Chapter 314: The Textile Revolution

Chapter 315 Textile Revolution

Everyone looked at each other in surprise on the Royal Square.

They had originally planned that the Crown Prince would attend a banquet and then a dance after coming to Lyon, and they would have to start talking about business tomorrow.

Unexpectedly, His Highness did nothing, but threw out such a powerful statement as "Lyon is finished" right away.

However, most people here are engaged in textile-related industries. Although they all think that the Crown Prince's words are a bit too much, it is an indisputable fact that the industry will face fierce competition from the British.

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Joseph paused and pointed to the automatic loom placed beside him: "The only thing we can compete with the British at the moment is production efficiency!

"You should have heard that the weaving speed of this automatic loom is more than ten times that of a manual loom. With continuous improvements in the future, the efficiency will continue to improve.

"This means that factories using automatic looms only need to employ one-tenth of the workers in the past!"

He actually stole the concept here. Although the automatic loom is efficient, it still requires a large number of workers to operate it, and at most it can reduce a quarter of the workers. Of course, the output of woven cloth will increase significantly.

Joseph continued: "Only in this way can our textiles be close to the cost of the British.

"However, the British have already started using automatic looms a few years ago.

"That is to say, their costs will be even lower in the future, and our products will be completely cut off from sales!"

The British automatic looms are a trade secret, and the French side is not clear about the specific situation. At this time, everyone became nervous when they heard His Royal Highness the Crown Prince say this.

In fact, Mirabeau's people had promoted automatic looms to them before, but they didn't "beat them hard" like Joseph, so no one cared at all. Now they realized that the situation is already very serious.

Seeing that the atmosphere was almost set, Joseph changed the subject: "The good news is that there are not many automatic looms in the UK at present, and they are all hydraulically driven.

"This is what I just said'the last chance'.

"If Lyon starts using automatic looms on a large scale from now on, coupled with our latest high-pressure steam engine drive, it will be able to surpass Britain in production efficiency and regain the market we deserve!"

What he didn't say was that when automatic looms are rolled out in large quantities, they can also promote the improvement of steam engines and form a positive cycle.

The factory owners present whispered for a long time. At the request of everyone, Boyer, president of the Lyon Chamber of Commerce, stood up and saluted Joseph on his chest, saying: "Your Highness, in fact, everyone knows that the performance of automatic looms is advanced, but... this thing is too expensive.

"The loom plus the matching steam engine requires more than 16,000 livres. And if you want to form a scale, you have to buy at least three looms. There are also links such as training workers and trial production, which cost a lot of money. "

He looked behind him: "Most people here find it difficult to come up with such a large sum of money. And even if they raise enough money to buy the loom, if there is a problem with the raw materials or the market, resulting in poor sales, the huge investment before will quickly bankrupt the factory..."

Joseph nodded slightly when he heard this. He knew that what Boyer said were all very realistic problems.

In the 18th century, due to insufficient technical verification, incorrect information, or lack of supporting policies, the use of new technologies was a very risky thing.

Even in the birthplace of new technologies in Europe, such as Britain, it took more than ten years to popularize automatic looms, and they were still driven by water wheels. Automatic looms driven by steam engines did not become popular in Britain until the 19th century.

In a similar situation, Watt had completed the improvement of the steam engine for nearly ten years, but the annual sales were less than 20 units.

In France, it was all thanks to Joseph using the small parish bank to lend money to rural areas so that they could buy pumps for irrigation, which promoted the sales of steam engines. Otherwise, Murdoch's technology iteration would not be so fast.

However, as a person who has experienced the capital era in later generations, Joseph has a mature countermeasure for this.

He raised his hand to signal everyone to be quiet, and said loudly: "The government has made preparations for everyone's concerns.

"That's the investment insurance business!"

The people in the square looked at each other again. They understood the word "insurance", but when "investment" was added in front, no one knew what was going on.

Although the insurance industry had already appeared in the 17th century, it has only developed to a few types such as marine insurance, fire insurance and life insurance.

Joseph smiled and explained to everyone: "The French Commercial Insurance Company can accept insurance for investment in automatic looms. After that, the company will verify the capital and operating conditions of the factory and send salesmen to supervise production.

"And once the insured factory goes bankrupt, the insurance company will check the factory's operations and account conditions. As long as there is no fraud, investors can get 80% of the investment amount.

"Of course, the corresponding assets of the factory will be taken over by the insurance company."

To be honest, this type of insurance is extremely risky for insurance companies, but Joseph has sufficient confidence in the automatic loom. As long as the factory operates normally, it should not go bankrupt.

To take a step back, if the business collapses, he can also recover the factory assets as an insurance company, merge it into a large-scale textile company, and continue to operate in the mode of government investment.

For the technological revolution in France's textile industry, the risks involved could only be borne by the newly established French Commercial Insurance Company under the French Reserve Bank.

The factory owners present immediately began to whisper excitedly, "If you only lose 20%, you can give it a try."

“It’s really helpful that there is such insurance.”

"I just don't know if the insurance company can afford to pay if something goes wrong..."

"I heard Mr. Varenne mention that this is a company in which the Reserve Bank of France has a stake. There should be no problem with funding."

"That's great! I've long wanted to buy some automatic looms to try. Do you want to partner with me?"

Joseph struck while the iron was hot: "Perhaps you have heard the news that we have signed trade agreements with Austria and the six South German countries.

"In the future, textiles from Lyon can be sold directly to South Germany through the Rhine River. The tariff will be at least the same as that of British goods, and even lower in countries such as Baden."

A burst of exclamations instantly erupted in the square.

Being able to enter a market as large as South Germany is definitely a major benefit to the French textile industry, and future sales are likely to increase significantly.

Joseph continued to "stimulate" everyone: "In addition, we have obtained a new source of wool in the Pacific Ocean. The production can reach more than one million pounds, and it will even exceed two million pounds next year. The price is only half of the wool currently on the market!"

In fact, he said it a bit modestly. New Zealand is a paradise for sheep herders. If the number of sheep flocks increases, the output can even be higher than that of the United Kingdom!