Reborn as King of South America

Chapter 442 Industrial and Shipping Industry

At the end of June 1889, half of the new year had passed. In the past six months, in addition to devoting a lot of energy to military, political, diplomatic and other aspects, the Han government has also always attached great importance to the construction of an industrial system that is directly related to the overall strength of the country.

By the first half of 1889, there were 400 local government-run factories and enterprises, more than 2700 private enterprises, more than 10 factories and enterprises with more than 3200 employees, more than 2100 modern enterprises powered by steam engines, a total of 60 workers and 34 industrial workers.

During the same period, there were nearly 3000 factories in Japan with more than ten employees, 670 of which used steam power, with a total of 38 workers and 17 industrial workers.

There are 24 government-run industrial enterprises in the mainland, and more than 100 private industrial enterprises. There are about 8 modern industrial workers (excluding miners), of which 3.6 are in Shanghai, accounting for about half of the total number of industrial workers.

总观三方工业发展，汉国、日本、清廷三方人口分别为1800万（1889年6月底数据）、4000万、3.7亿。

The industry started in the late 1860s.

However, after more than 20 years of development and changes, the results of the three parties' industrial development present a completely different picture.

Let's talk about Japan first. Japan has poor land and scarce resources. Although it has exploited its cheap labor to produce a number of primary industrial products, those primary industrial products are at a complete disadvantage in trade competition with Western powers due to quality and machinery cost reasons.

Primary industrial products could not obtain the expected profits, and there was a lack of overseas colonies as an alternative market. In order to continue the industrialization progress of the country, Japan chose to increase various taxes and develop light industries such as textiles, dyeing and weaving to obtain the starting capital needed for industrial development. (Before 1895, Japan's industrial development had been at a low level and low scale. After 1895, Japan not only obtained silver compensation from the Qing court, but more importantly, it obtained the vast market of the mainland. Compared with the silver compensation, the mainland provided a vast industrial market for Japan's primary industrial products, and its value was much higher than the silver compensation for Japan's development.)
Secondly, in order to increase its own strength and maintain feudal rule, the Qing government agreed to allow some provinces to start foreign affairs and develop industry. State-owned enterprises such as the Jiangnan General Manufacturing Bureau and the China Merchants Steam Navigation Company were established under this background.

However, unlike the state-owned enterprises under the jurisdiction of the Han government, state-owned enterprises in the Far East are not only scarce in number, but also have a rigid management system and more corrupt managers than in government departments.

Take the Jiangnan Manufacturing General Bureau as an example. The officials who dominated the management of the enterprise knew nothing about modern industrial technology and did not care about the development of the enterprise. They only used the state-owned enterprises under their names as a tool to make money. According to intelligence obtained from the Han country, from its establishment in 1865 to the first half of 1889, a total of more than 40 years, the number of bloated officials in the Jiangnan Manufacturing General Bureau increased from more than 200 to more than , a five-fold increase.

In addition to factors such as rigid corporate management and rampant official corruption, the incomplete industrial development system and obstruction of conservative officials in the Qing court were also important reasons why industrialization in the mainland was abandoned halfway.

In the first half of 1889, the price of industrial raw materials purchased from the mainland increased by % compared with years ago (partly due to official corruption and collusion with foreign merchants). State-owned enterprises such as the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau and the China Merchants Steam Navigation Company suffered losses due to the rapid rise in industrial raw materials and competition from Western goods. Many industrial workers were fired by enterprise officials, and the efficiency of factories continued to decline. At the same time, the restrictions imposed by the Qing government, including the so-called Westernization officials, on private industrial enterprises led to the monopoly of Western merchants in various industrial sectors in the mainland. Even if a small number of merchants took the risk to establish industrial enterprises in the name of foreign merchants, they were unable to develop and grow into national enterprises due to the joint suppression of the Qing government, foreign merchants, and comprador merchants.

Compared with the mainland and Japan, Han has the smallest population and the shortest history. However, it is also because of the shortest history and the fact that all the local citizens are Chinese from different regions that the Han government was able to plan the path of local industrialization development from a blank sheet of paper without any obstruction from the old interest groups.

In the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China, agriculture and animal husbandry were the country's founding industries. The vast La Plata Plain was utilized to vigorously develop agriculture and animal husbandry. The funds obtained from the development of agriculture and animal husbandry were then invested in steel and emerging chemical industries, thus feeding back into local industrial development.

In the mid-1880s, China's chemical industry grew into a new technology industry. Various superior chemical products developed and produced locally quickly became another pillar income-generating industry for the local area because of their irreplaceability and superior quality and performance. They were exported to Europe, Southeast Asia and other regions, bringing considerable fiscal revenue to the local government.

The four advantageous industries of animal husbandry, agriculture, agricultural product processing and new chemical industry bring a steady stream of financial funds to the local area. Then, based on macro-planning, the local government invests these funds into different industrial sectors according to their different levels of urgency.

The four advantageous industries feed back to the heavy industry, and high-tech heavy industries such as the United Iron and Steel Group, Jiangnan Textile Factory, Hanguo Mining Company, Royal Dockyard, Xinjing Shipyard, and Changan Machinery Bureau, in the process of development and growth, also provide more and more technical talents for local private industrial enterprises.

The four large state-owned enterprises of Hanguo Iron and Steel United Group, Xinjing Shipyard, Xinghe Shipyard and Royal Shipyard were the initial training centers for industrial workers in Hanguo. Among the four state-owned enterprises, the Iron and Steel United Group and its more than 2.6 affiliated factories and enterprises have more than 1.5 employees of various types and industrial workers. (Hanguo Iron and Steel United Group is a systematic enterprise, established on the basis of coal production areas. It not only has enterprises related to steel smelting, but also military enterprises such as rifles, artillery, armored shells, etc., which have great demand for steel, are also established in the industrial base and affiliated to the Iron and Steel United Group. It is under the joint jurisdiction of the military, the government and the United Group).

Xinjing Shipyard has an 8000-ton military dock (nominally capable of building 8000-ton warships, generally used to build warships between 7000 and 5000 tons).

, 5000 2-ton military docks and 3000 3-ton military docks.

It has 149 supporting industrial enterprises of various types, 3000 employees of various types, and 2400 industrial workers.
The Royal Dockyard has an 8000-ton military dock.

, 5000 2-ton military docks and 3000 4-ton military docks.

It has 162 supporting industrial enterprises of various types, 3200 employees of various types and 2500 industrial workers.

Xinghe Shipyard is responsible for the construction of both civilian ships and inland steamships, and owns one 5000-ton military dock and four 1-ton military docks.

民用8000吨级船坞2座、民用5000吨级船坞4座、民用3000吨级船坞9座。

It has 194 supporting industrial enterprises of various types, 3500 employees of various types and 2700 industrial workers.

The technical staff of the four state-owned enterprises mainly come from returned overseas students and graduates of local secondary technical colleges. A small number are introduced foreign technical experts, workers and apprentices who learned from foreign technicians in the early days.

The Han government encouraged the development of private industrial enterprises. Every year, the government would select a number of technical workers from state-owned enterprises and transfer them to private industrial enterprises to train the technical talents needed by private enterprises.

Light industry and agriculture gradually nurtured the development of heavy industry, and state-owned enterprises supported the development of private industrial enterprises. Under the government's policy of mutual support between several different types of industrial sectors, the local industrial system of the Han Dynasty gradually spread from a few industries to the entire industrial sector, and the speed of this spread was rapidly accelerating. For example, the civilian shipbuilding industry of the Han Dynasty,
By the end of 1868, the Han government had only seized more than 100 ships of various types, with a total tonnage of no more than 2 tons.

By the first half of 1889, the number of Han Dynasty's ocean-going transport ships reached 170, and the tonnage of ocean-going transport ships reached 26 tons.

The tonnage of ships used for ocean-going transport was all over 1000 tons, of which more than 150 were equipped with and powered by steam engines.

Compared with ocean-going transport ships, the tonnage of ships used for domestic offshore and inland river transportation is generally only 50 to 200 tons, and the largest is only 2000 to 3000 tons.
However, due to the well-developed water systems in various parts of the country, the water transportation industry has a great demand for offshore and inland transport vessels. The number of offshore and inland vessels in the country has exceeded 1000, and the tonnage of the ships has reached 12 tons.

The total tonnage of local civilian ships is close to 39 tons, and there are more than 500 shipping companies of all sizes. Although according to estimates by government departments, with the increasing competition and integration in the shipping industry in the next few years, the number of local shipping companies will soon drop to more than 200,

However, private shipping companies integrate and merge with each other according to market rules. Integrating and merging small companies that only own one or two ships can increase the company's market competitiveness and is conducive to the healthy development of the local shipping industry. For this reason, the local government did not intervene. Instead, it prepared to take advantage of the launch of the first local 5000-ton ocean-going ship to increase its support for private shipping companies.

(End of this chapter)