Daming Town Haiwang

Chapter 2256, the joint request of the Daming Textile Chamber of Commerce
In the Study Room of the Qianqing Palace in the Imperial Palace in the capital, Emperor Zhengde Zhu Houzhao was discussing state affairs with the main ministers.

"Your Majesty, there is a huge problem in our Daming textile industry right now."

"Almost all textile factories have a large amount of inventory squeeze, and some of them have even squeezed their production for several months, and slowly warehouse by warehouse."

"In addition, almost all factories in the textile industry are currently facing serious underutilization. Most of the factories are now only open for half a day, and some have even begun to shut down."

"Many factories have closed down, and a large number of textile workers have lost their jobs."

Wang Shouren delivered a memorial to Emperor Zhengde after a detailed investigation and sorting out. The thunderstorm in the textile industry is estimated to have happened in the past few months.

Because some weak factories have been unable to hold on early, closed down, closed down, and some bosses even went bankrupt.

Many textile workers are unemployed, that is to say, other industries in the Ming Empire are still developing rapidly, and those who are currently unemployed will soon be able to find other jobs.

In addition, the people of Daming have always paid attention to a way out. Many people still have their own land in the countryside, so even if they are unemployed, they can find a job quickly, or simply go home to farm.

Otherwise, even if millions of people are unemployed now, it will be a big event, and it will impact all areas of the Ming Empire.

Of course, the people of Daming have always liked to save money, so everyone has savings in their hands, and it doesn't mean that they will not be able to live because of unemployment.

In addition, most of the textile workers are women. If women are unemployed, they can return to the family. If the men in the family are making money, it is enough to support the whole family in the current situation of Ming Dynasty.

The situation is not very serious, and the current situation of Daming can bear it, but once the entire textile industry collapses, 2000 million textile workers will lose their jobs by then.

This impact is very large, which will affect the income and consumption of 2000 million families, and will also have an impact on some related industries.

"Is there such a thing?"

When Zhu Houzhao heard it, he frowned immediately, picked up the memorial and began to read it quickly.

As the emperor of Ming Dynasty, and he started from a small county magistrate step by step, he is very familiar with the situation in the Gyeonggi area.

The current Ming Empire is no longer the traditional feudal society dominated by the small peasant economy, but a large empire developed towards capitalism based on the industrial economy.

There was no such thing as unemployment in the past, because almost all people were firmly tied to the land, and the vast majority of people were farming, and it was difficult to find other jobs besides farming, even if There are many craftsmen, and the main job is still farming.

But it’s different now. There are fewer and fewer people farming in the Ming Empire. Most of the farmers are mechanized farming, large-scale planting, special economic planting and breeding. The agricultural economy has long since left The previous simple way and tradition of growing grain is gone.

Agriculture, which is dominated by mechanized farming, requires very few farmers. When a farmer can easily cultivate thousands of acres of land, a large amount of labor has flowed into the industrial field.

Even in the three major agricultural and grain-producing provinces of Liaodong, Hezhong, and Heitu Province, only a small number of young people in the new generation are engaged in the farming work of their parents.

More young people are engaged in work related to industrial production. The industrial development of these three provinces is also very rapid. Like Liaodong, the steel industry, shipbuilding industry, furniture industry, coal mining, building materials industry, etc. are also developing. It is very fast and has the tendency to become another big industrial base of Daming.

Compared with the agricultural field, the industrial field can gather more people, provide more jobs, the salary is relatively higher, and the work is more single and pure.

In addition, they all live in the city, life is more colorful and more attractive to young people.

Generally speaking, the proportion of the agricultural population is getting smaller and smaller. It is impossible for the Ming Empire to rely on agriculture to solve the employment problem of the Ming people. In the end, it still relies on industry.

Zhu Houzhao is very clear about this.

It can be said that the Beijing-Tianjin area occupies a very small area of ​​Ming Dynasty, but the total population of the Beijing-Tianjin area exceeds 3000 million people. Such a large population is concentrated in the Beijing-Tianjin area.

What do you live on?
It is not relying on the developed industry, commerce, finance, etc. in the Beijing-Tianjin area to provide enough jobs to support such a huge population.

Once there is a problem in the textile industry, a large number of textile workers will lose their jobs. This is a major event related to the employment of 2000 million people.

"That's good, why can't clothes, shoes, and cloth be sold all of a sudden?"

Zhu Houzhao read it in detail, then asked with a frown.

"Your Majesty, this is mainly because there are too many textile factories, and these textile factories basically use new textile machinery with very high production capacity and efficiency. The output of cloth, clothes, shoes, etc. produced by this is very large. , the market can’t digest it.”

"That's why there is an extremely large inventory and a lot of squeeze in the entire industry."

Zhong Fan thought for a while and said.

In fact, Zhong Fan also owns a textile factory under his command, and he is quite clear about his own situation. After all, there are too many factories in the textile industry, and the production capacity is too large. The market does not need so many clothes, shoes, cloth, etc. of.

"Mr. Zhong's words are wrong!"

At this time, Li Kun stood up and expressed his opposition.

"Here I have a letter of request from the Daming Textile United Chamber of Commerce. The book explains in detail the problems that our Daming Textile Factory is facing and the root causes of these problems."

Li Kun took out the letter of request. In the past few days, people from the Textile Chamber of Commerce also visited many ministers in the court. Now these ministers in the court of the Ming Empire are all ministers of the practical faction.

Basically, there are many industries under his command, and many of them have factories and shares in the textile industry. It can be said that they are inextricably linked with factories and commercial firms in various fields in Daming.

The life of the textile industry is difficult, and the life of these ministers is naturally difficult, so it will naturally be fed back to the highest decision-making center of the Ming Empire.

Zhu Houzhao took the request and read it carefully.

"The main reason is that overseas colonies and vassal states allow the use of slaves, so the cost of overseas textile factories is much lower than that of Daming textile factories."

"A large amount of cheap overseas cloth, clothes, and shoes are impacting our local textile enterprises in Daming, and eventually our local textile factories in Daming have no way out?"

Zhu Houzhao read it carefully, and immediately understood the main meaning.

These people in the textile industry of the Ming Dynasty attributed the problem to this, and felt that there was unfair competition, because the Ming Empire did not allow the use of slaves, but overseas colonies and vassal states did.

Therefore, their low cost impacted the local market of Ming Dynasty and robbed the global market, making it difficult for local enterprises of Ming Dynasty to survive.

"Yes, Your Majesty!"

"The workers used in overseas textile factories are slaves. The cost of these slaves is very low. They only need to be fed. They can work 12 hours a day or even longer."

"And there is no rest throughout the year, and you can work all the time."

"Our Daming is different. The wages of workers in Daming are extremely high, at least hundreds of taels of silver a year. In addition, our local Daming implements an eight-hour work system, and we still have two days off every week."

"With such a huge gap, the cost of this overseas textile factory is much, much lower than my local textile cost in Daming."

"They can sell at a very low price and still have huge profits, but our local enterprises in Daming cannot do this, because even if they sell at a loss, they cannot compete with enterprises in overseas colonies and vassal states."

Li Kun said solemnly.

"In addition, there are no additional tariffs between our Ming Dynasty and other feudal states and colonies, and the resale of goods from the colonies and feudal states to our Ming Dynasty does not require additional taxation."

"This is extremely unfair to our Daming enterprises, because our Daming enterprises can not only pay a lot of taxes for the imperial court, but also provide a large number of jobs for Daming and drive economic development. Prosperity."

"But those overseas textile factories not only did not pay taxes in Daming, but also did not provide employment for Daming, but they can enjoy the same market, which is very unfair."

"Once our textile industry in Ming Dynasty collapses, the employment of 2000 million people will be a big problem. At the same time, the tax revenue of the imperial court will also be reduced."

"That's why the Daming Textile Federation requests His Majesty to consider the employment and livelihood of 2000 million people in Daming, and impose additional tariffs on cloth, clothes, shoes, etc. imported from overseas, in order to maintain fair competition in the market."

"Protect our local enterprises in Ming Dynasty, protect the employment and prosperity of our local Ming Dynasty."

"Of course, the Daming Textile United Chamber of Commerce also requests His Majesty to cancel the rest and bathing system, and cancel the restrictions on working hours, weekends and holidays."

"In this way, labor time can be increased, costs can be reduced, and the development of the textile industry can be promoted."

Li Kun's words also caused everyone to frown immediately.

The textile industry is indeed facing a lot of problems, but it is absolutely impossible to propose and put pressure on the imperial court with the problem of feeding 2000 million people.

The policy of the imperial court took into account the development and interests of the entire Ming Dynasty, not just the 2000 million people in the textile industry.

What's more, if there is a problem in the textile industry, it will suggest to the court what to do, and how to do it. If there is a problem in other industries in the future, can it also follow suit?

(End of this chapter)