Joseph first visited Mala to inquire about his injuries, then he headed for Nancy.
Toul is less than 5 miles away from Nancy, so just after noon, his convoy had already arrived at the newly established Nancy Industrial Developnt Zone.
The developnt zone is located by the Morte River, encircled by a formidable grey stone wall that seems to stretch endlessly, covering an area of about five to six hundred acres.
Still a distance away from the developnt zone, Joseph could already see smoke rising into the sky from the zone—coal mines were ubiquitous here, so coal was commonly used as fuel in production. After the introduction of steam engines, the consumption of coal had greatly increased.
The officials of the industrial developnt zone, upon learning of the Crown Prince's arrival, hurriedly put aside their work and convened at the western gate to welco him.
The principal person in charge of the developnt zone was nad Alexander Ramo, who was not a local official of Nancy but was recomnded by Mirabeau to manage the developnt zone. He also ran a fairly large ironworks.
Joseph, as the initiator and planner of the developnt zone, enjoyed imnse prestige and was surrounded by hundreds of officials and workshop owners. The air was filled with respectful and enthusiastic greetings and praise.
Unable to decline their warm reception, Joseph made an impromptu motivational speech, only then managing to "escape."
Ramo and about a dozen main administrators of the developnt zone began to take him on a tour of the park. The others, unwilling to leave, followed behind, curious and peeking from a distance of about fifty to sixty ters.
"Your Highness, that over there is the ironworks. The workshops of the Gregoire brothers and Viscount Olivier are both very large," Ramo pointed towards the large buildings enveloped in black smoke by the river, recalling various figures very clearly, "The two workshops have a total of 7 furnaces and 9 forging shops. They can produce over 50,000 pounds of iron ingots daily.
"Especially the workshop of the Gregoire brothers, which uses the latest model of reverberatory furnace, resulting in very high-quality iron ingots."
Joseph offered so words of encouragent to the two ironworks, but in reality, he was not entirely satisfied.
50,000 pounds might sound like a lot, but it's actually only around 25 tons daily, or 7,000 tons annually.
You should know, this is nearly ninety percent of Nancy's steel production.
At present, the entire France produces just around 120,000 tons of iron a year, which is far from enough for the Industrial Revolution.
Moreover, Joseph himself was not too familiar with steelmaking processes and could only think of a few theories like "using coke" or "blast furnace steelmaking." To increase production in the short term, it seed the only solution would be to expand the scale.
In fact, for a substantial increase in steel production, the key was demand.
If it were possible to lay a large number of train tracks nationwide, the intense demand would motivate capital investnt into the steel industry, and thus foster new technologies.
The prerequisite for building railroads was trains. The prerequisite for trains was a highly efficient and mature steam engine.
Joseph murmured in his mind, this depended on Murdock's progress...
Ramo led him through the cluster of buildings along the riverbank, introducing various glass workshops, ironware workshops, and coal crushing sites along the way.
Until a light grey two-story building ca into view not far away, Ramo said with so excitent, "Your Highness, that is Mr. Jean Sone's newly established 'Production Managent Consulting Firm'."
"The 'industrialization' and 'production standardization' you requested are currently being promoted by them."
Joseph nodded, this consulting firm was indeed established under his orders for Jean Sone. After accepting his production standardization training, Sone had rushed to Nancy to teach the new managent concepts.
The transition from workshops to factories is a significant task for the industrial developnt zone and will serve as a model for all of France.
Although there is only one character difference between "工坊" (workshop) and "工厂" (factory), the implication is that of an entire Industrial Revolution!
The so-called "workshop" simply gathers craftsn in a large courtyard. Except for the larger scale, it is not much different from the primitive small workshop, where managent mostly relies on the owner's whip.
A "factory," on the other hand, is a product of the Industrial Revolution. It starts with a complete managent system, ranging from the most basic issues of tardiness and leaving early to further responsibilities of shift and team leaders, and up to standardized production that significantly enhances efficiency.
Moreover, the employnt thods are quite different—factories operate under a fully capitalist employnt system, where workers establish labor contracts with the factory and have the freedom of bi-directional choice. Workshops, usually follow a craftsman plus apprentice model.
The apprentices are personally dependent on their masters and are supervised and solidified in this dependency by industry guilds.
For example, in contemporary France, if you want to enter a certain trade, it's not enough to simply have the skills. First, you have to find a master to sponsor your entry into the guild, beginning a 5 to 7 years apprenticeship where the master can exploit you at will. After graduating to a journeyman, you can nominally work independently, but you still rely heavily on your master in many aspects.
It takes another 3 to 5 years to obtain guild registration and beco a true craftsman, and then you start exploiting apprentices...
This model poses a serious drag on industrial developnt. Many tis, a factory could train soone in a matter of months to do a job that, because of guild rules, might otherwise take several years or even longer.
The last point is that factories must pursue and adapt to new technologies more aggressively.
Striving for automation using machines to gain higher profits is the characteristic of factories.
The transformation from a workshop to a factory, if following the normal course of history, would require a baptism of ten years or more of the Industrial Revolution to gradually complete.
Under the guidance of Joseph, the industrial developnt zone will directly adopt the most efficient model and sprint into the industrial era.
Once industrialization matures, the major weapon of industrial production—the assembly line—will be unveiled.
At that ti, France's factories will slaughter all their European competitors!
Ramo interjected, "Your Highness, although guilds have been completely banned in the developnt zone, craftsn are accustod to the master-apprentice model and will take so ti to fully transition.
"As for standardized production… it is still being promoted, and not a single workshop has been able to implent it yet."
"Hmm, that's quite normal. As for you guys, don't be impatient, and everything should be predicated on not affecting the workshop's production," Joseph knew that such a significant managent model enhancent could not be achieved overnight.
"Yes, Your Highness."
Ramo then took Joseph through the developnt zone's dormitory areas, schools, hospitals, and other regions.
These facilities are of great help to the resident factories. The dormitories alone can significantly reduce the costs for workshops, enabling them even to hire vagrants. The hospital greatly improves the workers' attendance rate.
After walking for a while, Ramo gestured towards a large cluster of buildings from which white smoke was continuously billowing, "Your Highness, that is the French United Steam Engine Company."
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