Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 419 Tannery

Calcium sulfide is the final by-product during the production of soda ash in the northern soda factory.In line with the principle of people on the east coast to eat everything dry, it is necessary to squeeze out the final residual value of calcium sulfide.For this reason, Song Qiang, the factory director, decided to set up a new workshop in the soda plant, which is specially used to deal with the by-product calcium sulfide obtained in the process of producing soda ash.

His idea is very simple. Some nearby factories often produce a lot of waste gas containing carbon dioxide during the production process. In the past, these waste gases were directly discharged into the atmosphere, but now the idea can be diverged a little.These gases often have a very high temperature when they are discharged. If they are passed through a pipeline into calcium sulfide together with high-temperature water vapor, then calcium sulfide will react with it at this time to form water-insoluble calcium carbonate and hydrogen sulfide gas. .Hydrogen sulfide gas can react with oxygen in the air under certain conditions to generate water and elemental sulfur.Of course, this reaction requires certain conditions, and the reaction temperature, water vapor humidity, and air content all have certain restrictions.However, generally speaking, the reaction conditions are not harsh. After the successful reaction in the laboratory, it is not difficult to spend more time to do some experiments and achieve industrial production.

The calcium carbonate produced in this process can be used in the previous process to make alkali, and of course it can also be used to burn lime.What is more important is the sulfur generated during the reaction process, which is an extremely valuable strategic resource for the people on the east coast. If the sulfur in the previous process (the elemental sulfur burned when generating sulfuric acid) can be recovered by this method If so, this means that the people on the east coast have obtained the technology of sulfur recycling, which can be regarded as saving a lot of money for the country.

We can also carry forward this method further. For example, the waste gas produced by coal combustion on the east coast contains a large amount of sulfur dioxide. Calcium sulfide mixes and reacts to form water-insoluble calcium sulfate and elemental sulfur.Regarding the conditions of this reaction, the people in the Institute of Chemistry are still conducting experiments under laboratory conditions, and it is close to success.If they make further progress in industrialized mass production, even if the recycling efficiency is not as high as later generations, it will be considered a great breakthrough.Because this means that the people on the east bank have already recovered elemental sulfur from sulfur-containing coal, and they no longer need to import sulfur from foreign countries, and foreigners have one less weapon stuck in the neck of the east bank.

But all of the above are things for the future. At least the technicians in the Institute of Chemistry still need a lot of experiments and verifications before they can design and produce the factory.While the chemical industry in Ping'an County was making steady progress, in Luocha Port in the Xiling area, Luocha Leather Factory, the second local factory after the ginning factory for processing seed cotton, was officially established.Although Shao Shude, Commissioner of the Xiling District, made a lot of efforts in the establishment of this factory, in fact, more of it came from the vigorous promotion of the new government.

With the ever-changing situation in the textile market, the new government, which has only been in power for more than a year, is also under pressure. In addition to opening up new markets all over the world, they are also trying to find new profit growth points.The members of the executive committee thought it over and realized that apart from military industry, shipbuilding, and leather, there was no new industry on the east coast. After all, you can't rely on such low-level methods as exporting grain to make profits.Although the profit margins of military industry and shipbuilding are high, the problem is that the demand is small and quite unstable, and the overall calculation is far less than the profit generated by textiles.

The leather industry is relatively stable, and the demand in the European market is gradually increasing.Let's take France again as an example. At present, the pursuit of fur by various classes in France is amazing-otherwise they would not go to Quebec to engage in fur trade.However, fur was still a relatively expensive product in France at this time. The rich and well-to-do people wore beaver, otter and seal skins produced in North America. These leathers were of high quality and were very popular in France.Ordinary people can only wear some cheap cow and sheepskin, but this is also quite limited.Of course, they can also wear some old leather clothes sold by the rich at a low price-the French are very enthusiastic about new styles, and a new seal leather coat is often worn for a year or two before being sold at a low price to the middle class who have just become rich.However, this is still a small number compared to the huge demand, and France is not a big animal husbandry country like the UK. Their cattle and sheepskin reserves are not high, but there is a lot of demand-this is the market.

It just so happens that Europe is deeply in the quagmire of war today. The warring parties have always had a great demand for ammunition bags, leather boots, holsters, water bladders, armed belts, leather armor, leather hats and other equipment. In the past few years, it has been exporting a large number of war leather goods to France, Spain, the Hanseatic League, Russia, Turkey and other countries, and it has also made a profit of several 10 yuan.What the executive committee wants to do now is actually to develop this business. The La Plata area adjacent to the east coast has a huge number of cattle and sheep, and the quality of the cattle and sheep hides produced is very good, and the price is also extremely low.People on the east coast can buy a lot from them at low prices, and then with the help of cheap soda ash produced on a large scale in the industry, the cost of tanning animal hides can be reduced to an unimaginable low point for Europeans, and then add the The excellent dyeing technology exclusive to the people, the Europeans don't want to compete with the East Coast people on this without trade protection.

After having this idea, the members of the executive committee immediately put it into action. They first sent a lot of staff to conduct research in various parts of the country (mainly in the south), and first made a survey of the current situation of the domestic leather industry. A comprehensive understanding.On the whole, the current leather processing (mainly referring to tanned animal skins) of the East Coast people is relatively scattered, and most of them are small private workshop-style enterprises, and their competitiveness is not very strong.The only symbol of the government's presence in this industry is a small leather goods processing factory located in Muchang Township. They purchase tanned animal skins from various small workshops or retail investors in the country, and then process and color them to make various leather goods. And export to various markets.

The development speed of this industry over the years is actually quite limited. Not to mention, the export volume in 40 was about 9 yuan, and in 41 it barely increased to 11.5 yuan; then in 42 years, it fell back to 11 yuan. ; And last year, the export volume increased slightly, reaching a figure of just over 13 yuan.This kind of export growth rate is completely different from that of cotton cloth with a big step a year.There are actually two main reasons for this.One is that the natural soda ash imported from Europe is not cheap—it can even be said to be expensive. This has caused the people on the east coast to pay higher costs for ordinary leather goods. To put it bluntly, processing requires a lot of manpower. From peeling, cleaning, tanning to processing and production, each step requires a lot of manpower. This is unrealistic for the east coast where manpower is scarce, so this should have a bright future. The industry has been so tepid for so many years.

But things have clearly improved now.First of all, the successful commissioning of the soda plant in the north has made the soda ash of the people on the east coast suddenly abundant. They no longer need to import trona with low purity and very expensive price from Europe, which has reduced their cost by a large amount. .Another is that after careful research by the staff, everyone believes that many processes in the leather tanning and processing process can actually be mechanized, provided that they design such a production line.

And this is actually not difficult. Although there is no ready-made equipment and production line reference for future generations, everyone can simulate the various processes in the manual production process, slowly design the production line and equipment, and then gradually improve them to continuously improve efficiency and reliability. One day it will be perfected step by step.In addition, the number of immigrants from the Ming Dynasty will increase every year, so the situation of labor shortage may be slightly alleviated, and in the slack season, the factory can also hire a large number of seasonal workers, and suddenly produce a batch of finished products for storage. Waiting for the ship to leave the port.

In this way, after some argumentation, under the instruction of the Executive Committee, the Ministry of Industry and Commerce of the Government Council moved all the leather goods processing factory located in Muchang Township to Luocha Port with convenient transportation (Ruchang Township only retains the livestock breeding base and military horse farm). At the same time, many new workers were recruited, the production scale was expanded, and the leather processing industry was gradually launched.At the same time, they also vigorously integrated the domestic relatively messy and scattered animal hide tanning workshops, and absorbed these workshop owners and senior craftsmen into the newly established tanning guild.Then organize them to start to formulate various standards of the industry, such as product quality standards, etc., to guide the healthy and healthy development of the entire industry, so as to compete with the leather products of European countries.

As for the source of animal skins, a small part of this is provided by the country, and most of it may still come from La Plata.The population of cattle and sheep in La Plata is extremely large, and the cowhide is often sold to Spain, Chile, Chalkas, Peru and other places for three cents, but how big is the consumer demand in these markets?Therefore, there has been a large backlog of cowhide in La Plata, which has troubled those livestock farmers.But this is definitely good news for the people on the east coast, because it means that they have a lot of cheap raw materials to buy, and this kind of acquisition can also connect the native white elite families in La Plata with the east coast. People are bound more firmly, which is definitely a good thing that kills two birds with one stone.

Now that all the conditions are met, under the impetus of the new East Coast government eager to make some achievements, the leather industry has begun to be included in the national key planning industries, and large-scale production has gradually begun.

(End of this chapter)