More than thirty official ships sailed to Tongzhou via the Tonghui River.
This is due to Wang Yuan's improved dredging boats. Dozens of dredging boats have been working day and night for a year and a half. Finally, in February this year, the Tonghui River was completely dredged. It only needed to clear the blocked river sections, not to
The entire river's silt was dug out.
From now on, grain can finally reach the capital directly, without having to be transported by land after reaching Tongzhou.
This saved the Ministry of Revenue a lot of money, and at the same time caused many people to lose their jobs. The official in charge of the transfer even sent greetings to Wang Yuan's eighteen generations of ancestors.
The official ships Wang Yuan was traveling on at this moment were all canton ships returning to the south.
The Thousand Shenji Battalion were all on board, and their weapons were all front-mounted flintlock muskets. They followed Wang Yuan to the Western Regions, and they hadn't rested for two months, and now they were going to Zhejiang again. No one complained, and they were all very happy.
Yes, because there are benefits to following Wang Erlang. The officers who went to the Western Regions were all promoted one level, and the silver rewards for ordinary soldiers were also paid in place, and the emperor personally sent people to distribute them.
In addition to the Shenji Camp, there are also many disciples of the Physics School.
Wang Wensu, who was fifty-one years old, resigned directly from the Ministry of Household Affairs and went south to Zhejiang with Wang Yuan. His humanoid calculator was of great use. Bao Chaozhen, Bao Chaoxiang brother, and more than twenty disciples, these days
He has been with Wang Yuan for many years.
When passing through Tianjin, Wang Yuan stopped briefly and went to see his factory.
What was once a saline-alkali land is now extremely prosperous, with several inns and restaurants opened, and even a brothel.
The simple docks have been built more formally, and the rivers are full of merchant ships.
"master!"
Chang Xing, the owner of the factory, led his men to greet him at the dock.
Wang Yuan praised: "You did a good job."
Chang Xing smiled and said: "If you eat for me, you will naturally do your best for me."
In ancient times, professional managers were still trustworthy, especially shopkeepers who worked for officials and businessmen. They might do small things, but they would never dare to do big things. Once caught, there would be no way to survive.
Wang Yuan's students would regularly go to the factory to audit the accounts. As long as problems were found, they would receive one-sixth of the embezzled money.
When the factory was first established, there were five managers, but now there are only four left.
The missing one is currently in exile in Gansu, and his home has been confiscated, and the whole family has been relegated to a lowly status. For Wang Yuan, this is very simple, just make up any charges. Evil bureaucrats are so unreasonable.
Chang Xing pointed to a group of houses to the east: "Those are spinning workshops, opened by others, specifically to supply us with cotton yarn."
Wang Yuan was particularly happy that there were actually supporting companies.
Chang Xing said: "Their spinning machines are all stolen and imitated. No matter how hard they guard against it, they can't stop it."
Wang Yuan asked: "The latest spinning machine has also been leaked?"
"Isn't that true?" Chang Xing sighed, "The person who leaked the secret was a factory clerk. His wife worked as a female worker in the factory. The couple studied the spinning machine and drew a blueprint of the machine. They sold it to them for one thousand taels of silver.
Merchants from the south. After the couple sold the blueprints, they ran away under the guise of going home to visit relatives. They probably accidentally exposed their wealth and were robbed in Jinghai County. The woman died and the man was seriously injured and did not survive for a few days.
Also dead."
Wang Yuan asked: "In other words, our spinning machine is the same as other spinning machines?"
Chang Xing nodded and said: "The spinning machine is the same, but our new loom is not easy to be copied. There are too many parts. As long as it is not taken apart, the workers cannot understand it at all."
"That's okay." Wang Yuan nodded and said.
Wang Yuan's factory in Tianjin has more than 5,000 female textile workers. There are also thousands of male workers doing hard work such as transportation, and a factory protection team of 500 people has also been established.
The factory protection team is necessary because there are Japanese pirates nearby.
Japanese pirates often go to Changlu Saltworks to rob. As the factory develops, there may be small groups of Japanese pirates scurrying here. Anyway, we must prepare in advance to guard against local thieves and thieves.
Wang Yuan pointed to the building next to the inn and said: "This store is not doing well. There are not many people in it during the day."
Chang Xing explained with a smile: "This is a brothel, opened by a conductor in Tianjin. It is very lively at night."
Wang Yuan asked: "Is there no shortage of food?"
Chang Xing said: "There is no shortage of food, but the price of vegetables is very high. A lot of land here cannot grow vegetables, so we can only transport it from Tianjin. But the price of salt is cheap... well, you know."
The price of salt is cheap because the salt from the salt field must be transported through the factory gate.
Just unload a boat and sell it, enough to feed the factory for a long time. However, this stuff has not been reported to the Salt Department, and it is essentially smuggled salt sold in official salt farms.
This kind of dirty work does not need to be handled by the factory. Naturally, someone with great powers will set up a salt-selling store at the dock.
When Wang Yuan came to the factory, the scene was in full swing, and the sound of the spinning machines was extremely sweet.
The large-scale loom developed by Wang Yan and others was so powerful that the cotton yarn produced by himself was simply not enough, so he had to purchase supplements from nearby veil workshops. Even so, the supply exceeded demand, and even cotton yarn had to be purchased from ordinary people's homes. Now every household in Tianjin has
In spinning.
In other words, the factory opened by Wang Yuan, far from destroying the traditional family handicraft industry, actually promoted family handmade textiles (only in Tianjin).
The cotton cloth produced is mainly sold to Beizhili and Shandong, and occasionally it receives orders indirectly from the Ministry of Household Affairs.
The Ministry of Household Affairs regularly purchases cotton-padded clothes and transports them to northern border towns. The private cotton-clothes merchants buy cotton cloth in bulk from Wang Yuan's factory, make cotton clothes and send them to the Ministry of Household Affairs to earn huge profits.
After inspecting the factory, Wang Yuan asked: "How much money can you put out without affecting the operation of the factory?"
Chang Xing thought for a while and said: "According to the master's wishes, the factory has been expanding production. At the end of last year, the factory was renovated and 300 large looms were ordered. Now we can only spend 5,000 taels of silver."
"Five thousand taels is a bit small," Wang Yuan said. "Let's move them all on board. I have urgent needs."
Wang Yuan naturally wanted to do maritime trade. Whether it was building or buying ships or purchasing goods, he needed a start-up capital.
Since the factory can only produce 5,000 taels, let's go to Zhejiang and make money with nothing.
The imperial court had no ships, and the family had no ships, but the people had plenty of ships, and they were sea-going ships that could carry out ocean-going transportation!
Not only are there boats, but there are also cannons!
According to "Fujian General Chronicles", in the fifth year of Zhengde's reign, pirate Yang Kunlun attacked Xianyou County. Maritime merchant Wei Sheng assisted the county magistrate in defending the city, and actually took out more than a hundred French cannons!
He was so damn audacious. It was illegal to be a maritime merchant, yet he could hide more than a hundred artillery pieces secretly. However, the local magistrate did not dare to report it to the court afterwards.
The more such merchants, the better.
Wang Yuan reluctantly accepted gifts from maritime merchants on behalf of the imperial court.