I want to be emperor

Chapter 1051 The whole country equals the whole world

After a brief stroll around the central area of ​​Berta City, I mainly looked at the construction of local city streets, public transportation and other infrastructure, and got a basic impression of the city.

Luo Zhixue went to inspect the Berta Steel Plant, which is some distance from the city.

Berta Steel Plant is currently the largest steel plant in the Americas. It can even be said to be the largest factory!

The original purpose of building this steel factory was very simple, that is, to use the rich and high-quality coal and iron resources in the Wuhu area to smelt steel on site and supply steel materials to North America.

Especially for the large-scale railway construction in the Americas.

A lot of steel is needed to build a railway. After all, the core of a railway is the track... The track is often laid for hundreds or even thousands of kilometers, which means that a lot of steel is needed to build a railway. .

Railway construction is also an important industry in modern industry that promotes the development of the steel industry. It is as important as the shipbuilding industry and the machinery industry.

The outbreak of the steel industry in many countries in the modern era of the original time and space was directly driven by the huge market demand for railways...the most typical ones should be the United Kingdom and the United States.

Even for sporadic steel plants in backward countries, one of the construction goals is to meet the country's railway construction needs. For example, the Hanyang Iron Works in a country in East Asia... One of its important tasks is to supply domestic rails for railway lines such as the Beijing-Hankow Railway. , to reduce the cost of railway construction... Otherwise, it would be too expensive to use imported rails.

It is a pity that in the early days of the Hanyang Iron Works, the bureaucrats did not understand and the technicians were not skilled enough. They bought the wrong equipment. When the equipment arrived, they found that it could not be used to produce high-phosphorus iron sand, and the rails they produced were unusable...

Therefore, it almost went bankrupt as soon as it was completed. In the end, the government was forced to supervise the commercial operation. In order to solve the problem of materials and equipment, it entered a difficult transformation process. Because the cost was huge and I had no money... I was forced to introduce foreign capital. It was also during this period that we Introducing the capital of the Fuso people, they were forced to reach a mutual sale contract for coking coal and iron ore with the Fuso people, and mortgaged the Daye mines. Many people criticized it as a loss of power and an insult to the country...

We have no money or technology, and we still want to build a large iron factory, develop minerals, and try to be self-sufficient in steel production... But we have to sell off the family assets passed down by our ancestors: natural resources...

If a country wants to be self-reliant and strong, it must develop industry, and developing industry... is not easy.

Industrialization has never been an easy road, it is extremely difficult... and it requires paying the price of blood and tears!

In order to develop industry, the British engaged in sheep-eating people, female workers and child labor. The average life span of workers was less than forty years... The Victorian era was like a coin, with glory on one side and hell on the other!

In order to develop industry, Germany fought the Unification War, the Austro-Prussian War, and the Franco-Prussian War... Without these wars, where would it have gotten its mineral resources, agricultural products, and the more important market for industrial consumer goods?

The French engaged in industry... There were repeated internal turmoils, and the game between industry and agriculture that began in the late eighteenth century ran through the entire history of France in the nineteenth century.

In order to develop industry, the Fuso people not only sold raw silk, but also encouraged tens of millions of women to go to various parts of East Asia to earn foreign exchange... and then used the foreign exchange to purchase Western equipment and technology, and finally created the modern industrial system.

Even the United States... Although they have unique conditions, they fought a war of independence first, and then a civil war in the mid-19th century, with more than 700,000 casualties, including more than 400,000 disabled people. Really started the industrial frenzy.

Industrialization is never easy!

As for the Chu Empire, if we look at it from the perspective of the entire country, it is not easy... It first experienced a massive unification war!

Luo Zhixue led the people to completely smash all the social structures of the pre-Ming Dynasty. After completely smashing them, they got a blank piece of paper that could develop industry.

Later, in order to develop industry, obtain markets and raw materials, they continued to launch external expansion wars... I don't know how many Chu people died on the road to external expansion.

Although the Chu army was powerful and fighting the natives was just for fun, it did not mean that the Chu army had no casualties while fighting outside... There were very many early non-combat casualties, especially those caused by acclimatization.

The mortality rate of early immigrants was not low. Many died of disease, and many died in conflicts with the indigenous people.

The Chu people who immigrated in the 1920s were really risking their lives overseas...

It's just that these things are hidden under the power and prosperity of the Chu Empire, and no one pays attention to it...

It was only in the 1930s that the technology of the Chu Empire further developed, many modern drugs appeared, and the level of medical technology was greatly improved, and diseases in many overseas areas were conquered.

During this period, the Chu people began to use rear-mounted rifled weapons on a large scale. Only then could they truly defeat any natives, leaving the natives of all countries without the slightest resistance.

Before that... the Chu people only used percussion guns. Although technically better than the flintlock guns used by their European counterparts, there was not much of a tactical gap... because both of them were It is a front-loading musket. In fact, the use of both in the military is similar, both based on line tactics.

But the breech-loaded rifled weapons were different. After the Chu army had this thing, they directly started to play skirmish lines... Even if they used line tactics, they would still be defeated steadily.

After all, the range, accuracy and even rate of fire are very different.

The above-mentioned many efforts and even sacrifices have created today's Dachu Empire...a powerful and prosperous global empire!

Only then can they occupy a rich place like the Americas and build a steel plant in Berta City. The low-price rails produced by this steel plant can support the expansion of railways in North America.

In the railway construction in North America, after the completion of the East-West Railway, a large number of branch railways were built along this railway trunk line to transport large amounts of agricultural, livestock and mineral products.

To build railways, we cannot do without the support of the steel industry.

It was under this background that the Berta Steel Plant was invested and built by North American Mining Company, Jiangnan Steel Company, Liaodong Steel Company and other domestic steel companies.

Therefore, there are sufficient funds, and the local demand for steel in North America is large, so the scale of construction is also relatively large. The annual output of crude steel has reached 500,000 tons... Although this number is not worth mentioning compared to later generations in the 21st century, in contemporary times Still not small.

As a horizontal comparison, in about 1886, the annual output of the United Kingdom was about million tons, and that of the United States was million tons.

But these 500,000 tons are nothing in the Dachu Empire... Because the Dachu Empire's crude steel output last year, forty-six years after its success, was more than 26 million tons, and it is still growing. From hundreds of thousands to even millions of tons per year, the rate continues to soar. It is estimated that in Chengshun's 50th year, it will soar to 30 million tons...

This output is roughly equivalent to the global output at the beginning of the 20th century in the original time and space.

The reason why we compare global data... is because the Chu State has too many people, more than 700 million people... which is more than the combined population of all industrial countries in the world at the beginning of the 20th century...

For the Chu Empire, the whole country is the whole world...the two actually mean the same thing.

For such an industrial country, no matter what the total amount is, it is very amazing. But if you talk about per capita, it is actually only at the level of the 1880s and 1990s, which is far less exaggerated than the total amount seems. .

Compared with the huge total steel production capacity of the Dachu Empire, the annual production capacity of half a million tons of crude steel at the Berta Steel Plant is nothing.

But ignoring these macro data and just looking at the Berta Steel Plant itself, it will still be very shocking... Such large steel plants are relatively rare even in East Asia.

When this steel plant was first built, many domestic companies participated. As a company that cooperates with multiple steel companies, it also obtained patent authorizations from different steel companies.

Therefore, it can adopt almost all the most advanced steel technologies of the times... At the same time, because there are many investors and a lot of funds are collected, the equipment purchased is also the most advanced equipment of the times.

All of this has created the huge production capacity of the Berta Steel Plant and relatively low steel costs, which ultimately supported part of the demand for railway construction in the Americas!

The reason why it is said to be partial demand is because the scale of railway construction in the Americas is very large, and the demand for rail rails is also large. In addition, the demand for steel production capacity in the local construction, agriculture, and daily life in the Americas is also very large.

Every year, large quantities of steel products need to be purchased from East Asia to meet local technology.

At the same time, many steel companies have been built in the Americas, and the Berta Steel Plant is only the largest and most famous typical steel plant among them.

In fact, there are large and small steel plants all over the Americas. As long as the transportation is relatively convenient and there are coal or iron ore resources, you can basically see Chu steel merchants.

Even in South America, some steel plants have been built one after another... setting off local industrialization.

Speaking of which, South America under the rule of the Great Chu Empire will also undergo industrialization like North America... I am afraid that the future will be very different from the South America in the original time and space... At least, under the rule of the Great Chu Empire, you see No more Third Worldized South America.

Like North America, this place will become one of the core directly governed territories of the Chu Empire.

After Luo Zhixue inspected the Berta Steel Plant, he also inspected several other typical local enterprises, such as a local medium-sized shipyard and a project that produces steam engines and trains!

It is worth noting that these relatively prominent large-scale factories in the area are basically established by some large local enterprises in East Asia.

For example, Berta Wuhu Shipyard is a factory owned by Jiangnan Shipping Company. Although Jiangnan Shipping Company carries the name of Jiangnan, it does not do well in East Asia and is suppressed by other large domestic shipyard groups. In order to develop, it has successively deployed overseas and built overseas shipbuilding bases in order to build some small and medium-sized ships in overseas areas.

For large and expensive ocean-going ships, customers will definitely choose to go to large shipbuilding group companies such as Li's Shipbuilding, Guangzhou Shipbuilding, Songjiang Shipbuilding... But for some ordinary small and medium-sized ships, especially offshore or inland river ships, there is no need to go to these large shipbuilding companies. The Group is not, and even customers in overseas regions do not need to go to the mainland to order. They can order at local small and medium-sized shipyards.

Jiangnan Shipping Company is following this path... If it can't build tall, high-profit ocean-going large ships, why can't I build offshore and inland river ships? Moreover, we also engage in door-to-door shipbuilding and sales promotions to build factories on site, which also facilitates follow-up maintenance and earns more money.

Among them, the Americas, especially North America, are their key areas. They have successively invested in and built a shipyard in Xinjinshan, Mihe, New York and Berta here. They mainly design, build and sell small and medium-sized ocean-going freighters, passenger ships, and offshore ships. , river freighters, passenger ships, fishing boats and other vessels.

Not to mention, this strategy has allowed Jiangnan Shipping Company to find its own development path. It has survived the fierce competition from a large number of domestic shipbuilding companies, and it is still living relatively well, relying on the market in overseas territories. Coupled with the active deployment of the inland river and offshore shipbuilding markets in East Asia, Jiangnan Shipyard Company has ranked eighth among the major domestic shipbuilding group companies in terms of turnover in the 46 years since its establishment in Chengshun, occupying the market share of shipbuilding and repairing. About seven percentage points.

Don't think that Jiangnan Shipyard Company is a small company after only ranking eighth and seven percentage points... If you think of being eighth in the country, it can be directly regarded as eighth in the world... You can also look at the market share of seven percentage points. represents seven percent of the global shipbuilding market.

The specific strength of Jiangnan Shipyard Company is probably... equivalent to the super shipbuilding enterprise that occupied 1900% of the global market share in the original time and space of ... surpassing the national shipbuilding capabilities of an ordinary great power!

This is a company with more than ten first-level subsidiaries, hundreds of subsidiaries at all levels, three ship research and development centers, more than 20 large and small shipbuilding bases, branches all over the world, and a total of more than 80,000 employees. A giant company!

In the original time and space of the earth around 1900, his company alone could surpass the national shipbuilding production capacity of the last major power.

Why is there such an exaggerated comparison... Again, the Chu Empire was an industrial country with a population of 700 million!

Any industry, any data statistics, if calculated in total, it will become very exaggerated...

The same is true for the steel industry...and the same is true for the shipbuilding industry!

The reason why the shipbuilding industry is so prosperous... is because of the huge tonnage of ships in the Dachu Empire... In the forty-six years since Chengshun, the total tonnage of ships in the Dachu Empire has exceeded 25 million tons... It's an exaggeration. of.

What's even more exaggerated is that most of the tonnage of the ships in the Da Chu Empire are steam ships, and sailing ships are very small... Even sailing ships, most of the medium-sized and above sailing ships are motor sailing ships, and there are only some small sailing ships in offshore and inland rivers. , is a sailing ship in the traditional sense.

The tonnage of such huge ships... is still increasing at a rate of hundreds of thousands of tons or even millions of tons every year!

This has brought about a huge shipbuilding market... The continued growth of the shipbuilding market has also driven the rapid development of various industries such as steel, machinery, and chemicals.

That's why it is said that ships and trains are the two major driving forces for the rapid development of industry... They are not only consumers of massive steel and various mechanical products, but also providers of transportation capacity!

Of course... Even though ships and trains are very powerful, and the various data are explosive... But in fact, the role they contribute to the entire economic system... They are the little brothers in front of the big brother, the textile industry!

Well, the textile industry, which has been in business for decades and seems to have become a backward industry, is still the well-deserved economic leader in the Chu Empire!

Until now, the textile industry's direct and indirect contribution to the entire industrial system can still reach 30%!

What stands out is an exaggeration!

In Berta City, there is also a certain textile industry, but the local textile industry is not outstanding as a whole... The best one is the garment manufacturing industry.

A typical example is the comprehensive textile factory under the Song Clothing Company founded by Song Erniu!

(End of this chapter)