How much leisure is there? A river of tobacco, the wind of the city, and yellow plums in the rain.
Before Zhu Guoxiang left Yangzhou, the plum rain season had arrived.
Meiyu is quite romantic, unless you have rheumatism.
Shen Yourong and the other two concubines silently endured the pain of rheumatism. However, they were soon discovered by Zhu Guoxiang, who had no choice but to send guards to send them back to the north first, and then join them in the south after the rainy season.
When Shen Yourong was in the north, his rheumatism was never serious and he didn't even take it seriously. But when he arrived in Yangzhou, he was so aroused by the rainy season that he tossed and turned in pain all night long and couldn't sleep.
Sometimes sunny and sometimes rainy.
Zhu Guoxiang sat in the pavilion, facing the breeze, and looked around the scenery. The temple on the mountain, the city at the foot of the mountain, and the faintly visible canal were all shrouded in hazy mist and rain.
It feels so comfortable, as if I am in a landscape painting.
After the rain stopped for a while, the sky and the earth became clearer. Zhu Guoxiang became more and more interested. He stepped on the slippery muddy mountain road and ran down the mountain to imitate Su Shi's drunken boating.
He went down the mountain with one foot deep and one foot shallow. He almost fell down several times, which made the people accompanying him frightened.
However, the Supreme Emperor refused to let others help him and insisted on walking slowly with a stick.
After being cautious for two lifetimes, Zhu Guoxiang rarely acted willfully.
After staying in Yangzhou until the rainy season, the team finally set off to continue south.
There was a sudden flood on the Yangtze River, and everyone stopped in Guazhou Town for another half month. Then they crossed the river from Guazhou. Zhu Guoxiang stayed in Runzhou (Zhenjiang) City and continued southward after finding out that the floods this year were not serious.
Traveling all the way to Suzhou, there were many textile workshops in the towns along the way. The largest ones employed hundreds of workers. This discovery made Zhu Guoxiang very happy.
He met with officials in Suzhou and asked about the specific situation in Jiangnan.
Chen Zaiting, the prefect of Suzhou, was a native of Renshou, Sichuan. He told Zhu Guoxiang: "The number of people converting rice fields into cotton fields has increased in recent years as the court relaxed restrictions. Even if the taxes on cotton fields are heavier, farmers' income from cotton cultivation has also been reduced. It is at least 20 to 30% higher than growing rice. Now the tax on cotton fields has also been reduced. Just like the tax on rice fields, farmers can earn more by growing cotton."
Zhu Guoxiang was a professional and nodded in approval: "It is best to have uniform taxes on cotton and rice. The court cannot use taxes to disrupt farming."
If the taxes on cotton and rice are different, not only will the government's tax collection be confused, but farmers will also have difficulty in farming.
Different regions and different soils, how to cultivate should be adapted to local conditions.
If you are reluctant to fertilize or have poor soil, the best way to farm is two cotton and one rice. That is, plant cotton for two years, then plant rice for one year, then plant cotton for two years... In this alternating cycle, you will only plant rice. Apply manure and soybean meal from time to time to cultivate soil fertility and reduce pests and diseases.
If you are willing to apply more fertilizer, or if you have extremely fertile farmland, you can use three cotton and one rice.
There are also farmers who like to plant one cotton and one rice, or even rotate wheat or rapeseed.
With such a complicated planting method, if the court imposes heavy taxes on cotton fields, it will inevitably disrupt farmers' farming plans.
One size fits all, no alternative.
Zhu Guoxiang asked again: "If a large number of cotton plants are planted, can food be guaranteed?"
Chen Zaiting said: "In the area around Dongting Lake, rice production has increased year by year, which can fill the food gap in the south of the Yangtze River. Moreover, more food has been shipped from overseas in recent years."
In the past, sea trade was not so complicated, and merchants looked down upon the small profits from buying and selling grain.
But now the competition in maritime trade is fierce, and more and more maritime merchants are willing to traffic in grain. Although the profit is not that much, as long as the grain harvest season is staggered, transporting it to the coastal provinces and selling it is a sure profit.
This even includes Taiwan!
Historically, Taiwan was greatly developed in the middle of the Qing Dynasty, and there was simply not enough food to be eaten there. The Qing government strictly controlled Taiwan, but it still could not stop Taiwan's food exports, and there were even records of smuggling it to Tianjin and selling it.
It is completely nonsense that maritime water transportation is risky.
Maritime merchants dare to smuggle Taiwanese rice to Tianjin. If there is not enough profit, will they be willing? This is smuggling!
Today's Taiwan (including the Penghu Islands) has a registered population of more than 50,000. The main population is the Dan people who migrated from Fujian and their descendants, and several thousand more are naturalized indigenous people in Taipei.
King Liuqiu (the chief of an indigenous tribe in Taipei) was very wise. He first surrendered to the Ming Dynasty, and then asked to remove his country's title. In exchange, Emperor Zhu made him a marquis, gave him a large amount of cloth and other goods, and also obtained land deeds for tens of thousands of acres of land.
Under the inducement of the Taiwanese magistrate, the chief even gave up his land and moved his family to live in Kaifeng City. Emperor Zhu also gave a Kaifeng mansion, two Kaifeng shops, and 800 acres of land in the outer suburbs of Kaifeng.
Such preferential treatment is intended to naturalize Taipei's indigenous people and transform them into homesteaders.
Now, Taiwan already has two counties.
One county is located in Penghu and Taichung areas, and is mainly populated by immigrants from mainland China.
A county in the Taipei, Taoyuan, and Keelung areas is dominated by naturalized indigenous people and gold diggers who stayed behind.
After chatting about food security issues for a while, Zhu Guoxiang added: "I traveled all the way from Runzhou and found that there are many large and small textile factories, and there must be many in Huzhou and Hangzhou. The silk and cotton from Jiangnan alone can
Are they supplied to those factories?”
Chen Zaiting replied: "Lu cotton and Chu cotton will also be transported and sold to Jiangnan."
It is normal for Chu cotton to be transported to Jiangnan and sold, because Jiangnan has a more complete textile industry system.
But what is the situation of the Shandong cotton transport to the south?
During the Tang and Song Dynasties, Shandong's silk and linen weaving industry was very developed, and relevant practitioners could be converted into cotton weaving.
Zhu Guoxiang didn't know much about textiles and was quite curious about it.
Chen Zaiting replied: "With the same quality of cotton, the cotton cloth woven in Jiangnan is generally of better quality than that produced in Shandong."
Why is it better?
Chen Zaiting couldn't understand either.
Other officials present were also unable to answer.
So they quickly found a cotton spinning farmer.
The cotton spinning farm owner, whose surname was Hu, was extremely excited to see the Emperor. He explained in detail: "It may be a climate problem. The quality of cotton from the coast of Shandong is better than that from inland Shandong. There are a lot of cotton grown in the counties surrounding Jinan.
But when spinning and weaving in those prefectures and counties, the cotton yarn is not strong enough, has a lot of short lint, a lot of fly, a lot of broken ends, and poor evenness. The thickness of the cotton yarn is uneven, there are many neps, and the spinning is very slow."
After finishing speaking, he added: "This situation becomes more obvious the farther away from the seaside, and it becomes more obvious in winter. Since the rise of Jiangnan cotton cloth, it has steadily suppressed Shandong cotton cloth. Shandong cotton cloth cannot be sold at high prices, so there are
Cotton merchants transport Shandong cotton to the south of the Yangtze River for sale, and then transport the Jiangnan cotton cloth back to the north for sale."
After listening to the cotton spinning farm owner's account, Zhu Guoxiang probably guessed that it was related to the dry and cold air.
If Shandong's cotton textile industry wants to develop, it must solve relevant technical problems, otherwise Shandong will only become a raw material supplier for Jiangnan's cotton textile industry. Even if the technical problems are overcome, the cost will be higher than in Jiangnan due to the increase in textile processes.
What's more, Jiangnan also has the advantage of going overseas. Cotton cloth is more convenient for export, and Shandong cannot compete.
Of course, at this stage, Daming cotton is still mainly sold domestically, and there is still a large blank market in China.
When the domestic market becomes saturated in the future, cotton exports will become fiercely competitive. Cotton farmers, cotton merchants, cloth merchants, and maritime chambers of commerce will form a community of interests and are eager to open up more overseas markets.
If the overseas market also becomes saturated, then more means will be needed. For example, destroying the cotton textile industry in various Indian states and grabbing the Indian cotton market.
It’s not just about grabbing the Indian local market.
India's cotton textile industry is extremely developed, and its cotton cloth is exported to East Africa, West Asia, Central Asia, and Southeast Asia... Once the Indian cotton textile industry is wiped out, Ming Dynasty cotton cloth will have a broader dumping ground.
Historically, the Mughal dynasty went to war and destroyed half of the Indian cotton textile industry in order to extract war funds. The remaining half was killed by the British through colonial means, rather than relying on industrial efficiency to steal the market!
The next day, the Supreme Emperor went to inspect Hu's textile factory.
There are more than 300 weavers in this textile factory, all of whom are women.
The machine is a pedal loom.
The owner of Hu's textile factory said: "At first, cotton weaving in Shandong was modified with linen and silk looms. But cotton yarn spinning is different, and the old methods in the past are often not applicable. Qiongzhou, Nanyang, India and other places
Weaving cotton cloth, the Holy Emperor sent people to various countries to inquire about it, and finally the technical officer of the Ministry of Industry modified the existing machinery."
Although the Indian cotton textile industry is extremely developed, their looms are really backward.
Indians use waist looms, which require them to sit on the ground to weave. It is very waist-breaking, inefficient, and cannot perform complex jacquard and other processes.
Historically, it was Huang Daopo who learned the technology from Hainan and then improved various types of machinery.
The owner of Hu's farm continued: "After the craftsmen of the Ministry of Industry made improvements, the craftsmen from Shandong made further improvements, and the craftsmen from Jiangnan continued to improve, and finally they created what you see now."
Zhu Guoxiang observed carefully and found that this kind of loom was relatively primitive.
Of course, what Zhu Guoxiang sees as primitive is actually India, where the cotton textile industry has developed for thousands of years!
India is very strange. They like to squat or sit on the ground when doing anything. Their cotton looms have appeared as early as BC, but they always sit on the ground to spin cloth. There was no breakthrough until the industrial age.
.
Don't you feel tired?
Just like when cutting vegetables, you can stand and put a cutting board on the table, which saves time, effort and is hygienic. However, the traditional Indian way of cutting vegetables is to sit on the ground, slowly peel with a knife, or find it casually
Cut on a cushion, or simply use your palms as a cutting board.
"You don't spin here?" Zhu Guoxiang asked.
Hu's factory owner said: "There are special spinning fields, and ordinary people buy cotton yarn from the spinning fields to make fabrics. There are also some cotton farmers who spin yarn at home and then sell it to ordinary people's weaving fields."
Zhu Guoxiang nodded: "That's fine. Everyone performs their duties and can improve work efficiency."
The owner of Hu's factory said: "Before spinning, you have to ginning and plucking cotton. At first, there was no truck, so you had to peel off the seeds by hand. Later, the craftsman invented the hand-cranked cotton gin, and Shandong craftsmen improved it by adding a hand-cranked gin.
The craftsmen in the south of the Yangtze River improved it into a churning wheel."
In this way of development, no one is smarter than anyone else.
Whether it is a cotton gin or a cotton loom, the imperial court first came forward to inquire about the technology of various countries through maritime trade, and then gathered a group of craftsmen from the Ministry of Industry to improve it. At that time, the cotton textile industry in Shandong was the most prosperous. In the actual production process, Shandong
The craftsmen further improve the engineering technology.
Later, the cotton textile center moved to Jiangnan. Shandong was suppressed and restricted by climatic conditions, so Jiangnan craftsmen continued to improve in production activities.
Every improvement doubles the textile efficiency!
It can even increase several times at once.
Combined with a steam engine?
Sorry, the existing textile technology is not suitable for the use of steam engines.
Not even worthy of using hydraulic machinery.
Water-powered linen spinning machines have gradually become popular, causing the price of linen to continue to fall. The linen that was once rare for the Koryo people was sold by the Ming Dynasty merchants at a low price. Now that Goryeo is a Korean province, ordinary people there no longer have to go naked.
However, cotton fibers are too short, and water-spun cotton yarn is easy to break, let alone cotton yarn spun with a steam engine.
The first is to break through the technical difficulties in spinning, and the second is to cultivate higher-quality long-staple cotton.
Zhu Guoxiang said to the owner of Hu's workshop: "You merchants who are spinning and weaving, can you offer a reward to the craftsmen to continue to improve. The "Da Ming Law·Gong Law" has promulgated a patent law. Once improvements are made, the court will protect your interests.
"
"Always trying to improve." The owner of Hu's factory was actually complaining in his heart.
Patents related to cotton textiles have been in litigation for more than ten years. Although the craftsmen also made some money, they were exhausted mentally and physically by the lawsuits and even received physical threats.
In the end, the craftsmen sold their patents to big businessmen one after another, and the big businessmen with the financial advantage took their time to litigate the case.
But even for big businessmen, it is extremely difficult to litigate across prefectures and counties, let alone across provinces.