Reborn as King of South America

Chapter 446 Shipping Industry Ends

When Xinghe Shipyard was first established, there were only two or three hundred workers. At that time, the local modern industry was just starting, the production methods and technology were backward, and the working conditions were extremely simple. In addition, most of the machinery and equipment purchased were obsolete products from Western countries, with unstable technical performance and poor labor protection measures. The safety of workers was difficult to effectively guarantee, and work-related accidents often occurred.
Serious accidents such as workers being caught in engine belts, having their hands and feet crushed by machines, or having their fingers cut off occur frequently.

Because of the many problems that existed in the early days of its establishment, the shipyard encountered great resistance when it tried to attract local immigrants to work in the factory. Immigrants from the Far East who had just been allocated land in the area near the factory were very afraid of machines. They were afraid that they would be crushed to death by the machines after entering the factory.

At that time, there was a rumor among the Far East immigrant community: "People who enter the factory will be thrown into the chimney." Rumors like this scared many immigrants away from working in the factory.

The Far Eastern immigrants' fear of industry was difficult to change in a short period of time, but the shipyard needed enough workers to grow and develop. Therefore, after failing to recruit workers from the Far Eastern immigrant group, Xinghe Shipyard tried to increase the source of shipyard workers through other channels.

From 1868 to 1870, ordinary workers at Xinghe Shipyard mainly came from two channels.

One is the veterans who have been laid off from the army, and the other is orphans over the age of twelve who have been received by the local side from overseas.

The Han army was a melting pot. Soldiers who had served in it had received basic knowledge education, were highly obedient and easy to manage. Some half-grown orphans with limited learning ability or who had missed the best learning age were arranged to work as apprentices in shipyards because their thoughts were simpler than those of adults and they were more malleable.

From the late 1860s to the mid-1870s, Xinghe Shipyard, like many state-owned enterprises, took the first difficult step towards industrialization with only a few outdated machines and the hard work of a group of non-professional workers.

After 1875, with the popularization of local basic education, local people and newly migrated Far Eastern immigrants became more and more familiar with industrial enterprises. The misunderstanding and rejection of people living near the factories about working in the factories gradually disappeared, and the number of local residents willing to work in the factories increased.

In 1877, as the number of shipyard workers exceeded the design capacity of the original factory, Xinghe Shipyard invested and acquired a piece of land of about 1800 acres in the west of the factory, and then began to build new factory buildings and employee dormitories on the newly purchased land.

In the first year after the wasteland was acquired, Xinghe Shipyard built six rows of houses on the beach near the port, with a total of more than 6 single dormitories to accommodate 300 workers.

In 1880, the third year after the wasteland was acquired, as the sources of workers in the factory area became more diverse, many workers' wives and children followed their husbands to move to live near the factory area. The land acquired in 1877 was used up, so the shipyard negotiated with the competent authorities and relocated the main factory area of ​​the shipyard to Songjiang Port. The original factory area was used as a shipbuilding industry base under the name of Xinghe Shipyard, and continued to provide Xinghe Shipyard with various ancillary technical and product support.

With the financial support of the central government, Xinghe Shipyard has been developing at an increasingly rapid pace. In less than ten years since the main production area of ​​the shipyard was relocated to Songjiang Port, not only has the number of workers in the factory exceeded 3000, but even the wasteland near the factory has developed into a new industrial town with the relocation of the shipyard.

The families and children of the workers who came from all over the place took the identification documents provided by the government and obtained a piece of land of roughly equal size from the local government. Then, these families of workers, together with their husbands and neighbors, built houses and homes of their own on the wasteland planned by the government.

The abandoned beach was utilized, and rows of neatly planned and similar Chinese-style wooden houses and brick houses appeared near the factory. Then, at a speed that was unbelievable to Westerners, simple and orderly residential areas were formed.

As the British Times reporter Dekler said when describing the development of the Han Dynasty's social system: "The workers are
There were certain needs, "and to meet these needs other people were needed, so artisans, tailors, shoemakers, doctors, bricklayers, carpenters all moved here."

The same is true near the Xinghe Shipyard.
Seven or eight kilometers inland from the west of the port, there are four wide streets. One is called Beishe Street (She means village in the local dialect of southern Jiangsu. It is named so because many immigrants from southern Jiangsu live on both sides of the street).
One is called Xincuo Street (Minnan dialect, meaning residence), one is called Yangcheng Street, and one is called Xinrongcheng Street.

Because the immigrants came from different places of origin, the four streets were given local cultural names with their own characteristics.

On the streets, different types of industries have emerged in people's lives as the number of residents has increased, like mushrooms after a rain.

Hundreds of people were shopping on the streets near the Xinghe Shipyard. Even though Li Mingyuan, accompanied by Deputy Director Niu Shangzhou and others, did not enter the center of the street, he could still feel the lively atmosphere on the street wherever he looked.

"Your Majesty, would you like to take a look inside the street?"

Niu Shangzhou, deputy director of Xinghe Shipyard, walked behind Li Mingyuan's left hand and suggested: "The four blocks in the west of the factory area belong to Anfu Town and Yifeng Town under the name of Songjiang Prefecture. The two towns plus four streets have a total population of about 7.

I heard from local officials in the two towns that Songjiang Prefecture intended to merge the two towns and four streets into one county, with the county seat in Xincuo Street, four or five miles away from the factory.

If you look east, you will see the street with the Chinese national flag with the Chinese character "漢" on it. The factory's primary school is also on Xincuo Street."

"We have some business to deal with in the evening, so today we will just stand outside the street and take a look around, and we won't go inside the street."

Li Mingyuan looked at the flag fluttering in the wind under the setting sun and said, "I have been inspecting the area around the shipyard these past two days and have seen many orphans under the age of ten in the factory area. They study in the same primary school as the children of the shipyard workers' families. The management of your shipyard should strengthen communication with local schools, pay attention to the schooling of the orphans of the shipyard, and give them more care and love in terms of life and study."

"Your Majesty, rest assured that there are special personnel to take care of and teach the young orphans living in the factory area. The shipyard management will also conduct spot checks and supervise the living conditions of the orphans in the factory area every once in a while. Although the shipyard cannot completely replace the role of their parents, we will do our best to help them get the same opportunities as normal children in life, study and other aspects." "You are doing well." Li Mingyuan stopped and said seriously: "Among the immigrants imported into the Far East every year, there are tens of thousands of orphans who have lost their parents. Their upbringing and education issues require the joint cooperation of various government administrative agencies and state-owned enterprises to be properly resolved. Therefore, you have a heavy burden on your shoulders. You must continue to maintain your current state of diligence and hard work in the future."

"Yes, Your Majesty."

Niu Shangzhou nodded in response.

"How are you preparing to improve your ability to build new ocean-going ships?"

Li Mingyuan suddenly asked when today's inspection was about to end.

"Your Majesty, after communicating with the ocean shipping company, we have initially determined a response plan."

Niu Shangzhou replied:

As for private shipyards, the two state-owned shipyards have initially selected four cooperative enterprises.
The first is the South Pacific Ocean Shipping Company under the name of Mr. Zhang. The South Pacific Ocean Shipping Company owns two 2-ton civilian docks, four 5000-ton civilian docks, and 4 affiliated industrial enterprises. Its business scope includes more than 3000 industries such as ocean-going immigrant transportation, commodity transshipment and sales, and inland waterway shipping.
There are nearly 2000 industrial workers, and both comprehensive technical strength and economic strength rank first among private shipping companies.

The second is Shengchang Shipping Company, which was represented by Sun Yingde, an immigrant merchant from the Far East. It was jointly funded by 32 local private shipping companies including Fachang, Dachang and Shunchang. It was registered in 1886 with an initial registered capital of 920 million Han yuan (equivalent to about 500 million taels of silver).

名下拥有5000吨船坞2座。3000吨船坞5座，船厂基地2座。产业工人1100人。

The third is Qinghua Shipping Company.
The Qinghua Shipping Company was founded in September 1887 under the leadership of Qiu Zhongbo, an immigrant businessman from southern Fujian. It had a registered capital of 9 million Han yuan (equivalent to 780 million taels of silver) and owned a 430-ton civilian shipyard, three 5000-ton civilian shipyards, and 3 local industrial workers.

However, Qiu Zhongbo, the founder of Qinghua Shipping Company, was a shipping giant in southern Fujian in his early years. After his family immigrated to the mainland in 1884, he transferred the shipping rights from southern Fujian to Thailand, the East Indies, the Malay Archipelago and other regions to Baoyuan Shipping Company under the name of the southern Fujian business group.

Although Qinghua Shipping Company is unknown in the domestic shipping industry, its shipping market share in the Nanyang region exceeds that of Shengchang Shipping Company.

Apart from the first three, the last private enterprise selected by us and Ocean Shipping Company for cooperation is Taichang Shipping Company.

Taichang Shipping Company had the lowest registered capital. When the company was registered in 1884, its total capital was only 182 million Han Yuan (equivalent to 100 million taels of Kuping silver).
The biggest investors were He Binghuan and Liao Zhubin, who invested 60 taels of silver and 15 taels of silver respectively (5 taels were lent by the He family).
However, although Taichang Shipping Company has the lowest registered capital among the four companies, it has developed rapidly.
When the shipping company was first established in September 1884, it only had 9 second-hand ships and more than 7 Chinese men who followed Ho Bing-huan back from the United States. More than four years later, under the joint management of Ho Bing-huan and Liao Zhubin, who had studied abroad, the number of employees of Taichang Shipping Company increased to more than 100, and the company's total assets increased by nearly 400 times.

Compared with the previous three shipping companies, although Taichang Shipping Company has the smallest total assets and scale, its development prospects are very promising. Therefore, we also put it on the list of companies to be investigated for cooperation. "

"The selection of private shipping companies requires comprehensive consideration of multiple aspects. We cannot just consider the company's assets and size. The company's development potential is also an important consideration."

Li Mingyuan nodded in agreement with Niu Shangzhou's selection criteria, and then continued: "In addition to supporting private shipping companies, how are your two state-owned enterprises going to increase the speed of ship construction?"

"Our two shipyards are planning to add an 8000-ton civilian dock each. In addition, as the shipbuilding task is getting heavier, we are also planning to jointly invest and order two 2-ton hydraulic presses, a die forging machine, and a free forging machine from France to forge the steel and keels needed to build ships."

"The 3000-ton hydraulic press is barely enough, and it is necessary to customize two more hydraulic presses."

Li Mingyuan moved his body and said, "The 1877-ton steam hammer developed by the French Crusoe Company in 100 is a very good technology. Before you two companies discuss trade cooperation with the French, you might as well tentatively propose to purchase the patent rights of Crusoe Company to see how the French react. If the French agree, buy it immediately. If they raise the price and disagree, don't show too much persistence. First, drag it out with France for a year or two to see if the French will give in."

"Among Western countries, only Britain, France and Germany have the technical ability to build hydraulic presses above 1,000 tons. If the French disagree, can we choose Britain and Germany as partners?"

"The hydraulic press is an industrial weapon. If the French are unwilling to sell it to us, the British and Germans will most likely not sell it to us either. Moreover, among the three countries of Britain, France and Germany, France has the most mature hydraulic press technology. If possible, we should give priority to purchasing the right to use the French technology patents."

"I understand, Your Majesty."…………

(End of this chapter)