Iron is the most consumed by humans. More than 95% of the iron consumed is iron, but the iron ore in the empire is not of high taste.

Among the iron ore proven in the empire, most of the iron ore of medium and low grades are iron ore, and there is not even two percent of the iron ore that can be called rich iron ore. Even low grades of iron ore are manifested as more small and medium ore, few large ore, and almost none of the large iron ore, which leads to higher mining costs and smelting costs.

Overseas of the Empire, especially in the two provinces of Australia and South America near the Brazilian colonies, there are a large amount of iron-rich ore, but the local population is small and the mining conditions are low. Times have changed, and it is no longer possible to change the status quo through short-term and large-scale investment.

The reason is actually very simple. In the steel industry, especially pig iron and crude steel, an industry with relatively low technical level, the empire already has competitors. The UK is the first competitor. This country has abundant coal and is also rich in iron ore. The key is that the iron ore is close to the coal mine, not far from the coastline, and there is also inland traffic, and railways are also rising.

Unlike the Empire, a country that has been developing for decades, Britain's capitalist economy was interrupted by the glorious revolution and was revived again after the second glorious revolution. It was manifested in that the workers' movement had not yet shown its power. More importantly, the traditional British aristocracy had merged with the capitalists and became the new bourgeois aristocracy. The king lost his real power over domestic rule and only retained the military commander and diplomatic rights.

This directly leads to the absolute advantage of British capitalists, that is, in terms of production costs, the cost of British steel is far lower than that of the empire. Even if the empire has the technological advantages of steel smelting, this advantage is not insurmountable. Many technologies are more of an extension of experience than science.

Of course, British steel cannot be sold to the country with the empire's local and tributary system, but the empire has achieved direct competition in Europe and the Middle East, and Prussia has also participated, followed by France, and now Ukraine has also shown signs of participating.

In the competition between Europe and the Middle East, the empire was not afraid of, because in this area, the influence of price factors was far lower than that of political factors. For example, in the Ottoman Empire, no matter how low the price of British steel was, it could not seize the market of the empire because the relationship between the Ottoman and the United Kingdom was tense.

But in the vast colonies, that's not the case. In the 42nd year of the empire, Pei Guangping, the son of Pei Yuanqi, took office as the North American fief of King Yu. The first good thing he did was to represent the pitiful little and pitiful King Yu's fief, with only more than twenty steel associations at the level of blacksmith shops, submitting a petition to the Ministry of Overseas Affairs, which is responsible for the management of the fief, demanding the lifting of the ban on British steel imports.

Of course, it is impossible to lift the ban, so the doctrine of the mean was adopted to lift the ban on Portugal's steel. Imperial merchants could purchase steel from Portugal and enter North American fiefdoms.

Although the unfriendly country of Britain was replaced by the traditional friendly country of Portugal, it was essentially consistent. Assuming that the pig iron and crude steel that entered the fief of King Yu could speak, they would definitely speak English rather than Portuguese.

The largest colony of the Empire overseas was in Africa, and was governed by the African Development Company. But in fact, Spain's American colonies were already shared by Spain and the Empire. At the same time, Portugal's colonies in Brazil and East Africa, the Empire also basically had the same power as the Portuguese.

Neither Portugal nor Spain are industrial countries, and there is no decent steel smelting industry in their country. In theory, the steel trade between Africa and the Americas should be monopolized by imperial merchants, but this is only theory, not reality.

In fact, British steel has entered these areas on a large scale, gradually excluding Imperial Steel.

The reason is very simple. The imperialist can increase tariffs on the customs of the colonies controlled by the empire to prevent them from entering the colonies. However, the problem is that there is a loophole in this system. In order to force Spain to accept these conditions, the empire gave Spain many privileges. One of the important points is that Spain sells goods to the colonies without paying tariffs. The colonies sell products to the Spanish mainland, and there is no export tariff.

In the past, this was not a loophole, because the empire was the only industrial country, and there was no competition between countries. However, with the rise of Europe, competitors appeared in the empire's goods. The British let their steel turn around Spain and sell it to the colonies, so they could avoid tariffs.

Similarly, the UK and Portugal also have similar cooperation, and the businessmen in Portugal and Spain are naturally willing. Even the UK accepts the capital of the two countries to invest in establishing steel plants in the UK to deepen the cooperative relationship.

Therefore, to maintain the competitiveness of Imperial steel products, costs must be reduced.

In fact, there has been a state of change. After foreign competition, the technological progress and the iteration of production tools of major steel mills in the empire have been significantly accelerated, but this cannot solve the problem of high prices of raw materials. Therefore, purchasing high-quality foreign iron ore is a solution.

In the Nanyang region, many countries have iron ore, and as long as the imperial investment and mechanical equipment arrive, it can make up for this aspect.

Moreover, from the perspective of internal affairs, the imperial government also intends to restrict mining within the empire.

The large amount of environmental pollution problems that mining industries will bring. Of course, in this era, this is not the main factor to consider. The main problem of corruption needs to be considered. Major mining provinces are always closely related to corruption, and are different from corruption in other industries. They are often corruption in a collapsed manner. Once you look into the final analysis, you will find that there are few good people.

On the other hand, the mining industry is also an industry that is prone to trouble, especially the workers in the mining industry. When they were over-exploited by capitalists and miners in the early days, they would unite to deal with capitalists. However, with the protection of the law and the exploitation of capitalists slightly alleviated, they would join forces with the capitalists to fight the government.

Typical of these is that mining often involves a large number of embezzlement of state-owned assets, or private mining. Obviously, the empire will deal a severe blow to such behavior, but the miners don’t care about this. In order to protect their work, they pick up picks and fight against the yamen.

In many places, even the yamen will be forced to compromise. A guy will dig a coal mine at will, without completing the procedures or paying taxes. When the yamen comes to check, he will immediately call on the workers to cause trouble. In the end, he can only complete the procedures and pay the taxes.

The type of miner is different from urban workers. The workers in cities come from cities and rural areas. When they enter factories, they often have to undergo skill training and assessment. Once they enter factories, they are surrounded by strangers. But miners are different. Often, one place starts mining, one village, one town, and one surname goes to work as miners, or engage in supporting industries. These people are both workers and clan relationships, and have very strong cohesion.

Urban workers work in factories and live in cities or suburbs, and have many ways to learn knowledge and understand society. But miners in this era are different. Working in mountains and valleys often lead to underground living, staying away from society for a long time, and being disconnected from society leads to more problems.

Therefore, if urban workers strike and other behaviors, they can solve the problem by dispatching security officers and cooperating with the trade union. But miners are different. Either they don’t solve the problem. If they really want to solve the problem, they must directly use the army.

Even if we ignore the relationship between miners and the government, mines will fight for interests, and use swords and guns to hurt people's lives. It is not uncommon for hundreds or even thousands of people to have violent conflicts.

"These information is very useful, but as far as I know, except for Annan and Guangnan, the mining conditions in other countries in Nanyang are in an unexplored state. So you have to say hello to the Ministry of Resources and build the team after the New Year. We have to help the countries in Nanyang look for minerals. Not only do we have cards in our hands, but we also have to stuff cards in other countries, otherwise this card will be difficult to play." Li Junwei said.

Lin Junhong nodded: "You are right, but you have to tell the cabinet that I am not responsible for this."

Li Junwei didn't know this, and he smiled and said, "Isn't this what you should be a peacemaker?"

Since Li Junwei returned to China, he has been involved in the government affairs as the King of Reigns again for a long time. His relationship with the Cabinet has not been so good. Because Li Junwei is too strong in doing facts, he does not attach much importance to rules most of the time.

For example, the 800,000 wonton coach case directly used the Imperial Guards to fight with the gangsters at the night market, which could not be done except Li Junwei. Moreover, this matter does not seem to be in line with the law and political rules. More importantly, it has played a role in the public security management of Shen Jing.

Hundreds of gangsters were arrested for labor reform at once. The gangsters who usually bully men and women are now wearing labor reform uniforms all day long, either dredging river mud on this street or clearing sewers on that street. Can ordinary people not applaud? Can newspaper reporters not report?

When this report comes, there is a problem with the public opinion. Why can King Yu arrest hundreds of criminals by going to the street? What can you do if you Shenjing Public Security Bureau? Needless to say, there must be insiders and corrupt elements in the Public Security Bureau. What should I do? Check it out!

Moreover, the House of Parliament has no choice but to do this. Today, a member of parliament publicly criticized His Highness Yu for activating the imperial guards and violating French law. Tomorrow, the newspaper will report that the member of parliament holds a mistress and goes out to brothels. Is it true? Obviously not, because there is no time to investigate clearly, but as a member of parliament, he will issue a statement at this time that I have never done illegal and criminal activities such as raising up, soliciting prostitution, etc., and this is the result of Li Junwei's desire.

Some of these people are political enemies. As long as they point out one thing, they will deceive the people. If they have any virtue, they will lose their virtues. With Li Junwei doing bad things behind their backs, can he still last for a long time?

But the same method is useless to put Li Junwei. You said I was having sex with prostitutes, just kidding. I have more than 20 wives. Besides, what if I just had sex with them, so what if I did? Who doesn’t know that I’m lustful?

For example, in Shanxi and Hebei, private coal mines embezzled state-owned land on a large scale for mining, but the cabinet could not solve it. Li Junwei was not used to this problem and directly sent troops to two provinces to arrest people. The army surrounded the mine and arrested people, and then checked the files of the Ministry of Land and Resources. For any state-owned land, whether you have reissue the certificate, whether you are real or not, you can directly ask the workers to backfilling the mine cave without filling it? You can directly use explosives to blow it up.

Making trouble? Can you make trouble with cannons?

But the problem is that Li Junwei is not just using force. He closed the illegal mine and made people agree to arrange jobs for unemployed workers. Who will arrange it? Anyway, I patted my butt and left. Of course, it was the local government that arranged it, so the local government could only find a cabinet.

The result is that you get the matter done, you have the limelight, the cabinet is coming to wipe the butt, and the cabinet is looking for Li Junwei again. Li Junwei simply gave them bad ideas. Next time, when closing the illegal mine, it will be less troublesome, and there is no need for the cabinet and administrative system to wipe the butt. All the miners will directly take away the mine, gather people to cause trouble and ask for crimes, take the train to Gansu, and then directly pick cotton in the canal for two years.

You can still meet old acquaintances where you are the second old man who is a village chief who is a mine owner, the second old lady who is an accountant, and the eldest brother and uncle who is a thug, all of them are picking cotton there. Maybe after you go there, you think it is quite profitable to grow cotton. If you take all your wife and children, you can't be a mine boss, so you can be a cotton boss.

This scared the people in the cabinet. Good guy, he immediately stewed the men in the village and town, but the old lady had even turned on the local government building.

This is Li Junwei's understanding of the administrative system. Aren't you doing nothing? Instead of pulling you and begging you to scold you, it's better to find someone to stab the butt in the back with a knife, then stab it and walk forward.

"I can't help you with the relationship between you and the cabinet. I'm very stupid." Lin Junhong said.

Li Junwei smiled and said to him: "You can breathe out from the cabinet, just say that I have found a way to deal with European steel competition in overseas colonies."

Lin Junhong smiled: "When you finish the economic and trade negotiations, find the ore, dig out the iron ore, transport it to the empire to make steel, and then transport it to the Americas and Africa. The daylily is cold and the market is snatched away."

"It's not this method. Now we are doing a long-term solution. There are other faster methods, which have good efficacy and quick results. Although the good days of monopoly in the past cannot be found, at least we can have a fair competition." Li Junwei said.

Lin Junhong gave a thumbs up: "Okay, I'll go and ventilate the cabinet and let those old guys ask you."
Chapter completed!