Since the Imperial Economic Conference in the winter of Xuanping 40, the entire Tang Empire has been in a state of excitement.
For the upper echelons of the empire, the economic development plan passed at the economic conference was ostensibly about developing the economy, but in fact its main purpose was to balance the conflicts of interests between the homeland and overseas territories. If it goes deeper, it was for the sake of its global economy.
Paving the way for an integrated process.
Economic integration was an important measure determined by the high-level officials of the Tang Empire to resolve conflicts between the mainland and overseas territories and avoid division.
Although no public announcement was made, the Tang Empire had actually begun to do so.
The economic development plan is a product under the framework of economic integration, in order to completely bind the domestic and overseas territories together.
Within this broad framework, the economic development plan also contains various plans with huge plans and various types.
Especially after the restrictions on railways, port facilities, etc. were relaxed, the entire Tang Empire was in a state of excitement.
Because everyone sees countless business opportunities from it.
Whether it is the steel industry, coal industry, or other industries, you can find your own opportunities from this huge economic development plan.
While the popularity is still there, Datang Railway Corporation officially announced the establishment of several major railway branches.
There are five railway branches in overseas territories including American Railways, Indian Railways, South African Railways and Red Sea Railways.
The railway companies of the above five overseas territories will build railways in the overseas territories based on the actual needs and economic conditions of each place.
In terms of the funds required to build railways, most railway projects will also be purely commercial development examples.
Preparing to follow the precedent of many domestic railways in the past, especially following the precedent of Jiangnan Railway Company, railway construction bonds will be publicly issued to the public with each branch as the theme to raise funds for the construction of major railways.
First of all, American Railway Company took the lead in announcing the railway construction plan in the Americas. The core plan was to build a railway across the east and west continents of North America.
Taking Xinjinshan as the starting point and Xinnan Port as the focus, it spans the entire American continent!
This road plan instantly detonated the capital market!
Because everyone knows the American resource style, the potential for agricultural development is huge, and the mineral resources are even more abundant. In the past, due to the localization policy, it was impossible to develop effectively and could only carry out the most basic agricultural development.
But now, the empire has issued a series of economic development plans, preparing to develop large-scale mechanized agriculture in the Americas and preparing to exploit large amounts of mineral resources.
The policy already exists.
As for the market!
I didn’t see the Tang Dynasty newspaper saying that the food index would be reduced from the current over 50% to over 40%!
If we want to reduce this ratio and effectively improve people's living standards, what can we do without a rich supply of various crops!
The local agricultural development is already relatively complete. Even if the development of Northeast Central Asia and other regions can be continued in the future, considering the rapid growth of the population in the empire every year, the newly increased local food can maintain the current per capita food consumption level.
That’s good, but if you want to improve, you can only rely on supplies from overseas regions.
And the continental region is the imperial granary designated by the high-ranking officials of the empire!
The market will never be short of food. With the current level of food production, no matter how much food is produced, it can be consumed locally.
The Americas have a large supply of grain, meat and other products, and with policies in place, many have seen opportunities.
Qingpu Meat Company, the largest meat supplier in Songjiang Prefecture, made a sudden announcement in the last few days of its 40-year low.
Announced that the company will establish a global meat supply system and purchase meat from all over the world to supply locally.
At first glance, it seems strange, because meat is purchased from all over the world. Isn’t it nonsense? Meat is difficult to insure. It is 100% guaranteed to be transported after long distances by sea, unless live animals are transported directly back. But
The long sea journey will also cause a large number of livestock deaths.
The only available transportation methods are cured meat or sealed cans, but the former does not taste very good, and the cost of the latter is very high.
More importantly, according to the announcement issued by Qingpu Meat Company, the investment in building a global supply system will reach more than 300,000 yuan.
What system requires an investment of 300,000 Tang Yuan?
Even if you build a very large-scale breeding farm in America, you won’t need so much investment.
But if you take a closer look, you will find that most of the estimated investment will be used to build two large-tonnage meat refrigerated transport ships?
Refrigerated transport ship?
Yes, this is what Qingpu Meat Company needs to announce when it issues this announcement.
Although Qingpu Meat Company plans to build breeding farms in South and North America at the same time, to be honest, these investments will not cost much, and Qingpu Meat Company has no intention of raising cattle and pigs on its own, which is not in line with their expertise.
Their investments are slaughterhouses as well as transportation channels.
Freezer ships are at the heart of this.
This thing is a product of Hong Kong Dingsheng Shipyard. To be honest, they never considered its application in the field of civilian ships at the beginning. Dingsheng Shipyard dared to start working on refrigerated transport ships purely to meet the military's logistics and transportation needs.
The military's food requirements are quite high. In order to ensure the supply of meat for frontline troops, especially those deployed overseas, the logistics departments of the army and navy have tried every means.
At the beginning, there was no way but to make some bacon or something. Later, I started to make bacon. I have to say here that in order to preserve it for a longer time, the smell of this bacon is not ordinary...
...the kind that can make ordinary people vomit directly when you cook it and smell it...
Later, sealed cans were introduced, but the cost of cans was actually very high, and even so, it was difficult for frontline soldiers to eat fresh meat.
The military's solution to this problem is to bring a large number of live cattle, sheep, chickens and ducks. Especially the army troops stationed in Central Asia. When there is any action on weekdays, they always march with a group of cattle and sheep...
In order to solve the problem of fresh meat supply for frontline troops, and people also discovered that frozen meat can be kept fresh, the Navy asked Dingsheng Shipyard to build a freezer ship to try it out.
The refrigeration equipment was provided by the Royal Institute of Technology.
Not to mention, after the Academic Affairs Office of the Royal Institute of Technology learned about the military's request, they looked through their huge research projects and found that their college actually had a mechanical refrigeration project, which is a vapor compression refrigeration system.
Ether is a refrigeration medium, but it is not yet mature and is not commercially available for the time being.
The military immediately invested some money, built a prototype and put it on a ship, creating the first cryogenic ship in human history.
Qingpu Meat Company has a very sensitive sense of smell. The navy's refrigerated supply ship has just started construction and has not yet been completed. Qingpu Meat Company came directly to the company and ordered two refrigerated transport ships!
According to the Qingpu Meat Company's announcement, the refrigerated transport ships ordered can transport 5,000 tons of meat products in a single trip, and they run very fast. If they set off from Xinjinshan, they can arrive at Shanghai Port in a few months.
However, it would take more than a month to transport live livestock by rail from Haidong Province in Central Asia, the empire's homeland, back to Shanghai with stops and starts, and the freight would be even more expensive...
This means that from now on, overseas territories can vigorously develop animal husbandry and supply large amounts of meat products to the mainland through frozen transportation.
It also means that in the future, beef from the Americas will be available on the dining tables of ordinary people in the Tang Dynasty!