Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 139 Difficult industrial progress ([-])

On November 11, Shao Shude, who returned to Dongfang Port by a coal carrier from Zhenhai Fort, went straight to the Ministry of Civil Affairs and the Executive Committee without stopping.After arriving at the office of the Executive Committee, I realized that I was in vain. It turned out that everyone had gone to the Ministry of Finance for a meeting.

Shao Shude asked the staff, only to learn that the Dong'an Company and the Ministry of Finance held a joint meeting to discuss the settlement of the debt between the two parties, and by the way, discuss the financial budget for next year.

Compared with previous years, the life of the Ministry of Finance has been much better this year.Among them, the Ministry of Agriculture is definitely the biggest contributor.Thanks to years of war in Europe and the abnormal climate of the Little Ice Age, European food production has declined year by year, and food prices have been rising steadily.During the crisis, many countries introduced policies to restrict grain exports, which further weakened the effective circulation of grain in the market and caused grain prices to rise further.

The Ministry of Agriculture has exported as many as 2500 tons of potatoes to France and Central Europe through the Pasquale family this year. After excluding costs, the Ministry of Agriculture has made a net profit of 10 yuan, becoming a well-deserved export star.

In addition to the Ministry of Agriculture, the General Administration of Textile Industry is no exception. The Ping An Machine Weaving Factory under its jurisdiction is definitely a gold-making machine with great potential to be tapped.As another cargo ship from Bordeaux docked a few days ago, the Pasquale family has transported a total of 0.75 pieces of east coast calico from Dongfang Port so far this year. The cost (5000 yuan per piece), each piece of cloth can earn a whole yuan of excess profit.Although some payment for the goods has not been returned in time, the profit of [-] yuan on the book cannot escape.

In addition, 12 yuan was handed over to the Ministry of the Admiralty from private plunder; Colonia’s trade revenue (export of building materials, small hardware products, clean coal, textiles, and a small amount of arms) also reached 5000 yuan throughout the year; The annual export of arms pays nearly 4 yuan in profits and taxes; the minting income is 5 yuan.

These items are the bulk of the fiscal revenue, plus domestic land ransom money, industrial and commercial taxes and other miscellaneous revenues, the Huaxia East Coast Republic's annual fiscal revenue is expected to approach 45 yuan by the end of next month, a record high.

Corresponding to the income, the annual financial expenditure is still huge.Even though most of the shipbuilding funds were borne by the Ministry of the Navy, other trade expenditures, industrial investment, government office expenditures (including personnel salaries, education expenditures, etc.), and military expenditures still totaled 18 yuan.

At first glance, it seems that the annual income minus expenditure will result in a huge financial surplus of about 27 yuan, but don't get too excited. At the end of October, Eduardo and Captain Carvalho from Portugal brought in about 10 East Asian immigrants again. According to the agreement, they had to pay their "freight fee" of about 22 yuan.The money cannot be owed in arrears. If you are in arrears this time, there will be no next time. Therefore, the Ministry of Finance still honestly settles it on the spot.

In this way, the fiscal surplus in 1635 was only about 5 yuan. Although it was not much, it was the first time that the Ministry of Finance had a fiscal surplus in recent years.For this reason, Tang Yuan, the Minister of Finance who was so excited, even had the urge to go out to set off a firecracker.However, this money is destined not to stay.Considering that the Ministry of Finance is now carrying a huge debt of 35 yuan, and many of these debts have been in arrears for a long time, the Executive Committee and the Ministry of Finance decided to use the 5 yuan to repay the debt to Dongan Company after careful consideration.

After sitting in the meeting room of the executive committee for a long time, even after drinking two pots of tea, a group of members of the executive committee finally came back in twos and threes.After Shao Shude drank the last sip of tea, he went straight to the office of Prime Minister Vest of the Government Affairs Council.

"I heard that you came, and you were in a meeting." The vest rubbed his temples, and said a little tiredly: "Old Shao, stop talking, I know what you are here for. Not many, 400 people! Two hundred people The free people who migrated from Dongfang Port, one hundred pirate slaves plus one hundred Charuyas captured.”

"That's it?" Shao Shude was a little disappointed, but he also knew the difficulties of the Government Affairs Council, so he had already prepared in his heart, and the 400 people were more or less within his psychological limit.

"It's just squeezed out for you, don't be dissatisfied." The secretary of the waistcoat brought two cups of fragrant New Granada coffee, and the waistcoat took a sip before saying: "Recently I often stay up late and drink coffee to refresh myself." Get used to it."

"What kind of cup is this?" Shao Shude asked while looking at the transparent glass containing coffee in his hand.There are many fine bubbles in the glass wall, and the color is not very pure. It looks like a rough handmade product, and it is far inferior to European products just by looking at the appearance.

"Recently, a glass kiln was set up at the newly built reclamation site south of the Big Fish River. Under the guidance of some European glass artisans, we started firing glass products. Didn't the chemical industry keep clamoring that there would be no chemical industry without the glass industry? Well, this time I managed to trick some German glass craftsmen over here, and everyone felt that they could start a glass kiln. No, this is the first batch of glass products they produced, which were sent to various departments a few days ago. It is said to let everyone try it out and see their results." Said the vest.

Shao Shude was a little speechless. There were so many people in the crowd, no one could make qualified glass products.At the beginning, many people with high-sightedness and low-handedness heard about glass and said, "Isn't the glass component just silicon dioxide? It can be made by burning sand." When it comes to how to remove air bubbles, how to remove impurities, how to fire colorless or various colored glass paste, and how to blow finished products, these people don't talk.

After the first few failed experiments, the executive committee put the idea to rest.In addition, resources were really tight, so only a small glass research team was retained to continue research and experiments, and the focus of resources began to shift to other places.Due to the war or various reasons, the research and development work has been intermittent. Until the middle of this year, the glass research team still failed to develop qualified glass products, and the whole team almost became a joke.

In the end, the trade department rescued them. Through their trading partners, they recruited some glass craftsmen from the war-torn North Germany region at a high price, and then brought them to the east bank.

Together these German artisans show their worth.Under their guidance, members of the research and development team of the Crossover Group fished a large number of plants from the sea, dried them and incinerated them into ashes to obtain impure soda (sodium carbonate).Then the soda is mixed with limestone and river sand and calcined. After the burned glass slurry is fully stirred to remove some air bubbles, it is blown into containers of various shapes with a blowpipe.At this point, the entire glass production process is over.

But don't worry, there is another difficulty here.That is, blowing glass is also a technical job, not to say that you can get the desired shape by just blowing and blowing.This requires a lot of experiments, and it is possible to blow out a qualified shape only after accumulating enough experience.No, even among those German craftsmen, only one or two can blow out qualified products.

Fortunately, the time-travelers are not stupid. I have no experience, I can't grasp the strength well, and I can't blow the shape I want, but I have a way to be lazy.They went to Dayuhe Arsenal to press a batch of iron molds with hydraulic forging hammers. The shape and size of each mold were strictly designed.For example, the sizes of glass measuring cups, test tubes, retorts and other containers used in chemical experiments need to be strictly consistent, otherwise you may fail to restore other people's experiments because the volumes are different.

With these standardized iron molds, Chuanzhong can produce any desired glass products, such as measuring cups, test tubes, decanters, wine bottles and other utensils, making large-scale chemical experiments possible.Since then, the chemistry department can finally open up to do experiments and restore some technologies.They previously applied for funds and ordered a set of experimental equipment made of natural crystals (crystals are abundant in Uruguay and Brazil) at a high price. This set of equipment was used as a heirloom among various groups.Now that the glass kiln has been officially put into production, their dilemma has finally been solved.

After the successful trial production, the members of the glass team sent the first batch of products to various departments of the Executive Committee and the Government Administration Council for use, in the name of expanding their influence.

Of course, their efforts were not in vain.The Executive Committee and the Government Council finally decided to invest in the construction of a formal glass factory - Henan Glass Factory on the basis of the original glass kiln.The glass factory is located in the newly built Henan Fort (belonging to Dongfang County) on the south bank of the Dayu River. Currently, there are only more than 200 residents in the fort, most of whom are engaged in logging and a small number of farmers.After the glass factory is built, hundreds of workers and their family members will be added, which will have a self-evident role in promoting the local economy.

"Damn, today's stalls are getting bigger and bigger, and there are people everywhere." Shao Shude said angrily, "But does the glass factory need so many people? What does it mainly produce? Mirrors or wine bottles?"

"Produce a fucking mirror!" Vest swears, and said: "It's just broken, and the quality of the glass produced is not as good as that of Europeans. There are many bubbles and the color is not pure. How can you compete with others? Don't be underestimated." Looking at people in Europe, the mirror-making technology in Venice is still very high, at least the appearance of the product is much better than ours. Besides, our glass structure is not very strong and cannot withstand the loss of long-distance sea transportation, so the mirror thing Don't think about it for the time being, at most we can try to make a few pieces for our own internal use. If we want to talk about our advantages in the glass industry, that is to use molds to produce finished products, which is much more efficient than manual blowing. This is an idea Europeans do not have this concept for the time being.”

"That is to say, if we produce wine bottles, the Europeans will definitely not be able to compete." Shao Shude said thoughtfully, "Isn't the Government Council planning to produce?"

"Not ready!" Vest said decisively.

(End of this chapter)