When speaking, Cai Xiaoguang's face clearly showed a look of hesitation. He seemed to want to say something, but he didn't really say it.
Seeing that he was hesitant to speak, Li Jie said bluntly.
"Brother Xiaoguang, what are you worried about?"
Cai Xiaoguang nodded awkwardly upon hearing this.
"A little bit."
As he spoke, he paused and took a sip of tea.
"Bingkun, isn't it a little too hasty for you to send a chair to the exhibition?"
"That's the Canton Fair. How many companies are trying to get in."
Indeed, any factory that has reached a certain scale these days does not want to earn foreign exchange, especially large factories.
After several visits across the province, Oriental Heavy Industry Trust is one of the few large companies, especially in the field of tractors. Oriental Heavy Industry Trust claims to be second, and absolutely no one dares to claim the first place.
But even so, Oriental Heavy Industry's performance in previous Canton Fairs was not very good.
At the last Canton Fair, Oriental Heavy Industry's order volume was only US$300,000.
According to the current exchange rate, 300,000 U.S. dollars is about 700,000 yuan. Looking at it alone, this is undoubtedly a huge sum of money.
But for a large factory with thousands of workers, this order is nothing.
The profit generated from the order of 700,000 yuan is not enough to pay one month's salary.
And this is already the best record in the province.
In addition, Cai Xiaoguang's father is the top leader of the Provincial Department of Commerce, which is true. It is within his scope of authority to report which companies will participate in the exhibition.
But he couldn't say whether he would actually be selected.
This matter not only needs to be discussed at the meeting, but also needs to be nodded by the Canton Fair.
"What happened to a chair?"
Li Jie chuckled, took a sip of strong tea, and said calmly.
"Just tell me, what does it feel like to sit on that chair?"
“Is it more comfortable to sit on than traditional furniture?”
The exhibit product reported by Xiaoqingshan Village is indeed a chair, and the style is very simple, but the design of this chair is unusual.
In short, this is a chair produced using bent wood technology.
Bending wood can turn ordinary wood into a piece of curved furniture. In fact, the process of bending wood has been used for hundreds of years.
This is not a new process. Wood bending technology is used in wooden boats, old Ming and Qing furniture chairs, wooden barrels, etc.
However, this process is currently only used in traditional furniture production, and most furniture today does not use this process.
Modern bent wood originated in Northern Europe. The wood is first cut into veneers with a thickness of no more than one centimeter, then the veneers are stacked together, using glue as an adhesive, and finally using high temperature and high pressure pressing methods to create the desired curvature.
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The technology used to produce bent wood furniture in Xiaoqingshan Village is not this kind.
The reason for not using it is very simple.
The machines for pressing veneer are too expensive, so the only way to buy them is to import them.
Today's foreign exchange quotas are as tight as they are. Even if you want to use foreign exchange to buy machines from Oriental Trust, you have to report and get approval at all levels.
It may not be approved in the end.
Therefore, Xiaoqingshan Village uses ancient techniques when processing.
Generally speaking, there are two ways to make bent wood furniture in ancient times.
One is to directly throw the wood into water to soak it. After the wood softens, use a specific mold to press it, and then dry it in the shade.
The other method is to put it directly into the pot and steam it.
The principles of both are actually similar. They both use water vapor to soften the wood, and then use tools to shape it.
It’s just that compared to steaming, the success rate of soaking with water will be lower.
The above two methods are ancient methods, truly ancient methods, which have been passed down for hundreds of years.
In modern times, the technology has been improved.
The new craft has one more thing that was not available before - iron.
Before making, the wood is soaked in water for one to two days, and then ironed with an iron, using high temperature and steam to soften the wood.
The advantage of this production method is that it requires few tools, but the disadvantage is that it requires a lot of experience. The ironing time should be neither too long nor too short.
However, this is not a problem.
Xiaoqingshan Village is very poor. Although it is short of money, it is not short of anything else.
raw material?
It’s all over the mountains and plains!
Artificial?
Human power is the least valuable thing. As long as you can make money, treating people like animals is not a problem.
As of now, most of the workers at the Xiaoqingshan Village factory have mastered this process.
Of course, the efficiency is indeed a bit low. On average, it takes about two to three working hours to produce a bent wood furniture chair, that is, two to three days.
It is normal for it to be purely handmade, and the proficiency is not enough, so the efficiency is low.
In the end, Li Jie priced the chair at twenty-five yuan a piece, which is about ten dollars a piece when converted into U.S. dollars.
Looking at the current situation, twenty-five yuan for a chair is definitely not cheap.
However, Li Jie did not intend to make domestic money, he wanted to make foreign exchange.
Overseas, if you spend ten dollars to buy a handmade chair made of pure solid wood, the price is still quite competitive.
Moreover, Li Jie also used a little bit of human mechanics when designing this chair.
The curved design of the backrest better fits the back curve of the human body, and you can feel the strong support when sitting on the chair.
In today's furniture design, the most important considerations are still functionality and aesthetics.
It would still be more than twenty years before the ergonomic chair became popular in later generations.
Based on its design alone, this seemingly inconspicuous chair is enough to impress the foreign businessmen participating in the exhibition.
"Comfortable is comfortable, but no matter how comfortable it is, it's just a chair."
On the other side, Cai Xiaoguang still had some doubts.
Sending a chair to an exhibition is outrageous enough, but what's even more outrageous is that the chair is priced at twenty-five yuan.
How much is the salary of an apprentice?
One month's salary can only buy one chair.
Is this chair made of gold or silver?
Too expensive!
Only those foreign businessmen who have lost their minds will take advantage of this.
Hearing this, Li Jie smiled and said nothing. Cai Xiaoguang's ideas were very suitable for this era. Not only him, but his father also thought so.
A chair sells for 25 yuan, which is quite expensive for most people in China.
But for foreigners, it is just ordinary.
In the 1970s, there was undoubtedly a huge gap between the domestic economic environment and foreign countries.
The economic gap is huge, and naturally there is also a big gap in the understanding of money.
At the beginning of pricing, Li Jie targeted the international market.
Seeing Li Jie being silent, Cai Xiaoguang couldn't help but feel helpless.
Is this kid a little too confident?
Calculating the time, the exhibit samples from Jichun City should have arrived at Yangcheng, right?