As heavy snow fell, the inside and outside of London was covered with silver. Chu Yun took a group of ministers and officers to the industrial area of ​​the Chinese merchants in the city of London in the snow.

This industrial area was built on the royal land leased to Western companies by the former King Charles I. Li Jinde was one of the merchants involved in the construction of the industrial area.

At this time, after establishing the first batch of factories and winning over the aristocratic circle in England, Li Jinde left here and chose to return to China to develop the thriving chemical industry. He replaced him with the new director Huang Xiushan.

Chu Yun rarely came to Europe, so he naturally had to check the situation of the factories established by Western companies here.

This is the place of origin for dumping goods to the continental market, and it can also provide industrial materials for war in the future.

Western companies are not Western companies, but companies named after the place where they trade. Companies that develop markets in the West are directly named Western companies, while companies that plunder resources and markets in India are called East India Company.

Huang Xiushan, who is currently managing the London Industrial Zone, heard that Chu Yun came to inspect and had long been waiting for Chu Yun to arrive.

A bunch of guards from the Imperial Guards Brigade arrived at the industrial area first to ensure safety here.

After entering the musket era, personal safety has always been a big problem, and this problem is difficult to solve even if Chu Yun has a system.

"We have textile factories, steam machine factories, iron smelting plants, steel smelting plants, sugar smelting plants... As long as the raw materials are sufficient, they can be continuously produced. England has the largest coal production in the whole of Europe, and iron ore production can also be demanded. After the recent war broke out, we temporarily produced a batch of gunpowder and 7 field artillery supply frontlines." Huang Xiushan introduced to Chu Yun this industrial area jointly organized by officials and businessmen.

The shares of Western companies include 60% of the Chinese government and 40% of the private government, so it is actually an industrial giant dominated by the government and operated by the private government. It has many core technologies that private merchants cannot reach - it can produce arms in the industrial park during the war, and the steel mill has transformed into an arms factory, which can be imagined.

Such industrial giants are not just selling industrial products to the West. They can provide arms to the Chinese army stationed in the West when necessary, and even sell some lower-technical arms to one kingdom to attack another according to checks and balances.

However, there is one thing that is different from the East India Company. The East India Company has its own semi-professional armed fleet and Tumen soldiers, while the Western companies are completely unarmed. Because the conflict between continental countries is far more intense than that on the Indian Peninsula, it is difficult to make the other party surrender in the name of the company.

"How are the various factories operating?" Chu Yun asked.

"In addition to the steam machine factory providing new machines and repairing old machines to other factories, purely in the cost department, other factories are profitable, especially textile factories, which are still the largest profit department," said Huang Xiushan.

"Food, clothing, housing and transportation... is normal as the largest industrial sector."

Chu Yun thought that it was reasonable for people to put food, clothing, housing and transportation together.

The textile industry is the "clothing" in food, clothing, housing and transportation, including raw materials and finished products such as wool, cotton, jute, silk, leather.

Not to mention, people regard food as the most important thing. The global trade in rice, wheat and meat is very huge, as well as seasonings or materials such as sugar, salt, tea and other condiments or materials.

Living is related to land, which is currently the most valuable property. The conflicts between many kingdoms are ultimately conflicts of land and commercial interests.

If you are at the moment, it is currently a carriage-based mode of transportation. In the future, cars, railways and even aircraft will have a huge market. Whether it is passenger or freight, the market potential is unimaginable.

Currently, among the industrial parks established by the Chinese in London, there are textile factories and sugar factories, one related to "clothing" and the other related to "food".

The success of the textile mill is not surprising. The use of steam engines has greatly reduced the cost of textiles. Wool textiles and cotton textiles produced here can be dumped into Europe under the name of "good quality and low price".

"The sugar factory is also very profitable?" Chu Yun did not doubt the most familiar textile factory, but asked about the situation of the relatively unfamiliar sugar factory.

"Our sugar factory is divided into two branches. One branch produces sugar is sugar cane, and the other branch uses beets. Sugar cane is the most common raw material used to extract sugar. But there is a huge problem. The places suitable for planting sugar cane are in the tropical and subtropical areas. The latitude here is too high, and sugar cane needs to be transported from the West Indies and South America to factories, and then extracted sugar. If the continent is blocked from the sea due to war, then we will not be able to obtain raw materials. Beets can be grown in areas with higher latitudes. We use money to motivate English farmers to grow beets, and then purchase these raw materials to produce sugar. We diversify our investment, so we don't have to worry that sugar factories will be completely stopped due to the impact of the war."

"The process of beet sugar factory includes juice extraction, purification, evaporation, crystallization, honey division, and drying. We use carbon dioxide filling method to clarify sugar juice. During this period, we use chemical raw materials such as carbon dioxide and sulfur dioxide, so there is also a small chemical department in the factory..."

The director of the sugar factory introduced the situation of the factory to Chu Yun and others.

Speaking of the principle of refining sugar, the people in the sugar factory talked endlessly, but Chu Yun sounded a little difficult.

He only has the most basic knowledge of chemistry, that is, he only understands the most basic principles, and he is confused when he penetrates into a specific field.

Of course, Chu Yun does not need to worry or understand these things. The chemists he summoned through the system have imparted this knowledge to a group of local students, and they have become the first batch of local chemical industry practitioners.

Chu Yun only needs to know what the raw materials and products are, and the specific implementation is handed over to professionals.

"very good."

Chu Yun was not careful about the specific principles, so he could only nod in order to show encouragement.

Then Chu Yun went to participate in the steel factory in the industrial zone, where the products here are the foundation of industry - steel.

Coal and steel are the most important materials for human beings to transform from agricultural society to industrial society. The steel output here can even be comparable to the output of the entire England.

"Our raw materials need to be transported to London City through the sea and canals, and the transportation costs are quite high. We are recently trying to find ways to reduce the production costs of steel." The director of the steel plant also encountered some trouble.

Like sugar cane sugar factories, steel factories are also subject to raw materials, which involves the choice of industrial locations.
Chapter completed!