"Auntie, is there a market nearby to buy silkworm paper?"
"Yes, there is one in Jiujiang Market. Silkworm paper shops usually rent shops in the market. There are also some seed producers who carry their products on their backs or go out in small boats to travel to small markets in the countryside and set up stalls on the spot. .”
"Oh, how much silkworm paper should I buy for each production?"
"It depends on how many mulberry leaves there are in your mulberry field, but generally you will order more silkworm paper. In the past, silkworm ants only spent a few mulberry leaves. If it is not profitable, the excess silkworms can be discarded. If you want to buy raw silk, If you have more mulberry leaves, you can go to the mulberry market to buy mulberry leaves, and you don’t have to stick to your own mulberry fields. Furthermore, if you encounter floods or diseases, you can buy more silkworm paper so that you won’t lose your harvest.”
After asking about silkworm breeding, Zhao Hening stood up and said, "Auntie, would you like to see your silkworms?"
Mrs. Huang also stood up quickly and said: "It's okay, it's just a humble house, I might be an eyesore to my sister."
"As for my aunt, I also come from a poor family."
Lifting the door curtain, Zhao Hening found that the layout of the silkworm room was very different from that in Jiangnan. There were small windows on the mud walls and small holes in the corners. They seemed to be for ventilation, but they were all covered with thick paper and linen cloth to prevent flies. insect. The worst thing about a silkworm room is high temperature and humidity. The thatch roof helps with ventilation and the mud walls can block moisture. However, the floor is directly in contact with the mulberry soil. During the rainy season, moisture is easy to invade.
"Auntie, why don't you build a silkworm room alone?" Zhao Hening couldn't help but ask.
Mr. Huang looked troubled and said, "My sister is joking. The family is in a difficult situation and cannot afford to build another silkworm room."
Zhao Hening shook his head. Human silkworms live in the same room. A noisy environment, excessive popularity, and a dirty space are not conducive to the growth of silkworms. He then said: "Auntie, don't think I'm too talkative. I've also seen other people raising silkworms. Human silkworms Silkworms are prone to getting sick if they live in the same room, so it is better to find a way to build a separate silkworm room."
"What my sister said is that I also have a plan. After raising a few more animals and saving some money, I will hire someone to build a thatched house."
"Auntie, when will this silkworm production 'go up the mountain'?"
"What does the girl mean by 'going up the mountain'?"
"It's called cocooning." In the Jiangnan area, silkworms making cocoons on foil are called "going up the mountain". Obviously Huang didn't know.
"Oh, tomorrow will be the third sleep. It only takes one day. After three days, there will be another sleep, which is called the 'big sleep', which is also one day. Four or five days after the big sleep, silkworms will spin cocoons, which is called 'Shang Fei' locally. '."
Zhao Hening was more interested in the differences between the two places and asked, "Can I take a look at your silkworm foil?"
Huang took Zhao Hening to another room. In the corner was a pile of rectangular bamboo products, which were silkworm foils. The silkworm foil is about three feet and two inches long. The bamboo slices form a skeleton like a swimming pool lane. On the skeleton, thinned bamboo slices are bent into an oval shape one inch long and half an inch wide, forming a convenient shape for silkworms to spin silk and form cocoons. The small space is obviously different from the "grass dragon" commonly used in Jiangnan area.
Zhao Hening asked: "Your silkworm foil is very different from Jiangnan's, but what's the point?"
"It turns out that the girl is from the south of the Yangtze River. No wonder..." Huang said, "The climate in Jiujiang is humid and hot. This kind of silkworm foil is easy to ventilate and dehumidify. Before putting on the foil, you need to roast the silkworm foil with fire to burn off the remaining silkworm foil after cocooning. Silk. After one or two days of foiling, it is time to 'baking cocoons'. Silkworm foils are arranged in opposite directions like herringbones. They are spread out about twenty sheets, and are tightly surrounded by straw mats and thick paper. Small holes are cut in the upper corners to facilitate water flow. Let the air escape. Place a fire pot in the middle of every eight silkworm foils and bake them for about an hour and a half. Turn the silkworm foils upside down and bake them again. Only in this way can the silkworm pupae be roasted to death, and then you can safely remove the dry cocoons."
Zhao Hening said: "It must be because the local climate is humid. Baking cocoons can prevent the cocoons from becoming moldy." Of course, in addition, baking cocoons can also kill silkworm chrysalises and parasites such as flies and gnats attached to silkworm chrysalis, making the cocoons softer. The state when fixed on the upper foil is conducive to reeling.
"Girl is smart and can do anything." Huang boasted, "But baking cocoons requires more money."
"Oh, how much money does it cost?"
"For each six foils, it consumes three pounds of charcoal and about two cents of silver."
Zhao Hening thinks this small amount of money is nothing, but for poor farmers, an extra penny is still money. Zhao Hening did not dwell on this matter and asked again: "Is it because you reeled the silkworms yourself after collecting the cocoons?"
The reason why I ask this question is because when Zhao Yingong set up a silk reeling factory in Hangzhou, he encountered the problem of purchasing cocoons. Silkworm farmers worked hard to raise silkworms, but most of them were unwilling to sell the cocoons. This would make too much profit. Low. In medieval agricultural societies, the value of labor was very low, and it was a common phenomenon to exchange a large amount of labor for negligible cash returns. Sericulture households in Jiangsu and Zhejiang generally make their own silk for sale, forming a large-scale rural sideline industry.
In addition, there is a "Silk Cocoon Guild" in the center that monopolizes a small amount of direct sales of cocoons. Zhao Yiggong cannot purchase cocoons directly from farmers and can only buy from silk cocoon shops. After careful consideration, Zhao Yingong decided to start from scratch. Control the production of silkworm cocoons directly from the place of origin. To be precise, it is a small producer cooperative model similar to Leizhou Rural Cooperative.
"It's true that he reels the silk himself," Huang asked curiously, "Is there anyone in Jiangnan who sells the cocoons directly? This is not cost-effective. Besides, no one here buys the cocoons."
The cocoon market is a product of the machine reeling industry. Without the massive demand from reeling factories, the cocoon market would not be formed. The revolutionary significance of Cocoon City is that it separates the silk reeling industry from the sericulture industry. Zhao Hening thought to himself that it seems that the local sericulture industry is not as developed as Jiangnan. No one collects the scattered cocoons. This is because the social division of labor is not fine enough. Performance.
"Is it good to sell raw silk?" Zhao Hening asked again.
“It’s okay, I bought it from local silk mills and vendors.”
Zhao Hening was quite surprised and said: "Since the arrival of the Australians, there have been more and more flange merchants. The overseas trade has become better every year. The sales of raw silk have not increased significantly?"
"Not really, as usual."
Zhao Hening asked: "Isn't it said that 'Guangzhi yarn and Cowherd silk, five silk, eight silk, cloud satin, and smooth satin are all prized by the capital outside the mountains and the two oceans of the East and West?' Someone made a Zhuzhi Ci saying: The foreign ships are fighting for it. For officials and merchants, the cross gate opens to the two oceans. The five and eight silk silks are fine, and the money is piled up in Haopanfang."
Huang is a country peasant woman, and the furthest place she goes to is Jiujiang Market. Naturally, she doesn't know the whole story. She just doesn't know.
Zhao Hening changed the topic and asked, "Is raw silk traded in the silk market?"
Huang said: "This is natural."
Huang then introduced the situation of the silk market. Jiujiang has not yet formed a professional silk market. Similar to the mulberry market, the silk market may be as small as one or two shops, and most of them are established in existing markets. Silk markets generally only provide a place for buyers and sellers to meet and negotiate prices. They also set up scales and charge a certain percentage of commissions from both buyers and sellers.
Local mulberry and silk markets provide loans with monthly interest rates of about 2%. Once small farmers encounter natural or man-made disasters and have insufficient cash to maintain reproduction, they have to turn to loan sharks.
Seeing that Huang's mother and son were living in poverty, Zhao Hening couldn't help but ask: "They say that our family has ten acres of land, raising mulberry and silkworms, which can feed eight people. Why do you live in such poverty?"
Mr. Huang let out a long sigh, with a sad look on his face, but said nothing.
When Guan Zongbao saw that his mother was silent, he explained: "I still have a medicine jar at home. I take medicine all the year round, do nothing to work all day long, and drink and smoke. All my savings have been squandered over the years. If we were not thrifty, my mother and son would have become slaves long ago."
Le Ziren on the side is familiar with the local situation and explained to Zhao Hening: "Jiujiang is dominated by fish, mulberry and silk, and even the rural gentry will not give up their business. From spring to winter, there is no need to worry about running out of things to do. If you have capital, The profits from fish and silkworms turn like a wheel, and people without capital can still make a living by cutting grass and picking mulberries. The only thing they need to worry about is luxury and waste. In other places, after autumn and winter, rice is put into warehouses and they can live comfortably until the end of the year. In Jiujiang, Worried that the mulberry branches will have hard tails, they will not be frugal and save on the day of sericulture, and they will not be able to survive the winter. The widow earns her own living, but has more than enough money. This is due to her frugal life. Therefore, the proverb says: 'The widow has grain to live on'."
Unlike other farmers who grow rice, the products of farmers who rely on mulberry fish ponds are not grains, but commodities such as fish, raw silk, and mulberry leaves. They cannot be self-sufficient like rice farmers and need to exchange grains from the market. In order to survive, their living conditions are subject to income. The factors that affect income are that this model requires a large amount of capital investment, and the products need to be directly put on the market, so the lives of farmers are at higher risks. When floods come, fish escape, mulberry harvests are lost, and silkworms have no mulberry leaves or are infected with diseases and there is no harvest. If one plant fails to produce sericulture, the loss is likely to affect the production of the next plant. Market turbulence also makes it difficult for farmers to stabilize their lives. Farmers in Sankey Fish Pond only hold currency after selling their products, and they also face temptations such as gambling and alcoholism. Worrying about the hardness of mulberry branches refers to the fear that a lot of capital is invested in daily life, and it is difficult to save up to buy rice and grain for the winter if they are not frugal enough.
Zhao Hening was a little confused and asked Guan Zongbao: "Who is the medicine jar you are talking about? Your wife or your child?"
Guan Zongbao said: "It's my father."
"Why don't you see others?"
Huang said: "I just came here last night to make a fuss and demanded a couple of silver coins, saying that I was going to Guangzhou to do business."
After hearing this, Zhao Hening showed a rather sympathetic expression, sighed, and said: "How pitiful, how could there be such a father in the world?"
Guan Zongbao said: "Sister, if possible, I would like to ask Chief Le to uphold justice for my mother."
Facing the sudden request, Le Ziren looked confused. He was a small stationed policeman with little foundation in the local area, and he probably couldn't handle the family's petty issues, so he looked at Zhao Hening.
However, Zhao Hening said without hesitation: "I don't see injustice in the world the most. If my aunt has been wronged, just ask, we will definitely help if we can." After that, he looked at Le Ziren and Zhang Jiayu.
