In order to cover the national market, the expansion strategy of the entire product line is not only the choice of Guangzhou Machinery Company, but also the common choice of two other domestic steam manufacturers, 'Dangtu Machinery Company' and 'Tianjin Machinery Company'.
They are all enriching their product lines and actively seizing the national market.
This also means that the steam engine market in the Dachu Empire has ushered in more intense competition!
After all, the market is limited. In the past few years, the three major steam engine manufacturers each held the main share of the small, medium or large steam engine market segments, and at the same time stabilized the regional market share in the region where their company is located.
Although there is competition between them, the intensity of competition is not too great. Each can live well and earn huge profits.
However, as time goes by, as the three major steam engine manufacturers gradually explore more technologies for their own steam engines, and also because of the continued development of domestic large-scale machine tools and the continuous decline in the processing costs of many core parts required for steam engines, etc., this has also led to As for the three major steam engine manufacturers, they can actually make various types of steam engines, and their technologies are not very different.
As a result, they will naturally think about expanding their product lines and grabbing more orders.
In order to integrate the supply chain, supply goods nearby and reduce transportation costs, they have also chosen to build factories across regions.
While Guangzhou Machinery Company is based in the Pearl River Basin, it has also gone to Songjiang Prefecture at the estuary of the Yangtze River to establish a new production base. Its ambition to forcefully enter the hinterland of the Yangtze River Basin is already very obvious.
As for Tianjin Machinery Company, it chose to build its own steam engine factory in Jiading County, Suzhou Prefecture next door. Its ambition was equally clear, and it was for the market in the Yangtze River Basin.
As for Dangtu Machinery Company, which has advantages in the Yangtze River Basin, they went to Liaohe Estuary in Liaodong, which is also the largest industrial base in Northeast China, to build a medium-sized steam engine factory.
Then he went to Dongguan County in the east of Guangzhou Prefecture to build a steam engine factory.
These three steam engine manufacturers have all chosen to enter each other's advantageous areas to seize the market, and develop towards a large comprehensive steam engine manufacturer covering the entire product line across the country.
Under the competition between these three major steam engine manufacturers, they have also been generally welcomed by officials from the Ministry of Industry and Commerce and other industries, especially those that require steam engines.
Because after they started competing, the price of this steam engine continued to drop!
When steam engines were first put into industrial mass production, a 16-horsepower steam engine cost more than 4,000 yuan. But today, a few years later, a 16-horsepower steam engine only costs more than 2,000 yuan. about.
Although the price is not as exaggerated as being cut in half, it is still reduced by at least two-fifths.
Of course, the reduction in steam engine prices is not due to competition among steam engine manufacturers themselves, but also due to competition between a series of upstream companies, especially steel companies.
Competition among steel companies, and more importantly, with the development of new technologies, steel production is increasing, but these days no railway can absorb a large amount of steel production capacity.
Although the shipbuilding industry has begun to use iron as load-bearing materials such as ship ribs, it is not yet time to build all-steel ships.
These two major steel-consuming industries have not yet matured, and the Chu Empire has temporarily adopted the habit or technology of steel-cement construction.
However, the output of steel is increasing year by year... Especially after several years of intensive research and development by major steel companies, many companies have found patents for bypassing Daye Steel Company's stirring method.
Although the technical principle of the stirring method is still used, the specific production implementation bypasses their patent.
This also leads to the fact that other steel companies can save patent fees on their steel costs, and can then lower their prices to compete.
These combined factors ultimately led to a sustained decline in steel prices.
Now, in the summer of the 20th year of Chengshun, compared to the 16th year of Chengshun, the price of steel has dropped by at least 60%... Even so, people are still very profitable.
It can be seen that in the past few years, Daye Iron and Steel Company has really been making money every day by relying on the patent of Daye Steelmaking Method... While making money by producing wrought iron, it also collects patent fees to make money. In just a few years, it has become Let them accumulate huge cash flow, invest heavily in acquiring iron ore or even coal mines, and then build their own steel factories and so on.
In just a few years, the scale of Daye Steel Company has far surpassed other steel companies, becoming the only steel company in the steel industry in the Dachu Empire. It owns iron ore and coal mines in many places in the country. , and established a steel branch factory.
Moreover, this is a comprehensive large-scale steel and mining enterprise covering steel smelting, iron ore development, coal mine development and other non-ferrous metal development.
The fall in steel prices is also due to the fall in the costs and selling prices of iron ore and coal.
The decline in the cost and selling price of iron ore and coal mines is not only due to the continued development of more coal mines in the country, but also to the large-scale application of steam engines in the mining industry.
The large-scale use of steam engines in mining companies has made the production efficiency of mining companies higher and the mining costs lower.
So...this forms a very interesting cycle!
The falling costs of coal and iron ore have reduced the cost of downstream steel, which in turn has led to a falling cost of large iron products such as steam engines.
After the cost and selling price of steam engines dropped, more mining companies were able to use steam engines.
This cycle of constantly lowering costs and increasing output allowed steam engines to enter more industries as their prices continued to drop.
In the early years, apart from mining companies, only some high-tech companies with high added value and hard needs, such as Daye Heavy Machinery Company and Zhenjiang Heavy Machinery Company, could afford steam engines.
But now some machinery companies with less added value can also use steam engines. For example, the Songjiang production base factory of Guangzhou Machinery Company has purchased steam engines on a large scale for use as power, instead of using water power like many other traditional factories.
In the visible future, perhaps in three to five years even the textile industry, which is a typical low value-added, labor-intensive, low-margin industry, will be able to use industrial steam engines.
The textile industry has long been eagerly waiting for the steam engine... This kind of stable and reliable power is much easier to use than water power, and they want it too.
Unfortunately, the purchase cost and subsequent use cost of early steam engines were very high. For the textile industry with relatively low gross profit margins and fierce price competition, no matter how good the steam engine is, using it is still a loss-making business...
But if the price of steam engines drops and the cost of adoption also drops, then the textile industry can also use them for more stability and higher production efficiency.
Within three to five years, the industrial production of the Chu Empire will enter a new stage: a stage of production powered by steam engines.
This will play a major role in promoting the industrial and commercial development of the Chu Empire.
Because this means that in many places where there are no water power resources and are not suitable for building water power plants, and transportation costs are high, but there is market demand, affordable steam engine factories can be established to produce various industrial products.
And this will further promote the industrial and commercial development of the Chu Empire.
After the development of industry and commerce, the empire can collect more taxes, and can also export a large amount of industrial products in exchange for a large amount of overseas industrial raw materials or agricultural products.
Then these large quantities of imported agricultural products, such as cash crops, cotton, grain, etc., can alleviate the domestic food supply situation, allowing the people to have more food.
However, it is worth noting that in this era, pure industry itself cannot actually make the people eat better, and the increase in agricultural output is limited.
In addition to allowing farmers to use better agricultural tools in the early stage, industrial development can improve agricultural production efficiency and increase total food production. If you want to rely on industry to further increase food production, you must go to the chemical fertilizer industry and mechanized farming.
The industrial development of the Chu Empire was limited to upgrading agricultural tools and improving water conservancy facilities, but it could not significantly increase the total grain output like the modern industry of later generations.
After the development of industry in this era, if we only rely on local people, it will not be of much help in solving the food problem...
However, it would be different if there were a large number of overseas markets.
Relying on its own strong industry, it exports a large number of cheap industrial products in exchange for overseas grain, economic crops, industrial raw materials, etc.
This will increase the total domestic food supply.
Let’s not talk about directly importing grain. Let’s talk about importing cash crops. These cash crops require land and agricultural population to grow. If they can be imported in large quantities from overseas, then domestic land and agricultural population can be used more for food. production, thereby increasing the total domestic grain production.
Of course, based on the current technical conditions of the Chu Empire, mainly material transportation conditions, the scale of this kind of import will not be too large.
After all, sea transportation takes a very long time, and the current cost of sea transportation is very high. Food itself is a cheap bulk material, and its shelf life is not long. Therefore, the limitations of transporting food imported from overseas to local consumption are still very large. .
At present, the Chu Empire can only import food from the Nanyang Peninsula, mainly the Kingdom of Siam. As for other places, such as Annan and Cambodia, their own food production is not very good.
Although many Southeast Asian countries belong to tropical coastal areas, there are also some coastal plains. At first glance, they seem to be food producing areas, but in fact, food production in many places is very limited, and they cannot even eat enough...
Because the tropical coastal climate has a lot of rain, if some coastal plain areas do not have superior natural environments or have late-stage artificial water conservancy facilities, in fact, these places can only be visited...because every rainy season, these places There will be flooding.
In later generations, these places produced a lot of grain. This is because after the industrial society, a large number of water conservancy facilities were built, which turned many places in Southeast Asia into major grain producing areas.
In ancient times, most of these places were actually poor.
The only exception is Siam. Their southern coastal area has very good natural conditions, with abundant water and not too many floods. It is possible to grow rice twice or even three times a year.
This is also the reason why the Chu Empire imported a large amount of grain from the Kingdom of Siam.
In addition, don't expect to import meat, which is also a food. Let alone import, even long-distance transportation within the country, such as transporting meat from Monan to the southern region, is extremely difficult.
The shelf life of fresh meat is too short to be transported long distances these days.
Generally speaking, large-scale long-distance transportation of meat, especially long-distance transportation by sea, will basically not become a feasible solution until the advent of frozen transport ships.
Before this, it was impossible to transport fresh meat on a large scale!
Unless you make bacon, cured meat, etc., but the cost is relatively high. In fact, except for the military who will produce these meat products on a large scale and then store and transport them for a long time, the private sector rarely does this.
Even the military no longer smokes bacon, but cans it.
In the early days, the military of the Da Chu Empire produced various clay cans, and later used tinplate to produce iron cans. There were many types of cans, from fruits to various meats.
In the later period, some manufacturers also used synthetic meat in order to reduce costs. They used various leftover materials to process it, used various chemicals to bleach and color it, added flavors, and added some starch... Then the manufacturers of this kind of synthetic meat His family was confiscated and his family was exterminated!
Take one bite of this crap, and half of it is filled with various additives, which can kill a person...
Then the military went crazy...
This incident, coupled with the frequent food safety accidents in many small workshops, also prompted the Chu Empire to promulgate the first food safety law, which strictly prohibited the use of various hazardous chemicals in the production and processing of food. Food additives, some of which need to be used, must also be strictly controlled in dosage.
Food safety problems occur frequently, which is also a negative impact brought about by industrial development.
In the past, there were not so many messy chemical additives, and the food was basically original.
But after the industrial age, chemicals for various purposes have been developed and used in the food industry for preservation, preservation, coloring, deodorization, flavor enhancement, etc.
But many of these things are inedible and are extremely harmful to the human body.
Under such a background, the Chu Empire had to issue a food safety law to regulate the food processing industry and the food additive industry.
avoid seriously endangering people's health.
Frequent food problems are just a small problem brought about by the beginning of the industrialization era. In fact, there are more problems emerging one after another, many of which are seriously harmful.
From a macro perspective, after the industrialization era begins, production efficiency can be greatly improved and the quality of human life can be improved.
But if you look at it from a micro perspective, in fact, the onset of industrialization will also bring about some ugliness that did not exist before, or it will further amplify the original ugliness.
Luo Zhixue knows this very well, and what he can do is to avoid the negative impacts of industrialization through various regulations and systems as much as possible, just like promoting food safety legislation.
While the advantages of industrialization are great, the disadvantages should be avoided as much as possible.
But none of this could stop the wave of industrialization in the Chu Empire from rolling forward, and it was still moving forward at an extremely exaggerated speed.
Just after the first half of the 20th year of Chengshun, the Ministry of Industry and Commerce obtained the sales reports of the three major steam engine manufacturers and more than a dozen other manufacturers that were gradually entering the steam engine industry, and then found Luo Zhixue to report, or to take credit.
I saw Wen Yuanzheng, the left minister of the Ministry of Industry and Commerce who is specifically responsible for the development of steam engines, saying with a happy face:
"In the past six months, the development of my country's steam engine industry has once again exceeded our expectations!"
"Our original estimate was that the sales volume of steam engines in the first half of this year would be about 10,000 horses, and the full-year sales should be about 25,000 horses."
"This estimated data has increased by more than 30% compared to last year!"
"But the data we have now is that the total horsepower of steam engines sold by domestic manufacturers in the first half of the year has reached 13,000. According to the orders and production capacity estimated by each manufacturer, the annual output is expected to reach Thirty-five thousand horses.”
"The development of the steam engine industry is really getting better year by year, and almost every year it exceeds our expectations!"
While Luo Zhixue listened, he took the report and started reading it.
As can be seen from this simple report, as the technology of steam engines steadily improves, prices continue to fall, and the price of coal also continues to fall, resulting in lower usage costs.
The industrial sector of the Dachu Empire has begun to accept and use steam engines on a large scale, especially mining companies, which have a steam engine for everyone. In addition, some industries with high added value and strong demand for power stability and high horsepower are also Steam engines began to be used on a large scale.
All of these have led to a surge in demand for steam engines in the market.
The huge steam engine orders in the market have prompted domestic capital, both official capital and private capital, to begin to enter the steam engine industry in large quantities, whether directly producing steam engines or indirectly participating in it.
The three major steam engine manufacturers have begun a comprehensive competition. What is more noteworthy is that in addition to these three major steam engine manufacturers, there are also more than a dozen small and medium-sized steam engine manufacturers in China.
For example, Lee's Iron Company also entered the steam engine industry strongly and established Lee's Steam Engine Company. Liaodong Hekou Machinery Company also established a subsidiary to engage in the steam engine industry.
Hantian Machinery Company, a top domestic machinery company that sells only kitchen knives and machine tools, is also entering the steam engine industry with great fanfare.
Even Su Qin Textile Company, a leader in the textile industry that seems to be out of reach, has quietly reached a strategic cooperation agreement with Guangzhou Machinery Company. Both parties will jointly invest in research and development to reduce the cost of use. , a steam engine that can also be used in the textile industry.
The Imperial Navy of the Da Chu Empire was not left behind either. The Naval Ship Administration Department issued a number of research and development contracts, mainly to the Steam Engine Research Institute of the Royal Institute of Technology, to support their continued research and development of steam engines in order to develop them for use on warships. on the steam engine.
In addition, the Ministry of Transport in the civil service system also got involved after hearing about it, and allocated a certain amount of funds to the Steam Engine Research Institute of the Royal Institute of Technology to support their research.
The Ministry of Transportation also wants to build a lot of steam-propelled ships, steam rail carriages, etc., especially steam rail vehicles, which the Ministry of Transportation attaches great importance to.
Rail transportation is nothing new in the Dachu Empire. There are horse-drawn rail vehicles in major mines and docks to transport materials, from wooden cabinets to now raw rails. As the price of wrought iron continues to fall, Many newly built mine tracks simply use wrought iron with better performance.
As of now, the total length of all kinds of messy and scattered tracks across the country is hundreds of kilometers.
Most of them are located in various mines, and some are located in docks and industrial areas.
In addition, there are a very few horse-drawn railway passenger vehicles located in commercial centers with intensive human traffic.
These tracks are mainly made of pig iron, and some newly built tracks have begun to use wrought iron. As for the wooden tracks, there are only a few left, and it is estimated that they will be completely eliminated in a few years.
These tracks, which are hundreds of kilometers long, currently use horse-drawn rail cars to transport various goods, making considerable contributions to the mining and industrial development of the Chu Empire.
In particular, railways in mining areas are very important. Many mines are far away from rivers, but currently, river transportation is the only way. , especially river transportation down the river is the cheapest and most mainstream mode of transportation.
Therefore, after many mines dig out the ore, whether it is iron ore or coal, they will first gather it at a river terminal near the transfer channel, and then transport it to downstream customers via inland river vessels.
Some of this distance may be only a few hundred meters, but some may take several kilometers or even dozens of kilometers.
No matter the length, transportation by rail is the most time-saving, labor-saving, and lowest cost. This is why major mines like to build rails.
The iron ore developed by Qiongzhou Mining Company, a subsidiary of Guangzhou Iron and Steel Company on Qiongzhou Island, is still dozens of kilometers away from the sea. In order to transport the iron ore, they directly built a pig iron track and used horse-drawn horses to transport the iron ore. Rail cars transport special ores to coastal steel plants for smelting.
Therefore, don't think that there are no railways in the Chu Empire just because you can't see them in ordinary places... In fact, there are many, but most of these railways are in remote mining areas and cannot be seen by ordinary people.
As for the Ministry of Transportation, they have always wanted to expand railway construction and make railways a real long-distance transportation method.
