Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 200 Restorative Development ([-])

On March 1638, 3, the weather was fine and the southwest wind was six.

Two merchant ships from San Vicente, Brazil, slowly docked in berths 1 and 2 of the Oriental Port Commercial Wharf. This marks that Oriental Port, the leading port in the South Atlantic, has finally recovered from the suffocating situation that lasted for a year and a half. Initial recovery from the blockade.

The two Brazilian merchant ships were loaded with urgently needed cotton, pig iron, wool, and ship materials on the east coast. Blanco Almeida's younger brother, 17-year-old Sebastian, personally escorted the cargo.Considering that the people on the east coast may not be able to pay for these goods for the time being, Sebastian even got the authorization from his family to sell the goods on credit to the people on the east coast before departure. This is simply a naked gesture of goodwill.

But the Almeida family has good reasons for doing so.You must know that the people on the east coast have achieved peace from the well-known British East India Company, which is not easy for everyone.

For example, the Portuguese, they are facing the Dutch West India Company, which is far inferior to those British companies in strength, but they have lost more than they won in the past few years. They fought like shit and lost a large area of ​​​​Northeast Brazil. .If it weren't for the satisfied Dutch who are eager to digest the fruits of victory, they might not even be able to keep the central and southern regions of Brazil.Therefore, as a local white aristocratic elite in Brazil, the Almeida family instinctively showed favor to the people on the east coast.During the negotiations between Blanco and the United Kingdom on the east coast, the precious news and the immediate door-to-door delivery were an instinctive thigh-hugging behavior of the local nobles in Brazil.

In the minds of these white natives of Brazil, Spaniards are repulsive, and even Portuguese from the Iberian Peninsula are not so comfortable.These people have never really thought about the Brazilians. They are all colonists and predators to some extent. The future of Brazil still depends on the "civilized people" in Brazil.Of course, the strength of native white people in Brazil is still very weak at present, so it is only natural to find a strong backer for themselves.What's even better is that this new backer is still a country in the New World, not far from Brazil, and if something happens, they can come to support it very conveniently—if they want to.

This is the small calculation in the minds of the Brazilians.The executive committee is well aware of their thoughts, and in view of the good cooperative relationship between the two parties and the complementary industrial economy at this stage, the executive committee is also determined to maintain a good relationship with the Brazilian native white noble family.

The cotton and wool brought in by the Brazilians were transported to the Ping'an Machine Weaving Factory in Ping'an Town by the coastal transport ship that resumed operations immediately, and then the workers who resumed work cheered and threw themselves into intense production.During the war, transportation and trade were cut off, and the workers could only plant a large amount of raw materials such as cotton and flax under the organization of the town government, while relying on a small amount of cotton harvested locally and in the Fort Corps for intermittent production to maintain the domestic market and neighboring Brazil. , La Plata and other places.

Since Ping An Machine Weaving Factory adopts a piecework wage system, that is, the higher the output of a certain team, the higher the bonus and benefits.However, this kind of production situation of producing three or four thousand pieces of cloth every month is obviously not enough to ensure that they can receive the enviable high income of the past. You must know that the workers in textile factories used to be 5-6 yuan per month. The wages are on par with those of the soldiers. I don't know how many ordinary people in Ping'an Town who can't squeeze into the factory are envied.

However, over the past year or so, the market for the workers of the Ping An Machine Weaving Factory has been bearish all the way. They used to be able to pick and choose when looking for a partner, but now they are all gone.Therefore, when the war is over, the first ones to cheer are the factory workers large and small in the country.They are most concerned about their own interests. The end of the war means that the factory can produce normally, and they can share the benefits brought by the normal production of the factory.

Tao Chenxi, director of the General Administration of Textile Industry, rushed back from his country villa in Ping'an Town to the factory in Ping'an New City, and immediately began to supervise production.After more than a year of fishing in the fish ponds in the countryside, his body was almost rusted. After the war began, he, who was in charge of the domestic textile industry, fell into an embarrassing state of having nothing to do. I was sick, so I went home to recuperate.

At this moment, after hearing the good news that the factory can finally run full-scale production, this guy who just got married for the third time while convalescing almost instantly left behind his newlywed wife who was full of resentment—a lady from Brazil. Living in the factory, he looks full of passion for his career.

The factory has recently purchased some "Barbarian-1 modified (textile general purpose)" steam engines purchased from the First Machinery Factory to replace part of the hydraulic machinery.Although the outside world is blocked, Li Hongxing, who works in the boiler workshop of No. 1 Machinery Factory, has not been idle for more than a year.After the high-precision boring machine (in fact, the machining accuracy is only more than [-] mm), the machining accuracy of the cylinder of the civil steam engine has finally reached the standard. Therefore, the boiler workshop has developed a series of civil steam engine models, such as general-purpose for mines and general-purpose for textiles. type, forging hammer general type and so on.

According to the plan of the Government Council, the power of these textile machines will gradually be replaced by steam engines from hydraulic power in the future.After all, the efficiency of the steam engine is much stronger than that of water power, and it is relatively stable.

The overall operation of these steam-powered textile machines is relatively stable. After several years of continuous research and improvement, civil steam machines that do not require very high processing accuracy have a certain practical value, and the average trouble-free working time is also greatly extended.At present, it has been widely used in mines, factories, docks, and farmland water conservancy facilities. Not only has it achieved considerable economic value, but more importantly, it has also trained a large number of steam engine design, application technicians and skilled production and maintenance workers. The development of the entire industry has played a huge role in promoting.

Tao Chenxi wandered around in front of several steam looms, and he felt a great sense of pleasure from the bottom of his heart when he watched the cloth with beautiful patterns being woven.The people in the Chemical Division of the Academy of Natural Sciences are really awesome. Since the Henan Glass Factory was able to produce qualified glassware in large quantities, they relied on their simple and limited knowledge of organic chemistry to conclude through countless experiments. The molecular structure and application of benzene, aniline, anthracene and other substances separated from coal tar, and after repeated experiments, finally produced aniline violet, magenta, aniline black, aniline cyan, aniline red, and aniline under laboratory conditions Yellow and other synthetic dyes.

Song Qiang, the head of the chemistry group and a former high school chemistry teacher, said with great interest that given enough time and materials, they could develop more derivative dyes.As long as the coal tar output of the coking plant is stable, they will be able to fully set up the dye factory. In the holidays, the synthetic dye industry will surely become a bright pearl in the organic chemical industry on the east coast.

Considering that the Dutch already have improved textile machinery with high efficiency (although it is still far inferior to the machines of the East Coasters), they will continue to invest huge sums of money in the development of new textile machinery in order to occupy the market and compete with the East Coasters. Textile machinery, reorganization of new factory production mode.Relying on the Dutch's developed capitalist economy and the advantages of fully mobile talents, perhaps in the not-too-distant future, they will really be able to tinker with more efficient textile machinery.

At that time, the advantages of East Coast textiles will not be much.Compared with the almost negligible shipping costs and cheap wages of the Dutch and English, the competitiveness of textiles on the east coast will plummet.Therefore, it is necessary to plan ahead at this stage.And the main product of the General Administration of Textile Industry is dyed calico——mainly attacking the lucrative high-end calico market.

At present, the high-end calico market in Europe is basically monopolized by calico from India.The cotton cloth woven from Indian long-staple cotton is excellent in workmanship and of first-class quality, and is supplemented by dyeing with various bright natural dyes produced locally in India, which shows the competitiveness of its products.However, this kind of Indian calico is not without weaknesses. First of all, because it uses natural dyes, its color is not bright enough; secondly, its color fastness is also poor, and it is not washable, not wear-resistant, and not resistant to exposure.

Synthetic dyes do not have this problem. Their colors are bright enough and their color fastness is extremely high, which can completely knock down the current high-end Indian printed cloth.It is conceivable that when people from the east coast introduce these new dyed cloths to Europe, it will cause a great sensation.I still remember that, after Bai Qin first synthesized aniline violet dye, Queen Victoria of England wore such a dyed purple dress to her daughter's wedding.This colorful purple dress fascinated everyone present at the time, and Bai Qin made a fortune from it.

Of course, the specific time for launching new dyed fabrics will be determined by the Executive Committee.They don't want to rush out these high-end products that are sure to be coveted before they are ready.At that time, the jealous Europeans may join forces to plunder the people on the east coast.In this era where the law of the jungle prevails and everything seems so naked, anything is possible.

Throughout April, the Pingan Machine Weaving Factory, which was operating at full capacity, produced 4 bolts of white cotton cloth and [-] bolts of dyed cloth; at the same time, the Dayuhe Machine Textile Factory in Dongfang County also produced [-] bolts. woolen cloth and [-] bolts of white cotton cloth; the textile industry of the entire China East Coast Republic finally ushered in a full recovery after the war, and the workers' income also ushered in explosive growth.

(End of this chapter)