1635 Han style rises again

September 1675, 10, Songjiang Prefecture, Shanghai County.

If Songjiang Prefecture is regarded as the cotton textile industry center of "clothes and quilts in the world", then Wunijing Town in Shanghai County is the source of this center.More than 400 years ago, Huang Daopo, a native of Wunijing, learned the cotton textile technology of the local Li people from Yazhou and returned to his hometown of Wunijing.She used "the method of controlling kapok in Guangzhong to teach the local people how to spin and weave", and after a long time, she managed the work within three hundred miles and expanded to the whole Songjiang.

The cotton planting and cotton textile industry started in Wunijing led to revolutionary changes in the agricultural economy and farm management in Songjiang Prefecture.

On the one hand, cotton planting has surpassed traditional rice planting, which is the so-called "cotton planting overwhelms rice planting", and a pattern of "cotton seven rice three" or even "cotton nine rice one" has emerged.On the other hand, cotton planting and the deep processing of cotton - spinning and weaving brought huge economic benefits to farmers and became the main source of income. It can be said that "clothing and food depend on this".

The continuous improvement of cotton textile technology has not only promoted the development of cotton textile industry, but also promoted the promotion of cotton planting. From the counties of Songjiang Prefecture to Jiading, Taicang, Changshu and other places under Suzhou Prefecture, all of them are "three-point suitable for rice, Seven points suitable for kapok" area.

Cotton enters the market as a commodity whose price fluctuates with various factors.In the second year of Tianqi (1622), the price of cotton in Shanghai County reached an extremely high price, selling for nine taels of silver per load, but in the first year of Hongguang (1645), it fell to an extreme minimum price, worth only silver per load Five to six dollars.

However, as Daming recovered Jiangnan more than 20 years ago, the cotton textile industry gradually began to recover, and cotton prices began to rise slowly.In the past ten years, the price of cotton has usually stabilized at three or four taels of silver per load, and the lower price is also around one or two taels.

However, since five years ago, the cotton produced in various places in the south of the Yangtze River has suddenly entered a bull market with extremely strong demand. The price has risen from three taels per load to around five taels last year, which made many cotton farmers very happy. At the same time, individual farmers and many weaving farms engaged in the cotton textile industry are under considerable cost pressure.

As this year's cotton comes into the market one after another, no matter it is the cotton farmers who have worked hard for a year, or many cotton dealers or dentists who are eyeing, they are all paying attention to the latest changes in cotton trading prices in Shanghai County without exception.

Cotton farmers hope that this year's harvest will bring in more money, so that they can meet various government taxes, local apportionments, and save more savings.

While keeping a close eye on the price, the cotton dealers and cotton dealers secretly calculated whether they could charge more or less for the funds on hand based on the new price. Feeling apprehensive, I estimate that the cotton hoarded last year will be able to make a fortune or lose money.

Five twenty four dollars!

When Ding Yinchen, the owner of the "Ding Ji" tooth shop, heard the price reported by the staff, the muscles on his face twitched a few times, and he couldn't help feeling extremely regretful that the amount of cotton hoarded last year was too small.

"Is it the price quoted by the Weaving Industry Guild of Songjiang Prefecture, or the price quoted by the Qi people?" Ding Yinchen asked.

"Naturally, it is the price quoted by the people of Qi." The man replied: "The people of Qi claim that they will open the purchase at this price. There is no limit to the quantity, and all will be delivered in cash!"

"My dear, the people of Qi are really rich and powerful!" Ding Yinchen laughed, "With the behavior of the people of Qi, it is estimated that many owners of the Weaving Industry Guild in Songjiang Prefecture will be run off and offended!"

"That's not true!" The clerk said happily: "When the owner of Wangji Weaving Farm heard the price, he immediately dropped his cup and left the bidding hall with a face full of fear. The other dozens of weaving and yarn factories My boss, although he didn't overturn the table or smash the dishes, but the expression on his face is also very ugly."

"Hey, the price of this load of cotton has increased by four renminbi compared with last year. How can we not make the owners of those weaving and yarn factories angry?" There are thousands of cotton textile factories, and the amount of cotton used is probably more than one million dan, and if calculated, this is more than 40 taels of silver, which is really painful to think about!"

"Boss, you said that the people of Qi bought cotton at this price, and then transported it all the way back to Hanzhou for processing. The cost would be so high! Can they still make money by weaving the cotton into cotton cloth? "

"If you don't make money, how can the people of Qi buy cotton at such a high price?" Ding Yinchen thought for a while and said: "I think that the people of Qi must be far more advanced than my Ming Dynasty in terms of weaving technology and utensils. Therefore, the quality of the cotton cloth they produce The low cost must be beyond our imagination.”

"Qi is rich, everyone knows it. I heard that there are gold mountains and silver seas everywhere in Hanzhou, and the people in the country pick it up casually. Everyone lives in a luxurious house, wears silk and satin, eats mountain delicacies, like heaven. Unexpectedly, They can also develop advanced spinning and weaving methods to compete with our Songjiang cotton cloth for profit."

"It is true that the country of Qi is rich, but it is not so rich that the country is full of gold mountains and seas of silver, and the people can pick them up at will." Ding Yinchen couldn't help being dumbfounded after hearing this, "Otherwise, why would the people of Qi country bother to come to my Daming to buy them? Cotton? Wouldn't it be easier to buy the cotton cloth produced by my Ming Dynasty directly with a large amount of gold and silver?"

"However, many people are rumoring that Qi State is rich in gold and silver. Otherwise, how could they have become so strong and wealthy in just 40 years? Look at the continuous rise in cotton prices in these years, all because of Qi State's continuous rise. It is caused by driving up prices and not limiting the number of acquisitions."

"It's just child's play to spread rumors!" Ding Yinchen reprimanded: "In this world, there is no such thing as so-called golden mountains and silver seas everywhere. Even if there is, it is controlled by the royal family or the government. Don't you think that a commoner wants to get something for nothing?" , Suddenly getting rich? If that’s the case, why don’t you follow those landless refugees and dilapidated craftsmen on board the Qi State immigrant ship and go to the Hanzhou Continent?”

"I want to go to Hanzhou, but my parents are old and can't travel far, so that's all I can do." The guy said regretfully.

"Tian Cao! Go down and pack your bags, and follow me to Beiting Township tomorrow to buy the cotton produced by the villagers."
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October 10, Huating County, Zhujing Town.

As early as the Mongol and Yuan Dynasties, Zhujing Town had gradually risen. By the Guangde Period, it had gradually become a large town with a population of over [-]. Its main economic pillar was the cotton textile industry.

The four townships of Zhujing Town are rich in cotton, and the farmers are good at weaving. The standard cloth produced is fine in texture, which is better than the famous Youdun cloth.Therefore, the domestic rich businessmen and tycoons who come here with heavy capital spend tens of thousands of silver, or as many as 10 taels, and the local dental industry treats them like princes.

There are more than [-] large and small cotton cloth shops in Zhujing Town, and the cotton cloth trade in the town is huge.These cloth shops are rich and powerful, and they also run dyeing workshops, kicking workshops, and cotton cloth processing. mixed in between."

Although the cotton textile industry in the entire Zhujing Town is prosperous and the output is huge, the main body of production is "Turners specializing in textiles", that is, farmers specializing in textiles.

These farmers who specialize in weaving regard spinning and weaving as their main business, and their main source of economic income also depends on this.More than [-] farmers in this area weave cloth with cotton, trade cloth for silver, and sell rice with silver, which is completely different from the traditional agricultural economic structure in other places in Ming Dynasty.

Although it is hard work for a professional textile family, it is not as good as the silk weaving industry's "less power but double the profit", but after all, "farmers' poverty is a little bit better", and compared with traditional farming, the income is higher.This has caused more than ten thousand farmers in Zhujing Town to rely on cloth for a living, "exhausting one day's efforts to support eight people is more than enough."

In view of this scattered and messy production model, some insightful cloth merchants may not have come up with the idea of ​​​​changing it to scale and intensify it.However, after decades of wars in the Ming Dynasty, the construction of various utensils was not economical, so that higher production efficiency and lower production costs could not be obtained, and this small and scattered production method could only be allowed to continue to exist.

However, with the frequent exchanges of economy and trade between Ming and Qi, Qi has a series of advanced textile technologies far surpassing that of Ming, which has been known to many cloth merchants of Ming.This made some "sighted people" germinate the idea of ​​introducing Qi's technology and expanding the production scale of the cotton textile industry.

"Master Xu, I've been waiting for a long time!"

Shen Yunliang, the owner of the "Shen Ji" cloth shop, looked at Xu Weiping, who had short hair, a pair of short skirts on his upper body, and blue trousers on his lower body. He looked like a typical Qi countryman, and felt a little weird in his heart. After some introductions, he still stepped forward and walked a few steps, warmly welcoming everyone into the restaurant.

It is said that this shopkeeper Xu is a high-ranking shopkeeper in the Jiangnan Trading Company of Qi State. He is in charge of the trade affairs of Su Songchang and the three residences. tooth people), has a great influence.

Of course, as the big owner of the cloth line, he didn't want to use this meeting to discuss the sensitive matter of how to control the purchase price of cotton with the shopkeeper Xu of the Jiangnan Trading Company in Qiguo.

"Before I came, Brother Sui mentioned to me Shopkeeper Shen's needs." After drinking for three rounds, Xu Weiping got straight to the point, "If we follow the export control measures of Qi State ten years ago, the hydraulic textile that Shopkeeper Shen requested Machinery, that will definitely not flow out of Qi. However, recently, after Qi and Ming signed the "Covenant of Friendship and Mutual Assistance", I think those restrictive measures may be slightly relaxed."

"Oh!" Shen Yunliang was overjoyed, and looked at Xu Weiping eagerly, "As the shopkeeper Xu said, you can export the series of textile machinery with extremely high production efficiency in Qi State, and sell them to my merchants in Ming Dynasty?"

"That's right." Xu Weiping nodded, and said, "I heard news from Qi State that two years ago, the Ministry of Industry and Commerce of Qi State relaxed the control on some mechanical products, which can be exported to Weiguo, Luzon, Yunzhou, etc. Qi State vassals and friendly local national forces. Your Daming and our Qi State have always had good relations, and you have signed an alliance, so you should belong to the export license area."

With the development of Qi State's industrial technology and the improvement of steam engine technology, the production equipment of domestic factories has also begun to undergo a second round of large-scale upgrades, and will fully transition to the era of steam with higher efficiency and fewer constraints. Naturally, numerous water- and wind-powered industrial equipment cannot be discarded in vain.

For this reason, the Ministry of Industry and Commerce of the State of Qi began to gradually resell industrial equipment to Wei, Luzon, Shun, and Yunzhou according to the different specifications and technological advancements of the industrial equipment. The level of industrial development can also dump out the industrial equipment that has been eliminated in the country by the way, and complete the upgrading of factory equipment.

The unification of Ming Dynasty formed a complete huge market.Such a market with a population of tens of millions and full purchasing power is simply the most important catalyst for Qi, which is initially industrialized.Although under the influence of Qi State, Daming began to rebuild the Maritime Ship Department and build its own customs, so that the goods from Qi State could not flood in in a short period of time, but the impact of being an industrial country on an agricultural country cannot be solved by a single customs at all. (Especially based on feudal agricultural state control).

However, it stands to reason that some advanced textile technology and equipment should not be sold to a country like Daming, which itself has an advantage in cotton spinning, so as not to enhance its competitiveness and threaten Qi's textile market.

Of course, even if they don't have advanced technology and equipment, relying on their low labor costs, it is impossible for Qi's cotton textiles to squeeze into Daming's market.

However, the relaxation of the trade ban on the export of some advanced technologies and equipment to Daming has been approved by His Majesty the Emperor.He once suggested to the cabinet that, judging from the current cotton textile development trend of Qi State and in the next few years, after monopolizing countries and regions such as Southeast Asia, India, Persia, Arabia, Africa (the east coast of Africa) and Ottoman, it is impossible to use The markets in Ming Dynasty and Japan are all eaten.

That being the case, He Ruo let it go to Daming.In addition, in the south of the Yangtze River, cotton is widespread, and rice cultivation is less than one-twelfth of the cultivated land. The food needed by tens of millions of people is all imported from other places.However, after Qi took control of the rice trade monopoly in Guangnan, Annan (Zheng), Champa, Cambodia, and Siam, it almost indirectly controlled the grain supply in the south of the Yangtze River through extremely advantageous shipping methods, and the trade profits it earned , not necessarily less than cotton textile products.

In the process of planning technology transfer, several large trading companies in Qi State have continuously increased the purchase price of cotton in the past few years, making all cotton textile factories in the south of the Yangtze River (including individual weavers) continue to bear the burden of high raw material costs. pressure.Therefore, when the state of Qi is about to sell domestic obsolete textile technology and equipment, many cloth shops and weaving factories in the Ming Dynasty are tempted by it.

However, Qi State exported a large amount of advanced textile technology and equipment to Daming by means of technology transfer, which would inevitably damage the interests of individual rural weavers, and even cause countless farmers to go bankrupt and their lives into difficulties.

In various places in the south of the Yangtze River, if two women cooperate in weaving for one day, they can get a piece of cotton cloth, and the income is about one penny (one shimmi is about eight pennies), which can meet the needs of a family of five for ten days.During this period, the "daily food and silver five cents" for ordinary day laborers in the countryside was less than what women earned from weaving cloth for a day.

When these independent and individual rural weavers are faced with professional textile equipment with amazing efficiency and huge output, they will inevitably be ruthlessly impacted, and then gradually eliminated by the cruel market, or reduced to mechanical and numb weavers. work, or fall into helpless poverty.

Whether it's the flourishing tide of commodities or the technological revolution led by textiles, countless people, like a dead branch in the torrent, can only drift with the tide.