Chapter 56 New Ideas for the Development of National Industry

"Young Master, I've written it down, do you have anything else to explain?" asked Fu Bo with a smile.

"It's not for the time being, let's leave it at that!, but Fu Bo, how many small factories do we have in the Huo family now?" Huo Shan looked up and asked.

"The young master is asking those light industry factories?" The word light industry has also been heard from the prime minister's mouth in the past few days, and he thinks it is good, so he used it unceremoniously!

"yes!"

"Oh, we still have fifty-eight such factories now! Most of them were established in the past, and the scale is not very large!" Of course, he is not very big, and he has also seen that Young Master Huo often invests tens of millions of taels of silver in heavy industry factories!

In fact, if we really want to talk about it, these light industrial factories of the Huo family were already great factories in Taiwan and within the Qing Dynasty! Almost all of them had fixed assets of several million taels of silver and an income of 50,000 or 60,000 taels of silver per month! I don't know how many people drooled around these factories now, if it weren't for the fact that the Huo family was rich and powerful, and it was also close to He Jing, the current governor of Fujian and Zhejiang, I am afraid that the Huo family's industry on the mainland would have been eaten by those corrupt officials long ago, and there would not even be any bones left!

"There are so many?" Huo Shan was also a little surprised when he heard this! He remembered that when his mother first gave him those account books, there were not so many factories on it!

"Hehehe, it's all thanks to the young master, that soap factory earns a lot of money every year, and it earns a lot of silver! Later, didn't the young master repeatedly tell the old slave to invest more and make the silver flow! So the old slave took it upon himself to invest all the silver we earned from the factory into the expansion and reproduction of these factories in our house! In this way, our factories have become bigger and bigger and bigger in the past year or so! Speaking of which, this is all the credit of the young master!"

Looking at the smile on Fu Bo's face, Huo Shan's heart was moved, in the past year, almost all of his jīng power has been spent on the army and those heavy factories related to the country, and almost all the business in the family is taken care of by Fu Bo! Speaking of which, the Huo family can have today, Fu Bo's contribution over the years is not small! Compared with him, he, the head of the Huo family, is really a little unqualified, except for constantly taking money from the family's treasury, he almost never asks anything about the family industry!

"Fu Bo, I think so! You have gone from my father's guard to the current head of the Huo family, and my mother and I have seen your contribution to the Huo family for so many years, and we are very grateful in our hearts, but the years are not forgiving, and now you are old! It's time to enjoy the blessings! It just so happens that I also want to sell all these factories of the family! The land and salt fields are also contracted to the common people who farm for us, and when the time comes, we will only receive 10% of the profits every year!" Huo Shan slowly said what he had been thinking about for many days.

At present, China's national industry has just begun to sprout, and it is still very brittle! Moreover, the enthusiasm of the closed and backward domestic propertied people to invest in industry is not very great. In order to reverse this unfavorable situation as much as possible, Huo Shan came up with a way to use the money-making factories of the Huo family to tempt those greedy guys and transfer the factories to them to operate.

When the time comes, they will be living advertisements to attract any businessman or landlord who has money in his hands and wants to make more money to invest in industry, and when the whole country begins to chase this kind of profit, then his strategy will be truly successful! China's industry will also really rise!

"Hehe, young master, you are now the only heir of the Huo family, the head of the Huo family, I will do whatever you decide!" Fu Bo said with a smile! He was adopted by the Huo family since he was a child, and his surname is Huo when he followed the master's family! Moreover, he has taken care of Huo Shan's father and the growth of Huo Shan's two generations of Huo family heads, and his loyalty to the Huo family is incomparable.

In addition, he has no children under his knees and has long regarded Huo Shan as his grandson, coupled with the amazing talent that Huo Shan has shown over the past year, now no matter what Huo Shan says, he will do what the young master tells him!

"Well, that's it! Fuber, you make a detailed list of all our light industry factories, in terms of scale, annual profitability, number of workers, sales of products, and other aspects of the factory! Then invite those rich people, especially those who are interested in our factory, to come over! When the time comes, give them the brochure we have made! Then, find a big place and we will hold an auction!" Huo Shan said excitedly.

"Auction?" Fu Bo couldn't help but shake his head a little when he heard this term, the new words in the young master's mouth were really a set!

Seeing the confused expression on Fu Bo's face, Huo Shan hurriedly wrote the auction method he had written, and the treasure seemed to be handed over to Fu Bo.

In fact, there are quite a few auction houses now, and there are also them in the Qing Dynasty now, that is, the British auction company 'Ruissmo' Auction Company, which was established in Shanghai in 1874!

However, the scale of this transaction is very large, and it involves a lot of gold and silver! More importantly, it is related to a series of follow-up plans for the future! Therefore, this auction is destined to be presided over by oneself!

A week passed quickly, and Fauber had already prepared everything about the factory auction as he said! Invitations were also sent! The auctioneers were also Chinese auctioneers from foreign auction houses!

The place is also very spacious, a theater garden under the name of the Huo family, with two floors, and it is not a problem to squeeze thousands of people!

——————

"Dad, do you see if there is something wrong with the Huo family, so many big factories say that they will sell them all! How do I sound like a lie!" Guo Chen looked at the old man sitting opposite and said with a puzzled expression. With the all-round expansion of the Huojia factory in the Qing Dynasty, especially all over Taiwan, the fleet of transporting various machinery and equipment from Europe to here has never been interrupted in a year, almost all Taiwanese have seen the rapid expansion of the Huojia's various factories, and the carriages pulling goods every day have formed a long queue. But now it is suddenly rumored that the Huo family wants to sell all these golden roosters that lay eggs, in the eyes of outsiders, unless the head of the Huo family has a bad brain, he will never make such a stupid decision!

"Yes, Dad! I haven't heard of anything big happening in the Huo family, how can they auction so many factories at once?" Guo Quan is the second in the Guo family, and the Guo family's business affairs are generally in charge of him and his eldest brother Guo Chen!

Guo Dongquan looked at the big red invitation on the table, and a trace of doubt flashed in his eyes! Although he didn't know why the Huo family wanted to sell these factories, he was not ready to give up this opportunity, who had already coveted the Huo family's sugar processing factory for a long time.

It has been three generations since the Guo family came to Taiwan from Fujian, and after three generations of management! The Guo family is now a medium-sized family that covers an area of 1,000 mu and owns a sugar processing factory with a monthly profit of 3,000 taels of silver! However, there is a lot of land in Taiwan, and the traditional profit from the land is no longer much to be gained! If the Guo family wants to develop again, it must find another way! Therefore, setting up a factory has become an inevitable choice! However, running a factory is not as stable and insured as the income from land, so the Guo family has always been a little hesitant before! Until the year before last, the Huo family, known as the largest family on the island of Taiwan, began to invest in industry on a large scale, and the factory continued to expand, and there was an endless stream of horse-drawn carriages that came to pull goods every day, and the silver was put into the Huo family's pocket! A large amount of profit suddenly envied Taiwan's large and small landlords and businessmen, and now everyone knows that running an industry is more profitable than farming!

The ability of the Chinese to follow the trend has always been commendable, and looking at the Huo family's factory making money, a few bold people who have more or less some relationship with the Huo family have asked for Fu Bo's head! This includes He Wenliang, the youngest son of He Jing, the governor of Fujian and Zhejiang, at that time, the Taiping Machinery Factory was already able to produce all kinds of light industrial machinery, and in order to train its own workers, plus the development of light industry is also an effective way to promote the development of national industry! Therefore, without affecting the production of military machinery, a steady stream of silk reeling machinery, Light industrial machinery such as oil pressing machinery began to be produced, and gradually various factories in Taiwan also increased!

It was also in this situation that the Guo family bought machinery and equipment from the Huo family's machinery factory, and processed the sugarcane produced by their family into various finished white sugar, brown sugar, etc.

Of course, there are many landlords, compradors, and businessmen who, like the Guo family, have profited from industrial inputs!