In any era, there will be no shortage of forward-looking businessmen like the Chen family and the Xu family. Some of these people died on the beach, while others broke out a bloody path and made a lot of money.
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The Chen family, which is engaged in the grain business, is a successful example, and the Xu family is also trying to become one of them.
Speaking of which, this is actually the necessity for shipbuilding merchants like the Xu family to continue to develop. In the past two years, because the Tang Dynasty continued to support the development of industry and commerce, the industry and commerce under the rule of the Tang Dynasty developed extremely fast, and thus also
It has driven the development of inland shipping industry and offshore shipping industry.
At the same time, it was also because the Tang Dynasty opened ports for trade, which greatly stimulated the development of ocean trade!
Regardless of the development of inland waterway, offshore or offshore shipping, the biggest beneficiary is naturally the shipbuilding industry.
Regardless of whether it is a large or small-scale shipyard, the shipyard is full of ships under construction, and there are still a large number of ship orders waiting to be completed.
This has also led many shipyard owners to begin large-scale expansion of shipyards in order to complete more orders and earn more profits. However, they are limited by the need for risk control. At the same time, a large number of civilian ships are currently relying on traditional
They have a special liking for Guangzhou Shipbuilding, Fuzhou Shipbuilding and other ship types. At the same time, because of economic factors, they are more inclined to purchase these small and medium-sized ships of about one hundred tons or two hundred tons, and they must be Guangzhou Shipbuilding, Shachuan, etc.
A ship that can navigate inland rivers and also has certain offshore navigation capabilities.
As for those large ocean-going merchant ships that are often over five or six hundred tons, or even thousands of tons, unless they are powerful merchants and are specialized in ocean trade, ordinary ship owners will not spend huge sums of money to purchase them.
You must know that a large ship that can truly carry out long-sea voyages with a tonnage of more than 500 tons costs at least ten thousand to twenty thousand taels of silver, and this is only a civilian ship that uses relatively economical materials.
But if you want to carry out real cross-ocean trade, the larger the tonnage, the better. It is not only safer, but also because you can carry more goods and the profit is higher.
Xu's Shamian Shipyard's previous expansion was mainly focused on building small and medium-sized ships of one to two hundred tons, but now, Xu Bingfu is ambitious to enter the field of large ships to avoid the most fierce competition in the two hundred ton class.
market at this level.
Nowadays, shipyards are popping up like mushrooms in the Xijiang River Basin and throughout the coastal areas of Guangdong. In the past, many workshops could only hide underground and build ships secretly. However, they have also transformed into shipyards after being registered. Moreover, these shipyards often have insufficient technical capabilities.
It's not low, and it can build ocean-going merchant ships of one to two hundred tons.
During the reign of the Ming Dynasty, due to the no-sea policy, they could only build ships secretly, and the only ships they could build secretly were large-tonnage long-sea ships.
Now that the Tang Dynasty has opened its ports for trade, all kinds of sneaky shipyards in the past have suddenly popped up to grab business. The largest number of orders are traditional Chinese hard sailing ships between 100 tons and 200 tons, such as Guangzhou Shipbuilding, Shachuan and even Fuzhou Shipyard.
Ships, price competition is fierce.
In previous years, when the Xu family built a two-hundred-ton sand ship, the gross profit could be as high as about 30% to 40%, but now, the gross profit has dropped to less than 20%, and there are still many people rushing to order it.
That is to say, the shipping industry has now entered a prosperous stage, and there are many orders for ships. With the huge number, major shipyards can still grow wildly.
However, Xu Bingfu firmly believes that this situation cannot last for too long. In the next few years, although the number of orders for ships below 300 tons will not be small, the profits will become lower and lower.
At that time, it would be even more difficult to switch to building larger ships.
Taking advantage of the current huge profits and being able to rely on orders for small and medium-sized ships, we can transform in advance and occupy the large ship market of more than 300 tons!
At that time, when others are fiercely competing for the small and medium-sized ship market of less than 300 tons, their Xu family's Shamian Shipyard will be able to monopolize the market for large ships of more than 300 tons. Without competitors in the market, profits will be lost.
It won’t be lower no matter what!
He even had an idea in his heart that if his Shamian shipyard could have a 500-ton or even 1,000-ton shipyard and the ability to build large-tonnage ships, then he might not be able to build naval ships in the future.
Navy ships require top-notch materials and workmanship, so for ships of the same tonnage, the cost of warships of the Tang Navy is often several times more than that of civilian ships.
And the higher the price, the greater the profit will naturally be!
At the same time, civilian ships
Building one warship brings more profit than building ten civilian ships!
As far as he knows, there are currently three government-run shipyards, namely Zhaoqing Shipyard, Guangzhou Shipyard, and Lianzhou Shipyard. At that time, Zhaoqing Shipyard could only build small and medium-sized inland river vessels.
Lianzhou Shipyard also only has the ability to build warships of less than 500 tons.
The only one capable of building warships of more than 500 tons is the Guangzhou Shipyard!
If I can make arrangements in advance so that the Shamian Shipyard has the ability to build ships of more than 500 tons, I am afraid that I will not have to compete for orders myself. I am afraid that the military will take the initiative to come to the door.
When he thought that he might become the overlord of merchant ships in the field of large ships in the future, or even become the supplier of naval battleships, he couldn't stop feeling so hot inside.
After several days of discussion, Xu Bingfu persuaded other members of the family against all opinions and prepared to raise heavy capital to build three new 500-ton shipyards and a new 1,000-ton shipyard.
Then prepare to spend at least 50,000 taels of silver to purchase various shipbuilding equipment!
In order to build a new dock and shipyard, they even spent a lot of money to acquire a large area of open space along the river on the right.
And these are only their first phase of investment. To build a shipyard that can build a thousand-ton giant ship, and is also ambitious to build warships, it will cost a huge amount of money!
However, the Xu family was also strong. Relying on the profits of its own fleet and the profits of the three shipyards, it was finally able to barely sustain itself. However, it was inevitable that they were forced to stop expanding the scale of building ships under 300 tons.
This made many competitors overjoyed and thought that the Xu family was seeking death. Instead of engaging in the easy money-making shipbuilding market of less than 300 tons, they insisted on opening up the large ship market that no one had ever done before, and even set their sights on building warships.
Isn’t it just looking for death?
But these competitors of the Xu family were soon dumbfounded, because when the Tang Navy heard that the Xu family, the number one private shipyard, was actually investing heavily in building 500-ton and 1,000-ton shipyards and introducing a large amount of advanced equipment.
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Even before the Xu family knew it, the navy had already conducted a thorough assessment of the Xu family's shipyard!
In early June, when the Xu family's first 500-ton shipyard officially started construction, and a batch of shipbuilding equipment orders worth 50,000 taels of silver were placed with the Zhaoqing Machinery Branch, a major from the Navy found the Xu family.
He also gave the Xu family a bidding document and informed the Xu family that the Shamian Shipyard had passed the Navy's internal preliminary selection and was allowed to participate in the Navy's warship bidding conference held in mid-June!
Xu Bingfu was overjoyed about this, and immediately took many craftsmen in the shipyard and core members of the family to discuss how to participate in the bidding meeting, and then unanimously decided that even if they did not make money, they would still win an order for a warship.
However, they were also very cautious. They did not look at the bidding documents for third-class cruisers or even second-class cruisers. What they looked at was the order for third-class frigates.
Third-class frigates with a standard displacement of 350 tons have become the standard main warships of the Tang Dynasty Navy. Because the technology is mature and the cost is relatively cheap, the navy is building a large number of them.
As for the entire construction plan, the Navy is preparing to build at least twenty ships before considering upgrading them later!
Twenty third-class frigates, even if their construction technology requirements are lower, are not as demanding as cruisers, but currently there are not many shipyards in the Tang Dynasty that have the strength to undertake the construction.
In early June, Xu Bingfu took a dozen people from Guangzhou to Zhaoqing. After arriving in Zhaoqing by boat, they first took a rest and then carefully reviewed a plan they had made.
This was their first time participating in a tender. Although they had a template sent by the Navy, they still needed to think hard about how to make a plan.
After waiting for three days in Zhaoqing, they finally went to the Naval Headquarters to formally participate in the bidding. When they arrived at the bidding venue, Xu Bingfu discovered that in addition to people from the three government-run shipyards, there was actually a private shipyard like his own. This was them.
The Xu family's old rival is Guanghe Shipyard, which is also in Guangzhou, and there is another Dingsheng Shipyard that I have never heard of. After asking people from Guanghe, their old enemy, I found out that this Dingsheng Shipyard
It comes from Hong Kong, but its reputation is not well known. It is said that its predecessor was an underground shipyard.
Everyone who attended the meeting today was a competitor to each other, so everyone looked silent. Even the two parties, Guangzhou Shipyard and Lianzhou Shipyard, which are both government-run shipyards, were not on the right track with each other.
Looking at this posture, Xu Bingfu knew that there would inevitably be a fierce battle today!
Today's bidding meeting is not a hidden bid, but an explicit bid. At the same time, each shipyard is not allowed to change the bidding conditions midway.
The first thing that started was the bidding for a second-class cruiser, which was won by the Guangzhou Shipyard without any dispute, and the order for two third-class cruisers was won by the Guangzhou Shipyard.
The other ship was taken down by the unknown Hong Kong Dingsheng Shipyard, which surprised Xu Bingfu!
This prosperous shipyard in Hong Kong does not seem simple!