"Old Gao, your trade department has to find a way to purchase these things this month, and the stock is running out now......" Ma Jia walked into Gao Mo's office with a piece of paper, and then he saw Blanco and his entourage Carlos sitting opposite Gao Mo, "Hey, Blanco, it's you." You've lost the battle again? ”

Blanco and Carlos had given pig iron and coal to the Vest's Ministry of Industry a few times, so the Vest recognized them at a glance. Gao Mo smiled awkwardly, did not translate the last sentence of the vest, he took the paper of the vest back and glanced at it, then put it in the drawer, and said to the vest: "Okay, the Ministry of Trade will find a way to purchase these things, but I don't know how the number of the road is." ”

"You try to do it." The vest waved his hand and said, "Uh, by the way, Blanco, I know that there are many plantations in Brazil, do you have a large cotton production?" ”

Gao Mo hurriedly translated. After thinking about it, Blanco said: "Most of the plantations in Brazil are grown with high-profit crops such as sugar and cocoa, and of course cotton is also grown, but not a lot. Of course, I can convince these planters to sell you a certain amount of cotton, and it won't be a hassle. Actually, Santo Domingo and its nearby islands in the Caribbean have the most and largest cotton plantations, and if you have a lot of demand, you'd better go there and contact the source, but I don't think it's easy. ”

"Enough. In the early stage, we only need the production of plantations in Brazil to meet the production needs, after all, the reliability of the equipment is still a bit of a problem. Ma Jia said to himself, "Okay, Blanco, Lao Gao, I'll go first." I have to go to the textile mill to see, the water-powered spinning wheel and water-powered loom they have been tackling problems recently, I have to go and see, go first. After saying that, the vest walked out of the office of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs again in a hurry.

Inside the textile mill on the banks of the Big Fish River. Several designers from the Ministry of Industry's research team are busy with a group of European craftsmen around a huge water-powered spinning wheel that sits next to a river. The power is generated by the water flow hitting the blades in the water wheel, and this force is transmitted to other parts such as drafting mechanism and spindle through the bearing, so as to achieve spinning. A total of 30 spindles are installed on this hydraulic spinning car, which means that it can spin 30 rolls of cotton yarn at a time, which is dozens of times stronger than traditional hand-spinning, which is enough to squeeze all the practitioners in the handicraft industry into bankruptcy.

At present, this water-powered spinning car has been produced intermittently for several months, and the designers of the research team and the maintenance craftsmen of the textile factory have solved a large number of problems encountered in production, and it is now very close to perfection.

"Two hydrospinning wheels, one wool and one cotton, currently have an average uptime of about 18-24 hours. It has been in continuous operation for 100 days, and the use is good, and the yarn produced is both tough and wear-resistant, but also relatively smooth, and the quality is better than that of European handmade products. Tao Chenxi, the leader of the research team of the hydrotextile project and a former technician of the textile factory, introduced to the vest.

"What are the main failures that occur when the equipment is running today? Are there any design problems? The vest asked.

"There are no problems with the design." Tao Chenxi said confidently, "This is the equipment I designed with reference to our existing technical level and the principle of the spinning machine of later generations, and the technical level is roughly equivalent to the level of the 'mule machine' invented by the British during the industrial revolution in the late 18th century." Many of the parts are made of pig iron or even wood, and the equipment is worn out after continuous operation, so it has to be replaced frequently. Next, I'm going to replace these parts with steel parts, which should greatly enhance the service life of the equipment. Alas, these rotten parts shouldn't have been used in the first place to save money and time. ”

"That'll do." Ma Jia patted Tao Chenxi's shoulder and encouraged: "The textile industry is a highly profitable industry in this era. Especially for cotton spinning, light and thin cotton products have become popular in the European upper class, and the market share of traditional woolen products is declining year by year. Now the executive committee has set the two industries of military industry and textile as the key development industry, for which 1,000 yuan has been allocated as a research and development fund for textile machinery, and our Ministry of Industry can no longer hold back. The election is coming up in December, and this is a good opportunity to get it out quickly and let the textile mill officially produce as soon as possible, so that everyone will have a better life. By the way, the loom is fine, right? ”

"The loom is fine, the only problem may be the lack of work." Tao Chenxi made a joke.

"Hehe, don't talk nonsense with me, you kid." Ma Jia also smiled, "At present, wool raw materials are indeed not very sufficient, there are a lot of cattle in La Plata, and there are relatively few sheep raisers, and it is very troublesome to buy every time." Therefore, before our own flock grows, we still abandon those unrealistic ideas and concentrate on the development of the cotton textile industry. ”

"But there are also many difficulties in the cotton spinning industry." Tao Chenxi reminded, "La Plata still has some wool to buy, but if you buy cotton, you have to go to the plantations on the small islands in Brazil or the Caribbean." We only have a few ships now, and we don't have enough to transport supplies and building materials back and forth between Zhenhai Fort and Dongfang Port, let alone buy cotton somewhere else. And now Brazil is in chaos, and the Caribbean is basically the territory of the Spaniards, and people are full of food to sell cotton to you, in short, it's very difficult. ”

"Where do you get so much whining?" Ma Jia scolded with a smile, "You don't have to worry about these things, it's the right way to quickly fix the equipment problem for Lao Tzu." Today is the 26th, you give me a letter of approval, how long will it take for the spinning machine and loom to be finalized? Can you get it done before the end of the month? ”

"Try your best." Tao Chenxi didn't dare to pack tickets at this time. There's no way, there's a shortage of talents. It is so difficult to get a water-powered spinning machine and a loom, this is still in the case that he and others have a little technical foundation, and if they attack the steam engine that the big guy is completely unfamiliar with in the future, then they have to surrender directly.

"Damn!" The vest scolded, and the big fan-like hand slapped Tao Chenxi on the back, making Tao Chenxi's shoulders short and grinning. "Lao Tzu doesn't care so much, if you don't solve all the problems for me before the end of the month, see how Lao Tzu cleans you up!"

"You're trying to kill someone." Tao Chenxi looked at the vest with "grievance" and said, "Why are you in such a hurry? Is it for the sake of the election of the Central Executive Committee? No way? With all due respect, no one has been able to shake your position yet, really! ”

"Smack!" The vest slapped Tao Chenxi's back again, and scolded with a smile: "Is Lao Tzu that kind of person? ”

Tao Chenxi rubbed his shoulders and looked at him without speaking, but the look in his eyes clearly said, "You are that kind of person."

The vest was angry: "Okay, let's be serious." It doesn't matter if you tell you the truth, anyway, you'll know next month, and it's not all about money. Do we have any money now? As of November 25, 1633, that is, yesterday, the balance of funds in the treasury of the Republic of East Coast of China was 39,667 yuan (the loan of 200,000 yuan owed to the East Coast Company was still unpaid), and the balance of the Finance Department of the East Coast Company was 147,905 yuan, and the total of the two was only more than 180,000 yuan. This is our current family background, with our current speed of spending money, I am afraid that we will not last half a year next year and will have to go bankrupt. Now the people in the Ministry of Finance are telling me that this budget can't be sustained at all, and that the deficit is too big without it. The deficit every month is more than 10,000 yuan, and the existing money cannot last for a few months. Now you know the way, the textile machinery is officially finalized one day earlier, our machine textile factory will be officially put into operation one day earlier, and cotton cloth, woolen wool or something will be exported one day earlier to earn foreign exchange. Domestically, in La Plata, Brazil and even Chile and Peru, a supermarket of one or two million people, so many profits, why should the British occupy it? The British exported more than 100,000 horses of woolen wool every year, and then re-exported hundreds of thousands of cotton cloth from India, and the huge profits generated nourished their industry, cultivated their bourgeois strength, and fed their vast navy. We are going to tear a piece of this fat from their mouths, not to mention anything else, first occupy the domestic and La Plata markets, and then try to do the rest. Now we haven't even been able to fully occupy such a small domestic market, and we have made British goods popular, not because we don't have enough production capacity! Okay, I won't give you more political lessons, the reason is clear, you still have to rely on down-to-earth work. Xiaotao, the textile industry is the cornerstone of our career, work hard. ”

"Okay, you've taken this to this level, so what else do I have to say? Done! Tao Chenxi also said happily, "I won't go home from today onwards, and I will sleep in the workshop at night." There are no big problems with spinning machines and looms, it won't take long, and then we will tackle the cotton gin! At present, it relies on primitive manual ginning (1), which is too inefficient. Not only does it occupy a lot of labor, but it will also be unable to keep up with the production of machines behind in terms of production efficiency, thus restricting our production capacity. ”

"Okay, that's interesting!" Ma Jia smiled and said, "Then I'll wait for your good news." Well, I won't be delayed, and now that I'm free, I'll go to the Ministry of Finance again to see if I can get some funds for you. ”

"That's great!" Tao Chenxi said with a smile, "Hurry up, don't come back to see the brothers if you apply for less than 1,000 yuan in funds." ”

(1) Cotton ginning mainly refers to the removal of cottonseeds from cotton. The cotton that has just been picked is called seed cotton, and the lint after processing and removing the cotton seeds is called lint.

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