"...The spring day is warm, the sun shines into the room, I lie down on the bed, and have a clear dream. The swallows in the beams whisper, just like an old woman talking about ordinary things at home. The owner has sleepy eyes and smokes a pipe, and the room is dense, similar to the clouds. Calling the boy to draw down the curtain, lest he go away, why lead him so far into the mountains, only to see misty clouds and chronic diseases!"
Lin Shuo did not expect that the small paper cigarettes would bring him huge profits. The monthly profit of the not-too-large cigarette factory he opened in Shanghai was actually 50,000 to 60,000 taels of silver.
After investing in a cigarette factory, he discovered that although tobacco has been introduced to China since the Ming Dynasty, especially in Fujian, tobacco cultivation is quite common in Taiwan. This kind of thing can provide farmers with much higher returns than food. However, most domestic tobacco is not suitable for manufacturing. Regarding cigarettes, Lin Shuo hurriedly introduced the latest flue-cured tobacco varieties from the United States.
Lin Shuo invited Chen Yiru, a fellow from Fujian who translated "Tampa Wild Rice Cultivation Method", to take charge of the introduction of flue-cured tobacco, and experimented with introduced American flue-cured tobacco varieties in Lin's Yizhuang in Fujian and southern Anhui.
Unexpectedly, the new type of flue-cured tobacco was successfully introduced. The "Double Happiness" cigarettes made by mixing it with Jianyan and pine tobacco taste very good and are more suitable for Chinese tastes than the "Pirate" brand cigarettes produced by British American Tobacco Company. Since they were put into production, they have actually became a hot-selling item.
While Lin Shuo was busy opening new factories in Hankou, Tianjin, Xiamen and other places, he fantasized about how to catch up with all the famous cigarette brands such as "Zhonghua", "Panda", "Suyan", "Dahongying" and "Daqianmen" in future generations. .
Lin Shuo has been promoting a method of farm management similar to that of later generations in the silk, tea, forestry and other industries. He established Lin's charity village in various places, and hired workers in Lin's charity village to receive a minimum living wage. Later, he also You can get corresponding commissions according to the harvest of the farmland you are responsible for. In this way, the employees of Yizhuang have been relatively stable. It is enviable to be able to get a job that can make a family's life worry-free these days.
This gives most of the Lin family's farmers and workers a strong sense of belonging. At least everyone here can be guaranteed to have food.
Large-scale intensive operation has given Lin's Yi Zhuang a strong ability to withstand risks. For example, in the past two years, the raw silk industry market has been in a downturn. Most silkworm farmers have worked hard for a year but sometimes even lost their capital. However, Lin's Yi Zhuang has been able to maintain a slight loss. The profitability of Lin's Yizhuang is getting stronger and stronger through continuous improvement of silkworm varieties and the gradual start-up of its own silk reeling factory.
The prosperity of a country is based on agriculture.
However, Lin Shuo's agriculture-based approach was far from the content of the slogan put forward by the feudal rulers. In fact, most of the products produced by Lin's Yizhuang were cash crops, and food production could not even sustain itself.
Lin Shuo was very depressed. None of the factories he had invested huge sums of money in saw any benefits. The Hudong Shipyard was struggling to survive. The coal mines and ironworks were still far from successful transformation. The cotton mills had not been doing well in the past two years. On the contrary, Buying raw silk, tung oil, camphor and other agricultural products has always been a good business. No wonder these days, despite the strong encouragement from the court, not many people are willing to invest funds in the industry.
It is easier to make money by being a comprador.
The main reason for the difficulty in setting up a factory is the shortage of talents. It is difficult to find management talents, technical talents, and even skilled technical workers.
Along the coast of Jiangsu, due to the large amount of silt deposited by the Yangtze River and the ancient Yellow River, the beaches will extend and develop at a rate of 30 to 50 meters or more every year, forming a large area of coastal or riverside deserted beaches. Zhang Jian was injured during the Sino-Japanese War due to Supervising the local team training, when I saw the large areas of deserted beaches in Haimen and other places, I had the idea of reclaiming the beaches, but at that time I had to give up due to lack of financial resources.
Now Zhang Jian had funds in his hands, and he also had Lin Shuo, a wealthy businessman, behind him to support him. With Liu Kunyi's support, the imperial court agreed in the autumn of the Gengzi year to build reclamation sites in Tonghai and other places.
With the support of Lin Shuo, Zhang Jian raised one million taels of silver to establish the "Tonghai Reclamation and Animal Husbandry Company". Lin Shuo somehow went against the norm this time and invested 600,000 to control the Reclamation and Animal Husbandry Company. After more than a year of clearing up the property rights, Tonghai Reclamation and Animal Husbandry Company was established.
The Reclamation and Animal Husbandry Company has acquired the property rights of 90,000 hectares of wasteland along the river in Tonghai and Tonghai, and about 20,000 acres of tidal flats on Chongming Island.
Lin Shuo, Jiang Daomin and others who were in charge of the survey rode around Chongming Island. Chongming in the late Qing Dynasty was half smaller than in later generations, covering about 400 square kilometers.
There are about three or four miles of land along the river. The soil is relatively fertile, but there are thickets of reeds everywhere.
In order to turn these tidal flats into fertile farmland, a lot of manpower needs to be invested in embankment and land reclamation. In this era, all this has to be done manually by digging and carrying the land.
Lin Shuo knew that Chongming Island alone would have a population of 600,000 to 700,000 in later generations, instead of just over 10,000 people on the island now, including Tongzhou, Haimen, Qidong and other places, which could support tens of millions of people. If these were combined
If the population is effectively organized, it will be a group with strong cohesion. If used properly, it will be enough to control the world.
The millions of settlers are enough to provide 200,000 qualified soldiers. Lin Shuo rode on the horse, feeling a surge of pride in his heart. Maybe the future road will start from this land.
From Lusi to Tongzhou, Lin Shuo traveled for more than a month before returning to Dasheng Cotton Factory in Tangjiazha.
After meeting Zhang Jian, they immediately discussed the reclamation affairs. The two had slight differences on the methods of reclamation. However, after Lin Shuo explained in detail, Zhang Jian immediately realized the advantages of this method, which was similar to that of later generations of military reclamation. The personnel were managed and deployed in a unified manner.
You can concentrate your manpower and financial resources to accomplish bigger things.
Then when I talked about the specific implementation, I realized that there are many clues. The first is to recruit settlers. Fortunately, there are many homeless people in the Qing Dynasty, so this is not a big worry. According to the method of Lin's Yizhuang, they provide food, shelter and monthly allowances.
For money, I am afraid that hungry people will break their heads and try to squeeze in. However, there are still many preparations that need to be done in advance, such as the tools and carts used to open up wasteland and the embankment, and the stones needed for the embankment. The most troublesome thing is the number.
Tens of thousands of hectares of wasteland requires a lot of cattle, mules, horses and other livestock.
Another aspect is the training of agricultural technology and management personnel. In this aspect, Zhang Jian opened Tongzhou Normal School, which has an agricultural branch. Lin Shuo also promised to donate another 200,000 silver dollars every year to expand the size of Tongzhou Normal School by half.
,In addition, an industrial technology school will be set up on campus.
In a century-old plan, education comes first, and it is impossible to be reluctant to spend money on this aspect.
The first year of the 20th century was destined to be a difficult beginning for China. Starting from April of the Gengzi Year, the "Boxing Rebellion" broke out in the north. Soon the Boxer Rebellion swept across the north, eventually leading to a war.
Big chaos.
In the south, except for the occasional Boxer riots in some places, it is generally relatively stable.
It was the buying season for spring cocoons, but no silk shops in various places were open. The news that the imperial court was going to start a war with foreigners caused all major foreign companies to temporarily close their businesses, and some of the bosses of foreign companies simply left Shanghai.
Major foreign banks stopped purchasing, spring cocoons in various places could not be sold, and the price of good quality raw cocoons has dropped to 27 taels of silver per load. Silkworm farmers could not even recover their capital and suffered heavy losses.
In such a market, there is still a price but no market, because no one dares to take action at this time.
Lin Shuo knew that the war would happen soon, but the war would only be limited to North China, and most of the country would just watch the excitement from the outside. He turned on the golden finger and turned on the cheating mode.
He found Jiang Xikun, one of the shareholders of Dasheng Cotton Mill, and asked, "Mr. Jiang is from Huzhou?"
"Well, what's the matter?" Jiang Xikun is the son-in-law of Liu Yong, the richest man in Nanxun. He is also originally from Nanxun. He was a little surprised to see Lin Shuo come to the yarn factory.
"The price of new cocoons this year is a bit ridiculously low. I want to do a big sale!" Lin Shuo got straight to the point.
Jiang Xikun looked at Lin Shuo for a while, thought about it again, and then said slowly: "White tigers eat people, the Lin Dong family must be prepared! I think Hu Xueyan's huge family business also suffered from this.
.Besides, I have stopped doing this business a long time ago, and the market prices are not very accurate."
"I have already decided on this matter. I just want to ask my husband to help me contact you. I have prepared the funding issue, so there is no need to worry about it."
"Well, it stands to reason that with the market so low, there won't be any big risks. I'm just worried that the foreign banks won't accept the goods and won't be able to afford it. Since you said so firmly, I'll help you this time." Jiang Xikun
Said, "The world is in chaos these days, so you have to be prepared to spend a year or two on your hands!"
Lin Shuo sent out all the personnel from his various trading houses and used Jiang Xikun's connections in the silk shop to stockpile nearly half a million tons of raw cocoons during the entire spring cocoon acquisition period. This was almost half of the spring cocoons in Liangjiang.
Yield.
By mid-June, Britain, the United States and other countries and the governors of the southern provinces reached a nine-article "Southeast Protection" charter, which stipulated that the governors of the Yangtze River and Suzhou and Hangzhou were responsible for maintaining public security and prohibiting the Boxer Rebellion from spreading in the south.
At the end of June, Cixi issued an order to declare war on the eleven major powers, but the governors in the south refused to obey the order. In mid-August, the Eight-Nation Allied Forces invaded Beijing, and the Queen Mother of the West fled in confusion. After that, Cixi changed her face and issued orders to quell the Boxer Rebellion.
The "righteous people" turned into rioters in an instant, and the Boxer Rebellion was quickly suppressed.
During this period, Lin Shuo hoarded about 200,000 tons of summer cocoons and a large amount of raw silk.
At the beginning of September, the foreign companies that had fled due to fear of the Boxer Rebellion returned to Shanghai and resumed business as usual. Only then did they realize that there were not many silk cocoons left on the market.
Due to the influence of the Gengzi Incident and diseases in European silk-producing areas, the supply of raw silk in the international market is insufficient, resulting in high silk prices. The price of raw silk per quintal has skyrocketed from an average of more than 600 taels of silver to nearly 1,110 taels per quintal.
The price of silkworm cocoons also rose from the normal sixty taels of silver to more than one hundred taels of silver per load. This price continued until the year of Xinchou when new cocoons were launched and began to gradually fall.
Lin Shuo has been shipping goods slowly, not only to prevent foreign companies from receiving the goods easily, but also to prevent them from being interrupted. He was busy until before the Spring Festival, when he sold out all the inventory in his hands, took inventory, and excluding expenses, each load
Lin Shuo wanted to earn more than 60 taels of silver from giving birth to a cocoon. In this year's speculation, he actually made more than 43 million taels of silver, which even shocked him.
No wonder so many wealthy compradors are unwilling to invest in industry. The huge profits from speculative business are so tempting.
He discovered another terrible problem in the sales of raw silk. The quality and price of raw silk produced in China were lower than those of Japan's Toyo silk in the international market. Japan's raw silk exports have gradually caught up with China's.
Since the Meiji Restoration, Japan has focused on the export of raw silk and tea, and achieved very good results around 1890. The average quality of raw silk exceeded that of Manchu raw silk. The tea industry also fully adopted machine production, and gradually became the world's leading exporter of raw silk and tea.
Second freshman
Silk exporting country and the fifth largest tea exporting country. By 1910, Japan was already the largest raw silk exporting country in the world. The total annual raw silk production reached 12,460 tons, and the total export volume was 9,462 tons, accounting for the global total export volume.
75%.
At that time, Japan's four major chaebols almost relied on the profits earned from raw silk exports to maintain their other industries, support heavy industry, and slowly transition into an industrial power. Japan's raw silk industry was able to gradually develop and defeat the Qing Dynasty's raw silk industry.
Industry, Sino-Japanese War
Half of the credit belongs to Japan, and the other half belongs to Kyoto Prefecture, Japan. In 1868, Kyoto Prefecture established the Nishijin Industrial Co., Ltd. to be responsible for providing relief to poor silk farmers and weavers. In the third year of Meiji, the Shemi Bureau and the midwifery office were established, which was quite significant.
At the Institute of Chemistry and the Institute of Technology Extension.
In 1870, a silkworm farm was set up to promote new silkworm breeds and new technologies; in 1871, a livestock farm was set up to promote new cattle breeds and sheep, and people were sent to France to learn new silk weaving techniques and Western dyeing techniques, and to purchase new machines... VII
In 2006, a weaving workshop was set up to promote new hand-weaving silk machines and techniques. These "
The "field" all concentrated on technology collection, research, improvement, promotion and other work, quickly turned Kyoto's silk industry from decline to prosperity, and extended the successful experience to the entire Japan. Although Kyoto Prefecture has also taken many detours, it can and
Compared with the "no action means no wrong" policy of various governments in the Qing Dynasty, it was actually much more positive.
Because the Pacific warm current and the West Asian cold current meet here, there is abundant rainfall, making Japan's mulberry leaf resources extremely rich. This is the key to the rise of Japan's raw silk industry. In order to develop the silk industry, the Japanese cut down a large number of trees and planted mulberry forests.
With the development of Kyoto's silk industry, Japan's more powerful chaebols quickly used this as a template and used government support and their own financial resources to promote it throughout Japan.
In 1878, Japan's raw silk export volume was 726 tons, and its total output was 1,226 tons and 2.05 million kilograms, which was less than 1/3 of the annual output of Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces.
In 1883, Japan's raw silk export volume was 1,347 tons, and its total output was 1,682 tons.
In 1903, in just fifteen years, Japan's total raw silk exports reached 6,750 tons, officially surpassing the Qing Dynasty in terms of quantity and average quality.
In 1910, Japan's raw silk export volume was 10,462 tons, accounting for 3/4 of the world's total raw silk exports, six times that of the Qing Dynasty. This is the most critical export material for Japan's economy, which has exchanged a large amount of foreign exchange and gold for Japan, supporting Japan.
Japan moves towards the ranks of modern industrialized countries.
In order to defeat Japan, we must first improve our competitiveness in the raw silk and tea trade to curb its development momentum.
Lin Shuo doesn't know if he can succeed, but as long as he goes all out, he will achieve some results.
There is still a lot of resistance to the promotion of machine silk reeling in China. Most of the domestic sericulture families are integrated with production and sales. Unless there are special circumstances, they usually raise their own silkworms and reel their own silk, which requires feeding a whole family.
We have many people, because
Making silk starts with boiling cocoons, and there are many procedures, including "twisting" and "beating" after reeling, going to the dyeing room to practice dyeing, twisting the weft into warp, and "dropping the warp" and "drawing the warp" etc.
and so on, and finally the "joint", and only then can it be woven into satin on the loom.
Once a machine reeling factory appeared, the cocoons went in from one end of the machine and the silk came out from the other end. Many original manual workers in rural areas lost their jobs because of this. What is even more serious is that in the vast rural areas, almost every household has a reeling machine.
Most women, old and young, rely on this spinning wheel as a side job. If machine-made silk reeling becomes popular, everyone will lose their livelihood.
Lin Shuo chose a compromise method and scattered more than a thousand silk reeling machines in areas where silkworm farmers gathered. Each processing point had several to dozens of machines, and hired those peasant women for training during the silk reeling period.
, and then they operate it, so that farmers can earn a certain amount of income, which also reduces the resistance of silkworm farmers to machine reeling to a certain extent.
On the other hand, he is vigorously recruiting and training talents, cultivating and promoting the breeding of fine silkworm seeds, and has signed supply and marketing contracts with households to ensure the output of fine silkworm breeders and provide appropriate discounts on purchase prices.
Lin Shuo worked hard to promote high-quality silkworm breeds and scientific breeding in the form of a primary cooperative, and gradually achieved certain results. Another side benefit was that he gradually controlled the source of silkworm cocoons in Jiangsu and Zhejiang.
This method was gradually adopted in the production of tea.
After several years of hard work, China's raw silk and tea trade volume, which had been declining, has slowly seen some improvement.