The most expensive thing in the world is not to buy luxury goods or buy a private jet, but to buy a fleet to travel the world and explore new continents. Queen Isabella even had to sell the jewels in her crown to raise enough money to support Columbus's expeditions. Zheng He's seven voyages to the West emptied the astronomical treasury accumulated by Yongle Shengshi. According to this ratio, in the Soviet-American Cold War era, it was a Star Wars-level money burner of the space race.

Why did Columbus give Spain the opportunity to become the first empire with a colony area of more than 1 million square kilometers, and Zheng He's actions did not upgrade the national power of the Ming Empire? Why did the United States and the Soviet Union, which engaged in the space race, turn out very differently?

Although these money-burning projects in different eras and different countries consume a lot of money, the effects are completely different. Why? The reason is simple, investing in productive projects can naturally generate positive returns. The purpose determines the outcome. In order to obtain new shipping routes, in order to obtain shipping routes that could produce spices and gold, Queen Isabella's purpose was only to promote national prestige and engage in peaceful diplomacy that bought people's hearts.

The background of the introduction of the "Star Wars Program" was in the late stage of the Cold War, because the Soviet Union had a more powerful nuclear attack force and missile defense breaking capability than the United States, the United States was afraid that the situation of the "nuclear balance" would be broken, and it needed to establish an effective anti-missile system to ensure the survivability and reliable deterrence capability of its strategic nuclear forces and maintain its nuclear superiority. At the same time, the United States also wanted to use its strong economic strength to drag down the Soviet Union's economy through space weapons competition.

The Soviet Union, which was passively facing the war, was naturally inferior to the economically powerful United States, and in the process of having to mobilize resources to force the competition, it seriously damaged the consumer goods industry, the foundation of its own economy, and was dragged into a quagmire from which it could not extricate itself. One is normal military spending. For self-preservation; One is to be strong and stay ahead. The cost of nature is not comparable.

From an economic point of view, both Spain and the United States are small and big. Both the Ming Dynasty and the Soviet Union fought against the small. The natural results are quite different.

Naturally, the people will not make the mistakes of the Ming Dynasty, and at the beginning they set up shipyards and commercial houses in Dengzhou, Qingzhou, Xinjing, Quanzhou, Fuzhou, Guangzhou, Qinzhou and other ports. Quanzhou's Ocean Academy has trained thousands of senior talents who have reached the most powerful captain level of this era. Similarly, the talent pool in shipbuilding, trade, Nanyang development and other related fields is also relatively sufficient. In order to put an end to the absurdity of equipment and human beings, such as doctors for the prevention of tropical diseases, technicians and equipment maintainers in plantations, translators, mercenaries and security guards, etc., are all prepared.

Three years before the Summer War, orders from various shipyards were scheduled to go ten years later. Regardless of whether or not Chenji participates in the shares, all coastal shipyards can rely on orders to bank loans to expand production capacity and meet orders.

this era. China's shipbuilding industry has ranked first in the world for 100 consecutive years, and China's share in the world's shipbuilding industry has reached 80% in the limited statistics available. Large ships of more than 1,000 tons account for 100%. By 1945, ship production would reach 100,000 dwt. Achieve 95% of the world's production capacity, and establish maritime supremacy with absolute superiority.

There are three main reasons for the rapid development of the shipbuilding industry: first, the industrialization and technology diffusion through the crowd have led to a huge demand for consumer goods such as industrial raw materials and spices, resulting in a shortage of existing transportation capacity; The second is the terrible expectation in the strategy that within twenty years, the established colonial and globalized systems will need to transport 10 million tons. This is not at all in the same order of magnitude as the scale of material exchanges between the East and the West in the past tens of thousands of tons; Third, China's large amount of excess capacity needs a large number of markets to digest. The huge production capacity that needs to be digested by the whole world requires a large number of ships to be transported to every corner where there are people and sold.

The pressure and support of imports, planning and exports have naturally led to the explosive growth of the industry.

At present, the shipbuilding industry of the Chinese Empire has basically formed a relatively complete industrial system including scientific research, design, production, supporting, and repair, and has the ability to know all ship varieties, from small 100-ton fishing boats to 3,000-ton clippers.

The empire has 200 shipbuilding and repair and supporting enterprises of various scales, with more than 50,000 employees, including 12 with annual sales revenue of more than 1 million yuan and 20,000 employees. There are 10 dry docks of more than 1,000 tons, 3 floating docks and 18 slipways in the country. The shipbuilding capacity is 30,000 tons.

By 1941 (the republican calendar was used all year onwards). The largest shipyard in the Chinese Empire, the Xinjing Baoshan Shipyard, was officially completed. This shipyard is the largest shipbuilding company under the Marine Group of Cross Construction, and after the founding of the People's Republic of China, it received capital injection from the imperial government to expand (the state-owned shareholding reached 49%). The shipyard became the first major shipyard in the world to reach a capacity of 10,000 tons. The plant has 2 docks. Dock 1 is the world's largest shipyard for the construction of 5,000-ton large all-steel modern cruisers, and Dock 2 is suitable for the construction of 3,000-ton clippers and various large ships. The two docks are each equipped with a 30-ton gantry crane.

This time-packed shipyard has the most advanced equipment of its time and almost all kinds of heavy machinery needed for modern shipbuilding.

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Li Ji waved the plan in his hand: "Do we need a large ship propelled by a steam-powered propeller?" Of course it is needed, but not now. Neither our steel production nor the macroeconomy met the minimum standards at the time of the popularity of such ships. Just as a landlord who does not have 300 acres of land cannot use large agricultural machinery, small agricultural machinery is sufficient.

The use of 1,000-ton riveted all-steel steamships to make warships is simply a waste of materials. Such ships were most suitable for mobile fortresses in this era. Commercial wooden clippers are enough, we have fully entered industrialization, and the level of social science and technology has generally reached the age of steam, let's make all-steel steam-powered ships. Before a country's surplus capital reaches the purchasing power of 100 billion kilograms of grain, engaging in heavy machinery and large-scale shipbuilding industries is simply suicidal. It's not that we don't have the technology, it's not that we don't have the money. It's okay to build one or two ships for fun, but it's easy to go bankrupt on a large scale. If you build too much, you may not even be able to recover the cost when you scrap it. Li Ji complained to Li Fei, a believer in the giant ship cannon that proposed to build the 88th fleet

"Although it takes only 12 days to cross the Pacific Ocean, it is already a miracle of this era, but the journey is on the sea, how can you tolerate this kind of small boat as your ride? According to your net worth. Start at least at the Titanic level! ”

"Lao Bai, don't ridicule Xiao Feifei, he is the fate of going to the sea to be bumpy, you don't know yet! This guy secretly took a boat to the Ryukyu Islands to investigate when he was teaching at the Ocean Academy! His observations are still locked in the data room of the Imperial Ocean University (which was upgraded after the founding of the People's Republic of China).

You too, what are you anxious about, what is there to investigate in a barren archipelago where the surrounding forces are all vassals and direct territories, and you have made a summary of hundreds of pages. You're not tired. When we unify the Asia-Pacific region, what is the point of the first island chain? Isn't that our vegetable garden? Who has the ability to snatch it? Zhao Shouzhong's face turned blue when he looked at Li Fei. After all, it's not anyone's plan that can be ruthlessly vetoed by others, so they have to speak out to appease them.

"Well, no more say. Your plan to build all-steel warships and even fleets is just as unnecessary as the plan to build a space and space fleet in the 20th century. Although we have technology, we do not have enough talents and supporting facilities, not to mention the demand and the background of the times. We can do a good job of clipping logistics network to meet the needs for decades. When your son gets married, there will naturally be an all-steel battleship. Do you want your son who has just completed the moon to be named Li Haijun! It's a pretty domineering name, how about it? ”

"I said Lao Zhou. Why don't you give that kid in your wife's belly a name. How about calling Zhou Shuren? It's also very domineering!"

"Don't do that again! What are you doing to show off that you're married! It's amazing to have a son! How embarrassing is it for me to be an unmarried young man! "Li Fei, as the only one among the traversers who has not yet married a wife, is naturally more sensitive. Zhao Shouzhong, who was the first to get married, and Wen Yanbo, who often corresponded to each other, were friendly, and they became a family, with eight sons and thirty-nine grandchildren. Zhao Shouzhong, who hopes to have many sons and grandchildren, married his granddaughter, and now has two sons and one daughter, which is the most children in the crossing. The eldest son, Zhao Wenwen, is four years old and can become the main force of soy sauce, although it is impossible for this second generation of gods (who can almost call the wind and rain to the gods) to make soy sauce.

"Don't leave it crooked, continue with the original topic. Since Feifei's proposal has been shelved until 20 years later. Let's discuss now how we can increase the capacity of which shipyards in the short term. Although the clipper ship is good, it cannot be out of thin air if the supporting facilities are insufficient. ”

"Isn't it enough to build a few more supporting factories?"

"Today's old shipbuilding families and small workshop owners who produce wood consumables, paints, and spare parts are very open-mouthed! Each minimum asking price is ten times the asking price of net worth. Almost no one agreed to the proposal we proposed to take a stake and the terms of cooperation. These terms are the terms and conditions of the long-term cooperation between us and our partners. It seems that after the founding of the People's Republic of China, many people have not yet clearly understood the situation! ”

"If you want to bring them down, just say it!"

"It's nothing more than letting partners not give them orders and starve them to death! It's not that you don't know the profits of shipbuilding. With their greed and the situation in the Quanzhou area. It's still impossible to get these bastards in a short period of time. ”

"What's the situation?"

"Many shipyard owners are overseas merchants who travel overseas merchant fleets, and it is a bit difficult to cut off their capital flow."

"Our plan to get ahead of the curve may be about to start, I have a hunch!"

"Nonsense! What's the difference between you and seeing a bird and saying I have a hunch that a bird is going to fly by. Banks are in our hands, and liquidity and cash flow are our sticks. Liu Xin was murderous.

"You still have to give them orders of ten times the production capacity, and wait until they borrow money to expand production capacity and then withdraw the order, although the left-handed order company loses a little deposit, but the right-hand bank can ask them to repay the loan, drain their capital flow, or even directly make them bankrupt?" Tech nerd Qian Jin couldn't help but ask.

"I don't even want to use such an old-fashioned trick." Sun Chang, who was in charge of the merger business, was embarrassed.

"It doesn't matter if the trick is old or not, it just works. I don't see the Americans in the 21st century still using this trick to maliciously merge! White cats don't matter black cats. Bai Jia emphasized the cat theory.

"It's difficult to get this fragile anti-takeover alliance even into Lao Chen's eyes, and you have to get it to the meeting? You see Lao Chen is going to fall asleep. Zhou Lijian looked at Chen Guanxian's sleepy expression and teased.

Chen Guanxian, who heard his name, naturally had a little reaction, opened his eyes and looked at his colleagues who were staring at him, embarrassed, "I have approved more than 20 million technical transformation fund loans in the past few days, and I worked overtime until late, and I didn't sleep well!" However, these blind guys are still a minority, and the real opponents are afraid to ask for such a price. What kind of confidence do those small paint workshops have to oppose the takeover? It's not just a few sea merchants who are making trouble behind. With just a few big shipyards, the alliance will soon collapse. ”

"I didn't expect you to be so benevolent, why didn't I see you talk so well when I brought down those Sichuan money houses?" Li Ji nodded, and then said, "Let's start with a few sea merchants, what's the matter if the tiger doesn't fight the flies?" I'm not Lao Jiang. Take the Pu family, who has cooperated with us three times in trade, this descendant of the Arabs makes a lot of money in China, and is he worthy of the majority of consumers without blood? (To be continued......)