It is clear that the trade with Japan is going very smoothly. Twenty Chinese merchant ships came to Japan and brought a large number of goods.

Similarly, large quantities of silver and copper were also obtained from Japan.

At this time, Japan had a lot of silver mines in the making, and at this time, Japan had not yet reached the time to limit the outflow of precious metals, and the export of silver from foreign trade had not yet reached its peak.

Copper mining in Japan was not so large at this time, but there was a lot of copper.

Other than that, there are not many commodities in Japan. What could be shipped back to China for sale were katana, as well as some fishing goods, as well as sulfur needed to make gunpowder.

The goods of 20 merchant ships were exchanged for more than 5 million yuan of silver, and at the same time, a large amount of copper and sulfur were exchanged for them, and then they returned to Tianjin.

After the departure of the Chinese merchant fleet, the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan ordered an increase in copper mining. Copper mining is of great interest to Japan, and it can be exchanged for many goods.

In contrast, Daming's profit from this trade has reached about six times.

It was only a trip, less than two months, and a lot of time in between, waiting for the Japanese to transport the sulfur and copper to Nagasaki, and when they returned to Tianjin, the profit was as high as six times, which is definitely an astonishing profit figure.

There will be such an astonishing profit, mainly because Japan has silver production at this time, plus Japan does not have the ability to produce various luxury goods and some daily necessities, the purchasing power of silver in Japan itself is not high, and because these goods are scarce luxury goods, so the price of shipping to Japan immediately doubled.

According to the original history, Japan will issue a purchase restriction order in another six or seven years. Restricting the purchase of luxury goods by Japanese lords and samurai. Thus curbing currency outflows.

Hence trade with Japan. That is, there will be higher profits for another six or seven years. After that, the trade was mainly to obtain copper from Japan.

In a few years, both China and Japan will actually face a huge challenge, that is, the natural disasters of the Xiaoice Age.

Famine will occur not only in China, but also in Japan.

In such a situation, currency often plays a greater role. If there is not enough silver in circulation, it will cause deflation, which will further hit the scale of production. exacerbating the extent of famine.

China cut off trade with the Spaniards at this time, and silver inflows would obviously decline. However, the scale of trade with the Portuguese will increase, and the impact will not be too great.

Such a trade despite the fact that it brings a lot of problems, such as the fact that the rich people become very rich. But it also has to be sustained. Otherwise, the economy of the southern coastal provinces will be hit hard and the inland economy will be affected. Because the decrease in the inflow of silver will lead to a decline in the amount of silver in circulation. After all, most of the silver is actually in the hands of those who have money, and they don't have much to spend, so they are basically put in the silver treasury to 'mold', after the Manchu Qing Dynasty entered the customs. In Jiangnan, a rich household is raided, that is, hundreds of thousands of taels or hundreds of thousands of taels of silver. Suffice it to say a lot.

Trade with Europeans does not increase China's national power. Because the productivity of Europeans is not as good as that of the Ming Dynasty, but this kind of trade has made China's economy hijacked by the silver of Europeans, and once it is completely stopped, there will be a big mess.

The profit from this trade with the Japanese reached more than 8 million yuan. At the same time, the royal trade with the Portuguese was also carried out in Macao.

Trade with the Portuguese this year, with the full involvement of the Royal Trading Company. The original Portuguese suppliers have become sub-suppliers.

These merchants from the provinces of Guangdong and Fujian first sold their goods to the Royal Trading Company. The Royal Trading Company then sold the goods to the Portuguese, making a lot of money in between. While raising the prices of export commodities slightly, it has also depressed the purchase prices of commodities for those who supply them.

Press down a little on both sides, and the profit will come up immediately.

At the same time, many goods began to be supplied by the North Naoli, such as cotton cloth and porcelain. Most of the porcelain and cotton cloth in the trade with the Portuguese was shipped from Beizhili. It's a little worse in quality, but it's not much worse. The Portuguese were perfectly able to accept it.

In addition, the steel products of Beizhili, as well as glass products, were also purchased by the Portuguese. However, the metallurgical industry in Guangdong has suffered a certain blow, and in the past, iron pots and other things in Guangdong were relatively popular export commodities.

The Portuguese, on the other hand, preferred the steel products of Beizhili, which were of higher quality than those in Guangdong. Other commodities with higher requirements for steel, the more obvious the advantages of steel products in Beizhili. In terms of glass products, the Portuguese mainly buy glass plates produced by Daming, as well as fitting mirrors.

In addition, there are larger goods such as copperware, cane sugar, and raw silk. Bronze ware was also made in the northern Zhili, while sugar and raw silk were supplied by the southern provinces.

To the surprise of the Portuguese, among the export goods provided by the Ming Dynasty, there were still a large number of muskets.

These muskets were full-fledged flintlock muskets, of extremely good quality, at least twenty or thirty years more advanced than those commonly armed by Europeans.

The Portuguese immediately felt as if they had found a treasure and begged the Ming officials to sell them more muskets.

This request was quickly met, and the craftsmen of the Northern Naoli Royal Military Factory began to manufacture these flintlock pistols in large quantities at full speed.

After all, these flintlock pistols were exported to European countries, and there was no threat to the Ming Dynasty, and the performance of the muskets in this era was just like that, the Portuguese wanted to buy them, and the Ming Dynasty was naturally willing to sell them.

It's just that in terms of price, a flintlock pistol reached forty taels.

The price is naturally relatively high, but for Europe, which has a lot of silver, such a price is barely acceptable.

The Portuguese procured 10,000 sticks.

The scale of trade between the Ming and the Portuguese continued to rise. The goods of Kita-Naoli have also found new sales outlets, and they are selling well.

The demand for overseas exports has obviously injected a shot in the arm for the economic development of Beizhili, and the factories and workshops opened in Beizhili in the third year of Tianqi have increased a lot.

By the third year of the Apocalypse, the steel smelting and manufacturing of Beizhili had developed into a leading industry.

The metallurgical industry in the northern provinces has been shattered by the impact of Beizhili's iron and steel products. Let the steel smelting of Beizhili undoubtedly become the market hegemon of the northern provinces. From iron to steel. It's all true.

Compared with. Steel smelting in the southern provinces has also been hit to an increasingly sluggish level. In terms of iron products, the metallurgical industry in the south can still occupy the main market share, but in terms of steel products, it is difficult to resist the impact of steel products in North Zhili.

In this case, the production cost of converter steel in Beizhili has been reduced by more than ten times. Even at one-tenth of the original steel price, it can be very profitable. What's more, the steel price in Beizhili has only dropped by half, and the profits are extremely rich. The profit margin can be called windfall profits, and the market demand is still very large.

The market of Daming is naturally extremely broad, and there is a great demand for steel.

What made Zhu Youxiao even happier was that the Apocalypse was in April of the third year. The Royal Institute of Science and Technology has also made new breakthroughs in the smelting technology of converter steel.

After some research, the research team of the Royal Institute of Science and Technology successfully solved the problem of converter steelmaking of high-phosphorus iron ore by changing the acidic silicic acid lining of the converter to an alkaline furnace lining, and then using limestone to dephosphorize.

Previously, converter steel was made from iron ore with a high phosphorus content, but the resulting steel was brittle and could not be used at all. After this technical improvement, iron ore with high phosphorus content can also be smelted by converter steelmaking.

At the same time, the collocation of carbon in molten steel has also been further improved and matured. From high-carbon steel to low-carbon steel, it can be produced together.

This is important for the steel manufacturing industry. Definitely a huge step forward.

Nowadays, craftsmen who manufacture military equipment no longer need to repeatedly forge steel, the labor intensity is greatly reduced, and the efficiency has also been greatly improved.

This steelmaking method does not use fuel, and at the same time smelts molten steel, the speed is faster, and it saves a lot of high-intensity labor process in the processing of steel products, and the cost reduction is absolutely amazing.

It is obviously very normal for steel products to develop into the leading industry of Beizhili. In this era, no country's steel products can compete with the Ming Dynasty.

At this time, the converter steel technology broke through again, which is definitely a new development opportunity for the metallurgical industry of Beizhili. Iron ore everywhere has smelting value, which is the most important thing. Iron and steel smelting is no longer limited to Cizhou, and iron ore can be mined everywhere.

Zhu Youxiao personally met with the research group for improving converter steel, and this group had more than a dozen trainees. For this breakthrough in converter technology, everyone received a reward of thousands of yuan, and also received a part of the patent dividend. It is absolutely impossible to be stingy with these talents.

There are too many rich people in the world, but among these rich people, there are too few people who have contributed to society.

For these groups that contribute to society, we should find ways to make them rich, and when there are more of these people, they will form the backbone of a country.

Therefore, although patents are used by the royal capital, these participants also account for a certain proportion of the research projects. The proceeds from these patents will allow these students to continue to earn for the next 60 years.

"There is still some room for improvement in the converter, but everyone found that there is none. In the process of oxidation of the molten steel in the converter, the heat generated by the combustion of the gas is wasted and not utilized. When Zhu Youxiao met with these students, he reminded them.

"That's right! These calories are wasted! If you use it...... "A student's eyes lit up, but he didn't know what he could do after using it.

The other students were also confused.

Zhu Youxiao continued: "For example, smelting molten iron and scrap steel together, and using this heat, can make the quality of the molten steel smelted better. or the requirements for raw materials can be further reduced. ”

"Your Majesty."

A group of students suddenly realized that theoretically, as long as the heat is used, it can indeed do something. was reminded by Zhu Youxiao, and immediately found the research direction.

"You can continue to study according to the topic!" Zhu Youxiao said to them.

The thing Zhu Youxiao said is open-hearth steel. The difference between open-hearth steel and converter steel is that open-hearth steel makes further use of wasted heat, which further reduces the requirements for raw materials. In the words of farmed livestock, it is more resistant to rough feeding.

In this era, open-hearth steel still has an advantage over converter steel. After all, this year has not yet developed to the extent of direct oxygen blowing, so the advantages of converter steel can not be fully exerted.

If it is developed to the level of oxygen blowing, the smelting time of converter steel will be greatly shortened, and the production capacity will be greatly improved.

In the development of modern smelting technology, converter steel was the mainstream at the beginning, and then for a period of time from World War I to World War II, open-hearth steel occupied the mainstream position. Then it became open-hearth steel and became the mainstream steelmaking method.

The essential principle of both furnaces is the same, that is, the molten iron is oxidized, which burns the gas and charcoal in the molten iron.

If converter steel is developed, then Daming's steel smelting technology will be on a higher level, mainly because the quality of steel can also be improved.

After a while, Xu Guangqi also came and reported to Zhu Youxiao on the teaching situation.

"The Royal Institute of Science and Technology's current research and self-study of the textbook has been partially completed in the first cohort of students. Classes for the second cohort are also underway. Xu Guangqiyu reported that many of the students who entered the Royal Academy of Science and Technology studied very hard.

Coupled with interest and talent, it is also very normal that some students are almost finished learning the textbook.

"Yes, Xu Aiqing has worked hard." Zhu Youxiao praised Xu Guangqi and said that the Royal Institute of Science and Technology is basically led by Xu Guangqi. Zhu Youxiao didn't come to the Royal Academy of Science and Technology very often.

"Weichen is relatively relaxed here, the steam engine research and development team that Your Majesty ordered to be formed, the minister has already been formed. R&D is ready to start. Xu Guangqi mentioned the steam engine, and Zhu Youxiao suddenly said excitedly: "Then start this project!" Develop a steam engine as soon as possible. ”

"Yes, Your Majesty." Xu Guangqi bowed.

The development of a steam engine is actually not difficult, and it has been proven in the laboratory that steam can indeed be used as power.

According to this principle, just build the machine.

The problem is only in terms of mechanical engineering.

The machinery manufacturing technology of Beizhili, after more than two years of development, has reached a good level. Moreover, the development of a steam engine does not require too precise mechanical manufacturing technology.

When it comes to R&D, it's completely possible to let craftsmen create parts by hand. The hand-made parts are not a problem in terms of precision.

As for what kind of seal, it can also be used for air leakage, but the kinetic energy conversion efficiency is not so high. When Westerners first started building steam engines, they actually sealed them with wool blankets. Rubber or something, that's something that didn't come into existence until the invention of the steam engine.

In fact, rubber could not be used in the sealing of steam engines. Something that is so hot with steam, sealed with rubber? Isn't that! It melted in two clicks, and it was sealed with a fart!

In April of the third year of the Apocalypse, the R&D project of the steam engine was officially launched, and the R&D funds were extremely abundant, with a R&D fund of 10,000 silver dollars.

The steam engine, in the world of the seventeenth century, can definitely be called black technology.

Just when Zhu Youxiao was holding back black technology, the fight on the battlefield in Liaodong finally kicked off. (To be continued......)