Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 140 Difficult industrial progress ([-])

"Why?" Shao Shude was a little puzzled, "Don't make any money?"

"Have you heard of holding gold in the busy market?" Vest took a sip of coffee, and then said, "Why do you want to make so much money? At present, we have been able to achieve a balance of payments and a slight surplus. Next year, the East Bank cloth market will It will expand further, and fiscal revenue will also usher in explosive growth. How much money do you want to make? Just kidding, the wealth created by our nearly 3000 people is estimated to exceed [-] U.S. dollars when converted into per capita GDP in terms of purchasing power Yes, this will be considered a developed country in later generations. We have so few people and such weak strength, what are we going to do with making so much money next? Create inflation for ourselves? Or attract envious pirates or Europeans to come and rob us?"

"Hey." Shao Shude agreed after thinking about it. Population is indeed a bottleneck.But at present, they are afraid to open up immigration. Whether it is European immigration or Ming Dynasty immigration, there is actually a fixed number every year.With the current number of cadres and missionary personnel, if the number of immigrants exceeds this fixed number, the country will suffer from indigestion and be overwhelmed. This entanglement is really a headache.

The two chatted casually for a while, Shao Shude saw that there was really nothing more to gain, so he simply ran to the pier to take a boat to Zhenhai Fort.After arriving at Zhenhai Fort, he found a return coal ship and returned to Ping'an Fort after three weeks of absence.Before he arrived here, several other inland shallow water transport ships belonging to the iron ore working group had also arrived at the Fort Ping An Wharf, ready to load new immigrants and some supplies.

Shao Shude didn't meet Qian Hao again this time. It is said that this kid went to the Dayuhe Armory to urge the textile machines, and a large group of people near the pier were busy building something in the factory area next to the Ping'an Iron and Steel Factory.

The rise of the textile industry in the East Coast Republic of China is no longer doubted by anyone. As of November this year, a total of 11 pieces of white cotton cloth and nearly 8 pieces of various woolen fabrics have been sold throughout the year, and countless benefits have been reaped.

Among them, the Gascogne region in southwestern France is the largest dumping place for the textiles of the East Coast Republic, and more than 1 pieces of cotton cloth have flowed into the French market through agents; The buyer must be a Spaniard, and the east coast calico cloth that was resold to La Plata, Upper Peru and other regions via the city of Colonia has also steadily climbed to [-] pieces, and even the expensive woolen fabrics have been sold for four times. In addition, the number of cotton cloth sold to Brazil, Santo Domingo in France, and East Florida also reached [-] pieces.

All in all, the situation is surprisingly good.Therefore, with the strong support of the Executive Committee and the State Council, Tao Chenxi, director of the General Administration of Textile Industry, submitted the report "A New Round of Production Expansion and Technical Transformation of Ping An Machine Weaving Factory" which was approved immediately.The leaders of the central government even asked frequently, asking money for money, equipment for equipment, and workers for workers. All the green lights were turned on all the way, and Ping An Machine Weaving Factory was in the limelight for a while.

Tao Chenxi’s report can be summed up in three main points: 20. In consideration of the in-depth development of various markets next year, it is necessary to add a number of new hydraulic cotton gins, spinning machines and looms, and recruit enough workers to strive for next year’s cotton The production capacity exploded to [-] horses.[-]. Since the current product is too single (only one white cotton cloth), it is necessary to develop new machines for weaving commodities such as stockings, scarves, towels, and cotton blankets (this behavior will cause some handicraftsmen to go bankrupt), Enrich downstream products and grab more benefits.[-]. In order to impact the lucrative high-end markets such as dyed cloth and printed cloth (currently basically monopolized by Indian cotton cloth), it is urgent for the chemical industry to artificially synthesize brightly colored dyes.

As soon as this report came out, all departments were in a panic.It’s easy to say that the number of machines has increased. At present, the general workshop of Dayuhe Armory and the First Machinery Factory are working overtime to catch up with the production; After training, these former French handloom workers will be transformed into industrial workers in the textile industry of the East Coast Republic of China.

However, those machines that weave stockings, scarves, and cotton blankets cannot be produced in a short while. This thing needs to study its working principle first, and then produce parts. The whole process will take a year or two. It's a little.Fortunately, this does not mean that you have to come up with it now, just develop it slowly, and it seems that hosiery knitting machines are already available in Europe at this time, and you can ask someone to buy a few next time and come back to study and study.

Also, the dye is a headache.At this time, all natural dyes were used in Europe, such as: blue dyes extracted from indigo and woad; red dyes extracted from cochineal, safflower, Brazilian rosewood and ore; "lichen purple" extracted from moss , "Emperor Purple" extracted from shellfish snails; and so on.Due to the limited raw materials and complicated extraction process, the price of many dyes is comparable to gold, and most of them can only be enjoyed by nobles and royal families.

Moreover, the disadvantages of natural dyes are also obvious.For example, the color spectrum is incomplete, or the color fastness is poor, especially when the dyed cloth is rinsed with soap and exposed to sunlight, it often fades.It is conceivable that if the Eastern China Republic can successfully develop even a chemically synthesized dye at this time, it will become a new generation of gold-making machines.The cloth dyed with these dyes will kill any cloth dyed with natural dyes of similar color, because chemically synthesized dyes are completely superior to natural dyes in terms of vividness and color fastness.

Of course, both the Executive Committee and the Government Affairs Council have adopted a more cautious attitude towards this matter.Before you have enough strength, producing these gold-like dyes will only bring you trouble. After all, there will be no shortage of greedy guys who covet other people's wealth at any time.But it still needs to be done, and it will be done in the laboratory first, and whether it will be industrialized will be discussed later.Moreover, with the current level of the few talents who understand chemistry in the cross-country (middle school chemistry teachers, a few chemical factory workers and technicians), whether they can produce synthetic dyes or not is another matter. Obviously not very confident.

Of course, the chemistry department should not be underestimated.A worker in a former coking plant proposed that the aniline in coal tar could be mixed with sulfuric acid to make sulfate, and then a strong oxidizing agent such as potassium dichromate was added to produce a synthetic dye, aniline violet.Many people who study chemistry have heard the story of Baiqin making the first synthetic dye, aniline violet. Moreover, based on the raw material of aniline, many colors such as yellow, cyan, and red dyes can be artificially synthesized. .

People in the chemical industry couldn't help but get excited. Coal tar is a by-product of coal coking. At first, people used it as a paint.In the eyes of people in the chemical department, this is completely wasteful. Coal tar can be extracted and separated into various substances such as benzene, aniline, asphalt, and fuel oil, each of which has great uses.

At present, a coking plant has been built on the land adjacent to Pingan Iron and Steel Plant.The coking plant is mainly composed of a coke oven, in which the clean coal powder is subjected to high-temperature dry distillation to produce coke, which can be used for iron and steelmaking.Of course, in the original plan, the gas (coal gas, coal tar) produced during the dry distillation of coal powder was directly discharged into the atmosphere.However, after the Government Council proposed to light up the technology tree of coal tar, the chemical industry department solemnly proposed to the coking plant to add a gas condensing device to separate the coal tar in the retort gas.

Helpless, the coking plant was just about to be put into operation, and under the order of the Government Affairs Council, the transformation started again.As for how to transform, to be honest, these half-assed engineers are completely blindsided, and can only remodel while pondering.The chemical industry department was not idle either. Taking advantage of the attention from above, they started many chemical experiments using a large number of simple experimental equipment produced by Henan Glass Factory and other units.The first thing they need to do is to obtain coal tar through the condensation method in the laboratory environment, and then separate the substances one by one through fractionation.

This is not difficult.They used small steel vessels to retort clean coal, then condensed the gas to get coal tar.But their level is limited to this. They only know a few of the complex components in coal tar, and even for these components they don't even know the boiling point very well, they only know a rough idea.

Well, the next step is a large number of boring experiments. Through a large number of experiments, the boiling points of various components in it are determined to prepare for the separation of coal tar in the future.

This is what Shao Shude saw in Ping Anbao at this time. The construction workers removed the original chimney on the coke oven and began to build a long condensing air pipe.As for the design and layout of this condensing air pipe, everyone has no idea, so they can only figure it out by themselves.

"It is estimated that there will be problems in two or three days after the official start of production." Shao Shude grinned unkindly, "It used to be coking, but now you have to play a trick of recycling coal tar. Well, everyone is the first time , Take your time to explore, sometimes detours are also a kind of wealth.”

A total of five inland shallow water transport ships belonging to the Coal Working Group are moored at the Pinganbao Wharf.The [-] immigrants who were about to be sent to the Changshanbao Iron Mine Area would arrive here later today, and Shao Shude could only wait here.Of course, they have nothing to do. Some supplies are being loaded one by one by the dock workers, including vegetables, cured meat, dairy products, wine, potatoes and even precious rice.

Relying on the warm climate and abundant water near Ping'an Fort, immigrants from the Ming Dynasty opened up many paddy fields to grow rice, which had been harvested for one season last year.The processed rice is definitely a first-class luxury in the East China Republic at this time, and they are even reluctant to eat it. All the rice is shipped to Dongfang County for sale, where there are the largest consumer groups in the country.

In the afternoon, the migrants finally arrived.Shao Shude immediately organized the sailors to arrange for these people to board the ship. After boarding, the five transport ships set sail and sailed south, where they were still waiting for them at Changshan Fort.

(End of this chapter)