The Imperial Age with the Resurgence of Han Style

Chapter 65 New Industries
June 1724, 6, light rain, Straits Governorate, Sishui County (now Johor Bahru City, Malaysia).

Led by Jin Yanlin, Governor of the Sishui County Commerce Department, a Qin businessman delegation of more than ten people braved the drizzle and walked in a lush rubber garden to carefully inspect and inspect the growth of rubber.

"Rubber trees can be harvested after 6-8 years of planting. The amount of harvesting in the first few years is small. Generally, they reach peak production period after 3-5 years, and the harvesting year is about 30 years." Jin Yanlin walked. While talking, he introduced the basic situation of rubber to the accompanying investigators, "The growth rate of rubber trees is the fastest in an environment with a temperature of about 30 degrees, and our Sishui County has high temperatures all year round and the climate is extremely suitable for rubber growth. Every tree Rubber trees need to be tapped no more than 15 times per month. Generally, the annual output of a single plant is about 4 to 5 kilograms. Assuming that about 300 rubber trees can be planted in one acre of land, the output per acre can reach 1.2 tons to 1.5 tons. Based on the current Judging from the price trend, the income is still quite considerable.”

"May I ask Governor Jin, this rubber forest is already mature, why don't we see any farmers coming to harvest the glue?" Cai Hongrui, a maritime merchant from Qin State, looked around and saw no farmers except for a few guards. He and the native coolie appeared among them and couldn't help but ask in confusion.

"Shopkeeper Cai doesn't know, but there are particularities in cutting glue." Jin Yanlin explained with a smile: "When cutting glue on rainy days, the glue will be washed away by rainwater, which affects the quality. In addition, if the temperature is too high, the water will evaporate quickly and the latex will solidify. Fast, short glue discharge time will also result in less glue discharge. The best time for rubber tapping is when the temperature is 20 to 25 degrees. The content of latex and dry glue flowing out at this temperature will be higher, and the quality will be the best. . Therefore, these rubber plantations usually carry out rubber tapping operations from about 4 a.m. to 7 a.m. when the temperature is not high. However, too low a temperature is not necessarily good. When the temperature is below 18 degrees, the latex flow rate will slow down. , and can also cause diseases such as dead skin on rubber trees.”

When everyone heard this, they nodded and said yes.The officials of the Qi State were still easy to talk to, and they were not as arrogant as the officials of the Qin State. When the two sides communicated, their attitudes were extremely friendly, as if they were equals, which made many investors present feel inexplicably comfortable.

Over the years, I have been dealing with the people of Qi for a long time. Concepts such as weight units, weather temperatures, time and hours, etc. have long been known to everyone and are used in daily production and life.Not to mention, such a precise description brings great convenience to everyone. When you hear these numbers, you will have a general understanding.

Yes, they are all from the Qin State, and they are a group of maritime merchants who have accumulated a fortune of tens of thousands through Qin-Qi trade.In addition to buying extensive land and building luxurious residences on the mainland, they also broke with tradition and did not pile the gold and silver they earned in cellars. Instead, they deposited it in a local bank established by Qi State to obtain safe and stable interest.

This situation is nothing new in mainland China.The banks established by Qi State have won the favor of many Qin businessmen for their strong strength, absolute safety, unreasonable acceptance, and interest rates.Whenever you withdraw a sum of no more than 2000 taels of silver, Qiguo Bank will accept it promptly (oversized amounts require an appointment). Qin State silver coins, Hanzhou silver dollars, and even gold yuan certificates can all be provided according to the customer's requirements. .

What is more convenient is that when they trade and buy goods overseas, they can obtain an acceptance note issued by Bank of Qi based on the deposited money, and then they can withdraw the corresponding currency at any Bank of Qi branch overseas, thereby avoiding It eliminates the trouble of carrying large amounts of gold and silver, and is extremely convenient.

This time, a group of more than ten maritime merchants came to Malacca Governor-General to inspect the management of rubber plantations. They were invited by several trading partners to come to Qi's overseas territories to seek investment opportunities and make a long-term livelihood for future generations.

As a businessman, he deposits money into the bank one after another just for the sake of earning some interest. It seems so worthless!
If you invest in any industry in our country, you will get at least five to ten times the income, which is much higher than the interest you get from depositing money in the bank.Even if you are worried about market risks, you can consider investing in a plantation. The annual returns will be much more cost-effective than depositing money in a bank.

Look at those investors who were the first to run plantations decades ago. None of them made money while lying down.The market demand for these bulk agricultural products, such as coffee, cocoa, palm oil, cotton, and cane sugar, is extremely strong, allowing many plantation owners to make a lot of money.As long as you recruit a dozen armed guards, hire two or three experienced farmers, and "introduce" more than a hundred or ten native coolies, you can lie down and collect money comfortably. What a beautiful thing it is!
In the past decade or so, in order to accelerate the development of the Nanyang territory and attract more immigrants, the Qi government has made some policy adjustments in operating plantations. In addition to extending the leasehold rights of the land to a maximum of 99 years, it will be extended to [-] years upon expiration. The lease can be renewed by the local government after paying a premium, and investors are also allowed to fully purchase the land and own the freehold title.

While the bull market for plantation commodities such as coffee, cocoa, palm oil, and cane sugar has lasted for decades, the boom period for rubber plantations came much later.

Because, as for how to utilize rubber, the people of Qi have successively developed some effective application results after decades of research and a lot of experiments.After all, this is a substance that has been widely used in later generations, and with Emperor Taizu of Qi attaching great importance to it, many research institutes and scholars have worked tirelessly on it. Until more than ten years ago, some methods were gradually developed. More practical rubber products have allowed rubber plantations to experience explosive growth in revenue.

The mucus secreted by certain cells in the inner bark of the rubber tree is the most important "latex" raw material for rubber production.Collectors take out knives or axes and cut an incision in the bark, and then the liquid flowing out of the incision can be collected into a container fixed on the tree.The collected liquid cannot be used directly. It must be diluted appropriately, then added with acetic acid to form a gel, and finally heated and smoked before it can be initially used.

These processing techniques The people of Qi gradually found some methods of processing rubber through years of continuous exploration and practice.For example, analyzing the components of the liquid flowing out of the rubber tree, how to remove impurities in the latex, how to make raw rubber, etc. - Among them, making raw rubber is the most critical process.

The maker usually takes out a stick coated with a layer of white latex from a small bucket where the latex is placed, and then puts the stick over a brazier and smokes it repeatedly to dry it.Then put the wooden stick into the keg, continue to coat the surface with a layer of latex, and then smoke it dry.This is repeated many times until a large piece of white gelatinous substance accumulates on the stick, then it is cut off, placed aside, and collected by a designated person.

At this time, the material obtained is raw rubber.Of course, sometimes a process is also used, which is to repeatedly roll the gel with a roller to remove the whey, and then obtain a film with a thickness of several millimeters - which is also a valuable intermediate product.

After that, it is the actual use of rubber.Earlier, in addition to a few words of advice from Emperor Taizu about the use of rubber by the people of Qi, the first-hand information they had came from the Mameluco people in Brazil.By capturing Indians from the Amazon River Basin in South America, Qi researchers were fortunate enough to see how they used rubber.

The Indians living in the jungle discovered the wonderful uses of rubber early on. They knew how to make a rougher film, and then used this film to make rain boots; they also discovered that latex can be waterproof, which is a good thing in the rainy Amazon basin. Amazing features.That's right, the people of Qi used this method to apply latex on canvas or clothing to make the original raincoat, thinking it was waterproof equipment.

The Indians also used clay molds to make many rubber containers, which was another wonderful use.Of course, the Indians' greatest discovery was their realization that latex, which had been smoked to give it a leathery appearance, could be made into many useful things.The Indians have developed many uses and processing methods of rubber over the long years. After gathering this information, the Qi people verified it one by one, and then started their own design and processing technology, preparing to seize the lead in Europe. Before people realized it, this new material - rubber was applied on a large scale.

In fact, as early as 1615, the Spanish began to use rubber to make rainproof cloaks for soldiers, which was more than 60 years ahead of the Qi people's research.It's a pity that the Spaniards were not deeply aware of the other wonderful uses of this thing. It was not until more than 100 years later, in 1736, that a French expedition team to Peru studied rubber and gradually developed various wonderful uses, which eventually became popular throughout the world.It can be said that it was the French who developed the great material rubber.However, now the honor of this great invention will finally fall to the people of Qi.

More than 40 years ago, the State of Qi established a rubber products research institute in Weiyuan (today's Port Moresby) and began the great task of researching and developing rubber uses.Technicians followed the ideas of the Indians and Spaniards and produced many waterproof appliances, such as waterproof leather goods and waterproof cloths (cotton, linen, woolen cloth, etc.).However, they did not simply apply natural latex to the cloth like the Spaniards or Indians did. Instead, they tried all the chemicals they could find over and over again to soften and dissolve it, and then used it to make rubber products.

The technicians of the institute have used tar (the benzene in coal tar can dissolve rubber), sulfuric acid, hydrochloric acid, soda ash, caustic soda, ether and many other materials, and finally found that the chemical ether is a good solvent for raw rubber blocks.The dissolved and softened rubber has very good viscosity and can be blended into various sols, which can then be evenly applied to materials such as leather or cloth by hand with a brush. After drying, it becomes a good waterproof material.

With the success of these achievements, several cities such as Weiyuan and Jinhua (today's Lae, Papua New Guinea) established a series of rubber processing plants to process the glue produced in the plantations into raw rubber sheets of fixed specifications. Then, it is exported to the local cotton textile factories and clothing factories in Hanzhou.These companies stick the film to the fabric - the dissolved raw rubber has very good stickiness and is made into a variety of textiles such as raincoats, suspenders, and elastic pants.

With the emergence of garters and elastic pants, various other rubber products have also been developed one by one with the brainstorming of various imaginative researchers, such as inflatable beds, swimming rings, air pillows, air mattresses, etc.The production method of these products is also quite simple, as long as the inner core of these items is immersed in a sol made of dissolved rubber.In addition, useful gadgets such as hoses, rubber threads, tapes, washers, elastic bandages, etc. have also been designed, produced and introduced to the market.

However, all rubber products in Qi are made of raw rubber, that is, unvulcanized rubber.Although items made of this kind of rubber are quite good in terms of viscosity, elasticity and stretchability, if left in a low temperature environment for a long time, the rubber will slowly harden and then lose elasticity, which means that in the cold winter, rubber products There is a high chance that it will lose effectiveness.

In addition, raw rubber that has been dissolved in solvents will easily decompose and lose its effectiveness once it encounters hot weather.It can be said that if these two defects are not resolved, the sales of rubber products in Qi and even the world will encounter many limitations, which will ultimately affect the broad development prospects of this industry.

To solve this problem, we can only think of ways to deal with rubber.However, many researchers have always been confused when Emperor Taizu mentioned the chemical term "rubber vulcanization".When looking into the underlying principles, how to specifically vulcanize, and what the process is, Emperor Taizu was still unclear and could not give specific guidance.

Of course, you definitely can't bring the emperor who is in charge of national affairs to the laboratory to solve this chemical problem for you.

There is no other way, we still have to rely on the technical staff of the institute to find a solution on their own.Fortunately, they already know a general direction, which is to use sulfur to react with rubber.As for whether it is burning, heating, or dissolving, it requires a lot of experiments. There is no shortcut, we can only try step by step and eliminate every possibility.

Hard work pays off, and under the temptation of huge capital investment and high bonuses, two years ago, a technician named Luo Sihan from a rubber processing factory in Weihai (now Cairns, Australia) accidentally made a mistake after repeated experiments. Vulcanized rubber was produced in the process, which makes the rubber have excellent properties such as high strength, high elasticity, high wear resistance, corrosion resistance, etc., overcoming the shortcomings of raw rubber in one fell swoop, thus promoting this material to a larger market application , eliminating various obstacles.

Therefore, the Ministry of Industry Promotion and the Ministry of Agricultural Development of Qi jointly issued a document requiring Weiyuan Island, Sumatra Island, Borneo, and the Malay Peninsula to vigorously expand rubber plantations in several overseas territories suitable for rubber growth to meet the needs of the future rubber industry. development of.

"So, please relax, the rubber industry will have very broad development prospects in the future. If you invest in building rubber plantations in Sishui, it will definitely be the wisest decision in your life." Jin Yanlin stretched out a hand , pointing to a large expanse of lush wilderness in the distance, his words full of temptation, "You only need to invest a small amount of money to plant this wilderness with rubber trees, and it will be like having a hen that can lay golden eggs. You and your descendants will bring a steady stream of benefits.”

"Can manpower be guaranteed?" A Qin businessman was already excited.

"In the early stages of the plantation, we can 'recruit' some native labor for you, but in the long run, I still suggest that you introduce more Han immigrants from the mainland to replace those stupid and stupid natives." Jin Yanlin smiled. He smiled and said: "As you all know, our Qi State is increasing its development of the Nanyang Territory. The construction of various infrastructures will consume a lot of native people. By then, we may not be able to guarantee the labor needs of all your plantations."

After everyone heard this, they couldn't help but smile bitterly.

The people of Qi are very smart in their calculations. They not only want us to help them develop overseas territories and establish rubber plantations, but also introduce immigrants for free to enrich their population.

However, it doesn’t matter. Although our country Qin has troubles from the northwest, the country has been at peace for decades and the population has surged. There are landless farmers everywhere. With some shipping fees and some three melons and two dates, you can easily recruit people for plantations. A large number of agricultural workers are needed.

By the way, the land prices in Qi's overseas territories are simply not too cheap compared to those on the mainland.If you enclose [-] acres of land, even if you can't make money from that kind of rubber, you can at least create a foundation for your family that will be passed down to future generations, right? ——
(End of this chapter)