I'm sure of the prosperous age of Kangxi and Qianlong!

Chapter 340 Two Elements of the Industrial Revolution

Irse returned to the guest house arranged by Honglu Temple for envoys from foreign vassals.

That night, I received a gift from Zhu Yijiong in return.

There are several pieces of porcelain and two boxes of Nangan cigars.

"Cigar... Cigarette? There is actually this style of tobacco in China..." Irse was a little surprised when he looked at the cigars placed in the exquisite brocade box.

This was given to him individually by the Emperor of China, and there were only two brocade boxes containing cigars.

One portion was given in return to the governor, and another portion was given to him as the representative of the mission.

Ilse recalled the words of the interpreter who accompanied the delivery. This kind of "cigar" tobacco was very expensive and seemed to be a luxury item that only the upper class could afford.

This gave Irse great satisfaction. As expected, the Chinese emperor still valued the Dutch.

After carefully putting away the cigars, he turned to look at the pieces of porcelain.

Ilse admired sincerely: "These porcelains are so beautiful!"

Although he didn't understand the art of these porcelains at all, he could only see the delicate and exquisite colors.

This porcelain... is definitely easy to sell!
As long as it can be brought back to Europe, it will definitely sell for a higher price than those monotonous blue and white porcelains.

Yes, the pieces of porcelain that Irse received were all enamel.

Although the Ming and Qing Dynasties also exported porcelain, they usually only exported blue and white porcelain. Enamel porcelain was a new porcelain that appeared only after the innovation of glaze color technology in recent years.

Even among all the porcelains in ancient China, enamel porcelain is the most well-prepared and the rarest in production.

Of course, in addition to enamel, Zhu Yijiong also has pastel porcelain, which also only appeared in recent years.Like the enamel given to Ilse, they are all defective products with immature technology.

As long as an expert observes carefully, he can find many ice cracks in some details, but there is no problem in fooling these Dutch people.

No, how can you say it's a fool's errand? Even these immature enamel and pastel porcelains are enough to beat the traditional blue and white porcelain in Europe.

Zhu Yijiong's purpose in sending these porcelain and cigars is very simple, which is to take this opportunity to open up overseas markets for cigars and porcelain products.

Although these Dutch people are outrageous, at least they are good at doing business and are extremely enthusiastic.

Cigars pay attention to high-end brands, and enamel and pastel porcelain are definitely more in line with European aesthetics.To put it bluntly, Europeans cannot appreciate the relatively monotonous blue and white porcelain. They still prefer colorful works of art.

As long as overseas markets are opened up, private kilns will be able to develop accordingly.

The enamel-colored porcelain sent by Zhu Yijiong was all shipped from private kilns.

Today, there are no official kilns in the Ming Dynasty, and all official kilns have been contracted to private kiln merchants.

Don't mention any national assets, because the official kilns of the Ming and Qing Dynasties were just a pit or a sinkhole.

Not only is there no money to be made at all, but it is also extremely wasteful and wasteful of money.

This is actually not difficult to understand, as long as you understand the business model of official kilns in the Ming and Qing dynasties.

The Manchu and Qing Dynasty's official kiln model was inherited from the late Ming Dynasty, and all used "official and civilian firing", that is, "ministry limits" and "imperial limits" were issued every year.The former is an additional task, while the latter is purely assigned.

The "imperial limit" apportions often need to occupy the best cave dwellings in folk kilns.

Although the kiln-firing technology of those private kilns is very successful, whether they can be fired successfully is an uncertain factor.Sometimes after being fired at once, there is not a single piece of exquisite porcelain left.The owners of private kilns are responsible for their own profits and losses. They make money if the kilns are fired successfully, and lose money if they fail.

Through long-term kiln firing experience, the kiln is divided into different locations to place different porcelain.Locations where fine porcelain can be fired are the main factors that make private kilns profitable.

When a private kiln receives a task, it must place the imperial kiln porcelain in the best location.After the product is completed, it must be selected by the royal kiln factory and be picky in every possible way.

If the folk kiln cannot be fired or the selector believes that the artifact is unqualified, the task is deemed not to have been completed.The imperial kiln factory would sell the imperial kiln porcelain it fired to private kilns at a high price, and let the private kilns use the purchased porcelain to hand it over to the imperial kiln factory to complete the "imperial restricted" tasks.

"Jiangxi Dazhi. Pottery Book" records: "The ministry limits porcelain and does not pre-distribute kilns. The emperor limits porcelain, and official kilns allocate scattered kilns to each kiln. Those who can make the pots will be ordered to select them. Those who cannot make the pots will be responsible for it." Do it. If you can't do it, then the official kiln will charge a high price to market it, and the private kiln will be trapped."

Although in name, the private kiln received the task of firing and the imperial kiln factory had to pay high wages and rent, in reality it was often a fictitious payment and not a real contract.

Since the private kilns did not have high-quality porcelain materials, in order to fulfill the "imperial limit", they had to pay for it from the imperial kiln factory.The internal supervisors also used the method of "giving low-quality green materials to the kilns and claiming their value" to sell the green materials (blue and white porcelain) to private kilns at high prices to squeeze more profits from the private kilns.

In this way, the whole process of "government and private affairs" has come down.It not only wastes people and money, damages the private kiln market, but also squeezes local finances simultaneously.However, the palace only received free porcelain, and all the profits were made by the kiln supervisors and eunuchs.

Therefore, it is better to directly contract the operation of private kilns to stimulate technological innovation in private kilns.

Ilse looked at the enamel porcelain, and the more she looked at it, the more she couldn't put it down.

In his eyes, these are no longer porcelain, they are all money!

There is also a box of cigars from before. As long as he takes them back to Europe, he will definitely make a lot of money.Zhu Yijiong's goal was also successfully achieved. Even if the Dutch governor was unwilling to send troops, he would definitely drive a warship over to buy porcelain and cigars from China.

The Dutch are like this, as long as they can make a profit, they will do anything.

……

A few days later, the Dutch mission returned.

Nanjing, Academy of Sciences.

Zhu Yijiong looked at the strange-looking spinning machine in front of him, which was a million miles away from the Jenny machine in the textbook in his memory, and couldn't help but ask: "Is this the Jenny machine you built?"

Huang Wu was a little confused: "Jenny machine? Is this the name His Majesty gave this spinning machine?"

Zhu Yijiong immediately shook his head and denied: "No...can you let me operate this spinning machine?"

Huang Wu nodded quickly: "Your Majesty, please wait a moment."

With that said, he went directly to the battle in person.

After all, he spent many days making it by hand. Naturally, no one understands the structural principles of this spinning machine better than him.

"Dong dong dong da da da dong dong..."

Under the noisy noise, the machine started slowly with manual labor, and within a moment, purple coarse cotton gauze was "vomited" out by the machine.

"This is cloth...it's cloth!"

"Is it really so magical?"

"..."

The officials in the cabinet who were observing the situation all around the emperor suddenly exclaimed in surprise.

The dignified Yuanfu Wang Li couldn't help but stepped forward personally, reached out and touched the roving that had been spun and hit the basket.

There is almost no difference from hand-woven ones!

Looking up at the spinning machine again, the expression on his face instantly changed from surprise to seriousness.

After a while, Huang Wu stopped.

Without him, I didn’t prepare enough cotton, and it was originally a trial production machine.

"Good good!"

Zhu Yijiong, however, didn't care at all. Instead, his face was full of excitement and he couldn't wait to ask: "Huang Qing, you did a very good job on this spinning machine. I wonder if it can be mass-produced?"

Huang Wu said: "Your Majesty, don't worry. There is no need for craftsmen. We only need to deploy a few apprentices and learn from them. It will not be a big problem to achieve mass production on the assembly line."

Zhu Yijiong immediately clapped his hands and praised: "Very good! By the way, Huang Qing, have you ever thought about connecting this spinning machine to a steam engine?"

Huang Wu was stunned, connected to a steam engine?

"What do you mean, Your Majesty?"

Zhu Yijiong said: "It is to use a steam engine to provide power for this spinning machine, just like what you just did, let the steam engine replace human power to spin the yarn."

When Huang Wu heard this, his face suddenly showed embarrassment: "Your Majesty, the steam engine is still in the improvement stage, and it may be difficult to put it into practical use. However, as long as your Majesty gives me more time, I will be able to solve the problem as soon as possible."

All right!It was because I was a little too hasty.

Before the problems of the prototype were solved, he was already thinking about using steam engines to start the industrial revolution.

Zhu Yijiong smiled and said: "It doesn't matter, I take it for granted. Everything takes its time and there is no need to rush. I can't afford to wait until the spring and autumn are at their peak. Moreover, with this spinning machine, my Ming Dynasty is already ahead of the world. Huang Qing , you have made great contributions to our Ming Dynasty again!"

Huang Wu quickly said humbly: "This is the responsibility of the minister, I dare not take credit!"

"Haha, what's yours is yours, no one can take it away." Zhu Yijiong was sincerely happy. Although the drawing was given by himself, the completeness and recognition of the drawing were limited.

Huang Wu's ability to create it in such a short time is enough to prove his outstanding talent.

More importantly, with this Jenny machine, no, it should be the Huang Wu spinning machine.

After all, the appearance of the two is completely different. Only some structures and functions are similar, and Huang Wu designed more than just the eight spindles.

With this Yellow Five spinning machine and the Yellow Five steam engine, the two major elements of the first industrial revolution were now present.

　Qianlong pastel hollow porcelain vase, unfortunately it has a farmhouse aesthetic
　　
　
(End of this chapter)