Reborn as King of South America

Chapter 529: Differences between Light and Heavy Industries

Name, place of origin, type of machinery and equipment purchased. "

"I am Yao Panfa, a commoner, whose ancestral home is Zhangzhou. I became a naturalized citizen of Wuzhou in 1887. I want to purchase a batch of silk reeling equipment."

"A manual silk reeling machine costs 120 yuan, and an automatic silk reeling machine costs 200 yuan. Which one do you want to buy?"

"30 automatic silk reeling machines. These are the notes of the Imperial Central Bank. Please check them."

"Sold 30 automatic silk reeling machines, total receivable amount 6900 Chinese Yuan, next person."

"1 flour equipment."

“2 sets of canning equipment.”

"1 set of match equipment".
“2 sets of refined salt refining equipment”.
As the clerk read out loudly, sets of disassembled equipment were sold in batches. As time went on, more and more merchants from all over the country rushed to the port like cats smelling blood.

Chen Shen presided over the sales transaction for a while, and then handed the matter over to several clerks. He walked to Qiu Mingzhang, Zhong Wenyao and others, wiped the sweat from his head, and said with a smile: "The merchants in the empire and overseas regions are very enthusiastic about buying equipment. The original plan was to bring the equipment back to the mainland for unified sales. However, two months ago, the imperial government announced that it would sell off the dismantled machines and equipment in the occupied areas. Before the war was over, nearly a thousand merchants of all sizes took trains, inland transport ships, and sea steamships to the occupied areas of the Republic of Brazil.

Even though there are 2000 to businessmen of all sizes gathered in the port today, this is not a lot. Sao Paulo State is the industrial center of Brazil. The number of dismantled machinery and equipment is six times that of Rio de Janeiro. The number of company representatives and businessmen there exceeds . "

"Merchants are profit-oriented. The machines and equipment dismantled from the occupied areas are cheap and have high profit margins. They buy the equipment, even if they don't use it themselves, and sell it again. They can make at least 30% profit from the resale. If the equipment is brought to the mainland, after deducting the transportation and labor costs, the profit will at least double or triple."

Zhong Wenyao agreed.

"The Empire is selling off machines and equipment at low prices to recover funds. On the one hand, it is also considering developing the real economy. In order to prevent merchants from hoarding equipment and reselling it for huge profits, before the sale, the qualifications of the representatives of the purchasing companies and merchants will be reviewed, and the use of the equipment after the sale will be tracked. If hoarding and reselling are found, not only will the machines and equipment be taken back, but they will also be punished. The punishment measures include confiscating the profits from illegal reselling and abolishing business qualifications."

Chen Shen explained: "The sales process went smoothly. These merchants have been doing business in the local area for a long time. The policies and punishments of the empire are not just words. If they are greedy and take the risk of illegal operations, the losses in the long run will be far greater than the short-term benefits they gain."

"It is the nature of businessmen to pursue profits. Only by firmly enforcing the law, regardless of relationships or backgrounds, and investigating all violations, can we effectively deter illegal businessmen, maintain a healthy and stable business environment in the empire, and promote rapid industrial development."

As the head of a state-owned enterprise, Niu Shangzhou can better understand the impact of a business environment with fair and strict law enforcement on business development.

"However, more than 8% of the merchants who came here to purchase are looking for light industrial machinery and equipment with low technical content and relatively low thresholds, such as flour processing, cloth dyeing, printing, silk reeling, and textiles. There are very few companies and merchants willing to invest in emerging core areas such as machinery manufacturing, mold processing, chemicals, steam engines, and internal combustion engines."

"Deputy Director Niu, don't underestimate the light industries such as printing and dyeing, textiles, silk reeling, flour processing, food canning, and refined salt refining. You must know that food, clothing, housing, and transportation are closely related to people's lives and are necessary industries for survival. Without new industries such as chemicals, steam engines, electricity, and internal combustion engines, people can still live. However, if there are no tailored clothes, shoes, finely ground flour, and purified salt, the lives of people from all walks of life will be seriously affected, and social order will also be impacted.

Therefore, although the light industry, which is closely related to daily life, has a low level of technological content and a low threshold, the market size is huge, and the profits behind it are several times or even ten times that of the fields of electricity, chemicals, internal combustion engines, steam engines, machinery manufacturing, mold processing, and steel smelting. "

"At the current stage, the market size of light industry is certainly much larger than that of emerging industries such as chemicals, steel smelting, and mechanical processing. However, technology is developing rapidly. Perhaps in another ten, twenty, or thirty years, the total market size of emerging industries represented by steel, chemicals, electricity, and mechanical processing will surpass that of light industries such as agriculture, agricultural product processing, textiles, and printing and dyeing."

Zhong Wenyao studied in the United States and Germany, and was deeply impressed by the speed of technological development and change in Western countries. After taking up a local position in South America, what he saw and heard became more confident in the development of science and technology.

"Moreover, heavy industry and emerging industries play a vital role in improving the country's comprehensive strength. Before the Opium War, even though the Qing Dynasty's total economic output exceeded that of Britain, it was still vulnerable to attacks from powerful ships and guns."

"Brother Wen Yao is right. The development of heavy industry and new industry is of great significance. For example, in the early stages of the shipping industry, there were only two small steam shipyards in the empire, Xinjing Shipyard and Xinghe Shipyard, which were equipped with backward and outdated equipment. Since the imperial government has vigorously promoted and supported the development of the shipbuilding industry, Xinjing Shipyard, Xinghe Shipyard, and the Royal Shipyard established later have rapidly grown and become large-scale comprehensive shipyards ranked among the top in South America. Both the scale of the plant and the technical level have reached world-class levels. Except for the top European powers such as Britain, France, and Germany, the technical level of the three shipyards is not inferior to that of Austria-Hungary, Italy, Russia and other countries."

"Brother Shang Zhou, you are the deputy director of Xinghe Shipyard. The development of the Empire's shipping industry has achieved gratifying results. As the deputy director of the National Shipyard, you have made great contributions."

Zhong Wenyao smiled slightly.

"Brother Wen Yao, please stop teasing me. This is all thanks to His Majesty and my colleagues. If I were alone, no matter how capable I am, I would not be able to achieve what I have today."

Niu Shangzhou explained: "Speaking of the shipping industry, in addition to the three state-owned shipyards, private enterprises have also made considerable progress under the government's civilian technology transfer and policy support. Six private enterprises, including Hanguo Ocean Shipping Company, South Pacific Ocean Shipping Company, Shengchang Shipping Company, Qinghua Shipping Company, and Taichang Shipping Company, have more than 6 employees each, own shipyards, docks and their own ocean-going fleets. After receiving the transfer of civilian shipbuilding technology, they have the ability to build 500-ton ocean-going ships."

"At the beginning of last year, Your Majesty mentioned the introduction of 3000-ton hydraulic presses, 100-ton steam hammers, and -ton ship construction technology and other shipping issues. How is the progress?"

Chen Shen, the Minister of Industry, asked.

"The progress is not smooth. The French are unwilling to transfer the 3000-ton hydraulic press technology. Crusoe Company is not very interested in authorizing the transfer of 100-ton steam hammer technology because the price is too high. As for the -ton shipbuilding technology, we have reached a preliminary agreement with the Germans and plan to handle it together after the delegation's visit to the mainland."

"Germany and Britain are currently trying to win over the Empire. Taking advantage of this opportunity, can we bypass the French and seek technology transfer from Britain and Germany for 3000-ton hydraulic presses and 100-ton steam hammers?"

Zhong Wenyao suggested.

"That's a good idea. Without Zhang the butcher, we won't be able to eat shaved pigs. The shipbuilding technology that the French have is also available to Britain and Germany. In recent years, Germany's overall technological level has been developing at a speed not inferior to that of the Empire. Perhaps cooperating with Germany will reduce the cost of acquiring shipbuilding technology and make it more cost-effective."

Minister of Industry Chen Shen agreed.

(End of this chapter)