Autumn of the 17th year of Chongzhen

Chapter 1264 Visiting Su Song

Outside Nanjing, most of the workshops that were severely damaged due to the Tanglu Rebellion have now recovered with the injection of new funds. However, the most developed textile industry in the Ming Dynasty was still in the Susong area.

The entire Ming Dynasty had a vast territory, and workshops appeared in many other areas. For example, Huguang was originally the second largest province in terms of taxation, and there were many workshops, but after the liberation of Jiangnan, it was immediately left behind.

In some areas, even if the imperial court invests a lot to stimulate business, the development is still slow, while in some areas, as long as the policy is slightly better, business will flourish immediately.

Sometimes Wang Yan was also puzzled by this, but on the surface he thought it was due to geographical location and other reasons, but after hearing Chen Yonghua talk about another matter, he realized that it was not as simple as he thought.

For example, in places such as Susong and Zhangquan in Fujian, even if you borrow money between relatives and friends, you have to establish a certificate to indicate the annual interest. It can be said that it is in black and white, and everyone thinks it is normal. Land, looking for a loan from relatives and friends, and the other party wants to charge interest, it will make people feel a little inhuman, too unreasonable.

The reason why there is such a big difference is mostly because of the social differences between the two places. Places such as Susong and Zhangquan have hundreds of years of business traditions. The people here are thinking about how to make money. They are proficient in this way and gradually evolved. It has become a commercial society, while Huguang and other places are still a traditional agricultural human relationship society, so there are differences.

In these traditional commercial areas, if someone wants to set up a workshop, they can immediately recruit accountants, craftsmen, shopkeepers and other talents, and they can set it up immediately. They know how to operate it, but in other areas, it takes a period of time to explore. To play well, the disadvantages are obvious.

Over the past dynasties in China, there have been only a few economically developed places. In addition to the convenience of occupying the place, the main reason is that these places have hundreds of years of commercial traditions, and the genes are deeply buried in the local soil. In other regions, it may take at least two or three generations to form this gene.

Su Song became the cotton spinning and silk weaving center of Ming Dynasty again, and the taxes paid were more than those of several southwestern provinces, which shocked Wang Yan.

As the supervisor of the country, Wang Yan is very concerned about the living conditions of the people. Only when the people are rich and healthy, as the actual controller of Daming, can he have a sense of accomplishment in his heart and be happy.

Some people love money, some people love beauty, some people like power, and Wang Yan likes the support of the world and his good reputation.

In March, Wang Yan led many officials to visit the two mansions of Su and Song for the sake of the business development of the entire Ming Dynasty, to learn from the experience.

The two mansions of Su and Song are located at the estuary of the lower reaches of the Yangtze River. They belong to the impact plain, with fertile land and rich products. Large ships with more than a thousand materials can come directly, and the Grand Canal passes through, so the transportation is very convenient.

Since the Song Dynasty, Susong has been the textile center of China. Since the Ming Dynasty, Susong's taxes have even been said to be half the world.

Su Song's taxation is also very high nowadays, but it mainly comes from the commercial taxation brought by the textile workshop.

Suzhou's status in the Ming Dynasty was quite different from today's. It was the largest commercial center in the Ming Dynasty, with a population of more than 300 households and a population of nearly [-] million in its heyday.

Suzhou had a population of over one million in the Song Dynasty, while Paris and London at the same time were just rural towns with more than 5 people. In the Ming Dynasty, Suzhou was still one of the ten most populous cities in the world at that time.

The "Suzhou Fuzhi" of the Ming Dynasty records: "Four out of ten people live in the city walls, three out of ten people live in towns, and ten out of ten people live in rural areas." This shows that the Jiangnan area in the Ming Dynasty was highly urbanized, and The record of "Sujun Wuchang to Fengqiao, Lieshi [-] miles" recorded in the Ming Dynasty is showing off his prosperity to future generations.

The market stretches for twenty miles, which is unimaginable today, so that many people, unable to believe that China was so developed in the Ming Dynasty, instead blindly worship the West, which has only risen through plunder in the past few hundred years.

If anyone doubts this, there are also records of the Ming Dynasty in Western materials. For example, there is a passage in Chapter 18 of "Matteo Ricci's Notes on China" Volume [-], "Father Guo Jujing and Xu Baolu in Shanghai", which mentions The size and population of the Shanghai city in the Ming Dynasty.

"The name of the city is derived from its location by the sea. 'Shanghai' means close to the sea. There is a two-mile-long city wall around the city. There are as many houses in the suburbs as in the city. There are 2 houses in total, usually with stoves. There is such a large number of people in the Chinese cities, so there is no need to make a fuss, because even the countryside is overcrowded. The city is surrounded by a flat highland, and it looks like a big garden city rather than a countryside. Pagodas, rural huts, and farmland stretch as far as the eye can see. There are more than 30 households in the periphery of this area, and the combined population of the city and the suburbs reaches more than [-] people, all of which belong to the same urban management.”

Shanghai City and its suburbs have a population of 30. In fact, the population of the entire county has already reached 24 in the 50th year of Hongwu, and Shanghai is not considered a particularly important city in the south of the Yangtze River.

Suzhou is a big city in the south of the Yangtze River. During the Ming and Qing wars, it was relatively less affected, and it did not fight against each other like Kunshan, Jiangyin, and Jiading.

This may be a manifestation of the weakness of the propertied class. There was no large-scale persecution in the city, but due to the impact of the war, the population was still reduced by half, especially the merchants outside the city, and the residents in the suburbs basically fled.

After the Ming Dynasty restored Jiangnan, except for the Tanglu rebellion, it can be said that it was very peaceful in recent years. Many people moved back to Suzhou, and there were more shops and restaurants outside the city.

Although the newborn population in the Jiangnan area is increasing rapidly, it may take at least ten years before it can return to its heyday. Only then will there be an explosion in the population.

The magistrate of Suzhou was surnamed Xue and named Zong Zhou. He was a righteous man who fought against the Qing Dynasty. He had been defeated and killed long ago in history. Promoted to the prefect of Suzhou.

Xue Zongzhou is in his thirties, with a small mustache, and looks like a literati, but he is in good spirits.He received the news of Wang Yan's visit, and led Suzhou officials twenty miles out of the city early in the morning to meet Wang Yan at Fengqiao.

"Jianguo, that fertile field is all newly planted mulberry seedlings this year!"

Wang Yan looked along the large farmland he was pointing at, and saw farmers with bamboo hats busy in the field in the distance, even the older children were helping to take care of the mulberry seedlings, and the younger ones were playing at the ridge of the field. Asked: "It seems that there are not many people!"

"Returning to Jianguo, many people work in the workshops in the city, so there are fewer people who plant mulberry outside. After all, there is no wind and sun in the workshop, and the harvest is not less than that of farming. The county recruited long-term workers to solve the problem of shortage of manpower." Xue Zongzhou said with a salute.

Wang Yan frowned slightly. He had to admit that it was reasonable for the past dynasties to emphasize agriculture and suppress business. The commercial society is indeed not as stable as the agricultural society.

Before the workshop closed down, hundreds of thousands of people had nothing to do immediately, and these people were still gathered together, which was very unstable. But now that the workshop resumes, the staff can't keep up. It's really hard to control, why not Demarcate the area so that the common people can farm steadily.

Wang Yan looked at it and asked again: "Then who owns these lands?"

"Basically it's the land of a big family in the city, and some of it belongs to a big local silk weaver!"

The current population of the Ming Dynasty is 5000 million, half of the population, but this piece of land can feed at least [-] million people, and if crops such as sweet potatoes and corn are popularized, it will be no problem to feed [-] million people.

The commercialization of the Jiangnan region does require a large influx of people. At present, we can only wait for the further disintegration of traditional societies in various places and the adoption of more effective large estates in the countryside. Only then will more people be forced to flock to the developed Jiangnan region.

"Then let those big households raise their salaries. Only high salaries can attract people from other places to work here."

Wang Yan said while walking, at this time, he came to the famous shop area outside Suzhou city.A group of people walked through the middle of the street, and there were many cloth shops on both sides. Merchants from all over the place bought here and sold them to various places in Daming.

The whole street was extremely bustling and crowded with people. At this time, Wang Yan and others walked under a bridge, and saw many people standing on the bridge, making noise, but they were taken away by a few men in silk and satin after a while. The bridge was empty, only a few people were left standing at the bridgehead.

Seeing this, Wang Yan couldn't help asking: "What are they doing?"

"Reporting to Jian Guo, the workshop is recruiting mechanics. Every morning, the shopkeeper of the workshop comes to the bridge to recruit people." Xue Zongzhou explained: "Recently, the Weaving Bureau received an order for 50 pieces of Su weaving. The workshops are recruiting manpower to rush to work, but there is still a slight shortage of manpower at present."

The Manufacturing Bureau used to mainly handle affairs for the palace and was controlled by eunuchs, but now it is mainly in charge of foreign trade.Because the Ming Dynasty did not allow foreign merchants to enter the mainland for trade, they had to go through the government to take them to see the samples of what they wanted to sell. After placing an order, the government would hand over the order to the workshop below for production.

The main reason for prohibiting foreign businessmen from entering the domestic free trade is that in this era, Chinese things can make money for foreign countries, but foreign countries have nothing worthwhile except for very few materials such as food and spices. China is going to buy, so certain restrictions must be placed on foreign businessmen to avoid a shortage of domestic materials, and making money is not about making as much as possible.

The current trade Ming Dynasty has been somewhat unable to cope. If the restrictions are relaxed, more silver will inevitably flow in and the domestic goods will be wiped out, especially Spain and other countries themselves hold silver mountains, so the trade of the Ming Dynasty should be Under the condition of ensuring that domestic materials are sufficient, it is carried out within a reasonable range.

When Wang Yan heard that there was a shortage of manpower again, he couldn't help but frowned. At this time, Xia Wanchun who was on the side said, "Jianguo, I see that no matter whether the laborers in the fields or the hired workers in the workshop are mainly men. In fact, there are some things , women in the farm can also do it, on the contrary, they will do better than men, but because of the restraint of ethics, women cannot work outside. The minister thought that the court could give orders to encourage women to put their feet up and participate in labor..."

　Thank you Happy Woodpecker for the 1000 reward, thank you for your support, it may be a little later today.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)