Most of the people Chen Lin comes into contact with on a daily basis are subtle and tactful in their words, measured in their speech, and stick to the "moderate". It is rare to hear such emotionally unrestrained words. He is a young man after all, and Li Yaoer's words couldn't help but arouse the enthusiasm in his chest. He said hurriedly: "I don't dare to say that I will accomplish any big business, but I will be satisfied if I can carry forward this family business."
Li Yaoer smiled but said nothing. This young man didn't mean what he said. She suddenly remembered something and asked:
"Do you make Xiangyun yarn here?" Li Yaoer suddenly thought of this most famous variety of Guangdong silk fabrics.
Chen Lin looked confused. The yarn was naturally abundant and woven, but he had never heard of the term Xiangyun yarn. He said: "I have never done it, and I have never heard of it."
Li Yao'er thought for a while and asked again: "It's yarn dyed with yam."
"Dioscorea? That's butternut silk," Chen Lin nodded, "Yes, yes."
"Is there a finished product?"
"It was originally there, but after the war, the inventory was probably gone..."
Li Yaoer looked disappointed. Xiangyun yarn is the flagship product of Guangdong's traditional silk fabrics. It was popular in the 1930s and 1940s. It is refreshing and soft, has good fastness to sunlight and washing, is highly waterproof, easy to wash and dry, and has a deep color and is durable. It is not dirty, does not stick to the skin, is light and not easy to wrinkle, is soft and rich in body, durable, suitable for hot summer wear, and is welcomed by consumers. Not only are they widely praised in the domestic market, they are also exported to foreign countries, especially in Southeast Asia.
According to the information Li Yaoer saw, Xiangyun yarn was a silk and satin variety that only officially appeared during the Republic of China. However, such a variety obviously did not appear out of thin air. She later checked some information and discovered that similar production techniques existed in the Ming Dynasty, as well as export records.
If this kind of silk and satin can be improved and mass-produced, it will become a leading product for local silk and satin exports.
Although it is recorded in the records, Li Yao'er has never seen the real Xiangyunsha, and when asked Chen Xuan, he still had no idea.
"Although we don't have it in stock, my little sister still has a cotton silk shirt with her. If the chief wants to see it, I can get it."
"Okay, you go and get it."
Chen Lin quickly called Chen Qing and asked him to go back and ask his sister for a silk blouse.
Within a moment, Chen Qing sent a cloth bag. Chen Lin opened it and saw that it was Chen Yue's close-fitting shirt.
This was something close to the girl's body. It was a little awkward to hold it in her hand, so she handed the cloth bag over.
Li Yaoer took the material in his hand, looked at it carefully, and kneaded it again. Said: "This is not yarn..."
"This is acanthus silk."
Chen Lin was right. This was indeed a piece of silk. The material was dyed brown, and the fabric itself was plain woven silk. It feels soft and smooth when twisted by hand, but feels quite thick. If you look carefully, you can see that both the dyeing process and the hand feel of the silk are relatively poor. Far inferior to other silks she had seen.
"Is this made from local silk?"
"The chief has a good eye." Chen Lin said, "This is what Fengsheng and Weaving made. Dye dyed it himself..."
"You know how to dye it?"
"Chief, you are joking. The dyeing of Dioscorea is not a secret. It is extremely common." Chen Lin was a little surprised. The various color materials required for satin dyeing, except indigo, which is grown in large quantities locally, are either produced in other places or simply come from Southeast Asia, and most of them are valuable. Only this yam is grown locally on a large scale and is not valuable in itself. In addition to ranunculus silk, ranunculus cloth is also very common.
"You haven't put any mud on it?"
"Painting with mud?" Chen Lin was confused now, "Why do you need to apply mud? If you apply mud, won't it get dirty?"
Li Yao'er now knows that it turns out that this society only has acanthus silk, and there is no later Xiangyun yarn craftsmanship.
According to the standards of the old time and space, Xiangyun yarn actually refers to a traditional craft. Broadly speaking, fabrics made from mulberry silk fabrics and mineral-coated fabrics are called Xiangyun yarn.
In the textile market in the old days, there were many kinds of Xiangyun yarn, each with its own advantages. The same Xiangyun gauze fabric has different types of Xiangyun gauze, some are thin and some are thick, some are soft and some are hard.
In terms of market price, from low to high are plain crepe satin fragrant cloud yarn, pearl satin fragrant cloud yarn, turtle pattern fragrant cloud yarn, and Guanle crepe fragrant cloud yarn.
These are the common categories. Traditionally, Xiangyun yarn is plain yarn without printing. Modern Xiangyun yarn has different varieties, patterns, and printings, which will affect the specific price. Generally speaking, most of the silk fabrics with printing are of the silk type. Plain crepe satin fragrant cloud yarn and pearl satin fragrant cloud yarn are the most common. They have a soft hand and are classified as satin fabrics.
There are more solid-color Xiangyun gauze and coriander gauze types, which have a relatively hard feel and better air permeability. In ancient times, there was a saying that women wore silk and men wore gauze. Generally, Guanle crepe fragrant cloud gauze and turtle pattern fragrant cloud gauze belong to the acanthus gauze category. Traditional Xiangyun yarn basically refers to this category.
Strictly speaking, Xiangyun gauze must be made of yarn as the base fabric, dyed with yam juice, then smeared with river mud in Shunde and then dried to be called Xiangyun gauze.
Obviously, this silk silk can only be regarded as general Xiangyun yarn. Judging from its feel and texture, it is obviously not a high-end product.
“Have you never tried yarn dyeing?”
"Sha?" Chen Lin was stunned and suddenly understood, "The chief must have said Luo."
"Yes, it's Luo." Li Yao'er's face felt a little hot. Because yarn is not a type of satin in the strict sense, it is mostly used to refer to light and transparent textiles. In the classification of silk and satin, it mostly refers to Luo. The texture of Luo is light and thin, and the strands are slender. The warp threads are twisted with each other to form a pepper hole shape. The texture is tight and strong. The gauze holes are ventilated and cool, making it comfortable and cool to wear. Especially suitable for summer clothing.
“I’ve also made dyed yam with yam, and it’s also sold, but not too much.”
"Why not more?"
"Lingluo silk and satin are worn by the rich, and ordinary people can't help it, but how many people can afford it!" Chen Lin said, "I heard that there are traffickers and foot soldiers in Suzhou and Hangzhou, the most prosperous places in the south of the Yangtze River. Wearing silk and satin, we don’t know whether it’s genuine or fake. For Guangzhou alone, there really isn’t much sales.”
"I don't know if the traders in Suzhou and Hangzhou wear silk and satin, but this fragrant cloud yarn is a gift from summer. If it can be made in batches, there will be a big market for both domestic and export sales."
"But silk is worth a lot of money..."
"So we have to reduce the cost of raising silkworms. If there is more silk, the silk will be cheaper. And in this workshop, weaving is really slow... Your uncle said that only a few hundred pieces of silk can be weaved here throughout the year - this is also Too few. If we weave tens of thousands of pieces a year, the price will definitely come down."
Chen Lin was confused: "The price has come down, wouldn't it mean that we are making less money..."
Li Yao'er said: "You don't know how to settle accounts! It doesn't matter if you earn a little profit from something. You earn one tael of silver from a piece of silk. If you sell a hundred pieces of silk a year, you will only make a hundred taels; I can sell 10,000 pieces a year." , each horse makes one penny, but it makes a thousand taels. Only when everyone can come and wear it, can Fengshenghe make big money!"
Chen Lin still couldn't turn the corner, but he knew that it would be better for him to violate the decisions made by the Australians as little as possible. At the moment, he said yes repeatedly.
"Let's go to the factory and have a look." Li Yao'er said.
"yes."
"This Fengsheng Heyuan is your family's property. You must be familiar with every plant, tree, and brick."
"The little man has been helping his father manage the business in the workshop since he was more than ten years old."
"But today's Fengshenghe is different from the past." Li Yao'er said, "Given time, it will change drastically."
Chen Lin was obedient. I thought that silk reeling and weaving had been done like this since ancient times. Could it be that Australians could weave it out of thin air without using silk? There have been a lot of Australian products on the market over the years, but I have never heard of Australian silk or fabric.
"This inverted house is the original counting house of Fengshenghe. We also set up a management office here. Although the names are different, the meaning is the same." Li Yaoer strolled on the walkway, "The front yard , mainly for external exchanges. I plan to set up a warehouse here after spring. These houses are prepared for this."
Chen Lin's father also thought about setting up a stack to collect cocoons by himself, and at one time he even thought about expanding his silk reeling room and using all his own silk for weaving, without using external silk.
Reeling silk by yourself without using external threads can first ensure the quality of raw silk. The purchase of raw silk depends entirely on the discernment and ethics of the silk collector. Without a capable and trustworthy silk accountant, the quality of the raw silk collected depends entirely on luck. Even worse, the quantity may not be enough.
However, things are not that simple. Chen Lin said: "Chief, there are many benefits to making silk yourself, but there are also difficulties."
"I guess someone took the opportunity to incite the silkworm farmers?"
"The chief knows things well." Chen Lin nodded, "If we can achieve high quality and low price, it will be a good thing for both the host and the guest. But there are many entanglements in it, and there are many people who profit from it. Ignorant people often tend to Easily deceived..."
"I know that. But I see there is still a silk reeling room in your factory."
"Yes, my family is a local family. In Nansha, with the support of the clan, my father can still handle it. But the silkworm farmers in other villages can't handle it. So Fengshenghe harvested silk and cocoons."
Li Yaoer said: "You don't have to worry about this. Among my sericulture improvements, the most important one is reeling silk in the factory and no longer making native silk. This year I will test the water first. If everything goes well, next year it will be implemented throughout the county... "
Chen Lin secretly chuckled, thinking that he was an Australian, he had such a loud tone! I don’t know how they plan to convince the silkworm farmers - the most obvious thing is that the selling price of silkworm cocoons is not as good as raw silk. As long as the silkworm farmers are not short of labor at home, they will choose to reel it into silk and sell it. You can't hold a knife to your neck and force silkworm farmers to stop making silk and sell cocoons, right?
"...In addition to purchasing dried cocoons, I am also preparing to sell silkworm seeds here. The first batch of silkworm seeds will be shipped from Lingao soon, and these warehouses will be used as silkworm seed warehouses for the time being." Li Yaoer said Then he asked, "How do your silkworm farmers here get silkworm seeds?"
