Everyone looked at Li Fushou with a mysterious smile on his face, and they didn't know why for a while, so they could only laugh dryly.

"Ahem......"

Li Fushou coughed dryly, then frowned and began to perform in thought, and for a while, everyone fell silent and did not dare to interrupt his important thoughts.

A moment later

Li Fushou raised his eyebrows as if he had grasped some inspiration, and said in a somewhat eager voice; "Solid tires? I remember that the Belgian Diez once mentioned the whimsical idea of hollow tires, I think that if hollow tires can be produced, then the use of rubber raw materials must be greatly reduced, and a solid tire can produce two hollow tires, which solves the contradiction in raw materials. ”

"Lord Earl, will the hollow tires not be strong enough?" Hou Guangde was quite concerned about this.

"Then we can strengthen it, for example, add high-strength braid to the hollow tire, of course, horsehair I think it is not possible, can be applied to other high-strength wire materials, this piece of you immediately start to experiment, to see if this idea is feasible. We can't take anything for granted, we have to speak with facts, and see if such an assumption is feasible? ”

"Yes, Lord Earl, we'll do it at once."

"Find more materials to do a comparative test, as for the density of the weave, the higher the better, the surface of the tire with the greatest force can be used in two layers, the specific technical problems you refer to in detail, how long can the relevant test tires be taken out?"

"Returning to the earl, the molds for making tires are ready-made, and we will do it immediately for high-strength knitting, and it is really not possible for workers to weave them by hand, and they can be taken out in two days at most."

"Okay, we must find more materials to compare, the production of tires on the tractor for on-site use, find those rough road conditions to experiment, all for me to run hundreds of kilometers and then say, let the experimental department change people not change the car, try to use bad road conditions to test, so that we can see the real effect, a week later I want to see the comparative production results, whether the idea of this hollow tire can be feased."

"Yes, Lord Earl, I will arrange it as soon as possible and keep an eye on this important matter myself." Hou Guangde bowed and replied.

Li Fushou nodded with satisfaction, and walked towards the factory in front of him, and a group of people followed closely.

But now in a high position, there is certainly no need to do it himself like John Bird Dunlop, a veterinarian who has a large number of people and resources that can be mobilized at will, far faster than the laborious promotion of an ordinary person.

As long as he crooked his mouth, there will naturally be professionals who will put the idea into practice and try their best to improve it.

Once the feasibility of hollow tires is verified (which is inevitable), it is inevitable to register a patent in Europe and the United States, and it can be fully prepared for production and then fully introduced to the market.

First of all, it will be fully implemented from the tractor factory, and when the production equipment of the bicycle factory is in place, another export fist product will be formed, and enter the vast blank market in Europe and the United States.

Holding key patents such as patented hollow tires, radial and valves, Li Fushou is confident that he will firmly control the tire industry in his own hands, so that others will not be able to touch it.

European and American companies want to infringe on who they are, but not anyone's product patents can infringe.

Especially brilliantly;

There is no hollow tire industry in Europe and the United States, this is a completely blank market, just like a series of new diesel engines without competitors, products can freely enter the markets of various countries.

Of course, there are high tariffs, which cannot be avoided.

In today's world, high tariffs prevailed, forming a British trade circle led by Britain and France led by France, as well as North American trade circles and closed feudal kingdom markets, such as the Manchu Qing and Fuso countries.

The tyrannical imperialists opened up the closed markets of various countries with guns and cannons, while protecting their markets with high taxes, and used unequal trade to plunder wealth and form a unilateral economic advantage.

Among them, the UK has the widest coverage of the trade circle, covering almost all parts of the world, including Europe and North America.

The British trade circle is mainly composed of the United Kingdom and its colonies, plus the protectorates (including Fuso, Egypt, Persia and South American countries), plus the countries that have signed trade facilitation (such as the Manchu Qing Dynasty, European countries and the United States), Australia is precisely one of them, and can enjoy a wide range of trade facilities and relatively low tariff levels.

On the other hand, the United States exports steel products and chemical products to Europe, the tax rate is generally much higher than that of the areas within the trading circle, not only by the British trade circle, but also by the French trade circle, this high tax burden is not a little bit.

This is also one of the important reasons why the "Monroe Doctrine" prevails in the United States, and everyone is reluctant to take him to play, so they can only draw circles in the Americas and entertain themselves.

Britain's trade environment is much better, after all, it is the hegemon of the world's oceans and the identity of the European arbiter, and this face still has to be given.

As the first country to enter industrialization, the British Empire had the strongest competitiveness in industrial products, and it was also the first country to advocate free trade, and the product tax rate fell rapidly from the level of 45~% 55% in the middle of the 19th century, and by 1882, it had almost reached the level of 15%.

This year, Downing Street has come up with a new tax reduction plan, preparing to cut the current tax rate by half again within five years to reach the level of 7.5%, with the long-term goal of reducing the tax rate to zero and achieving the goal of real free trade.

Of course, the British Empire would never do anything to the detriment of its own interests.

Now, Britain is using itself as an example to force its trading partners in the United States and Europe to cut their tax rates by more than half in order to realize their dream of free trade.

Compare it to

The tax rate in France and Germany, which have half a foot in industrialization, is generally around 40%~45%, and the tax rate in Austria-Hungary, the Netherlands, Spain and other countries that have just started industrialization is generally around 70%~80%, and the tax rate in the Ottoman Empire is even higher.

Especially in areas where there is a lot of competition, such as cotton and steel products, the tax rate can be as high as 80% or even 100%, and the highest can be as high as 300%.

But there are exceptions here

European countries can not produce their own industrial products and raw materials tax rate is very low, new diesel engine series products into the market tax rate of various countries is generally below 20%, in the United Kingdom only 3%, the United States 3.5%, France 7%.

The tax rate on rubber, coffee, raw silk, spices, porcelain and other products is also very low, generally below 8%, and there is a trend of further reduction.

The hollow rubber tire industry can also enjoy such preferential interest rates, and the demand for rubber tire industry has increased greatly, which is a great benefit to the UK.

Because the world's major natural rubber plantations are located in the British Channel Colonies, including Malaysia and northern Borneo, Thailand and a small part of Spanish-controlled Central America, the strong demand will quickly push up the price of natural rubber, which will inevitably lead to the rapid development of the natural rubber plantation industry.

Li Fushou sat on the crater of the rapidly developing volcano, and was in a position to make the most of it.

This is because Shangri-La's geographical environment is ideal for the development of rubber plantations, which will be the second largest industry after the planned sugar industry, and may develop into a pillar industry in the Shangri-La region in the future.

With an average rainfall of 6,000 millimetres and a vast area of fertile land, Shangri-La Island is suitable for rice cultivation, sugar and now rubber.

With the traction of these troikas, coupled with the abundant fish resources in the South Pacific rim, even if no high-value minerals are discovered, Shangri-La Island can smoothly develop into a production base for grain, sugar, natural rubber, and marine fish products.

With these important industries, the population size of 400,000 to 500,000 in the first five years is stable, and the long-term population of 300~4 million is no problem.

Shangri-La Island is located near the Pacific Rim Seismic Zone, with many volcanoes and many active volcanoes, and frequent earthquakes, which are not suitable for the development of large cities and industrial centers, but are very suitable for the development of agriculture and aquaculture.

Over millions of years, the island has been covered with layers of volcanic ash, which, along with decaying leaves and organisms, have created nutrient-rich soils, and the dense vegetation suggests that it is a great place to develop agriculture.

What is particularly remarkable is that due to millions of years of isolation, the mosquitoes here do not carry falciparum troparia and provide a relatively friendly living environment.

Today, the majority of migrants to Shangri-La are from the south, which is highly resistant to tropical malaria and has a low mortality rate.

According to statistics;

Today, the total population of Shangri-La Island is 87,200, of which the incidence of tropical malaria is 23%, the mortality rate is 3.2%, and the number of deaths due to the disease is more than 2,700 in more than a year, which is within the acceptable range.

In tropical areas where Plasmodium falciparum is prevalent, the annual malaria mortality rate is 4~5 times that of 3.2%, and the child mortality rate is more than half, which is the biggest obstacle to population growth.

Due to the high price of cinchona cream, not everyone can get treatment with this special drug, and the vast majority of immigrants have to rely on their own resistance to survive.

The Red River Valley is only available to officials and soldiers, which is a key factor in the number of migrants.

Nowadays, the island has been cultivating cinchona seedlings on a large scale, but it takes 5~6 years to become a mature tree, and it can only be purchased at a high price, and the quantity is very limited, which cannot meet the needs of tens of thousands of people.

The quinine contained in cinchona cream cannot be synthesized by today's chemical means, and in the face of deadly tropical diseases, it can only be prevented by strict hygienic measures, such as the widespread use of mosquito repellent products and mosquito nets, filling in stagnant ponds and ditches, and reducing the sewage that is easy to breed mosquitoes and flies.

This is an inescapable fate for the tropics, and in today's era of underdeveloped medical conditions, there is almost no solution.

According to the Dutch's centuries-old experience in developing the East Indies, people who have had tropical malaria produce certain antibodies in their bodies and have stronger resistance.

Perhaps, this is the price that must be paid for the development of the tropics.