Daming 1805

Chapter 190 Daming's Financial and Production Capacity

The Jinzhouwei Shipyard, which undertook the construction of the battleship Intrepid, held a lively ceremony for the launch of the new battleship in the twelfth lunar month of winter.

The treasurer of the shipyard invited the commander of the Liaodong capital to preside over the launching ceremony.

Set up an altar, offer sacrifices to the Dragon King, burn paper money, and set off firecrackers.

The commander of the capital is responsible for offering incense to the Dragon King, and a child from a craftsman's family is going to light firecrackers.

Amidst the sound of crackling firecrackers, the water-filled dock opened the gates, and the tugboat slowly left the dock with the Intrepid and moved to the pier to dock.

After the launching ceremony, Jinzhouwei Shipyard also had a full holiday.

The follow-up interior decoration of the Intrepid will have to wait until the next year.

The Royal Jiangnan Shipyard, which undertook the construction of the exploratory aircraft carrier Dinghai, had been on holiday since the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month.

Because of the construction progress of the aircraft carrier Dinghai, it is impossible to rush into the water before the year in any case, so there is no need to hurry up.

The design of the Intrepid battleship is based on the original battleship, changing the layout of the main guns, adding two main guns, and canceling the secondary main guns.

The technology is very mature, and the armor and main guns are ready-made, so there is no need for special production.

The craftsmen and workers are also very skilled. The unification of the main guns made the construction less difficult, and the construction was basically completed in one year with all efforts.

However, for a new type of ship like an aircraft carrier, the entire superstructure is completely new design, and most of the accessories have to be specially produced.

Craftsmen and workers are building this kind of structure for the first time, so the construction speed is naturally much slower.

Although the tonnage of several early aircraft carriers in history was much smaller than that of the battleships of the same period, the construction period all took a year and a half or even two years, all because of inexperience.

The original Jiangnan Shipyard in history was originally located in the Huangpu River in the urban area of ​​Shanghai.

After [-], it moved to Changxing Island in the mouth of the Yangtze River.

The Jiangnan Shipyard in this world was named by Emperor Shizu Emperor Zhu Cihong himself. The site of the factory was directly placed in Baoshansuo, and Baoshansuo was upgraded to Baoshanwei.

The Baoshan Institute at that time was not the Baoshan District on the northwest bank of Wusongkou in later generations, but Gaoqiao Town in the northernmost part of Pudong New Area on the southeast bank of Wusongkou. The later Baoshan District was called Wusongjiangsuo at that time.

Changxing Island had not yet been fully formed at that time, and the three sandbars of Chongming Island had just joined together.

Shanghai was still a county at that time, under the jurisdiction of Songjiang Prefecture in Nanzhili.

Songjiang Prefecture is located in Huating County, which is the Songjiang District of Shanghai in later generations.

The Wusongkou where the Wusong River and the Huangpu River enter the sea, the Baoshansuo and Wusongjiangsuo areas on both sides of the Wusongkou, and all the sandbanks at the Yangtze River estuary, these places belonged to Shanghai in the early Ming Dynasty, and then belonged to Suzhou in the early Ming Dynasty. It is under the jurisdiction of Taicang Prefecture under the government.

During the Renwu Dynasty, Emperor Shizu withdrew from Taicang Prefecture, and placed the newly formed Chongming Island, as well as other islands and sandbanks in the Yangtze River Estuary, under the jurisdiction of Tongzhou in the north of the Yangtze River.

In order to avoid confusion with Tongzhou in Shuntian Prefecture, Tongzhou was changed to Nantong, the southern part of Yangzhou was split off to Nantong's jurisdiction, and Nantong Prefecture was established.

Emperor Shizu also specifically asserted that the sandbar at the mouth of the river in later generations would be connected to the north bank, so it was placed under the jurisdiction of Nantong on the north bank.

Observations over the past 100 years have shown that the sandbars in the river mouth are indeed getting closer to the north shore, and it is only a matter of time before they are truly connected.

When later generations of geography researchers mentioned related stories, they all lamented that the ancestor emperor was really a god-man.

After Daming completed industrialization on its own, Yingtian, Suzhou, Songjiang and other areas with relatively developed commodity economies have become important industrial and commercial centers.

Among these cities, Yingtian has a special status. Suzhou occupies half of the Yangtze River estuary, with the best economic foundation and the largest jurisdiction.

Songjiang faces the East China Sea directly, and it is most suitable to go out directly. However, it has not been invaded by modern times, and has no priority to open ports. It has always been slightly weaker in the face of Suzhou and Yingtian.

The goal of Songjiang's previous prefects was to surpass Suzhou, but unfortunately it has never been realized.

Nantong, which originally had the weakest foundation, got all the sandbars in the Yangtze River Estuary. In theory, the entire Yangtze River Estuary belongs to Nantong.

In particular, Chongming Island, which has been formed in the mouth of the Yangtze River, has become an important trade center in Nantong.

Overall, the development of this area is quite uniform.

At the same time, the Forbidden City of the Ming Dynasty, the Palace of Qianqing.

Wang Lai, head of the Ship Department of the Ministry of Industry, brought a few people to send a model of the new warship.

High-speed battleship Fearless: 3 tons unloaded, 360 tons fully loaded, maximum speed [-] knots, nine [-]mm [-]-caliber naval guns.

Aircraft carrier Zhenhai: No-load [-] tons, full load [-] tons, maximum speed [-] knots, and is expected to carry [-] combat aircraft.

The two epoch-making warships designed by Zhu Jingyuan were finally finalized.

In the current era, with the difficulty and complexity of designing such a "cutting-edge" warship, it is absolutely speeding to complete it all within a year.

It was mainly Zhu Jingyuan who led the team and used the experience of later generations to directly make decisions and directly determine the correct direction.

There is no need for ordinary technicians to convince each other, so the time for wrangling is endless.

The tonnage data of naval ships in this era are most commonly used for empty-load displacement and full-load displacement. In daily communication and publicity, only full-load displacement is basically mentioned.

The tonnage is big and it sounds good.

The "standard displacement" often mentioned in the parameters of naval ships in later generations appeared only after the naval treaty, and was used to calculate the displacement under the standard for the treaty's limited tonnage.

Why does the naval treaty have a "standard" displacement?

Why not continue with full load displacement?
Because different warships have very different fuel weights when fully loaded.

The Veneto class has a fuel carrying capacity of [-] tons.

Bismarck carried [-] tons of oil.

Iowa has a fuel capacity of [-] tons.

These contemporary battleships have a fuel difference of nearly [-] tons at most!

Fuel load is directly related to range.

Different navies have completely different range requirements.

For the Italians playing in the bathtub of the Great Qinhai Sea, a battleship with a range of five or six thousand kilometers is enough.

The United States wants to fight across two oceans. It is transferred from Norfolk on the east coast to San Francisco through the Panama Canal. The shortest single-line voyage is more than 1 kilometers, which is equivalent to the voyage from Zhanjiang to Djibouti.

If the full-load displacement is used as the standard, and only [-] tons of ships can be built, the weight of the weapons and equipment of the Italian short-legged warships will be four to five thousand tons more than that of the American ships.

This is enough to upgrade the main gun from fifteen inches to eighteen inches.

The combat power has been directly opened up two levels.

So there is the treaty standard displacement, that is, the displacement without fuel.

There is no naval treaty now, and of course no one mentions any standard displacement, although the data in the design indicators are ready-made.

Daily use is still no-load and full-load.

Zhu Jianyan walked around the two two-meter-long battleship models, and couldn't help but admire and say:

"The shape of this warship... is completely different from the previous warships. The lines of the hull look very smooth and beautiful...

Wang Lai also smiled and echoed in admiration:
"Yes, Your Majesty, His Royal Highness Prince Dashi presided over the design of these two new ships. Compared with all previous warships, there is almost nothing exactly the same.

"The upper and lower shapes of the hull's external waterline, the layout of the interior compartments of the hull, the layout of the hull defense structure design department, the layout and command of the turret, the matching of power systems, etc., are all completely different.

"These are two really brand new ships, extremely aggressive exploration ships."

Listening to these data, Zhu Jianyan didn't even ask about the performance details of this ship. The industry has basically understood it before, but cared about the price of such a radical design:
"So... how much will it cost to build?"

The smile on Wang Lai's face suddenly became a little stiff:

"The estimated total cost of the Battleship Intrepid is 100 million gold bills, or 5000 million silver bills.

"However, in the total cost of the warship, the initial battleship design and the research and development of various new equipment accounted for a large part.

"So the aircraft carrier is a completely new type of ship. Although it does not have large-caliber main guns and the armor materials used are not as good as battleships, the cost is not low.

"In addition, there are newly opened shipyards and machinery factories everywhere, and the prices of steel and other materials required for shipbuilding continue to rise. The wages of workers have also doubled compared to before, so the construction cost of new ships will so expensive.

"If you continue to build multiple similar ships in the future, the overall cost will continue to decline."

100 million gold notes, directly converted according to the gold content, are equivalent to 732 million pounds in the same period.

For comparison, the Queen Elizabeth-class battleship is a single ship, and the cost of a single ship is 240 million pounds.

Prestige and Retaliation two battlecruisers for a combined £620m.

The battlecruiser Hood cost 602 million pounds per ship.

Zhu Jingyuan's two new ships are each one-fifth more expensive than Hood, and more expensive than the two prestige sisters combined.

For warships of the same size and class, the cost of an aircraft carrier should have been lower than that of a battleship.

However, although the fully loaded tonnage of Zhu Jingyuan's aircraft carrier and battleship is the same, the hull of the aircraft carrier is larger than that of the battleship.

Therefore, the cost of the last two ships is basically the same.

Although Zhu Jianyan had a certain amount of preparation in his heart, he was still a little embarrassed when he heard the cost:

"Two million—gold bills...

"The previous 30-ton test ship cost less than [-] gold bills.

"The cost of a traditional battleship going forward is only 25 gold bills or even lower.

"If the average cost per ton is used, is this directly doubled?"

Wang Lai explained embarrassingly:
"The average cost per ton has indeed doubled. The cost of the previous battleships was basically between twelve and thirteen gold bills per ton. The converted cost of the two new ships has reached 25 gold bills per ton."

Zhu Jianyan looked at the model ship with a serious expression:
"According to my understanding, the larger the tonnage of the warship, the lower the unit cost should be..."

Wang Lai nodded slightly and said:
"If it is under the same technical standard, it is indeed the case.

"The larger the tonnage of a battleship, the greater the proportion of the steel structure of the hull, and steel is the cheapest material for a battleship as a whole.

"So the larger the total tonnage, the lower the comprehensive unit price.

"However, the Intrepid and Zhenhai are brand new warships that have been completely redesigned, and hardly any of the original weapons and equipment have been used, which is why the cost is so high.

"When the relevant technologies on these two ships are popularized, the cost of subsequent similar new ships will be reduced.

"If the number of buildings built at the same time increases, the average price can also be spread down.

"If two ships of the same type are built at the same time, the cost of the second ship can be reduced to 80 gold notes. If three ships of the same type are built, the price of the third ship will continue to drop to 70 gold notes..."

Zhu Jianyan nodded slightly as he listened, instead of making a decision right away, he went back to his desk and looked through the year-end report submitted by the Ministry of Finance.

"In the 33 years of Taiping, the gross national product was about 16 billion gold notes, and the fiscal revenue was [-] million gold notes.

"In the 34 years of Taiping, the gross production value of allergies has increased to 24 billion gold notes, and the fiscal revenue has increased to 8000 million gold notes...

"It is expected that the data in the coming year will maintain the current growth momentum and even continue to increase..."

The 33-year data of Ming Dynasty is slightly lower than the combined data of the United Kingdom and the United States before World War I in Zhu Jingyuan's previous life, and five times that of the weakened version of the United Kingdom in this world.

The 34-year data is [-]% more than the sum of the United Kingdom and the United States before World War I. Considering the economic growth of the United Kingdom in this world, it can reach more than six times that of the United Kingdom.

In 34, the GDP soared by [-]%, and the fiscal revenue soared by [-]%.

Because the war was over at the beginning of 34.

At the same time, the royal family opened up the six major industries at the beginning of the year, and began to de facto withdraw from the whole world.

In the second half of the year, Daming began to receive a large amount of land and population, and added four new vassal states.

The number of private factories and production orders have exploded throughout the year.

The wages of ordinary workers returned to pre-war levels in the spring and doubled again in the second half of the year.

Therefore, the overall data of the entire Ming Dynasty showed restorative and retaliatory growth.

Moreover, this growth has just begun, and it will be fully released from the second half of the year to the end of the year.

Next year's data will probably not decrease, and may even be higher.

And this is also the most important reason why the Western countries dare not continue to fight with Daming.

Zhu Jianyan looked at these data and roughly estimated:
"The cost of each new ship is 100 million gold bills, which is almost 34/[-] of Taiping's [-]-year GDP, and [-]/[-] of each aircraft carrier and battleship.

"Two aircraft carriers and two battleships are built, and the total cost of the four ships is 34/[-] of the GDP, which is [-]% of the total fiscal revenue in [-] years."

When Japan built Nagato, the cost of a single ship was almost [-]% of the fiscal revenue of that year.

Daming had to place an order for eight directly before he felt the pressure of one Nagato on Japan's finances.

When the British built Hood, the cost of a single ship was almost [-]/[-] of the GDP of the year.

Daming had to place an order for four ships at the same time in order to feel the pressure of a Hood on the production of British society.

Although Zhu Jianyan didn't know the historical data of Zhu Jingyuan's previous life.

But looking at the price comparison with Daming's current data, one can understand the pressure that building these ships put on Daming's finances and social production.

After pondering for a while, Zhu Jianyan made a decision:

"If building two ships at the same time can save some money, then build two battleships and two aircraft carriers. Anyway, all the old ships have stopped...

"You don't have to be busy before the year, let's go through the formalities after the fifteenth year of the year.

"There are also models of these two ships, send them to the Supreme Emperor as soon as possible..."

Wang Lai immediately agreed happily:

"My minister obeys."

　Converting data is a thing that makes your head explode...

　　
　
(End of this chapter)