When Xinghe Shipyard was founded, there were only two to three hundred workers. At that time, the local modern industry had just started, the production methods and process technology were backward, and the labor conditions were extremely crude. Moreover, because most of the purchased machinery and equipment were obsolete products from Western countries, the technology
The performance is unstable, labor protection measures are poor, workers’ safety is difficult to effectively protect, and work-related accidents often occur.
Vicious accidents such as workers being caught in engine belts, being crushed by machines, injuring their hands and feet, and even having their fingers ripped off occur from time to time.
Because of the many problems that existed in the early days of its establishment, the shipyard encountered great resistance when it attracted local immigrants to work in the factory. In the areas near the factory, the immigrants from the Far East who had just been allocated land were very afraid of machines. They were afraid of what would happen after entering the factory.
Being run over by a machine.
At that time, among the immigrants from the Far East, there was a saying: "Anyone who enters the factory will be thrown into the chimney." Rumors like this scared many immigrants from entering the factory to work.
It is difficult to change the Far Eastern immigrants' fear of industry in a short period of time, and as the shipyard grows, it needs enough workers. Therefore, after being frustrated in recruiting workers among the Far Eastern immigrants, Xinghe Shipyard worked hard to increase shipyard workers through other channels.
source.
From 1868 to 1870, ordinary workers at Xinghe Shipyard mainly came from two sources.
One is veterans who have been laid off from the army, and the other is orphans over the age of twelve that the local government has adopted from overseas.
The Han army was a melting pot. The soldiers who served in it all received basic knowledge education, were highly obedient, and were easy to manage. However, some of the orphans who had limited learning ability or missed the best age for learning were poor because of their ideological
Compared with adults, they are simpler and more malleable, so many people are arranged to work as apprentices in shipyards.
From the late 1860s to the mid-1870s, Xinghe Shipyard, like many state-owned enterprises, struggled to embark on the path of industrialization with a few outdated machines and the efforts of a group of non-professional workers.
first step.
After 1875, with the popularization of basic education in the local area, local people and immigrants from the Far East who recently moved to the local area became more and more familiar with industrial enterprises. The misunderstanding and rejection of working in factories by people near the factory gradually disappeared, and people were willing to work in factories.
The number of local residents working is also increasing.
In 1877, because the number of workers in the shipyard exceeded the designed capacity of the original factory area, Xinghe Shipyard invested money to acquire a piece of land of about 1,800 acres in the west of the factory area, and then began to build a new factory building on the newly purchased land.
and staff quarters.
In the first year after the wasteland was taken over, Xinghe Shipyard built 6 rows of houses on the beach near the port, with a total of more than 300 single dormitories to accommodate 1,200 workers.
In 1880, the third year after the wasteland was taken over, as the sources of workers in the factory became more diverse, many workers' wives and children also moved to live near the factory with their husbands. The land taken over in 1877 was exhausted, so the shipyard
After consultation with the competent authorities, the main plant area of the shipyard was moved to Songjiang Port, and the original plant area was used as a shipbuilding industry base under the name of Xinghe Shipyard, and continued to provide Xinghe Shipyard with various ancillary technologies.
Product support.
With the financial support of the central government, Xinghe Shipyard is developing faster and faster. In less than ten years since the main production area of the shipyard was moved to Songjiang Port, not only the number of workers in the factory exceeded 3,000, but also the wasteland near the factory.
With the relocation of the shipyard, it developed into a new industrial town.
Workers' families and children who came from all over the country obtained a piece of land of roughly equal size from the local government with the identity documents provided by the government. Then, these workers' families lived on the wasteland planned by the government, together with their husbands and neighbors.
Work together to build their own houses and homes.
The abandoned beach land was put to use, and rows of neatly planned Chinese-style wooden houses and brick houses appeared near the factory. Then, at a speed unbelievable to Westerners, simple and orderly residential areas were formed.
As the British Times reporter De Kler said when describing the development of the social system in Han Dynasty: "Workers are all
There were certain needs, and "in order to meet these needs, other people were needed, so craftsmen, tailors, shoemakers, doctors, masons, and carpenters all moved here."
The same is true near the Xinghe Shipyard area.
Seven or eight kilometers into the inland area to the west of the port, there are four spacious streets, one of which is called Beishe Street (She means village, a local dialect of southern Jiangsu, so named because there are many immigrants from southern Jiangsu living on both sides of the street).
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One is called Xincuo Street (in southern Fujian dialect, indicating the place of residence), one is called Yangcheng Street, and the other is called Xinrongcheng Street.
Due to the different origins of the people who migrated, the four streets were given local cultural names with their own characteristics.
On the streets, different types of industries have sprung up in people's lives like mushrooms after a rain as the number of residents increases.
There were hundreds of people shopping in the streets near Xinghe Shipyard. Even if 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, do you want to go inside the street and have a look?"
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 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
for 70,000 people,
I heard from local officials in the two towns that Songjiang Prefecture intends to merge the two towns and four streets into one county, and the county seat will be placed in Xincuo Street, four or five miles away from the factory.
If you look to the east, you will see the street with the Chinese national flag hanging in front of it, and the factory-affiliated primary school is also on Xincuo Street."
"There are still matters to be dealt with in the evening. Today we will 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: "In the past two days, I have been inspecting the surroundings of the shipyard. I saw that there are many orphans under ten years old in the factory. They are in the kindergarten together with the children of the shipyard workers' families.
If you study in the school, your shipyard management should strengthen communication with local schools, pay attention to the schooling of orphans belonging to the factory, and give them more care and love in terms of life and study."
"Your Majesty, rest assured that the young orphans living in the factory area are cared for and taught by specialized personnel. The shipyard management will also conduct random inspections at regular intervals to supervise the living conditions of the orphans in the factory area. Although the shipyard cannot completely replace the role of their parents,
In all aspects of life, study, etc., we will also do our best to help them get the same opportunities as normal children."
"You have done a good job." Li Mingyuan stopped and said seriously: "Among the immigrants imported into the Far East every year, tens of thousands of them are orphans who have lost their parents. Their upbringing and education require the cooperation of various government administrative agencies and state-owned enterprises.
, can it be properly resolved, so the burden on you is not light, and you must continue to maintain the current state of due diligence and hard work in the future."
"Yes, Your Majesty."
Niu Shangzhou nodded in response.
"How prepared are you to improve the construction capacity of new ocean-going ships?"
When today's inspection work was about to end, Li Mingyuan suddenly asked.
"Your Majesty, after communicating with the ocean shipping company, we have initially determined a response plan."
Niu Shangzhou replied: "
In terms of private shipyards, 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 5,000-ton civil docks, four 3,000-ton civil docks, and 71 affiliated industrial enterprises. Its business scope includes ocean-going immigration transportation.
Commodity transshipment, sales, inland waterway shipping and other more than 20 industries,
With nearly 2,000 industrial workers, it ranks first among residential shipping companies in terms of comprehensive technical strength and economic strength.
Next is Shengchang Shipping Company. Shengchang Shipping Company is represented by Far East immigrant businessman Sun Yingde and jointly funded by 32 local private shipping companies such as Fachang, Dachang and Shunchang. It was registered in 1886 with an initial registered capital of 9.2 million Han yuan (
Equivalent to about 5 million taels of Kuping silver).
It owns 2 5,000-ton shipyards, 5 3,000-ton shipyards, 2 shipyard bases, and 1,100 industrial workers.
The third one is Kingho Shipping Company,
Qinghua Steamship Company was founded in September 1887 under the leadership of Qiu Zhongbo, an immigrant businessman from southern Fujian. It had a registered capital of 7.8 million Chinese yuan (equivalent to 4.3 million taels of Kuping silver). It owned a 5,000-ton civilian shipyard and three 3,000-ton civilian shipyards.
There are 840 local industrial workers in the shipyard.
However, Qiu Zhongbo, the founder of Qinghua Steamship Company, was a giant in the shipping industry 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 Islands and other areas to the southern Fujian business gang.
Baoyuan Shipping Company.
Although Kingho Lines is unknown in the local shipping industry, in terms of shipping in Nanyang, Kingho Lines has a larger shipping market share than Shengchang Shipping Company.
Apart from the first three, the last private enterprise selected by us and the Ocean Shipping Company for scheduled cooperation is Taichang Shipping Company.
Taichang Shipping Company has the lowest registered capital. When the company was registered in 1884, its total capital was only 1.82 million Han yuan (equivalent to 1 million taels of Kuping silver.)
The majority were He Binghuan and Liao Zhubin, who invested 600,000 taels of silver and 150,000 taels of silver respectively (50,000 taels were lent to him by the He family).
However, although Taichang Shipping Company has the lowest registered capital among the four, it is developing rapidly.
In September 1884, when the shipping company was first established, it had only 7 second-hand ships purchased and more than 100 Chinese clerks who followed He Binghuan back from the United States. However, more than four years later, under the leadership of He Binghuan and Liao Zhubin, who had an overseas background,
Under the joint operation of the two, the number of employees of Taichang Shipping Company has increased to more than 400, and the company's total assets have increased nearly 3.5 times.
Compared with the previous three shipping companies, although Taichang Shipping Company has the smallest total assets and scale, it has promising development prospects. Therefore, we also included it in the investigation list of cooperative enterprises."
"The choice of a private shipping company must take into account multiple aspects. The company's assets and scale cannot be just the criteria for consideration. 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 do your two state-owned enterprises plan to increase the speed of ship construction?"
"Our two shipyards are planning to add an 8,000-ton civilian dock each. And because the ship construction task is getting heavier, we are also preparing to jointly invest in custom-made two 3,000-ton hydraulic presses, one die forging machine, and one from France.
The free forging machine is used to forge the steel and keels needed to build ships."
"A 3,000-ton hydraulic press is barely enough, and it is necessary to customize two more hydraulic presses."
Li Mingyuan moved his body and said: "The 100-ton steam hammer developed by the French Crusoe Company in 1877 is a very good technology. Before discussing trade cooperation with the French, your two companies may wish to make a tentative purchase.
Regarding Crusoe Company's plan to use the patent, let's see how the French react. If the French agree, buy it immediately. If they raise the asking price and disagree, don't show too persistent intentions. Let's drag it out with France first.
Give it a year or two and see if the French will relent."
"Among Western countries, the only countries that have the technical capabilities to build hydraulic presses above the 1,000-ton level are the UK, France and Germany. If the French do not agree, can we choose the UK and Germany as cooperation partners?"
"Hydraulic presses are industrial tools. If the French are not willing to sell them to us, the British and Germans will most likely not sell them to us. Moreover, among the three countries of Britain, France and Germany, France's hydraulic press technology is the most mature. If possible, the French will be given priority.