The new book "The Rise of Great Powers 1900", please collect it.

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Although the Northern Expedition failed, a huge amount of material was consumed.

For this reason, Yang Chao sold 50 million bonds, and with last year's surplus of more than 10 million, the funds flowing into the market this year will be more than 60 million taels, which is almost the same as the previous circulation.

But it's not entirely bad, because not all of this silver has become the silver of the wealthy family, dug a pit and buried it.

In fact, most of them have become cotton cloth, iron armor, and weapons, that is to say, they have flowed into textile workshops, iron workshops and other industries.

Stimulated by this, a large number of large-scale factories appeared in the south of the Yangtze River, and the number of workshops with thousands of looms in the Songjiang area reached 100.

This is the typical germ of capitalism.

In fact, Yang Chao has never understood why the emergence of this kind of large-scale handicraft workshop is called the germ of capitalism, Yang Chao thinks that the phenomenon of capital accumulation has begun to appear in human history, and the generation of big businessmen has it, but why only this phenomenon of the accumulation of industrial capital is called the germ of capitalism.

In Yang Chao's view, this phenomenon is nothing more than a manifestation of the early stage of the industrial revolution and the basis for the beginning of industrialization, so Yang Chao feels that it is more appropriate to call the germ of the industrial revolution than the bud of capitalism.

In any case, this sprout appeared, and it was nourished by the war, and perhaps capitalism arose because of the war, and it can have something to do with this capitalist sprout, hence the name?

Yang Chao feels that this kind of sprout is worth vigorously supporting and cultivating.

After recuperating at home for a month, Yang Chao began to act non-stop, and this Northern Expedition failed. Let him see that his strength is not enough to form an overwhelming advantage over the Manchus. We also have to strengthen our own strength. He had to be patient and not rush to achieve something, for the loss of civilization to barbarism abounded, even a trend, and he did not want to be like this.

I went to Xinjiangkou first.

It used to be a big camp, but now the role of the big camp has been reduced, and the role of the production base has become prominent.

Yang Chao recruited 50,000 craftsmen, and there were craftsmen working here day and night.

But among the fifty thousand craftsmen. There are more than a dozen of them, but they stand out, not because they are exceptional, but because they are too strange.

Because these are foreigners.

When a dozen foreigners first came to Daming, they came with a haughty posture because they came from a new empire.

This emerging empire was not England, not the Netherlands, not even France, which dominated the continent after the Thirty Years' War, but Sweden, which also rose to prominence in the Thirty Years' War.

The country of Sweden, after the Viking era, fell silent. For hundreds of years, it has been regarded as a barbaric land by European civilization, and it is on the same level as Russia.

But in the Thirty Years' War, they were led by the heroic King Gustav. Rising to Europe at a frantic pace, the legacy of the Vikings and the modern military organization allowed the Swedish army to conquer the entire German continent.

The reason for the strength of the Swedish army is nothing more than three points: the first is the super brave spirit, the second is the strict organization and discipline, and the third is the advanced weaponry.

The first point is easy to explain, the descendants of the Vikings naturally retain a large number of ancestral spirits, and culture has been passed down for far more time than people imagine; The second is that the new military reforms initiated by the Dutchman Maurice, which were introduced by the Swedes, strengthened the probability of infantry, cavalry, and musketeers; The third point is somewhat surprising, that is, Sweden is already a military industrial powerhouse at this time.

The Swedes have only been independent for a hundred years, and have only gone through two or three generations of kings, and before that they were little more than a barren pasture under the rule of Denmark.

After independence, under the rule of the Vasa dynasty, it attracted Dutch investment. The Dutch's knowledge of business administration, combined with Sweden's abundant iron ore and forest resources, gave Sweden a well-developed military industry, and it was only during the Thirty Years' War that the Swedish army was able to show its talents.

Almost all the workshops in Sweden were run by Dutch, so the cannon casting craftsmen recruited by Yang Chao entrusted by the Dutch East India Company were also Swedish craftsmen.

When these dozen craftsmen first came to Daming, they were still very proud, but they were soon shocked, and the large workshop of 50,000 people in Xinjiangkou was enough to surprise them. Before the Industrial Revolution, the unique organizational ability of the Oriental people was unimaginable in the Western world, and it was impossible to build the Great Wall, dig canals, and manage the Yellow River again and again without a high degree of obedience and super organizational ability.

At the same time, the Swedish craftsmen found that the craftsmanship of the Ming craftsmen was not inferior to them at all, and even unique in many ways, so they quickly put away the arrogance characteristic of the subjects of a new empire.

However, the Swedes also had their own specialties, and they were quickly recognized by the craftsmen of the new Eguta, and they did not despise them as barbarians, and the two sides were happy.

The first strength of the Swedes was the method of casting cannons, and the second was the processing technology.

There is nothing special about the casting method, the East and the West are just melting the molten iron and injecting it into the mold, but the blast furnace that melts the molten iron is not the same, the Ming Dynasty uses a shaft furnace, and even the open melting, the furnace temperature is not high, generally not more than 1,000 degrees, and even special treatment is required to melt the pig iron. Westerners, on the other hand, have adopted blast furnaces with hydraulic blasts, and the furnace temperature has been greatly increased, reaching more than 1,000 degrees.

High temperatures are the secret.

In fact, the Chinese have long mastered the secret of high-temperature furnaces, such as the temperature of the magnetic kiln for firing porcelain can reach up to 1,400 degrees, but it has not been applied to cast iron. Westerners have not mastered the porcelain-making process for many years in the past, and a big reason is that the kiln temperature has not been mastered.

The technology of high-temperature furnaces is used by Chinese to make porcelain, while Westerners are used to cast cannons, and that's it.

After renovating the blast furnace, the quality of the Shinjiangkou cast cannon was improved.

The second technology of the Swedes is the barrel boring machine, Leonardo da Vinci has designed the drawings of the machine tool more than 100 years ago, and the West used a lot of artillery in the Thirty Years' War, so the boring machine technology has been greatly improved.

However, the Ming people still use manual cleaning of the cannon chamber, so this technology is also admired by the craftsmen.

Of particular interest is Song Sanjin, who is the boy who invented the iron mold casting cannon, but at this time he has also become a young and promising young man, and he is the youngest master craftsman in Xinjiangkou, and the second level of the four-level craftsman system of apprentice, master, master craftsman and craftsman.

It was with the help of Song Sanjin that the Swedes copied the Western cannon barrel boring machine in just three months, but this boring machine, like the casting furnace, needed water, and Yang Chao had to let people open another new workshop in Zhongshan.

Song Sanjin is like a fish in water in this cannon workshop composed of Swedes and Ming gunsmiths, the boring machine makes him obsessed, he continues to research, improve several places, and the performance is even better than the original Western boring machine, this is the spillover effect of the collision of technology.

Song Sanjin took the hydraulic boring machine as the principle, and also produced a drilling machine, which replaced the previous process of needing to use people to drill the barrel, and increased the production speed of the bird gun again, and it was no longer a problem for Jiangnan to produce 100,000 bird guns a month, and Yang Chao had the conditions to let all soldiers be equipped with bird guns.

However, Song Sanjin still has some dissatisfactions, such as the factory to be built in the mountains, the water power is always affected, and the production can be met during the wet season, but not in the dry season, even if a dam is built.

Song Sanjin is already studying how to use the power of the Yangtze River waterwheel, if he can use the water power of the Yangtze River, obviously there is no need to be afraid of the dry season, and the Yangtze River will not stop flowing at any time.

Yang Chao met with these craftsmen, learned about their work, praised them, and according to the habits of the Ming Dynasty, each of them was rewarded with something, and they were very happy.

At the same time, I also learned that in addition to casting cannons, these people can also make Western muskets, and even some people can make Western swords and armor.

It's just that these people said that if they want to build swords and armor, they need a hydraulic forging hammer, and they need an additional investment, which is not a problem at all, Yang Chao wishes that they would bring in all the Western machines, so he asked the master craftsman to immediately raise manpower and make a hydraulic forging machine according to the requirements of these foreigners.

Yang Chao was greatly inspired by the inspection of Xinjiangkou and spent more than ten days, combined with his understanding of other industrial and commercial conditions, to write a long plan.

Then he took people and went to Suzhou.

Previously, Zhang Guo had bought more than 100 acres of mulberry forests in Wu County, as well as a landlord's house, and invited a group of forty or fifty-year-old women.

The mulberry forest is an old mulberry forest that has been in operation for decades, and the house is not too big on a hillside, but it is not a problem to live hundreds of people.

The landlord's family lost money because of the business, so they sold the house and mulberry forest on the south side of the hillside, and his family still has thousands of acres of fertile land nearby, which is not a small rich family.

These old women are also old silkworm women who have raised silkworms all their lives, but now their lives are quite poor.

Not to mention the silkworm raising women like them, even the old craftsmen with exquisite skills in the city, if they fail to train sons, or if they do not have sons and do not receive good apprentices, the old age life of losing the ability to work will be very miserable.

These old women are also physically exhausted, and it is difficult to continue raising silkworms, so they were invited by Yang Chao and were very satisfied with a monthly salary of three taels of silver a month.

Yang Chao talked with them and carefully asked about the secrets of silkworm raising, and they all knew everything.

Mulberry silkworm is a precious animal, after being domesticated for thousands of years, it can not live without human beings at all, it is very delicate, just like the famous horses of later generations, Mongolian horses can be comfortable on the grassland, but these horses may die.

Silkworms in different periods need different environments, small silkworms need a high temperature and humidity environment, and large silkworms need to be ventilated and breathable, these old silkworm girls understand, but in the past they were only raising silkworms at home, so the conditions often do not meet the requirements, and the quality of silk cannot be guaranteed.

Yang Chao intends to fully meet their requirements. (To be continued......)