Chapter 992: France's Industrial Development Plan III
Compared to crucible steelmaking, converter steelmaking technology not only improved the quality of the steel but, more importantly, allowed for a massive increase in production volume.
Crucible steelmaking could only produce thirty to fifty kilograms of steel per "pot." Even the top-tier steel mills in Britain currently had a monthly output of only about twenty tons.
In contrast, a "converter" for steelmaking could be charged with one ton of molten iron at a time—and that was just a small-scale furnace. Once the technology matured, there would even be converters capable of handling over a hundred tons.
At the same time, the speed of converter steelmaking was incredibly fast; a single heat of steel could be produced in just thirty minutes.
Any small-scale steel mill could easily achieve a monthly output of five hundred tons with a single furnace.
With this technology, the price of steel could be slashed in half immediately, forcing all existing British crucible steel mills into bankruptcy.
In reality, within the so-called iron and steel industry, there was very little profit in iron; only steel could command a high price.
Currently, almost all high-precision machinery required steel rather than iron for production.
Take the cylinders of steam engines, for instance. Those made of cast iron were utterly outclassed by steel versions in terms of weight, pressure resistance, and durability.
Even the most common agricultural tools, if made of steel, could last for over a decade, whereas iron ones needed to be sharpened almost every day to remain usable.
Furthermore, iron rails were massive consumers of steel.
Indeed, although they were called "iron" rails, they were actually manufactured from steel.
Historically, during the early days of the train's invention, various countries had indeed used cast iron to forge rails. However, they soon discovered that iron was prone to deformation, wore down quickly, and could even snap. They had to be replaced after a short period of use.
The construction costs of replacing the rails, combined with the losses caused by delaying train traffic, far outweighed the cost of using steel to manufacture the rails in the first place.
Consequently, steel became the standard material for rails.
To satisfy the astronomical demand for laying down railway tracks, only converter steelmaking was up to the task.
Thinking of this, Joseph immediately instructed Mirabeau, "Please select a group of skilled steelworkers or scholars in this field as soon as possible. I need to implement a significant technical reform."
"Oh, have them go directly to the industrial development zone in Lorraine. This technology requires a large amount of coal and iron for experimentation. I will meet them there."
"Yes, Your Highness," Mirabeau replied.
Having finished the general discussion on the coal and iron industries, Joseph continued, "Regarding the chemical industry, we need to continue expanding the production of sulfuric acid and pure soda ash. We must strive to suppress the prices to a level where the British cannot afford to start production before they achieve their own technical breakthroughs."
British chemical technology was also very strong. If Joseph hadn't intervened, British soda ash would have swept across Europe in a few more years.
Now, with France serving as a demonstration, their technical breakthroughs would surely accelerate further.
But by then, France would have already established an industrial scale. They would then compete on production costs to see who would drive whom out of business.
Mirabeau nodded and took notes, then raised the same old issue. "Your Highness, the liquid capital of the Industrial Development Fund is currently quite low. As you know, the coal and iron factories have taken up a large amount of investment, and you also expanded the medical equipment company recently..."
Joseph exhaled. An unavoidable problem in developing industry was always funding, which was why the industrial era required a capitalist system to function.
He thought for a moment and said, "Then let's build the aniline dye factory first. We can rely on the profits from the dye factory to support the chemical plant. Or, we can use the shares of the dye factory as collateral for a loan."
Ever since France had unlocked the technology tree for coal tar refining, various organic chemical products derived from the decomposition of coal tar had been appearing continuously.
The earliest was phenol, which quickly became a bestseller in various countries as a cheap disinfectant.
Close on its heels came a dye known as Aniline Black.
This substance was very simple to prepare; it was an oxidation product of aniline, one of the byproducts of coal tar. The cost was almost negligible.
Meanwhile, textile dyes worldwide were currently all natural extracts, and their prices were naturally high.
Therefore, the profit margin for this Aniline Black was unimaginably high.
This was even considering that the usage of black was relatively small, yet it was still expected to generate over two million francs in annual profit.
Joseph recalled that products related to coal tar could seemingly produce many types of dyes, but the specific production processes would have to be discovered by chemists through trial and error.
If colorful dyes could be produced, such as red or blue, the profits could easily exceed ten million.
After Mirabeau quickly finished his notes, Joseph instructed further, "Speaking of medical equipment, this is also an industry that the Ministry of Industry needs to focus on recently."
"This field requires little investment but yields enormous profits. We must complete the start of production as soon as possible and increase our promotional efforts."
According to the budget submitted by the Industrial Development Fund, the medical equipment factory required an investment of only about five hundred thousand francs to reach a monthly production scale of 2,500 syringes and 1,000 stethoscopes.
The selling prices of these instruments were ninety francs and twenty-five francs respectively, while the export prices were three hundred and forty francs. After entering mass production and improving the process, the cost of a syringe had been suppressed to fifty francs each, so the selling price had been lowered accordingly.
Thus, based on the current output alone, the medical equipment factory's annual net profit was as high as 3.2 million francs. Moreover, syringes were definitely in short supply; it was estimated that the output would need to increase tenfold to barely meet demand.
In other words, the future profit of this factory would be at least on the level of twenty to thirty million per year!
If they developed other products, such as hemostatic forceps, scalpels, suture needles, and bone saws, they could likely reach a net profit of forty million francs.
It was absolutely another pillar industry for France.
Joseph then moved from medical equipment to medicines. "The Paris Pharmaceutical Factory currently needs to focus on the production of BDP, so we need to build another factory specifically to produce Glucose."
"The pharmaceutical factory can provide the funding itself, but the Ministry of Industry can offer some assistance in terms of constructing the factory buildings and recruiting workers."
BDP was the abbreviation for the Crown Prince's Blessing.
And Glucose was currently the rising star of the European medical community.
Perna's paper had been published the second month after saving Camelia, immediately sparking a heated discussion in the medical world about this "Life of Source."
Especially for patients suffering from gastrointestinal diseases or those who were too weak to eat, the use of a syringe for intravenous injection of Glucose had achieved miraculous, life-saving effects.
Following this came the massive sales of Glucose.
A 200-milliliter bottle of Glucose was currently selling for as much as ten francs domestically in France, while abroad, the price was doubled or tripled.
This was still only because the British also had the technology to extract Glucose—Graf's paper on extracting Glucose had been publicly published—and although it was still only at a laboratory scale, it still kept the price of French goods in check.
The pharmaceutical industry had always been this lucrative.
And within the Paris Pharmaceutical Factory, the research and development of BDP2 was also in full swing.
The so-called BDP2 was the next-generation product of the Crown Prince's Blessing: Sodium Salicylate.
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