But the Shen family's bankruptcy was not due to poor raw silk prices, but to silkworm disease. [No pop-up novel website]
"Last year, the little ones raised silkworms and were infected by silkworm disease, and there was no harvest all year round," the man said with a sad face, "so we lost money." Please ask the master to take you in. "
Most silkworm diseases are caused by viruses. The environment where silkworms are raised is closed and the density of silkworms is very high. If cleaning and disinfection are not done well, various silkworm diseases can easily break out. Traditional sericulture also has its own methods for dealing with silkworm diseases, but at that time there were still deficiencies in the concept of disinfection, so it was not uncommon for crops to be reduced or even eliminated due to silkworm outbreaks.
Once a large-scale disease occurs, silkworm farmers are in danger of losing all their money.
It seems that sericulture is also a "high risk and high reward" for farmers, but it is not as simple as one thinks. Zhao Yingong was interested. Since you are going to do this business, of course you must first inquire as clearly as possible.
Now I asked him to talk about the specific process of raising silkworms, but raising silkworms in rural areas is the exclusive preserve of women. Girls start learning to raise silkworms when they are twelve or thirteen years old. From the "seed protection" in the twelfth lunar month, to the incubation of the seeds in Yichun, the "bird stall" to the silkworms' "three sleeps", "fire", "going up the mountain" and even cocoon drying and silk reeling, all are handled by women. Although he knew it, he was afraid that he would not understand it clearly or even say it wrong, so he asked his wife to speak.
, "I have seen you, sir." The woman was pretty and spoke Hangzhou dialect with both northern and southern accents. The difference between modern Hangzhou dialect and Zhao Yingong was not very big. Zhao Yingong heard what he heard and immediately said with a smile, "Get up, call me." What? "
, "Country women don't have names. My maiden name is Wang, Xingsi. Everyone originally called me Wang Siniang. I can call my slave whatever I want." The woman spoke very smartly. Farm girls in Jiangnan not only farmed and raised silkworms, but also often called me slaves. He has to "go to the streets" to sell food, so his speaking skills are not bad.
Wang Siniang first talked about the process of raising silkworms. It takes twenty-eight to forty days from silkworms hatching to cocoons. There is a timetable for feeding silkworms, and mulberry leaves must be added in time. Even in the middle of the night, you have to get up to feed, and there must be no delay. Silkworm excrement and remaining mulberry leaf residues must be cleaned at all times, otherwise it is easy to contract silkworm diseases. Silkworm breeding is very demanding on temperature. It needs to be kept warm, but it must not be too hot, and it cannot be ventilated. Therefore, the doors and windows of the place where silkworms are raised are always closed and airtight. If the temperature is slightly lower, a fire must be made to keep warm. And when the silkworms "go up the mountain" "When doing this, a fire pot should be lit under the silkworm foil to increase silkworm spinning and make the spun silk as dry as possible, which is beneficial to improving the quality of the cocoons. However, if fires are frequently made, the fire candle must be very careful, because raising silkworms and making fires Fires eventually broke out, which was not uncommon at the time.
Zhao Yingong is very familiar with the allusion of "Silkworm Room". It seems that this method of raising sericulture has been very mature in the Qin and Han Dynasties.
Throughout March and April, the sericulture houses were basically inactive. There were very few pedestrians in the village. Neighbors and relatives stopped walking among each other. "Red paper was posted in front of every house. Even the government would not go to the countryside during this period."
Most of the cocoons collected are sold by silkworm farmers who reel them themselves, and some directly sell cocoons to "cocoon shops." However, these are all due to insufficient manpower or some other reasons.
"Why do you want to make raw silk yourself?" Zhao Yingong asked.
"Go to the cocoon shop to sell cocoons." There are too many, and the country people always suffer. "Wang Siniang said that the cocoon trade must have official approval, so the monopoly is very strong, and the industry also has a special "public office" for new cocoons to be put on the market, and the peers will discuss the day when the scales will be opened and the end of the day. The purchase price is also agreed upon. Yes, you are not allowed to raise the price yourself. The price negotiated every year is always very low.
Not to mention the low price, there are various "tricks" when collecting the cocoons, either because the cocoons are not too good or "wet" means the weight is deducted. The worst thing is that in order to further lower the price, when a large number of cocoons are put on the market, the cocoon shop will suddenly close the cocoon stack for a few days and stop collecting cocoons.
, “Why stop collecting?”
Wang Siniang said: "We can't afford to wait for the cocoons to be harvested. If they are not reeled or sold, they will be left there. Once the time goes by, the pupae inside will be worthless if their heads are bitten. The country people can only sell them at low prices."
I see! Zhao Yingong thought that this was actually a man-made cause. The "difficulty in selling cocoons" caused the purchase price to plummet. This kind of pattern was common in the old time and space.
Zhao Yingong asked again: "Cocoon Shop bought Cocoon, how to sell it?"
, "I sell the silk to the silk dealer. There are many families outside Hangzhou who do not raise silkworms themselves" but make pots and reels for others. "Cocoons can get silkworm cocoons, and we outsource them to reel them, and the processing fee is settled on a daily basis.
As long as conditions allow, sericulture farmers will try their best to reel their own silk and sell raw silk. This is more profitable. The work of reeling silk is handled by the daughter of a silkworm farmer. It is an important industry in the countryside. In the Shen family, Wang Siniang and her daughter make pots and reel silk by hand.
The Shen family's daughter-in-law fù roughly explained how to make a pot for reeling silk. When reeling silk, she used a large pot, boiled water, poured ten to twenty cocoons at a time, and stirred it with a bamboo skewer. Hot cocoon. When it boils, use a bamboo skewer to stir the water. The thread ends will naturally come out. Lift the thread ends with your hands. Insert the eye of the bamboo needle, rotate the pulley for the guide mirror, and then hook it up with the screw rod.
A foot-operated wheel is provided for winding the silk. The "Ozeki wheel" is operated while pedaling the wheel, and a steady stream of raw silk can be drawn out.
Reeling silk is very hard work. As soon as silkworms spin their cocoons, they have to race against time. If the silk is not reeled out quickly, the pupa inside will emerge and bite off the head. In this way, the cocoons are useless, so when reeling the silk, the whole family does it, and the men also have to help, working day and night. A skilled labor force can reel about thirty taels of silk a day. If it is extremely thin, the daily output of "Baotou silk" is only twenty taels.
Zhao Yingong had never read any books on sericulture, but he knew that this kind of hand-made product was low-efficiency and poor-quality. In the old time and space of the late Qing Dynasty, when native silk came into contact with Japanese silkworms who raised silkworms according to modern methods, After that, raw silk failed miserably in the international market.
, "Where is the best local silk production?" Zhao Yingong asked.
, "Reporting to the master, of course it is best to get silk produced locally in Renhe County." Wang Siniang said carefully, "As far as Zhejiang is concerned, the best is Hu silk. Qili silk in Nanxun, Huzhou Prefecture is famous for its good silk. Gui'an , Deqing, Chongde, and Tongxiang counties all produce good silk, and then the local raw silk from Renhe.”
"Most of what comes out of Renhe County is "fat silk" from Huzhou. What comes out of Jiaxing is "fine silk." Wang Siniang explained that whenever you want to make and weave satin with huawei, the warp silk must be "fine silk." Because the woven silk satin has a hank. The machine has certain requirements for the strength of the warp yarns, and the raw silk produced in these two places is tough and not easy to break. Other raw silk lifting machines are basically unusable.
, "Even the local weaving office and weaving and dyeing bureau in Hangzhou have to purchase raw silk from Huzhou and Jiaxing for the silk and satin used in weaving. On the contrary, the local raw silk from Renhe and Qiantang is not used much."
Zhao Yingong listened very carefully. Obviously, the sericulture industry, like the sugar industry in Leizhou, is currently in a state of small-scale production. Handmade production and small loan sharking are indeed common forms in industry and commerce in this time and space. There are too many places to get involved and make profits. There were seven or eight thoughts swirling around in his mind at the same time, and it seemed that every link could be interfered with. He shook his head, let himself be quiet, and sorted out a clue before picking up the topic where he left off.
"Where will you sell the silk you reeled out?"
"There is a silk shop that specializes in collecting silk. As soon as raw silk comes out, the "silk customers" who buy raw silk come to the town. "Wang Siniang said that the market for raw silk fluctuates, but ordinary raw silk is priced at more than thirty or forty taels of silver per load all year round. Since the Wanli Year, raw silk and silk fabrics have been exported in large quantities, and the market for raw silk has continued to rise. Although some years have been sluggish, most The silk industry remains a profitable business most years.
"Oh." Zhao Yingong nodded. "You want to talk about the silk industry, you also need to get dental posts, and there is also a trade office?" "
, "I heard it's the same. But I usually only encounter "silk guests" from Pingxiang, so I don't know the specific situation."
Wang Siniang said: Some silk shops' "silk customers" also handle money lending. Silkworm farmers can borrow money from them and repay the debt with raw silk after new silk comes out. The procedure seems simple, but in fact the raw silk valuation is very low when repaying the debt, and the silkworm farmers suffer a great loss.
In the inventory of silkworm farmers, "silk customers" are not kinder or more trustworthy than cocoons. However, once silkworm cocoons are reeled into new silk, there is a time limit. Raw silk will turn yellow if left for a long time. If the silk customers deliberately delay the time, they can certainly kill the silkworm farmers. price, but the selling time left for him after receiving the raw silk is also short. Therefore, it is rare to deliberately delay the price bargaining. Silkworm farmers can get some benefits.
, "Where is the raw silk sold by the silk shop finally sold?"
, “Most of them are sold to various weaving workshops, and some are also sold to customers from out of town.”
, “Are there many silks woven locally?”
, "Why don't you report back to the master?" Wang Siniang said with a smile. "Not to mention, the Dongfu and Xifu in this city alone, plus the two weaving and dyeing bureaus, produce thousands of pieces of robe material every year. This is not counting other titles. Taken together, tens of thousands of pieces of silk are paid as tribute every year. "
The name East and West Mansion caught his attention. Cai Shi was suspicious when he saw him, and quickly explained: "It is the Weaving Mansion set up by the imperial court in Hangzhou. It is just east of Puji Bridge. The silk and satin woven there are all supplied by the company. Used." The two dyeing and weaving bureaus are also large government-run workshops with large scales.
Zhao Yingong asked: "Can you weave silk?"
, "I don't know how to do it. There are only craftsmen who can weave silk and satin. They are not only father and son, but also masters and apprentices. It's not possible for a countryman like me to get it."
"You go down first. You will be useful in a few days." Zhao Yingong said and then said to Bie Wangcai: "These children will be enrolled in Yisī to study together." a.
