Tiantang Splendid

Chapter 1725 Profit drives social change
Hearing the words, the old woman readily agreed: "Then why can't you see people? You are noble at first glance. It is my blessing to be able to come to my house. Please come in quickly, please come in quickly. Look at this On a rainy day, it’s good to sit inside and drink a cup of hot tea to dispel dampness and coldness.”

Holding the child in his arms, he invited the two of them into the yard with a look of joy.

Li Jing stood at the door with his hands behind his back, looked at the courtyards in the drizzle, and said in admiration: "Even if it is Chang'an, the imperial capital, how can such a place with such a neat layout, refreshing and comfortable? This Huating Town is worthy of being the best in the world." The town is stunning in every way.”

The old woman was baffled, she didn't know why this old man with white beard who looked older than her was so emotional, but she didn't dare to ask, although she didn't know the identities of the two people in front of her, but Fang Xuanling held a high position and ruled the world, Li Jing's invincible aura of commanding thousands of troops made her feel unreasonable heart palpitations. These two people look far from being as simple as ordinary merchants...

But I can't see any malice between the two, and the old woman feels at ease.

Leading the two to the main hall and entering the house, the two took off their bamboo hats, and the old woman greeted and shouted: "Old man, there are guests!"

Fang Xuanling hurriedly said: "Sister-in-law, you don't have to be polite, just let us have a look at the woven blanket. I really don't dare to bother you."

The old woman was very hearty, and she didn't see the cautiousness and embarrassment of the ordinary farmer's old women at all. She said generously: "The nobleman is no more than my father. I am old and confused. Although I am old, my eyes are not blind. Are you officials of the imperial court? Came to investigate our weavers?"

Fang Xuanling and Li Jing were all taken aback, thinking that they were pretending to be good, but they had already seen through their identities...

Li Jing said with a smile: "It's just two old bones who have retired from office, but what happened to the so-called investigation of the weavers by the sister-in-law just now?"

Compared with Fang Xuanling's kindness, the old woman is obviously more afraid of Li Jing, who is as majestic as Yuan Ting and Yue Zhi. However, as people live older, they will have some experience. It is the experience accumulated from a long life experience. This is the experience that makes her believe that although the two people in front of her must be noble, they really have no evil intentions...

But even so, the old woman still asked cautiously: "Isn't it the official censor?"

Fang Xuanling smiled wryly, "Really not."

The old woman breathed a sigh of relief, and then said in a rambling manner: "You don't know something. A while ago, there were always so-called censors who came here. You said that you are an official of the imperial court. Why don't you ask me about something openly? No, I was always sneaky for fear of being discovered, and then asked about the source of the wool, the output of the weaving, the sales channel, etc. At the beginning, we were all baffled, and then the town office heard about it. news, they sent someone down to remind us that someone in the court wanted to harm Fang Erlang, wanted to take articles from our staff, and told us not to talk nonsense..."

Fang Xuanling's heart sank, is there such a thing?
The old woman was very talkative, so she invited the two to sit down, lifted the kettle from the small burning stove in the back room, made tea for the two, and said, "Do you think these censors have nothing to do? We ordinary people who don’t collect land and raise money these days, if Fang Erlang didn’t make a living by weaving cloth and blankets, I’m afraid they would have starved to death a long time ago. How can we still live in such a house and live such a life? According to me Look, there are people who are jealous of Fang Erlang's ability and want to frame Zhongliang!"

Both Fang Xuanling and Li Jing laughed, this old woman is really not simple, it is really impressive that a villager in the countryside can say such words.

Seeing the expressions of the two, the old woman was a little shy, and said with a smile: "I haven't seen the world, and I heard these words from the merchants who came to receive the goods. Don't be surprised, don't be surprised."

At this time, an old man came out from the back room. He was a thin old man. He was dressed casually in hemp and cloth shoes. He looked clean and energetic.

"You old lady is talking nonsense again, you can't change your bad mouth even if you die."

The old man complained, saluted Fang Xuanling and Li Jing, and said respectfully: "The little old man has seen two nobles."

The old woman complained: "Why did you lose your mouth? Am I wrong? The whole town was built by Fang Erlang, there is no Fang Erlang, you are still planting the two acres of mountain land at home in the Jiangbei Mountains, and the children are so hungry that they cry all day long." Calling, now that someone is going to frame Fang Erlang, we naturally have to stand up!"

The old man said helplessly: "Misfortune comes from your mouth, don't you know? Just do some things, there is no need to talk about them."

The old woman snorted twice, obviously dissatisfied, but it was probably because there were outsiders there, she had to give the old man some face, she pleaded guilty to Fang and Li, and carried the child into the back room.

The old man said: "You two want to see the woven blanket? That's no problem, please follow the little old man."

After all, he took Fang and Li out of the main hall and came to the east wing.

As soon as they entered the wing room, both Fang and Li were taken aback. They saw a huge loom in Nuo Da's room. Several women were busy, and the criss-crossed wool on the loom was moving rapidly. , The sound of "Kaka" is endless.

Seeing that Fang and Li were puzzled, the old man explained: "There is a shortage of wool recently, and the weaving of blankets has stopped. This is weaving cotton. But now the cotton production is limited, and it is all spun into cotton from Guanzhong and shipped over. If there is no more cotton thread to be transported in a few days, I am afraid that we will have to stop working."

As he spoke, he came to a pile of goods in the corner, and lifted off an oilcloth covering the outside, revealing a large pile of blankets and cloth covered underneath.

Fang Xuanling stepped forward to take a closer look, and found that the quality of the blanket was not very good, and the patterns were all simple and symmetrical textures, far from being as delicate and gorgeous as a Persian blanket.

The old man said: "Does your lord think this blanket is not good? Hehe, compared to the blankets passed down from the Western Regions, we have indeed checked a lot. It's not that we can't weave it, but that we don't want to weave it."

Fang Xuanling wondered: "Why?"

The old man said: "Although the blankets in the Western Regions are gorgeous and expensive, they must be woven by hand. Machines can't weave them. Even the best weavers can weave one piece a year. But how can there be so many people in the family who have honed their skills for many years?" Manpower? And our kind of blanket looks crude, but its advantage is that the craft is simple. With this kind of loom to weave the pattern, one piece can be woven in a day and sold to merchants. After removing the cost of materials, each piece can earn a profit. Thirty cents, we can earn ten pennies a year. Not to mention that we can’t weave that kind of exquisite and gorgeous blanket, even if we can weave it, the whole family will only spend two or three yuan a year after working hard. Two or three times, it’s not as profitable as this.”

Fang Xuanling did the calculations here naturally, and he was even more surprised by the annual income: "Ten money a year?"

The family in Guanzhong has [-] acres of high-quality fertile land, and their annual income may not be consistent, because the food price in the prosperous Taiping is now low, and coupled with the continuous influx of rice from Linyi Kingdom, the food price has been at three or four for a long time. low level.

In this way, the advantage is that everyone can have enough to eat, but the disadvantage is that everyone has no money...

Cheap grain hurts farmers, this is not just talk.

Even though the imperial court mobilized a large amount of grain in preparation for the Eastern Expedition, and even gradually loosened control over winemaking and other industries, the water conservancy facilities in Guanzhong have developed rapidly in the past two years, and the weather has been favorable, and the grain has been harvested every year, so the price cannot be raised...

However, even so, Fang Xuanling never expected that in the small town of Huating, a farmer only hired a few female weavers, and the annual income was ten times that of the rich peasants in Guanzhong.

This impact is really too big...

The old man was very proud, and said: "There is no lie, the little old man's family is too small, and the two sons are in charge of the salt field, so no one cares about it. The family with the most looms in the town has eight looms. Dozens of weavers are employed here, and they can earn hundreds of guan a year."

A family of farmers can earn hundreds of guan from weaving. The commercial tax in Huating Town is the highest in the world, reaching [-] of five taxes, which means paying [-] guan of tax. There are more than [-] such farmers in the town?Weaving alone is a commercial tax, and Huating Town collects at least [-] guan every year.

No wonder there are such words as "you can buy a warship for the navy every year".

You need to know that compared with those big business transactions on the pier, this is not even a drop in the bucket...

This is a place that has never been seen in the past and present. The people do not farm the land, but only rely on the methods of those low-end merchants who buy and sell, but they have amassed a jaw-dropping huge amount of wealth!

Fang Xuanling naturally knew his son's bastard theory of "liberating the peasants from the land", but what worried him deeply was that if the peasants left the land to work or do business, who would farm the land?
Is it possible that Datang will produce countless wastelands unprecedentedly, and eventually collapse and perish?
(End of this chapter)