Daming's electric power industry actually started very early, and soon after Edison invented the electric light, Daming's electric light was lit. Pen fun and pavilion www.biquge.info

But at first, it was only in a few places, it was a new thing, and it appeared for the first time at the Shamian exhibition dedicated to the expo area, and it was a new thing for several years after that, and the single lights on display could even sell tickets.

The real power industry was in 1885, before the war with France, when Siemens introduced electric light production lines.

Of course, before this, it cannot be said that there is no power industry, Siemens has monopolized this industry for more than 20 years, and like the Mauser brothers, due to the early development of Daming, they have achieved great success in this emerging market, and even lost interest in the narrow Prussian market.

The difference with the Mauser brothers is that Werner Siemens still wants to return to Germany for development, and runs at both ends all year round.

Before the introduction of electric light production, Siemens' main products were telegraphs and later telephones.

These two products allowed them to complete their initial capital accumulation, and when they invested in the electric light factory, it was already a large enterprise with tens of thousands of people, and Siemens is a successful entrepreneur all over the world.

Siemens also has production lines for generators and electric motors and, above all, a complete set of technologies.

It's just that before the large-scale application of electricity, the promotion of these two products was slow, the price of a single product was high, and the profit was limited.

Electric light is another growth point that Siemens has found, after the telegraph and telephone. They had already successfully promoted the technology to many customers before setting up the electric light factory. Therefore, after the start of the electric light factory, the benefits are quite good.

But Siemens' customers, as before, are mainly large customers, such as large factories, railway companies, telegraph companies, etc. They provide complete solutions directly to each factory, using Siemens' generators to generate electricity, Siemens' electric lights to illuminate, and then start production day and night.

The advantage of this model is that the customers are all large customers, and they can cooperate for a long time with stable profits.

The disadvantage is that there is no way to supply electricity to the common people, because there is no transmission grid, and there is no will, or even thought, to build one.

The first company to decide to supply electricity to the people was a company founded by overseas Chinese. It was 1888, and Zhu Jinglun saw an advertisement for this company in the newspaper. The advertising slogan at the time was that the lights provided by their company would not catch fire. So later, the common people called it a fireless lamp, and the boss simply changed the company's name to a flameless lamp company. The company's business model is to provide electric lighting to individual homes by building power lines.

The owner of the company is named Huang Bingchang, is an overseas Chinese in the United States, when he was young, he went to the United States to join his uncle, his uncle is the owner of a railway company in Washington State, said that it is a railway company, in fact, it is to recruit Chinese workers to repair the railway contract foreman, through the management of coolies accumulated the first pot of gold, after the Ming crackdown on coolie trade, changed to operate a small shop, slowly developed.

Huang Bingchang cooperates with his uncle, and the business is neither big nor small, but he has a wide range of contacts. Later, after the United States excluded China, it planned to return to China for development. Historically, he made his fortune overseas, returned to China to start a new industry, and with the support of the ministers of the Westernization Movement, he established China's first electric lighting company.

In this era, after he saw the electric light market, he also planned to start an electric light company, unlike in history, he registered the company in Daming and easily, instead of the history of Zhang Zhidong and other powerful ministers to support the start. As a result, the time he spent in the electric lighting industry was greatly reduced.

After registering the company, he immediately returned to the United States, used his connections, raised $400,000 in capital among the local overseas Chinese and wealthy businessmen, purchased two 100-horsepower engines and two 1,000-volt alternators from the Westinghouse Electric Company of the United States, and hired American engineer Weiss to be responsible for maintenance, and the power generation of these equipment is planned to meet the electricity needs of more than 1,500 electric lights.

But the company's development did not go well, because the electricity price was very high at the beginning, and the people of Guangzhou, who were just used to using the Nobel brothers' kerosene lamps, did not accept it, so he had to advertise. Historically, due to poor management, the company closed down after nine years.

Fortunately, the emperor, who liked to read newspapers, saw their advertisement, so he approached them and called the palace.

In fact, at that time, the palace was already using electric lights, which was also a holistic solution provided by Siemens, using direct current, which was considered safer. Zhu Jinglun wanted the Flameless Lamp Company to supply electricity to the lights in the palace, but at first even officials opposed it, and under the influence of Edison, the whole world thought that alternating current was dangerous. Zhu Jinglun said that he hoped to use the same electricity as the people, and since the people could use it, the emperor should also use it.

After suppressing the opposition of the officials with great reason, the electricity of the Fireless Lamp Company was sent to the Imperial Palace.

Even the emperor was using their electric lights, and the huge brand and advertising effect instantly increased their orders, and the rich merchants also had to be electrified, and the shops also had electricity, and the equipment of 1,500 electric lamps could not be supplied in the first year. So they continued to purchase, and within three years, they connected 10,000 wealthy households in the entire city of Guangzhou to electricity.

But their reputation was not good, and Zhu Jinglun's daughter often complained that the power outage affected her and her friends' performances, and she didn't like the fireless lamp company very much.

Even the palace was cut off from power, apparently the company's technical level was too poor at the beginning, and the power grid built was overloaded. There are also reasons for capital accumulation, Huang Bingchang, a profiteer, obviously attaches too much importance to making money, and has the small family spirit of overseas Chinese in the early days, and he is very stingy with investment in new equipment.

The good times did not last long, and three years later, the Ming Dynasty broke out a war with the United States, and the supply of equipment from the United States was cut off, and the equipment update of the company without fire could not keep up with the development.

During the American War, the circuit network built by Siemens quickly surpassed the non-fire lamp company and became the largest lighting company in Guangzhou.

On the one hand, the company imports equipment through other countries, or imports American equipment in transit, and at the same time maintains the old equipment hard, but the development speed is still not as fast as that of Siemens. People use their own equipment, their own lines, and maintain their own technical barriers to the whole industry, which cannot be easily broken through by capital.

Finally the end of the war with the United States, the operation of the company ushered in a turnaround, Huang Bingchang under the pressure of competition, began to invest on a large scale, no longer counting small accounts, he is a very courageous person. Raised two million dollars from the United States and Daming at the same time. First, it signed a long-term agreement with Westinghouse, and Westinghouse sent a technical team of 100 people to provide technical support to the company. The company has successively used Westinghouse's technology and equipment to build its own transmission power grids in emerging cities such as Kowloon and Humen, and has fiercely fought with Siemens.

Two years later, the company directly established a joint venture with Westinghouse to build a power plant in Guangzhou to produce power generation equipment. In order to reduce costs and compete with Siemens. It can be said that by using Westinghouse's technology, the company can grow step by step in the competition with Siemens.

Now they have also ushered in a new opportunity for development, and China has been reunified.

Zhu Jinglun convened a special meeting and demanded that the southern cities should also have some affairs. Financial support, tax reductions, external tenders, and the requirement to build a transmission network in every provincial capital in China to send electric lights to each province.

In order to avoid vicious competition in the important cities of the Ming Dynasty, some officials proposed that only one company should be allowed to operate in a city, which was vetoed by Zhu Jinglun, and instead proposed that at least two companies should operate in a city.

It's not just the policy of the two giants of Flame Lamp and Siemens, it's just that they will definitely get the biggest piece of the pie, but at the same time there will be new competitors coming in. In a city like Guangzhou, it is obvious that it is possible to make a profit if you have three or five companies. In a city of Guangzhou's size, there are at least two in the north, Hankou and Beiqi.

The two are already considered protection, and they can also contribute to a certain amount of competition.

After the meeting, the Ministry of Industry quickly formulated a policy, issued an announcement to the outside world, and publicized the bidding procedure.

When bidding, sure enough, there are more than two companies, many powerful big businessmen, large companies, after seeing the profits of the fireless lamp and Siemens over the years, have joined the ranks, the newly established electric light company is not less than 30, for many businessmen, they do not have the ambition to monopolize the entire industry, but if they can occupy half of the market share in a city, it is undoubtedly a big business, and everyone thinks it is profitable.

Of course, these new companies have industries related to the electric lighting industry, such as flameless lamps and Siemens, as well as Sweden's Ericsson company, which has been suppressed by Siemens in Daming, and France's Schneider company, which has regained Daming, and some of which are slightly related to electric lights, such as glass factories. There are also merchants who have completely different connections with electric lights, such as a businessman who distributes furs, who claimed that his shop had suffered heavy losses from a fire, and then used electric lights, and was the first businessman to use electric lights and understand electric lights.

I don't know if these companies can survive, but if they smash real money, they can always make a splash, which will give birth to the rapid development and maturity of the power industry and become the next pillar industry of Daming.

And how loud this splash was, even Zhu Jinglun didn't expect it at the beginning.

Because this splash overflowed the embankment, affecting the larger industry.

That is, it can only be described in two words, the huge Chinese handicraft industry.

In the statistics of the Ming Dynasty alone, the handicraft workshops of the Ming Dynasty are as high as five million, and after the unification of the country, such workshops may be close to or even exceed 10 million. Although the vast majority of handicraft workshops are self-employed, relying on a few apprentices or ancestral crafts to make a living, there are always some workshops that will slowly grow larger, employing three or five people, a dozen people, or even dozens of people. Large workshops with hundreds or even hundreds of people are not unusual.

But one of the characteristics of these handicraft workshops is that the process is complex, it is difficult to machine it, and it is difficult to use power.