Autumn of the 17th year of Chongzhen

Chapter 1265 Patrol Su Songxia

It's not easy to discuss on the road. Wang Yan has no preference for the three-inch golden lotus, so if it is beneficial to Daming, he will definitely support it.

It's just that the feet have been bound for hundreds of years, and it doesn't mean that you will let them go if you want to. You have to create momentum first and change the atmosphere.

Wang Yan decided to discuss this matter later, and now he and the others went to check the textile workshop outside Suzhou City, after all, this was the purpose of their trip.

Xue Zongzhou led Wang Yan to an area outside the city. There are rows and rows of houses all over the place, all of which are similar in appearance, but there is no aesthetic feeling. They are probably where workshops and warehouses are located.

Among these houses there are hundreds of columns of smoke rising from the roofs where hired labor cooks cocoons.

The whole situation will make people feel a little uncomfortable, not aesthetically pleasing, and somewhat out of tune with traditional society.

A group of people came to a workshop and looked at the yard from the outside. There were many silk threads and cloth drying inside, which was very messy.

An arched door sign at the door reads "Shen Ji Bu Zhuang". A businessman dressed in brocade stood waiting in front of the door.

Shen Ji Cloth Shop, the owner is naturally surnamed Shen, named Yuan Sheng, who originally sold cloth, and later opened a workshop by himself, from production to sales, without fear of running out of goods.

After saluting Wang Yan, he led everyone into the workshop.

The whole workshop is very huge, with 3000 to [-] rooms, and more than ten warehouses. The area is almost as large as half of the Chu Palace, and this is not the largest workshop. It is said that there is a cotton spinning workshop that employs more than [-] people.

"Jianguo Qiantui, this is the cocoon room!" Shen Yuansheng led Wang Yan into a room and bowed.

When Wang Yan and his party entered it, they saw that the wooden frames in the entire workshop were filled with cocoons in dustpans, piled up all over the room.

"How many cocoon houses like this are there? Are the silkworm cocoons in Suzhou Mansion enough for you?" The entire room was ten feet long, three feet wide, and two feet high, and it was filled with silkworm cocoons. Wang Yan asked in shock.

"Reporting to the prison country, there are ten cocoon houses like this." Shen Yuansheng saluted and replied: "The big Su weaving family in Suzhou is not only Xiaomin's family, Su Song's silkworm cocoons and even those in Nanzhili are not enough. Most of the The cocoons are all bought by the villain from Zhejiang, where there is a big mulberry grower who signed a contract with the villain to provide silkworm cocoons for the villain!"

This is equivalent to a cross-regional collaboration. Wang Yan nodded and continued to follow him. After leaving the cocoon house, he arrived at a steaming room.

There are many large pots in this room, lined up one by one, and there are two people in each pot, one person is lighting the fire, and the other is stirring the cauldron with the wooden stick.

Shen Yuansheng immediately pointed to the cauldron and said, "Jianguo, this is the cocoon cooking room. It mainly burns harvested rice stalks, charcoal, and some charcoal, but the charcoal has to be shipped from Zhejiang, and the price is too high." , generally do not burn."

Charcoal Wang Yan knew that it was not easy to mine like gold, silver, copper and iron ore, but it can be used after mining without smelting, so its value is much cheaper, but it is more expensive than charcoal.

At this time, Wang Yan walked to the big pot and stopped the hired workers from saluting. He saw them put the silkworm cocoons they took from the cocoon room into the water to boil.

Shen Yuansheng went on to introduce: "Jianguo, this cocoon cooking is very particular. First of all, the time must be mastered. If it is too rotten, it will not be firm, and if it is too raw, it will affect the processing. There will be raw lumps on the finished product, and the ingredients added will also be fine. Be quantified."

"After the cocoons are boiled and softened, they can be reeled. Xiaomin uses the cold reeling method. Instead of reeling silk while cooking the cocoons, he cooks the cocoons first, and then puts the cooked cocoons in a small amount of warm water. The silk reeled in this method is more energetic and tougher than the silk reeled in hot kettles, and it can also prevent the cocoons from being overcooked, the sericin coming off clean, and the silk fibers from being weak and weak.”

Next, Wang Yan and his party entered the silk reeling workshop, and they heard creaking sounds from a long distance away. When they entered the room, they saw hundreds of people stepping on the silk reeling machine, busy.

According to Shen Yuansheng, a silk reeler can combine the silk from eight silkworm cocoons together, and produce raw silk of different lengths according to different needs, some even as long as thousands of feet, but there is no trace of splicing.

Wang Yan and the others observed how to reel silk, but they didn't quite understand it. However, he found that [-]% of the silk reelers were male workers, but there were also a few female workers.

Seeing that they are natural feet, you can tell that most of them are women from poor families, otherwise they would not show their faces.

Wang Yan saw that their movements were much faster than the male workers, so he asked them how much they paid, but it turned out that only the male workers were [-]% higher.

Wang Yan frowned when he heard this, but he didn't say anything. After all, it is a patriarchal society, and [-]% of them are considered conscience.

After spinning, the silk is dried in the sun, then spun, and finally dyed and printed with a template.

The last few processes are carried out by hundreds of people. There are [-] looms in the workshop, and they work day and night to complete the official order.

After walking around, Wang Yan felt deeply. Except for the army fighting, he had never seen so many people working together to accomplish one thing.

"Where is the biggest difficulty in your production now?" Wang Yan asked after turning around.

"Reporting to Jian Guo, the main reason is that the speed of silk reeling and looms can't keep up." Shen Yuansheng replied.

Wang Yan originally thought that the silkworm cocoons could not keep up. After all, he had just seen that there seemed to be a lack of labor in the mulberry fields, but he didn't expect that the silk reeling and looms could not keep up.

Wang Yan pondered for a while, "I just read it once, and I think your silk reeling can be separated from spinning and dyeing. Don't you buy your silkworm chrysalis from Zhejiang? Why don't you open your silk reeling workshop in Zhejiang? The price of charcoal and charcoal is also cheaper, and it is more convenient for you to pump raw silk and then transport it over than to transport silkworm chrysalis.”

The Jiangnan area has been developed for a long time, and it is also a plain. The prices of charcoal and coal are indeed much higher.

Wang Yan paused, and continued: "And if you separate the silk reeling, there will be at least half more space here, and it will be no problem to put another five hundred looms."

Shen Yuansheng saluted with a smile: "Jianguo is wise, and Xiaomin really has this plan."

Wang Yan nodded slightly, then walked out among the various cloths that were drying, and soon after he left the workshop, he stopped and said: "On the silk reeling machine and the loom, you should also find ways to improve the loom, don't stick to the rules .In addition, hired workers can't work day and night like this, they need to have time to rest. You have to remember that there is a way to make money, using righteousness for profit, not profit for profit, and we can't lose our etiquette, benevolence, wisdom and trust!"

In order to solve the problems of the two links of silk reeling and looms, in addition to expanding the scale, the only way is to seek technological breakthroughs.After all, expanding the scale will increase the cost. Only technological progress can substantially improve the production capacity.

However, this technological advancement is not something that can come as soon as it is said, so it is better to expand the scale first, but the profit-seeking characteristics of businessmen will inevitably make them think about reducing costs, and the technology will break through sooner or later.

"Xiaomin always remember the teachings of Jianguo Qiantui!" Shen Yuansheng bowed.

After inspecting the workshop, it was already noon, and Wang Yancai, accompanied by Xue Zongzhou and others, entered Suzhou with the shipwreck.

The waterways in Suzhou City are extremely well developed. There are many houses on both sides of the river bank, there are various shops and restaurants, and the sound of Pingtan and Kunqiang can be heard from time to time. It is full of vitality, but it is not as busy and fast-paced as outside the city.

After arriving at the magistrate's yamen, everyone used some food first, and then found a lobby to drink tea and discuss.

Wang Yan was the first to say: "After looking around today, my eyes were wide open. As Wan Chun said, it is feasible to encourage letting go of one's feet alone. It is said that silk reeling and weaving are delicate jobs, and female workers are indeed better than male workers." more efficient."

"Jian Guo, even though I say that, footbinding has been around for a long time, and I'm afraid it won't be able to change for a while." Du Yinxi frowned and said.

Wang Yan nodded, "I know this, so I need the guidance of the government. Gu is not an order to prohibit, officials and officials can be bound if they want to, but ordinary people don't need this at all. After binding feet, many jobs can't be done, even You can't walk fast, so there's really no need to follow suit, and the lonely king really doesn't know what's so beautiful about that three-inch golden lotus."

Many of the officials in this hall have wives with small feet, they couldn't help but blush when they heard what Wang Yan said.

Seeing that no one spoke, Wang Yan immediately made a decision: "Then this matter, let's settle it like this. The Ministry of Rites will give more guidance, and Gu will also issue decrees to persuade the people to let go, and gradually change this atmosphere."

After talking about this matter, Wang Yan said: "Since the opening of the sea, our dynasty has obtained a lot of silver, and also obtained a lot of materials from Nanyang and other places, but at the same time, the merchants who trade with our dynasty have also made a lot of profits, and It is precisely because of the huge profits that overseas countries are vying to trade with our DPRK."

At the beginning, in order to trade with the Ming Dynasty, Ningbo even had a tribute battle. Whether it was Japan or the Western Yi countries, as long as they could get the things from the Ming Dynasty, they would be able to secure without compensation, and even have several times the benefits. This money is too easy to avoid.

Wang Yan paused, and said: "Not long ago, the big treasurer of the Wude Company discussed with Gu about a matter, saying that when all countries come to our dynasty to trade, there are silver taels, silver coins, and gold coins, and my dynasty trades according to the catty tael. Forget it, it’s really not worth it. Chen Yonghua suggested that in the future, when countries come to our country to trade, gold and silver should all be exchanged for our country’s one tael worth of silver coins for trade, and domestic ones should gradually use silver coins and silver notes. Use silver to trade."

Wude has a very big plan. After obtaining the settlement rights of domestic commerce, he was not satisfied. He turned his attention to overseas trade and asked all countries to use the money made by Wude to settle settlements.

The silver coins minted by the Ming Dynasty contained [-]% of the silver. If the method of settlement was in the hands of the Ming Dynasty, then the money of the Ming Dynasty could become the common currency of world trade, and the exchange rate alone could make a fortune.

Everyone is not a professional, so they don't know much about this, but Chen Youlong, who took over the household department, probably understood what Wang Yan meant, nodded and said: "I agree..."

While he was talking, Lu Shikui suddenly came in with a memorial, and saluted, "Report to Jian Guo, a good news from Beijing!"

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(End of this chapter)