Chapter 47 Kaiping Mine for Coal Digging

After the Westernization Movement began, the military industry established in various places and the civilian enterprises that emerged later had an increasing demand for coal and iron. The coal and iron produced by local methods were not only expensive, but also of poor quality. Therefore, they had to be purchased from foreign companies. Maintain normal production.According to statistics at that time, China's treaty ports imported hundreds of thousands of tons of coal each year to supply the needs of the country's military industry and a small number of other civilian enterprises.As a result, while large quantities of coal and iron were purchased and shipped from foreign countries, large sums of money continued to flow into the pockets of foreigners.

Therefore, whether it is from the perspective of resisting foreign invasion or China's economy and military, it is an urgent and urgent problem to use modern methods to mine China's coal and iron deposits. At that time, the Western powers, like hunting dogs, were eyeing the fat of China's coal resources, and they all wanted to take a bite.A translator of the British embassy in China named Bo Zhuoan suggested that the British government come to China to mine coal with Western methods after some investigation.The American ambassador Burlingame persuaded the Qing government to try to mine the Beijing Xishan Coal Mine.Counselor Wade of the British Embassy in Beijing suggested that the Qing government develop resources such as hardware and coal in various provinces.Although the Western powers were eager to know the attitude of the Qing government, the Qing government did not respond positively, which made the big powers confused.It was not until the Sino-British revision of the "Tianjin Treaty" that the British strongly demanded that the British be allowed to mine coal mines in China, which attracted the attention of the Qing government.High-level officials, especially the Westernization faction, expressed their views on China's own Western-style coal mining.

Zeng Guofan said implicitly: It seems feasible to use foreign machines to seek a permanent benefit for China. Shen Baozhen said pragmatically: To open a coal mine in China, the government should first open a factory, hire foreign craftsmen, buy or manufacture coal digging machines, and trade the mined coal at a par price.If it is beneficial, we can start it on a large scale, and if it is not profitable, we can stop at this point, so that we will not lose the initiative, and those chattering people in foreign countries will naturally shut up. Li Hongzhang realized that China's development urgently needs coal and iron. The coal and iron used in the manufacturing of foreign guns and cannons in Shanghai and Nanjing are all purchased from foreigners. The same is true for ships. Every year, a lot of money is spent on coal alone. .Since foreigners say that we have good coal in Guangdong, Fujian, Jiangsu and other places, instead of buying coal from foreigners, why not buy foreign machines and dig it ourselves?Wouldn't it be good to let foreign merchants buy and traffic our coal at that time!If it is not possible, foreigners can also be allowed to dig. We can take the opportunity to learn their technology, collect their taxes, and use the coal excavated to supply military supplies. Isn't this a good thing that kills two birds with one stone!

Li Hongzhang felt in practice: Between heaven and earth, the treasures endowed by nature are the source of daily necessities for ordinary people.He believes that it is a big loophole to spend a large amount of money every year to buy coal and iron from foreign countries!Therefore, from the perspective of benefiting the national economy and the people's livelihood, Li Hongzhang made a note to the court, requesting the establishment of a new type of mining industry. The Qing government, which experienced two Opium Wars, was quite sensitive to money.The Qing government was most afraid of courtiers asking for money.What Li Hongzhang mentioned is the most attractive topic of making money and increasing the country's fiscal revenue.He said that a small country in the west is not as big as our province, but its fiscal revenue is tens of millions.The territory of the Chinese Empire is much wider than theirs, and its mineral resources are much richer than theirs. Why is it always poor?It is because there is no early development of financial resources and excavation of underground treasures.As long as you follow the example of foreigners and start a new type of mining industry, you can immediately get rid of financial difficulties.On the one hand, it saves a lot of expenses for buying foreign coal and iron, and on the other hand, it can also export mineral products abroad, changing the unfavorable situation of trade into superpowers.At the same time, mining is conducive to improving the livelihood of ordinary people.When a mine is opened, workers have to be recruited to dig coal, and the coal that has been dug out has to be transported and sold.In this way, many industries near the mine can provide employment opportunities for the poor who have no food and clothing, such as: restaurants, hotels, passenger transportation, etc.

In 1875, Li Hongzhang's request was approved by the Qing government, and Li Hongzhang began to try mining in Cizhou, Zhili.Li Hongzhang sent his cronies, Feng Yu (qu) Guang of Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau, and Wu Yulan of Tianjin Machinery Bureau to be responsible for the preparation; the funds were advanced by Jiangnan and Tianjin Bureaus with 100,000 taels of silver, and 100,000 taels of shares were raised by investment; the equipment was entrusted to British businessman Heideson Go to UK to order and hire engineers in UK.Li Hongzhang's wish was good, but the trial mining industry ended in failure.The Cizhou Coal and Iron Mine could not be opened because of the conservative forces at that time making obstacles everywhere, profiteers cheating for profit, and inconvenient transportation.When the mining industry in Zhili was not completed, Li Hongzhang joined forces with Liu Kunyi, the governor of Liangjiang, and Li Hanzhang, the governor of Huguang, to request the establishment of a coal mine in Xingguo, Hubei, which was then approved by the Qing government.

Li Hongzhang appointed Sheng Xuanhuai, a competent officer of the Westernization Affairs Group, as the supervisor of Xingguo coal mines, in charge of mining development in Hubei, and directly allocated 200,000 strings of money from Zhili Lianbai as funds.Sheng Xuanhuai excavated more than 40 coal mines in Xingguo in the following year, but he did not buy new machines and mine coal by the western method as Li Hongzhang expected, but still used the soil method, only the surface layer was collected, and when the mining was exhausted, he would change to another mine to dig again. The production capacity of more than 40 coal kilns is less than 20 tons in half a year, which is not as much as the coal production of a mine in Western countries in a week, and it is a great waste of resources.Such an outdated and backward production method is not at all the new mining industry advocated by Li Hongzhang.Not long after, Li Hongzhang reluctantly shut down the Xingguo Coal Mine in Hubei.Without money, it is impossible to purchase advanced coal mining machines, hire experienced foreign miners, and adopt Western-style mining methods that consume a lot of money when building mines.If all Western methods were adopted, about 60,000 taels of funding would be needed that year.During the period from official excavation to profit, all funds have to be paid in advance.When the Qing government allowed Li Hongzhang to open a new type of coal mine, he only thought that it would increase his income, but he did not expect that he would not be able to afford the compensation at all.Neither the state nor the locality can afford the money, let alone Li Hongzhang himself.Li Hongzhang believes that the fundamental reason for the failure of mining is the problem of funds.

The obstruction in Hubei did not reduce Li Hongzhang's enthusiasm, and he wanted to try elsewhere.He heard that there have been many small coal mines in Kaiping since ancient times, and most of the people there depend on coal digging for a living.Since there is a tradition of coal mining, it is more likely to succeed in setting up large coal mines here.He appointed Tang Tingshu, an experienced alternate Taoist priest and general manager of the Shipping Merchants Bureau, together with a British technician named Ma Lishi, to Kaiping for a thorough on-site survey.Li Hongzhang learned from his report that there are Fengshan Mountains stretching for dozens of miles around Kaiping. Guye in the northeast, Majiagou in the north, and Tangshan in the southwest all contain rich coal resources. Coal kilns are everywhere. Production, profits, etc. are not inferior to those of the West.The local people have been mining coal for some years. They have been digging coal by themselves since the Ming Dynasty, and skilled workers can dig four to five hundred catties a day.Calculated according to the prevailing coal price at that time, after deducting the transportation costs, every 15 tons of coal can make a profit of 75,000 taels.What's even better is that there are both coal and iron here, and Fengshan has a considerable amount of iron ore.Under such favorable conditions, it is completely possible to adapt measures to local conditions and kill two birds with one stone. First, coal is mined locally, and then iron is smelted with the mined coal.The downside is the poor shipping conditions.The mountain roads near Kaiping are rugged and the traffic is extremely inconvenient. The transportation of coal and iron mainly relies on the power of cattle, horses and animals.The quantity of private production is limited, and animal power can still be maintained. If a large-scale new mining industry is opened, the export of products will become a problem.The best solution is to build a railway from Kaiping to Lutai, using power instead of animal power to increase the carrying capacity and circulation speed.Tang Tingshu suggested investing 800,000 taels for Kaiping Coal Mine, half of which was used to purchase equipment and introduce advanced technology, and the other half was used to build railways.

Li Hongzhang was very excited.In order to be sure, he entrusted the miner Ma Lishi to bring the coal and iron samples collected from Kaiping back to the UK, and invited the famous chemist Dale and others to further strictly test the composition of the coal and iron.Soon, the results came out: Although the specimens examined were not the best in the world, there should be no problems in mining the mine.Li Hongzhang's dream of mining is about to come true. In fact, long before Li Hongzhang wanted to exploit the coal resources in Kaiping, some people had already noticed the mineral deposits here.He is the British businessman Utterson.An Tesheng went to Kaiping for actual surveys many times, and felt that Kaiping was a place worth developing.He also wrote his thoughts in his diary, saying: The method of digging coal here is much more advanced than that of the coal mines in northwest Beijing. If they can use steam engines and water pumps and dig deeper, these coal mines will be more valuable.But now they can only dig the top layer of coal. After digging the top layer, the coal mine is abandoned and other mines are opened to dig.They dig new wells almost every year, and local people told me that a new well cannot be dug for more than ten years at the longest.All coal seams with good quality are stored deep underground, and it is wasteful for Kaiping people to dig coal like this, and they cannot get good quality coal.The reason is that the mining method is too backward. If you learn the western method and use the machine to mine, the effect will be completely different.

So, what is the advanced method of the West? Compared with the closed-door Qing government, the coal mining methods of Westerners in the 19th century were already very advanced.When they look for coal mines, they first observe the terrain, and after confirming the location of the coal mine, they drill a hole to measure the actuality of the coal mine. If there is indeed coal, and the quality of the coal meets the mining standards, they open two wells at the same time.The two wells go deep into the bottom of the coal mine, and a crossway is opened between the two wells to connect the two wells, so that oxygen can enter the mine for the miners to breathe and light the lamps, but the lamps must be sealed with glass up.The whole mine is supported by thick wood, and a small road is opened at the bottom of the well, and a small ditch is dug beside the road, so that the water can gather in the small ditch, so that the pit will not be full of turbulent flow.Put a water pump into the small well, and immediately drain the water if there is any water, which can be ventilated without the risk of flooding.This is the technical treatment of mine.As for the method of mining coal, the bottom and sides of the coal are dug first, and the coal seam is struck with a sledgehammer, and the coal lumps fall down naturally, and then transported to the bottom of the large well with a trolley or a shoulder loader, and then transported out of the mine with a machine.This method can mine four to five tons of coal every day, and what is mined are all good coals from deep layers.At the same time, Kaiping people, who had the most advanced mining methods in China, dug desperately every day, but they could only mine four to five hundred catties of shallow coal.

Tang Tingshu was known for his speed and efficiency, and he quickly submitted a specific mining plan to Li Hongzhang.In this plan, he pointed out the problem of labor price difference between China and the West.In addition to the advantages mentioned above, the opening of a coal and iron mine in Kaiping also has a large gap in wage income between Chinese miners and British miners.Specifically, in the unit composition of each ton of coal, the proportion of Chinese miners' wages is only half of that of British miners' wages.The same goes for ironmaking.In actual implementation, it may be even more economical than this budget.Therefore, the low price of labor will inevitably make mining a huge profit!

The salary advantage completely relieved Li Hongzhang of his worries, and he also accelerated the pace of sending people to order drilling rigs and hiring coal and iron experts.Li Hongzhang sent Tang Tingshu to Kaiping in 1876 to investigate coal and iron mineral resources.The mode of operation is government-supervised and commercial-run, and the specific fund-raising regulations are immediately drawn up by Tang Tingshu.Li Hongzhang also specifically explained: The experts hired must have real talents and practical learning. If they are not proficient in their field, they will be fired immediately and re-employed. Tang Tingshu drafted the "Kaiping Mining Investment Promotion Regulations", trying to reflect the two characteristics of government supervision and commercial management, taking into account the interests of both government and business.Li Hongzhang was satisfied with this charter, but still imposed some restrictions on merchants from an official standpoint.For example, it is stipulated that the investment funds of businessmen can only be used to run mines, and are not allowed to be used for other purposes. The Kaiping Mining Bureau originally planned to raise 800,000 taels of shares in the first phase of investment, 100 taels per share, divided into 8,000 shares, and all the shares would be collected by June 1879.After the business is booming, another 200,000 taels will be recruited for the second phase, and the total investment will be 1 million taels, which will be divided into 10,000 shares.However, the combination of bureaucrats and compradors was a new thing at that time, and most domestic small and medium-sized businessmen held a wait-and-see attitude, unwilling to easily gamble their fortunes and lives on it.The Mining Bureau worked hard to collect two hundred thousand taels of silver.The two hundred thousand taels was mainly invested by Tang Tingshu and others.Regardless of whether the funds are sufficient or not, the Kaiping Mining Bureau ordered machines, bought land and built houses with the initial 200,000 taels, and opened with excitement. In 1877, Tang Tingshu's plan to mine Kaiping coal and iron was approved by Li Hongzhang, who appointed him to take charge of the work. In order to get the cooperation of local officials, former Tianjin Dao Ding Shouchang and Tianjin Haitian Dao Li Zhaotang were sent to supervise. In 1878, the Kaiping Mining Bureau was formally established, with the government supervising the business office.In 1879, the second year after the opening of Kaiping Coal Mine, only 7,000 shares were recruited from the originally planned 8,000 shares. It was difficult to fully carry out mining work for coal and iron.In response to this situation, after careful analysis, Li Hongzhang believed that the joint meeting of coal mines and iron mines would lead to the failure of both. Only by abandoning iron mines with higher costs and slower demand and concentrating on opening coal mines can we win the initial victory.As long as the first step is successfully taken to promote the new mining industry in China, it is not too late to develop the Kaiping Iron Mine in the future. Li Hongzhang immediately decided to suspend the mining of iron ore.Funds are concentrated on a single coal mine, which is naturally much more generous.The output of Kaiping coal increased rapidly.According to Tang Tingshu's vision, a railway should be built immediately to transport the excavated coal in time to avoid a backlog of products and poor capital turnover.The transportation of coal by railway not only has a large volume and fast transportation speed, but also saves a lot of manpower compared with cattle and horse transportation, and the coal produced in Kaiping can solve the problem of fuel for trains. The two complement each other.But at the time, such a thing was hard to get support for.First of all, in terms of funds, the Qing government could not afford to build roads.Second, public opinion does not support it either.The Kaiping Coal Mine has just produced coal and has not yet entered the profit-making stage. It cannot afford the large sum of money required for the construction of the railway. Tang Tingshu, who has a flexible mind, suggested digging a small canal two miles away from the mine to connect Lutai and Xugezhuang. Link up and get the coal out of the water.The small canal does not need to be too deep, as long as a sluice is built on the river, the water is stored when there is a lot of water to ensure that the river does not flood, and when the water is low, the sluice is opened to release water to ensure shipping. There is a way.Soon, this small canal with a total length of 70 miles and which can be used by boats for 12 hours a day was dug. Although the water in the river is relatively shallow, it also initially solved the problem of coal transportation.Before the completion of the Tanglu Railway, this small river has been undertaking the main task of transportation. At the beginning of 1881, the Kaiping Coal Mine officially began to drill and produce coal.The authoritative media at the time, Shen Bao, reported on this: Kaiping Coal Mine, the first modern coal mine in China, has been drilled out of coal.In terms of technology, it adopts foreign advanced drilling machines and employs experienced technicians from the West as guidance; in terms of system, it adopts the form of government-business joint ventures and public offerings. ; In terms of mining methods, the most advanced method of opening two wells at the same time is also adopted in the world today. A small well is 30 feet deep, which is used to pump water and fill air to ensure the safety of the underground. The new pump can pump a thousand catties of water per minute; A large well with a depth of 60 feet is the wellhead dedicated to extracting coal. The machine can lift up to one million catties of coal per day (the actual daily output is only 300 tons). Li Hongzhang is very concerned about the development of coal mining, and every step cannot be separated from his vision.He heard that Kaiping had produced coal. Considering that a special organization should be established to organize and manage various affairs of the Kaiping Coal Mine, he decided to formally establish the Kaiping Mining Bureau, and personally presided over the establishment ceremony of the Kaiping Mining Bureau.In order to create favorable conditions for the development of Kaiping Coal Mine, he asked the Qing government to reduce the coal tax.Li Hongzhang said in the memorial: In the past, when China signed treaties with foreigners, they were always deceived by them, so that we only charged very low taxes on goods imported by foreigners, but they levied high taxes on Chinese goods that wanted to be exported.This inadvertently resulted in the suppression of Chinese businessmen and the protection of foreign businessmen, so that our own businessmen have no market abroad and cannot compete with foreigners at home, making their survival very difficult.This is deeply unfair and a great evil in our tax policy.Now Kaiping coal will be put into the market in large quantities. If the previous tax collection method is still followed, it will be difficult to compete with imported coal. Our first large-scale coal mine jointly established by the government and businessmen will face the danger of being squeezed out by foreigners.In order to support our own enterprises in China, we should reduce the domestic coal tax so that it can compete with foreigners in the international market and win glory for the Chinese.In this way, the original coal tax of six cents, seven cents and two per cent per ton was abruptly reduced to one cent.As a result, the production cost of Kaiping Coal Mine has been greatly reduced again. There are people in the court who are good at handling things.The output of the Kaiping Coal Mine rose rapidly, with the daily output reaching 500 tons in one year of drilling. Three years later, it remained stable at around 900 tons. By 1894, the daily output was said to have reached 2,000 tons! High production, low taxes, and low wages made the profits of the Kaiping Coal Mine skyrocket. In just a few months from May to October 1887, the profit reached more than 13,000 taels.Li Hongzhang said triumphantly and happily: If you want to win big profits, you must be willing to spend a lot of money.Kaiping Coal Mine spent two million taels at the beginning, but now it has only been in operation for ten years and it has started to collect interest continuously.As I said long ago, how can you expect to start work in the morning and make a profit in the evening when you do a big job? Then, Li Hongzhang struck while the iron was hot, and went to the imperial court to add the Linxi Coal Mine near Kaiping as an auxiliary mining area, which was approved soon.Kaiping Coal Mine is gradually becoming systematic and large-scale, and its popularity is also rising. The original 100 taels per share has risen to 140 taels, 150 taels in an instant, and some people are willing to pay 237 taels per share. Buy in bulk at high prices.The businessmen who hesitated to wait and see and did not dare to invest in the shares regretted it one after another, lamenting that they were short-sighted and lacked foresight, and failed to grasp the business opportunities. In terms of the original intention of Li Hongzhang and others, the direct purpose of Kaiping Mining Bureau was to solve the problem of fuel for domestic ships and machines, and to compete for profits with foreigners.Judging from the actual situation, the first objective has been fully achieved, and the second objective has also been achieved to a certain extent.Before the 1880s, almost all the coal needed by the treaty ports was monopolized by foreign coal, and the entire Tianjin market was a best-selling place for Japanese coal.After Kaiping's low-priced and high-quality coal quickly occupied the market, not only domestic small and medium-sized merchants could not compete with it, but foreign merchants in China were also affected. Before the 1880s, Japan transported coal from Hiroshima and Miike to Tianjin for dumping at a high price of seven to eight taels of silver per ton, almost monopolizing the Tianjin market.After Kaiping coal was listed in Tianjin, it was sold at a price of 425 yuan to 52 yuan per ton, which reduced the Japanese coal by two-thirds within two years, and basically had no market in less than ten years.Not only in Tianjin and other inland provinces and cities, Kaiping coal is also continuously shipped to Hong Kong and abroad, with more than 500 tons sold abroad every year, while Hong Kong's sales reach thousands of tons.What Li Hongzhang expected, that is, the desire of Kaiping Coal to compete with foreign businessmen for profits in the international market, has truly come true.