Back to Ming Dynasty with Industrial Revolution System

Chapter 1832 Chemical Empire
"Shopkeeper, you are finally back. You are not here during this period, and we have a lot of troubles to deal with."

Li Jinde came back from the sea, and there were employees of Imperial Chemicals waiting for him at the pier in Tianjinwei.

Li Jinde took off his hat: "Didn't I contact you through telegrams from Western and other places during this period? There was no accident in our factory, right?"

The employee replied: "Although the telegram is good, it is still not as good as talking face-to-face, and many things are commercial secrets, so it is inconvenient to speak frankly in the telegram. What's more, the telegram is short and the words are worth a lot of money. It is difficult to answer the text. A dozen factories are running normally. .We are now adopting a conservative strategy, neither opening new factories nor expanding business, but maintaining existing business and production.”

Li Jinde could not deny that the use of the telegraph was limited by the capacity of the cable: "You are too cautious."

"Imperial Chemicals has developed from one or two factories to more than a dozen joint factories. All of these were created by you, the shopkeeper. We don't want any negligence, and your years of hard work will be ruined by the shopkeeper." The staff said. .

"Since we have arrived in Tianjin Wei, let's go to our chemical plant first." Li Jinde thought for a while, and he could just stop by to check his own industry, and then return to the capital.

"Don't you, shopkeeper, be active with the adults of the mission?" the people under his command asked.

Li Jinde went to the West with the overseas missions and then came back to ensure the safety of the voyage. At this time, the missions were also at the dock.

"No, I'm not from the government." Li Jinde said.

The main factories of Imperial Chemicals and Li’s Chemicals are concentrated in Tianjin Wei, because the government-run chemical factories are set up in this new city, and the government-run chemical factories can produce a large amount of chemical raw materials, which are what Li Jinde’s chemical factories need .

Li Jinde and the others came to Weitanggu, Tianjin, and there were rows of brick houses and gray cement houses. Some of them have a history of more than ten years, but they are still new compared to other civil buildings.

His chemical factory is next to the government-run chemical factory. According to the relatively new vocabulary, this is a "joint factory".

The sulfuric acid produced by the sulfuric acid plant is the raw material for making soda ash, refining diesel oil, and producing fertilizers, and soda ash is the raw material for other chemical products.The product of one factory is used as the raw material of another factory, and transporting it to the nearest place can save transportation costs. If you have requirements for quality and products, you can directly find the corresponding chemical factory, which can form an aggregation effect.

A plaque with the words "Imperial Chemical Industry" is generally hung on his factory buildings. This was called so before the Trademark Law was promulgated. Chu Yun didn't care about it at the beginning, so Li Jinde's private chemical factory heard It looks more like a government-run factory...

There are four-wheeled carriages coming in and out of the iron gate of the factory. The main transportation capacity is still by animal power, but there are also one or two four-wheeled trucks parked in front of the brick building.

It may seem odd to have a wagon and truck side by side, but this is the most common scenario of the transition from the agricultural age to the industrial age.

"Shopkeeper, you are back! Is the trip safe?" Seeing Li Jinde coming in, many people greeted Li Jinde.

Li Jinde would come to various chemical factories to inspect every once in a while. Basically, everyone who worked in a chemical factory knew such a shopkeeper, a sailing hero, a rubber king, and the founder of the Imperial Chemical Group.

Inside the factory, there are workshops for producing chemical fertilizers, as well as warehouses for storing phosphate and nitrogen fertilizers. Basically, they use coal-fired steam power and some electricity.

Li Jinde was more at ease when he saw the goods hoarded by the fertilizer factory and the machines running normally in the workshop.He has devoted nearly 20 years of hard work to the chemical industry, and he has all this.

"Although all businesses have been maintained at the original level during the time you left the shopkeeper, our fertilizers have been extended to Shikoku Island and Yizhou. This is something that the government-run fertilizer factory has not yet done, because the government-run fertilizer The factory needs to fill the vacancy in the mainland first, and it is still indifferent to the newly occupied territories outside the ocean. This is a good opportunity for us to seize the market outside the ocean." The person in charge of managing the fertilizer factory is the manager who has worked with Li Jinde for these years, and he told Li Jinde He left home for more than a year of change.

Imperial Chemicals also has its own map, but compared with Chu Yun's naval map that deploys fleets around the world, Li Jinde's map is to understand where his business has expanded and where it has not expanded. This is a commercial map.

Not only can the territory be expanded by force, any industry can become its own small kingdom.War is temporary, but trade is forever.

"I am going to Europe to sell fertilizers to them. I think they will soon realize the benefits of chemical fertilizers. There is also a place in North America, although there is not much population, but I heard that there are many rivers and plains in the area, which should be very suitable for growing food. It would be nice if the local area becomes a granary to provide us with food.” Li Jinde marked the western hemisphere on the map, which is also a very important market.

"To sell fertilizer to the West, I'm afraid we need to have more sailboats to transport enough fertilizer. The distance between us and the West is too far away."

"Then buy two more ships. In the future, paint the ships with the logo of our Imperial Chemicals and sail everywhere, trying to occupy the overseas fertilizer market." Li Jinde's goal is not only the local islands, but also the remaining vast land.

Although the market share of food may decline due to the rise of industry, food is a necessity of life, and the demand for chemical fertilizers will only increase with the increase of population.

Li Jinde has now focused on the rubber industry and the chemical fertilizer industry. By the way, he also sells some dyes, soaps, and perfumes, which can bring in a lot of income every year.

"The laboratory in charge of researching metals in the capital has made great progress, and you may be interested in the shopkeeper." A steward said.

"Metal laboratory?" Li Jinde remembered that this was a new laboratory set up by Imperial Chemical Group.

At the beginning of the industry, all fields were blank, and when research results were most likely to appear, there was an ancient industry-metallurgical technology. Li Jinde also wanted to try it, after all, he had a lot of spare funds and nowhere else to go. Can be spent.

The idea came about when Li Jinde was supplying rubber tires to car manufacturing plants, and metal was too important for the industry.

The steward said, "That's the research team led by Chen Yuanyuan. They researched electrolytic aluminum technology and reported that they found a practical aluminum alloy."

(End of this chapter)