Emperor Chongzhen of the Ming Dynasty

Chapter 460 The Steam Engine and the Textile Industry
Another reason is that the appearance of the steam engine is the result of a combination of theoretical knowledge and manufacturing technology progress in various scientific disciplines.

This includes the improvement of iron and steel smelting technology, the further improvement of theoretical physics and the progress of mechanical processing.

Only these basic industries and basic scientific progress will make the steam engine appear.

In the original history, even the West invented the steam engine for a long time because they had to gradually improve the theory and technology of various disciplines to a certain level after the end of the Middle Ages before the most perfect steam engine appeared.

So is Daming.

If Zhu Youjian hadn't directly developed the iron and steel smelting technology and machining technology of the 89th century in today's Daming.

Daming also couldn't come up with a steam engine so quickly.

You must know that two years ago, Daming was still worried because he did not have a good high-carbon steel boring cylinder.

It can be understood that.

The progress of the steam engine means the progress of the industry of the whole country.

Daming is now able to manufacture a steam engine with sufficient power because the iron and steel industry, machinery manufacturing industry and theoretical physics of Ming Dynasty have reached the level of the late [-]th century in history and even advanced in theoretical physics.

After all, although Zhu Youjian doesn't know how to build machines, he still has a lot of knowledge in physics. He can directly express the natural laws that originally required physicists to do many experiments in history, and let the elites of the Ming Empire Use this as inspiration.

Now that the steam engine has been successfully manufactured, the rest is standardized production and practical application.

Zhu Youjian decided to apply the steam engine to the textile industry first.

The reason why Zhu Youjian first applied the steam engine to the textile industry is because Daming's textile machinery has reached a fairly proficient level.

Except for the power part of the textile machine in the entire Ming Dynasty, which is still manual and semi-mechanical, the other components are already the most advanced in the world, and there is no way to increase the working efficiency of the textile machine by adding spindles.

Because after all, human power is limited, no matter how labor-saving semi-machines are, they are not as good as fully mechanized.

Now it is only necessary to replace the manual power supply with a steam engine, and linking the crank gear rotation system with the hand crank can make a textile machine more efficient in production.

But sometimes business and industry are not the same thing.

Using the steam engine to power the textile machine can make the steam engine work faster.

However, the manufacturing cost of the steam engine is not low.

This does not reduce the cost of producing cloth by the textile machine but increases the cost.

The only solution is to reduce the manufacturing cost of the steam engine and improve the kinetic energy efficiency of the steam engine, so that the cost reduction caused by the working efficiency of the steam engine textile machine can exceed the cost increase caused by the steam engine manufacturing.

To this end, Zhu Youjian decided to set up a special research team.

Led by Fang Yizhi, the team formed a research team with cutting-edge talents from Daming Academy of Sciences, Daming Engineering Institute, Daming Industrial School, Iron and Steel Smelting Bureau, and Han's Textile Machinery R&D Institute to achieve the goal of standardizing steam engines, reducing manufacturing costs, and improving manufacturing efficiency.

The goal of the research team is until the cost of producing cloth with steam looms is lower than the cost of producing cloth with manual semi-mechanical looms.

As long as the steam engine can be applied to the textile industry, it means that it can be applied to the military industry and even the transportation industry, and even change the way people travel.

However, the social impact of this is also huge.

As the emperor, Zhu Youjian sometimes had to consider not only the benefits brought about by the improvement of production technology, but also the conflicts brought about by the production technology.

Take the textile industry for example.

When the Han's textile machine appeared, there had already been turmoil, which almost led to the smashing of the Han's textile workshop.

The reason why there was no major accident later was because Han Shoujing, the behind-the-scenes boss of Han's Textile, was Zhu Youjian's favorite minister.

And under the intervention of Ming Emperor Zhu Youjian, Han's competitor Yang's Textile also mastered this technology.

Zhu Youjian also used his status as the emperor to mobilize the government to transfer the surplus labor force eliminated by the technological improvement of the textile industry to other industries, so that the disturbance did not cause too much trouble.

And this time the textile industry will once again face tremendous changes.

A large number of workers in the textile industry will definitely lose their jobs, and the unemployment figures will definitely be higher than last time.

Because the change brought about by the application of steam engine power this time is to make the entire textile industry no longer need a large number of weavers who provide power, which means that more than half of the people in the entire industry will lose their jobs.

Zhu Youjian didn't dare to imagine this number, it's probably more than hundreds of thousands.

The south of the Yangtze River in the Ming Dynasty has always been a land of clothing and quilts, and the textile industry is well developed.

There are many more people engaged in the textile industry than those engaged in other industries in Ming Dynasty. Once these people have nothing to do, it will definitely be a huge threat to the stability of the empire.

Zhu Youjian must make preparations for the reuse of these labor forces in advance.

How to use it can only continue to expand production, let them continue to create wealth, continue to expand the production capacity of the Daming military base, continue to increase the scale of infrastructure construction, and at the same time increase the development of high-end industries and service industries. These industries are needed to provide employment opportunities for them.

Although women were not advocated to go out in this era, with the rapid rise of the textile industry, many workshops would hire some women from common people's families as weavers in order to solve the labor problem.

In order to increase family wealth, many ordinary men would not object to their wives and daughters engaging in the weaving industry. After all, this is better than selling themselves.

This has also brought a great impact on traditional Neo Confucianism, and it has become less and less practical for women to stay at home.

As the cost of cloth decreases, ordinary people's clothing needs will definitely change from warm to well-clothed.

Ready-to-wear, that is, the clothing industry will definitely appear in a large number, and it has already appeared in Yingtian, Songjiang, Hangzhou, Suzhou and other metropolises, and even some branded clothing.

In addition, the market demand for high-end fabrics such as satin and silk has also begun to increase.

As the royal family, Zhu Youjian also began to purchase the most luxurious high-end dragon robes and phoenix robes in large quantities. He even encouraged the gentry to pursue serving the gorgeous and beautiful.

Of course, there is another most effective way to solve the problem of excess labor force, which is to lower the tax rate, lower the loan threshold, and increase the scale of business.

Zhu Youjian decided that it was time for the Ministry of Households to lower the commercial tax for small-scale merchants.

Especially for some emerging industries, the purpose is to allow more industries to emerge, create more jobs, and allow more labor to be utilized.

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(End of this chapter)