Li Yaoer has been in contact with all kinds of people outside in the past few years, and his ability to read people is no longer as good as Wu Xia's. When he saw the young man's eyes sparkling for a moment, he obviously had a desire to cling to him. He couldn't help but secretly
Funny: The desire for fame and fortune is indeed everyone’s soft spot! I feel proud when I think that I can prosper a country with just a word, or destroy a country with a word, manipulating the fate of ordinary people like a plaything.
Thinking of this, he could not help but reveal a slight smile. He said, "I am here to promote improved varieties and improve the silk industry..." As he said this, he introduced his specific tasks in detail, "Choose Fengshenghe as a partner.
My partner, I naturally also like that you have been engaged in the silk industry in this area for many years and are familiar with the local conditions, so I would like to trouble you to tell you about the local silkworms, mulberry, silk and weaving aspects."
In fact, Li Yao'er already knew more or less about this situation, including the materials provided by Chen Xuan and the information she obtained from her own visits to the craftsmen and accounting offices in Fengshenghe.
But an important experience she has gained from her years of promotion is that she must collect as much information as possible when doing field research, because everyone's story is different, some are deliberately lying, and some are unconscious embellishments.
Moreover, this information often converges due to some kind of wonderful "group psychology", leading collectors to completely wrong conclusions.
Since the young man in front of me is the young shopkeeper of Fengshenghe and has many years of practical experience, the information he provides not only has the overall situation, but also has a good grasp of the details, which is very valuable.
When asked to introduce the local situation, Chen Lin naturally knew everything. He said: "There are many people raising silkworms in the local area..."
Before the Ming Dynasty, Xiangshan County was a silted sandbank at the mouth of the Pearl River. It was not connected to the mainland until the Ming Dynasty. Therefore, there are many sandfields and fish ponds because of the low-lying terrain. It is adjacent to Shunde, the oldest silk producing area in Guangdong, and is affected by it.
As a result, farmers often plant mulberry and raise silkworms, but the scale is not large.
After the Longqing Revolution, affected by the surge in export sales of raw silk and satin, the number of local sericulture households increased significantly, and mulberry farming and sericulture gradually became popular. However, the output is still not as good as Shunde, Foshan and other traditional sericulture areas.
"Besides Xiangshan, Shunde, Foshan and Guangzhou, where else have large-scale sericulture industry?" Li Yaoer asked.
"There is also one in Dongguan. Speaking of which, it is actually larger than the local one."
"I think the conditions here are not bad. We should be able to raise more silkworms."
"That's true, but our sales here are limited. If we grow too much, there will be no way out for raw silk."
"Oh?" Li Yaoer became interested. These are situations that cannot be obtained when chatting with other people. She continued to ask:
"I remember that Guangzhou exported a lot of raw silk and satin. They were shipped in thousands of pieces. How could they not be sold?"
Chen Lin said that the local silkworm breeds were not good, and the quality of the raw silk produced was not good, and it could not be sold at a good price whether it was sold domestically or exported.
"Don't look at Guangzhou, there are many machine operators in Foshan, but some types of silk and satin must be woven with Lake silk - the local silk is not strong enough."
"How many machine-operated weaving workshops are there in Foshan, Guangzhou? How many are in your local area?"
"This, the villain has no way of knowing. About one or two thousand households are eligible. There are about dozens of local households, and there are only one weaving mill, Fengshenghe. In fact, even in Guangzhou, there are not many weaving mills in Foshan.
Most of them are computer users."
This is roughly the same as the information Li Yaoer received in Guangzhou. According to the information given to her by the Guangzhou Municipal Government, there are "Mangpao Store", "Eighteen Lines", "Eleven Lines" and "Jincaixing Guangsha Store" both inside and outside Guangzhou.
There are five major businesses, and there are more than a dozen small businesses, involving all processes from silk reeling, pounding, warping, refining and dyeing, weaving... There are more than 2,500 households with one machine or several machines per household.
Home,
If the counties of Foshan, Dongguan, Shunde and Xiangshan are included, the number of computer households in Guangzhou Prefecture will not be less than 3,000.
In terms of production scale and output alone, Guangzhou's silk weaving industry was among the best in the entire Ming Dynasty, but the quality of raw silk restricted the further expansion of production scale.
"So you also need to use guest silk here?"
"As long as we make satin with patterns, we must use Hu silk. If it is elegant, it must be thin silk." Chen Lin said, "My father also thought about using local silk instead, and thought of many ways with the weavers, but either jacquard
At that time, the silk warp was easily broken and could not be woven, or the pattern was rough and ugly... In short, it was unsuccessful." He was quite helpless, "I have heard that the reason for the toughness of Lake silk is because the cocoons are collected and reeled with fire.
It is dried, not air-dried. But I tried it myself, and although it is better, it is still not as good as Husi - I think so, this is a secret method, how can it be easily learned by others?"
Li Yaoer disagreed: People in this time and space are particularly superstitious about secret recipes and secret techniques. In fact, it is not uncommon for the secret of Husi's toughness to be revealed. The fire is only one reason, and the decisive factor is actually silkworm seeds.
As for why only Huzhou has such silkworm species, it is simply because Huzhou, as the main producing area of sericulture, has a natural scale effect. The agglomeration of industries has promoted the refinement of division of labor and the improvement of technology. When Li Yaoer was in Hangzhou,
I visited almost all the sericulture and silk-producing counties in Jiangsu and Zhejiang. In terms of scale, technology and related industrial and commercial organizations, Suzhou and Hangzhou ranked first in the country in the 17th century.
"Have you never thought about introducing silkworm breeds from Huzhou?" Li Yao'er asked.
"Why haven't I thought about it," Chen Lin sighed, "however, it would be extremely difficult for silkworm farmers to change silkworm seeds!"
He said that his father once bought silkworm seeds from Huzhou for silkworm farmers to try out, but no one was willing. Later, he had to hire female workers to raise them. He did not know whether it was due to soil and water problems or other reasons. A large number of the silkworms he raised died of illness.
He lost a lot of money and was laughed at by his clan members.
"From then on, my father became discouraged and stopped talking about improving silkworm breeds."
Li Yaoer feels the same way. When she promoted silkworm breeding in Hangzhou, she also spent a lot of effort. There were many iterations during the period. To be honest, it was a completely loss-making business and could not be carried out by just one person or a small group.
Fei Dasheng's silkworm breeding improvement in Wujiang was not only supported by the local government at the time, but also provided a lot of assistance by the silk weaving industry capitalists in Jiangsu and Zhejiang. Even so, her silkworm improvement was stumbling. Not to mention that Chen Lin's father was so
It's a small workshop.
"The improvement of silkworm breeds is not something that happens overnight. It is not easy to do even in Suzhou and Hangzhou." Li Yao'er said, "I looked at the machines in the factory, and it seems that you can make and weave silk here."
Chen Lin said that after Fengshenghe purchased raw silk from silkworm farmers, it had to go through a series of processes such as silk conditioning, weft weaving, warping, and pasting before it could be woven into various silk satins on the loom. After the weaving was completed, it had to be boiled, smelted, and dyed.
However, most of these front and back processes are outsourced to specialized craftsmen. The weaving mill itself mainly handles weaving processes that require larger equipment.
The traditional silk textile industry rarely has large-scale production. Even in the Qing Dynasty, when industry and commerce were more developed, most silk and satin weaving operations were small-scale operations with one or two machines. The production model was a production outsourcing model of "putting materials in, picking up goods, and selling goods."
The yarn and satin village will send the production raw materials and loom materials to the machine households, who will produce them at home. After completion, they will return to the yarn and satin village to settle the processing fee. The satin will be sold by the yarn and satin village. Under this decentralized production model, the products
The specifications are inappropriate and the quality is uncertain.
Fengshenghe also had this model in the past. When it came into the hands of Chen Lin's father, he felt that the quality of such products could never be guaranteed. Sometimes when he saw new varieties in Guangzhou, he would take them back and ask for them to be woven by a machine manufacturer.
The whole process was also very slow, so I decided to set up the weaving site myself.
"I didn't expect your father to be quite far-sighted." Li Yao'er smiled.
"Thank you, the chief. But it is not easy to set up a weaving business on your own. I have fought countless lawsuits just for talking about it. There are many weaving households in this village, and they live by weaving and weaving. I heard that I
My father wanted to set up a scene by himself, and everyone came to the door to make a fuss. There were many clan members among them. If my family hadn't been the direct descendant of the eldest brother, and the elders of the clan had come forward to persuade me, this Fengshenghe would have been smashed to pieces."
"How was it solved later? It's probably impossible to understand just by explaining."
"It's nothing more than spending money to eliminate disasters." Chen Lin said with a bitter smile, "Later, my father discussed with the clan elders that anyone who is willing to work in the weaving workshop will receive all the income from the weaving workshop, and the weaving fee will be the same as in the past; secondly, the clan's fifteenth
Males over 10 years old will be given a dou of rice per month. This will calm things down."
"This costs a lot!"
"Although it's a lot, it's worth it. Without the protection of the clan, how can there be such peace if this weaving workshop is opened here! Not to mention that the water bandits are looking for money, and so are many of the merchants in this county.
They are eager to have a good life and be burned to death! There are probably a lot of people who secretly cursed my father and son to die - now they have finally fulfilled half of their wishes!" He sighed.
Li Yaoer recalled that when she first came to Fengshenghe, although the house was well preserved, there were signs of intentional damage to the internal facilities and machines.
The robberies by the insurgents and bandits are nothing more than robbing soft goods. They are not interested in these bulky "money-making guys", and they will not specifically destroy them. This is obviously intended to vent their anger.
Thinking back to the time when she was in Hangzhou, Phoenix Villa was besieged, which almost caused a catastrophe. Although Hao Yuan was the instigator, the establishment of a series of sericulture improvements and silk reeling factories was also one of the reasons.
Innovation and improvement, no matter how good the intention is, will inevitably cause counterattacks as long as it offends those with vested interests. Thinking of this, she felt that she was very right to choose Nansha, and a smile appeared on her face. She said:
"It is not easy to do business since ancient times, especially such an earth-shaking undertaking. However, our Senate is either not to do it, or to do it to the end. Fengsheng and the Senate are advancing and retreating together now, and they will definitely become second to none in the future.