Guangzhou Shipyard is one of the large-scale shipyards deployed by the Ministry of Industry of the Dachu Empire. Together with the Naval Shipyard in Songjiang, it is a professional shipyard that provides various large-scale ocean-going warships for the Dachu Empire Navy.
In addition to these two, there are Tianjin Shipyard and Qingdao Naval Shipyard. However, the Tianjin Shipyard is not large in scale, and the Qingdao Naval Shipyard is still under construction.
These medium and large shipyards directly under the Ministry of Industry all have a common feature, that is, they manufacture new types of ships, which are new types of ships that are improved on the Galen ship.
These improved Galen ships are more suitable for ocean navigation, and when used as warships, they can carry a large number of artillery for combat.
When used as a transport ship, it can also carry more cargo. Well, it can naturally deploy more artillery than ordinary merchant ships.
As for why merchant ships still talk about artillery... that's because merchant ships these days are all armed merchant ships. It is unimaginable to go to sea without artillery...
Therefore, when measuring the performance of a merchant ship, its firepower must be taken into consideration. Otherwise, no matter how much goods are transported, it will just be giving money to others...
If you go out without artillery, as soon as you leave the port, pirates and even fellow merchants will dare to rob you!
Why did a series of medium-sized ships such as Fu Ship and even Guangzhou Ship and Bird Ship become more and more incompetent after entering the seventeenth century?
It is because of its seemingly advantageous watertight cabin that it cannot deploy too many artillery.
If you don't have enough artillery, you will basically be beaten to death in the Age of Discovery!
The new ship type established by the Chu Navy Ship Administration Department is based on the Galen ship type, but it has also been greatly improved. Compared with the traditional Galen ship type in the West, it also has very obvious characteristics, that is, the superstructure is very small. They are short, and some ship models even do not have the so-called poop and forecastle at all.
In the era of line artillery, battleships have a low center of gravity and can be equipped with more artillery.
Building a bunch of seemingly tall superstructures will not only allow the enemy to shoot more accurately, but will also make your center of gravity higher, making it impossible to deploy too many artillery and heavy artillery.
"Five Dynasties Rivers, Mountains and Winds"
There are no advantages and a lot of disadvantages!
Because when the Chu Navy designed warships based on Galen ships, they directly lowered the superstructures of these ships. This not only lowered the center of gravity, but also equipped them with more artillery and heavy artillery.
At the same time, it can also expand the deck area, thereby expanding the sail area and increasing maneuverability.
——
When used as a transport ship, the center of gravity is lowered and more cargo can be carried for ocean voyages.
This deeply improved version of the Galen ship type, or rather the perfect version, was created purely for the era of line artillery battles.
The Li family values this new type of ship!
Of course, they are not saying that they want to build warships. What they want is to build new ocean-going merchant ships and then sell them to trading companies that engage in ocean-going trade.
As the Li family exports a large number of iron products and is directly involved in the maritime trade of the Great Chu Empire, they know very well that in recent years, more and more merchant ships have entered and exited Guangzhou Port, which means that maritime trade has become more and more prosperous. The ship was getting nervous.
Because the trade along the western Pacific coast is becoming increasingly prosperous, many maritime merchants have gone to Guangzhou Shipyard to purchase ships. However, Guangzhou Shipyard is the second largest supplier of battleships to the Imperial Navy of the Chu Empire. They also include battleships and military transport ships, as well as Several large government-run trading companies are unable to produce armed merchant ships, so there is no spare capacity to receive external orders.
This was all noticed by the Li family, who believed that the shipbuilding industry had great potential!
In this way, he made up his mind to invest heavily in the shipbuilding industry.
Naturally, they did not stupidly start from scratch, but directly spent money to acquire a private shipyard in Guangzhou. This shipyard has been established for many years and has experience in building large-scale Fuzhou and Guangzhou Shipyards. Last year, it even started to successfully imitate a shipyard. A new and improved Galen ship type.
Technically, this shipyard is not bad, it is just smaller in scale.
As for why such a shipyard was finally acquired by the Li family, on the one hand it was because they had internal conflicts, and on the other hand it was naturally because the Li family spent enough money.
As long as you have enough money, it is not difficult to acquire a shipyard.
After acquiring this shipbuilding company, the Ministry of Industry and Commerce of the Dachu Empire issued a series of new policies. These policies seemed to have nothing to do with shipbuilding, but they allowed Li to see a signal from the top officials to encourage and support private capital.
He immediately invested heavily in ordering multiple sets of large-scale hydrodynamic machinery from the Guangzhou Machinery Company, and hired manpower to expand the original dry docks in order to produce larger ships.
They began to dig up all kinds of craftsmen everywhere, not only domestic craftsmen, but also some barbarian shipbuilding craftsmen in Southeast Asia.
In February of the 10th year of Chengshun, Li's Shipyard completed its transformation and was officially opened for business, and it also made a sign of undertaking large-scale ocean-going ships.
In addition, before it was taken over, the shipyard itself had already built a four- to five-hundred-ton Galen ship, and its strength had been proven. Now the famous Li family has invested huge sums of money in upgrading. This Let those maritime merchants come to your door one after another to place orders.
Not only ordinary maritime merchants, but also the Nanyang Trading Company, directly under the Ministry of Industry, came directly to the door after hearing that the Lee Shipyard claimed to be able to build new Galen ships of more than 1,000 tons, and built two thousand-ton ships. An order for a ton-sized new Galenic armed merchant ship!
Li Shangyun, the actual leader of Li's Steel, looked at the thick stack of orders and contracts on the table, then looked back at his two younger brothers, the second and third largest shareholders of Li's Steel, and said: " If I invest an additional 50,000 taels into the shipyard, you should be okay with it, right?"
The second brother of the Li family said: "No objection, the shipbuilding industry has great potential!"
The third brother of the Li family was even more straightforward: "The additional fifty thousand is still too little, let's just add one hundred thousand!"
"We will build a few more shipyards to expand production capacity, and also develop a raw material supply system. We will not be like those textile factories. We will not be like those textile factories. The scale has expanded, but the supply of raw materials has been choked. !”
"We can increase investment in high-quality wood purchase channels in the Nanyang region. At the same time, we can also establish lumber depots directly in the upper reaches of Xijiang and Beijiang. We can also build a sailing branch factory."
"With the continuous increase in maritime trade, the shipbuilding industry has ushered in a big explosion, and there are many people who can see this. I am afraid that in another year and a half, the shipbuilding industry will face the same tragic crisis as the textile industry. competition, when the time comes, the supply of raw materials will be the top priority!”
Li Shangyun glanced at his two younger brothers and immediately smiled: "It seems that you, like me, have great expectations for the future of the shipbuilding industry. In this case, we will raise funds to expand production capacity and then Establish your own raw material supply channels!”
"Strive to expand production capacity to another level within one year and improve the raw material supply system within three years!"
When the Li family actively participated in the shipbuilding industry due to the explosion of maritime trade, the maritime trade industry itself also ushered in an investment boom due to the continued expansion of maritime trade.
This time, not only official capital is involved, but private capital is also involved.
In the distant sea trade of the Da Chu Empire, official capital did not actually enter at the beginning. It was not until Zheng Zhilong’s department was incorporated that three major trading companies directly under the Ministry of Industry were established, namely Nanyang, which was specifically responsible for trade in Nanyang waters. The trading company, Dongyang Trading Company, which is responsible for the direction of Fuso, and the Eighteen Trading Company, which is involved in both aspects, was mainly reorganized from the original fleet of Zheng Zhilong's command.
The name of this Shiba Trading Company comes from the early maritime trading group, namely Shiba Zhi.
These three major ocean trading companies are all large trading companies with armed merchant ships. They go to Fuso or Nanyang for trade, transport the goods there and sell them to the local indigenous people.
Others are sold to maritime merchants in India, Central Asia and other regions, and even European maritime merchants. They will transport these commodities to India, even West Asia and Africa, and even transport them all the way back to Europe for sale in order to earn high profits.
However, these three ocean-going trading companies directly under the Ministry of Industry are only part of the maritime trade of the Da Chu Empire. In addition, there are also some maritime trading companies reorganized from traditional maritime merchants. The Da Chu Empire officially has no control over these traditional maritime trade companies. Shang did not adopt a prohibitive approach, but instead adopted a supportive approach.
Therefore, the Dachu Empire still has quite a few maritime trading companies of various sizes. The small ones may have only one small fortune ship, while the large ones may have a fleet of dozens of large sea ships.
Since the Dachu Empire opened up sea trade, domestic sea trade has been increasing day by day. Not only has its own merchant fleet increased, but there have also been many foreign sea trades.
Because the Da Chu Empire was open to trade, it even designated many ports specifically for foreign trade, and at the same time, ships from almost all countries were allowed to trade.
In this process, the Dutch, Portuguese, and Spanish were the first to taste the benefits, and then the British, who had already established a foothold in India, also began to organize fleets to trade.
The competition between them was also quite cruel. When they were in the Nanyang waters, everyone was relatively restrained. This was mainly because the officials of the Dachu Empire had expressed their disgust for pirates through practical actions many times, and they did not hesitate to launch many operations to encircle and suppress so-called pirates. Ensure the safety of sea routes from Nanyang to the Chu Empire.
In order to avoid offending the Chu Imperial Navy, these countries have restrained their competition in the South China Sea.
But once you pass Malacca and enter the Indian Ocean, especially when you reach the African coast, the competition becomes huge.
Because that means the European market!
In recent years, many merchant ships from various countries have been attacked by shameful pirates in this sea area. How many of these pirates are naval vessels of various countries is a matter of opinion.
Once attacked by pirates, the Dachu goods or Nanyang spices purchased by maritime merchants who spent a lot of money will be plundered, and even the ship will be robbed...
This is also the cruelty of contemporary maritime trade... Not only do you need to fight against the dangerous sea, but you also have to guard against competition from peers, and sometimes competition from peers brings even greater dangers.
This is also the reason why the merchant ships of the Chu Empire have not set foot in European routes for the time being. Most of the merchant ships transport goods to several ports in Southeast Asia for trade. A few powerful trading companies have begun to try to transport goods to India. Several ports to sell.
Want to get involved in the European market, which is the most profitable and the most competitive.
This will inevitably lead to severe conflicts of interest with Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. By then, the dispute will not be the slightest.
The current policy of the Dachu Empire is to first accumulate maritime strength, and use merchant ships from Western countries, even West Asia or other countries for trade, and sell the goods first. When the naval warships are almost accumulated, then it will It’s time to expand and take personal control of the routes to Europe.
After all, routes these days need to be protected by force, and the navy of the Chu Empire cannot go to the Indian Ocean for the time being, let alone the Atlantic Ocean.
Without the escort of naval warships, if your own merchant fleet runs over, even if it is an armed merchant ship, it will easily encounter pirates... And these pirates will most likely fly the flag of a certain country's navy before launching a battle!
For this reason, the Dachu Empire officials still cautiously reminded private maritime trading companies that it would be okay to do whatever they want when conducting trade in offshore and eastern sea areas, but if they go to Nanyang, they must bring no less artillery...
As for the Indian Ocean and even the African coast and even Europe, they are absolutely high-risk areas. If you don't have enough strength, don't go.
The British can be considered a powerful naval power these days, but they have to be careful in the Indian Ocean and the Southern Ocean.
The Dutch give them trouble almost every day...
The maritime trade competition between them has become increasingly fierce, but now that the British are still fighting a civil war, they may not be able to spare any time to fight the Dutch.
It can be expected that after the British Civil War ends, no matter which side wins, the war with the Dutch will be put on the agenda.
One of these two countries is an island country, and the other is a small coastal mercantile country. Maritime trade is their core interest. The maritime trade competition between the two parties belongs to the competition of core national interests, and there is basically no possibility of reconciliation.
This is different from the Dachu Empire. The Dachu Empire engages in maritime trade for the pure purpose of selling goods!
As for shipping costs, that’s just incidental!
There is no essential difference between our own merchant fleet to transport goods there for sale, and other people's ships to transport goods back for sale, as far as the Dachu Empire is concerned, they are all selling goods.
As long as the markets of various countries are open to the Chu Empire, the core interests of the Chu Empire will not be damaged.
Therefore, the Great Chu Empire treats merchant ships from all countries equally. As long as you can come here to purchase goods, you are our good friend of the Great Chu Empire.
At the same time, the Da Chu Empire Navy will also provide absolute security in the offshore waters of the Da Chu Empire. Even in the depths of the Southern Ocean, the Da Chu Empire Navy will also provide security on a number of fixed routes to avoid pirate attacks.
Because the fleet of the Dachu Empire Navy will conduct regular patrols on several fixed routes, and merchant ships from any country can accompany it!
but……
If one day, a certain country begins to refuse to import goods from the Chu Empire, then it will be time for the navy of the Chu Empire to appear.
The purpose of the Dachu Empire's navy is not only to control and defend its own waters, but also to develop and protect overseas markets!
Otherwise, the Chu Empire would have gone crazy and invested so much money in building and maintaining its ever-large navy!
