Author: Chongqing Lao Q

October 6, 1675, Songjiang Prefecture, Shanghai County.

If Songjiang Prefecture is regarded as the cotton textile industry center of "clothing and quilt world", then Wunijing Town in Shanghai County is the birthplace of this center. More than 400 years ago, Huang Daopo, a native of Wunijing, learned the local knowledge from Yazhou

The Li people's cotton spinning technology returned to their hometown of Wunijing. She taught the local people how to control kapok in Guangzhong by rolling and weaving. After a long time, she was doing her business three hundred miles away and expanded to the entire Songjiang area.

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

On the one hand, cotton cultivation has surpassed traditional rice cultivation, which is the so-called "cotton cultivation overwhelms rice cultivation", and a pattern of "seven cotton, three rice" or even "nine cotton, one rice" has emerged. On the other hand, cotton cultivation and cotton cultivation have

The deep processing of spinning and weaving has brought huge economic benefits to farmers and has become the main source of income. It can be said that "food and clothing all depend on this".

The continuous improvement of cotton textile technology has not only led to the development of the 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, they are all "three-thirds suitable for rice.

Seventy percent of the areas are suitable for kapok.

Cotton enters the market as a commodity, and its 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 quintal, and in the first year of Hongguang (1645)

year), but the price has fallen to the extreme lowest price, with each load only worth five to six cents of silver.

However, as the Ming Dynasty regained Jiangnan more than 20 years ago, the cotton textile industry gradually began to recover, and the price of cotton began to rise slowly. In the past ten years, the price of cotton has usually stabilized at three or four taels of silver per quintal, and lower prices have also

Up and down one, two, two.

However, starting five years ago, cotton produced in various places in the south of the Yangtze River suddenly entered a bull market with extremely strong demand. The price rose from three taels per quintal to around five taels last year, which made many cotton farmers extremely happy.

At the same time, individual farmers and many weaving farms engaged in the cotton textile industry have also endured considerable cost pressure.

As this year's cotton comes on the market, whether it is cotton farmers who have worked hard for a year, or many cotton traders or traders who are eyeing it, they are all paying attention to the latest changes in Shanghai County cotton trading prices.

Cotton farmers hope that this year's harvest will provide them with more cash income, so that they can pay various government taxes, local assessments, and save more savings.

While keeping a close eye on the price, the cotton tooth shop and the tooth shopkeepers also secretly calculated whether they could collect a few more dans or a few less taels with the funds on hand based on the new price.

With a worried mood, I estimated that the cotton I specially hoarded last year would make a fortune, or it would be a loss.

Five taels and four cents!

When Ding Yinchen, the owner of "Ding Ji" tooth shop, heard the price reported by the clerk, the muscles on his face twitched a few times, and he couldn't help but regret in his heart. The amount of cotton he stocked last year was too small.

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

"Of course it's still the price quoted by the people of Qi." The clerk responded: "The people of Qi declared that they will open the purchase at this price, regardless of quantity, and all will be delivered in cash!"

"My God, the people of Qi are really wealthy!" Ding Yinchen laughed, "With the behavior of the people of Qi, they will probably offend many of the owners of the Songjiang Prefecture Weaving Industry Guild!"

"That's not true!" the waiter said with excitement: "When the owner of Wangji Weaving Factory heard the price, he immediately dropped his cup and left the bidding hall with a look of surprise. There were more than a dozen other weaving and yarn yards.

Even though the owner didn’t lift the table or smash the dishes, the expression on his face was very ugly.”

"Well, the price of this load of cotton has increased by four cents compared to last year. How can we not make the owners of the weaving and yarn fields angry?" Ding Yinchen sighed, shook his head and said, "I, the hundreds of people in Songjiang Prefecture,

There are thousands of cotton spinning factories, and the amount of cotton is probably more than one million tons. After all, this is more than 400,000 taels of silver, which is painful to think about!"

"My boss, you said that the people of Qi buy cotton at this price, and then transport it all the way back to Hanzhou for processing. I don't know how high the cost will be! Can they still make money by weaving the cotton into cotton cloth?

"

"If they 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 the people of Qi must be far more advanced than the Ming Dynasty in terms of textile technology and utensils. Therefore, the quality of the cotton they produce is

The low cost must be beyond our imagination.”

"Everyone knows that the Qi country is rich. I heard that the Han continent is full of gold and silver, and the people in the country pick it up at will. Everyone lives in a luxurious house, wears silk and satin, and eats delicacies. It is like heaven. Unexpectedly,

They can also develop advanced spinning and weaving methods to compete with our Songjiang cotton cloth for profit."

"It's true that Qi is rich, but it's not like there are mountains of gold and sea of ​​gold everywhere in the country for the people to pick up at will." Ding Yinchen couldn't help but dumbfounded after hearing this, "Otherwise, why would the people of Qi bother to come to Ming Dynasty to acquire the goods?

Cotton? Wouldn’t it be easier to just take the massive gold and silver and come to buy the cotton produced in the Ming Dynasty?"

"However, many people are rumoring that Qi is rich in gold and silver. If not, how could they become so strong and wealthy in just forty years? Look at the continuous rise in cotton prices in recent years, all of which are attributed to Qi.

It’s caused by constant price gouging and unlimited purchases.”

"It's just child's play to spread rumors!" Ding Yinchen scolded: "In this world, there is no such thing as gold and silver. Even if there is, it is controlled by the royal family or the government. Don't think that a commoner wants to get something for nothing.

, suddenly rich? In that case, why don’t you follow those landless refugees and dilapidated craftsmen to board the Qi immigration ship and go to the Hanzhou continent? "

"I really want to go to Hanzhou, but my parents are old and can't travel far, so I can only do this." The waiter said with regret.

"Impatient! Go down and pack your bags. Tomorrow you will go with me to Beiting Township to buy cotton produced by the villagers."

——

October 12, Huating County, Zhujing Town.

Zhujing Town has gradually emerged as early as the Mongolian and Yuan Dynasties. By the Guangde Period, it gradually became a large town with a population of over 10,000, and its main economic pillar was the cotton textile industry.

The four townships of Zhujing Town are rich in cotton, and the farmers are skilled in weaving. The quality of the standard cloth they produce is fine, superior to the famous Youdun cloth. Therefore, the domestic wealthy businessmen who come with heavy investment can earn tens of thousands, more or less.

One hundred thousand taels, local Yaxing worships him like a prince.

There are more than 60 large and small cotton cloth shops in Zhujing Town, and the scale of cotton trade in the town is huge. These cloth shops are very wealthy, and they also run dyeing workshops, fabric processing workshops, and process cotton cloth. The business capital is very considerable, which has promoted the development of various industries.

The prosperity made the town become the most prosperous industrial and commercial center in Huating County, with "merchant ships and people advocating everywhere."

Although the cotton textile industry in Zhujing Town is prosperous and the output is huge, the main body of production is "local professional textiles", that is, professional farmers' textile households.

These farmers who specialize in textiles regard spinning and weaving as their main business, and their main source of economic income also depends on this. More than ten thousand farmers in the area weave cotton, exchange cloth for silver, and exchange silver for

Rice production is completely different from the traditional agricultural economic structure in other parts of the Ming Dynasty.

Although the professional textile industry is hard work, it is not as good as the silk weaving industry's "less effort but twice the profit", but after all, "the peasants' hardship is a little relief", and compared with traditional farming, the income is much higher. This makes

There are more than 10,000 farmers in Zhujing Town, most of whom rely on cloth for their livelihood. "With all the strength of a day, there is enough to support eight families."

In view of this decentralized and messy production model, some insightful cloth merchants have had the idea of ​​​​changing it and making it large-scale and intensive. However, after decades of war in the Ming Dynasty, the construction of various utensils has failed.

economy, so that higher production efficiency and lower production costs cannot be achieved, and this small and scattered production method can only be allowed to continue to exist.

However, with the frequent economic and trade exchanges between the Ming and Qi countries, Qi possesses a series of advanced textile technologies that far exceed those of the Ming Dynasty, which have been known to many Ming cloth merchants. This has inspired some "people of insight"

The idea was to introduce Qi technology and expand the production scale of the cotton textile industry.

"Shopkeeper Xu, I have admired you for a long time!"

Shen Yunliang, the owner of "Shen Ji" cloth shop, looked at Xu Weiping in front of him, who had short hair, wore a double-breasted shorts, and blue trousers, looking like a typical Qi man. However, under the guidance of the tooth merchant Sui Jinshan,

After the introduction, he walked forward a few steps and enthusiastically welcomed everyone into the restaurant.

It is said that this shopkeeper Xu is a very high-ranking shopkeeper in the Jiangnan trading company of Qi State. He is in charge of the trade affairs of Su Song and Chang Sanfu. He handles four to five hundred thousand taels of silver every year. He is in countless cotton tooth shops in Jiangnan.

(Ya people), has great influence.

Of course, as the big owner of the cloth shop, it was natural that he would not use this meeting to discuss the sensitive matter of how to control the cotton purchase price with Shopkeeper Xu of Qi Guo Jiangnan Trading Co., Ltd.

"Before coming, Brother Sui mentioned to me Shopkeeper Shen's needs." After three drinks, Xu Weiping got straight to the point, "If we had followed the export control measures implemented by Qi State ten years ago, Shopkeeper Shen's request for hydraulic textiles would have been

Machinery will definitely not flow out of our country 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's face was filled with joy and he looked at Xu Weiping eagerly, "As shopkeeper Xu said, your Qi country's series of textile machinery with extremely high production efficiency can be exported and sold to my Ming merchants?"

"That's right." Xu Weiping nodded and said: "There is news from Qi State that two years ago, the Ministry of Industry and Commerce of Qi State relaxed controls on some mechanical products, which can be exported to Weiguo, Luzon, Yunzhou, etc.

Qi State is a vassal and friendly local country. Your Ming Dynasty has always had good relations with Qi State and has signed an alliance, so it should belong to the export concession area."

With the development of Qi'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 upgrading, which will fully transition to the steam era with higher efficiency and fewer conditional constraints. And those

Naturally, numerous water- and wind-powered industrial equipment cannot be thrown away in vain.

For this reason, the Ministry of Industry and the Ministry of Industry and Commerce of Qi State began to gradually resell industrial equipment to Weiguo, Luzon, Shunguo, and Yunzhou based on their different specifications and technological advancement. This move would not only support the foundation of these vassal states of Qi

With the level of industrial development, it is also possible to dump domestic industrial equipment that has been eliminated and complete the upgrading of factory equipment.

The unification of the Ming Dynasty formed a complete huge market. Such a market with tens of millions of people and complete purchasing power was simply the most important catalyst for Qi, which was initially industrializing. Although the Ming Dynasty was influenced by Qi

, began to rebuild the Shipping Department and build its own customs, so that Qi's goods could not flood in in a short time. However, as an industrial country, the impact on an agricultural country cannot be solved by a customs (especially based on the feudal agricultural country).

control).

However, it stands to reason that some advanced textile technologies and equipment should not be sold to a country like Ming Dynasty that has its own advantages in cotton spinning, so as not to increase its competitiveness and threaten Qi's textile market.

Of course, even without advanced technology and equipment, Qi's cotton textiles could not squeeze into the Ming Dynasty market due to its low labor costs.

However, the relaxation of the trade ban on the export of some advanced technologies and equipment to the Ming Dynasty was approved by His Majesty the Emperor. He once suggested to the cabinet that based on the current development trend of cotton textiles in Qi and in the next few years, after monopolizing Nanyang,

After India, Persia, Arabia, Africa (the east coast of Africa) and the Ottomans and other countries and regions, they simply could no longer absorb all the markets of the Ming Dynasty and Japan.

In this case, why give it to the Ming Dynasty? In addition, the land south of the Yangtze River is covered with cotton, and rice cultivation is less than one-tenth of the arable land. The food needed by tens of millions of people is all imported from outside. And the Qi State controls Guangzhou

After gaining the monopoly on rice trade in South, Annam (Zheng's), Champa, Cambodia and Siam, they almost indirectly controlled the food supply in Jiangnan through extremely advantageous shipping methods, and the trade profits earned were not necessarily less than those of cotton textile products.

.

In the process of planning technology transfer, several large trading companies in Qi State continued to increase the purchase price of cotton in a few years, causing all cotton textile factories in Jiangnan (including individual weavers) to continue to bear the high cost of raw materials.

Pressure. Therefore, when the State of Qi was about to sell the textile technology and equipment that had been eliminated in the country, many cloth shops and weavers in the Ming Dynasty were tempted by it.

However, Qi's use of technology transfer to export a large amount of advanced textile technology and equipment to the Ming Dynasty will inevitably damage the interests of individual rural weavers and even cause the economic bankruptcy and living difficulties of countless farmers.

In various places in the south of the Yangtze River, if two women work together to weave for a day, they can get a piece of cotton cloth, and the income is about one cent and one cent of silver (1 stone meter is about eight cents of silver), which can meet the needs of a family of five for ten days.

During this period, the average day laborer in the countryside was given "five cents of silver per day", which was not as much as what a woman could earn from weaving in a day.

When these independent, individual rural weavers face professional textile equipment with amazing efficiency and huge output, they are bound to be mercilessly impacted, and then gradually eliminated by the cruel market, or reduced to mechanical and numb weavers.

work, or fall into helpless poverty.
Chapter completed!