Chapter 218 There are only gentry and no businessmen
After a large number of mechanical equipment arrives, and after engineers have completed the installation and debugging, machinery can be used to mine coal instead of a large amount of manpower. This cost can be greatly reduced in an instant, and the output will also be greatly increased to meet the demand.
Coal demand in the Americas.
You know, there used to be a lot of coal in the Americas, but in fact a large amount of it had to be transported from Europe!
This has to be said to be an irony!
The biggest reason is that the cost of manual coal mining in America is too high!
The coal in Europe is mainly produced in the British Isles. The coal mines there are also controlled by the large-scale mining company of Datang and are developed in cooperation with the local indigenous people. The wages of the local indigenous people are much lower, even if they are added later.
The transportation freight is also much cheaper than locally mined coal in the Americas.
This is also the reason why the mineral resources in many Datang overseas territories, including North America, are difficult to develop.
It’s not that the quality is not good enough, or that the reserves are not rich enough!
But the cost is too high!
The Tang Empire clearly stipulated that no natives were allowed to appear in any area controlled by the Tang Dynasty, so those mining companies that wanted to exploit minerals could only hire people from the empire.
When hiring immigrants from the empire to mine, the wages are not low. They are even higher than hiring workers to mine locally, and they are much higher.
Labor costs are high, and advanced machinery and equipment cannot be used, so it is impossible to mine various minerals.
The cost of mining in indigenous-controlled areas is much lower.
The British Isles are rich in coal resources and have a lot of indigenous labor resources. The same manual mining costs are very low.
But things have changed now. After the installation and debugging of a large number of mechanical equipment, although the number of miners employed is still the same, the production capacity has increased by more than ten times in an instant!
What is this concept?
This means that the cost of coal will also drop significantly!
On the first day of production, Miao Mingkun took a group of company executives and accompanied Feng Xinyuan, the governor of Wuhu Province, for an inspection. He explained: "Today, the production capacity of our coal mine has increased by at least twenty times compared with before. At the same time, there are
The potential for continued capacity growth!”
"In terms of cost, our selling price can now be at least 15% cheaper than European coal. After the equipment is adjusted and the production becomes more familiar, this number can be further reduced!"
"At the same time, this coal mine, including the mining area, transportation, sales and other channels, will create at least more than 5,000 jobs, and their wages will not be lower than the local average wage level!"
Listening to Miao Mingkun's series of introductions, Feng Xinyuan actually had no interest in listening.
He knows more about the role of the coal mine in stimulating the local economy after it is put into operation than the person in charge of the company, Miao Mingkun. What he values is not simply economic benefits. He values more that the reduction of local coal costs can further reduce transportation costs, and finally further
Reduce the cost of food transportation.
This will further increase the income of nearly two million farmers in Wuhu Province.
This is his goal and the goal of the empire's top leaders.
That is the core subject of stabilizing overseas immigrants, that is, local farmers!
Whether at home or overseas, the core support group of the empire has always been farmers!
As for the business class, strictly speaking, there is no such class in the empire!
The empire only has the gentry class!
Many business owners, you say he is a businessman?
People have to look down upon you: We are from a scholarly family, an official family!
If you insist that he is a businessman, they can slap you directly!
At the same time, the existence of the Ministry of State-owned Enterprises and the Royal Assets Division is also very special. Together, these two institutions directly control almost all heavy industries, some light industries, and almost all financial industries.
Almost all industries related to the lifeblood of the empire are controlled by the capital of the Ministry of State-owned Enterprises or the Imperial Assets Division.
Official capital directly controls at least 30% of the empire's economic volume. If indirect control is included, then it is completely impossible to settle.
Because no industry can actually do without official capital.
Even the textile industry, where private capital appears to be the most active, is inevitably restricted by official capital.
The textile equipment, transportation and many other industries they use are inseparable from official capital enterprises.
This special economic system of the Tang Empire has caused many unique economic phenomena in the current Datang Empire.
For example, coal prices, if viewed from a purely capital economic perspective, follow the market trend. If production is low and demand is high, then the price will remain high. Even if coal merchants increase production, they will try to maintain the high price of coal as much as possible.
, will not blindly expand production capacity and cause coal prices to plummet.
But now the Tang Empire has begun to spare no effort to suppress the price of coal.
What’s even more strange is that the major mining companies are very cooperative and even take the initiative to do it.
This is completely against the laws of market economy.
Why does this happen?
Naturally, this is because most of the coal companies in the Tang Empire were state-owned enterprises, and state-owned coal companies controlled more than 95% of the coal production capacity.
Official capital has taken the lead in suppressing coal prices, and it is impossible for the few remaining private coal companies to maintain high prices even if they want to.
The price of coal in North America has always been relatively high, because the local mining costs in North America were high, and shipping from Europe had to add freight, so overall the price of coal is still relatively high.
Now with the large-scale expansion of the West Lake Coal Mine under the American Branch of the South China Mining Company, it can significantly lower the price of coal in the east coast of America. This is not only for the local economic development on the east coast of America, but also for the global development of the Tang Empire.
Economic integration plans are of great strategic significance.
Reduce freight costs as much as possible, reduce the cost of global trade, and reduce the cost of trade, exchanges, and travel between the mainland and overseas territories of the Tang Empire. This is a prerequisite for completely binding the mainland and overseas territories.
Because only if this prerequisite exists, then we can subsequently expand the quantity of various agricultural products and mineral products imported from overseas territories.
Only when the import volume is large can the overseas territories be completely economically dependent on the local market.
When this dependence appears and continues to be strengthened for decades, the economic system of the overseas territories can become more unified, and even actively de-industrialize, thereby achieving the economic integration pursued by the high-level officials of the Datang Empire.
Under this grand strategy, after initially developing the West Lake Coal Mine, the South China Mining Company focused on developing two other coal mines in the Wuhu Province. At the same time, several other domestic mining companies have also developed many coal mines in the Americas.
A large coal mine.
This has led to a rapid increase in coal production capacity in North America.