Anyway, such operations have always been common in the Song Dynasty, not to mention that this was bought with money.
However, the scale of this shipyard is not too large, with only a few dry docks, and most of the ships it builds are a thousand materials.
There were only two dry docks that could build a ship worth two thousand materials, which made Gao Zhang very unhappy.
After all, this has become his own thing, but the ships manufactured by his own factory can only be classified as mid-range goods.
So Gao Zhang set his sights on the government-run shipyard in Mingzhou.
Gao Zhang also inquired carefully and found out that the Mingzhou government-run shipyard was definitely the pinnacle of shipbuilding skills in this era.
When Master Zhao Ji's biological father Shenzong was in power, it was this shipyard in Mingzhou that built two Shenzhous named "Lingxu Zhiyuan Anji Shenzhou" and "Lingfei Shunji Shenzhou" by Emperor Shenzong.
It is also known as the Ten Thousand Hu Shenzhou, which means that these two Shenzhous can carry ten thousand Hu of cargo.
According to the conversion method of the Song Dynasty, one dendrobium is 30 kilograms and two dendrobiums are one material. In other words, these two Shenzhous are large ships with 5,000 materials, and their displacement must be at least 300 tons.
When Gao Zhang heard this, he thought it might be bragging until he spent some time in the Jiangnan area.
After seeing the ships along the coast of the Song Dynasty, I realized that this was not nonsense.
Ships with a displacement of five thousand materials are indeed rare, but they still exist after all. As for ships with a displacement of one thousand materials to three thousand materials, they are definitely the most common and commonly used ships on the sea.
Therefore, in order to improve the quantity and quality of Jiangnan shipyards, the shipyards of Da Song Dynasty entered an atmosphere of healthy competition.
As the official envoy of the Song Dynasty and Zhejiang Province, Gao Zhang specially recruited nearly one-fifth of the craftsmen from the government-run shipyard in Namingzhou.
Although it was only one-fifth, the number reached three thousand.
And among these three thousand craftsmen, there are almost a thousand of them, all of whom have experience in manufacturing giant ships made of five thousand materials.
Gao Zhang's purpose in bringing them here is naturally self-evident.
Whether you are engaged in maritime trade, want to engage in large-scale navigation, or want to discover a new world, all of these require ships, sea-going ships of excellent quality.
Sea-going ships like those with five thousand materials have been tested by the winds and waves of the Pacific and Indian Oceans.
It has been established that they were vessels that could be used to travel across the oceans for maritime trade.
Nowadays, of the five new docks excavated by the Jiangnan Shipyard, three are made of 3,000 materials and two are made of 5,000 materials.
As for the craftsmen who had arrived at Jiangnan Shipyard, they immediately got to work.
In addition, the salaries of all craftsmen were fully doubled compared to those at the government-run shipyard in Namingzhou.
He also put forward requirements for these craftsmen to design an ocean-going ship suitable for long-term voyages of at least two to three months without the need for supplies.
Exactly when they can do it is up to these craftsmen.
Gao Zhang was only responsible for waving his money bag to encourage them.
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Along with the promotion of the Hangzhou International Commodity Expo in "Jiangnan Business Daily", coupled with the wonderful serialized stories in the "Jiangnan Business News".
As a result, the circulation of "Jiangnan Business News" in the Liangzhe Road area reached 100,000 copies.
In Suzhou alone, the sales volume of each issue can reach around 20,000 copies.
This made Gao Zhang quite satisfied. When he was in Bianliang, Tokyo, he had also considered starting a newspaper.
But at that time, we were busy with foreign trade with the Liao Kingdom, and naturally we were busy printing books, so we had no chance to do anything about it.
On the contrary, after arriving in Suzhou, I learned that Suzhou could be regarded as a metropolis in the southeastern region of the Song Dynasty.
The extremely developed papermaking, textile and shipbuilding industries can be said to be the most prosperous key areas for handicraft industry in the Song Dynasty.
The prosperity and development of the paper industry has caused the price of paper to plummet.
This is also the reason why tabloids are popular in the Song Dynasty. Coupled with the prosperity of the handicraft industry in the Jiangnan region and the frequent international trade activities in the coastal areas, the trade between the two Zhejiang Roads is very prosperous.
Therefore, it can only be said that it is the right time to launch "Jiangnan Business News" here.
Just when Gao Zhang was busy worrying about the country and the people, the impatient voice of Cai Laoliu beside him suddenly sounded.
"Hey, senior brother, what are you doing standing still? It's your turn."
Gao Zhang came to his senses, took a look at the cards that Cai Laoliu had just thrown, and subconsciously threw in two cards.
The Qilinzi of the Cai Mansion couldn't help but change his expression, and Tong Zhisheng rolled his eyes with a look of despair.
"I asked, Brother Guizhang, why are you so lucky? You won again."
"No, no, no, playing cards depends not only on luck, but also on..."
Gao Zhang was about to say that he needed to rely on his brain, but he saw the clear stupidity in the eyes of these idle young men.
After thinking about it, I swallowed the second half of the sentence. After all, Lao Mi Tai and the others were not very good, so they had to keep a glimmer of hope that they were actually very smart.
On the side, Fang Baihua, who had been standing obediently and quietly not far away, saw clearly the changes in Gao Zhang's expression and eyes, and almost couldn't control herself from laughing.
Fortunately, at this time, the rich man rushed over and told Gao Zhang that Liu Qi had something urgent and came to visit him.
#####
After Gao Zhang said hello to these two good brothers, he walked away quickly. Soon, he met Liu Qi, the good brother who was temporarily serving as the deputy envoy of the Suzhou regiment training, in the front hall.
"Master Zhuangyuan, guess who the general has brought to you?"
"Thieves?"
"No, no, no, they are not thieves, but they are more or less the same. The general met a group of Japanese at the dock today, where they were trading with some merchants."
"Trade? Japanese merchants...then they don't abide by the rules of the Ship Bureau?"
Gao Zhang couldn't help but asked curiously. After all, this is Suzhou. Suzhou does not open a port, and outside merchants are not allowed to do business here.
"Not only did they not abide by the rules of the Shipping Department, they were doing copper coin trading with those merchants."
"Buying copper coins?" Gao Zhang couldn't help but be stunned for a moment, and then he realized what he was doing.
Generally, Japanese merchants came to the Song Dynasty to trade, and they mostly used gold, sulfur, wood, and Japanese specialties such as Japanese fans and Japanese knives to trade with the Song Dynasty.
In exchange for their favorite tea, silk, lacquerware, spices, medicinal materials, ceramics, and even books from the Song Dynasty.
But there is a problem. Since ancient times, the Japanese country has never had its own currency.
They have always been cooperating with the currency of the Central Plains Empire. Now, the currency in circulation in the Japanese country is the copper coins of the Song Dynasty.
However, since the Song Dynasty banned the export of copper coins, this naturally led to a money shortage in the Japanese country.
As a result, the Japanese merchants had no choice but to engage in smuggling business and exchange gold for copper coins.
(End of chapter)
