Go back to the Ming Dynasty to be a thousand households

Chapter 115 Wool Spinning
March 1590, 11 AD.

There was some light snow in the sky. Accompanied by Qu Yuanrui and other merchants, Huang Laifu, Ma Gonggong and others inspected Wuzhaibao Woolen Mill.

Wuzhaibao Woolen Mill is managed by Qu Yuanrui and other businessmen, Huang Laifu only manages some stock capital and year-end dividends.When it started in early October, the raw materials, workers, weavers of various colors, and a series of facilities have been prepared so far. Therefore, at the end of November, Wuzhaibao Wool Mill has officially started production.

This is considered a labor-intensive industry in Wuzhaibao. There are nearly 2000 male workers, female workers, and child workers.Except for some foremen and others, most of them were refugee women who came to Wuzhaibao.

Compared with working in various workshops and factories in Wuzhai Fort, military households in Wuzhai Fort prefer to work in various farms in Wuzhai Fort, or the large livestock farms or vegetable farms or orchards directly managed by Huang Laifu.For the military households in Wuzhaibao, whether they joined the military households first or later, they are the real iron rice bowls when they enter the various farms in Wuzhaibao, and working in various workshops always gives them a sense of responsibility. Feeling insecure.

In fact, working in various farms in Wuzhaibao offers good pay, high benefits, and a stable life. Now the workshops and factories managed by various merchants are more brutally managed, and the working hours are longer, making life harder.Compared with Huang Laifu who came from later generations, these merchants are not so benevolent. All their goals are based on profit.

After entering the wool spinning factory, there are many departments and processes inside.Many unskilled women and children are just doing some preliminary work inside.For example, after the wool is purchased from various places, if there is no wool separation, washing and flossing, they will do it.

Eunuch Ma was very curious and looked around, while Huang Laifu looked more professionally. He saw that in each room, women and children in rags were sitting on the ground, all nervously dividing Picking wool and such.Some foremen, on the other hand, were watching around, and shouted loudly when they saw someone who was moving slower.These women didn't even care about Huang Laifu and others coming in.

After the wool is preliminarily sorted, it is sent to several large rooms, which is the spinning wheel workshop.

From here on, these weavers are regarded as skilled workers. These people are hired by Qu Yuanrui and other merchants from Taiyuan and other places with high salaries. Their wages are much higher than ordinary workers. up.

For spinning, at this time, Daming had a pedal spinning wheel, which could place five threads at the same time, and the spinning was fast.After spinning, it is the work of the weavers. They use a loom, and each loom requires at least two or three people to work at the same time.

After weaving, it is printing and dyeing.

Similar to the cotton textile industry, the wool textile industry also has very complicated processes. In some machine rooms, the processes are divided into webbing workers, pulling workers, weavers, warp pulling workers, edge brushing, warping, buckles, joints, etc. Huang Laifu can see dizzy.I thought to myself that it was a good thing to leave all the business matters to the merchants, otherwise I would do it myself, and I don't know how many brain cells would be exhausted.

Regarding looms and spinning machines, Daming's level at this time was still at the forefront of the world.Although Huang Laifu's computer has many advanced textile technologies of later generations, he is not yet ready to improve these technologies in textiles.The current Daming needs more labor-intensive industries to solve the unemployment problem of the many refugees of the Ming Dynasty, rather than using these technologies to make these women unemployed again.For advanced textile technology, let’s talk about it when the market demand reaches a certain level and calls for the emergence of new technology very urgently.

The Wuzhaibao Wool Mill produces, of course, woolen textiles, and the fabrics it weaves are all woolen fabrics.The first batch of orders was [-] sets of military uniforms ordered by Huang Laifu. Of course, these fabrics were all made of sheep wool.

As for goat hair, which is soft and warm, it is used to make various high-end items, such as various carpet cushions, woolen sweaters, fur coats and so on.These things are basically made by hand with some small looms that Huang Laifu can't afford.And these workers are all paid high wages, and they are all masters invited from various places by merchants such as Qu Yuanrui.Among them were a few Mongolian women with big faces, squinting eyes, and two patches of bright plateau red on their faces.

Huang Laifu saw that these Mongolian women were all skilled. Although their wages were not as good as those of the Han female technicians in the same room, they all worked happily.For them, after one year, the money can be taken back, and after returning to Beyond the Great Wall, they can be regarded as a rich man.

After Huang Laifu gave orders, Qu Yuanrui asked someone to fetch some cashmere products handmade by Wuzhaibao Wool Mill. These are some cushions, which are as smooth as silk when wiped, and are very warm.Presumably after selling, it can be sold for a good price.

Huang Laifu couldn't put it down, and Eunuch Ma was also very happy. He stroked a soft cushion and said: "These things are very good, and they are very rare. I think the emperor will be happy to see them. Maybe our family can recommend them to the palace." go."

Huang Laifu, Qu Yuanrui and others were overjoyed to hear that, if some of these finished cashmere products could be used as tributes, it would be a great boost to the development of their Wuzhaibao Woolen Mill.

Qu Yuan thanked hurriedly: "Thank you, father-in-law."

Father-in-law Ma Jiuying's unique laughter sounded: "Hey hey hey hey hey hey hey, why is the shopkeeper so polite, our family is also thinking about the future of this woolen mill."

He said again: "By the way, Lord Guard, the shopkeeper, is this wool spinning factory of yours just an autocratic woolen product? Why don't you see that you are making something like cotton cloth and silk?"

Huang Laifu smiled and said: "Grandpa Mingjian, our Wuzhai Fort is just a small place, and the products are going to be outstanding, so we can only make new ones, cotton and silk. I'm afraid our Wuzhai Fort will die ugly in the future."

Qu Yuanrui also agrees.

Huang Laifu and Qu Yuanrui thought very clearly about the positioning of Wuzhaibao Woolen Mill, that is, to start professionally from the aspect of wool spinning, and if they compete with the current Ming merchants in terms of the market position of cotton and silk...

You must know that at this time, the silk fabrics of Daming were complete in variety, various in design and color, and of a high level. At that time, not only yarn, silk, damask, silk, silk, satin, brocade, velvet, velvet and other silk fabrics were available, but also there were many different kinds of silk fabrics in each category. Color variety.Silk is widely available, and Suzhou has threaded silk, cotton silk, silk, Duzhi silk, satin machine silk, crepe silk, patterned silk, spring silk, and pressed silk.Yarns, Huzhou also has straight yarns, patterned yarns, weaving yarns, veiled yarns, etc., and Quanzhou has plain yarns, patterned yarns, money yarns, etc.

In addition, the varieties of cotton cloth in Ming Dynasty are also varied. Among the cotton cloths produced in various places in Songjiang, there are standard cloth, buckle cloth, thin cloth, fan cloth, Rongban cloth, medium machine, small cloth, three shuttle cloth, longdun cloth and cloud cloth. , Feihua cloth, sizing cloth, etc.In these places, wealthy businessmen and tycoons came to the market with heavy capital, with tens of thousands of silver, as many as 10 taels, and as few as tens of thousands.

This is the situation in Jiangnan and Jiangbei, and it is not much different from Jiangnan. Huang Laifu didn't think he had the slightest chance to compete with the merchants of Ming Dynasty in the cotton and silk market at this time.Or feel at ease to do their own woolen products.

After listening to Huang Laifu's words, Eunuch Ma nodded his head thoughtfully.

※※※

After seeing Wuzhaibao Woolen Mill, Eunuch Ma went to rest in the fort, while Huang Laifu, accompanied by several military officers, went to inspect Wuzhaibao Large Livestock Farm, Horseshoe Po Sheep Farm and other places.

Now that winter is approaching, the weather is getting colder.Huang Laifu was a little worried about the safety of the animals in his large livestock farm.You know, in places outside the Great Wall and other places, every winter, many cattle and sheep die.

When they arrived at the Wuzhaibao Livestock Farm, Wang Qinian, the leader of the animal husbandry team, was inspecting the large livestock farm. When he saw Huang Laifu and others coming, Wang Qinian rushed to welcome them.

"The student has seen the guard."

Huang Laifu said: "Excuse me, brother Donglu, how are you preparing for the little pig's winter?"

Wang Qinian said: "My lord, you don't have to worry. With the underground heating circle, no matter whether it is a new-born piglet or a new-born sheep, there is no need to worry about freezing and starvation."

Under the leadership of Wang Qinian, Huang Laifu inspected the large livestock farm, and saw that straw curtains were hung on the doors of each pen to block the entry of the cold wind. The floor of the pig house was covered with thick grass, and some big sows were With the little pigs, they are eating happily.

Entering the underground heating circle, some newly born piglets are feeding in the arms of their mother sows, and most of them are healthy and strong.According to Wang Qinian, when the weather is very cold in December, all the pigs can be sent to the underground heating circle, and when the heating wall is burned, the pigs can survive the winter safely.

On the side of the underground heating circle, Huang Laifu also saw a few animals steaming the newly born piglets in cable cages with low heat to improve the survival rate of newborn piglets.

Going to the side, Huang Laifu saw some women incubating their eggs in earthen vats and heating them up by burning coal. Many chicks and ducklings hatched in this way.According to Wang Qinian, the hatch rate is very high.

Hearing Huang Laifu nodded greatly, he thought that with Wang Qinian, a breeding master, he would be relieved.But looking at the situation of the Wuzhaibao large livestock farm and the horseshoe slope sheep farm, I don't have to go to see it anymore.

(End of this chapter)