The Crown Prince of France - Chapter 172

Chapter 172: Rapidly Entering the Industrial Age

Joseph first visited Marat to check on his injuries and then set out for Nancy.

Toul is less than five leagues from Nancy, so his convoy arrived at the newly built Nancy Industrial Development Zone shortly after noon.

The development zone sits along the Meurthe River, surrounded by an endless gray stone wall, spanning an area of 500 to 600 acres.

Even from a distance, Joseph could see smoke rising into the sky from the development zone. The area is rich in coal mines, making coal a widely used fuel for production. With the introduction of steam engines, coal consumption had increased significantly.

When the officials of the industrial development zone learned of the Crown Prince's arrival, they quickly set aside their work and gathered at the western gate to welcome him.

The leader of the development zone was Alexander Lamo, not a native official of Nancy but someone recommended by Count Mirabeau to manage the area. Lamo himself also ran a substantial ironworks factory.

As the initiator and planner of the development zone, Joseph held immense prestige here. Hundreds of officials and workshop owners surrounded him, offering respectful and enthusiastic greetings and praise.

Unable to refuse their warm reception, Joseph gave an impromptu motivational speech, which allowed him to "escape."

Lamo, along with about a dozen key managers from the development zone, began guiding Joseph on a tour of the area. However, many others were reluctant to leave, trailing fifty or sixty meters behind, craning their necks to catch glimpses of the proceedings.

“Your Highness, that area over there is the ironworks. The workshops owned by the Gregoire brothers and Viscount Olivier are both quite large,” Lamo said, pointing to a cluster of buildings along the river, shrouded in black smoke. His knowledge of various statistics was impeccable. “The two workshops together operate seven furnaces and nine forging shops, producing over 50,000 pounds of iron ingots daily.

“In particular, the Gregoire brothers' workshop uses the latest type of reverberatory furnace, yielding iron ingots of very high quality.”

Joseph offered encouragement to both ironworks but was inwardly dissatisfied.

Fifty thousand pounds might sound substantial, but it translates to a mere 25 tons per day, or about 7,000 tons annually.

This was almost 90% of Nancy’s steel output.

Currently, France produces roughly 120,000 tons of pig iron annually, far from sufficient to sustain an industrial revolution.

Moreover, Joseph himself was not well-versed in steelmaking techniques. The concepts he could recall, such as “using coke” and “blast furnace steelmaking,” were limited. In the short term, the only way to increase output was likely to scale up production.

The real key to significantly boosting steel production, however, lay in demand.

If railroads could be laid extensively across the country, the resulting surge in demand would drive capital investment into the steel industry, spurring new technologies.

And building railroads required locomotives, which, in turn, depended on efficient and reliable steam engines.

Joseph silently contemplated this as he wondered about William Murdoch's progress on that front...

Lamo led Joseph through the riverside cluster of buildings, introducing glass workshops, iron product workshops, and coal yards along the way.

When a light gray, two-story building appeared in the distance, Lamo smiled and said, “Your Highness, that is the newly established Production Management Consulting Company by Jean Sonet.

“It is currently responsible for promoting the ‘factory system’ and ‘production standardization’ you requested.”

Joseph nodded. This consulting company was created at his instruction. After Jean Sonet underwent training in production standardization, he was sent to Nancy to introduce these new management concepts.

Transitioning from workshops to factories was a key task for the industrial development zone and would serve as a model for all of France.

Although “workshop” and “factory” differ by only a word, they represent a leap of an entire industrial revolution.

A “workshop” merely gathers handicraftsmen in a large courtyard. Aside from being larger in scale, it resembles primitive small workshops, where management relies on the owner's whip.

A “factory,” on the other hand, is a product of the industrial revolution. It requires a complete management system, from basic rules for attendance to a hierarchy of supervisors, and implements production standardization, dramatically improving efficiency.

Employment methods also differ significantly. Factories employ a fully capitalist wage system, where workers and factories enter into labor contracts with mutual freedom of choice. Workshops, by contrast, follow the master-apprentice model, where apprentices are personally dependent on their masters, under the supervision and constraints of trade guilds.

For instance, in contemporary France, entering a trade isn’t just about mastering skills. One must first find a master to accept them into the guild, begin a five- to seven-year apprenticeship during which the master can exploit them at will, and then advance to journeyman status. Even as a journeyman, independence is limited by the master. Only after three to five years does one achieve guild registration and become a true craftsman—only to then exploit new apprentices.

This system severely hinders industrial development. Tasks that could be learned in months of factory training often require years or even decades due to guild regulations.

Lastly, factories pursue and adapt to new technologies to maximize profits, emphasizing automation through machinery.

The transformation from workshops to factories, under normal historical progression, would require decades of industrial revolution.

However, under Joseph’s guidance, the industrial development zone aimed to adopt the most efficient methods and sprint into the industrial era.

Once the factory system matured, the ultimate industrial weapon—assembly line production—could be introduced.

At that point, French factories would dominate all European competitors!

Lamo remarked, “Your Highness, while the development zone has entirely abolished the guilds, craftsmen are still accustomed to the master-apprentice model. Full transition will take time.

“As for standardized production... it is still being promoted. Not a single workshop has fully implemented it yet.”

“That’s understandable. You must not rush. The priority is not to disrupt workshop operations,” Joseph advised, knowing that such a significant management transformation could not happen overnight.

“Yes, Your Highness.”

Lamo then guided Joseph through the dormitories, schools, and hospitals within the development zone.

These facilities provided significant support for the factories. Dormitories alone reduced operational costs significantly and even allowed the hiring of vagrants as workers. Hospitals, meanwhile, greatly improved worker attendance.

After walking for a while, Lamo pointed to a large cluster of buildings emitting white smoke in the distance. “Your Highness, that is the French United Steam Engine Company.”

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