Fox of France

Lucien's defense was understood and supported by Joseph to a certain extent, but he did not escape the punishment of Joseph and Napoleon. The reason, of course, is "no respect for elders".

"Such a big matter, why don't you discuss it with us first? Tell me, are you acting recklessly? Or are you so arrogant that you lose your correct judgment on yourself? Well, choose one of these two judgments... ..."

"Joseph, I..." Lucien turned pale.

"Joseph, Mr. Lavoisier sent something over." At this time, Fanny suddenly opened the door and walked in.

Joseph frowned, but put aside Lucien's matter first. After all, it must be very important that Lavoisier suddenly sent something over. "Could it be..." Joseph's heart jumped.

"What is it?" Joseph asked.

"It's here, see for yourself." Fanny took out her hand behind her back, and a small shiny steel ingot appeared in front of Joseph.

Joseph took the small steel ingot, looked at it carefully, and took a paper knife from the table to scratch it. After confirming that it was indeed steel and not wrought iron, he became more and more excited.

"You are lucky today," Joseph turned his head and said to Lucien, "I have something to do, and I can't take care of you bastard. You go and find Napoleon yourself."

In fact, since several brothers have taken charge of their own affairs, Joseph has rarely used "family law" to punish them.

After driving Lucien away, Joseph immediately arranged for a carriage and rushed to Lorraine.

Three months ago, Lavoisier completed an experiment of blowing hot air into a converter in his laboratory in the suburbs of Paris, and successfully produced a furnace of steel. Although the quality of the steel in that furnace is not particularly ideal, especially at low temperatures. But in any case, this thing is also steel, no matter what, it is much stronger than copper and iron.

Joseph knew, and remained, a matter of the phosphorus and sulfur levels in the steel. The phosphorus content of the iron ore in Lorraine is still too high, and even the steelmaking furnace made of alkaline refractory bricks cannot remove the phosphorus. Of course, if you give more time, do more experiments, and adjust the slagging raw materials and process flow, you can further improve the quality of the steel, but...

"We can't wait any longer. We have consumed too much money now, and now we urgently need products that can quickly recover the money. Moreover, as long as they are not used in extreme circumstances, isn't the steel itself already enough?" Joseph got After hearing the news of the initial success of the experiment, they immediately terminated the subsequent experimental funding, but requested that the existing technology be commercialized immediately, and a real, commercial steelmaking plant be established immediately.

And Lavoisier also agrees with this decision very much, because it means that this project has started to make money, and he can get his own manor. Therefore, he was even more anxious than Joseph about the rapid industrialization of steelmaking technology.

So Lavoisier went to Lorraine himself to supervise the construction of the first modern steel factory there.

Obviously, the faster the steel mill is built and put into production, the greater the benefits for the military-industrial complex. Therefore, for the sake of speed, many things were difficult to take into account. As a result, only one month later, the steel factory was completed. And this is still why Joseph boasted to Napoleon that he could immediately produce a lot of steel and steel artillery.

But as the saying goes, haste makes waste, and rushing to meet the deadline caused a series of problems instead. When the steelmaking furnace was in operation for the first time, a major accident occurred. The steelmaking converter in operation collapsed due to construction defects and caused a fire.

The military-industrial complex suffered considerable losses in this fire. In this fire, hundreds of workers and more than a dozen engineers died. If they hadn't just had a stomachache and went to the toilet, Lavoisier himself almost confessed to it. Of course, as long as nothing happened to Lavoisier, some workers died, as well as some of Lavoisier's assistants and so on. It's not that big of a deal.

But in the fire, various facilities of the steel mill were basically burned down. This makes a month almost completely wasted. In the eyes of those big figures in the military-industrial complex, this is the real biggest loss.

Because of the delay in rebuilding, it was only recently that the factory began a test run. And Joseph also gave Lavoisier a special ban, prohibiting him from entering the factory during the test run. Of course, the accident that happened last time also completely dispelled Joseph's idea of ​​personally presiding over the formal commissioning of the steel plant.

It is precisely because of these things that the steel mill has been delaying until not long ago before starting trial production. Prior to this, the iron-making blast furnaces established had been in operation for several months. And some supporting factories have also stopped there to wait for steel. And every minute of waiting means a huge waste.

Joseph arrived in Lorraine four days later. As soon as he arrived in Lorraine, he immediately went to Lavoisier.

"How is the situation now, how much is the daily output?"

"It's about the same as expected." Lavoisier said, "If there are no accidents, about ten tons of steel can be produced every day, which is 3,650 tons of steel a year. But you know this is impossible, because various settings It is impossible to run non-stop for a year. There will always be shutdowns for maintenance in the middle, but even so, this factory can produce about 3,000 tons of steel a year."

"It's still not enough, far from enough." Unlike Lavoisier, in Joseph's eyes, a steel factory with an annual output of only about 3,000 tons is still too small. You must know that in his previous life... and now there are still too many places that need to use steel.

Joseph did not come here to see with his own eyes how molten steel was poured out of the steelmaking furnace. After the fire, he didn't intend to go to the steel mill at all—even without mentioning the danger of fire, the heat, noise and exhaust gas pollution would cause great harm to human health.

People in this era don't know the dangers of these things, but Joseph does. But even if he knew it, he didn't take many measures to prevent it. Some of these are technical issues, such as the treatment of waste gas and wastewater. In this era, there is indeed no such technology, and there is even no scientific theory basis for the development of such technology.

Of course, fortunately, in this era, the theory that various pollutions can harm human health has not yet appeared. Even the basis for the emergence of these theories, whether it is a sociological basis or a natural science basis, has not yet emerged. Therefore, Joseph can completely treat it as ignorant, and pollute freely as he wants.

Of course, there are some precautions that are achievable even with the technology of this age. For example, masks to block dust, earplugs to protect hearing and so on. But this will increase the cost. If it is aimed at some valuable skilled workers or something, that’s fine. If it is only aimed at ordinary people, you can recruit a worker on the street at any time, and they are all ready to buy such a set of gadgets. From an economic point of view, it is really not necessary at all. Of course, there are masks and earplugs for sale near the factory, whether you like to buy them or not.

There are also various safety trainings, which are indeed essential. If this is missing, some workers' honey operation may damage valuable machinery and equipment. However, too much training content will also increase the cost. Therefore, only relatively advanced workers who have a chance of breaking the machine and relatively stable workers in the factory can receive training, and the main content of the safety training they receive is how to protect the machine first.

As for the general labor such as dragging carts, although there are many risks in their work. But considering that they are completely free workers, if they are in this factory today, they may go to that factory tomorrow, so even if they are given safety training, it will increase the cost in vain. Therefore, these people do not need any security training.

Joseph came here, first of all to see that the factory can operate effectively and the products can be produced with quality and quantity. Then according to his plan, it was used where it was urgently needed.

The most urgent need for steel is first of all various machinery. Many moving parts of machinery today are made of cast iron. For example, the crankshaft of the steam engine, as well as the transmission parts of the loom and the water pump are all made of cast iron. The strength of cast iron is much lower than that of steel, so it is used to make moving parts under force. If the parts are not strong enough, they will easily break and other problems, and if they are made strong enough, they will be too bulky. , and reduce the mechanical efficiency. If it is replaced with something made of steel, the reliability and efficiency will be greatly improved.

However, the production of steel is quite limited. Considering the speed of recovering the cost, Joseph decided to first use them on steam engines and ore crushers. Then there are farm tools, and then various civilian things that can make money. As for the steel cannons and steel guns that Joseph promised to Napoleon, one or two guns can be made, and then a military technology fair will be held to frighten foreign governments. It is enough to get enough money from the threatened foreign government.

"The days when the British relied on steam engines and textiles to make a lot of money in Europe will soon be over." After confirming that steelmaking has reached the point of mass production, he said to Napoleon, " Now is the time for us to start preparing to strike back economically against Britain."

"Then how are you going to fight back against the British?" Napoleon said, "Once we gain the upper hand in steam engines and textiles, the British will immediately tear up the contract, and you guys are not willing to apply the latest technology to the army immediately." .By that time, how do you fight back against the British?"

"You, Napoleon, you still have a lot of lessons to make up in terms of economics." Joseph said disdainfully. "Let me ask you, in the previous period of time, the same business was very good, so what kind of social situation will appear?"

"Don't take me for a fool, I have also read Adam Smith's "The Wealth of Nations." Napoleon said, "If this phenomenon occurs, more resources will naturally be invested in this industry, and then steam engine manufacturers , and there will be more and more textile factories, and more and more people will participate in this industry and invest in this industry. Then the supply will increase, and the price will naturally fall, then this industry will not be so profitable, and then the capital will gradually leave the industry..."

"Why talk so much?" Joseph said, "Say so much, but didn't get to the point at all."

"Then tell me." Napoleon said.

"We first let out the manufacturing of steam engines and the textile industry," Joseph said, "making these two industries the most important source of income for the UK. Then we gradually eliminated their other industries. In this way, we have a large share of other industries. Advantages, if they do not have a large deficit, they must increase their dependence on steam engine manufacturing and the textile industry.

Under such circumstances, the situation will gradually become that they can only rely on these two industries, and their entire economy is on these two industries. In the meantime, those English men of insight will surely see the danger in this. They will certainly speak out and try to stop this from happening, these people will try to sabotage our trade agreement, but what about the people who are making money with the steam engine and the textile industry? "

Napoleon laughed: "Joseph, this is really a despicable and shameless conspiracy full of your taste. How can those who make money tolerate them destroying their own money-making events? Machiavelli said that a person can easily He never forgets who killed his parents, but he never forgets who robbed him of his wealth. In your words: 'Getting in the way of others getting rich brings more hatred than killing them parents.'

And those who can make a lot of money through these two things must be people with status and power. Their way of making money is not so easy to block. If we are about to block it, the British will have internal problems first without us doing it. But if not blocked. Once they're really totally dependent on those two things. Then if we tear up the agreement again, their economy will be completely ruined! "

"Napoleon, why do we want to tear up the agreement? We only need to threaten to tear up the agreement from time to time." Joseph said, "Also, do you know why I left textile and steam engine manufacturing to them?"

Napoleon thought for a while and returned: "Textiles employ a lot of workers, and if something goes wrong, it will lead to large-scale social unrest, and steam engines, as long as we protect the secrets of steelmaking, they must rely on the raw materials we provide. At that time, any turmoil in our relationship will be fatal to them."