Chapter 1245 The Great Chemical Era of the Empire (Second update, please subscribe)
A seemingly insignificant invention can bring untold wealth to the inventor and can make an ordinary person become a millionaire overnight. This is the charm of invention.
Books contain beautiful women and golden houses. The Chinese tradition of reading for reward was passed down in another form in the Ming Dynasty.
Those inventors will certainly become legends, objects of worship and admiration. After all, the desire for wealth is common to all people.
Although the indigo invented by Tang Haodong in the 18th year of Shengde may cause hundreds of thousands of farmers and plantation owners who grow blue grass to lose their jobs around the world, and may destroy the indigo industry in the next few years, for the empire, the industrialized synthetic indigo industry will not only bring tens of thousands of new jobs, but will also further stimulate the development of the empire's chemical industry, because indigo synthesis consumes a lot of sulfuric acid, caustic soda, and some ammonia. In the past twenty years, with the help of Emperor Zhu's golden finger, the contact sulfuric acid and electrolytic caustic soda processes, which were originally advanced processes that were formed in the early 20th century, were introduced into the Ming Dynasty, and the cost of the once expensive sulfuric acid and caustic soda was significantly reduced. It has become a cheap material, but it has not yet formed a scale effect. The huge demand for the indigo industry will stimulate these industries to produce scale effects, thereby promoting the comprehensive development of the empire's chemical industry.
"It means that the Empire will build a strong chemical industry. In the past, our chemical industry was strong but not large. We were strong in technology, but in terms of scale... it was not good because the demand was limited."
Sometimes industrial production is like this. There must be market demand to expand production and form economies of scale. In fact, the establishment of the Ming Dynasty's sulfuric acid, caustic soda and nitric acid industries was entirely based on military needs, from the initial nitroglycerin to picric acid, and even the current production of TNT and smokeless propellant. However, military demand has limited effect on promoting the chemical industry.
Ultimately, the stimulation of the civilian market is still needed, and the current artificial synthesis technology of indigo will undoubtedly fundamentally stimulate the development of the chemical industry. The chemical industry... During war, there is more than just fire and explosives!
"But now that we have synthetic indigo, not to mention the hundreds of millions of yuan in market value brought by the global dye market of hundreds of thousands of tons per year, the most important thing is the demand for sulfuric acid, caustic soda and ammonia. These will fundamentally promote the scale breakthrough development of the empire's chemical industry. With the scale effect, the cost will be further reduced, which will of course enhance the competitiveness of the empire's other chemical products in the market..."
When talking about the scale effect of the chemical industry, Emperor Zhu almost laughed out loud. It was not because of the market worth hundreds of millions of yuan every year, but the significance behind it, especially the importance of the chemical industry in war, which was unparalleled.
With sulfuric acid, caustic soda and nitric acid, we have explosives, gunpowder, and propellant, which are the most basic raw materials for war. More importantly, Ming Dynasty's products are cheap!
During war, not only must raw materials be sufficient, but more importantly, they must be cheap enough. This is the fundamental basis for continuing the war.
"Your Majesty is right. Production scale is the best way to reduce costs. As the scale increases, costs will naturally decrease. As costs decrease, the competitiveness of the Empire's products will also increase. Your Majesty, this is all thanks to the contact production method of sulfuric acid and the electrolysis method of caustic soda that you invented back then. Otherwise, costs would not have dropped so much. In the final analysis, the development of the Empire's chemical industry is all thanks to your Majesty!"
Sun Siwei, the Minister of Agriculture and Commerce, flattered him at the right time.
No one would find flattery offensive, and besides, it is the truth! Your Majesty is an inventor. Many of his inventions have benefited the Ming Empire to this day.
"Ah, that's all in the past. Two acids and one base are the basis of the chemical industry, but the cost of nitric acid is still too high!"
The cost of nitric acid is high.
They are all extracted from saltpeter, and now saltpeter is known as "white gold"!
White gold!
Another invention that won the Nobel Prize immediately came to Emperor Zhu's mind - synthetic ammonia. In this era when synthetic ammonia had not yet been invented, saltpeter, the only source of nitric acid, was expensive. Faced with this chemical raw material that was extremely widely needed in agriculture and industry, countless chemical experts were working hard to synthesize ammonia, but their research had not made much progress.
But they made no progress at all. Perhaps for chemists of that era, synthesizing ammonia was an esoteric problem.
But for Emperor Zhu, the process of synthesizing ammonia was just a test question in a high school chemistry textbook.
Synthetic ammonia!
Thinking of this, Emperor Zhu's eyes lit up. This was the era of Chilean saltpeter domination. Both gunpowder manufacturing and the fertilizer industry in Europe were inseparable from Chilean saltpeter. Of course, it was almost the only source of nitric acid.
It is precisely because of the industrial and agricultural demand of the Empire, European countries and the United States that Chilean saltpeter has become a hot commodity in the agricultural fertilizer markets of various countries. The growing demand for saltpeter has directly contributed to the rise in the price of saltpeter, which has also earned it the title of "white gold".
Before Peru was occupied by the Empire, thanks to the production and export of saltpeter, Peru achieved rapid progress in national strength. If the Empire had not destroyed it with a blitzkrieg, the Peru-Bolivia Federation might even have directly threatened the security of the Empire with the stimulation of the saltpeter trade. Of course, this is also the reason why the Empire went to war with it under the pretext of the "Havana Incident."
After the Empire occupied the Peruvian Federation, the saltpeter industry also drove the development of related industries in the Empire. Of course, the Empire's advanced industrial level also promoted the current saltpeter production. Now the Empire's saltpeter production far exceeds the historical level of the same period.
In the history of another world, the period from 1880 to 1920 was known as the "Saltpeter Age" in Chilean history. The export of Chilean saltpeter boosted the country's economic development and even helped them achieve a certain degree of industrialization, especially during World War I. Stimulated by the war, the export of Chilean saltpeter made Chile a fortune.
However, this golden age ended quickly - the synthetic ammonia technology invented by Germany ended the "saltpeter age". After the end of World War I, the synthetic ammonia technology invented by Haber was given to Britain, France, the United States and other countries as part of war reparations. As a result, cheap synthetic ammonia, synthetic nitric acid and other products quickly replaced Chilean saltpeter.
Suddenly, Emperor Zhu was stunned.
"Saltpeter!"
"What?"
Sun Siwei looked at His Majesty in surprise.
"I meant saltpeter!"
Emperor Zhu stood up with some excitement, which was rare for him. He looked at Sun Siwei and said.
"Saltpeter, the saltpeter is ours! All the saltpeter in the world!"
Emperor Zhu said excitedly,
"All the saltpeter in the world, most of the sodium saltpeter! It comes from the Atacama Desert. That's our place. We have an almost inexhaustible supply of saltpeter. But what about the British? What about the Americans? They don't have it!"
Emperor Zhu clapped his hands vigorously and said excitedly.
"Yes, they didn't! This, this is our trump card!"
(End of this chapter)
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