The Ming Dynasty did not revolutionize

Chapter 277: Heavenly Works and Heavenly Dynasty

Zhu Jianxuan arranged the oil exploration and, accompanied by Li Rui and Song Wendao, went to visit another large experimental plant.

Learn about the specially manufactured "new type of ship power system land experimental system".

This is a complete set of equipment, including large ship-type steam turbines, small water-tube sealed fuel oil boilers, fuel oil pressurized spray combustion systems, large reduction gearboxes, and large main engine drive shafts.

From the World War I era to the Cold War era, this was the power system used by major warships, including large aircraft carriers and battleships.

It was not until gas turbine technology matured that it was gradually no longer used on small and medium-sized warships.

However, large nuclear-powered warships are still driven by steam turbines, but the heavy oil boilers that provide heat are replaced by nuclear reactors.

In the original history, each specific project of these equipments matured after several years, more than ten years, or even decades of screening and exploration.

For example, an ordinary reciprocating steam engine was improved to a multi-stage steam engine, and then further improved to a steam turbine.

For example, "small water tube sealed oil boiler", each individual word in the name can have another corresponding thing.

There are small water pipes and there are large water pipes, there are sealed boiler combustion chambers and there are open combustion chambers, there are oil-fired boilers and there are coal-fired boilers.

The difference between each word represents a trade-off between efficiency, cost, stability and other data.

It is the optimal choice that has been continuously selected and improved based on actual conditions after many years of actual use of warships of various sizes.

Zhu Jianxuan once again directly pointed out the final target product and asked the craftsmen to make the final product.

According to Li Rui, the actual stability of this system is not high yet, and it is not yet ready for direct shipboard application.

After understanding the specific situation, Zhu Jianxuan ordered:

“Just getting an early machine that worked was a huge success.

“We will continue to improve and optimize to discover and solve problems.

“We will strive to increase the power that a single boiler can provide to at least 10,000 horsepower.

“Then we will design an experimental warship using this power system.

“We are also preparing to upgrade the reciprocating steam engines at the coal-fired boiler power station to steam turbines.”

The craftsmen around immediately wrote down Zhu Jianxuan's instructions. This was their next main task.

Then, under the guidance of the craftsmen, Zhu Jianxuan went to the chemical laboratory of the Academy of Sciences to inspect two very important scientific research results.

Although Li Rui and the relevant craftsmen already knew the functions of these achievements, they still couldn't help but get excited when introducing them.

“Your Majesty, after successfully synthesizing ammonia through chemical means, we have obtained an unprecedented high-quality fertilizer that can directly double the grain yield per acre of land.

“Even if the land itself is barren, as long as enough ammonia fertilizer is added, thousands of kilograms of grain can be harvested.

“At the same time, with the technology of synthetic ammonia, the production of explosives no longer relied on saltpeter, and the upper limit of military production was completely liberated.

"This technology has completely changed farming and warfare, and it is a technology that will surely go down in history."

Synthetic ammonia technology is the cornerstone of the modern fertilizer industry and the foundation of modern agriculture, greatly reducing the dependence of agricultural production on soil.

It is also a key technology in the modern military industry, allowing the production of explosives to officially enter the era of large-scale industrial production.

Synthetic ammonia can be regarded as a god-level technology in the Industrial Revolution era.

If this technology can be promoted and applied, it can completely change a country's basic strength.

There is no such thing as excessive encouragement and celebration.

Zhu Jianxuan was mentally prepared and was not too excited.

But he also listened patiently to the craftsmen's excited introductions and gave them very serious encouragement and rewards.

Orders were given to invest in the construction of a large synthetic ammonia plant, as well as downstream fertilizer plants and gunpowder factories.

The raw materials for the synthetic ammonia industry are also mainly coal and oil. The demand for oil will rise again. Oil is really the blood of modern industry.

Another important achievement after the synthesis of ammonia is the electrolytic aluminum of the electrolytic chemical project.

The reserves of aluminum in the earth's crust are second only to oxygen and silicon, ranking third among all elements, and it is also the most abundant metal element in the earth's crust.

However, aluminum is chemically very active and is difficult to produce using traditional replacement methods.

Before the electrolytic technology matured, the price of aluminum once exceeded that of gold and platinum, becoming the most precious metal in the world.

In the mid-nineteenth century, aluminum utensils were extremely expensive and only the top nobles, kings and emperors of various countries could afford them.

However, after the advent of electrolytic aluminum technology, the price of aluminum was reduced to the level of steel.

Aluminum has been widely used in industry and has also entered the homes of ordinary people, transforming from a luxury item into an everyday necessity.

After the successful development of the electrolytic aluminum process, the craftsmen of the Ming Dynasty and Zhu Jianxuan himself subconsciously thought of using aluminum products to cheat Europeans out of their money.

Zhu Jianxuan and the craftsmen also thought that they could no longer accept silver when doing business with Europeans in the future.

It's time to exclude silver from being a natural monetary metal.

The scale of the electrolytic aluminum industry will become larger and larger, and one of the by-products of the electrolytic aluminum industry is silver.

Bauxite's associated minerals usually include silver ore. Silver is found in the residue produced by electrolytic aluminum. Electrolysis is also a typical method for purifying silver.

Therefore, after the electrolysis process is applied, the output of silver will increase rapidly, and the price of silver will naturally fall.

At the end of the Ming Dynasty, the price ratio of gold to silver was about 1:10. By the end of the Qing Dynasty, it was 1:15 or even 1:20.

By the 21st century, the ratio of the value of gold to silver had further expanded to 1:80.

Now that the Ming Dynasty has mastered the electrolysis technology, it can no longer accept silver for foreign trade, at least not at the current price.

In the future, we should collect only gold as much as possible.

But how much gold do European countries have to exchange for more expensive aluminum products?
Moreover, the Ming Dynasty now controls the Australian gold mines, the Cedar Valley (California) gold mines, and the South African gold mines, and gold production is also continuing to increase.

The Ming Dynasty now began to fully use gold-based paper currency, the "Ming Gold Notes" which were transformed from the King of Wu's Gold Notes.

Gold is also just gold reserves, and they are currently very abundant.

When the amount of monetary metals such as gold and silver reaches a certain level, further increase in quantity loses practical significance.

The little extra gold obtained from Europeans had no practical significance for the Ming Dynasty.

The Europeans also had nothing that the Ming Dynasty lacked.

At most, it would be some coffee, tobacco and other things, which could also be grown on Ming Dynasty’s own tropical islands.

In the handicraft era and in the early stages of industrialization, metal currency obtained through foreign trade could serve as primitive accumulation of capital and stimulate the continued development of handicrafts.

Once industrialization is completed, continuing to dump cheap industrial products abroad is also a natural demand for capital appreciation.

But the current Ming Dynasty is neither a free capitalist market nor a monopoly capitalist market, but a state capitalist system separated from state ownership by a wall.

Capital's inherent demand for unlimited appreciation is not strong, or at least roughly controllable.

Under such circumstances, it seems that there is no practical significance in taking one's industrial and agricultural products to foreign countries in exchange for money.

Direct trading of gold and silver is no longer allowed in the Ming Dynasty.

Even if private manufacturers obtained gold and silver through foreign trade, they had to go to the bank to exchange them for gold notes before they could purchase goods in the Ming Dynasty's local market.

For these private manufacturers, their exported products were sold to Europeans in exchange for gold and silver, and then returned to the court in exchange for gold notes.

It is better to hand over the products directly to the Ming Dynasty court and obtain Ming Dynasty gold notes from the court.

There is no difference between the two results.

It made no difference to these manufacturers whether these goods were delivered normally to Europeans or handed over to the court and dumped directly into the sea.

Even more, if the waste is dumped directly at sea, it can save transportation costs, which is enough to print banknotes.

The only difference is whether those overseas European countries can get these products.

The Ming Dynasty could not obtain essential things from trade with overseas countries, but overseas countries could obtain a large number of useful products from trade with the Ming Dynasty.

Under such circumstances, the Ming Dynasty's continued maintenance of foreign trade was itself a form of almsgiving to these overseas countries.

When Zhu Jianxuan's thoughts came to this point, he suddenly realized that this might be the reason for the formation of the Celestial Empire mentality. Zhu Jianxuan listened to the excited chatter of the craftsmen around him for a long time, and finally spoke to set the tone:
"Don't worry about exporting for now. Just concentrate on studying the process thoroughly. Aluminum will be of great use to me in the future—"

The craftsmen didn’t know what Zhu Jianxuan was thinking, but knowing Zhu Jianxuan’s priorities and preferences, they knew how to do their work next.

Everyone agreed and continued to introduce Zhu Jianxuan to other achievements of the past three years.

Zhu Jianxuan spent the whole day in the Academy of Sciences and the Academy of Engineering.

The next day, he returned to the Wuying Hall in the Forbidden City to continue handling the daily affairs of the court.

That afternoon, Duan Yucai, Liu Quanzhi and other cabinet ministers, together with the main officials of the Ministry of Rites, came to pay a visit to Zhu Jianxuan.

Consult Zhu Jianxuan about his ideas for the coronation ceremony, mainly to find out if there are any special arrangements or requirements.

The first thing to do was to decide on the reign title. Should Zhu Jianxuan decide it himself or let the cabinet and the Ministry of Rites draw up several drafts for him to choose from?

The tradition of changing the reign title when the emperor ascends the throne has lasted for nearly two thousand years. The tradition of one emperor, one reign title has been a tradition since the Hongwu period of the Ming Dynasty.

Normally, the new emperor would continue to use the old emperor's reign title in the year after he ascended the throne.

It was not until the next day, the New Year, that the era name would be officially changed and the new emperor's reign name would be used.

Unless the new emperor himself does not live to the second year.

The period from when the new emperor ascends the throne in front of the coffin until the New Year is the time to deal with and arrange affairs for the coming year.

The reign title of the Shenzhou Dynasty has practical significance.

First of all, after the tradition of one emperor and one reign became popular, the reign title was usually a popular nickname for the emperor himself, and it was the only nickname that did not need to be specifically avoided.

It is a bit like the emperor's name and is particularly popular among the people.

If the emperor did not have his own reign title, the common people would come up with various nicknames to avoid using the emperor's name.

Instead of letting the people speculate, it is better to choose one that suits your own wishes.

Normally, reign titles are auspicious characters selected from ancient texts, and are usually related to political ideas and trends in the world.

When an emperor chooses a reign title, he usually places his thoughts on governing or his expectations for the future on it.

Therefore, we can judge the emperor’s preferences and inclinations based on the reign title he chooses.

For example, Emperor Yang of Sui’s “Great Cause” was obviously intended to cause trouble.

There were also ten "Taiping" events in history, and these emperors obviously really wanted peace in the world.

Zhu Jianxuan had given some careful consideration to the issue of the reign title.

After hearing this question, he picked up the brush next to him and wrote two big words:

"Heavenly Workmanship".

"It is taken from the meaning of Heaven's Creations, which is more ingenious than the work of nature."

When several university scholars saw these two words, they all felt that they were very consistent with Zhu Jianxuan's actions.

Zhu Jianxuan's own inventions are indeed ingenious.

Zhu Jianxuan's emphasis on craftsmen and industry is also unprecedented.

It’s just that these two words feel a bit too tacky, without much cultural connotation and charm.

No one had ever chosen a reign title this way before.

The status of craftsmen improved after Chongzhen, but it was not a particularly glorious thing after all. It has only begun to change in recent years.

Now that Zhu Jianxuan personally put the word "gong" into the era name, he should continue to attach importance to industrial construction in the future.

The grand secretaries each made their own assessment in their minds and agreed to it verbally.

After the reign title was determined, Zhu Jianxuan continued to communicate with the grand secretaries to finalize other arrangements related to his enthronement.

For example, who will be participating, whether it involves a military parade or a march, and whether envoys from overseas will be invited to participate.

These things only happened after the Chongzhen period. This kind of thing had never happened before.

Zhu Jianxuan thought about it for a moment, mainly because the ideas that he had expressed at the Academy of Sciences yesterday began to have an impact, so he directly rejected this new-age operation.

There were no public parades or processions, and ordinary equal foreign envoys were not allowed to participate. The monarchs of vassal states were only required to come and pay homage to the new emperor.

Zhu Jianxuan also ordered that the official foreign export trade would be gradually reduced in the future, but the development of gold mines in the Americas and South Africa would be increased.

Zhu Jianxuan's arrangements surprised all the university scholars present.

Zhu Jianxuan has always attached great importance to foreign trade, and especially to exchanges and communications with European countries.

But now it seems that it has suddenly changed its temper. It simply doesn't want to deal with Europeans and wants to cut off trade.

So much so that some people wondered in their hearts, is His Majesty going to close the country to the outside world?
Zhu Jianxuan did not want to close the country to the outside world. In fact, there has never been a true closed-door policy in Chinese history.

It was only before modern times that China had its own foreign trade system.

It also has its own set of international rules.

The Emperor of the Shenzhou Celestial Empire is the overlord of the world, and all other countries at home and abroad are his subjects.

Any country must at least nominally acknowledge that it is a vassal of the Celestial Empire and that its monarch is a subject of the Celestial Emperor before it can join the Celestial Empire's trade circle.

Otherwise, just go and play by yourself as a barbarian, the Celestial Empire will not do business with you directly.

If they don’t obey, we will just cut off tribute, which is trade sanctions.

The Celestial Empire also has its own independent system of cognition regarding the concepts of dynasty, vassal state, and country.

It is not the same as the Westphalian system in Europe.

The Ming Dynasty in this world has gradually accepted the Westphalian system since the time of Emperor Chongzhen.

It began to recognize that all European countries were independent countries not subordinate to the Celestial Empire, and started to deal with major European countries on a relatively equal footing.

They have become less and less concerned about maintaining the Celestial Empire system, and it has gradually become a mere shell in recent years.

Zhu Jianxuan feels that it is now necessary to reshape this system.

Compared with the Westphalian system, the Celestial Empire system is not a backward or ignorant system.

In the original history, it was the modern Qing Dynasty itself that was backward and ignorant and unable to continue to maintain the Celestial Empire system centered on itself.

This has led to the system itself being implicated and being regarded as an ignorant and backward system.

In fact, in the modern international community, the development of international relations has tended towards a system with a core and a group of peripheral vassal states.

The United States and the Soviet Union were both superpowers, serving as de facto sovereign states with a group of peripheral vassal states.

It is only based on the traditional understanding of the Westphalian system that they all declare against their will that no matter how big or small a country is, it is absolutely equal and independent of each other.

This has given many small countries unrealistic fantasies, resulting in many inexplicable contradictions.

Big countries verbally claim that they are equal to small countries, but in reality they use their national strength to bully small countries.

It claims that small countries are also independent, so it will not interfere, nor allow other countries to interfere.

Big countries unilaterally demand that small countries, or de facto vassal states, assume responsibilities, but they themselves do not assume the obligation to care for them.

In fact, recognizing the differences in status between countries, having a clear and open core sovereign country, and clarifying the subordinate relationship between each other are conducive to stability and fairness.

The Celestial Empire was originally the only core of the Shenzhou Tianxia region. Compared with the Celestial Empire, the surrounding marginal countries were indeed small countries with few people and were vassals.

Even the major countries in Europe are now small and have few people compared to the current Ming Dynasty.

Zhu Jianxuan will not cut off contacts with Europe, but the future exchanges between Shenzhou Tianchao and Europe should be exchanges between two different systems.

Instead of treating China as a country and then communicating on an equal footing with European countries.

The gap in strength and scale between the two sides is too big.

Rebuilding this system will not happen overnight, but it needs to start from the basics and build it up brick by brick.

(End of this chapter)