Chapter 170 Visiting the Saltworks
After the goods were shipped, Tao Donglai also hurried to the dock with a group of technicians responsible for installing equipment. After everyone got on the boat, they raised the sail and set sail for the open sea. Li Nai was still wondering where the Haihan people's salt farm was hidden, when he heard Schneider say: "Mr. Li, please look, the bay ahead is our salt farm."
"So close?" Li Nai was slightly surprised. He originally thought that since he was going by boat, the secret salt farm of the Haihan people was at least an hour or two away, but he didn't expect that he would arrive just after leaving the harbor.
Li Nai looked at the bay that Schneider pointed to with some confusion, but all he could see was a forest of coconut trees on the shore, and not even a human being could be seen. Where was the salt field?
It wasn't until the boat reached the shore that Li Nai noticed that there was a small estuary where workers parked in several flat-bottomed wooden boats. Everyone got off the boat and transferred to the boat, and the workers rowed the boat up the river.
The boat traveled about two miles, and a small pier appeared in front of it. Anxi and others from the Saltworks Commune Management Committee were already standing here waiting.
Tao Donglai made a brief introduction to both parties, and Anxi greeted warmly: "Welcome friends from Guangzhou to visit our place! Please come with me, and we will talk as we walk."
Judging from the current internal establishment of Chuanchuan Group, most units belong to the production department, and only a few departments such as culture, education, and health are public institutions that need to rely on financial allocations. Since the Executive Committee proposed the establishment of an independent settlement system, various production departments have been trying to improve production efficiency to obtain more benefits. In particular, departments such as military industry and chemical industry that have access to import and export trade are even more motivated.
The salt farm has been designated as a key production support unit from the beginning of Chuan Chuan Group's establishment. The executive committee believes that the salt farm's production capacity plays a "strategic role" in the development of the entire Chuan Chuan Group, and has also given sufficient attention and comprehensive support. As long as the reports typed up by Anxi are basically approved by the executive committee, manpower is given to manpower, and materials are given to materials. Products in short supply, such as cement, were provided to the salt works as much as possible by the Executive Committee to ensure the smooth progress of their production transformation plan. This caused many complaints from the Military and Police Department, which wanted to build concrete forts.
The Saltworks Commune did not disappoint the Executive Committee. Since it was put into operation, the salt output of the Saltworks Commune has been showing a rapid upward trend. It can not only meet the local chemical production needs, but also has exported thousands of kilograms of refined salt. From an economic perspective, the Saltworks Commune has initially acquired the ability to be responsible for its own profits and losses.
Of course, given that the Ministry of Commerce's external wholesale salt prices have always been kept at extremely low levels, the actual transaction amount is not large, and the sales profits of the Saltworks Commune are also very limited. However, the Executive Committee is still very optimistic about this project, for no other reason than that the sales market for salt is so huge that as long as the current salt price of one hundred taels per ton is maintained, it will be enough to have a negative impact on the salt industry market in mainland China and even the entire Far East. Dumping trend. As long as the sales volume increases, the seemingly meager profits will also become astronomical figures.
The Management Committee of the Saltworks Commune is also very aware of this fact, so when Anxi learned that merchants from Guangzhou would visit the saltworks today and were very likely to sign salt industry orders, they had already held a preparation meeting one day in advance. Everyone on the salt farm has been notified that everyone must work more seriously today. As long as everyone behaves well, the two pigs sent from the farm the day before will be killed for extra meals in the evening - for ordinary people with little education. In other words, material stimulation is obviously more intuitive and effective than spiritual encouragement.
"The construction of our salt farm started three months ago. At the beginning, it was just a wasteland." Anxi raised his hand and pointed to the inland plains in the distance that had turned into neat salt fields, and proudly introduced: "Under the leadership of the Executive Committee, the members of the Salt Farm Commune worked hard to transform this wasteland into the salt farm with the highest output in the entire South China Sea in a short period of time! Everyone, according to our latest statistics, the current salt production of the commune The daily output has reached four thousand kilograms!”
Li Nai clearly heard the sound of He Qiang swallowing hard next to him. This number was indeed astonishing, no less than what he heard at the farm yesterday that the yield of the rice fields there could exceed one thousand kilograms per mu.
How much salt production capacity the Haihan people have is also one of Li Nai's missions when he came to Victory Port to inspect. Li Jifeng, the head of "Furuifeng", believes that if the Haihan people's salt production can really reach a certain scale, then it would be a good choice for "Furuifeng" to open another lucrative private salt business in the future, but if the output is low, then It is debatable whether to take this risk.
As homework beforehand, Li Nai also learned about the operation of general salt farms. For example, the salt farm on Qiongzhou Island in Danzhou Bay is known as the largest salt farm on Qiongzhou Island. Its maximum output is about 1,800 kilograms per day, which can exceed 1,000 kilograms. rare. Moreover, the salt field has been in operation since the Song Dynasty, and all production links can be said to be very mature. The salt workers are also experienced in the family for generations. But compared with the salt production efficiency claimed by the Haihan people, the output of the Danzhou Salt Farm is more like the result of manipulation by a group of laymen. There are a total of 29 salt farms in Guangdong and Qiongzhou under the jurisdiction of the Guangdong Salt Industry and Haibei Salt Industry. The production data is not a secret. Li Nai dares to say that no salt field can maintain its daily output. More than 1,000 kilograms.
Of course, Li Nai also thought that the salt fields of the Haihan people might be much more efficient than the salt fields in Danzhou or other places, and the salt produced could not be fully digested in the local market. Otherwise, they don’t need to take the Guangzhou line and just sell locally. But he didn't expect that the salt production here would be so ridiculously high, four thousand kilograms per day, which made "Furuifeng's" previous request to supply at least ten thousand kilograms per month sound like a joke - Mo said. A monthly payment of 10,000 jins, or a monthly payment of 100,000 jins, can be afforded by the people of Haihan!
Li Nai has already begun to calculate in his mind, if the trading volume is increased from 10,000 jins to 50,000 jins per month, then the profits that "Furuifeng" can obtain from the transaction can be used to buy two more Haihan artillery pieces.
Of course, before that, Li Nai still had to try his best to implement the Haihan people's statement. Who knew whether the person named An was bragging? The salt farm with a monthly output of more than 100,000 kilograms was right in front of him, and Li Nai really wanted to see their production methods.
After passing through a row of palm trees, Li Nai saw the true face of this salt field plain. There were no stone salt baths commonly seen in salt fields, but huge rectangular salt baths neatly laid out on the ground. Each one is four or five feet long and wide. The water in these ponds is very shallow, only about two or three inches. The sea salt in many ponds has crystallized and spreads white flowers on the bottom of the pond. Some workers are standing in the salt pond, collecting the dried salt together with rakes, and then putting it into sacks and transporting it to the designated place.
Li Nai just took a cursory look and found that there were at least hundreds of salt-drying ponds like this on this plain. The sea salt precipitated in a pond weighs at least twenty or thirty kilograms. From this point of view, the Haihan people's daily production of four thousand kilograms is not a boast.
Anxi took them around and explained. In addition to these harvesting ponds, there are also some places where workers are using human-powered water trucks to lift seawater from the river into the salt fields. There is a filter next to each salt field, and most of the workers are working in the filter. The salt mud soaked in seawater is stirred and pressed, which is a very time-consuming and laborious process. After being stirred and filtered, the high-salt brine will be put into the brine storage tank next to the filter. After passing the inspection, it will be lifted into the brine tank for full drying.
The Executive Committee is not afraid of exposing these production processes. This method of producing salt was not pioneered by the public, but was a technology currently being used by salt farms of the same era. The difference between the Salt Farm Commune and the Salt Farm Commune was the large-scale industrialized production method, which was used by those who were still under the feudal system. Production structures that cannot be achieved in old-fashioned salt fields. The technical advantages in civil administration and production organization have widened the gap in production efficiency between the Saltworks Commune and its counterparts of this era, and this gap is absolutely impossible to make up for with a casual tour.
Li Nai was a smart man who had seen the world. When he saw the exquisite irrigation devices and the flat-bottomed salt-drying ponds made of plaster, he knew that the Haihan people's salt-making method could not be replicated elsewhere. This is not because the Haihan people used the more advanced sun-salting method. In fact, the salt farms in Chaozhou, Huizhou and even Danzhou had already used the sun-salting method to make salt. The reason why it cannot be copied is actually very simple. The salt envoys and officials stationed at the salt field by the Salt Department do not care about how to improve production efficiency. What they have to do is to do their best to squeeze the salt households and directly impose the production tasks on them. If the distribution goes down, these officials will not care whether the salt households cut firewood to cook salt or build ponds to dry the salt.
It is obviously impossible to build such a large-scale salt-drying pond in a salt field without official economic investment. This requires a considerable amount of manpower, material and financial resources to achieve, and those poor salt households do not have such resources. Organizational skills. Even if private salt merchants with such financial resources are willing, they are powerless. After all, the salt farm is set up by the court, and salt merchants can only buy and sell salt. But if you want to build your own salt farm, you will definitely not get approval from the court.
Li Nai has even figured out that the reason why the Haihan people are so confident in showing themselves the entire salt production process is because they know that this set of things cannot be copied and implemented in other areas. In addition to secretly lamenting that the Haihan people were so good at calculations, Li Nai also felt a deep sense of powerlessness - why can't I, the Ming Dynasty, do these seemingly uncomplicated things?
(End of chapter)