Chapter 225: Five-Year Plan (Part 3)
"As long as the system is established, theoretically any equipment is possible," Wang Luobin said.
"Too idealistic," Wen Desi said. "First tell us what enterprises we currently need, then let us see what the machinery plant can support."
"Light industry has not really developed yet, but I believe light industry will be the main component of future foreign trade, and it is essential for improving living conditions for ourselves and our subjects," said Mo Xiao'an, the new Minister of Light Industry.
Mo Xiao'an's appointment as Minister of Light Industry had been somewhat unexpected. This person had been an anonymous basic laborer after D-Day. Because of his good stamina and long-term military enthusiast experience, he had always been part of the transmigrators' core militia. After his appointment was announced, the general speculation was that his undergraduate degree in administrative management and law master's degree had dazzled the Executive Committee.
Regardless, like many cadres promoted in the organizational restructuring, he was very enthusiastic about his new position. In preparation for this meeting, he had produced a massive light industry five-year plan.
First was sewing needles. This product existed in ancient times, of course. The transmigrators' advantage lay in their ability to use machines for batch manufacturing, with superiority in raw materials and processing precision that local craftsmen could not match. Though sewing needles had extremely low unit prices, they had low costs and high margins, were widely used, and shipped in large quantities. Dumping them on the mainland, Japan, Korea, and Southeast Asia could create considerable scale-effect profits. Eventually, they could even be exported back to Europe.
"Is manufacturing sewing needles difficult?"
"Sewing needles are simple enough to make by hand," Wang Luobin said. "But I know factories use automatic machine tools."
Modern sewing needles use wire rod from rolling mills as raw material. First it is drawn to the required diameter, then cut to the length of two needles, then both ends are sharpened. The next eye-making process turns one wire into two needles. This involves straightening the wire, stamping—flattening the eye area into approximately 4mm-diameter disc shapes, then punching out the eye holes, then stamping letters and thread grooves, punching off excess material, sharpening in stages, deburring, grinding, polishing, final polishing, and packaging for shipment.
"That is right, it is an electromechanical-controlled automatic machine tool production line. This equipment is even patented."
"Can it be copied? I imagine the design drawings exist. Patent law does not apply here."
Zhan Wuya shook his head: "Complete replication of automatic machine tools definitely will not work, but manufacturing specialized equipment is possible."
"That will do—just lower production efficiency. Even lowered, it will not be worse than craftsmen hand-hammering and grinding."
"Next is the textile industry. Replicating 19th-century-level textile machinery like the spinning jenny should not be difficult, right? Purchase local raw cotton for processing. With high-quality cotton yarn output, besides producing regular cotton cloth, let us see if we can make breakthroughs in patterns and texture. So we need to establish both a cloth mill and a dyeing factory—"
"Let me interrupt," Wen Desi cut in. "I would like to offer a differing opinion. In my view, the textile industry should not be built too large."
"But cloth is a basic livelihood material," someone immediately objected. "It is also very popular for export."
"Hear me out."
Wen Desi first drew their attention to the fact that since they had landed, at least looking at Lingao alone, they had not found any large-scale cotton cultivation. Local cotton cloth was mostly processed from cotton collected from woody, perennial wild cotton plants. Though the quality was decent, this raw material supply method could only support small-scale household handicraft production.
Hainan Island itself was not suitable for large-scale herbaceous cotton cultivation. This was the birthplace of China's cotton textile industry, but long-term, cotton textiles had basically remained just a small-scale Li minority sideline, never forming a large-scale cotton textile industry. The production techniques for Ming dynasty Songjiang cloth had originally come from Hainan Island, but the cotton textile industry formed an industry in Songjiang—"clothing the world"—while Hainan's Qiong cloth had long remained merely a "local specialty."
Once the transmigrators established large-scale textile industry, they would have to grow cotton in this not-very-suitable-for-large-scale-cotton-cultivation area to ensure raw material supply.
"And the textile industry itself faces very fierce competition," Wen Desi added.
Within the Great Ming, there was the behemoth of Songjiang cloth. How strong was Songjiang cloth's penetration? The transmigrators had seen it more than once in gifts they had received locally: high-grade cloth was almost all from Songjiang.
Looking at all of East and Southeast Asia, there was the strong competitor of Indian cotton cloth marketed by the East India Company. Indian cotton cloth was not only high quality but also possessed distinctive dyeing and printing techniques. It was popular worldwide at the time and was one of the East India Company's main trade goods.
Finally, there were various local homespun cloths—coarse cloth hand-made by farming families. This had always been the strongest fortress against foreign goods. Even the good-value-for-money Indian cotton cloth had never opened the Chinese market. From the 17th century onward, various textiles marketed by the East India Company in China had never found buyers. Some goods even took two or three years of consignment sales to sell out.
"If we build a massive cotton textile industry, who are we planning to sell the cloth to?" Wen Desi asked pointedly.
"Local people will also have great demand in the future—"
Xiao Zishan said: "That will only come much later. Expanding domestic demand is not a one-or-two-day affair. Right now, light industry production can only focus on two points: self-use and export."
"Exactly, so our cotton textile industry can only be scaled to meet self-use requirements."
"Supplying transmigrators, the army, laborers... these people?"
"Why not outsource processing!" Wang Luobin said. "We can sell some new-style manual cotton textile machines on credit to farming households, help them improve product quality and increase variety, then purchase homespun cloth from them for our use."
"This way we can also distribute circulation vouchers!" Yan Ming, newly promoted to President of "Delong Grain Bank," was supportive. This person supported anything that expanded the circulation voucher's usage range.
"We can also import Indian cotton cloth and Songjiang cotton cloth—that way we can achieve trade balance. Otherwise, what's the point of just converting all exports into gold and silver?"
"Agreed!"
But Li Haiping objected: "That will not work." He reminded everyone: "The Navy's canvas issue is not resolved yet. Can your industry departments solve shipboard prime movers within a year? If you can solve that, fine, but otherwise, what will we use for sails on the Western-style sailing ships Director Wen wants to build?"
"We can import."
"But canvas is a strategic material. The Great Ming does not produce this stuff. What if we go to war with Europeans and they embargo canvas?" Li Haiping continued.
Wen Desi nodded: "True, I overlooked that. It seems a textile factory is still needed."
Indeed, canvas had too many uses—not just for sails. Its qualities were sturdy, wear-resistant, dense, thick, and somewhat waterproof. Ancient Romans used it extensively for marching tents. The first modern parachute was also made of canvas. Because of canvas's sturdy and wear-resistant properties, it was also widely used for labor protective clothing, as a substitute for leather in making military equipment, comfortable and durable canvas shoes...
Mo Xiao'an organized his thoughts: "Here is the plan: for spinning, we will use the putting-out system—sell machines on credit to processors, and we will purchase the cotton yarn back. Then establish a small specialty textiles factory to manufacture canvas, towels, and knitted goods." The latter two were urgently needed by the transmigrators. Towels would also greatly help improve hygiene conditions for the transmigrator collective's subjects.
"We also need a dyeing factory," Wang Luobin added.
"Not just a dyeing factory," Wen Desi said. "Actually, we would best control raw cotton processing ourselves—not for monopoly purposes. If we let common people process raw cotton themselves, yarn quality will be hard to guarantee. We need to establish a carding mill to clean and grade raw cotton, then distribute to processors."
"Towel-weaving machines and knitted goods machines are very simple—I've helped people with those," Zhan Wuya said. "But I do not understand carding machines. And I certainly do not know what machinery is used to weave canvas."
"Carding machines are easy—the structure is very simple. I'll draw it up later," Wang Luobin said confidently. "Making canvas should theoretically be the same as other cotton textiles—just using multi-strand thread for both warp and weft."
"Let us recruit some craftsmen from Europe. Besides canvas makers, we also need specialized workers who can sew canvas—those cannot be found in China," Wen Desi said.
"I just do not know if local raw cotton production is sufficient."
"For small-scale use, it should be enough. Worst case, we can import cotton yarn from Songjiang," Wen Desi said. "Or have the English provide it."
Dyeing industry technology was relatively simple and did not require overly complex machinery. The transmigrators had not planned to make cotton cloth a commodity, so they did not need to invest too much in this area.
With the cotton textile industry in place, establishing a unified clothing factory was also put on the agenda.
The clothing factory's main purpose was self-use. Local common people would not buy ready-made clothing and shoes unless prices were extremely low, or for silk garments they could not make themselves. The fact that the county seat had only one tailor illustrated this point.
Currently, the Bairren Commune already had a garment factory. Wu De had recruited commune women, with several female transmigrators who could use sewing machines providing technical guidance. They could manufacture cloth shoes, straw sandals, uniforms, hats, work clothes, underwear, quilts, and cotton socks—but the scale was very small. There was also a leatherworker who specialized in making various leather equipment for the military.
In Mo Xiao'an's plan, the clothing factory's scale needed to expand. In the future, with the continuous expansion of the military and labor force, and the influx of large numbers of migrants from other places—all these people's clothing would need updating. The transmigrator collective's demand for clothing would grow geometrically.
(End of Chapter)