Now, we can only hope that Chinese and foreign businessmen will see the potential here and traffic Indian cotton here.
"Stop, stop, let's not consider this matter for now." Li Shan said with a smile, "But the smooth operation of the Nansha plant shows that our technical direction is still right!"
Zou Biao raised his eyes and said helplessly: "To be honest, resurrecting a technological zombie like hydrospinning is really not a good thing. Hydraulic power has too many limitations."
It can be said that a place with such favorable weather, location and people as Nansha Village is rare and hard to find in Guangdong. It is too difficult to promote it.
"Furthermore, hydraulic opportunities involve the construction of rolling dams to raise the water head. If there is a need for navigation on the river, it is necessary to repair ship canals and locks. Even if water is free, the investment in infrastructure will not save much. It is just low long-term use costs.
."
"It's running now, isn't it? When coal supply becomes more widespread, we can upgrade it to a steam engine. The entire equipment and process don't need major changes, and we can fight for at least another twenty years." Lishan knew that his old partner was full of complaints.
But it’s useless to say that our children are good-looking. Especially now that there are many good-looking children outside, there is really no advantage.
In order to cheer him up, Li Shan said: "Although the technical zombies are old, they just meet our current conditions! How is the sales of Type 07?"
Type 07 is a simple manpower-driven spinning machine and loom specially developed by them for home users. Type 07 is a replica of the Qiqi spinning machine during the Anti-Japanese War, and the earliest model is derived from the Yamato spinning machine invented by Japan, Zou Biao
Some structural improvements have been made so that it can be connected to various power sources, including hydraulic turbines with small water heads, animal power, etc.
"Spinning machines are relatively ordinary and only a few dozen sets have been sold. On the contrary, looms are selling very well. As of last week, more than a hundred units have been sold."
This is an improved household loom. The principle is an improved shuttle machine based on pedals. It uses a large number of standardized wooden and metal parts. Like the 07 loom, it can also be connected to other small external power sources.
The advantage of Type 07 is that it can be placed at home, and women in urban and rural areas can buy it back. They buy cotton or cotton yarn from the market every day for spinning and weaving, and then sell the finished products.
"I would say that Type 07 should not be sold. Although the yarn produced by it is of decent quality and can be used on looms, it encourages small production in disguise and competes for the raw materials of the factory." Although Zou Biao is the main designer of Type 07
, but I am not satisfied with this "small producer tool".
"There is very little local cotton planting, farmers are not very motivated to sell cotton, and the cost is not affordable," Li Shan said. "When large-scale enterprises grow bigger, they will inevitably rely on purchased cotton. It is appropriate for individual entrepreneurs to digest these sporadic productions."
."
In the long run, small producers will be crushed by factories sooner or later in terms of cost. However, this process may take ten to twenty years. After all, developing a large-scale cotton textile industry is a long process. But once it is established, it will have a great impact on the entire market and
Industrial production is driven by mountains and tsunamis. The industrial revolution started with cotton spinning and it is not without reason.
Lishan actually did not agree with the use of silk to develop light industry. In addition to the inconvenience of cocoon transportation mentioned before, the output was actually limited.
Silkworms can also "eat humans", but in terms of yield, silkworm cocoons or wool will never be as good as cotton. Due to the energy conversion efficiency of input animal fiber, to produce the same amount of fiber, more sheep or silkworms are needed than cotton.
A lot of land. If they are used as luxury goods, their selling price will of course be higher. But as mass consumer goods, plant fibers such as cotton and linen are obviously more suitable for the development of large-scale industry. Silkworm cocoons are very intolerant to storage, unlike cotton and ramie.
Farmers can store it for a long time if they pick it and dry it in the sun. It can withstand long-distance transportation and the quality will not be greatly affected.
Just as Lishan set foot on the land of Guangzhou, Chen Lin arrived in Guangzhou not long after. Chen Lin did not come empty-handed. There were more than ten pieces of blue cloth and more than twenty pieces of white cloth accompanying the ship to Guangzhou.
These cloths are hand-woven by machine workers using machine yarn from cotton mills. There are about 200 pieces in total. Half of them are dyed blue with dyes provided by Australians, and the other half are prepared to sell gray cloth directly.
This blue cloth was dyed cyan blue by Zhang Zizi using dye given by Australians. The color was brighter than the blue dye used in the past. Zhang Zizi was full of praise after seeing it, saying that he had never dyed such bright cloth before.
It doesn't discolor at all after rinsing.
There are 70 pieces of cotton cloth sold by several old partners who have given it to Fengshenghe. However, most of these business partners of his own are biased towards silk, and I am afraid that selling cotton cloth is beyond their capabilities. Just when Chen Lin was thinking about finding another one
When it came time to find a more suitable underwriter, An Jiu recommended her father's Rui Hexiang to Chen Lin - fortunately, they were friends who had met once before. They also distributed fifty pieces of blue cloth to sell.
He packed up the remaining 80 pieces of cloth and shipped them to Guangzhou. He wanted to try his luck everywhere to see if he could find a suitable dealer. At the same time, he also had to give an explanation to Mr. Wu - after all, this cotton mill
He is the big boss.
When he arrived in Guangzhou, he first visited Wu Yijun and presented him with four pieces of blue cloth and four pieces of gray cloth. Wu Yijun was very happy after seeing it, and then talked about this new "Wanguo Textile Market".
The uncle and nephew had more or less guessed the purpose of the Australian market, which was to create a comprehensive trading platform for raw materials and commodities.
This is a great good thing for "laymen" like them. As for Wu and Chen, they were not originally businessmen engaged in the cotton business. If they want to change their profession, it will involve a very complicated "entering the industry" process. Not only do they have to
To obtain approval from relevant guilds, the procurement and sales channels for raw materials and products are also unclear and need to be explored from scratch. Sometimes even if you already know the specific network, it is difficult to enter.
Now with this government-run platform, there is a direct trading market, and everything you sell and buy can be placed directly on the table. It is very convenient for both shipping and sales merchants and producers.
"This is a good idea. Needless to say, we must occupy a place in this market." Wu Yijun said with a smile, "Otherwise, it will take a lot of effort to sell this cloth!"
"My cousin is right." Chen Lin also felt that this was a matter of public and private convenience. "It's just that the market hasn't opened yet, but there is a troublesome matter that needs to be solved now."
"What's up?"
"There is no more cotton." Chen Lin said that the factory has used up all the cotton they spent more than half a year hoarding, and now they can only stop production.
"So fast!" Wu Yijun was shocked. He knew that the Australian spinning machine was incredibly efficient, but he didn't expect that it was not ten or twenty times faster than human power, but hundreds of times.
"Nephew didn't expect that either." Chen Lin said with a wry smile, "My nephew has already sent people to search for the four villages - but it is already early summer, and there is almost no cotton left in the farmers' homes. It will be the autumn when new cotton will appear. I want to come to Guangzhou.
It is a place where merchants from all over the world gather, and most of them still have cotton in stock to buy. I plan to run around the city and outside the city in the next few days."
Wu Yijun pondered for a moment and said: "You can just take a trip around Guangzhou. But the chance of buying flowers is slim. The price of cotton has risen sharply in recent months. It has increased almost three times compared with last year when it was listed."
"Twice?!" Chen Lin was shocked at this discussion. When agricultural products are in the "green and yellow" period, the stock drops, but it will take a while for new products to appear. It is normal for prices to rise, but the price of cotton has been extremely volatile in the past.
Xiao, this price has tripled. If I buy it back, even if I start construction, won’t I still lose money?
He immediately lowered his head and calculated the cost in his mind, and then he was surprised to find that even if the price of raw materials increased three times, as long as the price of cotton cloth on the market did not fall, there would still be a profit - it was just a meager one.
"If the price rises three times, as long as the goods are available, there will be no loss." Chen Lin said, "What my nephew means is that as long as there is no loss, the production of this factory cannot be interrupted."
The temporary suspension of production did not originally cause any harm to the factory. The water turbine shut down and the workers went home - they did not need to be paid if they did not work. And now is the time when farming is busy. When workers go home, whether it is their own homes
There is work to be done in the fields or as day laborers.
But Chen Lin just used "thunderbolt measures" in Nansha to keep the Nansha cotton textile factory open, which was very important for him to stabilize the situation in the village and clan.
“It’s tripled and you’re still not losing money?”
"It's really not a loss," Chen Lin said, "There are 720 spindles in the factory now. If the women at home are spinning, each person can only spin one. The yarn produced in one day is not enough to equal the output of the machine in half an hour.
Both Miss Li and Miss An said that if there is enough cotton, they can be divided into two shifts to weave all night long, which will make the cost lower."
Labor accounts for a large proportion of the factory's production costs. The higher the production efficiency, the lower the cost. This is the main reason why large-scale machine production in factories can defeat the handicraft industry.
"Indeed, Australians never stop their machines and weave all night long." Wu Yijun thought of what he had seen in Lingao.
"Cousin, why did the cotton price rise so much?"
"Australians now sell a lot of new looms, not the ones we use, but small ones that can be kept at home."
"Waist machine?"
"Of course not, it's pedal-operated." Wu Yijun gestured, "Although this small weaving machine is not as good as our big machine, the gauze produced is completely different from the old earthen machines.
Once it was launched, machine operators everywhere even borrowed money to buy the new machine. Once there were more new machines, yarn became a popular commodity, and cotton naturally increased."
"So that's it." Chen Lin thought to himself. He remembered that he had indeed seen such "improved machines" in the product exhibition room when he visited Lingao.