises jointly established by our government and Genoese people. The scale is quite large and the economic benefits are also very good. You see, No. 1 here is Luocha United Textile Factory mainly produces all kinds of silk and blended silk fabrics, which are sold in many countries, and the user response is very good; No. 2 is a knitted lace factory, which mainly produces knitted gloves, socks and some high-end knitwear. Produce some military trousers, because the Army has special requirements for lace and trouser seams, ha ha; No. 3 is a blanket factory, which mainly produces some military blankets and household tapestries, and the sales are quite good." Bai Yutang obviously did it carefully before he came out. A lot of homework, so this meeting was eloquent when facing Thiago and others, which made the Spaniards who came to Textile Road for the first time dumbfounded.

Of course, Bai Yutang's introduction was also relatively brief, leaving out many details.For example, the products of the knitting lace factory he just introduced, in addition to the above, there are many silk scraps, bad cocoons, silk cloth woven from short fibers, cheap scarves, velvet, soft skirt materials, fake fur, etc. Even more than gloves and socks themselves.In addition, this factory also has some expensive large-scale machines (meaning that it is difficult for private entrepreneurs to enter this field, which is suitable for large-scale factory production), such as lace embroidery machines that use plain mesh fabrics to process.

But even if these were not mentioned, the introductions alone were enough to surprise these Spanish bumpkins.Especially after Bai Yutang and others took Thiago to the warehouses of the three factories and sampled and inspected many finished products piled there, they couldn't calm down and wished to transport the goods to Cadiz immediately. , in order to alleviate the suffering of domestic commodity shortages.You must know that the British fleet has been swaying off the coast of Spain, and its import and export trade has been greatly affected.

In the afternoon, Bai Yutang, Thiago and others visited the Luocha Quilt Factory wholly owned by the East Bank Textile Industry Bureau.This factory is located at No. 4 Textile Road. It has not been established for a long time. At present, it only has 272 workers and has many sewing machines to process quilts.With a top speed of 2000 stitches per minute, these machines, along with steam-powered irons at the end of mechanical linkages—guided rather than pushed—worked extremely efficiently.

In addition, the factory also has many specially designed machines for cutting clothes. For example, when they are cutting clothes, they like to stack many layers of cloth, draw the pattern with chalk on the top layer, and then drive it with power. The wheel belt knife cuts vertically, which is very efficient - there is no way, what makes the east bank lack people is that all factories have to design various types of machinery to save manpower. As for the design idea, in fact, most of them It's very simple, it just imitates human actions.Of course, this kind of "low-level mass production" naturally cannot produce such exquisite products, which often require ingenious female workers to produce, but it is indeed very suitable for military and ordinary civilian use, because the cost is low and the quality is not bad. .

"All the steam sewing machines, mechanical irons, cutting machines, buttonhole sewing machines and other equipment in the entire Luocha quilt factory are combined, and the power used is only a mere 160 horsepower..." This is Bai Yutang's information from the information I was very surprised when I saw a passage, and I was even more amazed after visiting the factory, and I was very proud of the development of the motherland's industry-of course, such detailed factory data is not enough for outsiders, the Spaniards Just take a look around.

After spending a few hours visiting the quilt factory and taking a sample of the finished products in the warehouse, everyone drove away from the factory and stayed in the guest house set up by the Luocha County Government.The next day, a group of people drove along the national highway again to visit the suburbs outside Luoqia Town—there is also a textile industry belt gathered here, but mainly small private enterprises and individual weavers, such as Bai Yutang and others. I saw a lot of simple but well-lit wooden sheds in the suburbs, some gray-haired old women were using hand looms to produce various "special style" sheets, and some words were woven on the sheets, most of which were verses from the Bible. It is exported to the Viceroyalty of Peru.The skills of these old people are very superb, and many of them are relatives of Susonghang Zhihu who immigrated with their families. The products they produce (often produced according to the preferences of customers) are often perfect and are very popular in the market.

However, it seems that their children and grandchildren did not all inherit the craftsmanship, because obviously many people went to work in factories. After all, it is not every day to do "special products" at home, and the competition is quite fierce, so it is only suitable for Older people entertain themselves, while young people still go to work in factories to earn more.

In recent years, as people on the east coast have continuously invested in textile transformation, technological progress has been rapid. Whether it is carding, rubbing or textile processes, various new technologies and improvements have emerged one after another, so that the quality of the produced fabrics It is also getting higher and higher - most of the women's clothing materials currently on the Peruvian market are woven with East Coast cotton warp yarns, which can be seen.

"Handmade tweeds, beautiful vests, skirts, rugs (currently most of them are still imported from Persia and Ottomans) and other small commodities are all produced here. If Spanish friends think it's good, we can ship it immediately. It is also the first time for Bai Yutang to come to this messy-looking "shanty industrial area", but he has read a lot of materials, so he is not as dumbfounded as the Spaniard, so he continued to introduce: "That day was In a brick building, there are dozens of companies that make shoes and boots. They have special machines for nailing soles and heels. Well, now even the uppers of shoes have begun to be sewn with leather sewing machines, and the production efficiency is extremely high. We can distribute [-] pairs of military boots specified by your country in the first half of this year, which is not difficult at all."

"There is a hemp fabric production area in front of it. Since we solved the technical difficulties of using jute as warp yarn, the production has gradually increased. At present, the production area needs to import a large amount of ramie, jute, sisal and ramie from overseas every year. Other flax plants produce countless linen, hemp, jute and other commodities, which sell well.” Bai Yutang continued dry-mouthed——now the textile, shoe-making, quilt, etc. in Luocha Town and its suburbs The scale of the industry is huge, and a whole industrial belt has been formed. Many of the original farmers in the vicinity have now changed jobs to workers to obtain higher income. As for their fields, many of them are now leased to people from Italy. Farming with non-national laborers in Poland, anyway, as long as you pay them rent, who cares about the others.

Of course, only a small amount of land was rented out, and most of the original arable land was turned into pastures to raise sheep, because this is the most labor-saving way, and it does not affect these farmers to work in factories.As for the supply of food production in the industrial area, it has already retreated to deeper inland areas, such as the settlements that were just established a few days ago-Heshan Township near the small city of Aigua in later generations, Heshan Township in Velasque Heihu Township near Sri Lanka, Zhaoxian Township near the small town of Rascano, and Maizhuang Township near the small village of Palaye.

These four townships basically focus on food production, supplementing the daily needs of tens of thousands of residents in Dongfang and Luocha counties, where agricultural productivity is declining.It is believed that with the support of these four newly established townships, the industrial zones in Luocha and Dongfang counties will also flourish, inject new impetus into the economic development of the east coast, and eventually feed back agriculture in turn.

(End of this chapter)