When Xinghe Shipyard was first established, there were only two or three hundred workers, at that time, the local modern industry had just started, the production methods and technology were backward, the working conditions were extremely simple, and because most of the machinery and equipment purchased belonged to the eliminated products of Western countries, the technical performance was unstable, the labor protection measures were poor, and the safety of workers was difficult to be effectively guaranteed, and industrial accidents often occurred.

Workers are caught in engine belts, run over by machines, and have their hands and feet and fingers rolled off.

Because of the many problems in the early days of the shipyard, when attracting local immigrants to work in the factory area, it encountered great resistance, and in the area near the factory, the Far Eastern immigrants who had just been allocated land were very afraid of machines, and they were afraid that after entering the factory, they would be crushed to death by machines.

At that time, among the Far Eastern immigrants, there was a saying that "those who enter the factory will be thrown into the big chimney", and such rumors frightened many immigrants from entering the factory to work.

The perception of the fear of industry among the Far East immigrants is difficult to change in a short time, and the shipyard needs enough workers to grow and grow, so after the recruitment of workers among the Far East immigrants was frustrated, Xinghe Shipyard tried to increase the source of shipyard workers from other channels.

Nianxing and the shipyard ordinary workers mainly come from two channels.

The first is the veterans who have been laid off in the army, and the second is the orphans over the age of 12 who have been taken in from overseas by the local side.

The Han army was a melting pot, and the soldiers who served in it were all educated in basic knowledge, highly obedient, and easy to manage, while some of the half-grown orphans who had limited learning ability or missed the best learning age were also arranged to work as apprentices in shipyards because their thoughts were simpler and more malleable than adults.

During the period from the late sixties to the mid-seventies of the nineteenth century, the Xinghe shipyard, like many state-owned enterprises, took the first step towards industrialization with great difficulty, thanks to a few backward machines and the efforts of a group of non-specialized workers.

After 1875, with the popularization of local basic education, the local people and the newly migrated Far East immigrants to live in the country learned more and more about industrial enterprises, and the misunderstanding and rejection of the people near the factory gradually disappeared, and the number of local residents who were willing to work in the factory also increased.

In 1877, as the number of workers in the shipyard exceeded the design capacity of the original factory area, Xinghe Shipyard invested in the acquisition of about 1,800 acres of land in the western part of the factory area, and then began to build a new factory building and staff quarters on the newly purchased land.

In the first year of the wasteland, the Xinghe Shipyard built six rows of houses on the beach near the port, with a total of about 300 single dormitories for 1,200 workers.

In 1880, the third year after the wasteland was acquired, as the source of the workers in the factory area became more diversified, many workers' wives and children also moved to live near the factory with their husbands, and the land acquired in 1877 was exhausted, so the shipyard negotiated with the competent department to relocate the main shipyard area to Songjiang Port, and the original factory area was used as a shipbuilding industry base under the name of Xinghe Shipyard, and continued to provide various ancillary technical and product support for Xinghe Shipyard.

With the financial support of the central government, the development speed of Xinghe Shipyard is getting faster and faster, and the main production area of the shipyard has been relocated to Songjiang Port in less than ten years, not only the number of workers in the factory area has exceeded 3,000, but even the wasteland near the factory has also developed into a new industrial town with the relocation of the shipyard.

The families and children of the workers who came from all over the country obtained a piece of land with roughly the same area from the local government with the identification materials provided by the government, and then the families of these workers worked together with their husbands and neighbors on the wasteland planned by the government to build their own houses and homes.

The deserted beach land was utilized, and rows of neatly planned and similarly styled Chinese-style wooden houses and brick houses appeared near the factory area, and then, at a speed that Westerners could hardly believe, a simple and orderly residential area was formed.

As Deckler, a reporter from the British Times, said when describing the development of the Han social system, "the workers are

There was a certain need, and "in order to meet these needs there must be other people, so craftsmen, tailors, shoemakers, doctors, masons, and carpenters moved here."

The same is true in the vicinity of the Xinghe shipyard area,

Seven or eight kilometers deep into the inland area in the west of the port, there are four spacious streets, one is called Beiwei Street (厍 is the meaning of village, the local dialect of southern Jiangsu, because there are many immigrants living on both sides of the street, so it gets its name),

One is called Xincuo Street (Southern Fujian dialect, indicating the place of residence), one is called Yangcheng Street, and the other is called Xinrongcheng Street.

Because of the different origins of the migrants, the four streets were given their own local cultural names.

And on the streets, different types of industries, with the increase in the number of residents, have sprung up like mushrooms after a rain in people's lives.

There are hundreds of people shopping in the streets near the Xinghe Shipyard, and even if Li Mingyuan, accompanied by Niu Shangzhou, deputy director of the factory, and others, did not enter the center of the street, he could still feel the lively atmosphere on the street as far as his eyes could see.

"Your Majesty, would you like to take a look inside the streets?"

Niu Shangzhou, deputy director of Xinghe Shipyard, walked behind Li Mingyuan's left hand and suggested: "The four blocks in the west of the factory belong to Anfu Town and Yifeng Town under the name of Songjiang Prefecture, and the total population of the two towns plus four streets is about 70,000.

According to local officials in the two towns, Songjiang Prefecture intends to merge the two towns and four sub-districts into one county, and the county administration will be located in Xincuo Street, which is four or five miles away from the factory area.

If you look to the east, it is the street where the national flag of the word "Han" is hung in front, and the primary school affiliated to the factory is also on Xincuo Street. ”

"There are still things to deal with at night, and today we will stand outside the street and take a casual look, so we will not go inside the street."

Li Mingyuan looked at the flag fluttering in the wind under the sunset, and said: "In the past two days, I have inspected the shipyard and the surrounding area, and I have seen that there are many orphans under the age of 10 in the factory, and they are studying in the primary school hall with the children of the shipyard workers' families. ”

"Your Majesty can rest assured that the young children and orphans living in the factory area have special personnel to take care of and teach, and the shipyard management will also spot check and supervise the living conditions of the orphans in the factory every once in a while, although the shipyard cannot completely replace the role of their parents, but in all aspects of life and study, we will also do our best to help them get the same opportunities as normal children."

"You're doing a good job." Li Mingyuan stopped. "Tens of thousands of immigrants from the Far East who enter the Far East every year are orphans who have lost their parents, and their upbringing and education problems can only be properly solved through the cooperation of various government administrative agencies and state-owned enterprises. ”

"Yes, Your Majesty."

Niu Shangzhou nodded in response.

"How prepared are you to increase the capacity to build new ocean-going ships?"

As he was about to finish today's inspection work, Li Mingyuan suddenly asked.

"Your Majesty, after communicating with ocean shipping companies, we have preliminarily determined a response plan."

Niu Shangzhou replied: "

In terms of private shipyards, the two state-owned shipyards have preliminarily selected four cooperative enterprises.

The first is the South Pacific Ocean Shipping Company under the name of Mr. Zhang, which has two or two 5,000-ton civil docks, four 3,000-ton civil docks, and 71 affiliated industrial enterprises, with more than 20 industries including ocean migration transportation, commodity transshipment and sales, and inland waterway shipping.

There are nearly 2,000 industrial workers, and both comprehensive technical strength and economic strength rank first among private shipping companies.

The second is the Shengchang Shipping Company, represented by Sun Yingde, an immigrant merchant from the Far East, and jointly funded by 32 local private shipping companies such as Fachang, Dachang and Shunchang, and registered in 1886 with an initial registered capital of 9.2 million Han Yuan (equivalent to about 5 million taels of Kuping silver).

It has 2 5,000-ton docks under its name. There are 5 3,000-ton docks and 2 shipyard bases. 1,100 industrial workers.

The third is Qinghua Steamship Company,

Qinghua Steamship Company was established in September 1887 by Qiu Zhongbo, an immigrant businessman from southern Fujian, with a registered capital of 7.8 million Han Yuan (equivalent to 4.3 million taels of Kuping silver), a 5,000-ton civil dock, three 3,000-ton civil docks, and 840 local industrial workers.

However, Qiu Zhongbo, the founder of Qinghua Steamship Company, was a shipping giant in southern Fujian in his early years, and since his family immigrated to the mainland in 1884, he transferred the shipping rights from southern Fujian to Thailand, the East Indies, the Malay Archipelago and other regions to the Baoyuan Shipping Company under the name of the Southern Fujian Merchant Gang.

Although Qinghua Steamship Company is unknown in the local shipping industry, in terms of shipping in the South Seas, Qinghua Steamship Company occupies a shipping market share that exceeds that of Shengchang Shipping Company.

In addition to the previous three, the last private enterprise we selected with the ocean shipping company to cooperate with is Taichang Shipping Company.

Taichang Shipping Company had the lowest registered capital, and when the company was registered in 1884, the total capital was only 1.82 million Han Yuan (equivalent to 1 million taels of Kuping silver). ）

The majority are He Binghuan and Liao Zhubin, who invested 600,000 taels of silver and 150,000 taels of silver respectively (50,000 yuan was lent to him by the He family),

However, although the registered capital of Taichang Shipping Company is the lowest among the four, it has developed rapidly.

In September 1884, when the shipping company was first established, there were only 7 second-hand steamers bought under its name, and more than 100 Chinese men who followed He Binghuan back from the United States, and more than four years later, under the joint operation of He Binghuan and Liao Zhubin, who had a foreign background, the number of employees under the name of Taichang Shipping Company increased to more than 400, and the company's total assets increased by nearly 3.5 times.

Compared with the previous three shipping companies, although Taichang Shipping Company has the smallest total assets and scale, its development prospects are very impressive. Therefore, we also included it in the list of partner companies. ”

"The selection of private shipping companies should be considered in a comprehensive manner, not only based on the company's assets and scale, but also the company's development potential is also an important criterion."

Li Mingyuan nodded in agreement with Niu Shangzhou's screening criteria, and then continued: "In addition to helping private shipping enterprises, how are your two state-owned enterprises going to increase the speed of ship construction?" ”

"Our two shipyards are each going to add an 8,000-ton civilian dock, and because of the heavier task of ship construction, our two are also ready to jointly fund and customize two 3,000-ton hydraulic presses, a die forging machine, and a free forging machine to France to forge the steel and keel needed to build ships."

"The 3,000-ton hydraulic press is barely enough, and it is also necessary to customize two more hydraulic presses."

Li Mingyuan moved his body and said: "The 100-ton steam hammer developed by the French Crusoe Company in 1877 is a very good technology, before you two companies discuss trade cooperation with the French, you may as well tentatively propose a plan to purchase the patent use rights of the Crusoe Company, and see the reaction of the French, if the French agree, they will buy it immediately, if they raise the asking price and disagree, don't show too persistent intentions, first drag on with France for a year or two, and see if the French will let go after that." ”

"Among the Western countries, the only countries that have mastered the technical ability to build hydraulic presses of more than 1,000 tons are Britain, France and Germany, if the French do not agree, can we choose Britain and Germany as partners?"

"The hydraulic press is an industrial weapon, if the French are not willing to sell it to us, the British and Germans will probably not sell it to us, and among the three countries of Britain, France and Germany, the French hydraulic press technology is the most mature, if possible, or the priority to buy the French technology patent use right."

"I see, Your Majesty." …………

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