Master Yuan, start!

Could it be that he is really a loyal minister?

All we can say is that people in the feudal era could never understand the power of industrialization.

Kill one emperor and you will most likely become another emperor.

This logic might have worked in an agricultural society, but it was no longer suitable for the industrial society of the late 19th century.

Yuan Shikai didn't care about the position in the Forbidden City at all, because even if he sat on it, it didn't mean he could rule the whole country.

The Northeast, only the white mountains and black waters, coal and steel of the Northeast can make him qualified to rule the world.

In the short term, the source of his power to unify China is coal and steel. In the long term, the source of his power to lead China is the hearts of the people.

However, no matter which one is relied upon to come to power, it is far more secure than ruling by wearing a crown.

...

The weather in May of the lunar calendar should be a bit hot, but fortunately, the Northeast is at a higher latitude and the ground temperature has not risen yet.

Inside the magnificent former Shengjing General's Mansion, there stands a pine tree more than ten meters tall, standing tall and lush. As summer approaches, its needles are so lush green that they seem to be dripping to the ground.

Several people gathered at a stone table under a tree, their feet on the pine needles on the ground, staring at a standard log of wood that was 8 feet long, 1 foot wide, and 6 inches thick.

The reason why he was concentrating so intently on a piece of wood was not because the wood was very valuable, such as golden nanmu, but because this small piece of wood was one of the few hard currencies for export in Northeast China today.

"Head Instructor, look, this is a log made from wood from the Fengtian and Jilin mountainous areas. It's used by the people to build houses and make coffins, tables, chairs, beds, and other furniture."

Han Bei reached out, pressed on the solid board and said:

"Not only that, the Incheon Shipyard also used it to build small seagoing vessels, and now it can also be used as railroad sleepers. It is truly a multi-purpose material with many uses and is full of treasures."

Han Bei was in charge of the Finance Department in the Red Confucian Society, and his official position in the Qing court was Shengjing Commercial Co-organizer, so he was pulled in by Yuan Shikai to explain the economic situation in Northeast China in detail.

"I didn't expect that this rotten tree that drops pine needles all day long could have such a use," said Zhang Jian, who was sitting next to him, in surprise.

Zhang Jian followed Yuan Shikai all the way out of the country. The infighting in the court made him see no future. Coupled with the changing situation, he became less and less interested in learning articles and words, so he simply hid it from his family and went far away to the border.

"It's really a century-old tree." Ming Ye stretched out his right hand, clenched his fist, and punched the pine tree beside him. "Hiss, it hurts."

"Even if it's a ten-year-old tree, you can't hit it with your fist." Han Bei laughed out loud when he saw this, and couldn't help but complain: "Everyone uses kicking, how can you use fists to hit it hard."

"You two, stop talking for now," Yuan Xiangcheng said, smiling as he glanced at the nearby Chinese pine tree, which was said to have been planted during the Qianlong Emperor's reign. He turned and said, "Han Bei, continue."

"However, it's difficult to expand sales of such treasures these days." Han Bei produced a sheet of paper with a table on it. "Japanese eucalyptus and American Douglas fir occupy 80% of the national market. Northeastern timber is clearly closer to the market, but it can't break in."

7. "Why is this?" Yuan Xiangcheng was really confused. He knew that in addition to the developed industry in the Northeast in later generations, agriculture, especially forestry, had also been glorious for a time.

6 Because the Northeast forests have accumulated tall trees that have been preserved for tens of millions of years, Northeast timber was once exported to Australia and South America due to the high-quality trees.

It doesn’t make sense that a product that will be a bestseller 100 years from now won’t sell well today.

"Because of the added freight, timber is too expensive for people in the south to afford," Han Bei explained. "Most of the wood used in the south now is cheaper Japanese eucalyptus. But Japanese eucalyptus is produced in Hokkaido, yet the freight rate is even cheaper than in the Northeast."

"Not only in the south, I also often saw grandpa buying Japanese eucalyptus when I was in Southeast Asia." Kuang Chunhua also interjected.

Upon hearing this, Si Hanbei showed a helpless expression and began to explain to Yuan Xiangcheng the reason why Northeast timber was unsalable at that time.

There are currently two sales channels for Northeast logs.

The first is to cut down trees in mountainous areas, make them into rafts after simple processing, and then move them westward along the Hunhe River or northward along the Songhua River to meet the large demand for sleepers on the Northeast Railway.

The second is that after the trees are cut down, the rafts are sent south along the Yalu River, loaded onto ships at Dadonggou in Dandong Prefecture, and transported to North China, Jiangnan and other places.

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However, transporting timber to the south often faces a big problem, namely the high freight costs caused by the small single-transport capacity.

Although Incheon also has a private shipping company, its scale is insufficient and the ships are too small, which results in the price of timber, which was originally relatively affordable, becoming more expensive after adding freight to the price when it is shipped to the south.

Therefore, Northeast China still has a market in the Beijing-Tianjin area in the north, but it is completely unable to compete with foreign timber in the south.

"Why not sell it to the people of Northeast China?" Zhang Jian couldn't help but ask after hearing this. "The timber going west and north isn't necessarily all used for railway construction. Can't we sell it to the people and expand sales?"

Zhang Jian grew up in a merchant family in the south of the Yangtze River and had some talent for business issues, so he pointed out the problem immediately.

"If only it were that simple," Han Bei said with a wry smile. "Brother Zhang, even the idea of ​​selling them as railway sleepers has only gradually developed in the past two years. When there was no demand for railway construction, the people of Northeast China simply didn't need so many logs."

"Why?" Zhang Jian asked in confusion.

"There are many reasons for this. For example, most houses in the Northeast are made of earth and stone, so less wood is used; there are many poor people among the people who cannot afford to use too much wooden furniture; the climate in the Northeast is relatively dry, so wood is more durable."

Han Bei counted on his fingers and pointed out one by one:

"In other words, if the construction of the railway hadn't stimulated the demand for timber, there wouldn't be much of a timber market for the tens of millions of people in the nearby Eastern Province."

At this point, Han Bei couldn't help but sigh: "Cost, cost, and cost. The most important thing in business dealings is cost.

Not only the timber, but also the grain in Northeast China can only be sold to Russia and Japan. Once it is transported to the south, the cost will remain high.

咱们的船比人家小，1条船人家能多拉5成货物，10条船便是4咱们152条的份量。”

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"No wonder the chief instructor had already established the Sihai Shipping Company." Kuang Chunhua looked at Yuan Xiangcheng with admiration: "It turns out he had already thought about how to deal with this situation."

Upon hearing this, Yuan Xiangcheng could only pretend to be well-informed, but he was actually very embarrassed inside.

Before, he just copied the enterprises established during the Westernization Movement of the Qing Dynasty one by one in Korea, without thinking so far.

In fact, he only realized today that the Northeast, which is full of treasures, is not so easy to develop.

Not only do we need to build railways to ensure land transportation, but we also need to ensure sea transportation.

Kuang Chunhua continued enthusiastically, "If the head instructor can buy a large ship, he can earn 5% more per shipload of timber. If he has 10 ships, he can earn five times more."

"If we have 100 ships, the profit will be 50 times of what we made before." Kuang Chunhua began to imagine: "If we have 1000 ships, that would be..."

"Hanyang, you really have a bold idea." Yuan Xiangcheng smiled and reminded Kuang Chunhua: "Now the Sihai Shipping Company has only a dozen ships in total, and it also has to bear the needs of carrying people and other goods.

Where can we get 1000 ships?"

In history, during the heyday of the China Merchants Steam Navigation Company, that is, after the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, it only had 490 ships. How could Yuan Shikai get 50 ships 1000 years ago?

Kuang Chunhua was stunned by Yuan Xiangcheng's question. "Yes." One ocean-going vessel would cost 10 taels. 1000 of them would cost 1 million taels. The Qing Empire's annual revenue was only 8500 million taels. Even if they emptied their pockets, they couldn't afford one, let alone a chief instructor.

"Brother Kuang, you've confused Wei Ting," Zhang Jian reminded him with a smile, "It's not like we're buying 1000 ships in one go. We're buying them in batches. When the money comes back, we'll buy the next batch, and so on."

I understand. Kuang Chunhua nodded frantically. Now he really understood.

"However, this would be a huge drain on funds. The tax money allocated by the court and the Korean customs wouldn't sustain us for long." Zhang Jian was a little worried. "Weiting, if the turnover doesn't improve, the Sihai Steamship Company will go bankrupt."

"I won't let him go bankrupt," Yuan Xiangcheng said confidently. "Hanyang, have you found the Zhang Bishi I asked you to send to Southeast Asia?"

"Found him. He is on a boat from Penang to Incheon," Kwong Chun Wah replied.

"Okay, when the person comes, we will talk about expanding the shipping company." Yuan Xiangcheng put the matter aside.

"We need to work on other areas besides ships." Yuan Xiangcheng ordered: "At the mouth of the Yalu River, in the Dadonggou area of ​​Andong Prefecture, we need to set up a log processing plant here to rely on Korean workers.

In addition, we need to send people to dredge the Yalu River to allow more rafts to float down the river.”

These are two other methods proposed by Yuan Xiangcheng to increase the sales of timber in Northeast China. One is to expand the export quantity, and the other is to improve the export quality.

Needless to say, the former

The latter obtains higher profits by exporting as little raw materials as possible and more finished or semi-finished products.

Relying on current technology, about 50 logs are mined from Northeast China each year, each worth about 2 taels of silver. This alone can bring in a profit of one million taels of silver each year.

If the logs are no longer shipped to Tianjin, Shanghai and other places for further processing, but are processed at the mouth of the Yalu River before being shipped out, the selling price can be increased, and the price difference caused by freight will be offset to a certain extent.

Even with all these efforts, such as developing shipping, dredging rivers, and expanding sales channels, it is estimated that they can only earn a few hundred thousand taels more each year.

After seeing off a few people, Yuan Xiangcheng sat beside the stone table, feeling emotional.

It is really difficult to make money in industry. Yuan Xiangcheng experienced the pain of private entrepreneurs in later generations.

Huh? Private entrepreneurs? Yuan Xiangcheng seemed to suddenly remember something.

By the way, how could I forget my fellow villager!

Yuan Xiangcheng slapped his forehead and thought of an old friend, his fellow Zhoukou native, Boss Xu. Before the financial crisis, this man was a powerful figure in the capital market.

It takes so long to make money in industry. You still have to learn from your predecessors and play more with finance!

Yuan Xiangcheng made up his mind to plunge into the international financial market at the end of the 19th century.

Chapter 159 Industrialization and the Two-Faced Duke Yansheng

Promoting industrialization is a difficult task. It cannot be accomplished with resources alone. If modern weapons could be produced with iron and coal mines, then Xuzhou and Shanxi would be the most developed places in China.

However, if you say that industrialization is simple, it is indeed simple. After all, this is not the mid-to-late 20th century, but the 1890s.

Now that the Second Industrial Revolution has just begun, a large number of scientific and technological achievements do not come from theoretical research, but more from experience improvement and summary, and do not involve complicated book knowledge.

This means that the production chains of most industrial products are still very short, and it is not very difficult to catch up.

Li Hongzhang established the Jiangnan Arsenal in 1864. Twenty years after its completion, it was able to imitate the German Krupp cannon with the help of experienced craftsmen.

Twenty years after its establishment, the Fuzhou Naval Academy was able to independently manufacture the 20-ton coastal defense ironclad ship Pingyuan.

Even though these things were not the best at the time and most of them were "monkey versions", they were produced anyway.

In other words, in today's era, an agricultural country without any foundation can imitate the more advanced products of the industrial countries at that time in 20 years.

If it were placed in the future, it would be absolutely unimaginable, just like the gap in fighter jets between the United States and South Korea.

South Koreans began developing fourth-generation fighter jets in the 20s and conducted research for nearly 90 years. It was not until 30 that they barely test-flew a few KF-2022s. These were just test flights and were far from being equipped in the military.

The United States' fourth-generation fighter jets began service in 1976, 50 years ahead of South Korea, making it far ahead.

In other words, South Korea, as an industrial country, has not been able to produce the industrial products that the United States produced 50 years ago 50 years later.

This fully demonstrates that the continuous iteration of science and technology will make it increasingly difficult for late-developing industrial countries to catch up.

However, Yuan Shikai was at the eve of the Second Industrial Revolution and the technological explosion.

As long as he could grasp the direction of China's scientific and technological development, point out the way forward in a concise manner, and rely on the vast industrial and agricultural resources of the Northeast, there would be no problem in leaving Tsarist Russia behind, let alone catching up with Britain and the United States.

Speaking of Northeast China, the factor currently hindering its development is not science and technology, but human resources.

Even with Yuan Xiangcheng's unremitting efforts in the past five years, the total population of Northeast China has only increased to about 5 million, only 700 million more than in the original time and space.

Traffic reasons are the main factor restricting the number of people going to Guandong.