Life of Being a Crown Prince in France

This is also why Joseph initially had the Engineering Design Institute strongly support Schramm.

Previously, traditional oil extraction methods involved first heating raw materials like rapeseed and flaxseed to break the cell walls, and then using a waterwheel-driven screw rod to compress the materials and extract the oil.

Due to the limited power of the waterwheel and the relatively crude mechanical structures, it was necessary to repeatedly press the materials and add some water to soak them, to ensure most of the oil was extracted from the raw materials.

And the primary culprit of oil deterioration is oxidation.

The traditional pressing process is very slow, causing the raw materials to be exposed to air for a long time. In other words, the lifespan of freshly pressed oil is already reduced by more than half.

Additionally, traditional pressing methods required repeated compression of the raw materials, which mixed many material fragments into the oil, containing a large amount of protein that easily spoiled.

Therefore, oil extracted by traditional methods is difficult to store for more than a month; most people would purchase oil from the oil mill as needed.

Oil mills could only be built by the riverside, and the production volume each time couldn’t be too large, otherwise, if it wasn’t sold, the extracted oil would spoil. As for the merchants, they were even less willing to transport and sell edible oil.

This kept the price of edible oil continuously high; even the residents of large cities like Paris could only enjoy oil during the few months when rapeseed or olives were harvested, resorting to using boiled bacon fat to supplement “grease” during other seasons.

Schramm’s steam-powered oil press adopted a hydraulic device to drive the pressing plate, utilizing the terrifying pressure to extract more than 92% of the oil from the raw materials within just over ten minutes.

At this point, the oil in the raw materials had not yet oxidized.

Meanwhile, the steam-powered oil press can extract all the oil in one go, avoiding impurities from mixing into the oil during the repeated “rubbing” of raw materials.

Additionally, the high efficiency of the steam-powered oil press ensures the extraction is completed before the materials cool down, further guaranteeing oil output.

These advantages represent a complete revolution for the edible oil industry.

Now, olive oil from the Provence region has started to be sold in large quantities in Paris, Lorraine, and other areas—the “premium pure oil” in glass bottles can easily be preserved for 8 months.

Rapeseed oil from the western regions doesn’t spoil even after 10 months.

This has made the transportation and sale of edible oil a new emerging business, and Paris has seen the emergence of more than a dozen oil shops.

Meanwhile, on this basis, the price of edible oil in Paris is now only a little over 60% of what it was before and continues to decline.

Joseph casually asked, “Brittany should have built a large oil press factory, right?”

Delate and the Speaker exchanged glances, somewhat awkwardly replying, “No one has invested in an oil press factory yet, Your Highness. This is why we had to purchase an oil press ourselves.”

Joseph was slightly puzzled: “I remember Brittany has high yields of rapeseed and flaxseed, why hasn’t an oil press factory been built?”

The St. Malo mayor hastily explained, “Your Highness, the rapeseed produced here in the past was all purchased by merchants from Paris or Poitou.”

Joseph nodded: “I suggest you mortgage the canning factory to obtain some funds, and I will let the Industrial Development Fund invest some money to build an oil press factory, utilizing the rapeseed and flaxseed resources here.

“The extracted oil can be supplied to the canning factory, helping the latter reduce costs and enhance the quality of the canned goods.

“Meanwhile, the canning factory can produce tin oil barrels for the oil press factory, even directly help the oil press factory with packaging and sealing.

“Afterwards, both edible oil and canned goods would use the same transport channels to be sold in large cities like Paris and Bordeaux, thus greatly saving transport costs.”

This is the supply chain model of future generations.

Rapeseed cultivation – oil extraction – fishing – food processing, forming an industrial chain. The canning factory need not maintain an oil press workshop, while the oil press factory saves on the cost of glass bottle packaging—the price of tin oil barrels is only a little bit more than a third of glass bottles, and can be stacked over ten layers high during transport, which is very convenient.

Everyone in St. Malo immediately looked at Delate, the manager.

The latter’s eyes were already glowing with excitement, nodding repeatedly, “This, this is a brilliant idea!

“With slight modification, the seam machine could be used for oil tank sealing. Even if it’s to load more oil, like 6 to 7 kilograms per can, it can be done with the collaboration of the seam machine manufacturing plant…

“As for our side, if there was an oil press factory nearby, we could even add flax oil to all the cans, and the cost would not exceed 4 Danny!”

Joseph continued with the thought: “If the production of cans and edible oil gets large enough, I believe someone should be willing to invest in the railroads here, and you wouldn’t even have to wait for the Ministry of Transportation’s planning.”

He hadn’t expected that just a visit to St. Malo would lead to the design of a massive food and oil industry enterprise.

And these industries would be sufficient to more than double the economic scale of the entire Brittany region in a short time!

While the St. Malo Congress excitedly discussed the proposal for raising funds for the oil press factory, Joseph’s convoy had already headed back towards Brest.

In the carriage, Queen Mary constantly marveled: “I really didn’t expect there to be such a large factory in the world. They say almost the whole city relies on this factory for living now.”

Joseph smiled and nodded: “Yes, mother, this is the power of industrialization.

“Previously inconspicuous little fishing villages, with the help of machines, can quickly develop into affluent cities.

“Once the oil press factory is established, people here will easily earn 30 francs a month.”

Earning 30 francs a month is already close to the workers in Paris. It’s akin to creating an area with the economic level of Paris in the border province of Brittany.

Of course, the income of Parisians is also constantly increasing, especially as various railway lines are successively opened, some technical workers can even earn 50 francs a month.

Queen Mary suddenly remembered the years when she was in charge of administration; not to mention building a giant factory in Brittany, even Paris’s finances nearly collapsed…

She laughed self-deprecatingly: “Luckily I started ‘being lazy’ early, otherwise I might have delayed your displaying this amazing talent.”

She remembered something again: “By the way, I heard Count Eman say that your patents in these machines even exceed your father’s?”

Joseph waved his hand: “Actually, most of the time I only provided some ideas. Father is the most outstanding mechanical master!”

He then changed the subject: “Have you ever combed the sea, mother?”

“Ah? What’s that?”

“Receiving gifts from nature by the sea. There’s still a few days until the warship launching ceremony, let me take you to Brest for sea combing.”