Lord of Industrialization

Frederick stayed in Lugang for a few more days, and discussed with Professor Habib, who was invited by the Kingdom of Gaul, about the issue of raising the land around the town, and discussed some matters with the appointed administrator.

There were about 2,000 native inhabitants of Lugang, and more than 1,000 outsiders who developed the swamp, and the two sides began to have some conflicts.

Frederick held a grand open-air civilian banquet to let these people get closer through alcohol.

Before leaving, he gave each person 20 kilograms of bread, five canned meats and a barrel of soybean oil. On the day of unloading, the fleet from the Duchy of Wessen filled the river.

Many surrounding landlords and idle people came to watch the excitement, and they were all amazed at the financial resources of the Duke of Lugang.

The next day, a two-meter-high sign was erected on the edge of the central square, and the white cloth hanging on it was painted with the construction plan of Lugang.

As shown in the picture, Lugang will become a huge fishing port and fish processing base in a few years.

Just when Frederick was about to leave, the overwhelming wealth fell.

In the living room, the maid put the tea on the tea table and stepped aside. Frederick said to the guest without looking up: "Mr. Dreyer, please help yourself."

Frederick was looking carefully at the letter of introduction brought by the visitor named Nilisi Dreyer. The letter was written by Lilu after the tulip bubble, so that Dreyer could ask Frederick for help when he encountered difficulties.

Nilisi Dreyer is in his early forties, has curly hair, and is a famous ship designer in Amstel City.

Lulu also mentioned in the letter that Dreyer seemed to have some special ideas for shipbuilding.

Frederick finished reading the letter and waited for Dreyer to drink tea and put down the teacup before asking: "Are you looking for me to seek a job or do you want me to invest in you?"

Now there are no people looking for him to seek a job. The senior positions are full, and the grassroots have gone to the Principality of Wessen to take the government employee examination.

Those seeking investment basically go to Wessenburg City and ask for loans directly from Wessen Bank.

But since there is a letter of introduction, it is not impossible to make a break.

Dreyer said to Frederick, "Sir, I'm asking for help on behalf of the thirteen shipyards in Amstel."

Frederick was a little confused. Although the tulip incident and the fire caused considerable losses, he had placed many orders with those shipyards in the past two years and had brought them all back.

Dreyer saw his confusion and asked, "We heard that you are going to build a shipyard in Hammar. Is that true?"

Frederick nodded and confirmed it.

Now the shipyards in the Duchy of Wessen have reached their limits after expansion. If they want to expand their scale, they can only go out and build factories in a wider world.

He has arranged two places. According to the established plan, the North Sea is Hammar, and the Inland Sea was originally planned to be in Constantinople. Now it will be put on hold to see if the United Fruit Company can find a good place.

Negotiations began last year in Hammar. Frederick hopes that the shipyards will unite to form large-scale operations and grab at least half of the shipbuilding share in the entire North Sea region.

These things were not kept secret, and people in the circle would know it after asking around.

Seeing that Frederick did not deny it, Dreyer continued, "During the World Expo last year, the owners, designers and master craftsmen of our thirteen shipyards also went to Weissenburg and visited your shipyard."

"Everyone is pessimistic. If you build another shipyard of the same kind in Hammar, the shipbuilding industry in Amstel will disappear completely because it has no competitiveness."

Frederick picked up his teacup and drank his tea slowly, thinking that this was exactly the case.

In the field of shipbuilding, there is not much difference between Hammar and Amstel in terms of raw materials, hydraulic processing equipment, talents and technology.

The decline of the shipbuilding industry in Hammar was caused by external political reasons. Now that Frederick has risen and is willing to help, no one will doubt that this once-prominent city will restore its former glory.

Dreyer and others only watched the circular saw driven by a steam engine sawing wood for a minute in Frederick's shipyard and knew that the shipyard in Amstel was finished, because they used hydraulic saws, and the efficiency difference was too great.

Now Amstel can still survive by building hulls. When the railway from Wessen to Hammar is opened, Frederick can quickly transport the steam engine to Hammar's own shipyard by rail. At that time, there will be no hulls to build.

Dreyer said to Frederick seriously: "After discussion, we unanimously decided that if we can't beat them, we will join them. I hope that you will build a new large shipyard together like in Hammar."

Frederick did not respond immediately, but put down his teacup, leaned on the sofa and closed his eyes to think.

It is not surprising that the shipyard owners in Amstel came to cooperate. This is determined by Frederick's reputation and a large number of examples accumulated over the years. Everyone knows that being friends with him is profitable.

Not to mention that these people first personally felt Frederick's superior insights in business, and that he did not hesitate to borrow money to compensate for the insurance after the fire. These actions have made him have a high reputation now.

From Frederick's perspective, building another shipyard is not a problem. He can use the resources of the shipyard to be built in the inland sea here. The two shipyards can monopolize the shipbuilding industry on the northern seas at the same time.

But with it comes political problems. The lowlands can be said to be a colony of the Kingdom of Gaul, and Frederick is an outsider after all.

Now he doesn't want to alert the Kingdom of Gaul. In this way, the political account of this shipyard takes precedence over the economic account.

Frederick weighed it over and over again in his mind, and finally made a decision. When he opened his eyes, he saw that Dreyer was a little anxious.

"I can agree to your suggestion of cooperation."

Dreyer breathed a sigh of relief at Frederick's words.

"But, I have a condition."

Dreher was already prepared in his heart. They had discussed before that Frederick would definitely have some conditions, and some conditions could be agreed to.

He took the initiative and said to Frederick: "We agree to build a new shipyard in Lugang."

In their view, Frederick would invest a lot of manpower and material resources, and the shipyard would only rest assured if it was placed on their own territory, so they could take the initiative to propose this.

Frederick had never thought of building the shipyard elsewhere, and it would save him trouble if the other party took the initiative.

"I don't have that much cash."

Frederick's words stunned Dreyer.

It is said that the richest man in the world said he had no money. Who would believe it? Scratching the floor in the golden palace under the castle would be enough.

Frederick continued: "My investment is planned. Although I have mobile funds, it is not peaceful in Hanma City this year and must be reserved to deal with the war."

Dreher knew that the Kingdom of Dama had been beaten to pieces by the pagans on the other side of the sea. He heard that many merchant ships had been robbed and that Hanma City was also in danger.

It was precisely because of this that they had the confidence to lobby Frederick to build the new shipyard in the lowlands away from the war.

Frederick indeed had no liquidity. Who knows how the situation in Hanma City would develop, so he had to keep a large sum of money for emergencies.

So he used this reason to turn the shipyard into a political project.

The so-called politics is to make many friends, and the best friends are naturally the friends who share money with you.

Frederick asked Dreyer: "Let me ask you a question, do you think this shipyard can make money?"

Dreher answered without thinking: "When I was six years old, I helped wash beans in the kitchen of the shipyard where my father worked. When I was ten years old, I helped deliver nails to the carpenters. When I was fourteen years old, I started working as an apprentice with the master craftsman. When I was eighteen years old, I was lucky enough to I learned boat design from my teacher and designed my first boat at the age of twenty-nine.”

"I have been dealing with shipbuilding all my life, and to tell you the truth, I can tell just by looking at a ship on the sea how much cargo it can carry, how fast it can run, and how much it costs."

"Labor costs account for half of the cost of a ship, and the largest proportion of labor costs is cutting the wood into shape."

"If the new shipyard uses the same equipment as the shipyard in the Principality of Wesson, the labor cost can be reduced by at least half. The cost of a ship is less than 75% of the previous one. Taking into account the cost reduction in other aspects, it can even be reduced to about 65%."

"A large number of ships are retired and sunk every year at sea, and shipowners need new ships to fill the gap."

"According to incomplete statistics, there are about 20,000 ships on the sea, not including inland rivers."

"The maximum lifespan of a ship is twenty years. If you don't count the losses caused by accidents, at least a thousand new ships are needed every year."

"We hope that the new shipyard will eventually be able to build about 300 sea-going ships a year."

At first, Frederick felt that he was familiar with the business and answered whether he could make money from the perspective of cost analysis, but in the end the expected output was a headache.

A cargo ship of more than 500 tons at sea is much more complicated than a river ship of 100 or 200 tons. The construction period is at least two years. Now it takes a year for a cargo ship of 700 to 800 tons to cut wood quickly.

If you want to launch 300 boats a year, it means building 300 dry docks. Each dry dock is 30 meters wide, which can stretch nine kilometers along the river.

This is the plan in Hanma City, and it is expected to take at least five years to build this scale. Apparently people in the industry here have also heard about it and directly benchmarked it.

Frederick continued to ask: "If you were asked to invest money in this shipyard, would you be willing?"

At this time, Dreher replied as quickly as possible: "I definitely do!"

Frederick asked again: "Do you think the others will?"

Dreyer replied firmly: "Everyone in the world has confidence in you."

His meaning was obvious. As long as Frederick participated, others believed that they could make money.

Frederick nodded and began to make conditions: "I can jointly build a shipyard with you in Lukang, but I have two basic conditions."

"First of all, I will only provide machinery and equipment and factory buildings, accounting for 30% of the shares. You will be responsible for the remaining 70% of the shares. You can bear it yourself or sell it in lowland areas, but it cannot exceed this geographical range."

"I have to agree on something first. We will all contribute a little of our annual profits to give some dividends to the Gallic royal family, and the rest will be distributed to shareholders."

"I'll leave it to you to be responsible for the specific operations. I will send someone to connect with you."

Since ancient times, collusion between business and government was the most profitable. Dreher had no objection to paying dividends to the Gallic royal family, treating it as protection money.

Publicly raising funds by selling shares is very familiar to them. They did it a lot when they were playing Tulip.

"I think everyone will agree to this condition," he told Frederick.

Frederick nodded and continued: "The second condition is that I can only send financial personnel to the shipyard to supervise the financial management, but all managers and workers need to go to the training school affiliated to my shipyard to study and pass the exam."

"When that shipyard first started, they were losing forty fingers a month. Now it's down to one a month, I think you know what I mean."

Dreyer said seriously: "I understand, this is also one of our requests."

He grew up in a shipyard and saw many injured and dead people, including his own father. He did not sleep all night after seeing various safety regulations in the shipyard of the Principality of Wessen.

Frederick said: "These are my requirements. You go back and discuss it. I will send a special person in charge to Amstel City. You can discuss the specific matters."

He was about to leave. He had to go to the Kingdom of Sardinia and return to Wessenburg City to deal with the accumulated government affairs. He did not have that much time.