Chapter 2005 The Island and the Exit
Jia She’s death was both mourning and Dai Xiao’s. It took more than two months of tossing before the two houses were completely calm.
Taking this time, Jia Lian, Jia Baoyu, Jia Rong's uncle and nephew have already begun experiments in Wang Xifeng's dowry village.
The industrial revolution requires the accumulation of talents, trial and error, and debugging. It requires a lot of investment in the early stage.
They went through the Xue family channel and bought a steam engine from overseas.
Just when the other two were about to find someone to mount the steam engine, Zhao Han had experience and stopped them.
She said: "We must first build a closed and soundproof house, and dig smoke exhaust tunnels to discharge steam and waste smoke into nearby rivers and ditches."
" What's the purpose of this? Just discharge it directly into the sky. Are you still worried about environmental pollution?" Wang Wenwen asked curiously.
"Are you too knowledgeable? Do you know that the most direct resistance of those conservative guys to industrialization is not that they offend their own interests, but that they offend Feng Shui." Zhao Han said confidently.
"I understand." Wang Wenwen recalled the history for a moment and suddenly figured out, yes, the industrialization of Dongzhou was driven by the strong promotion of aliens, and those guys who talked about Feng Shui were all dealt with.
However, in places where there are no aliens, it has become a consensus among people that steam engines will harm feng shui.
And they are really right. Wherever steam engines and large factories are used, people nearby often start to live less than fifty and are plagued by various diseases. No matter you are poor or rich, you cannot escape this. life.
The ancients may not have known it was caused by pollution, but they would habitually blame it on Feng Shui.
Thick smoke, fire and noise are, to them, the most obvious evidence of the destruction of Feng Shui.
"Yes, those ministers and nobles are afraid of these movements. The so-called dynasty hopes that the world will be safe and stable. It is best if there is no movement. Our place is lively and vigorous during the day and night, and it will definitely happen. It’s taboo.” Wu Shanshan nodded.
"But in this case, there is a problem. It will be extremely hot inside the factory. If it is closed and soundproofed, it will be difficult to discharge the heat." Wang Wenwen said distressedly.
“How did other people’s early industries develop?” Wu Shanshan asked.
"In other cases, the royal family takes the lead in making money, and they don't care about the living environment of the workers, because the workers are farmers who have lost their land and have nowhere to go except the factory." Zhao Han shook his head.
“I understand.” Wu Shanshan said thoughtfully.
Industrialization is based on the accumulation of corpses, and it absorbs more flesh and blood than all human activities.
But it is not like feudal society, which absorbs flesh and blood like feudal society. However, after absorption, there is no output, it is just an infinite cycle. What it was like a thousand years ago, there will be almost no change after a thousand years.
“Of course we can’t do it like this. As for the problem of hot and humid environment, it can be alleviated by reducing working hours, taking turns to work, and underground exhaust.”
“Obviously the cost of doing this is very high, and it is harmful to the environment. The traditional handicraft factory has no advantages.”
“Yes, so this is just a testing ground. To really take advantage of it, we have to wait until the two of us pass the Jinshi examination and seek to be transferred to an island as a county magistrate. Then, let’s take these people for a big fight.”
“That’s it.”
After the three people discussed it, they began to find people to build a fully enclosed factory building and dig tunnels.
I gave the craftsmen a very high amount of money and used their own children to do these things, making sure not to let outsiders know.
When someone asked, they said they wanted to build a family tomb.
When Jia She's incident was over, high walls were built in Zhuangzi, and behind the high walls were closed factories.
The steam engine was housed inside.
Jia Lian used his own channels to buy many half-grown teenagers and girls who were about to starve to death, and signed death contracts.
It is the kind of contract in which the owner of the house does not care whether he is killed or not. He is sold to the owner for the rest of his life and can be beaten or killed at will. It is the property of the owner.
Normally slaves will not sign this kind of contract. They sign a living contract and can be released after a certain period of time.
And you can't just beat him to death. Once someone files a lawsuit, you have to spend money to settle the relationship.
As for slaves with this kind of death contract, the government will ignore it as soon as they see the contract.
"Well, there is a big advantage here. The labor force is so cheap. No wonder they don't need industry and reduce labor costs. These people only need to take care of three meals and they will be defeated when they are 2 or 30 years old." Zhao Han Looking at those timid young girls, he shook his head.
"Yes, manpower is worthless. If there is something to do, just train people into machines to do it. Where is the need for machinery?" Wang Wenwen also sighed.
After sighing, the three first used their family to have children and established a supervisory team, which is the basic management team.
Mainly selecting people from among the servants of Ningguo Mansion to serve as supervisors.
"Remember, no matter what you saw or what you did, no word is allowed to be leaked to the outside world. If it is leaked, I will pull your skin out!" Jia Rong said fiercely.
Compared with Jia Baoyu and Jia Lian, he has a good person. He is the talker of Ningguo Mansion and the head of the Jia family. He has clan power at his disposal. Even though he is the youngest and has the lowest seniority, he has more authority.
"Yes, Master Rong." The supervisors said cautiously.
Now this one has a great reputation and holds great power.
After organizing the supervisory team, he took the supervision team to manage and train the newly purchased slave No. 150.
“This machine comes from the West and is something on a self-propelled ship. You don’t need to worry about what it is. As long as you know that it can play the same role as oxen, horses and waterwheels. And there are You must strictly follow the operation manual we compiled, otherwise it will be easy to break off your hands and feet," Jia Baoyu said to everyone.
"Yes, sir." The servants said solemnly.
Then the three of them took turns to train the workers according to the instructions included with the purchase.
To be honest, these people are the best workers.
Because they have nowhere to go and can only rely on these three masters for survival. Therefore, if they don’t understand, they have to force themselves to memorize by rote. There is no possibility of slacking off and not learning...
That kind of person is immediately dragged out and sold.
Who doesn’t know that the Jia family is a famous philanthropic family, and all the servants have become rich...
While training workers, they repeatedly used the Xue family’s channels to find top textile workers in Jiangnan, and began to use steam engines as power, To transform the previous manual silk reeling machine.
Nowadays, the high-end clothes worn by wealthy people are basically made of silk, which are high-end goods in modern society.
But making silk is very labor-intensive.
As for high-end clothes, they all rely on manual customization and embroidery in the later stage.
The three people who wanted to carry out the industrialization process could only provide silk raw materials, and it was impossible to do embroidery.
With enough silk production, we can defeat others based on cost.
After half a year of hard work, the first batch of silk was finally made.
Raw materials are transported from the south and processed into silk in the Zhuangzi factory. The output is 10 times higher than that of manual production, and the cost is 90% of the same quality of silk.
Because labor is too cheap, the biggest role of machines is to increase output. It is actually difficult to reduce costs.
But with a large scale, the profit from a single piece of silk they need can be much less.
Others must sell for twice the cost in order to meet various other needs, such as favors and various management. These are not apparent costs, but they must be paid.
And if their scale is ten times larger, they only need to sell at a slightly higher price to have enough funds to cope with turnover. Just like raising pigs, if your farmer only earns a hundred cents from raising a pig, then his work is in vain for a year; if I raise 10,000 pigs and only earn a hundred cents, I can sustain myself.
This is the scale effect, which can reduce costs in disguised form.
To produce one pen, the price would be unaffordable, but to produce a billion pens, each pen only costs 10 cents, and only one cent is enough.
But the good times did not last long. As a large amount of silk came on the market, it became difficult to sell silk in Jiangnan.
Many handicraft factories have closed down.
What followed was a riot among the weavers.
Although the court did not find the steam engine destroying Feng Shui, they could see the unemployed weavers making trouble.
The imperial court then ordered Jiangnan Weaving to deal with the matter.
"The market capacity is too small. How long did it take before something happened?" Wang Wenwen suddenly had a headache when he saw the letter from the Xue family from the south.
"No, the market capacity is huge. We only produce a small amount, which is not enough to impact the market. It's just that someone discovered our potential. This is an early response. They are deliberately trying to punish us." Zhao Han said He said it directly.
“Are they so responsive?” Wang Wenwen asked doubtfully.
“The gentlemen who live in the eight-seat court are very slow to respond, but the large private merchants are very responsive, because they have been receiving visits all year round and have to deal with all kinds of extortion. Those who are slow to respond have long been extorted. Eliminated." Zhao Han explained.
"So that's it. They found out that someone was selling it in large quantities. Although they could eat it, they knew that if we didn't stop it in advance, our scale would get bigger and bigger, and eventually we would completely eliminate them. These people really shouldn't be underestimated. "Wang Wenwen said with a headache.
“Then what should we do?”
“Hey, these people will not engage in legitimate business competition with us. They will only let the officials take action. Our channels will soon be destroyed. It's going to be broken," Zhao Han predicted.
"Then what should we do?"
"Reduce the shipment volume and focus on training workers. We will do this when we are sent to serve as officials and take charge of a place." Zhao Han said using his previous experience.
"It seems that this is the only way."
Soon Jiangnan Weaving discovered that the Xue family was selling large quantities of silk, and they called the Xue family's shopkeeper to the Yamen.
Due to the reputation of the four major families, they did not make it too difficult and just imposed a shipment quota.
In other words, no matter how much the Xue family produces, they can only sell this amount every year. If it exceeds this amount, it means competing with the people for profit and causing trouble for the court.
The Xue family today is different from the past. Without the Jia and Wang families to come forward, they could only agree and watch a large amount of money drain from their hands.
You must know that so much silk is worth money when sold.
However, a shopkeeper of the Xue family approached Jia Lian privately and said that he could eat the silk, but the prerequisite was to give him a 10% profit.
Jia Lian inquired a little and found out that the other party was bribed by a big sea trade merchant to come over and buy these silks.
Zhao Han then realized that, yes, the Red Mansions had long been penetrated by the West and China, and they were in great demand for Eastern porcelain and silk. For a long time, it was a seller's market.
That is to say, they can only get a small purchase quota and can only get trade opportunities by bribing local officials.
Until the invasion, the Eastern Dynasty was in an absolute surplus position relying on silk, tea, and porcelain. Basically, it could sell as much as it produced.
It is now a complete seller's market.
This is unimaginable in the fiercely competitive buyer's market of later generations.
In this case, they quickly adjusted their strategy and found ways to smuggle silk to those maritime merchants.
Yes, maritime traders cannot allocate goods at will. The imperial court explicitly prohibits the free flow of goods. It only opens a few external ports and only allows specific merchants to come in and buy and sell.
This creates a very strange scene in history.
Zheng Zhilong relied on the goods provided by the mainland and traded with the four oceans, earning tens of millions of taels of silver every year. At the same time, the Ming Dynasty was almost dying of poverty.
Guarding the Jinshan and Yinshan, I went to Meishan.
When the Manchu and Qing Dynasties completely banned the sea, Zheng Chenggong could not get goods from the mainland, so he gradually declined, and finally his foundation was destroyed.
Subsequently, with the help of overseas channels, Zhuangzili's silk industry could finally expand unscrupulously without worrying about the impact on the court and weavers.
Just when it expands to a certain scale, it encounters new bottlenecks.
There is not enough coal...
Yes, steam engines consume a lot of coal every day.
I used to buy it from nearby coal fields.
But now the scale has expanded, the roads are not good, and the coal mines are also manually excavated. It is okay to meet the needs of ordinary people for cooking and heating, but for factories, it is a drop in the bucket.
Living needs and industrial needs are two orders of magnitude.
Then raise the price to buy.
Soon the owners of the coal fields complained that the court had restrictions and did not allow too many miners to gather. In other words, there was an upper limit on the output of the coal fields.
And it is artificially restricted.
“I’m not allowed to earn any money. Now I know how feudal society hinders the development of capital.” Wang Wenwen sighed.
"When miners gather in large numbers, there is a natural basis for rebellion. The imperial court has always been strict in preventing private mining. This is why private mining is often not allowed. Sometimes it is loose and sometimes tight." Zhao Han also sighed.
There is not enough fuel. If we buy more, there will be no coal on the market, and the price will skyrocket, which will attract the attention of the court.
"We still need to find an island, bring guns and cannons, and develop it freely. In this case, with the power of industrialization, one island can defeat an entire landmass." Wang Wenwen said bitterly.
"No wonder the teacher asked us to travel through time and become men. Only men can go out easily. How could it be possible for Lin Daiyu and Xue Baochai to do these things?" Zhao Han said.
"It seems that we have to hibernate for a while. In three to five years, we will wait until we are admitted to the Jinshi." Wang Wenwen said.
Zhao Han nodded.
Although you can now rely on your status as a scholar to go out as an official, there are too many restrictions after all.
Jia Yucun quickly became prosperous by relying on the platform of Jia Mansion and his background as a Jinshi.
Two years later.
Jia Baoyu passed the imperial examination and Jia Rong also passed the examination.
Later, Jia Rong did not continue to take exams, but sought to be released to other places, and finally found a job as a magistrate on a southern island.
The people of the Jia family were aggrieved, thinking that someone in the court was obstructing them and discriminating against their nobles.
But there is nothing to do. After all, the civil servants are in charge now, and even Wang Ziteng has to keep his tail between his legs.
(End of this chapter)