In recent years, Li Yao'er has come into contact with all kinds of people from all walks of life outside, and his ability to read people is no longer that of Wu Xia Ameng. Seeing that there was a fire in this young man's eyes for a moment, he obviously wanted to cling to him. I couldn't help but secretly laugh: 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, a slight smile couldn't help but appear on the corner of his mouth. Said: "I came here to promote improved varieties and improve the silk industry..." As he said, he introduced his specific tasks in detail, "I chose Fengshenghe as a partner, naturally I also fancy your work in this area. I have been in the silk industry for many years and am familiar with the local situation, so I would like to trouble you to tell you about all aspects of local silkworms, mulberry, silk and weaving."
In fact, Li Yao'er has already learned 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 is often converged 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 has the overall situation and his grasp of details is not bad, which is very valuable.
When it comes to introducing the local situation, Chen Lin naturally knows everything. Said: "There are many local families raising silkworms..."
Before the Ming Dynasty, Xiangshan County was a silted sandbar at the mouth of the Pearl River. It was not connected to the mainland until the Ming Dynasty. Therefore, there are many sandfields, and because of the low-lying terrain, there are also many fish ponds. It is adjacent to Shunde, the oldest silk producing area in Guangdong. Under its influence, farmers plant more mulberry and raise silkworms. But the scale is not large.
After Longqing was opened and closed, affected by the surge in export sales of raw silk 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 that of traditional sericulture areas such as Shunde and Foshan.
"In addition to Xiangshan, Shunde, and Foshan, where else in Guangzhou have large-scale sericulture?" 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 you don’t get 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 ships. How could it not be sold?"
Chen Lin said that the local silkworm breeds are not good and the quality of the raw silk produced is not good, and it cannot be sold at a good price whether it is sold domestically or exported.
"Although there are many machine operators in Guangzhou and Foshan, some types of silk and satin must be woven with Lake silk - local silk is not strong enough."
"How many machine-housed 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, there are not many weaving mills even in Guangzhou and Foshan. Most of them are computer users."
This is roughly the same information that Li Yaoer received in Guangzhou. According to the information given to her by the Guangzhou Municipal Government, there are five major shops in and around Guangzhou: "Mangpao Bank", "Eighteen Banks", "Eleven Banks", "Jincai Bank" and "Guangsha Bank", as well as more than a dozen smaller shops. Involving all processes from reeling, pounding, warping, refining and dyeing, weaving, etc., there are more than 2,500 machine households with one or several machines per household.
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 he and the weavers thought of many ways, 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. Dry, not air-dried. But I tested 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 techniques. In fact, it is not unusual to tell the secret of the toughness of lake silk. The fire is only one reason, and the decisive factor is actually the 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 promotes the refinement of division of labor and the improvement of technology. When Li Yao'er was in Hangzhou, he visited almost all the counties producing sericulture and silk in Jiangsu and Zhejiang. In terms of scale, technology, and related industrial and commercial organizations, both Suzhou and Hangzhou ranked first in the country in the 17th century.
"Have you never thought about introducing silkworm seeds from Huzhou?" Li Yao'er asked.
"Why haven't I thought about it," Chen Lin sighed, "however, it's so difficult for silkworm farmers to change silkworm seeds!"
He said that his father once bought silkworm seeds from Huzhou and asked silkworm farmers to try raising them, but no one was willing. Later, I had to hire female workers to raise them. I don’t know whether it was due to water and soil problems or other reasons. A large number of the silkworms they raised died of illness. Not only did they lose a lot of money, they were also laughed at by the people in the clan.
"From then on, my father became discouraged and stopped talking about improving silkworm breeds."
Li Yaoer felt the same way. When she promoted silkworm breeding in Hangzhou, she also spent countless efforts. There were many iterations during this period. To be honest, it was a completely loss-making business and could not be carried out solely by individuals or small groups. Fei Dasheng's improvement of silkworm breeds in Wujiang not only received support from the local government at the time, but also provided a lot of assistance from the silk weaving industry capitalists in Jiangsu and Zhejiang. Even in this way, her sericulture improvements were still stumbling. What's more, Chen Lin's father has such 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 on a loom to weave various silks and satins. 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 does 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 still small businesses with one or two machines. The production model is a production outsourcing model of "putting out materials, picking up goods, and selling goods." The yarn factory will send the production raw materials and loom materials to the machine households, who will produce them at home. After completion, they will be returned to the yarn factory to settle the processing fees. Satin is sold by Shadengzhuang. Under this decentralized production model, product specifications are inappropriate and quality is uncertain.
Fengshenghe also had this model in the past. When it came to Chen Lin's father's hands, he felt that the quality of such products could never be guaranteed. Sometimes when he saw new varieties in Guangzhou, he would bring them back and ask for them to be woven by a machine manufacturer. The whole process is also very slow. So I decided to set up my own weaving business.
"I didn't expect your father to be quite far-sighted." Li Yaoer smiled.
"Thank you, Chief. But it's not easy to set up a weaving business on your own. I have to fight 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 noise. There were many clan members among them. If my family was not the eldest son of the clan, and the elders of the clan came forward to persuade me, this Fengshenghe would have been smashed long ago. "
"How did you solve it later? It's probably impossible to understand just by explaining."
"It's just a waste of money to eliminate disaster." Chen Lin said with a bitter smile, "Later, my father discussed with the elders of the clan 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; followed by fifteen members of the clan. 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 could there be such peace if this weaving workshop was opened here! Not to mention the water bandits who peeped at the property, and the many businesses in this county also They are eager to have a good life and be burned to death! There are probably quite a few 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 rebels 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 well-intentioned they are, will inevitably trigger counterattacks as long as they offend those with vested interests. Thinking of this, she felt that she was right to choose Nansha, and a smile appeared on her face. said:
"Doing business has not been easy 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. Silk textile company.”
