Wind Rises in North America 1625

Chapter 231 Wool Textile Industry

The late spring mist spread over the dense forest, drifted across the hillside meadow, and enveloped a herd of cattle and sheep.

The flock of sheep covered the open space on the hillside like a ball of melting clouds, their hooves parting the dew-covered grass. The morning light slid down their curly fur and shattered into tiny rainbows on the tips of the grass.

A leading ram was the first to break the silence. It walked towards the grass with the same hoof prints that had been repeated for days. Its jaws rhythmically crushed the new leaves, and its tail covered with resin swept through the bushes, startling the dormant butterflies.

The wind brought the bitter smell of pine needles from the treetops, and the flock of sheep followed the scent and scattered into flowing pearl chains.

A few black-faced sheep crept into the shade of the hazel trees, picking apart last year's pine cones with their horns.

More than a dozen snow-white lambs chased the drifting dandelion fluff, stepping out a crooked star map in the cornflower bushes.

The tips of the two sheepdogs' wagging tails appeared and disappeared from time to time, gently circling the sheep that tried to venture into the depths of the dark forest back into the halo inlaid with golden thread.

"You should have about 300 sheep in Guangfeng, right?" Li Xianqing felt extremely happy as he looked at the vivid and picturesque scene in front of him.

"By the end of last year, our Guangfeng flock should have numbered over 380." Li Liang blurted out the livestock inventory data under his jurisdiction. "The cattle herd also numbered over 70, and the horses were a little fewer, only 16."

"Well, not bad, not bad." Li Xianqing said with a smile, "Combining the sheep in the other strongholds, our Xinhua sheep population should exceed 1,000. It seems that our animal husbandry has now developed to a considerable scale."

"Director, do you want to engage in wool textile?" Li Liang had an idea.

"Yes, we can't expect to ship our own wool to Mexico and then buy woolen products from them, right?" Li Xianqing turned and looked at him. "Although Xinhua is currently focusing on developing heavy industries such as steel, machinery, foundry, and military industry, we can't ignore light industries such as textiles, leather, fur, and daily chemicals."

"The key factors for a country to maintain long-term stability and strength are just three things: agriculture, heavy industry, and light industry. Other things, such as finance, services, entertainment, and culture, are less important. At most, they are icing on the cake, but they will never play a decisive role."

"I won't elaborate on the importance of agriculture. Its role in stabilizing a country or region is self-evident. Looking back at the history of Chinese dynasties, many social conflicts erupted at the end of each one, but the most important of these was that ordinary people, unable to make ends meet, rose up in rebellion, overthrowing the old world and establishing a new one."

"Heavy industry is a key indicator of a country's strength. As long as a country has a solid heavy industry foundation, its military industry will naturally be strong. A country can build a completely independent and controllable military system through its own energy and strategic resources."

"Light industrial capacity represents the abundance of daily necessities a country has access to, and to a large extent, it also represents the happiness of its people."

"Although our population is still small, we still need to develop the necessary light industries. For example, the wool textile industry requires little technical expertise but is closely related to people's livelihood. We can also incorporate Xinhua women into industrial production, creating wealth for society as a whole and increasing income for each family."

"Director, if we only rely on the current scale of sheep farming in Xinhua, it probably won't be able to support the development of the wool textile industry, right?" Li Liang was a little worried about the supply of raw materials.

If the wool textile industry is really to be developed, in order to save human resources to the greatest extent possible, a "modern" factory will definitely be built to implement standardized, large-scale production.

Although the machinery and equipment put into use were not the fully powered mechanized ones of later generations, even if they were based on the human or animal-powered textile machines recorded in Wang Zhen's "Book of Agriculture", they could definitely beat the backward textile industry in Mexico.

Later generations restored this textile machine and confirmed that it could spin 32 yarns at the same time and produce nearly 120 kilograms of yarn a day, far exceeding the Jenny textile machine developed more than a hundred years later.

Of course, with Xinhua's existing industrial technology, it may not be possible to produce such magical textile machinery in a short period of time. But even if the current textile technology and craftsmanship of the Ming Dynasty are adopted, the wool provided by more than a thousand sheep may not be enough for half a month.

"Nothing is achieved overnight and produces immediate results," Li Xianqing said. "According to livestock breeding data, as long as there are no large-scale animal epidemics, the livestock population will expand rapidly. Well, it can double in about three years, and as the base number expands, its number will also increase exponentially."

"Our wool textile industry may not develop so rapidly in its initial stages. While meeting Xinhua's own needs, we will only expand into the surrounding Indian tribes. If we want to truly expand and capture the entire Spanish American market, it will take at least three to five years."

"During this time, I believe our sheep population will increase to 4,000 to 5,000, or even more. Combined with the smuggling of some wool raw materials from Mexico, this should be enough to support the initial development of our wool textile industry."

"If we want to expand livestock breeding, we can also introduce sheep to farmers through agricultural loans. This will not only increase the livestock population, but also provide farmers with additional income." Li Liang immediately drew inferences from this experience. "As for the wool textile factory we plan to build in Guangfeng Town, we can radiate the vast hinterland market."

"Haha..." Li Xianqing couldn't help but laugh after hearing this. He reached out and nodded at him, "For the future development of your Guangfeng, you're already starting to prepare for it?"

Xinhua currently has a population of over 13,000, and has established a county (Dongping County with Shixing, Xinning and Guangfeng as its jurisdiction), three colonization teams (Beiying Island Colonization Team, Northern Colonization Team and Jinsha River Colonization Team), and three special garrison areas (Black Shark Island, White Sand Island and Crying Mother Island).

However, except for Dongping County, which is a formal national local administrative agency, the others are temporary colonization agencies and have not switched to a normal government governance model.

At the plenary session held at the end of last year, according to the proposal of some representatives, any place with a population of 3,000 or more and a sound local financial revenue and expenditure can propose to the decision-making committee, establish a county-level agency, and bring it under unified government management.

Among the three colonization teams far away from the base, Beiying Island has the largest population, over 7,000 people, but the area has not yet achieved self-sustaining capabilities and requires a large amount of financial support from Xinzhou to maintain normal operations. For the time being, it will still maintain the colonization management model.

However, with the gradual expansion of the fur trade in Hokuyo Island, the establishment of two smuggling trade networks in Tsushima Island and Matsumae Domain, and the development of large agricultural planting areas, the area will soon enter the fast lane of development.

Perhaps, Beiying Island can obtain a more special political status by virtue of its rapidly growing population and excellent strategic position.

Many representatives of the time travelers have also suggested that they should simply not use the more neutral name "colonization team" and directly establish an overseas colonial governor's district.

What's more, this statement was unanimously agreed upon by many representatives.

When in Rome, do as the Romans do. In theory, any territory we occupy now can be considered as colonization, which is no different from the Spanish occupation of America, the British establishment of the Thirteen Colonies in North America, and the Dutch occupation of Southeast Asia.

Both were encroaching on the land and resources of the indigenous peoples. The only difference was that our Xinhua people were developing, building, and integrating these lands and populations into a new nation, while the aforementioned European colonists were plundering, exploiting, and seeking economic benefits.

However, considering that the Xinhua regime was still in a weak development stage, it did not have enough strength and confidence like the Spaniards to directly establish overseas colonial governorates.

Anyway, we have actually occupied a vast area of ​​Hokkaido. Whether it is called the Governor's District or the Colonization Team, it is only a difference in name, but there is no difference in essence.

In addition to Beiying Island, the Northern Colonization Team, which was headquartered in Fenzhou, and the Jinsha River Colonization Team, which was headquartered in Jinchuan Fort (now New Westminster City, Vancouver), not only had a small population, but also had pitifully little financial revenue, which was far from the establishment of county-level institutions.

Guangfeng, the second largest town in Xinhua after Shixing City, has a population of over a thousand in the city alone. Together with the villages, settlements and colonies under its jurisdiction, the population reaches 2,500.

Moreover, Guangfeng also has Xinhua Steel Plant, Xinhua Glass Factory, Xinhua Ceramic Factory, as well as more than ten factories and workshops including grain processing plant, canned food (ceramic jar) packaging plant, wood factory, and leather processing workshop. It has strong economic strength and strong fiscal revenue, and is only one step away from the standards for establishing a county-level institution.

If another woolen textile factory is built in Guangfeng City, it will not only increase a large amount of government revenue, but also attract a large number of jobs and prosper the local economy.

As long as the total population exceeds 3,000 and the economic scale continues to expand, the formal establishment of Guangfeng County will surely be included in the agenda soon.

This is the second county-level administrative unit in Xinhua. Even though Li Liang, as a member of the decision-making committee, does not care much about the position of county magistrate, he still has to take into account the feelings of his subordinates.

Having an administrative position and good qualifications will have a positive effect on their future career development.

Although the pace of immigration has temporarily slowed down due to the Spanish military threat, officials who are well aware of Xinhua's strength are still full of hope for the future.

With Xinhua's current military strength and more than a year of preparation, it should be highly likely that it will repel the Spanish invasion.

Then, after ending the war with the Spaniards and obtaining their formal recognition, Xinhua will inevitably usher in a period of rapid expansion.

In October last year, the Qiming Island No. 1 Shipyard launched another clipper ship with a displacement of 600 tons, making Xinhua own six ocean-going ships.

In April this year, when the spring was warm, after obtaining sufficient sails, resins, tar, copper and other ship materials from the Ming Dynasty, the shipyard immediately built a new dock and added more than 100 workers, preparing to start building two immigration speedboats with a displacement of about 800 tons at the same time to further increase immigration capacity.

It can be foreseen that with the improvement of Xinhua's shipbuilding capacity, there will be more and more ocean-going ships available for immigration in the future, and the number of immigrants that can be transferred back each year will naturally increase.

As the population continues to grow, the number of immigration colonization points established will inevitably increase significantly, and the number of officials required will also increase accordingly.

In this way, as the earliest batch of administrative officials, they will usher in a golden period of development.

Just think about it, there are at least two to three thousand immigrants every year, which is close to the population of an entire county.

At that time, the heads of newly established counties and towns will definitely be selected from among these people who have certain management experience and years of experience.

Given time, if he makes some good political achievements at the local level, he might be appreciated by the central leaders and transferred directly back to the center to take up the high position of "Minister of a Ministry or Cabinet".

It can be said that in such a rising country, everyone is given unlimited possibilities and hope. As long as you seize the opportunity and closely follow the country's continuous progress, you will climb to a height that you never thought of.

This rise is not only a personal success, but also a microcosm of Xinhua's continued prosperity and strength.

In this process, personal dreams are closely linked to the destiny of the country, and together they will write a future full of hope and possibilities.

Just like in the founding period of every dynasty, everyone will be a noble for generations and enjoy wealth and honor for hundreds of years.

Uh, that’s not right. As an official of Xinzhou Huaxia and the founder of a country, he should be a public servant of the people of Xinhua and a leader of the people, not a "high and mighty bureaucratic aristocrat."

"In the past two years, Guangfeng has achieved remarkable development results. All the results have not only met the expected goals, but have even far exceeded the committee's expectations. This achievement is inseparable from the hard work and outstanding abilities of officials at all levels of Guangfeng."

"As for the location of the planned wool textile mill, we are still considering and deliberating, and have not yet finalized it. To be honest, launching the wool textile industry was not a sudden, impulsive decision on our part, nor was it a sudden inspiration from visiting your Guangfeng and seeing flocks of sheep on the hillsides. Instead, it was a decision made after long and careful consideration."

"This was a period of prosperity for Britain's woolen textile industry. The development of this industry not only boosted Britain's economic and industrial growth, but also laid a solid foundation for the Industrial Revolution they later launched."

"The northwest coast of New South Wales, including Qiming Island, has a humid climate similar to that of the UK, providing extremely favorable conditions for wool production and expansion. More importantly, these areas are sparsely populated and have vast expanses of land. Without the need for enclosure movements like those in the UK, they can provide ample pasture for a livestock industry primarily focused on sheep farming."

"We in Xinhua are limited by our small population and will not be able to expand into California's Central Valley and the Los Angeles area for at least the next decade. This means we will not be able to secure sufficient cotton supplies and thus will not be able to establish a cotton textile industry."

"Since that's the case, we might as well settle for the next best thing and build a number of wool textile factories. Utilizing our existing conditions and resources, we can gradually transition and transform our current workshop handicraft industry into large-scale machine industry, thereby enabling Xinhua to initiate an industrial revolution ahead of schedule."

"We all know that it was the continued prosperity and expansion of the wool textile industry (the woolen industry) that drove the rise of the British economy and provided an important material and technological foundation for the Industrial Revolution more than a hundred years later. The textile industry also became a pioneering industry in the Industrial Revolution, and the mechanized production model gradually expanded to other industrial fields."

"So, we are now going to follow the path that the British have taken and leave them with nowhere to go."

(End of this chapter)