Datong Cotton Mill

  Nantong's Yangtze River bank, Tangjiazhai, has become a large factory area. In the office building of Dasan Cotton Mill, Zhang Jian, who had just returned to Nantong, encountered difficulties.

  The person in charge of the factory's finances, Dong Jiang Sikun, found Zhang Jian with the factory's accounts and said: "Fourth Master, that batch of old official machines, after cleaning up the rust and purchasing accessories, repairing, plus the expenses for building the factory this month, totals over 87,000 taels of silver. Adding to the previous expenses, the 150,000 taels of silver raised from the stockholders have almost all been spent, and now there isn't even enough money to buy cotton for testing the machines."

  Zhang knitted his brow, not expecting that the silk factory he had worked hard to set up for over two years was still unable to operate. The silk factory needed at least a few hundred thousand taels of silver to start operating normally, but where could they get such a large sum of money? He thought for a moment before saying: "Guo Xueqing, the general manager of the Jiangning Commercial Bureau, promised to give us 60,000 to 70,000 taels of silver. And when Sheng Xuanhuai was in charge of the official machinery, he also promised to lend us 150,000 taels of silver. I'll go find them tomorrow!"

  Zhang Zhidong established the Dasheng Cotton Mill with the intention of making it a purely commercial enterprise. In December 1895, he submitted a proposal to the Qing government through the Governor-General of Liangjiang, outlining the company's charter: six directors from Guangdong, Fujian, Zhejiang, Tongzhou, and Haiyan would jointly invest in the factory. However, when fundraising proved difficult, Jiangning Circuit Intendant Gui Songqing intervened on behalf of Zhang Zhidong, who had previously purchased 40,800 spindles for the Hubei Cotton Bureau and stored them in Shanghai's Yangshupu. These were valued at 500,000 taels and used as government shares to invest in the factory, with an additional 500,000 taels raised from merchant investors. The "Dasheng" mill was thus converted into a joint official-merchant enterprise. Pan Huamo and Guo Xun soon withdrew their investment, fearing government interference in the factory's operations.

  Gu Weijun was eager to sell this batch of machines and also promised to raise another 60,000-70,000 taels of silver for the Dasheng Cotton Mill. Later, Shanghai's comprador official Sheng Xuanhuai wanted to take away half of the government shares, worth 250,000 taels of silver, in spinning machines to set up his own factory and promised to help Zhang Jian raise another 150,000 taels of new shares.

  However, by the winter of Guangxu 23, when the Dasheng Cotton Mill began to break ground and start construction, Zhang Jian repeatedly urged Gao Xiangqing to deliver the promised capital, but received no response. He then urgently informed Sheng Xuanhuai several times, who also started to shirk his responsibilities.

  Zhang Zhidong arrived in Nanjing first. When Gui Xiongqing heard the news of his arrival, he avoided meeting him. Unable to find anyone, Zhang had no choice but to return to Shanghai to look for Sheng Xuanhuai.

  Zhang Jian met with Sheng Xuanhuai in the rain at the Sheng family garden. Sheng Xuanhuai said, "At that time, I signed an agreement to help you raise funds, but Shanghai merchants did not look favorably upon opening a spinning mill. It was difficult to collect shares and no one could be found to invest. What can I do?"

  "What about your own silk factory then? How did it suddenly start?" Zhang Zhidong angrily stood up and questioned Sheng Xuanhuai.

  "Those businessmen believed in me, and had to invest money in my factory, what can I do!" Sheng Xuanhuai spread out his hands. Who made your backstage big shot fall? Your luck is bad, who can you blame now? Now I'm not afraid of you.

  Zhang Jue left the Sheng's house in anger and returned to the inn, only to find that he didn't have enough money for his remaining travel expenses to return to Tongzhou by boat. His stomach was growling with hunger, so he had no choice but to beg for a bowl of Yangchun noodles from a street vendor. As he ate, he thought about how he, a proud number one scholar, had fallen on such hard times while trying to raise funds for his factory, and his heart swelled with bitter sorrow.

  Back at the inn, Zhang Jue rummaged through his leather bag and found only two silver dollars and a few dozen copper coins left. He felt distressed in his heart and didn't know what to say when he returned to the factory. As he was worrying, he saw that one of the silver dollars had fallen out of the bag with a piece of paper attached to it. He picked it up, took a look at it, and then threw it aside.

  It suddenly occurred to him that this was the address left by a young man named Lin Xiao whom he had met on the boat. His eyes lit up at the thought, for the young man's attire had clearly indicated that he came from a wealthy family, and he had also mentioned that he was doing business in Shanghai. Perhaps he could persuade his family to invest in the factory.

  Zhang Jue hastily picked up the paper from the ground, carefully examined the address on it, put the note in his bag, and then got up and went out. Following the address on the paper, he found Lin's Garden located on Hengfeng Road in the French Concession.

  "Who are you looking for?" A few strong men were sitting idly in the gatehouse, and when they saw Zhang Yue coming over, a burly man with two scars on his face, who looked fierce, came over to ask.

  Zhang Jie was startled, unexpectedly the young master of the Lin family was elegant in speech, but the gatekeepers at home were all like fierce gods and evil spirits, suspecting that he had come to the wrong place. "Excuse me, is this not the residence of Lin Anhua?"

  "Ah, you're looking for Young Master, but unfortunately he's gone on a long trip and won't be back home for a while."

  Zhang Jue felt very disappointed, "Is your master at home? Please trouble yourself to inform him." He saw a pen and inkstone in the gatehouse, so he wrote a visiting card and asked the gatekeeper to pass it on.

  "Who's the master of this house? Oh, the old lady lives in Xiamen, and here it's just my young master." The doorman took over the note written by Zhang Wei, "To Lin's esteemed family, I am Zhang from Nantong..."

  "Jiān, this character is pronounced jiān." Zhang Jie hastily said.

  "Oh, it's just a check by the inspector." Another person beside him chimed in.

  Zhang Yi was a little speechless, never expecting his name to be linked with the Inspector of the Imperial Guards, and he was also surprised that the Lin family's gatekeeper could read. He couldn't help but feel curious, seeing one of them take the card he wrote into the inner courtyard, so he opened his mouth and asked: "I didn't expect all of you to be literate, Zhang is impressed!"

  Those men, upon hearing Zhang's praise, suddenly felt a sense of relief and immediately puffed out their chests: "Of course! Young Master has said that we soldiers must also read books and recognize characters. Otherwise, we wouldn't know what loyalty and righteousness are, nor would we know why we're fighting. Once on the battlefield, upon seeing the enemy, naturally one would... turn tail..."

  "Great!" someone beside him chimed in.

  It turns out that they were all soldiers, I said why did they look like bandits? Zhang Yi couldn't help but nod secretly, being able to let these soldiers read and write was a testament to the extraordinary vision of the Lin family's master. "I'm afraid it's quite difficult for you gentlemen to recognize characters?"

  "This is so infuriating! It's not as good as running a few laps around the school field with a stone lock every day, that would be more satisfying!" The scar-faced man seemed to have found someone who shared his sentiments as soon as he entered, and finally was able to let out the pent-up frustration in his chest.

  "But military law is heartless, if you can't recognize ten characters every day, the young master will have someone press you to the ground and beat you with a board..." Another big man said with a bitter face, feeling that he had misspoken, immediately stopped, his expression was very comical.

  Zhang Wei was unaware of the situation, but suddenly felt that these tall and fierce-looking soldiers were very kind and gentle, much more lovable than those cunning merchants who spread rumors without believing them. He felt relieved in his heart, but then saw a big man with a curly beard rush out from the inner courtyard, come to his front, and bow deeply. "It turned out to be Mr. Zhang Jizhi from Nantong, I didn't know you were coming, please forgive me for not welcoming you far away! My surname is Li, and I am the manager of Lin's mansion. Unfortunately, the master is not at home, please come in and talk."

  "Isn't your master at home either?" Zhang asked.

  The big man surnamed Li was taken aback, then immediately spoke up and said: "My family's old master has long since passed away, the mistress has been living in Xiamen for a long time, and it has always been the young master who has been in charge of the family business. If you have any important matters, I can help convey them."

  Zhang Yue didn't expect that the Lin family's vast business was actually under Lin Xiao's control. He thought to himself, "No wonder this young man has an extraordinary air about him when he speaks." It turned out that it was only natural for someone who had been in a high position for a long time to exude such confidence. After some thought, Zhang Yue realized that he was indeed at a dead end, so he wrote a letter informing Lin Xiao of his current predicament, hoping that Lin Xiao could lend him a helping hand.

  With a slight sense of disappointment, Zhang Jie came out of the Lin family and found it difficult to live and travel. He had no choice but to find his good friend Wang Kangnian at Shen Bao and asked him to post an advertisement: Nantong champion Zhang Jizhi is setting up a stall on Si Ma Road to sell calligraphy for three days, don't miss this rare opportunity!

  He set up a stall by the roadside for three days, and fortunately, relying on the reputation of Zhuangyuan Gong, he earned more than 100 taels of silver, which was just enough to make up for his travel expenses back to Nantong. The hardships and bitterness in between were known only to himself.

  Lin Xiao is now at Caishi Reef within the territorial waters.

  Since Liu Kunyi, the governor of Liangjiang, allowed Lin's family to purchase land in Liangjiang for reclamation, Lin Xue took the initiative to take on the responsibility of resettling the righteous warriors who had crossed from Taiwan. Who made him take this matter upon himself?

  Lin Shuo first bought lakeside land in Yixing, Changxing and other places on the west bank of Taihu Lake to carry out lake-enclosure reclamation. Later, he turned his attention to southern Anhui, where the Ningwu-Cheng mining area had rich iron, copper and other metal deposits. This is basic knowledge that should be known when studying national geography in junior high school textbooks, but before the end of the Qing Dynasty, due to the lack of arable land, it was a poor area in Jiangnan, and most of the mountains were abandoned. Lin Shuo found that most of the barren mountains here could be bought for only 200-300 taels of silver, and he immediately became excited as if he had picked up a treasure chest.

  Wuhu, Xuanzhou and Huizhou's mountainous areas originally had many tea gardens, but since the Tongzhi period, India, Ceylon and other places began to plant large quantities of tea trees. As a result, China's tea exports, which were one of its major export products, began to stagnate and decline. By the time of the First Sino-Japanese War, China's tea exports had fallen to less than sixty percent of what they had been ten years earlier.

  Exports plummeted and prices fell, causing great damage to tea production. The bankruptcy of tea farmers also led to the abandonment of many mountain forests and tea gardens.

  After several years, Lin Xiao surprisingly purchased tens of thousands of hectares of barren mountain land, and the originally abandoned tea gardens, mulberry gardens, etc. were reopened and renovated. Most places began to artificially plant tung oil trees, camphor trees and other economic timber, although temporarily there is no benefit, but after a few more years, these trees will reach harvest time.

  As for his own development, Lin Xiao has a general plan. Judging from the current situation, domestic trade is subject to various exorbitant taxes and levies, coupled with inconvenient transportation and high transportation costs. Moreover, ordinary people's basic needs are not met, and their purchasing power is very limited. Doing business in this aspect involves great risks.

  In the future, the focus will still be on import and export trade, and the main export products are primary agricultural and animal husbandry products such as agriculture, forestry, and animal husbandry. Among them, silk, tea leaves, tung oil, and fur are the largest varieties of products. The silk trade did not begin to decline gradually until the 1920s when artificial silk became popular, and before that it had been on an upward trend.

  Tea was originally China's largest export commodity, accounting for more than 90% of the world's tea trade at its peak. By the 1880s, Chinese tea exports began to decline sharply, and by the 1920s, Chinese tea exports accounted for less than 15% of the world's tea trade. If we do not strictly control product quality and introduce advanced foreign production methods, it will be difficult to reverse this trend.

  Another major export commodity, livestock products, are mainly produced in northern pastoral areas, and Lin Xuan has no plans for this aspect for the time being.

  Tobacco as an important economic crop is also within Lin Xiang's consideration.

  Lin Xiu first started a tea business, after all, the tea gardens he bought were there. However, this business was indeed not easy, fortunately, the Lin family had always maintained business dealings with foreign firms and continued to engage in camphor business in Fujian. Relying on these relationships, Lin Xiu's tea business could still make a slight profit.

  Lin Xiao's purchase of the barren mountain forest also included a large mulberry garden, but most of these gardens had been abandoned for a long time. To sort them out would take at least four or five years, and the annual cocoon production was very limited. However, he had already started doing sericulture business, although there were many taxes and fees in between that were astonishingly high. Sometimes, he had to rely on his relationship with Dong Jun, who was inspecting private salt in the Yangtze River area, to smuggle and evade taxes to make more money. Generally speaking, it was relatively easy to do raw silk business.

  The fundamental basis of business is still to control production costs, and only by truly controlling the channels of production and sales can stable returns be obtained. For a country like China that relies mainly on household product exports, only by increasing investment in agriculture and strengthening the application of scientific technology can its share in international trade be maintained.

  Unfortunately, in this era, there are few people who can truly realize this point.

  Lin Xiao is now on the one hand expanding the mulberry garden, and on the other hand training personnel to learn advanced sericulture and silk reeling technology, preparing for future development.

  After returning to Shanghai from his inspection tour of Taihu and southern Anhui, Lin Xiang immediately saw the letter left by Zhang Jian and took a boat to Nantong. The development of Dasheng Cotton Mill was incredibly impressive in Lin's memory, and he certainly did not want to miss this opportunity. On another front, Lin also wanted to use Zhang Jian's connections to pave the way for his own future development.

  So he didn't think much about it. Not many people will be grateful for adding flowers to the brocade, but sending charcoal in snowy weather is different.

  When the 1.6 million taels of silver notes were placed in front of Zhang Jian, who was so anxious about the funding problem that he almost jumped into the river, he was actually moved to tears.

  Lin Zhen's request was simple, he only wanted 40% of the shares of Dasheng Mill, and the remaining part was considered a gift to Zhang Jian. This proposal was supported by other shareholders of the mill.

  Thanks to Lin's investment, the Daxin Cotton Mill began formal trial runs of its boilers in January 1899 and started test production before Chinese New Year, more than two months ahead of schedule.

  The machine started to operate normally, and Zhang finally let out a sigh of relief. Lin Xuan, on the other hand, looked at the steam engines emitting white vapor as they rotated, but he was unimpressed. In this era, electric motors have already begun to be promoted in the West, and internal combustion engines have also been installed in cars. We are still too far behind!

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