Jia She's death was accompanied by mourning and mourning. It took more than two months of tossing up and downs before the two houses were completely calm.
Taking advantage of this time, Jia Lian, Jia Baoyu, and Jia Rong's uncle and nephew had already begun experiments in Wang Xifeng's dowry village.
The industrial revolution requires the accumulation of talents, trial and error, and debugging. It requires a lot of investment in the early stage.
They went through the Xue family channel and bought a steam engine from overseas.
Just when the other two were about to find someone to mount the steam engine, Zhao Han had experience and stopped them.
She said: "We must first build a closed and soundproof house, and dig smoke exhaust tunnels to discharge steam and waste smoke into nearby rivers and ditches."
"What is this for? Just discharge it directly into the sky. Are you still worried about environmental pollution?" Wang Wenwen asked strangely.
"Are you less knowledgeable? Do you know that the most direct resistance to industrialization by those conservative guys is not that they offend their own interests, but that they offend Feng Shui?" Zhao Han said confidently.
"I understand." Wang Wenwen recalled the history for a moment and suddenly figured out, yes, the industrialization of Dongzhou was driven by the strong push of aliens, and those guys who talked about Feng Shui were all dealt with.
However, in places where there are no aliens, it has become a consensus among people that steam engines will harm feng shui.
And they are really right. Wherever steam engines or large factories are used, people nearby often start to live less than fifty, and are plagued by various diseases. No matter whether you are rich or poor, you will not escape this fate.
The ancients may not have known it was caused by pollution, but they would habitually blame it on Feng Shui.
Thick smoke, fire and noise are, to them, the most obvious evidence of bad feng shui.
"Yes, those ministers and nobles are afraid of these noises. The so-called dynasty hopes that the world will be safe and stable. It is best if there is no noise. Our place is lively and noisy during the day and night, and it will definitely arouse people's taboo." Wu
Shanshan nods.
"But in this case, there is a problem. It will be extremely hot inside the factory. If it is closed and soundproofed, it will be difficult to discharge the heat." Wang Wenwen said distressedly.
"How did other people's early industries start?" Wu Shanshan asked.
"In others, the royal family takes the lead in making money, and they don't care about the living environment of the workers, because the workers are farmers who have lost their land and have nowhere to go except the factory." Zhao Han shook his head.
"I understand." Wu Shanshan said thoughtfully.
Industrialization is based on the accumulation of corpses and bones, and it absorbs more flesh and blood than all human activities.
But it is not like feudal society, which absorbs flesh and blood like feudal society. However, after absorption, there is no output, it is just an infinite cycle. What it was like a thousand years ago, there will be almost no change after a thousand years.
"Of course we can't do it this way. As for the problem of hot and humid environment, it can be alleviated by reducing working hours, rotating work, and underground exhaust."
"Obviously the cost of doing this is very high and it has no advantages for traditional handicraft factories."
"Yes, so this is just a testing ground. If we really want to take advantage of it, we have to wait until the two of us pass the Jinshi exam and plan to be transferred to an island as a county magistrate, and then we can lead these people to a big fight."
"Then it's settled."
After the three people discussed it, they began to find someone to build a fully enclosed factory building and dig tunnels.
He paid the craftsmen quite a lot of money and used his own children to do these things, ensuring that no outsiders would know.
When someone asked, they said they wanted to build a family tomb.
After Jia She's incident was over, a high wall was built in Zhuangzi, and behind the high wall were closed factories.
The steam engine was housed inside.
Jia Lian used his own channels to buy many half-grown teenagers and girls who were about to starve to death, and signed death contracts.
It's the kind of contract in which the owner of the house is willing to kill him or her. He is sold to the owner for life, and can be beaten or killed at will. It is the owner's property.
Normally slaves would not sign this kind of contract. They would sign a living contract and be released after a certain period of time.
And you can't just beat him to death. Once someone files a lawsuit, you have to spend money to settle the relationship.
As for slaves with this kind of death contract, the government will ignore it as soon as they see the contract.
"Well, there is a big advantage here. The labor force is so cheap. No wonder they don't need industry and reduce labor costs. These people only need to take care of three meals and they will be defeated when they are 2 or 30 years old." Zhao Han
Looking at those timid young girls, he shook his head and said.
"Yes, manpower is worthless. If you train people into machines to do something, why do you need any machinery?" Wang Wenwen also sighed.
After sighing, the three people first used the family to have children and established a supervisory team, which is the basic management team.
It mainly selects people from among the servants of Ningguo Mansion to serve as supervisors.
"Remember, no matter what you see or do, don't leak a word to the outside world. If you leak it, I will pull out your skin!" Jia Rong said fiercely.
Compared with Jia Baoyu and Jia Lian, he has a good person. He is the talker of Ningguo Mansion and the head of the Jia family. He has clan power at his disposal. Even though he is the youngest and has the lowest seniority, he has more authority.
"Yes, Master Rong." The supervisors said cautiously.
Now this person has a great reputation and holds great power.
After organizing the supervisory team, he took the supervision team to manage and train the newly purchased slave No. 150.
"This machine comes from the West. It's something on a self-propelled ship. You don't need to worry about what it is. Just know that it can play the same role as an oxen, a horse, or a waterwheel. And it must be strictly in accordance with our preparation.
Follow the instruction manual, otherwise it will be easy to break off your hands and feet." Jia Baoyu said to the crowd.
"Yes, sir." The servants said solemnly.
The three of them then took turns training the workers according to the instructions included with the purchase.
To be honest, these people are the best workers.
Because they have nowhere to go, they can only rely on these three masters for survival. Therefore, if they don't understand, they have to force themselves to memorize by rote. There is no possibility of slacking off and not learning...
That kind of person is immediately dragged out and sold.
Who doesn’t know that the Jia family is a famous philanthropic family, and all the servants have become rich...
While training workers, he again used the channels of the Xue family to find top textile workers in Jiangnan, and began to use steam engines as power to transform the previous manual silk reeling machines.
Nowadays, the high-end clothes worn by wealthy people are basically made of silk, which are high-end goods in modern society.
But making silk is very labor-intensive.
As for high-end clothes, they all rely on manual customization, embroidery and the like.
The three people who wanted to carry out the industrialization process could only provide silk raw materials, and it was impossible to do any embroidery.
Only with enough silk production can we defeat others based on cost.
After half a year of hard work, the first batch of silk was finally produced.
Raw materials are transported from the south and processed into silk in the Zhuangzi factory. The output is 10 times higher than that of hand-made silk, and the cost is 90% of the silk of the same texture.
Because labor is too cheap, the biggest role of machines is to increase output. It is actually difficult to reduce costs.
But with a large scale, the profit from a single piece of silk they need can be much smaller.
Others must sell for twice the cost in order to meet various other needs, such as favors and various management. These are not apparent costs, but they must be paid.
And if their scale is ten times larger, they only need to sell at a slightly higher price to have enough funds to cope with turnover.
Just like raising pigs, if your farmer only earns one hundred cents from raising one pig, then his work is in vain for a year; if I raise ten thousand pigs, I will only earn one hundred cents, so I can support myself.
This is the scale effect, which can reduce costs in disguise.
To produce one pen, the price would be unaffordable, but to produce a billion pens, each pen only costs 10 cents, and only one cent is enough.
However, the good times did not last long. As a large amount of silk came on the market, it became difficult to sell silk in Jiangnan.
Many handicraft factories have closed down.
What followed was a riot among the weavers.
Although the court did not see the steam engine destroying Feng Shui, they could see the unemployed weavers causing trouble.
The imperial court then ordered Jiangnan Weaving to deal with the matter.
"The market capacity is too small. How long did it take to sell before something went wrong?" Wang Wenwen looked at the letter from the Xue family from the south and suddenly had a headache.
"No, the market capacity is huge. We only produce this small amount, which is not enough to impact the market. It's just that someone discovered our potential. This is an early response. They are deliberately trying to punish us." Zhao Han said directly.
"Are they so responsive?" Wang Wenwen asked doubtfully.
"The gentlemen who live in the eight-seat court are very slow to respond, but the large private merchants are very responsive, because they have to deal with various extortions all the year round. Those who are slow to respond have long been eliminated." Zhao Han
explained.
"So that's it. They discovered that someone was selling a large amount of it. Although they could eat it, they knew that if we didn't stop it in advance, our scale would get bigger and bigger, and they would be completely eliminated. These people really shouldn't be underestimated.
." Wang Wenwen said with a headache.
"Then what are we going to do?"
"Hey, these people will not engage in legitimate business competition with us. They will only let the officials take action, and our channels will be cut off soon." Zhao Han predicted.
"Then what should we do?"
"To reduce the shipment volume, we will focus on training workers. We will do this when we are sent out as officials and take charge of a place." Zhao Han said using his previous experience.
"It seems like this is the only way."
Soon Jiangnan Weaving discovered that the Xue family was selling large quantities of silk, and they called the Xue family's shopkeeper to the Yamen.
Due to the reputation of the four major families, they did not make it too difficult and just imposed a certain shipment quota.
In other words, no matter how much the Xue family produces, they can only sell this amount every year. If it exceeds this amount, it means competing with the common people and causing trouble for the court.
Today's Xue family is different from the past. Without the Jia and Wang families coming forward, they can only agree and watch a large amount of money drain from their hands.
You must know that so much silk can be sold for money.
However, a shopkeeper of the Xue family came to Jia Lian privately and said that he could eat the silk, but the prerequisite was to give him a 10% profit.
Jia Lian inquired a little and found out that the other party was bribed by a big sea trade merchant to come and buy these silks.
Only then did Zhao Han realize that, yes, the West had already penetrated the Red Mansion, and they were in great demand for Eastern porcelain and silk. For a long time, it was a seller's market.
In other words, they can only get a small purchase quota and can only obtain trade opportunities by bribing local officials.
Until the invasion, the Eastern Dynasty was in an absolute surplus position relying on silk, tea, and porcelain. Basically, it could sell as much as it produced.
It's a complete seller's market right now.
This is unimaginable in the fiercely competitive buyer's market of later generations.
In this case, they quickly adjusted their strategy and found ways to smuggle silk to those maritime merchants.
Yes, maritime merchants could not allocate goods at will. The imperial court explicitly prohibited goods from flowing out at will. It only opened a few ports to the outside world and only allowed specific merchants to come in and buy and sell.
This resulted in a very strange scene in history.
Zheng Zhilong relied on the goods provided by the mainland and traded with the four oceans, earning tens of millions of taels of silver every year. At the same time, the Ming Dynasty was almost dying of poverty.
Guarding the Jinshan and Yinshan, I went to Meishan.
Later, when the Manchu and Qing Dynasties completely banned the sea, Zheng Chenggong could not get goods from the mainland, so he gradually declined, and finally his foundation was destroyed.
Later, with the help of overseas channels, Zhuangzili's silk industry could finally expand unscrupulously without worrying about any impact on the court and weavers.
Just when it expands to a certain scale, it encounters new bottlenecks.
There is not enough coal...
Yes, steam engines consume a lot of coal every day.
Previously, they were purchased from nearby coal mines.
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! But now the scale has expanded, the roads are not good, and the coal fields are also manually excavated. It is okay to meet the needs of ordinary people for cooking and heating, but when faced with the challenges of factories
To put it bluntly, it's just a drop in the bucket.
Living needs and industrial needs are two orders of magnitude.
Then increase the price to buy.
Soon the owners of the coal fields complained that the court had restrictions and did not allow too many miners to gather. In other words, there was an upper limit on the output of the coal fields.
And it is artificially limited.
"I'm not allowed to make money even if I have money. Now I know how feudal society hinders the development of capital." Wang Wenwen sighed.
"When miners gather in large numbers, there is a natural basis for rebellion. The imperial court has always strictly guarded against it and often forbids private mining for this reason. It is sometimes loose and sometimes tight." Zhao Han also sighed.
There is not enough fuel, and if we purchase more, there will be no coal on the market, and the price will skyrocket, which will attract the attention of the court.
"We still need to find an island, bring guns and guns, and develop it freely. In this case, with the power of industrialization, one island can defeat an entire landmass." Wang Wenwen said bitterly.
"No wonder the teacher asked us to travel through time and become men. Only men can go out easily. How could it be possible for Lin Daiyu and Xue Baochai to do these things?" Zhao Han said.
"It seems that we have to lie dormant for some time. After three to five years, we will wait until we are admitted to Jinshi." Wang Wenwen said.
Zhao Han nodded.
Although you can now rely on your status as a scholar to go out as an official, there are too many restrictions after all.
Jia Yucun relied on the platform of Jia Mansion and his background as a Jinshi, and he quickly rose to prominence.
Two years later.
Jia Baoyu passed the imperial examination and Jia Rong also passed the examination.
Later, Jia Rong did not continue to take exams, but sought to be released to other places, and finally found a job as a magistrate on a southern island.
The people of the Jia family were aggrieved, thinking that someone in the court was obstructing them and discriminating against their nobles.
But there is nothing to be done, after all, now the civil servants are in charge, and even Wang Ziteng has to behave with his tail between his legs.
