The first thousand three hundred and ninety-six chapters of the era when technology is king
The development path of Xuzhou Iron and Steel Company is also the common path of success for some large companies that have emerged in recent years. It attaches great importance to technology research and development in terms of administrative production management and other aspects.
Many companies under the Ministry of State-owned Enterprises developed this kind of technology from the beginning, so they were able to develop extremely rapidly in the early stages. However, companies invested by private capital only wanted to make quick money at the beginning, so you can see many
Private capital is pouring into light industry represented by the textile industry, pursuing small investment and quick returns.
Therefore, before the fifteenth year of Xuanping, although domestic private capital generally participated in all walks of life in the empire, it also made considerable contributions to the industrial and commercial development of the empire.
However, the influence of the companies invested by private capital has never been great. There are many companies that make money, but only a few have made it onto the stage and attracted the attention of the authorities.
However, this situation gradually changed after the 15th Xuanping Period.
The first thing to change is the shipping-related industries, including shipbuilding and shipping. Because domestic shipping has always maintained rapid development, the demand for ships is huge, but at the same time, in order to improve their competitiveness, major shipping companies have put more emphasis on ships.
The requirements are getting higher and higher, which has pushed major shipyards to pay more attention to technology and develop more advanced ships.
At the same time, several large shipyards controlled by the Ministry of State-owned Enterprises and the Hong Kong Dingsheng Shipyard of the Royal Assets Division are far from being able to meet the huge domestic demand for ships. In fact, the shipyards controlled by the Ministry of State-owned Enterprises and the Hong Kong Dingsheng Shipyard have limited production capacity.
Limited, and the technical level is generally relatively high, so they mainly build various types of warships and ocean-going merchant ships. In addition, they undertake some official ships, law enforcement ships, special ships, etc.
As for the huge general shipping market, as long as it is inland water transport vessels and coastal transport vessels, the shipyards affiliated with the Ministry of State-owned Enterprises and Dingsheng Shipyard have no involvement.
This huge field has always been the cake of private shipyards!
It is precisely because of such a huge piece of cake that domestic private capital has been stimulated to actively invest in the shipbuilding industry. However, with more capital invested, there have been more and more messy shipyards.
According to incomplete statistics, there are currently thousands of registered shipyards in the Tang Empire, although most of them are various small or even workshop-style micro shipyards, manufacturing some small
Although there are sampans, there are hundreds of medium-sized shipyards capable of building ships of more than 100 tons.
There are dozens of large shipyards capable of building new merchant ships of 500 tons.
There are now five shipyards capable of building thousand-ton ships. Among them, Hong Kong Dingsheng Shipyard has always been at the forefront of technology and has long been able to mass-produce thousand-ton ships.
The current scale of dry docks and related construction equipment are already capable of producing ships of less than 2,000 tons.
Well, it is worth noting that the Jiangnan-class battleships built by Dingsheng Shipyard for the navy are no longer just wooden sailing battleships, but new models with sail power, wooden iron shells, and some core components made of steel.
Battleships, this new type of battleship has higher requirements on the technical capabilities of shipyards. At present, apart from Dingsheng Shipyard, there is only Qingdao Naval Shipyard, which does not hesitate to invest money for the performance of battleships.
In addition, Hong Kong Ding Sheng Shipyard is also building new docks. This batch of new docks totals eight, starting from 5,000 tons, and the largest dock even reaches 10,000 tons.
In other words, while other large shipyards have just crossed the threshold of 1,000-ton ships, Hong Kong Dingsheng Shipyard is already capable of producing 2,000-ton ships, has entered the 5,000-ton era, and has also begun to produce 10,000-ton ships.
The technology is in reserve.
Although Dingsheng Shipyard is awesome, its production capacity is limited no matter how awesome it is, and it does not affect the survival and development of a large number of domestic private shipyards.
The biggest enemy of private shipyards is the many private shipyards themselves, so in order to compete, they also try their best to improve their technical capabilities.
Related to shipyards are major shipping companies. In order to improve market competitiveness, major shipping companies have increasingly higher technical requirements for ships. Otherwise, they will not be able to survive and develop in the fierce competition.
Among shipping companies, the most competitive ones are Yangtze River Shipping Company and Feng Shipping Company. Both shipping companies are very large in size, and their main businesses are inland waterway and coastal freight and passenger transportation.
As for ocean transportation, this has nothing to do with major shipping companies, because today's ocean transportation usually involves major trading companies organizing their own ships to transport materials.
Take Datang Nanyang Trading Company and Datang Dongyang Trading Company, two typical trading companies controlled by the Ministry of State-owned Enterprises or the Royal Assets Division, as examples. They have their own ocean-going fleets and do not need to hire ships from those shipping companies.
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Because ocean trade is very complicated these days. Overseas trade is not just about transporting goods. You also have to deal with pirates, indigenous governments, and tribes. If you don’t bring dozens of artillery pieces and hundreds of muskets with you to trade in Southeast Asia, let alone
Having made money, it is still unknown whether he can come back safely.
In this case, it is impossible for a pure shipping company to take huge risks and only earn a small amount of freight.
As for directly using the fleet to sell goods and then making huge profits, then this is not a pure shipping company, but a trading company model.
Although many ocean-going trading companies cannot have the same large-scale company fleets as the Tang Dynasty Western Trading Company, with dozens of warships of various sizes, the merchant ships of each trading company are all armed merchant ships.
Those who carry guns and cannons and go to Fuso are capable of killing some local daimyo with average strength.
It is not easy to register a trading company, and to register an ocean-going trading company that can equip armed merchant ships and carry armed personnel. Today, there are more than 100 ocean-going trading companies, large and small, and most of them were those who seized the opportunity to register early.
, only a few were registered later.
Nowadays, if you want to register an ocean trading company, the registered capital must start at 500,000. You also need to obtain the firearms and equipment license from the "Joint Logistics Committee" jointly established by the army, navy and the Guards, and then obtain formal approval from the Ministry of Commerce.
, and at the same time, you have to obtain an import and export license from the 'Import and Export Committee' jointly established by the cabinet, the Navy, the Army, and the Guards, etc., and then pay a fee that varies according to the size of the fleet to the Insurance Department under the Central Bank.
Pension insurance benefits.
Not to mention the first few items, the latter one, the deposit, is actually to protect the interests of seafarers, because the risks of ocean trade these days are really too great.
Over the past many years, many trading companies have encountered various accidents after going to sea. Regardless of whether they were destroyed by pirates or caught in a storm, the result was a shipwreck and loss of life. In this case, trading companies often
The losses are heavy, and if one fails, he will go completely bankrupt.
The company has gone bankrupt, and there is a high possibility that the pensions of the crew members who encountered accidents at sea will not be received at all.
After all, not every trading company is a large trading company. Most of them often only have two or three, or even only one solitary merchant ship.
But don’t think that one merchant ship is missing. If this merchant ship is fully loaded and goes to sea, the value of the goods it carries can range from more than 100,000 to hundreds of thousands. If one ship is sunk, the huge loss is beyond the imagination of outsiders.
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The bankruptcy and liquidation of seemingly wealthy and prestigious ocean-going trading companies due to shipwrecks occurs several times every year.
Later, in order to protect the interests of trading company employees.
Officials have begun to implement a mandatory insurance system, requiring ocean trading companies to purchase insurance for every employee who goes overseas. Those who do not purchase relevant insurance are not allowed to engage in ocean trading business.
It’s okay if nothing happens, but if something happens, the Insurance Department of the Central Bank will be responsible for compensating employees’ pensions!
This kind of pension insurance system is also a new attempt made by Li Xuan after many years of development in the financial market of the Tang Empire to see if he could start the insurance industry in this era. After all, the insurance industry is still important to the economic stability of industry and commerce.
It has a relatively large effect.
However, Li Xuan was still more cautious and only engaged in pension insurance for ocean trading companies, but not for other industries.
Now Li Xuan is acting more rationally when doing things. Instead of doing whatever he wants like in previous years, Li Xuan will consider more when doing things now and will not blindly promote the development of the social system.
Because the system must match the productivity. If the productivity cannot reach a certain level, imposing some outdated systems will not bring benefits, but disadvantages.
The development of ocean trade and the development of the domestic shipping industry has greatly stimulated the shipbuilding industry, and has also greatly improved shipbuilding technology.
Similarly, a similar situation also occurred in Tianjin AIA Machinery Company. AIA Company did not develop very long, but it quickly captured a large number of market shares and became a machinery manufacturing enterprise that dared to compete with Zhaoqing Machinery Company.
The textile machinery it produces, especially woolen manufacturing equipment and raw silk manufacturing equipment, has already overwhelmed Zhaoqing Machinery Company. In the past two years, it has entered the field of steam engine manufacturing and has developed well in the field of high-pressure steam engines.
Nowadays, in the field of civilian steam engines, it is basically at the same level as Zhaoqing Machinery Company.
Civilian high-pressure steam engines are not just shipboard steam engines and train steam engines. The larger market is actually steam engines used in many factories.
In the industrial high-pressure steam engine market, the competition between the two companies is now very fierce. They use various means such as improving product performance, reducing prices, marketing and even building relationships, using official channels, etc., and basically use any means that can be used.